God has been working in the lives of those in the Middle Ramu District in Papua New Guinea. Before 2022 ended, the district organized a five-day youth crusade at Gebau Valley, Kovon Local Level Government.

The Middle Ramu District is the largest in Papua New Guinea and comprises five circuits – Arame (Singapi), Gevrau (Ulamil), Kaironk, Simbai, and Tagul. The biggest number of believers are youth ages 12 to 30.

The district is also the most remote in the country. It is primarily rugged terrain with vast rainforests, grasslands, fast-flowing rivers, swamps, and floodplains. There are no road connections, and it is cut off by the Ramu River to the North and Jimi River to the South. Many pastors and leaders spend hours or even days walking to visit local churches or attend district gatherings.

But despite these challenges, there is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Middle Ramu District. Young people are flooding the local churches. They are hungry and thirsty for God’s Word. During the youth revival, over 5,000 young people from all five circuits gathered and attended.

The crusade theme was “Sanctify yourselves today, for tomorrow God will do wonders among you” from Joshua 3:5. Pastor John Laule shared the following sermons during the five-day revival:

• Cross Over and Take Over (Joshua 3:5)
• Transition and Transformation (Isaiah 6:1-8)
• The Call of Prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:1-10, 18-19, 5:14)
• Holiness Highway (Luke 3:3-5, Isaiah 38:5 and 40:3-5)
• Unity and Later Rain (Deuteronomy 11;14, Psalm 104:14-15, 133:1-3, Isaiah 43:19)
• New Wine and Blessings of the New Wine (Joel 3:18)
• Do Not Leave Your Jerusalem until You Catch Fire (Acts 1:4-14, 2:1-15, Isaiah 4:3, 40:30-31)

Aside from the services, there were also workshops and training offered focused on the following topics of youth and education, corruption and the government’s law reforms in fighting corruption, severe penalties for corruption, bribery, abuse of dangerous drugs, and the criminal justice process, and uncontrolled rainforest clearing by villages and conversion to gardening, climate change, global warming, and the prospects for carbon credit trade and ecotourism.

In every worship service, as the Word was delivered, the Holy Spirit began to work in every person in attendance. He brought conviction to everyone. People would start walking to the altar even before the sermon was finished. 

 “Many stood outside the walls and participated in praise, worship, and hearing of the Word. [The number of attendees] increased to 5,000+ in the final days,” Laule said.

According to Laule, an average of  1,300 young people visited the altar after every message. A second altar was required outside the church because the inside was packed. More than 1,000 young people recommitted their lives, and more than 50 received Jesus Christ for the first time.

“It was the most amazing moment of fire,” Laule said. “As someone took the first step, everyone else fell in line, individual by individual, family by family, clan by clan, and tribe by tribe. God is truly doing marvelous things in Middle Ramu.”

--Church of the Nazarene Asia-Pacific