Mark Gillmore: Welcome to the GoMission podcast. I'm Mark Gillmore. Many of you may know that for the last six months, my family and I had the privilege of traveling in Papua New Guinea. It's an island nation off the north coast of Australia. We had wanted for many years really as a dream, wife and I, to take our family on a missions trip to what would really be considered one of the uttermost parts of the earth.

And that dream came true as we took this trip, leaving on December 24th and spending the next the first six months really of 2024 in that side of the world. Well, one of the dreams that we had in that trip was to reach a place called Mushu Island. Many things seem to stand against that, but finally on April 12th we arrived. Our whole family took an open boat across about seven miles of ocean sea and we landed on that island. And the moment we did, we felt that we had arrived in a very special place. The people welcomed us.

They had prepared a home for us. They had made an addition on that home to provide space for our large family. And we immediately sensed that God wanted to do something special with our time there on that island. We prayed about how long should we stay? And we ended up staying five weeks on that island, Mushu Island.

If you were to ask me what's the greatest miracle that we experienced in our time in Papua New Guinea, without a doubt the greatest miracle that we saw God do was the miracle of the prepared harvest, where God intersected with our lives people where he was already working, people ready to hear the gospel, people already asking questions that their own religious background could not answer. And on the island of Mushu, we encountered many individuals like that.

And here on this podcast today, we want to introduce you to five of those individuals by video as they give in their own words, their testimony of what God did in their lives while we were there on Mushu. Philip, Callistus, Daniel, Elizabeth, and Naomi. And for each one of these individuals, someone in our team, someone on my family, was really key in leading them to Christ, baptizing them, discipling them.

And as we play their testimonies via video and audio as well, then we're going to come back and we're just going to make a few comments of our own perspective on how we saw God work and the privilege it was to be used of God in these lives. So first of all, I want to introduce you to Philip.

Philip: My name is Philip and I'm from Mushu Island. I personally, I was a Catholic, you know, but when they came, the truth was being preached, I began to realize that, well, that is, and that's it. That's the truth. We had a Catholic edition Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament. But, you know, the words weren't… I mean, the words were there, but I think the preaching wasn't too clear until our missionaries came. when they, the first two Sundays, when they preached the good news, wow, that was amazing.

Some of the truths they were preaching, I just didn't, I never heard of, you know. I've been here as a Catholic, I've been listening to preaching from the priests, know, Catholic priests. And even I started my education with Catholic missionaries, brothers all the way from Australia, Melbourne. And that was my four years in high school. never, you know, they were religious brothers. And, you know, they talk about Jesus Christ and all these things about religion, Christian religion.

ever since the missionaries dropped in here and landed and then First two Sundays when they preached the good news, my oh my, you know, it is like very different. There I began to start learning about truly learning about Jesus Christ. He was the real my my real Messiah and the Savior. And I should say that's where I got saved. And rather than the third Sunday, I got saved. And one of the one of the Gillmore's, asked who wanted prayers and you know, like that.

So I put my hands up and after the service, Steve, he got me aside and talked to me about salvation and about, you know, baptism and all these kinds of things. You know, for the start, I know very little about it, but then I get to, as he was talking, he was. explaining, I was questioning him, he was explaining. And after that, wow, I said, I want to be saved. From there, I could really realize that I got to believe in Jesus Christ. I was believe, really and truly believe in him.

And then trusting him, really, 100%, with no split trust, and that's it. And that's it, I'm saved. And now, right after… I got saved. I just ran into the baptism. That's it. And then I got baptized. And that was like an, well, I'd say an immediate baptism right after I got saved. The Gillmores was in the way, you know. Or else we would have been, some of us would have been lost. I mean, continually going through this religious way of worshiping, know, these kind of things. And now I'm saved. And that eternal life will never be taken away from me.

Will last with me forever and ever. And I'd like to be there. To be at peace with the Lord, you know. And to enjoy the privilege of being a son of God. Their blessings will linger on and on. in the mines, not only in our Baptist local church, but the whole island is a whole. And even it touched the other big island also, that's called Kairuru Island.

Really, there are news of coming and helping to save people on preaching the truth in the gospel from the gospel of Jesus Christ, saving people when we believe has gone, has gone rapidly among these two islands. I'm just asking the Gillmores and the other Christians to pray for my loved ones, my whole my own family, you know, my wife and my kids. I want them to be safe. We work, we bring more into the kingdom of God and fill the, the, fill the heavens with a lot more people. And that's it. With that, thank you very much.

I will see you then.

Mark Gillmore: Well, Stephen, you had the incredible privilege to spend much time with that man, Philip. What are your thoughts about him?

Stephen Gillmore: Well, he's For one, very matter-of-fact type of guy. think that's a combination of his personality and also the influence of the Australian brothers, he mentioned, who had taught him in their Catholic seminary. But it was really neat to work with someone like that because I'd tell him something like, and you know, you should do this, and he would say, "Not should, Steve, will."

And he'd always turn whatever I was saying into some type of immediate obedience. So whenever we would come to the question at the end of a connection lesson, the question was, "Since this is truth, how will you obey it?" He would say, "Well, by doing what the lesson said." Like, you would never have an extra something to write because it was like, well, we just studied that. I was always like, why are we asking that question? Because we're not going to look at something that we're not going to go immediately obey.

Mark Gillmore: Right. And how did that work out even with His baptism?

Stephen Gillmore: Well, yeah, that's interesting. As we were studying the Bible passages, if you look at the biblical pattern, it's like the same day, without exception. And there's no biblical command, but that's the pattern. So as we looking at that, you know, the only conclusion that we could come to was that basically if I'm looking at these Bible passages and discipling him that I should take him down to the ocean and baptize him right then.

So we get to the end of lesson he looks at me and basically you know with the question what hinders you from baptizing me? So because we had just been looking at Acts 8 where he says what hinders me to be baptized? You know, and nothing as long as you believe, basically, Philip says. And it ended up being that I was hindering him from being baptized because that's just not how churches in America do it. So I'm like, ah, so he could see some of that conflict in my soul.

Mark Gillmore: Then he was baptized just a day or a few days later, a week later. And he definitely rejoiced in that. When I see Philip, I mean, it's the amazing miracle of a man who here he is just caught up in the whole religious environment. Went to school, was trained by these brothers, priests, and you'd look at a man like that and say, man, that guy's gonna be a hard case. You know, he's like well versed in all this teaching. Yeah. And here he is. So immediately says, I have never heard that before. Like, that's gospel. Right. And that's different.

My religion is this This gospel, this truth that's in Christ is a whole different plane. And he was so ready to hear the truth.

Stephen Gillmore: It definitely made, that element actually made my discipleship with him a walk in the park because he was on such a higher level in his English, IQ wise, than like basically anyone else of the family who is discipling anybody else. I was able to just run straight through it. through the Connection series because of that. So that was a blessing to be able to finish that with him.

Mark Gillmore: Well, it certainly was a privilege to be on a team in which team members like Stephen could just invest in a life that was so, so ready to absorb that. And that was what, that's what we went there for, to make those kind of connections and to step into them. And I'm sort of thankful for Philip and of course for Stephen. And keep in mind, Philip's story is not history, it's current reality. Please pray for Philip. God's got a purpose for him. He's asked us to pray for his family, for his wife.

He wants his children to come to the Lord and his whole island. And so keep Philip in your prayers, please.

Another individual that we had the privilege of working alongside of was a man named Callistus, Preacher Callistus. This man had been working alongside of missionaries for a couple of decades before we met him and we went with him to Mushu Island because that's his home. Mushu Island is where he grew up and he left there as a boy and really never lived there again until just recently.

And that's why we showed up to partner with him in Gospel Advance in his own home territory, his own home island. And Brother Callistus was and is a dear friend. God's hand is on his life, and he's got a testimony that he's going to share with us at this time.

Callistus Manka: Hello, my name is preacher Callistus Manka, and I'm here at Mushu Island, Wewak in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. I will be giving a short testimony on what the Lord is doing right now. and in the island, on the island and on the province of East Sepik province.

Thank you for prayers and thank you for being with us in whatever way. Thank you. We have been blessed with the visit of the Gillmore family to the island. And it was a very big blessing to us and the people on the island here. Firstly, about the salvation of souls. just, right now, we're just nearly daily and every day we are experiencing people still getting safe. And we are seeing people getting safe and… It's a blessing and it's what we have never seen here on the island.

We've been praying for that and now that we are experiencing this and we are really happy. People have been saved and we have more people baptized nearly on Sunday services. We have three to four and then daytime we have weekdays we still baptizing people. It's a really great blessing and the Lord is the gospel is advancing on the island. It's just spread very fast during these weeks and we have seen the result of it and a great commission and it's like fulfilling in our eyes and right now we are still reaping the harvest of the gospel soon.

And thank you and at the same time as a preacher, the church that we are going through, the church has been… It was like a rundown. then since the Gillmore came, the church has been revived. There was no church member at all. And it's just like the start of the church. The church came and we saw many people coming every Sunday. We've baptized nearly 10. And now we can see that the church is… It's like a church just gets started. So it's a really big blessing. And as a preacher, I learned a lot.

I learned a lot about the multiplication of discipleship and the teaching we had. And we just saw the Word of God coming alive. And we just saw like new Christians and new beginners. can see them. They're trying to the gospel and they're learning to share the gospel and they're learning to do the multiplication of discipleship. I tell you it's a great blessing, very, very big blessing, spiritual blessing. And God is doing great things here and I believe in the near future we will see greater things than this.

And thank you very much and as a preacher, now I know where I am and I know where I am going with my congregation and the lessons and what they taught us now, it will continue. It will continue and we believe that the church will grow. And thank you very much and thank you for your prayers and thank you. Continue prayer that the Lord will do great things here. Thank you.

Mark Gillmore: Well, Jonathan, we've heard from a very dear man with a real heart for souls, but there was a component that was missing.

Here he was well trained and working alongside of missionaries and other preachers, but something was missing. What was missing?

Jonathan Gillmore: Yeah. He really responded to the teaching on small group discipleship. And I believe that was a key part in his ministry that it was a need for sure, but like it really encouraged him so greatly. It gave him the path forward to. for the vision of how the island could be reached and really the surrounding islands.

Mark Gillmore: How did it redirected his focus? Like he had said he was kind of focusing on what would happen on Sundays. And how did that change?

Jonathan Gillmore: Yeah, it gave him a daily perspective on what needed to be accomplished. And I think that was one of the things that really stood out to me. He mentioned that souls are being saved like every day. And I think that really I mean, just watching that again put me right back in those moments. I think every day we were really concerned about asking the Holy Spirit, where are you working and where can each one of us personally invest? And it really made all the difference. There's different sides of the island right now.

I'm thinking of where we invested in and we saw multiple people saved each time. And I think He mentioned how the church was growing rapidly and a thought kind of hit me. We often talk about rapid multiplication in disciple making. But how does that come? And I think it comes with regular, you could say daily investment of souls. And so when you look at it financially, let's say, money multiplies when there's regular investment. and it multiplies a lot sooner the more regular your investment is. And I think that really was true on a spiritual level there on Mushu Island.

Mark Gillmore: And that small group, Disciple Making, also immediately moves people into training others to do what you've just done for them.

Jonathan Gillmore: 100%.

Mark Gillmore: And he saw that. He mentioned people are now getting ready to give the gospel themselves. And what do you think? How is his faith different for the future as he's looking ahead?

Jonathan Gillmore: It's huge for him, absolutely huge. I think one powerful moment for both him and myself was you were in Wewak town and you contracted malaria and kind of the burden of the ministry from our side fell to me.

And even two of our four team members there on the island were sick that Sunday morning. And so it was just me and Anna Faith. And I felt the burden greatly. And yet, Preacher Callistus, he trusted me, entrusted me with teaching the people there. And it was the first breakout teaching of Discovering the Word of God daily. But we broke the church up in four groups, and they were so excited to see that the Holy Spirit could teach them as they looked into the Word of God.

And they came back and were just testifying, and there was an electricity, a spiritual electricity in the room. And preacher Cali totally caught that. he was just step for step with me. And we were just stepping back, actually, and watching, wow, the Holy Spirit is doing this. He's convincing the people of his word. And it was just a powerful moment. And I think it just unlocked him. It gave him a vision for how, for what could be done each, not just each week, but just every day.

then The Sundays are like, we're like the meeting place for like where you talk about the game plan for the rest of the week, you know, it just became like a launching pad rather than the climax.

Mark Gillmore: Yeah. And that could be done on multiple sides of the island. There's five, six, seven villages. So it's not just one central place now. It can, it can go everywhere. And we saw God do that in multiple locations throughout Papua New Guinea on our trip.

And I just want to say, I was so glad that as we had our team together, Jonathan kind of took that that angle and really showed skill and gifting in opening up the eyes of other Preachers like brother Callistus to how discovery Bible study works how small group engagement of the Word of God discussion Bible learning Bible sharing and And God really used Jonathan in that way and that's that was really exciting to me well brother Callistus, I'd like to introduce you now to his wife Elizabeth, just a dear companion to Brother Callistus, sacrificial with a great heart for souls.

And my wife had the opportunity to spend much time with this dear lady to disciple her, encourage her, and I'd like to introduce her to you at this time.

Elizabeth: Hi, my name is Elizabeth and I'm Pastor Callistus' wife and I want to thank God. for Pastor Mark Gillmore and the family came to our country and also to Mushu Island. And they learned us how to give the gospel to the people. And it was really a blessing to me and my family. And they taught us how to give the gospel to the people here in Mushu Island. And I was very blessed. And now I can learn. our ladies about the Bible lesson.

And I was very blessed because many of the ladies and the youth and the small kids, they got saved and they got baptized. And I was very, it was a blessing to us. And whenever I go around Papua New Guinea, especially Papua New Guinea, I can learn the ladies about the Bible lesson. And it was very encouraging to us. And I learned many things about Pastor Mark Gillmore and the family. And it was a very blessing to me and my family and also my daughter. She now can learn the youth girls how to take the Bible studies and Bible lessons.

And also my husband. And we learned many new things. Thank God for that.

Mark Gillmore: All right, Joanna. I'm sure that brings back memories, hearing her voice. What's life like for Elizabeth on that island?

Joanna Gillmore: Well, Elizabeth is from the Highlands, so life on the coastal, on an island, a little bit different out in the coastal region. She's amazing. She's such a servant. We could see her from our home out early in the morning by her fire. and just cooking and it's quite something.

And then I'd see her walk back to the stream and just graciously working on her laundry, just working very, very hard to serve others and takes hours.

Mark Gillmore: We think that a missionary has to make sacrifices to live there. This lady's making sacrifices.

Joanna Gillmore: She is because it's a lot harder to cook. There's a lot less fruits and vegetables. She was pointing out plants. She said, we use this plant, we use sago. we have fish, but up in the highlands you have all sorts of fruits and vegetables. So for her, she probably has had to learn how to make things with less.

Mark Gillmore: As we pray for what God wants to do in places like this, we need to remember that we need to pray for these servants of God who live there or who have moved from nearby to live there as much as we would pray for one of our own. They're making sacrifices. It's not easy. And I was incredibly impressed by that same labor of love on her behalf. How did our coming, how did that equip her for her role in the work of the church and the work of the ministry on that island?

Joanna Gillmore: Well, as she serves right alongside preacher Callie, it's very important because she's the key lady in that island to, of course, other ladies were learning in groups how to do the simplicity of the discovery Bible study, but she's a key because of spending time in teaching and training, giving the gospel, but then discipling through the Discovery Bible study is really key. And I think that was an encouragement to her.

had the privilege of spending time with her and even writing out some of the lessons, really reviewing Discovery Bible study, because I felt like she was just, it was just so important. And she just took all that in and was just so grateful because there were ladies newly saved.

baptized and she had a passion we were sitting in a group I said Elizabeth I need you to translate with this group of ladies and she just went into the gospel and then now she I think she feels confident with that and she was giving the gospel before but I think there's a confidence there and then how to take the Word of God in simplicity and and teach the ladies how to how for them to grow but then how they can multiply and use a simple discovery Bible study questions teach those ladies in just simplicity so they can go out and give the gospel multiply.

I had the joy of watching her actually lead a Discovery Bible study with these ladies and it was a joy to my heart.

Mark Gillmore: We have to remember half the church is female and that's why I love it that half my team was female. Because the ministry when it comes to disciple making it's not just a man's work. It's a woman's work. It's everyone's work. So when we have ladies, my wife, Others come in, connect to the ladies, do Bible study with them, teach them how to do it with others.

We're just empowered half the church to actually do the very same mission. And sometimes their obedience is a spark of revival that changes the whole church or maybe reaches another side of the island. And that really is, in fact, what we saw happen.

Our next testimony here is from the daughter. of Elizabeth and Callistus. Her name is Naomi. And God really used her to be a spark of revival as my daughter got to spend much time discipling her. So I want to introduce you to Naomi and listen to her testimony.

Naomi: Hi, my name is Naomi Manka. I'm the daughter of Bishop Callistus and I am so thankful for the Gillmore family here and I have learned so many things with Sister Joanna. She has taught me how to study the Bible and what God wants me to do and wants me to help other believers and other unbelievers. And I'm praying for her to teach other young girls in school and in the village also. Thank you.

Mark Gillmore: All right, Joanna. God used you in really a very special way in the life of Naomi. And let's talk about that for a moment.

How did your relationship begin with her and what was your first steps into being a discipler of Naomi?

Joanna Gillmore: Well, first we just talked about different interests we had and she shared her desires and her dreams that she was hoping to be someday. And then from there I just asked her if we could do a discipleship and She was so excited for that. She was so happy to be able to study the Bible together and to learn more. And it was amazing just doing Bible studies with her.

She was so happy to learn and so thankful for everything I was teaching her and all the things we were learning together in God's Word.

Mark Gillmore: That's amazing. Here you have somewhat normal conversation and you say, could we do this Bible study together? And to you it's, you know, maybe a something I'm supposed to do and when you give her that offer she just, yes, I can't believe you'd want to do this with me and she just soaks it up. So as you began doing these studies, what did you teach her that really helped her most?

Joanna Gillmore: I really focused on her sharing with others what she was learning and I really stressed that with her after every lesson that she could go and share that with somebody else, with another young girl. And our first lesson, just learned how to hear from God, how to learn for ourselves from the Bible every day on a daily basis. And she was so excited to learn that for herself so that she could grow every day.

But then she was so just thrilled to know that she could go and share that with another girl and that she could have an influence in another girl's life. And that was such an amazing breakthrough for her.

Mark Gillmore: And she was very faithful, wasn't she? Every day just spending that time. And it wasn't a duty. She was just like, I'm hearing from God. And then she would share that with others. And what was some of the fruit that came out of her sharing? What opportunities opened up?

Joanna Gillmore: Yes, after our first Bible study where we focused on learning from God's Word, she went to her school and every weekend we would do a Bible study and then she would have to go to school. during the week. So I told her that that was the perfect time to go and share with others what she had learned with me. And so after our first Bible study, she went to school and she did a couple of Bible studies with some girls there just following the simple DBS outline.

And our team went to that school and we preached the gospel saying and after that she brought up a couple girls and she told me I did a Bible study with them and I was so amazed that she had actually done it and because it's not often that your disciple goes and does it right away so I was so amazed at that and then I was able to ask those girls if they understood and they're like we want to know more and so then I went through the gospel with them and they got saved but just her obedience in going and doing a Bible study with them before our preaching time prepared their hearts to receive Jesus and that was an amazing moment.

Mark Gillmore: One of our prayer requests is for her school, St. Xavier Secondary School. It's actually a Catholic school, but folks from all sorts of backgrounds are there and we're praying that God will just do a great work on that school. Through Naomi's testimony, already some different Bible study groups are forming. I sat down with a group of guys who listened to the gospel and I couldn't spend much time with them but I told them, go talk to Naomi. She'll tell you how to study the Bible for yourselves and you can start forming a group.

you know, Naomi's testimony had more significance than just one young lady discipling another because her testimony was being watched. her parents, her father, who's the preacher, Brother Callistus. He saw his daughter and saw her being changed, saw her sharing, connecting, bearing fruit like that, and that just opened his eyes to the potential of what happens when people are discipled and they begin to obey. And so here's my daughter, Joanna, just being faithful to another young adult lady, and yet they become a spark of revival in the school. in the heart of her parents, then that filters over into the church.

So it's amazing that one young lady's obedience can have that kind of influence. Totally unanticipated, but that's exactly what God did.

Here on this podcast, we want to give one final testimony, and this is the testimony of a man, middle-aged bit of older man named Daniel, who showed up one night at one of our beachside Bible studies and then he got in my small group that night and God began to change his life. So please listen to Daniel.

Daniel: Hello, my name is Daniel. I'm from Big Mushu. First I come to Bible sharing on last week, last week Tuesday. When I come to Bible sharing, my wife told me to… follow her to Bible sharing. So I come with her. We come to Penderburg and we go into Bible sharing. After the sermon of the Bible, we go into the group to share the Bible discussion. So I learned something new to me that was on Tuesday last week. So I'm very happy about letting new type of Bible sharing. That's my first time.

So Mark asked me that, what time you gave your life to Jesus Christ? And I said, I know Jesus, I know God father, God son, and God's Holy Spirit. But I'm still working with making scene and that's why I tell Mark on Tuesday about this. But Mark told me that you have to believe in Christ, believe in Christ and trust Jesus Christ. And then you'll be changed into spirit. So I blame this way, so I see how God come and work with me. He talks with me in the small ways.

When I want to stay home, small words come into my head, say, go to the Bible training. Now I come back on Thursday. So, now on Thursday I want to stay home, but when I stay in my house, my wife come already, but I stay in my house, a small words come and tell me that, don't stay in the house, you go to Pentecost. So I walk down to Pentecost. So I see many things change in my life. that God speak to me in small ways in my head and said, go and learn Bible.

That's how you're going to change your life. So now I come, I believe in Christ. Plenty of words make me help me in the Bible ways that I change and I see God lightening me. So on that time, my life changed. always pray in the morning, pray at night time. When I go to work, I pray. Something changed in my life. When I go to work, I stand in the work. I used to pray. Something worked like that, the spirit of God changed in my life. I have to pray, pray, pray in my life.

Within these two weeks, so I see that God is working with me. Now I'm very happy and new way of teaching make me feel like I want to I want to talk about God only in my life So I believe in Christ now so I have to Share how God works. I tell them to please you people try and come don't worry about change you come and get some teaching of how you can learn the That's the truth. You learn the Bible, then it can help you and you know Christ, Godfather, Godson, and Holy Spirit well.

If you stay here, you don't know. You are not going to know God well. You come to the Bible course and it will help you and you know God well.

Mark Gillmore: I sure do love Daniel's testimony. another miracle in the harvest. And this man shows up, we review gospel truth, we discuss it together as a group, and he is just so ready to receive Christ as Savior. It's amazing to me again how the discernment is there between what they'd heard in church, their religious ritual type of church, And then here's the truth.

He even makes a statement to his friends, don't go to church, come to our Bible study. There's a difference between church, that formal religious, dead experience and the living experience of studying the Bible, discussing it together. And the testimony of this man's life, he's in prayer in the morning when he awakes, when he goes to bed, he's even prayer when he's working in his farm. He has this voice, he says, that's telling him, the right thing to do. I found out a little about this man and he wasn't a good guy. He was a thief.

He was an angry, fighting type of man. And now his life has completely changed and there's this voice. It's the Holy Spirit telling him to pray, telling him to obey and go to the Bible study, telling him to not go and do some of the things that he had done before. What a miracle. And that's the… That's the glory of partnering with the Holy Spirit in the work of missions, in the work of the gospel.

And it's a work of multiplication because once you engage a lawspan like this, the gospel comes to him, he sees the truth, the Holy Spirit enters him, and now he begins to be that light, that testimony. And God's using him in the circle of friends that he had. If you notice that it was his wife who had invited him to come. to the Bible study in the first place. What a miracle to witness. So, praise God for these testimonies. I hope you get just a little glimpse into what God did in a very special place called Mushu Island.

And if you would, please pray for that work to continue. We're going to be returning. We're going to gather these believers again here in just a couple of months, and we're going to have further disciple training and teaching of truth from the Word of God and commissioning them to go out and make disciples and multiply and We want to see a church in every village on that island. We want to see the presence of God, the power of the gospel spread from one side to the other.

So pray for these individuals that you've seen here in this video, this podcast today. Let me just mention that if you're watching this as a video on YouTube, you can go over to the V Generation Podcast, one of the platforms for podcasts, and you can find our GoMission. podcast in that channel, the V Generation podcast and get in tune with many of our other broadcasts. If you're listening on the audio version, can go over to our GoMission YouTube channel and watch the video of this particular podcast, the interviews, and I think you'll enjoy the video as well.

So remember, the only way to stay at peace in a world of turmoil and uncertainty is to stay on mission with Jesus in His GoMission.