Good News church grows

 FOLLOWERS of the Good News Christian church turned up in hundreds to witness the opening of a new church building in Hanifi village, Okapa, Eastern Highlands.

Pastors, leaders and church workers from around the country, including Nipa in the Southern Highlands, where the church started operations in the late 1950s, also turned up.

Church leader and spokesman Pr Rex Epi said they had come a long way to establishing churches in rural areas and help with the development of human resources.

“We not only establish churches and preach the Good News, but assist with human resource development as well, especially in literacy teaching, so that not only members of the church can be taught the basics of literacy, but locals of rural villages will participate and benefit from the literacy teaching,” Epi said.

He said after the opening of the church at Hanifi, the Good News Christian Church, a registered member of the Evangelical Alliance of PNG (EA), so far had 152 churches with  more than 72,000 followers around the country.

Church elder and general secretary Norman Ba’abi, who officiated at the opening ceremony, praised the locals for their support in the establishment of the church in their village.

He urged them to work in partnership and take ownership of the church and support its operation.