Enga’s solution to peace

Weekender

By TONY KIP
MANY consider Engans to be aggressive people.
Engans themselves might say yes to that but will argue that their aggression is mainly shown towards their tribal enemies and not toward outsiders.
Outside of conflicts, Engans are peace loving and have respect for others and are known for possessing the characters of sharing and caring.
The era of tribal fights, aggressiveness associated with the intention to inflict physical harm and suffering, their short tempered manner and pay back mentality has long gone. In fact, Engans have now taken to aggressively preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The wind of evangelisation has blown across the width and breadth of Enga and has transformed every household; men, women and children are embracing the Word of God.
Early missionaries like the Lutherans and Catholics, the SDAs, Foursquare, EBC, AOG, etc., have penetrated the people’s lives with education and the Gospel.
Enga has moved leaps and bounds as the leading province in the evangelisation process. Their local missionaries are successful not only in the province, but elsewhere in PNG as well. In fact, they are taking the Word of God to every corner of the globe.
At the back, the congregation, the Christian community, businessmen and women, educated elites, both young and old, from all walks of life are supporting these missionaries with finance and prayers – all to extend God’s Kingdom to fellow brethrens in Christ. The people (both missionaries and Christians) have realised that doing God’s work is something far more significant and precedes businesses and other dealings in life. People are gladly sacrificing their last toea to support the work of Christianity.
One of the Christian churches, the Foursquare Gospel Church in Enga is practically walking the talk seriously by producing more local missionaries and sending them overseas to spread the Gospel.
A young member of the Foursquare Church in Kompiam district is putting his aggression into the Kingdom extension work.
Kevin Kemben is 26 years old and single but he is 100 per cent certain that investing in the Kingdom of God is not a waste.
“God is not a seasonal God and He is not a limited God either. My priority is my God. My parents are my second priority. My business or interest to have a family of my own are third and fourth priorities,” the young man said confidently.
He said young people must put God first in life and everything else will fall in line because God is not blind but blesses those who please Him.
Kemben has been supporting the pastors in his church in Kompiam and Enga and has declared publicly that whatever blessings God gave him will not be used to buy guns or support enemy tribes but will be used to serve God. He has promised to be the flag bearer of the Foursquare Church in Enga.
The executives including the senior pastors and congregations of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Enga have declared Jan 30 and 31 as the Enga Foursquare Foreign International Missions Giving Day.
Every year, these two days are commemorated with the Church contributing money to their oversea based missionaries in over 20 Pacific Island countries like Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Niue, Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, and Tuvalu.
Pastor Jeff Kamen, a division two supervisor of the Foursquare Church in Wapenamanda said Enga is no longer a province known for bows and arrows and guns.
“Enga was transformed by the powerful blood of Jesus. Peace has returned to this lovely province.
“Places that used to be remnants of burnt down buildings and bushes as a result of tribal fights have been replaced by high covenant houses and multi-million kina investments.
“Light has returned to Enga because we have seen God’s blessings in the lives of people. Enga is now raising Godly leaders who will evangelise the whole of Enga in the near future,” Kamen said.
He stressed that the Foursquare Gospel Church is producing Godly educated human resource who can become Godly leaders in the province
and country.
“Those Engans who are working and studying outside can enjoy whatever they do out there but for those of us that remain in the province, we will not back away from making this a Godly province despite the challenges we face.”
He said Enga needs more Kevin Kemben’s who can faithfully support the missionaries in the Kingdom extension work.
Foursquare Gospel Church national president Reverend Timothy Tipitap commended the Enga church for setting an example for the church’s family in the country to do likewise.
“What you are doing is not a waste. You will be blessed. God will bless Enga.”
He stated that the God that PNG serves must be made known to other people so that they can be saved.
Tipitap urged the Government to partner the Church in supporting these missionaries who live overseas as they are sacrificing their lives to bring hope to others.
The Enga Foursquare Church contributed about K92, 000 and pig valued at over K100,000 to be sold to support its overseas missionaries on Jan 31, 2017 at Wapenamanda.
Tipitap concluded that if the aggressive people of Enga can be changed by God, there is no excuse for people from other province to change.
“God can make anything possible. Investing in God’s Kingdom is not a waste. This is a Christian country and it has a role to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
“I believe Enga which many people had wrong perceptions about is leading the way for this nation to change.
“This country can be a better place for everyone to prosper and live happily both on earth and heaven if we take God as our priority and live right with Him,” Reverend Tipitap said.