By Jim Yost —
Easter in Papua New Guinea is celebrated an entire month beginning with Palm Sunday and remembering Jesus entering Jerusalem for the last time before the crucifixion. Everyone comes to the celebration with palm fronds in hand that are then laid down on the ground before entering the location. You need to remember we live in a tropical rain forest, so palm trees are everywhere. It’s not difficult to cut a frond off and bring with you!
As you approach our location you will see three enormous crosses made from trees cut down from the jungle. All month long we remember the price Jesus paid in order to pay for our sins.
On Good Friday we had one of our largest gatherings of the year with around 1200 people in attendance. They arrived to find a burial site in the middle of all the seating; a cross at the head of the grave with blood at the site of the nails put into Jesus’ hands and feet; there’s a whip that was used to pierce Jesus’s back hanging from the cross as well as a crown of thorns; and there’s a white robe stained with blood hanging from the cross.
There was also a standing wreath of flowers in honor of Jesus, just like the ones commonly used here for funerals. I opened up the Scriptures and described all that happened that day of Jesus’ death on the cross. Then I invited three individuals to the grave to tell Jesus how thankful they are for His sacrifice, after which they grabbed a handful of prepared flower petals and lay them on the grave.
The first person to speak was Ain, who represents the young generation. He shard how selfish and uncommitted his generation is and thanked Jesus for forgiving them – then he laid flowers on Jesus’ grave.
Next was Anis, a husband/father, who shared how self-absorbed in work he and all men are, forgetting to build up the self-image of their wives and children – then he laid flowers on the grave. The final person was a woman who spoke on behalf of all women and mothers stating their critical spirit comes out in gossiping about others and how rarely they back up their husbands as they should – and she laid flowers on Jesus’ grave, giving a prayer of thanks for forgiveness which crying very deeply.
Then our whole church family began approaching the grave site and each person knelt down and confessed their sins and thanked Jesus for forgiveness, while laying a hand-full of flowers on the grave. This went on for quite a while. We don’t rush it. We allow everyone to express their hearts to Jesus. It is a highly emotional time. Then totally unplanned, my top leader, Frans, gave a call for anyone wanting to give their hearts to Jesus for the first time in their lives to come forward.
Twenty young people started moving forward, with others coming with them to pray for them!
RESURRECTION SUNDAY
On Resurrection Sunday all the young people who live with us were up and awake at 3 am with their homemade torches ready to be lit. They get them all lit up and started marching out to the main road singing and praising God. They marched from one end of our city to the other with more and more people joining them along the way.
After two hours they returned home and we have our own ‘family’ Jesus is Alive service at dawn. Then all of our church family here came together later in the morning to celebrate the fact that Jesus has risen! As they come into the meeting area, they see the grave is open now and the casket is empty! We reflect on the Scriptures and on how each of us were in Jesus’ mind and heart as He gave His life. And because He arose from death, we too can have new life.
There were songs; there were testimonies; there were more young people giving their lives to Jesus for the first time. And there was dancing! There are several dance teams of our young people who came forward to declare their joy with dance because Jesus is ALIVE!
PRAY :that God would continue drawing more young people to Himself through the momentum that occurred during our Easter celebrations. Pray that all these new believers will be planted into cell communities where they discover truth for themselves in accountability with others every week.
PRAY: that God would lead us in multiplication of our cell communities as for the next month we are encouraging all of our cells to multiply three to fourth times. This isn’t divide and become two groups, but rather become three, four and even five new groups over the next month.
PRAY: that God leads us in outreach as all our cells are increasing their witness on the streets and in their schools and in their workplaces over this coming month. We have GOOD NEWS that is desperately needed by so many people. Pray particularly for our ministry to HIV/AIDS patients. New research from the government here shows there are currently 5500 people in our city who are HIV positive – 2/3 of these are female with the average age being 15, 16 and 17 years old. Please pray as we try to do all we can for this special group whom God loves.
LET’S ALL ALLOW THE EXCITEMENT OF EASTER TO CARRY OVER INTO OUR DAILY LIVES SO WE CAN MAKE AN IMPACT IN OUR COMMUNITY BRINGING NEWS OF “LIFE” WHERE THERE IS OFTEN “DEATH”.
Jim and Joan Yost are affiliated with New Generations. To support them make checks payable to “New Generations” with a notation: “for the ministry of Jim & Joan Yost in Indonesia” and mail to this address: New Generations, PO Box 5412, Wheaton, IL 60189
