Remembering Our Queen
21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022
The Queen was the longest serving monarch in British history and the news of her death has been received with great sadness. She has served as Head of State for our nation for over 70 years.
Throughout her life, the Queen has always spoken openly about her strong faith and how this has helped guide and sustain her. Many people have been greatly blessed and encouraged by The Queen’s willingness to share her faith so publicly, and now, we share in her family’s and our nation’s grief at the passing of this great lady of passion and faith.
One constant feature across the decades was the Queen’s Christmas message. Continuing her grandfather’s innovation of an inspiring broadcast to the public, she annually addressed her personal greetings to a global audience. Her messages reflected both her public concern for the nations that made up the Commonwealth as well as her private faith.
Visit to Papua New Guinea
The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and The Princess Royal visited Papua New Guinea in 1974, and Her Majesty and His Royal Highness returned for the Silver Jubilee in 1977, arriving in the capital Port Moresby, and later visiting Popondetta and Alotau. They returned again in 1982.
Please join us in praying for the Queen’s family at this time. They have lost a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend. Join us in thanking God for her life and for her faith.
As we see many tributes being made to her life let us remember and pray the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 when He said
‘Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted’.
We know that in times of loss and grief, the Lord is the Great Comforter, and He sustains everyone who turn to Him.
The Word for Today for 2022
The Word for Today for 2022 is out and available from us and the usual outlets around Wewak and across PNG.
Do you have your copy yet?
We’d love to hear how you are finding it. please let us know.
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Great First Day
We had a fantastic first day to Laifaton.
The official opening was conducted by the Deputy Governor of ESP, Hon: David Kausik. Many other church leaders were present to celebrate all the good things God is doing and pray over our ministry.
All our announcers and visitors got together for a photo out on our front lawn.
We are looking forward to sharing many encouraging stories of lives changed over this coming days.
Click here to find out how you can join us and support Laif FM, UCB Inspirational and The Word for Today here in PNG.
The Word for Today for 2021
Our team have been busy getting the 2021 edition of The Word for Today out to all our supporters.
But if you haven’t got a copy yet you’d better hurry. We are not far off running out so make sure you get in touch with Julie at the station today.
What Can We Learn From the Persecuted Church?
While how we attend church on a weekly basis is looking a little different during the Coronavirus crisis, there are some amazing organisations out there helping people make it easier for Christians to fellowship together in small groups in homes.
While Christians in Australia aren’t being forced into lockdown out of persecution, Open Doors CEO Mike Gore shared on Vision Christian Radio that there is actually a lot we can learn from the persecuted Church who have been operating in House Churches for decades.
“The funny thing is that we often say that the persecuted nations meet in homes. But the reality is that it’s part of the normal mechanics and rhythms of church in those nations. It’s not as if they go ‘because we’re persecuted we have to do this’, they’re not even used to centralised fellowship gatherings.”
Mike shares that Open Doors has a heart not only to support Christians in persecuted countries, but also to help the Church in Australia navigate this new way of fellowshipping which may last for as long as 12 months.
Open Doors has created a set of free weekly downloadable resources for people who want to run House Churches in their homes.
“The resources are really created to help Pastors. They’re not to be a para-church or something separate. The reality is, that I believe looking over the next twelve months, if I put myself in the shoes of a Pastor – one of the hardest things is just going to be keeping the Church community together and doing pastoral services.”
“So what we’re trying to do is to take the worry out of creating content on a weekly basis, giving them something they can hopefully rely on.”
“We’re not making it all about the persecuted Church every week. We’re trying to learn from them as mentors. But we’re also not trying to undermine or undercut Church leadership, we really want to be complimentative to help all of us get through this next season.”
For more information and to sign up for these free house church resources, visit the House Church by Open Doors website.
Preaching to Empty Auditoriums
Pastor Jeff Vines shares his perspective on what it’s like to preach to an empty auditorium, while reminding us that it’s now more important than ever to continue meeting, even if we have to find new ways of doing it.
For the first time in modern history, many Pastors around the world are finding themselves in the position of having to preach to an empty auditorium. What does it feel like to have no crowd?
“A huge part of the art of communication is reading your audience”, says Jeff. “You often allow them to help you decide what direction to take, and particularly to know if your jokes are going over well!”
While an empty auditorium is not ideal, Jeff points out that in a crisis, more people than ever are turning to the church for answers.
“Suffering and illness is not something any of us ever want to see”, continues Jeff. “But we can use these tragedies to teach people to pray, and to point as many people to God as possible.”
Jeff believes it is often seasons of suffering that wakes people up to what really matters. When we are living a life of affluence and peace, it’s very easy to become spiritually lazy. This is the time for the church to lead, and we all need to work together as best we can to defeat this disease.
“We need to find ways of caring for each other, without spreading this disease”, Jeff says. “When our church meets together online, there are 20,000 people coming together at once. We must be good citizens and save lives.”
But Jeff also believes God inspires the church to be ready for what’s coming. God is always preparing the way for the gospel to go out, regardless of the political or social events that are happening around us.
“God does not promise us protection, even when what we are doing is honest and true. People have always been persecuted for the sake of the Gospel”, Jeff continues. “We should come together whenever and however we can, whether it be in a small group, a life group or in our homes watching. But we must continue to honour the sacrifice that Jesus made for us all.”
But Jeff reminds us, there is no guaranteed protection against suffering for doing the right thing. However, he believes we all have a responsibility to do it anyway.
Jeff Vines is heard weekdays on Laif FM
Coronavirus and our Team
In response to our Government’s advice most of our team are staying home this week. Our radio broadcasts will continue as usual but you won’t hear our usual announcing team.
Now more than ever the leaders of our nation need our prayers of support as the responsibility to lead our nation through these uncertain times falls on their shoulders. There is no handbook to guide them (apart from the Bible) as no one has faced having to make these decisions before.
The reality they face is there are no ‘right’ answers. The government are just trying to choose the least worst answer and for that, and everything, they need to hear from God.
As soon as possible we will get back to normal but in the meanwhile we ask you to continue to follow the recommendations to keep you and your loved ones safe. Click here for the latest information.
The Word for Today
It is great to be out and about with our 2020 copies of The Word for Today. Have you got your copy yet?
On Friday we distributed 7 boxes of The Word for today.
The principal for Brandi Secondary School was very happy to receive a box of 50 copies of The Word for Today for his school. He will make his donation to us soon.
We also delivered 2 boxes to the Inmates in Boram CIS. The Warden officer was very welcoming and very pleased to receive our delivery.
We also delivered a box to Village Inn Hotel and 2 boxes to SSEC church at Wariman.
More deliveries are to be done by the coming week.
Thank you to Pastor Yambe Sike for his support and for driving us and the copies of The Word for Today around.
We pray The Word for Today will bless everyone who reads it – especially you 🙂
Bigger than just PNG
Did you know we are part of a much larger ministry family? UCB PNG has a sister ministry – UCB Solomon Islands.
This week we had the privilege of meeting Taeasi, one of the Board members from UCB Solomon Islands. She was passing through Wewak on her way home from a conference at Mount Hagen so we were able to show her our studios and introduce her to our team.
UCB Solomon Islands hope to begin permanent broadcasts this year in Honiara, Auki, Gihzo and in Munda.
On Outreach Duty
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Our team in PNG visited their local prison on Easter Saturday. They brought worship, food and The Word for Today. Initially not many guys turned up so they sent out the message that there was free food. They then had a large group of guys together and were able to share the Gospel (and the food) with them all. They will be going back once the new edition of The Word for Today arrives.
