Hoiebia – Margaret Reeson

30. The church begins to grow in 1962

The year has seen a remarkable increase in the number of our people coming forward to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. This is due largely to the witness and personal evangelism of the converts themselves… sometimes we are perplexed by what may happen if the number increases very much faster. Highlands DistrictContinue reading “30. The church begins to grow in 1962”

27. First baptisms, 1961

‘This was the day. It was the climax of months of preparation by many people and the fulfillment of years of work by others.’ Joyce Rosser, writing of the first baptisms at the Methodist Church in Tari, 1961. ‘The preaching has led to no hasty decisions of belief in God, but rather to a gradualContinue reading “27. First baptisms, 1961”

26. First signs of Christian conversion, 1960s

1960s ‘Little did we dream what was to happen’. Sister Edith James, Tari ‘In a service at Tari nineteen people have made a public confession of faith. A medical orderly at Mendi also accepted Christ’. Annual report 1960 There was nothing to warn them that something important was about to happen. In Tari, it wasContinue reading “26. First signs of Christian conversion, 1960s”

22. Slow progress, 1957-1959

1957-1959 District Report 1957. Seven years of work among one of the most isolated and primitive peoples in the world has not yet reached the stage when converts can be listed. In the persons of the missionaries, European and Pacific Island, the church is there. But it is there in order that an indigenous churchContinue reading “22. Slow progress, 1957-1959”

14. A Visitor to Tari: 1954

November 1954 The General Secretary of Methodist Overseas Missions (MOM) in the 1950s was Rev Cecil Gribble. He was very interested and encouraging of the new mission work in the Southern Highlands and began to visit Mendi regularly from 1951. In 1954 he came from Sydney to visit the new work in Tari for theContinue reading “14. A Visitor to Tari: 1954”

10. A New Beginning in Tari, 1953

Tari, 1953 Why did a new Methodist mission start in Tari in 1953? In some ways this is surprising. In 1953, the mission work in Mendi was still very new. The mission group had only been there for two years. They were a very small team, with two ministers, one agriculturalist, one teacher, one nurseContinue reading “10. A New Beginning in Tari, 1953”