Our Stories
Going an Extra Mile with Tech Talk
During the Basic Computer Training (BCT) in Lae, some of the attendee pastors had invited the CRMF Learning Technology (LT) team to also do awareness on technology at their local churches and communities. The CRMF LT team saw this as a great opportunity provided by the Lord for them to go an extra mile in doing awareness on the use of technology through the Tech Talk, to a total of 7 churches in Lae.
The first Tech Talk was held in CLTC Lae Centre which saw a total attendance of 40 people comprising of CLTC Lae Centre students and staff.
Caine Ruruk did a 2 hours presentation on the negative effects of technology and the growing problem of access to and use of pornography online. At the end of the presentation the dean of the CLTC Lae Centre said, “This presentation has exposed us and the first thing to do is to break free. The second thing is that we need to join in the fight for good against evil. The good fight against evil is as old as time and we need to recognise that the battle has taken a new form in pornography.”
The second talk was in China Town, Lae, where Caine did the Tech Talk awareness to 50 youths during the occasion of the launching of their youth program for the start of the New Year. Our team also got invited to speak that following Sunday morning at the church on, “What is truth? John 18:38”. The pastor at the church, Pastor Frank, challenged the youths to stay away from pornography and share with others what they were fortunate to hear and learn about the warnings against pornography.
The third talk was held at Lutheran Renewal Church in Bumbu, Lae. The presentation was done where they held the Basic Computer Training for the Markham Compound settlers. The general reactions from the 150 attendees, (which well reflect the response from all the churches) was that of ‘shock’ as it dawned on them that pornography is an issue in PNG and is one of the major threats to ministry.
“To ignore this message of breaking free from pornography is certain death, because of the power of addiction.” – pastor at Lutheran Renewal Church.
The fourth Tech Talk was held at the Kamkumu Settlement after our team got invited by one of the BCT participants – Maria, a pastor of the Lutheran Renewal Church. The church was filled with 100 plus people sitting or standing outside the church area hearing the warnings on pornography. After the presentation, the chairman of this church challenged and encouraged the youths to talk openly about the issues they face today (including pornography) to their parents and church leaders.
The fifth Tech Talk presentation was at 2 Mile block settlement. This community is well known for torching stolen cars from Lae City, but since the establishment of churches like the Galilee Lutheran Renewal in their community, there is evidence of change. The turnout for the technology awareness was surprisingly very good with 250 people either sitting or standing inside and outside of the church.
The chairman of this church said, “It’s a very big problem and it’s about time somebody told us in this way.”
Sipia was the sixth place where our team held the Tech Talk. Sipia is a typical example of large villages which are directly involved in the expansion of urbanisation in PNG. These village experience all the problems that any town would face on a daily basis. During the presentation of Tech Talk we had about 100 attendees, with more who listened from their house porches.
An elderly woman commented at the end of the presentation, “This is a timely awareness and message for the problems we are seeing here at Sipia, thank you Lord for coming.”
The final Tech Talk was at Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Lae. The youth coordinator extended the invitation to different parish youth members to attend. The attendance was great having about 600 youths, parents and pastors attending.
“At the end of the presentation, the pastor of the church shook my hand with this statement, ‘Let us put our hands together for this straight shooter! I thank God for his grace to send CRMF to save this church tonight. Let us not forget what we heard tonight; some of you young people will be good leaders of our church and our country because of what you heard tonight.’ ” – Caine Ruruk, LT Facilitator and Trainer.
The CRMF LT team were blessed by the positive feedback they received from the pastors and communities in Lae. We have seen God’s hand at work in providing opportunities like the team saw and experienced first-hand in Lae for CRMF to go beyond the Basic Computer Training (BCT) program to shine a light on the negative issues of technology and pornography. We continue to see a huge and positive impact in the awareness of technology that CRMF is doing, and we are excited and look forward to future oportunities to keep shearing.