SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST MISSION
International – Papua New Guinea / Malawi Africa
P.O. Box 60150 Ndirande Bt. 6 Blantyre Malawi /
P.O. Box 233 – Mt Hagen (WHP) Papua New Guinea
Tanggi Mission Station – North Koroba, Hela Province, PNG
Missionary / Evangelist: Peter A. Halliman
Email: panagioite04@gmail.com
Website: sgbm-malawi-africa.com
Date: 24th February 2026
Dear Pastor, Church, & All Supporters:
1 Corinthians 16:9 For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. 2 Corinthians 2:12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, Colossians 4:3 Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:
There are eight hours difference between the timetable here in PNG (ahead) of Malawi. Our arrival into Mt. Hagen, getting settled in the house, not having any groceries, we did have the Lodge restaurant to eat at, which we did. I was able to start up the Land Rover (thank the LORD)….this is a big big issue when leaving one’s vehicle for several months in the tropics, many things go wrong, however God had preserved the vehicle, connections, fuel, batteries and so on. If you don’t think Satan works to frustrate the work of the LORD, meaning its us people who get frustrated, not GOD, he (Satan) does do this. With the vehicle running and all seemingly in order, we had our evening to study, shower and retire after a very very long journey.
It was a miracle indeed that we arrived after so many roadblocks, again thank each of you for your prayers.
Sunday morning, coffee, breakfast, prepared for church, I asked Jacob to prepare a S.S. lesson, and I would be preaching the main service. There were four churches that gathered together at one location to worship together, and also to greet us into PNG, the Highlands, Mt. Hagen.
As we parked the vehicle and walked a short distance off the main road, we came to the church area (Kim Baptist church), people were lined up on both sides of the walk, we were decorated with wreaths put around our necks and as we walked through the gate to the church building, people lined up on both sides, shaking hands, the welcome and excitement of the people burns within your memory that is not soon forgotten.
The building was filled, and people sitting outside, these are firm Christian people, the core of the churches, the kind of Christians who bear fruit, some 30, some 60, some 100 and so on, the salt of the earth!
Jacob was given time after the singing, to teach his lesson, he has to learn how to slow down with a translator, but all in all he brought a good lesson, the people were attentive, then I preached my message.
The service started at 09:30 and went through to 12:30, but people did not mind and wondered why I stopped early.
We were given a lunch of fruit, which was so refreshing, it was not long we were on our way back home. We both ran out of steam, thank the LORD for His days of rest.
Monday morning, we had been invited to a local mumu (PNG) customary way to welcome guests. There were several families gathered for this occasion, mostly church members of the local church (Bela Bap church), they use the same building that is used for the Bible Academy in Mt. Hagen on Rondon Ridge. This was the (first) mumu -food cooked in the ground with hot rocks, can be only veggies, but most of the time some meat is involved, like chicken or mostly pig.
The butchering of the pig/hog is a privileged position, and mostly the elder men perform this, I was given the honour to do this, (it’s not my first time), I was taught by my father long-ago how-to butcher farm animals. This talent is being lost and most men now a days in developed countries only know to go to a grocery shop and buy the meat, take it home and have their misses cook it, and even a lot of young women don’t even know how to cook any longer!
Once the hog was cut up and ready to be put into the earthen oven, I cleaned up, left Jacob with the people and I went to do the grocery shopping. When I returned a couple hours later, the food was ready to come out of the ground, final cutting up, dividing, giving out of portions to people. I did mostly this part as well, all were served, each family, group had enough portions, all were happy, well satisfied their custom was honoured…Jacob and I too had more than we could eat, but again this is PNG and such is the custom. We would eat on the pork with greens, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, Taro root, cooked bananas, fern leaves, etc…. for a few more days.
Something I want to express here, the pig (hog) they needed, could use the money from that to assist in their great poverty of living, yet with a willing heart, a benevolent gift, they wanted to honour the LORD for sending them the gifts of Jacob and I. In their vernacular…. God has given us not one but two men to come minister to us, how do we honour the giver of all gifts (our LORD), what or how do we say thank you to the LORD? By ‘sacrificing’ that which we need but believing HE will honour the gift.
I fear that in our materialistic world; we are consumed by the importance of these ‘things’. Exodus 35:5 Take ye from among you an offering unto the LORD: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the LORD; gold, and silver, and brass, (make note, the value herein).
Luke 15:23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:
It took some time to complete this task, I will also list (in the next report) as I don’t have the list in front of me, comparing the prices of groceries from the two different mission fields and living under two different economies. You cannot just look at a exchange rate from one country to yours, rather you must consider the economics of that country, to understand the cost of living.
The day had ended with many blessings, gifts, and honours. It humbles me that such a people who live in great poverty, will offer the best they have to honour the LORD, and HIS servants.
Thanking each of you for your prayers, financial support of this work, and for us here. Jacob is a big help to me physically, doesn’t’ complain, does what I ask and does the best he can. He is learning many things of which, some I will detail in the next few reports.
To be continued….
In His Name,
Missionary Peter Halliman