Our Stories
Mark The Link
Our country’s remote places will continue to be the focus of CRMF’s ministry because that is our unique calling to bring the Good News of our Lord Jesus over the mountains and valleys of our beautiful country. As the Technical Services arm of MAF in Papua New Guinea, we highly value the impact of what we do for our remote communities. We believe that the initial foundation in this technological era is to connect communities with reliable communication and train Church leaders with technological tools for reaching today’s generation.
The picture above captures the essentials for remote logistical planning found at Nungwaia district station of South Seas Evangelical Church (SSEC). Nungwaia is a typical remote community that has an airstrip, a health centre (on the left) and an office (on the right) that houses the High frequency (HF) radio and road access into Maprik and into Wewak.
This sounds great but it can only happen long term when someone in the remote place has sniffed the importance of getting outside assistance for effective ministry in the remote area. CRMF has had a vision to develop “gate keepers” since setting the Tek Ministri (was Learning Technologies PNG) but has not fully developed it yet because whatever vison and goals we may draw up, we will continue to be outsiders in terms of long-term impact and partnership. we feel Mark Titus could be our “gate keeper “in his part of the region.
We thank the Lord for the early missionaries and the local Christians who have embraced the vision to continue to provide a centre that will continue to be a pivotal facility to spread the Good News.
I thank the Lord again for the uniqueness of different mission organisations who love to see rural communities saturated with the Word of God. Our little part this time was to offer a basic computer skills training to leaders of the district and local churches to use technologies for ministry.
Living in Goroka and doing this training rounds with the remote churches and mission organisations for the last seven years has helped me to be selective in making statements for the remote while enjoying the urban comforts of electricity, internet and non-cancellation of flights.
For instance, doing ministry for a lasting impact in a remote community includes weather, tribal fights, closed airstrip, landslides, floods, shortage of manpower, … ok you got the point. Basically, I came to realise that we can plan taking in all the issues listed and leave it to the Lord for the results.
Some of these results do not happen over night and when they do happen, it is always the Lord’s perfect timing. The request for this training was done a year ago (2019) and a year later we have a story to tell. This story is about Mark Titus and the team at Nungwaia because the basic computer course was a little part of the bigger story that they already have.
Mark comes from a community like many in our country who earn cash the hard way and so their aim is to buy good quality products that can help them with their daily living and more importantly as Mark expressed, “We need quality products for ministry, and CRMF is our solution”.
Mark started off by buying Fosera Solar lights in the proximity of K2,000 worth and eventually increased and brought into the community in the vicinity of K10,000 worth of items. By this time, he established himself as one of the regular customer for CRMF but more importantly the vital link for quality products for his community.
Thank you for all the prayers and funding to deliver the first of the 2020 basic computer skills training for Church leaders in the remote communities. It was another success story thanks to MAF’s “Flying for Life” support and the prayers of CRMF staff and partners.