The other Friday was my first MAF ministry program since being back in PNG. We headed out to a village called Andakapla, a community on the outskirts of Mt Hagen past Newtown. It is a known place for rascals (criminals) to live or hide and a place that police and others fear to go.
This would be the third visit to the community since November last year. It was my last program before furlough back in February where I shared my testimony. God has been at work in this community especially amongst the rascals. They have been really impacted by what we have shared and shown them. Some of these rascals had even stolen MAF vehicle’s at gun point in the past. At the end of the first program the rascal leader got up and thanked us for coming and showing us who MAF is and how big God is, I have not seen many people impacted like he was. Now they are attending church and are involved in the church.
We finished work normal time on Friday for the first time that week. After being home for thirty minutes or so we left our compound. With the MAF Hilux loaded up with the ministry team gear we headed out to pick up team members around town. We arrived at Andakapla around six o’clock and was met by Pastor Jack and a few men and boys. We decided to setup the gear outside, as we were always limited with how many people could fit into the lotu haus (church building). It was a clear night, but cold and I forgot to bring a jumper, plus I was getting over a sinus infection.
1. Setup outside, in front of Pastor Jack’s house which is elevated. The crowd would be on a slight incline, which worked well for an outside cinema.
We setup the sound gear outside, some of the local guys assisted Maipson, Nevan and I setting up the screen. Fortunately they had two long homemade poles, which we could hang our projector screen up on. I wanted to get the screen much bigger, but that’s all we could manage. We do have a bigger screen recently donated to the team, but it was in the process of being washed. We continued to setup in the dark and get the system running. We had a one issue with the sound gear, but ended up only being a faulty lead.
We had done many different things on our other visits. Pastor Jack had requested they we show the Jesus film in Tok Pisin this time round. It is a long movie, so it limited how much we would fit into the program. I would introduce the movie and Timon would do a challenge and encouragement at the end. It was my first time planning to speak all in Tok Pisin during a program. Normally I would use a mix of English and Tok Pisin. I didn’t make time to prepare what I would say, due to the workload at the hangar. If I had it would of made a big difference. If it was in English it would have been okay. But as I was thinking of what to say on the spot, I had to try and translate it into Tok Pisin. It worked out okay, but should and could have been better. But it is a start in trying to use Tok Pisin more in speaking about spiritual things in front of a big crowd.
Following the introduction the movie started, with more people coming in. We had a large area outside for the surrounding community to come and watch the movie. One of team members guessed we had a few hundred people in attendance. This included people sitting up by the road and even vehicles stopping as they drive by on the road. The system worked really well with the screen and sound system pumping (it was loud). It was quite cold, Maipson lent me his jumper, he refused to take it back. During the last thirty minutes of the movie, we had mist rolling in through the grounds, but the screen still visible.
2. Pastor Jack addressing the people and community following the program. The mist made it impossible to get a photo of the crowd all the way back to the road. (Sorry photo’s are not the best for this post)
The movie finished and some people started to leave. Timon got up and did a talk which included a challenge and also an encouragement to the Christians in the community. We had a strong appreciation of our time there by some of the community leaders. Following packing up and saying goodbye to those who were still there. I dropped off the other team members, which included dropping off the ministry gear back out at the Hangar. In trying to leave MAF HQ’s the gate would not operate and lock correctly. So we had to force it to lock itself, which was done from the inside. This involved Maipson and Timon having to climb over the fence in thongs which included scaling barb wire on top.
Timon and I got home just before midnight, I started cooking dinner at 2350. We were tired from a big week, but again was a real privilege to be able to go out and minister the Gospel to the community of Andakapla. Please pray for pastor Jack and for the community of Andakapla.
To see the previous Andakapla reports see links below:
