Prison in Papua New Guinea

Mike Mullins
(9/11/01)

In 1991 I visited PNG. During my time there I went with a team of others up into the high lands where we stayed with a church for about two weeks. We made some great friends, had the most exciting adventures and saw God do some amazing things.

I love Papua New Guinea. It is known as the land of the unexpected. With it's diversity of culture and terrain it offers a truly remarkable experience for the enquiring traveller. In a very short time you can witness a wide range of cultures in different stages of development, from New Guinea Highlands with myriad of clan groupings which still occasionally confront each other in tribal combat, to the Sepik River basin with it's network of stilted villages and intricate art forms, to island groups languishing in the Bismarck Sea untouched by the passing of time.

On another occasion I was on a team that went to visit a prison while we were in Rabaul. The name of the prison was Kerevat. A local Christian came with us also .

The visit was organised by a local pastor. We brought our guitars, sketch board, Bibles and innocence. The prison was quite a distance from where our ship was. In fact it was very far into the jungle. I never thought I would welcome the sight of a prison.

This was quite a big prison, and heavily guarded. They checked us out to make sure we had no concealed weapons or anything else that we might be trying to smuggle into the the prison. We came through clean. I think I declared that the only weapon I had was my Bible but they didn't seem to get the humour in that. So they let us through. Looking back, I think we were either very brave or very stupid.

We saw hardly any prisoners and wondered what all the fuss was about. I noticed the armed guards in the towers watching us very carefully. We found a good spot in the middle of the compound and got the sketch board up, suddenly we were no longer alone. The prisoners began to appear. All in all there were about 350 men, BIG MEN, surrounding us.

I'm not joking when I say that we were seriously scared. My knees were in close fellowship. One of our guys began to play his guitar, and we joined him in some choruses. After we had introduced ourselves and sang a few songs the local Christian who came with us asked if he could share a testimony. It turns out he was actually a prisoner there at one time, and after he got out he came to know the Lord Jesus as his personal saviour.

To finish our small programme I did a short sketch-board message which explained the gospel. Throughout almost our entire programme there had been little or no response from the prisoners. I thought to myself that we should be just thankful that we get out of here alive. But after my message I felt the Lord leading me to give a challenge to them that if they wanted to know the love and forgiveness of the Lord Jesus that they could, today, but it's a choice they would have to make I couldn't do it for them and I couldn't save them, but, I said that I was willing to pray with anyone who wanted to pray with me. There was such an incredible silence in that place I'll never forget it. Nobody moved.

I said that I was going to go over to the side, away from the crowd and if anyone wanted to come over to pray with me they were welcome. I broke away from the crowd and headed over to the side of the compound and to my horror found myself standing in a swamp. I thought to myself, if they see me They are all going to burst out laughing. I stood there feeling so stupid and bowed my head in embarrassment. Then one of the men broke away from the circle and guess what..he walked over to where I was and stood beside me there in the swamp. He hugged me and burst into tears. He began to tell me all about his life and the crimes he had committed and asked if Jesus could still love him and forgive him. What joy it was for me, a nobody from a small town in Ireland to stand with him there that day in that swamp in Kerevat prison in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea and say, "friend on that cross the Lord Jesus paid for your sins in full and if you were the only person in the world He still would have gone to the cross for you because he loves you."

Oh if you could have seen his face that day. We prayed together and even before we prayed I noticed others were breaking away from the circle and joining us in the swamp. All in all about 200 prisoners came to know the Lord Jesus as their personal saviour that day. We went back a week later and saw another 100 men saved and even within that week the change that had taken place in those men was evident to all. In fact included in that number was the prison governor and a number of the guards.

A couple of months later I received a letter from one of the prisoners to tell me that they were having regular Bible studies and not only that but the prison authorities were allowing groups of the prisoners out once a week for outreach in the local town. Can you believe it. People are refering to it as Holy Kerevat.

Please pray for this prison and the work that God has begun there.