May 2007 – Edition 25

Before embarking on Laurel’s account I will make some
preliminary comments.

Laurel and Laurie have 3 sons, 6 grandchildren and 3 great
grandchildren. Sadly, a son they adopted in Papua New Guinea who
had become a commercial pilot was killed in a plane crash in
1978.

For the benefit of our US readers Papua New Guinea (which
I will call PNG for the sake of brevity) is north of Australia,
and the Kokoda Trail was a famous Second World War battle area
where Australian troops first stopped the advance of Japanese
forces. PNG had been one of the last frontiers in the Pacific
region. For instance a huge settled valley was first discovered
in the early 1930s and another settled area in the mountains was
first discovered by Air Force pilots during the Second World
War.

After Laurie decided to become a missionary he trained with the
London Missionary Society and was appointed for service
in Papua (it was a condition of working for the L.M.S. that one
had to be willing to work anywhere in the world). Laurie and
Laurel were engaged at the time but Laurel, who also wanted to
become a missionary, was studying nursing, so they were not
married until she had finished her training, in 1957.

Briefly, after periods of service in PNG spanning almost 18
years, described below, they returned to Australia, where Laurie
became Minister in the southern suburbs of Sydney, and later at
Gerringong and Bulli on the South Coast. Laurel and Laurie then
“retired” but have been kept very busy in Church outreach
programmes.

We now pick up on extracts from Laurie’s speech (somewhat
condensed to fit into the Journal) relating to their time in PNG:

“I left Australia for Papua in June 1956, appointed to the Saroa
District as a District Superintendent. This area, about 120
kilometres east of Port Moresby (pictured above), began
at the top of the Owen Stanley Range parallel to the Kokoda
Trail. It was the same sort of country. Great mountain
ranges extending up to over 3500 metres at the top of the Owen
Stanley Range. Near the coast, rather dry with grass and gum
trees. In the higher country there were great ranges of rain
forest, and near the top of the ranges moss was 3 to 4 metres
deep. Very few roads, the way to go from place to place was
walking. I spent a year there with the British missionaries
being taught the way of life there and also learning the Motu
and Hiri Motu languages.

At that time I was privileged to conduct the first baptisms at
Dorobisoro, at the top of the main range. I baptised 101
new Christians. At the end, I found that I had one name left
over. Apparently I had missed one person from above number 45,
but I could not tell which one, so I had to turn around and
rename 56!

I came back to Australia to be married to Laurel in April 1957.
We returned to Saroa, where Laurel learned the Motu language,
and learned it well. She looked after the village headstation,
taught school, had children, did medical work as a trained nurse
and administered the store while I spent two thirds of the year
walking and visiting through the district, usually about 180
kilometres a week.

It was walking up and down mountains, along ridges and crossing
swift flowing rivers. Sometimes from the top of the range it was
possible to build bamboo rafts and white water raft through the
rapids to the coast. The rafts came apart several times on the
way and had to be rebuilt. Exciting living. It was in the inland
Saroa area that I had the privilege of doing what was Paul’s
great joy, to preach the gospel where Christ was not known.

In 1961 Laurel and I were transferred to Chalmers College at
Veiru. Veiru was in the middle of the delta of the Gulf
of Papua, a great swamp with hundreds of square kilometres
of mud and mangroves, with only canoes for transport and a
rainfall of up to 400 inches a year. It rained for about 350
days a year, all day and night. The College had been established
to train families for ministry who did not know much English.
All theological students had to be married. In Papua New Guinean
culture you only became a man or woman when you married. Until
then you were only treated as being a boy or girl.

There were 30 families here, who had 33 languages between them.
Conditions were primitive for the students and us. The people in
the area had killed 2 missionaries in 1901.

Laurel and I trained the students and their wives in the Hiri
Motu language. Laurel also taught Correspondence Lessons for our
children, and a few others. Life was hard, the Delta of Papua
was considered to be one of the hardest mission areas in the
world, but very worthwhile. Many of the students became great
church leaders.

In 1965 Laurel’s health broke down and we came back to Sydney
for a year. In 1967 we returned to Papua and the Milne Bay area,
on the north side of PNG. There was a government high school, a
boarding school at Koeabule, where we lived, and of which
I was chaplain, and during the next seven years Laurel and I led
over a thousand young people to Christ. Many are active now in
Christian and government work.

Also, there was a town there called Alotau, with people
there from all over PNG, so there were many languages and races.
Sometimes in our Sunday Evening Singsongs we used nearly 40
different language hymn books. Our accommodation here was
terrible when we started, a falling down house and our stove at
first was a cooking pot on three stones. Laurel taught at a
Government School, and with the money we were able to build a
good home and have a good stove. Laurel also ran a Christian
Bookshop.”
==================================
What an inspiring story! Thanks Laurel for sending me the
speech.

So who is Cathy, what is a steelhead, and where and why did she
catch it?

Firstly, who is Cathy? She is one of my numerous third cousins
in the United States, and one of the first people I located in
that country. Readers may remember that the Jerrems family that
migrated to Australia in the 1850s included Charles Jerrems
(my great grandfather) and William George Jerrems (Cathy’s great
grandfather) who later migrated to the United States.

A steelhead is better known in Australia as a rainbow trout, a
much more colourful name to my mind. A “steelhead” sounds
distinctly unpalatable, belying the fact that the fish taste
delicious.

According to my American dictionary these trout migrate each
year up the rivers from the ocean. This would be no mean feat in
the case of Cathy’s fish because it would have had to get to the
Snake River (where Cathy caught it) by firstly travelling
300 miles (500 km) up the wild Columbia River to the Snake River
junction and then up the Snake River itself.

My trusty World Book Encyclopaedia says that the Columbia River
“ranks as one of the greatest salmon streams in the world”.
Students of United States history may remember that in 1805 the
famous Lewis and Clark expedition had to build canoes to
traverse the picturesque Columbia River Gorge, which is lined
with basalt cliffs for 60 miles of its length. I mention the
Gorge as a matter of interest for our readers; I doubt that the
fish would have had the time or inclination to take in the view.

Cathy caught the athletic fish while competing in a competition
called the “12th Annual Women’s Steelhead Tournament” in the
“Women with Bait Derby” held at Riggins, in Idaho. Riggins
is about 300 kilometres north of Boise, near which Cathy lives.
A company called River Adventures Limited supplied all the
necessary equipment, including boats.

The company followed up this event with the production of a DVD
which it described enthusiastically as follows:

“This exciting show reveals the tournament winners along with
fun filled days on the Salmon and Snake Rivers fishing with
RIVER ADVENTURES LTD. The action packed slide show reveals over
230 photos of ladies, their friends, and the elusive steelhead!”

I don’t know a lot about fishing, but even I know that a 24 inch
fish (60 centimetres in metric terms) is in the big league for
recreational anglers. It must have put up quite a fight.

Perhaps this shows that Cathy has had a little more time on her
hands since her daughter Tonya Marie married Christopher Lee
Gordon in the middle of last year.

Full Disclosure:
Pictured is not Cathy or her fish, but you get the idea. The
image comes from the RiverAdventuresLtd website, which sponsored
her trip.

Russell is one of the great-grandsons of Arthur Reginald
Jerrems, who migrated to Australia in 1859 with our
respective great grandfathers.