Volcano Island from Jeremy Heemskerk on Vimeo.
Rabaul – Volcano Island
I am excited to announce, that my video for our Rabaul Crusade is finally finished! This will be my final video of my time here in Papua New Guinea because next month, I will be returning home to Canada to prepare for my wedding on Sept 26th. For those of you interested in attending my wedding please contact me at soulsurge@gmail.com for all the details.
V-O-L-C-A-N-O I-S-L-A-N-D
Just the word “VOLCANO” strikes terror, into the hearts of people all over the world. The thought of molten hot magma and billowing ash spewing from the earth with hundreds of megatons of explosive power are enough to strike fear into even the bravest of souls. So what in the world are we doing going to a place where witchcraft is common, and a live active volcano, like a ticking time bomb could blow at any time?
Well, we are going there to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God and to hold a crusade in one of the more remote locations on the island. And who could need this message more then these people of Rabaul, who are still recovering from the last eruption in 1993, which destroyed their entire city, and left everything buried beneath layers and layers of volcanic ash.
So we packed up all our supplies and went with our ministry team to the airport and boarded our flight to Rabaul. But whenever Pastor Joseph and I get on a plane to do anything related to ministry something really scary always happens, and this time was no exception. What started out as a beautiful sunny day with clear skies, and white puffy clouds soon turned real sour as the sun vanished and storm clouds began to appear. Our plane began to circle around in space trying to locate the runway, and turbulence began to shake the plane while thick darkness restricted all visibility. There was no telling where we were going, and I was afraid that the pilot might land us in the ocean.
The plane began to make noises like a woman in labor, and the flight attendant rushed back to her seat to buckle herself in, and positioned herself for a crash landing. I knew now that something was terribly wrong, because I have never seen a flight attendant act so quickly and look so frightened. If she was this scared with all of her years of flying experience, I knew we could be in for some serious trouble. So I closed my eyes and kept praying as I tightened my seatbelt and dug my fingernails into my chair.
Despite all of this turmoil, the pilot managed to find an opening and decided to go for it. Within seconds the plane turned at a 90 degree angle and rapidly began its terrifying descent through the storm clouds towards what I could only hope would be the runway. Sure enough the wheels smashed into concrete and the whole plane jerked as we made contact and eventually came to a screeching halt.At last we had arrived, and for the next 10 days we began to preach at the crusade in the remote jungles of Rabaul. My mission was to record everything on camera, and for the first time since my arrival we had the necessary equipment to make that happen.
Just prior to our trip, a kind old lady donated 9000 kina to our television ministry for the purchase of the final studio camera we had been praying for. Now fully equipped, we were ready to record the messages and broadcast the crusade throughout the entire country of Papua New Guinea.
With the construction of the stage complete, the lights were installed; power was brought in and soon people began to gather around to see what was happening.Each day excitement increased as more and more people came from the surrounding villages to see what was happening at the crusade. And within the first few nights of the crusade, through the preaching of Buck Stevens (New York), and Joseph Kingal, over 200 people came forward to surrender their lives to Christ.
God began to take over as their faith increased, and lives were being changed nightly as people responded to the word of God. God also confirmed the preaching of the word through miracles that began to happen, as people brought their sick to the front of the stage to be prayed over.
The most spectacular miracle I have ever seen happened right before my eyes. Some people carried a woman who was confined to what appeared to be a wooden chair to the front of the stage. And the pastor prayed over her, and took her hand and told her to stand up. Her faith was so great, that she immediately stood up, and received INSTANT healing from complete paralysis for the past 4 months.
She went up on stage and testified with many others to the miracle working power of God through Jesus Christ. Another woman who was struggling with a heart condition of 13 years came to the crusade and also went forward for healing. God gave her a word about the paralytic that Jesus healed, so she believed that God was going to heal her too, and as the pastor prayed over her the power of God filled her body, and she was completely healed.
Overall, the crusade was an incredible success and over 800 people came forward to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
I want to thank Buck Stephens from New York for coming to the crusade and investing his time to advance the Kingdom of God here in PNG. Many people including myself were touched by his ministry, and were blessed by his book “The coming Financial Revolution.” He had to leave early to go to his son Ben’s graduation, but we really enjoyed his stay with us and will keep him in our prayers.
Jeremy Heemskerk
We've been experiencing constant BLACKOUTS, and the biggest trial I've faced is the WATER BLACKOUT which has really been hard on me. I had just finished spilling my juice all over myself, and thought, "Oh, no problem... I'll just jump in the shower, and clean myself off!" but when I turned on the tap... NOTHING... the Dreaded WATER BLACKOUT, which occurs at the WORST possible times, like when I really have to go to the bathroom. But some of us make due by filling a sink with rain water and taking a much needed bath. Unfortunetly I am a little bit too big for that these days, so I have to make due with taking a shower as God intended outside in the rain.
So during these blackouts we rely heavily on fellow Christians who do have water to keep us alive and provide us with clean water for bathing and free use of their facilities during these unexpected occurrences.
On the way up the Mountain we stopped in the Chimbu Province where we were invited to dedicate a prayer house. The amazing thing about the people here is that they are so in love with God, that they actually build things called PRAYER HOUSES, where people from all over surrounding provinces can come and pray. We have enough trouble in North America just trying to get people to show up to our prayer meetings, so it was nice to see churches building these prayer houses to accommodate the people so they can spend time with God free from the distractions of everyday life.
Did I sleep? Well, not really... Wilson snores, it was boiling hot, mosquito's did eat me even with the lights on, and there were at least 2 springs poking into my back, but this experience really gave me a new appreciation for a nice soft bed, and a room free from the animal kingdom.
So our trip was powerful, and as I spent time ministering to some of the high school students I realized that there was really nothing I could do for them, and nothing I could tell them about myself that would bring any lasting change into their lives. I could only do one thing, speak to them about Jesus Christ, and tell them how he changed me, and encouraging them in their faith, and that is exactly what I did.
In only a few days I had already seen many different varieties of stick insects which are nearly twice as long as one of my hands and completely invisible among the dense foliage. The tail on the end of this beast is poisonous and while I was playing with it, he kept coiling it towards me like a scorpion ready to strike. But I am far too big for him to do me any damage. There are also many kinds of leaf like insects, which resemble grasshoppers but I really enjoyed the gigantic caterpillars which seemed to visit me on a daily basis. Many of the people are scared of these caterpillars because they believe they are poisonous, and maybe they are, but I seemed to have no trouble making friends with many during my trip here in Mount Hagen.


Besides many strange insects Papua new guinea is full of many different varieties of gigantic spiders. While we were all inside having tea and laughing into the late hours of the night, one terrifying huge hairy spider actually roped down from the ceiling onto one of the PNG natives that I was talking with. I can only describe it as the largest and hairiest spider I have seen yet with huge fangs. The spider latched onto his hand immediately and bit right through his skin and he literally had to shake it off with all of his strength because it refused to let go of him. After examining his wound I knew that he needed supernatural help, so I prayed over him and none of the venom seemed to take effect. But we all kept a close watch for any of his brothers, lest we had any more unexpected visitors.


The most terrifying of all the beasts that I met was a MASSIVE beetle with HUGE antennas and razor sharp pinching jaws that looked like they could chop off the tip of my finger. When I found him he was so angry that he began to rub his neck back and forth which produced a LOUD popping noise which basically told us that he wasn't very friendly. So I decided to put him in a jar, and lock off his oxygen so he would slow down a bit so I could take his picture. After leaving him in there for several hours, he didn't seem to slow down at all, in fact he was continually attacking the inside of the jar trying to escape. I got really anxious to take his picture so I decided to let him out, and boy was he ever angry. I only got to take this one picture because seconds later he shocked me by raising his massive shell and flying into the air. His wings and size were so huge that he was like a bird, and made a sickening fluttering noise as he took off towards the heavens never to be seen again.
We encountered all of these amazing creatures way up in the mountains here in Mount Hagen at the YYWAM Base. The most amazing creature that can be discovered is the one that can only be found in Jesus Christ. Through him we can become an entirely new creation, and during my stay my friend Gibson (the one who ate the bug) who lives at the base, began to ask me a lot of questions. And during our conversations, I told him about many of the things God has been doing in my life. But the one thing that really impacted him is when I told him that God wanted us to die, and for that to happen your old man had to be put to death. And I explained to him that baptism it is not just a symbol of Christ dying for you, but you are identifying yourself with Christ and you also have to die. And just a few days later I heard the incredible news that Gibson had decided to get baptized. So we all watched as several of the members of YYAM were baptized for the very first time in a small spring just behind the base. It reminded me that the same God that brought life to all of these creatures, wants to breathe new life into each one of us, but for that to happen each one of us has to first give up his own life, and follow him.

"Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" John 11:25













