Meet Brus and Apite

This week’s story is written by Lourens Laureti, who ministers among the Mengen people of Papua New Guinea.

Many moons ago, a nervous me landed in our bush village between the Mengen valleys and mountains. It was only for a short visit to meet our future co-workers and meet the Mengen friends among whom we would live for the next roughly 20 years of our lives.

During this time, I met Brus and his wife Apite. I immediately got to like them, with Apite who had a great sense of humour and Brus being a bit of an introvert and serious. They lived in a typical hamlet in their own little bush house close to Brus’ parents. As I walked into their house, it was obvious that this family, as all other Mengen families, was very confused about God, sin and salvation. They had a statue of Mary which they got from who knows where, and she was standing right next to all the paraphernalia they use to produce “white soup” — a potent local alcoholic beverage.

Understanding the Gospel

When our teammates were eventually ready, they started to teach our village friends evangelically from Genesis to Christ. We met for four months, four times a week and twice a day. Brus and Apite attended most of the sessions and even came to the review lessons in the evenings. From the beginning, I could sense that Brus was touched by what he heard, but in typical Mengen fashion, he was not going to show any signs of interest. … But as we approached the end of our second phase of teaching, both Brus and Apite expressed that they had trusted Christ alone as their Lord and Saviour.

Growth and Maturity

Brus was one of our first literacy graduates, and he also became one of our first Mengen literacy teachers, with Apite following him soon afterward. 

Since then Brus and Apite continued to grow in maturity as we taught and discipled them through the New Testament. After about six years of teaching and discipleship, they became our first missionaries whom we sent to plant a new church.

This next season of ministry, we would like to focus on leadership development and hope to disciple Brus to become an elder within the Mengen church.

We thank you for making it possible to reach the unreached. We cannot make a difference without you! Would you continue to pray for Brus and Apite?