Papua New Guinea:  A View From The Inside
(Historical, Cultural and Spiritual Overviews)
By David Sitton

Last Light

Dusk falls readily in the high mountains rain forest.

Huddling around a crackling fire... I peek out of the small door of the Rakamunda village hut into the jungle night. A storm howls violently, flinging colorful high voltage lightening streaks down from the black sky. The thatch hut convulses under the assault of swirling wind and drenching rain.

Despite the furious storm, I hear clearly in the distance the melodious yodeling of Limb, the 12 year old boy evangelist who guided me through five days of hard hiking into this wilderness.

Louder now, his chant becomes more distinct as he trots along the slippery path around my hut. My ears strain to hear his faint singing.

He sings in a chant,

Kam bek bambai, i kam bek bambai,

Liklik taim bai Jisas em i kam long skai.


Moabeta yumi redi, redi na wetim em.


Krais Jisas em i kam bek bambai


He is coming, He is coming, in a short


while Jesus will come from the sky.


We must be ready, ready and waiting.


Christ Jesus, He is coming very soon.


His voice trails off, muffled by heavy rain and dense jungle foliage.

Alone, in quiet darkness, my spirit is pierced by this youngster's spontaneous faith and praise.

Welcome to Papua New Guinea!

Papua New Guinea

Land Of Lost Tribes And Languages

Few people who follow the torturous exploits of the Portuguese who circumnavigated the globe half a millennium ago ever reach The Molucca Islands tucked away in the Indonesian archipelago. These islands, reached by Jorge de Menses in 1526, are still largely unknown even to geography-literate people in the West.

De Menses landed on the shores of Wageo island, which he promptly named Papuwah (later to become Papua) which is a Malay word meaning "fuzzy" or "frizzled Hair."

Nueva Guinea was the nickname given the island by Inigo Ortiz de Retes in 1545 because of the striking resemblance of the fuzzy headed natives to those of the African colony of Guinea. Consequently, this newly discovered territory of Guinea-like warriors became known as New Guinea.

On July 1, 1971, four years prior to their actual independence, the eastern half of the island officially became recognized as Papua New Guinea.



Geography And Climate

Fiercely rugged is the island of New Guinea!

The north is divided from the south by massive mountain ranges whose razor edge ridges and jagged peaks protrude as a spiny backbone throughout the length of the island. Towering Alps of more than 14,000 feet are separated by deep jungle ravines and cavernous gorges that explode with rivers swollen by tropical rains.

Coral reefs visible through the pristine, aqua blue water, inhabit the lagoons. Endless acres of coconut groves are interspersed with miles of virginal jungle rain forests, expansive grasslands, savanna swamps and mist-shrouded mountain ranges. Wisps of smoke from widely scattered villages fill the skies in every direction from trail to horizon.

Rough, mountainous terrain is the prevalent physical feature of this defiant land. Only the trans-Fly flatlands in the Western Province are without mountainous countryside. It is said that there is no word for mountain in the language of the local people. However, apart from this one flatlands region, mountains dominate the landscape throughout Papua New Guinea.

Crossing from one ridge to the next by mountain trail is a formidable test. At about 10,000 feet one enters the cold, dreary mist forest where the trees are draped in cloud cover most days of the year. These are jungle covered mountains only passable by hacking through, one step at a time, with machetes. At this altitude, the trails are smooth and slippery from the constant dampness. It is a frequent dilemma to become cemented, waist deep, in rain forest moss and muck, while looking straight up into the teeth of sky scraping steeps. Sturdy jungle boots are often consumed by a single three day trek in mountains such as these.

Though Papua New Guinea lies wholly within the tropics, the elevation tells you more about the temperature than latitude. In a one hour flight one can experience the sun scorched dryness of Port Moresby, stand beneath a torrential downpour in the steamy town of Lae and shiver under the chill of Mt. Hagen's cold mountain air.

Geologically unstable, Papua new Guinea experiences 5% - 10% of all the worlds earthquakes annually. Similarly, situated within the famed Ring of Fire, numerous active volcanoes continue to threaten the existence of many tribes and several important cities.



Papua New Guinea History

"New Guinea!" Palms still moisten at the mention of the name. The intrigue and magnetism of this South Pacific island remains forever strong.

New Guinea was contacted initially in 1526, but it was not until the 1870's that Europeans built the first permanent settlements in Rabaul and Port Moresby. In the last quarter of the 19th century European traders, gold prospectors and missionaries made consistent contact with the coastal peoples and began pioneering the inland. Only in the past two decades, though, has Western development significantly impacted the interior regions.

The history of Papua New Guinea is best understood when divided into three segments: Pre-World War II, Post-World War II and Post-Independence.



Pre-World War II

European colonization largely overlooked New Guinea until 1884. The Dutch were the first to assert authority over the island, utilizing her as a protective barrier from encroaching enemies who coveted their treasured Dutch Indes Empire (present day Indonesia).

Germany was close behind the Dutch, driven solely by their ambitious trading and commercial interests. In fact, the northern half of New Guinea served as a German colony beginning in 1884 until World War I.

The British, motivated by a growing concern over Germany's trading activities so near to Australia, proclaimed a protectorate of their own, also in 1884, in the southern half of New Guinea. To the credit of the British, they displayed an increasingly genuine humanitarian and missionary concern for New Guinea. It was their desire to protect the indigenous people from the perils of European exploitation. In 1901, British New Guinea came under the control of Australia and was renamed Papua.

For many years, New Guinea was strictly divided into these three sections. A Dutch half to protect the Dutch East Indes, A German quarter simply because it appeared to be a good investment and a British quarter to guard Australia from possible invasion by Germany.

With all of this European activity, the two questions that concerned New Guineans were, "Who are these strange white people and where do they come from"? Surely the arrival of these strangers signaled the beginning of dramatic change which would forcibly redirect their history.



Post-World War II

Something died in the very soul of New Guinea during World War II.

Who would have thought that a world war would ever involve the quiet islands of the South Pacific? Yet, New Guinea suffered tremendously, paying an unrecoverable price charged by both sides of the conflict.

The brutal impact of World War II descended upon the peoples inhabiting virtually all of the mainland's north coast. After bitter fighting, Rabaul, Kavieng, Wewak, Madang, Lae and Salamaua all succumbed to the control of the Japanese.

It must be noted that both the Japanese and the Allied Forces took quick advantage of the people. These villagers had never seen a white man when suddenly hundreds of thousands of them literally fell from the skies and emerged up out of the belly of the sea. Promises of compensation were made to the men and young boys who would enlist to fight alongside the Japanese and Allied Forces. And history records the valiant and priceless contribution that New Guineans made as guides, medics, carriers and soldiers.

The first introduction most New Guineans had with airplanes was when thundering bombers materialized out of foreign skies, devastating entire tribal communities. Pigs, dogs, houses, food, possessions and people were lost in a single, horrible moment. The sudden and unimaginable suffering can never be fully known as whole villages were left in utter desolation; many of the people dying a violent death unprecedented even among the most savage of tribal warfare.

Australian soldiers returned home telling stories of how grateful they were for the "fuzzy, wuzzy angels", as New Guinea soldiers were affectionately called. In time, both Australia and the Allied Forces came to realize the great debt that was owed to the New Guinea people. In spite of their heartfelt gratitude, however, adequate compensation has yet to be paid, even to this present day.

World War II was cataclysmic in the nation's history. It was then, that civilization landed in its most violent form on New Guinea's shores.



Post-Independence

Papua New Guinea quantum leaped into the 20th century.

World War II was the primary vehicle that rocketed New Guinea out of the stone age and thrust her abruptly into our technologically advanced space age world. Most of the changes in New Guinea, which we call "progress", are benefits derived in some way from World War II and it's after shock.

Dire was the prediction for Papua New Guinea's future as she formally acquired her autonomy from Australia on September 16, 1975. The greatest single problem facing the new government was to create among hundreds of divergent tribes a true sense of unity; a national identity. Papua New Guinea's survival depended upon the unification of it's diverse people's. This continues to be the single greatest challenge of the new millennium.



Present Day Papua New Guinea

Present day Papua New Guinea is difficult to chronicle because, like a toddler pushing into preschool freedom, she refuses to sit still long enough for me to describe her! Even as I write, the rapid progression of events are altering the accuracy of this material.

As is true in most developing nations, the rural population is sprinting towards urbanization. This modernization of the people causes cultural chaos as it de-tribalizes the upcoming generation of Papua New Guineans. Hordes of tribal children are now reared in cities where they have few remaining ties with the home village. The awful result is that they come to maturity having no land, no property rights and no real language. Cultural identity is obtained largely through one's language and this is disappearing as youngsters no longer learn their native languages, using Melanesian Pidgin, Motu and English instead. When language is lost, tribal customs become obsolete, oral history and legends are forgotten and finally their cultural heritage is completely obliterated. Because of this, Papua New Guineas are becoming disconnected from their tribal heritage and unknown within their own land.

Rampant lawlessness is another complication stemming from massive urbanization. Pack rapes, armed hold ups and gang bashing are frequent as rascal gangs terrorize the cities. Tribal warfare, payback killings and widespread political corruption is further evidence of a crime problem spiraling out of control. Alcohol, legalized in 1962, is another major contributor to this rapid increase of criminal activity.

Perhaps the sharpest debate among government officials today is whether or not capital punishment should be employed as a deterrent to the crime dilemma which plagues the nation.

Despite seemingly insurmountable problems between its culturally divergent peoples, the government has been successful at holding the nation together thus far. As Papua New Guinea matures and stabilizes as a nation there is optimism that it will take a more significant leadership role among South Pacific nations.



Extraordinary People!

Papua New Guineans love to name their children after someone they have heard about, often a famous person from far off lands, or more commonly, after a person, such as missionaries, who are friends to their people. In my explorations throughout Papua New Guinea, some real beauties have been uncovered.

Elvis Presley lives in a village along the Sepik River. Bruce Lee and Joseph Stalin reside in Enga Province. Inconceivably, Yahweh himself is a Kukakuka tribesman living in the Menyamya district of Morobe Province. Ichabod, the bible character whose name means "the glory has departed", lives in the highlands. And I personally met the Pink Panther during one of my remote jungle treks in the late 1970's! Interestingly, there are several David Sitton's living in remote regions of New Guinea as well.

As awesome and exotic as the land itself, the real attraction to Papua New Guinea is the extraordinary people. One will marvel at the Buka People, thought to have the blackest skin in the world... The initiation scars which form crocodile patterns on the shoulders and backs of Sepik River men will amaze you... Share a coke with highlanders, fully adorned with parrot wings, green beetle shells and gorgeous plumes of the birds of paradise... Grass skirts, feathered head dresses, facial paint, bones through the nose and penis gourds all remain a part of the colorful dress code in some areas. These spectacular people are often seen chanting and stamping away to the ancient rhythms of their ancestral heritage.

Despite technological advancement, the stone-age refuses to step aside. Remote mountain tribesmen remain as a living museum where primitive cultures still thrive. These cultures have changed little over the past two millenniums. These are people who never knew the use of a wheel until one fell from an airplane. Incredibly, you can still talk to men and women who vividly remember trembling in terror as the first white men entered their valleys.



Of Languages And Lineage's

Of all the world's nations, Papua New Guinea remains the single most complex country, both ethnically and linguistically. Approximately 1,000 tribes speak more that 870 mutually unintelligible languages. It is estimated that nearly one half of all the world's languages are spoken on the island of New Guinea.

It is pointless to make broad sweeping generalizations about Papua New Guineans. Years of hands on experience teach us that behavior in one village will not necessarily be repeated beyond the next mountain, across the river or even in a neighboring village. One must always be prepared for the off beat, unusual and unexpected. The same rugged terrain that keeps their physical features and languages from blending have also kept their cultural distinctives separated.

The fragmented nature of the country and the fact that racial repugnance between tribes is a time honored tradition has misled some to wrongfully conclude that Papua New Guinea is not a nation at all, but merely a conglomeration of unreasonable tribes. However, it is important to understand that the ordinary village dweller views himself, first and most critically, as a member of his own family group, secondly as part of his clan, then his tribe, then his province and lastly he recognizes himself as a Papua New Guinean. As urbanization accelerates, however, national awareness and patriotism increase making it sensible to regard Papua New Guinea as a paradoxically diverse unity.



The Culture

Most Papua New Guineans live as rural villagers who survive as subsistent farmers. Villages are the nucleus around which New Guinea culture revolves. Everyone is related to everyone else resulting in each having multiple mothers and fathers (actually aunts and uncles); while children know each other as "cousin brothers and sisters." In fact, interwoven human relationships is one of the most essential elements of Melanesian society.

These traditionally non-literate, wood and stone tooled agricultural communities view the family, the clan and the tribe as that which is most important, as they recognize their descendancy from a common ancestor. Their cultural identity is deeply rooted in this closely knit communal environment. They are blood-bound to their people, their land and the never ending cycle of the seasons.

Papua New Guinea's cultural heritage is a remarkable potpourri of exotic music, ceremony, art, dance and drama.



Traditional Communications

A helicopter crashes on a cloud-topped mountain near Goroka. News of this tragedy is first conveyed to authorities, many miles away and several thousand feet below, by utilizing an oratory form of communication called yodeling. Information such as this is actually transferred from village to village by yodeling, which remains a viable communicational tool in the highlands provinces.

Oratory is a well developed skill and few major decisions are made without hours of formal speech making and discussion during village meetings. Likewise, songs and chants are passed down orally through the generations. New songs and chants are often composed to commemorate special events in the life of the tribe.

Another common communicational tool survives in the form of tribal dance. For instance, a war party indicates their intentions to an enemy village by the dances they perform as they approach. Dances are also used in celebrations of marriage and worship.

One other type of message transmittal, which like dancing, is similar to what American Indians practiced, is the sending of important messages using a complex system of fire and smoke.

Musical instruments are also valuable vehicles of communication. The kundu is a hand held drum made of wood and lizard skin. The larger, garamut drum is a slit-hollowed tree trunk. When struck solidly on the side with a long pole the garamut bellows out a resounding message that can be heard for miles across the mountains. Sacred bamboo flutes are used in ceremonial rituals but are also useful for communication purposes.

Today, however, these traditional communicational tools are being challenged by methods of social interaction taken for granted in other parts of the world, such as radios, newspapers, mail delivery and even telephones.



Tribal Legends

Around the world, no matter the culture, creation mythologies abound.

Among one Papua New Guinean tribe, before the God of the missionary was known, it is believed that creation was the work of Hanjua.

Ages ago, an old man and his wife lived in the mountains. They killed and ate every person who came their way as if they were tree possums. Hanjua, the ancestral creator, took pity on the people and killed the old man and woman. Hanjua collected the bones and skulls of their victims and put them in water. Hanjua watched over these bones. Slowly, the bones turned into toads, which became frogs, and then eventually humans. The original humans had long tails and could not speak. Hanjua clothed them with grass skirts, beatened bark capes and yellow arm bands.

Darkness covered the earth. Hanjua had the secrets of the sun and moon wrapped up in bark cloth and entrusted them to a man. While this man was out hunting, his son opened the cloth. The sun rolled out and climbed a tree. The hunter was amazed at what he saw. In desperation, he shot an arrow which stuck into the heart of the sun. But it was too late. The sun had climbed past the tree and beyond the sky. Nevertheless, the arrow is still there. If you look at the sun you will see it.

The child opened the other cloth and out came the moon. The moon climbed another tree. The child's mother was surprised. She pulled out the green vegetables she had been stirring in a bamboo pot, and splashed them over the face of the moon. But she could not stop it. The moon climbed the tree and up into the sky where it now sits. If you look carefully at the moon you can see the darkened stains of the vegetable juice.

After the lights for the day and night were set, Hanjua then created all of the other things that we now enjoy.

Myths and legends, such as this creation story, capture an important part of a tribes world view. Creation stories highlight tribal beliefs concerning the origins of the world, man and evil. It is crucial to remember that although told in fictional form, these stories are not for mere entertainment. Rather, a careful examination illumes what the actual tribal beliefs are concerning such things as supernatural beings, evil spirits, ancestors, religion and magical rites. These stories are believed and taken very seriously. The people cannot be fully understood without knowing their tribal legends.



Superstitions

An eagle flies across a village and a tribal elder casually remarks, "Yuneyalbia will be here tomorrow." A firefly burns itself in the campfire and someone declares, "One of us will die soon." A cricket screeches in the night and village leaders congregate to ascertain the crickets prediction. Church members refuse to eat the vegetables from a different clans garden believing they will go blind. A Sepik man refuses to eat food prepared by his oldest child, neither can he use the eating utensils of his children. To do so, he believes, will bring premature aging and blindness. These are all examples of the kinds of superstition that continually mislead and deceive the people.

Superstition, in the form of respect and fear of ghosts and ancestors permeates every aspect of the islander's lives. Demonically inspired, these ancestral customs, underpinned by wrong beliefs concerning the relationship between actions, objects or circumstances and their influence over the course of events, hold the people hostage - immobilized by fear. This domination creates dread not only in daily life but in every significant event in the life of the tribe, such as, the planting and harvesting of gardens, hunting and fishing, warfare, trading, dancing, house building, birth, initiation, betrothal, marriage, sickness and death. Elaborate rituals surrounding all of these milestones of life, have evolved solely for the purpose of communicating and placating these ancestral spirits.



Tribal Art

New Guinea art, extraordinary in its detailed design and tremendous variety of artistic styles, reflects well the cultural and religious diversity that exists throughout the country.

Coastal and lowlands people have created an extensive accumulation of sculpture, clay pottery, paintings, wood and stone carvings, wooden bowls, bamboo and coconut shell, musical instruments, war implements, hood ornaments for their canoes, ceremonial objects and even human skull head rests. Most tribal art is integrally related with religion and is predominantly the work of men. Women are usually limited to crafts such as string bags, mats and necklaces.

New Guinea art finds its inspiration in the spirit world. Wood carved masks usually represent spirits and those that wear the objects are often possessed by the beings represented. Each piece has serious religious significance and is believed to possess supernatural power.



Christianity In Culture

In our quest to plant New Guinea, New Testament churches, what are we to do with this perplexing culture? Are we to preserve it, destroy it, or simply ignore it?

If Jesus had been born in Papua New Guinea, perhaps he would have said, "I come not to needlessly destroy your cultural values, but to fulfill their ideals."

Nevertheless, this dilemma, which arises when Jesus moves powerfully with His Word and Spirit, into an unreached people, is as complex as the culture itself. When confronted with a specific behavior, it is helpful to ask the question, "Is this practice inherently evil according to the dictates of scripture?" If it is, such as witchcraft, sorcery, cannibalism, headhunting and polygamy, then obviously it must be rooted out. Contrary to the ravings of cultural anthropologists, some aspects of culture must be changed if the people are to be true followers of Christ.

Concurrently, an honest respect for the native culture develops naturally as one gains admiration for many aspects of the Papua New Guinea lifestyle. The strong temptation for outsiders to impart Western ways must be resisted. A New Guinea Christian, stripped of his God created culture, becomes unable to relate to those in his own land. If they customarily put bones in their noses, wear grass skirts and head dresses, pay a bride price as the way of entrance into marriage or insist upon sitting on the floor, men on the left, women on the right during times of worship, don't seek to change these, harmless, biblically neutral, cultural practices.

Finally, one learns to adapt, by simply ignoring peripheral practices that are different from our homeland. A good example of this is what we playfully call "PNG time," which simply means that locals follow their own time schedules. If the announced time for a meeting is 9:00 AM you may see the early birds straggling in at 9:30 AM. Loosen up. Relax in the wonderful reality that these dear people are not slaves to their Timex. The priority of elevating the importance of the event, rather than the starting or ending time, is actually far more biblical than our own blind allegiance to following strict time schedules to the neglect of people. It is a mistake to attempt to change their relaxed attitude towards time. Just ignore it. Or better yet, slow down and learn to enjoy it.



Religion

Three ancient wood carvings lie undisturbed beneath generations of dust and cobwebs, deep within the belly of a large garamut drum, in the manhouse of the Sepik River village of Warimbe. An old tribal chief carefully removes one of the crumbling pieces of wood explaining that no one knows who carved it or what the legend represents. One thing everyone agrees upon is that it is a serious taboo to tamper with these sacred objects. Handling one improperly will rile the spirits of the dead who will then cause terrible catastrophe. Not only would the local villagers be destroyed, but it is strongly stressed, people worldwide would be severely punished. The manhouse itself seems to tremble at the thought of anything happening to these old soggy pieces of ancestral wood.



Animistic Spiritism

The religion of animism is that awesome awareness that the spirit world influences all of life. It is the belief that inanimate objects such as wood and stone possess a soul of their own and can exert supernatural power over people. Animism is to be under the control of territorial and ancestral spirits. The reality and continuing influence of ancestors over their lives is a common belief throughout the tribal world. The great mystery of life for Papua New Guineans is: How can we control the spirits? The assumption is that spirits are evil and unpredictable, and they must always be approached with deference and extreme caution. From the breast, children are taught about the power, presence and danger of the spirits. The result of this early indoctrination is a lifetime of fear and slavery to a variety of spirits. Since these demonic entities aggressively participate in all areas of village life, the people expend much energy in pursuit of peace by trying to placate the spirits through endless magic and sacrifices.

Though Christianity claims to be the public religion of most Papua New Guineans, too often, their private devotion remains entrenched in animistic beliefs and practices.



The Catholic Controversy

When spoken to about Jesus Christ, the Warimbe villagers responded, "We don't need to hear about Jesus, we are Catholic Christians!" Probing deeper, the men admitted that what they liked about Catholicism is that it was so easy. They could sprinkle themselves Catholic, put in a claim for eternal life and yet remain faithful to ancestral traditions and superstitions.

National Catholic priests have told me that their intent is not to alter the native religion in any way, but rather to encourage the people to attach to their veneration of ancestors - a reverence for Mary, the Pope, various saints, and yes, even Jesus too. This is syncretism at its worst because it allows people to simply add Jesus Christ onto a long list of tribal deities. They can have Christ without cost, worshipping God and ancestors concurrently. Very often, it is the violent opposition of Catholic leaders in PNG that proves to be a major hindrance to the wider spread of the gospel.



The Real Problem

When a missionary first proclaims Jesus Christ in an unreached tribe, it inevitably sends rippling reverberations of fear throughout the villages.

There is confusion, on behalf of the villagers, as they try to discern how to avoid offending existing tribal deities, while at the same time, realizing the importance of not disrespecting this newly introduced god, called "Jesus."

They are fearfully certain that this new doctrine will rile the spirits and cause untold calamity. Often curiosity surfaces about Jesus, but villagers are reluctant to cut ties with their old ritualistic ways of ancestor worship. A compromise is found in the type of Catholicism promoted in New Guinea, which mixes spiritism with their new found belief in Jesus, resulting in one more brand of compromised Christianity.

There is a saying among the Chambri tribe, "To be born a Chambri is to be born a Catholic." While this may be true, to be a Christian demands repentance from idolatry. Refusing to worship God alone is to remain dead in your sins.



Cargo Cults: Messiahs Of Money

Encroachment from the outside world has forced Papua New Guineans to grapple with previously unknown realities. These new revelations along with exposure to the extreme wealth of the Western world has caused major complications to the villager's limited world view. One unforeseen result of this rapid exposure to material wealth is the problem of cargoism.

The term "cargoism" is taken from the World War II time period, when the war effort necessitated random air drops of cargo into remote jungle positions, throughout the South Pacific. Cargoism has come to mean any preoccupation with the mystery of foreigner's wealth and treasure. Cargo cults arise as the local people try to make sense of the traumatic upheaval that foreign contact has caused. Thus, cargo cults have emerged to somehow explain their wild experiences with Westerners. They are especially eager to discover the mystery of the white man's wealth and how to obtain it for themselves.

It is important that missionaries understand this hidden agenda when working with Papua New Guineans. So often, villagers' intense interest stems from the hope that finally the mystery of cargo, and how to get it, will be revealed. Sometimes when villagers appear to be excited about the Good News missionaries bring, it is misunderstood to mean the good news of how to acquire material wealth. And, before long, the people become disillusioned and uninterested in the message when the material possessions fail to come. The importance of understanding this widespread belief is critical to reaping genuine tribal fruit.

Western materialism is dramatically affecting the surface social structures of Papua New Guinea as better clothing, different kinds of food and all types of manmade possessions are introduced. However, it is important that the outsider sees through this Westernized veneer worn by the New Guinean as he proudly sports his T-shirt, casual shorts and rides his bicycle through the village. This modern looking man will probably still resort to traditional tribal religion when confronted with the major issues of sickness, disaster and death. It will take more than trade stores, transistor radios and American T-shirts to displace the deeply entrenched animistic religion of the people. Material wealth, though desirable, will not significantly alter the spiritistic world view, which includes the association made between sickness and death and sorcery and evil spirits.



The Future

Is the gospel losing its receptive audience in Papua New Guinea?

Some have concluded that Papua New Guineans are not as receptive to the gospel as they were even a short decade ago. Perhaps the truth may lie closer to a diminishing interest in some of the old methods of gospel presentation. The fact remains that Papua New Guineans, like all others, have an inherent eagerness to understand the mysteries of life, death and after life. And they will listen when Christ is presented in an intelligent manner which effectively addresses their felt needs, and honestly answers the questions on their agenda.

We must continue to remind ourselves that productive missionary ministry is not so much a combination of demographics and strategy, "but by my Spirit says the Lord."