When rare “king tides” swept over isolated Parama Island in western Papua New Guinea on 22 October 2024, residents of the town’s only village had nowhere to turn for help. In only a few hours the floods left many homes wrecked, subsistence farming plots destroyed, and community wells fouled by seawater.
About four-hundred people live on the beautiful but remote island in western Papua New Guinea. Nearly one-third of them are members of the Parama Branch of the Daru Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
When word of the disaster reached the stake center in Daru, Church leaders acted quickly to send immediate relief. Food, water, tarps, and water filters were shipped from Papua New Guinea’s capital city of Port Moresby to a waiting barge in Daru.
From Daru, the supplies, along with Church Humanitarian missionaries skilled in disaster recovery, and local Church missionaries and leaders, traveled up the Gulf of Papua to the Fly River, and then inland to reach Parama Island.
On arrival, they found damaged homes, and ruined community resources, but resilient and confident Saints already working to do their part to rebuild their damaged village.
When the barge and accompanying dinghies arrived during the late morning low tide on 29 October, the water was too shallow to allow them to bring their supplies into the village, so supplies were transferred to smaller dinghies, which moved closer to the shoreline.
But in the end the dinghies could come no closer than a kilometer from shore.
So the village came to them.
Throughout the afternoon, villagers combined with missionaries in walking back and forth through two kilometers of tidepools to collect the food, clean water, and water filters, and carry it all into shore.
In all, it took more three hours to transfer the supplies from the dinghies into the village.
The relief supplies were stacked in the village square, as preparations were made for distribution to villagers.
Once all the supplies were brought into the village, families gratefully received their shares of the supplies that they had just carried across the water.
In Port Moresby, Johnny Leota, the Country Office Manager, reflected on the blessings that often come from trials. "After the devastation of the king tides the resilience and faith of the people of the Parama Island shine through as they joyfully receive temporary relief to aid them through this challenging time in their lives. Their gratitude and love of the Saviour has increased as they witness His love through emergency efforts from the Church. Continued relief efforts will include finding solutions with local leaders of the community to safeguard against future disasters."
Restoring Parama Island to its pristine condition will not occur quickly. But the Parama Saints, with their friends and neighbors, know that they will not face their ordeal alone, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands ready to provide support, both temporal and spiritual, as these Saints of God and their neighbors work together to rebuild their beautiful but temporarily damaged remote island home.