Bethel Tabernacle of Praise centre prepares for 40th anniversary

 THE Bethel Tabernacle of Praise centre in Waigani will host the 40th anniversary celebration of the Christian Revival Crusade movement in Papua New Guinea next month.  Preparations for the July 4-8 event are almost complete, senior Pr Fuwe Ageyo said. 

The church grounds have been cleaned and a large kitchen and dining area, a new toilet block and temporary shower blocks have been built.

Classrooms at June Valley Primary School and Tokarara Secondary School will be used to accommodate more than 2,000 members of the church from all provinces.

Christians from Australia, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, India, the Philippines and New Zealand are also expected to attend.  The CRC movement was founded by Australian Pr Leo Harris in Adelaide in the 1960s.  

The first Australian missionary to set up the CRC fellowship in PNG were Barry and Rosalie Silverback who arrived with their two children in the early 1970s.  The Silverbacks worked with the Four Square church in Eastern Highlands.

They, later, moved to Port Moresby and set up a fellowship which is now the CRC movement on March 24, 1972.

They held meetings at their Boroko home and when numbers grew, they moved to a classroom at the Bavaroko Primary School.  

Later they relocated to Koura Place in Tokarara, opposite the National Housing Corporation headquarters.

Pr Ageyo recalled that in those days, the revival grew all over the country. In Port Moresby they acquired a larger land which is the present Bethel Tabernacle of Praise Centre.

The church runs a bible school and an elementary school in Port Moresby and plans to provide tertiary and technical education in the not too distant future.