Our Stories
Making use of the opportunities available to share the Word of God
“I work for Jesus! And I work for the ECPNG church. It was unexpected to be called to the land of the unexpected, but I am so thankful for the privilege, and many opportunities, and all I have learned in Papua New Guinea.” ~ Rosie Crowter, Doctor and Missionary with the ECPNG Health Center at Rumginae
Rosie Crowter is a British Doctor who has been serving as a missionary in Papua New Guinea for 24 years now. She is based in Rumginae with the Evangelical Church of PNG Health Center (ECPNG Health Centre), providing health services for the remote community in the North Fly of the Western Province. She is single and immersed by the unexpected call from the Lord to serve in the land of the unexpected.
Initially Rosie came as a preventative health doctor and her goal was to help people in the rural area with holistic health care. As she attempted to teach health education on TB and malaria, it became apparent that it was a losing battle as everyone believed that sickness was caused by sanguma (sorcery or magic) … This awareness made Rosie realize that health is primarily a spiritual issue, and if it was not addressed then it would be difficult to provide help to the remote communities that needed it.
That’s when Rosie started transition to Bible teaching. She believed that, “The only thing that could really address the issue is God and God’s Word, helping them to really know who God is so they didn’t have to fear magic because they honored and respected and feared God.”
She then created a workshop that addresses the topic of fearing sanguma (sorcery or magic).
This workshop teaches women in Papua New Guinea how to be free from the fear of sorcery and magic through a deeper understanding of who God is. During the workshop Rosie and her team address and teach on how important the Word of God is and that it is through the Word of God that they can come to know God and know the power of the Word of God (Hebrew 4:12) that is able to cut through the bondage of fear upon their lives.
This photograph and following link article is by LuAnne Cadd
“My objective is to see people, especially leaders, grounded in the Word of God, and changed into the likeness of Christ – which is also an aim for myself too. God’s church must mature and grow, and be the body He intended it to be.” ~ Rosie Crowter, Doctor and Missionary with the ECPNG Health Center.
Rosie purchases the printed Bibles and audio Bibles from CRMF and distributes to a great number of people living in the remote communities and especially anyone who is interested to hear about Jesus and read the Word of God. The workshop provides Rosie and her team ample opportunity to distribute printed Bibles and audio Bibles alongside other Christian books and resources to individuals from the North Fly, to the Middle Fly and other places where it’s a demand.
A map showing the hotspots for distributing printed Bibles and Audio Bibles to the communities at the North Fly and Middle Fly in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea.
Rosie has received several requests from primary schools who need Bibles for Religion Instruction (RI) classes, or sometimes just to give as a gift to their grade 8 graduating students. She also gives them to people who help her. She recently gave the Bible to a Locum doctor at Kiunga hospital. Rosie emphasized that there are limitless opportunities available to distribute the Bibles even to people that she meets on the plane when traveling to other remote communities.
She has seen similar request for Audio Bibles and has distributed Audio Bibles as presents to teachers, village pastors who are retiring and many others . She added that people buy them from all over North Fly and play the Audio Bible in their villages for their families and community to hear.
It is easier for People to hear the Word of God from the Audio Bible because most of our remote populations are illiterate making it difficult for them to read a printed Bible… Rosie also added that this would include those who would never take the effort to read Gods’ Word for themselves.
Testimonies
A faithful pastor age 87 recently received an Audio Bible as a gift on his retirement. He was very excited and held it to his heart. There is no electricity in his village, so he is very happy to be able to power it from the sun. He plays it nearly every day and encourages his children who do not follow Jesus to listen to it.
Another recent testimony included an older woman who recently came to buy a big Bible (Standard size Bible), but I could only access pocket size which can be difficult for older people to read. Instead, the mother was excited to receive an audio Bible with the already loaded Micro SD card and she went away very happy. English is hard for her to read, so listening will be much easier for her.
Thank you CRMF for providing a reasonable prices for the Audio Bibles so that they are accessible to many people. And thank you for the mixture of English and Pidgin versions.
It is a privilege to provide the tools and equipment that Rosie needs to share the gospel of Christ to the remote communities at the North and Mid Fly. We thank God for the Love of Christ Jesus that she continues to demonstrate through the commitment that she has made to share the gospel of Jesus. We pray that the love of Christ Jesus and the power of His Word will continue to impact and transform the many lives that are living in fear of sanguma (sorcery or magic). It is the perfect love (of Christ Jesus) that cast out fear (1 John 4:18). God’s Word has the power to change and impact lives so we are also grateful for the many opportunities that the Lord provides for Rosie to share and distribute the Word of God to the remote communities that she gets to serve.