We were excited! The green light for VGR’s first trip to the Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) was welcoming news. Communications from PNG had been sporadic over the years. The trickle had grown steadily in intensity along with our desire to visit this island nation, to see for ourselves the move of God in PNG and to get with the local brothers to understand their needs. Everything had come together, God’s timing is perfect. He works on both ends to bring His WORD to pass.
As I boarded Air Niugini flight 11 bound for Port Moresby, my thoughts went back to the early pioneers of the Message in PNG. Brothers like, Derrick Donaldson from New Zealand came to mind, one of those who laboured tirelessly to introduce the Message to the Pacific region.
Visiting the capital city of Port Moresby and the second largest city of Lae to the north, is not reflective of the way of the life for many Papua New Guinean’s. PNG is one of the least urbanised countries in the world. A large percentage of people live in the rural areas with few conveniences of modern life, often dependent on subsistence agriculture to make ends meet. Despite the challenges, the believers are very happy and content enjoying the state in which God has placed them.
Pastors, elders, and believers traveled to Lae from different parts of PNG. The majority of them came from the Highland regions (the most densely populated area in PNG) to meet with VGR. The pastors came to present their needs and join together in fellowship. We were also blessed to be joined by brethren from the cities of Lae and Popendetta.
Brother Gadum wearing a “Bilum”
The saints welcomed VGR with their love and traditional gifts – beautiful, hand woven string bags called Bilums. Bilums are very useful in that they can stretch to amazing sizes and hold incredible amounts of food to feed the family (or even to hold a baby!). The believers explained that VGR is bringing to them the good spiritual food to help feed the family of God.
As the people settled in the conference room, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. Looking up, I gazed out over the audience. It was very humbling to stand before the purchase of His Blood! To stand before a portion of the Bride.
It was an honour to share VGR’s Vision to the believers in PNG for the first time. To express Brother Joseph’s love and let the people know that since he was a young man, he had felt a call in his life to serve the Bride of Christ; to make the sermons of Brother Branham available to every person. To faithfully translate every word spoken by God’s Prophet, "not to add one thing. Don't take, put your own ideas in it. You just say what is said on those tapes. You just do exactly what the Lord God has commanded to do. Don't add to it."
The saints were amazed to see and hear of the magnitude of the Lord’s work. Just to think that since the early 1980s, VGR had printed and distributed over 195 million books worldwide and sent innumerable numbers of MP3 and M4A sermons to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. The Lord indeed multiplies!
As I shared the testimonies of the “tape boys” who slipped into the Congo and Malawi. I could see the brothers come alive as they saw the power of the God catching hungry hearts and turning lives around. They watched intently as the Congolese’s brothers cut down a tree to build a dug-out canoe to cross an impassable river, the result - the baptism of 18 people in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Wow” was written all over their faces! It was an inspiration to see what the Power of God can do when we put His Word first. God is always faithful to His Word!
Jesus said, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Themessage.com website (now in 31 languages) is one of the tools that stands as a witness to all nations. Over 280,000 different visits were recorded in the past 12 months, resulting in many people coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ! Not a denominational Jesus of 2000 years ago but a living Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever! Praise the Lord the timing is right for these Web-based technologies in PNG. Mobile network accessibility rates expanded from less than 3% population coverage in 2006 to over 80% by 2016. The local telcos plan to rollout 4G LTE services in many of the cities and major towns in the coming months, making outreach sites like themessage.com available to the people of PNG, manifesting the prophecy of Jesus in Mathew 24 in our day.
The brothers shared many wonderful testimonies, telling how the candle was lit as the power in the Message brought truth to their hearts and set them free from the chains of denominations. One of the pastors stood up and spoke on behalf of the people of PNG and expressed their thanks to Brother Joseph for his burden for the Message and he said, “Thank you for showing us all these things, that we would be able to use to bring this Message, the Voice, across this nation. It is very necessary!”