• Howick and Pakuranga Times
A group from Howick Community Church finished their year with a two-week mission to Papua New Guinea.
Youth leader Brodyn Bevan was fortunate to be part of the experience, helping to build a partnership with a church in a Pacific nation renowned for diversity and civil unrest.
Howick Community Church has a relationship with churches in the southern regions of the country through Geoff Little, who grew up in the area when his father worked there as a missionary.
Church leaders Gary Carr and Ben Espie also joined the youth mission. When the three men visited Papua New Guinea in 2008, they saw the potential and came home passionate to take a youth contingency back to the region.
“I was intrigued by the experience they had there and had this calling that this was something to be doing in my life,” explains Brodyn. “Everything seemed to fit with my exams finishing a couple of days before they were leaving.”
The group travelled to different settlements and schools to run programmes. Much of their work involved singing, dance and drama to share their Christian values, while cultural differences and language barriers challenged the young missionaries.
“We’ve been working heavily in one of the settlements called Erima,” says Brodyn.
“And we visited about four other settlements as well.
“We got a huge reception just for going into the settlements.
“Many of the [expatriates] won’t go near the settlements, or supermarkets locals use, because it’s kind of dangerous.”
There were workshops with local youth workers in the evenings, and those who went along split into drama, dance, music and leadership groups.
“I was a co-leader of the drama group,” says Brodyn.
“We taught them how to perform a drama well and how to create their own drama from a story in the Bible.
“We also taught them how to teach others.”
Brodyn has considerable onstage experience, performing in school productions, Auckland Boys Choir and Christmas in the Park at the Auckland Domain.
As well as studying drama at Macleans College in Bucklands Beach, he was an active member of the school’s theatre sports team.
“We went over there with an aim to teach but we realised we learnt more than we ever could have imagined. They lack material richness but they are much more spiritually rich than us.
“They trust in God but here we try to sort things out ourselves.
“If something is wrong there, they just pray and hope it works.”
Brodyn’s sporting prowess was also given a run when he was invited to play rugby league with a local team.
“I went in to make a tackle, hit someone else’s head and split my eye. The guy felt so bad he gave me a family heirloom, an axe that’s about 100 years old. He told me to pass it through my family and keep it safe forever.”
Brodyn was touched by the honour, although the gift did present some problems at NZ Customs.
Plans are under way to host a Papua New Guinean group in Howick in 2011, and Brodyn and a smaller group are keen to return for a longer period.
