SOME villages sit at the centre of everything. Yibrew sits at the edge, tucked against the international border with Indonesia, in the remote reaches of Green River LLG, in a part of Papua New Guinea that most maps barely have room to label. It was here, between June 7 and 13, 2026, that a combined team of pastors and elders from Bewani Green River District chose to bring the gospel.
What the team found waiting for them was a community whose orderly lifestyle and friendly disposition already spoke of a quiet godliness, a people living far from the country’s centres of attention, but not far from its character.
JESUS OUR ONLY HOPE
Each night, Sumumini Church Pastor Stafford Opovi and Bewani Green River District Director Pastor Kembol Yawisaho delivered evangelistic presentations under the theme “Jesus Our Only Hope.” The messages drew crowds night after night, offering a sin-stricken world the one hope that does not waver and the village responded.
A CHURCH BUILT IN FOUR DAYS
While the gospel was being preached at night, something equally remarkable was happening in the daylight hours. Chainsaw operators Elder Milita Butai of Waramayu Branch Church and Elder Lamech Yani of Sumumini SDA Church put their God-given skills to work, milling complete timber for a brand new church building, finishing the job in just four days.
The speed and skill of the work created admiration that spread through word of mouth until it had, in the words of the report, gone viral, drawing the attention of the wider community to a project that was as much a testimony as it was a construction job.
A WEEK CLOSED IN FELLOWSHIP
The week’s program closed on a high note with a combined community lunch, held alongside a GIFT card Bible Study training session, ensuring that the relationships built over the week would have a tool to carry forward long after the team had left Yibrew.
Special acknowledgement was extended to Minister Max Akipa, District Director for Ambunti, for his role as a major sponsor in providing lubrications for the project, and to Elder Sebby Yani for his logistical support, both essential to a mission that required as much practical coordination as it did spiritual conviction.
Bewani Green River District stands as a frontline district of Sepik Mission, targeting the villages bordering Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. The team behind this report has asked that prayer continue for the district as it presses further into territory where the gospel is still being introduced for the first time.
