Highlands, Papua New Guinea:  Taking the Church “Where It Has Not Been,” often involves a holistic ministry approach.

Matthew Galman, speaking with pastors during the most important knowledge training. 

Matthew Galman, Director of the Community Based Healthcare Program in Papua New Guinea,  brings this report.

The Nazarene community Based health care now uses a new training material to run a church health program called the “Most Important knowledge” to train pastors in our twelve districts in Papua New Guinea.

The program just started last year with a few districts and now we are gradually reaching out to the twelve districts. Just recently we conducted training on the Simbu Eastern Highlands District (SEHD).  There were 52 pastors who gathered for the four days of “The Most Important Knowledge” training.  They came from  both urban  and remote parts of SEHD.

Simbu pastors who were at the training, said that health is a major problem in their churches and that they will work towards equipping their members with the most important knowledge.  But before they can tell the members of their churches, they must become role model themselves.

Eventually preventable disease will be minimized and their church members will live a healthy lifestyle with fewer burdens caused by preventable diseases.

Most important knowledge is found to be very simple and easy to tell by just seeing the picture. It is a picture book which is very helpful for the church members who are not literate because they can just see the picture and then understand the message.

The training basically talks about preventive health and how each pastor can teach their church members to prevent illness and suffering how they can promote health and well- being in themselves, church members, families and eventually the surrounding communities.

Through holistic ministry approaches such as “The Most Important Knowledge,” lives are being impacted and the love of Christ is being shared.