Few stories in New Zealand Brethren mission are as fruitful as Papua New Guinea. From the first New Zealander who reached the remote West Sepik in the early 1950's followed by many others from New Zealand, Australia and the USA, the Christian Brethren Churches of PNG (CBC) has grown to over 450 congregations, many of them in places reachable only on foot, by river or by aircraft.
Photo credit: Peter Cade
A Call That Started Small
When the first missionaries arrived in what is now West Sepik Province, many of them from New Zealand, they weren't permitted to work in the towns. They started instead in the hills around Lumi, learning language and culture from scratch, with no guarantee of what might come from it. It would have been easy, at that stage, to see the call as a small and uncertain one. Instead, it grew into a movement now spanning around 450 churches across the country, from the Sepik to the Highlands, into the cities, and out to islands like Bougainville that the church had no presence on at all a generation ago.
A Call That Comes Sideways
Not every call arrives with clarity. At a recent GC3 event, Mission Partner John Hodgkinson shared how he and his late wife Helen first felt drawn toward mission work while teaching in New Plymouth. At that stage, they hoped to go to Fiji, that door didn't open. Papua New Guinea, somewhat unexpectedly, did, so they arrived in 1984 to run a small mission high school.
Years later, John assumed his working life in mission was behind him. An email arrived asking whether he'd consider returning to PNG, this time to help the National Office with governance and financial administration rather than teaching. It wasn't something he'd been looking for, and PNG, by his own account, was a mission field he had retired from. But as he tells it, there was nothing actually stopping him from going, and so he went. That was ten years ago.
Ordinary People, Answered Calls
What stands out most, listening to John's account, isn't any single dramatic moment, but how many different people, in how many different seasons of life, have said yes to their own part in this story.
Kevin and Yvonne White answered their call in 1984, the same year as John and Helen, and from the same New Plymouth church. Their contribution became the first urban CBC church plant in Port Moresby, at Erima. What began as one congregation in one city has since grown into eight or nine churches across Port Moresby alone.
Decades later, Kevin and Yvonne were still answering that same call in a different form, helping John run emerging leaders' sessions for a new generation of Papua New Guinean pastors before the disruption of COVID slowed that work down.
During GC3’s recent conversation with John he acknowledged there were so many stories to share, only having time for a few. Debbie Butters, a volunteer from Australia, felt called to something much more specific: mother-and-baby health. For several years she has travelled to Anguganak two or three times a year, running health sessions alongside a local woman, and raising funds through doctors and trusts in Australia to improve the local hospital. Her work helped bring clean water to the community and is now funding a rebuild of the maternity ward. Steven Meibo who comes from the Anguganak Village and works at the Lihir gold mine has joined in this effort in his time off from his regular job. Together, their answered calls have meant more babies being born safely in a hospital rather than out in the bush, a change John described as one of the things he finds most encouraging to see.
Max and Heather Tuck answered the call many years ago to go to Papua New Guinea commencing the Yimbrasi Bible School as part of their significant contribution to the mission effort. Both have since passed away, but their call didn't end with them. Their three sons have taken up their own version of it, currently building a high school at Sibalanga in their parents' memory. A tangible sign that a call answered faithfully in one generation can shape the next.
A group of believers in Vanimo have felt called to something that takes real courage: to travel further afield to plant churches and share the gospel among people whose language and context are entirely different from their own. Sadly Reicy Keki, who led this group, recently passed away. We continue to pray for this dear community and for this important ministry as it's a reminder that the call flowing into PNG over the decades has, in turn, produced people who now feel called to send it further still.
Closer to home, Geoff Liddle, a Papua New Guinean missionary kid himself, is very much actively involved. One project Geoff and others are involved in is to finalise solar power systems for the Wewak CBC Offices, the guest houses and the new Nuku Teachers College. This is patient, unglamorous work that depends on someone being willing to sort through procurement and installation on the ground.
There are now young CBC people who are answering their own call, training as teachers in Wewak and elsewhere with the support of Issachar and encouraged along the way by the CBC tertiary student ministries coordinator Philip Makaru.
We know these are just a handful of the many stories out there. We haven't been able to mention everyone who has faithfully answered the call to serve in Papua New Guinea over the years, but we're deeply grateful for the work each of them has done, seen and unseen.
A Call Still Being Extended
None of these calls have come with much fanfare. Most involve years of unseen, practical faithfulness rather than a single defining moment. But together, they've built something none of these individuals could have built alone.
The call also continues to reach New Zealand churches. There remains a real, ongoing need for people willing to walk alongside PNG's national leaders, particularly in practical areas like administration and financial management, the work that keeps a National Office standing but rarely gets a story written about it. It's not the kind of call that comes with much recognition attached, which may be exactly why it still needs willing hands.
Still Listening
Seventy years in, the thread connecting every part of this story isn't a strategy or a plan. It's a series of ordinary people, at different ages and stages of life, choosing to respond when they sensed God asking something of them, even when the request came sideways, or later in life than expected, or without much fanfare at all.
If you've sensed something similar, whether that's a call to go, to give, or simply to pray more intentionally for the church in PNG or elsewhere, we'd love to help you take the next step, get in touch.
You can learn more about our Mission Partners in PNG by visiting our Mission Partner Profiles and selecting the tag "PNG"
Thanks again to John Hodgkinson for sharing these remarkable stories of God at work in such a beautiful country.
