Across oceans, rivers and mountains for the gospel: Kelsey Meyeres’ mission journey in PNG

Six-hour canoe rides, river showers, crocodile sightings, sleeping in huts, miles and miles of hikes, pigs running around your feet, kids dancing to worship songs and darkness being lifted as the light of the gospel permeates even the most remote villages of Papua New Guinea.

Kelsey Meyeres spent two and a half months bringing the good news of the gospel to remote villages in Papua New Guinea, and all of the things listed above are from her experiences.

She ended up in Papua New Guinea through a program called Youth With a Mission (YWAM). It is a six month discipleship program for young adults. There are two phases: Discipleship Training School (DTS) and outreach. 

At DTS, students study the Bible, learn how to disciple, attend worship nights and grow closer with the team they will go on outreach with. The outreach phase is when students are split up into teams and sent to different countries around the world to tell the nations about Jesus.

Meyeres did her DTS in Kona, Hawaii and her outreach in Papua New Guinea. During her time in Hawaii, she learned how to share the gospel with different cultures and did activities to bond with the team she would be going on mission with.

After three months in Hawaii, the day arrived for them to leave for Papua New Guinea. The team left bright and early from Kona and had a quick flight to Maui, where they had a seven hour layover. Meyeres said that they were already exhausted by that point. They then had a 17 hour flight from Maui to the Philippines where they had an overnight layover.

“We just slept in the airport, on the floor and tried to find some food,” she said.

The team left the Philippines the next morning for a seven hour plane ride to Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. Their flight out of Port Moresby got delayed for over four hours, and they passed the time napping, getting food and talking with the locals.

When their plane arrived, it was a 40 minute plane ride to Lae, their base city. In total, the team had endured 40 consecutive hours of travel and had more to come as they made their way to remote villages to share the gospel.

Before they headed out to the villages though, they spent time in Lae, doing ministry with the locals. In addition to street evangelism and Bible studies, the team’s main ministry in Lae was a gym ministry.

“We went to this little gym that was basically a shed with a couple weights in it,” Meyeres said. “And when we first went there was like one person there, and every couple days we'd go back, and by the time we left, we were gathering for a Bible study with over 50 people. Women, men and children.”

After their time in Lae, the first remote place they traveled to was the coastal village of Kasanga, where they spent one month.

“That was our first intro to sleeping in huts and showering in rivers and toilets over the ocean and eating outside with pigs running around our feet,” said Meyeres.

Upon their arrival in Kasanga village, the locals greeted them with a tribal welcome which included songs and costumes. 

Despite the warm welcome, Meyeres said she could feel the spiritual darkness in the village. She had night terrors every night the first week she was there. While heavy, her and her team saw the darkness as a reason to be there and share the good news of the gospel.

During their time in Kasanga, one of her teammates got extremely sick. She started randomly collapsing, passing out and couldn’t stay conscious.

“She had to get rushed to a hospital, but it was in the Papua New Guinea bush and the doctors had no idea what they were doing, and it was quite hectic and very traumatizing,” Meyeres said. “She almost died that night.”

Her teammate was medically evacuated to Port Moresby and eventually sent home to Norway, where she was medically cared for.

While this happened, the rest of the team had to return to Lae and figure out what their next steps were. During that time, one of their leaders was dehydrated and the IV they gave her paralyzed her arm, so she had to be brought to a hospital in Australia and the other leader went with her.

“And so both my leaders left to go to Australia and get fixed. My other teammate got medically evacuated home to Norway, and then we had another leader fly in to be our new leader,” Meyeres said. “Meanwhile, the rest of us were stuck in a safe house for nine days.”

After their new leader arrived, the team returned to Kasanga village and Meyeres said she could see the spiritual shift that had occurred.

“Once we came back, they welcomed us and hugged us and kissed our hands. They were so excited,” she said. “And we would have Bible studies with them every single night or kids ministry. And during the day, we'd go around to their huts and just pray for them and hear about their history and their stories and learn about their language.”

Meyeres said the biggest part that stuck with her from that village was the worship. The villagers taught the missionaries worship songs in their language, Tok Pisin. She said the locals would sing at the top of their lungs, without anyone caring.

By the end of their time there, almost the entire village either gave their life to Jesus for the first time or rededicated their lives to Jesus. And they even had three people tell them they wanted to be missionaries to the tribes around them.

“I could just see God moving so much in that village. It was so joyful and so encouraging and so uplifting to see how they weren’t afraid to worship,” Meyeres said. “I miss that village for sure. I would go back.”

The next village they traveled to was Wanpan, a river village tucked in the forests of Papua New Guinea. 

They got to the village via a canoe made out of a hollowed out tree log. The trip down the river, which included crocodile sightings, took six hours. When they landed, it was dark and they still had a two mile hike ahead of them before they reached the village.

In Wanpan village, the team focused on school ministry. They would hike miles to the river, canoe to a new village, hike more miles to get to the school and then put on gospel-centered programs for the kids. They would then make the return trek back to Wanpan village where they would do Bible studies with the villagers.

For Meyeres, the time in Wanpan village did not go the way she expected.

As they left for Wanpan, she had already begun to get sick. She had pink eye, body aches, migraines, mouth sores, a fever and a cough which later turned into pneumonia. She also had an extreme stomach ache and couldn’t keep any food down, nor could she sleep at night.

“I actually stayed back from ministry a lot of days. Just laying on the floor of the hut,” she said. “There was no cell service in that town. The only way out was a six hour canoe ride back to the city. There were no doctors there, obviously, we were in the middle of nowhere.”

Meyeres said that she spent that time in almost constant prayer. She would read her Bible or pray, and if her phone was charged, she would listen to worship music.

“I was very sick. Very out of it. Very much in pain. And very confused,” she said. “‘Why was I there? God called me to Papua New Guinea, but if I’m sick, how can I minister to people here?”

One of Meyeres’ main passions in life is working with kids. Teaching them, caring for them and showing them the truth of the gospel. During the time she was sick, she wasn’t able to meet any of the kids her team was working with. She said not being able to participate was the aspect she wrestled with the most, but it gave her an opportunity to learn how to fully trust the Lord.

The team was in Wanpan village for three weeks, but Meyeres said she can only remember two days of ministry there. One part she did remember, and said she would never forget, was their last night there.

“I remember having enough strength to be feeling good that day,” she said. “I didn't know the last time I felt good and God gave me the strength to enjoy that last day.”

That day the locals prepared a feast for them. They sat on palm branches and were served a meal on banana leaves of ramen, chicken, fruit, potatoes and homemade coffee. They ate and then watched as the locals performed dances for them.

“And I got to play with the kids,” Meyeres said. “I got to play with them for the first time out of our whole time there.”

Meyeres spent the day playing with the children, teaching them Bible stories and learning native Papua New Guinean games. When night fell, her team was heading back to their huts, and knowing she was still sick, Meyeres thought she should probably go with them. But as she was about to leave, she heard music coming from the church.

Locals had picked up their instruments and begun playing worship music. 

“I heard the instruments start,” she said. “And then all the kids looked up at me and said, ‘Will you dance with us?’ I was like, ‘Of course I will dance with you.’”

So they went over to where the music was and she held the hands of the kids she had longed to spend time with, and danced.

“We were dancing and the stars were out, and I feel like stars in general just display the beauty of God and His bigness and beauty,” she said. “And just looking up at the stars, I felt Him say, ‘Kelsey, if anything, this is worth it. This one night. This is why I called you to this village.’”

Meyeres woke up the next morning even sicker than she had been before, but she clung to the joy of the night before.

The team made their way back to Lae and then Port Moresby, where they “debriefed” and Meyeres was able to receive some medical attention. They then made the long return trip to Kona, Hawaii where they shared their stories with the others at YWAM before everyone left to go back home.

Meyeres is now studying elementary education and hopes to use her degree to continue in mission work and maybe even one day, return to Papua New Guinea.

Photos courtesy of Kelsey Meyeres