Friday, February 27, 2009

Meet Albert Tobby, covenanted child of God in China

Caption: Albert with Papua New Guinean Evangelist Ps. Joseph Kingal in Beijing during the Beijing Conference Feb 4th to 6th. Albert was a major player in the organization of the conference which attracted foreign students and workers in China from more then 40 countries. Ps. Kingal was the main speaker in the evening sessions.
Caption: A smile means thousand of words and it costs absolutely nothing. Albert Tobby from Papua New Guinea currently studying at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.



GOD fearing Albert Kaupa Tobby from Papua New Guinea left in 2007 for studies in China under the Chinese Government Scholarship.

But one thing kept bothering him. He thought, perhaps leaving PNG is leaving God behind as he can’t worship God in China.

But he never knew that God brought him to China to extend His kingdom, like Jeffers Teargun another PNG student highlighted in my last commentary.

Albert, a Masters student majoring International Development at the prestigious Tsinghua University does not regret that God brought him to China for a purpose.

He will share his blessing and firmly believes that when God takes people to new places and heights, He does for good reasons.

“I (Albert) arrived here in China on the 01st of September 2007. Leaving PNG for China is like leaving the known and reaching into the unknown.

The familiar to the unfamiliar, brings me closer and dependent on God.

I have my family, church, friends and colleagues almost every day of my life in PNG. Praying and reading Bible is a daily practice.

Shouting, singing, dancing and talking about God is habitual. Mentioning Jesus Christ’s name doesn’t cause any goose bum feelings.

It flows naturally and swiftly through my ears and the atmosphere around me. Being radical and vibrant Christian either at the church on Sunday, in Friday night TSCF fellowship, Saturday night youth fellowship, or Wednesday night midweek fellowship are expected norms to building safe havens for me.

My possibilities of leaving God seem almost non-existent. I cannot even isolate myself from the prototype Christian communities.

Wherever I go whether, to Madang, Simbu, Mt. Hagen, Lae or Port Moresby at least there is someone who speaks the same believer’s language and knows who I am, just by a handshake with the words, “God Bless You.”

On Thursdays, I read the Faith section of The National newspaper, I find encouraging sermons from anointed man of God like Ps. Joseph Walters and testimonies about the work of God within the body of Christ in PNG.

Travelling in the PMV bus along the Highlands Highway bombarded me with anointed messages and inspirational songs from the Wantok Radio Light, 24/7.

On Sunday nights around 7pm, I would watch the 7th Heaven family drama program on EMTV, a TV drama that portrays contemporary Christian issues affecting families.

I usually end the week by watching Praise at around 11:30 pm on Sunday evening, a program sponsored by CHM Supersound that shows PNG and other Pacific Islands Gospel Artists.

PNG as a nation is really a mega church, the country, declared by Constitution as Christian Nation.

Honestly for me to leave PNG for China is just like being suspended or terminated from the Church. In other words, it’s like taking a fish out of the pond and placing it on a bare land.

I left PNG four days after the Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, publicly declared and signed the covenant with God around 8:00 pm, August 26, 2007, at the Sioni Kami Memorial Church, Boroko National Capital District during the All Pacific Prayer Assembly (APPA) in Port Moresby.

Prime Minister literally singed the covenant with the inscription found in the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah 11: 1 – 17…especially vs. 4b – 5 which reads:

… (PNG) “Obey My voice and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people and I will be your God. That I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey as it is this day”,…. (and Sir Michael Somare said), “so be it Lord.” (Jeremiah 11: 4b – 5 NKJV)

Prime Minister as the Head of the State symbolically commits PNG to God. The God of Israel is now God of PNG, the God of the Jews is now the God of the PNG.

We are the children of God and God is now our Father. To my knowledge apart from the Biblical Israelites, PNG is the only nation after the resurrection of Jesus Christ to officially sign a covenant to declare the sovereignty and authority of God the Father, Son and The Holy Spirit over the Nation of PNG and its citizens.

With all the excitement and passion burning inside me regarding this prophetically, strategically and historically significant event, I sadly had to leave PNG for China.

Even when sitting in the plane from Port Moresby to Brisbane and then to Beijing via Shanghai, the message at the APPA kept ringing in my head and boiling in my heart.

I kept on hearing this voice saying, “God is in the process of cleansing the church and bringing the church to the original status, where Christ the Head of Church takes His rightful position as the Commander of the Army of God.” (Read Malachi 3: 1 – 3)


My heart was filled with regrets that, being out of PNG, I am going to miss this great move of God in the Church.

I kept on raising questions such as, ‘whether this cleansing and preparing of the church will also be in China where I am, or is it only for those who are in PNG?’

‘As a Papua New Guinean and being an eye witness to the covenant am I still entitled to this great move of God through the body of Church in PNG, even though I am not in PNG?’


My mind was filled with fear of insecurity and doubt of allowing the move of God to break forth and break through my life in China.

Realizing that I no longer have the familiar people and environment to help me build my relationship with the King of Glory Jesus Christ, the situation actually increased my faith and dependence on God. Just as the Israelites in the wilderness.


After 400 years of slavery God handed the Israelites the deed to a lush, plentiful land they could finally call home.


Up until now everything they owned had been provided for them by their Egyptian captors. But slavery had crushed their will and destroyed their initiative; consequently God had to break them off their reliance on people rather than on Him.


So when God led the Israelites into the wilderness and the leeks and onions they enjoyed in Egypt were gone, they were forced to develop an appetite for manna - something only God can provide!


When God makes you a promise He always keeps it, but you have to be willing to remove the training wheels of your reliance on people.
In the wilderness the Israelites griped and bellyached for the comfort of the familiar, even though it meant going back to an old season that was over.


But they couldn't, and you can't either! When God said, "Increase… and possess the land" (Deuteronomy 8:1 NIV), His plan for them went beyond surviving - to thriving.


It meant being weaned off the breast milk of people-dependence and on to the meat of God-dependence.


Paul writes: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves… but our sufficiency is from God" (2 Corinthians 3:5 NKJV).


When God pushes you out of your comfort zone en route to your destiny, expect to go through some unfamiliar, anxiety-producing territory. It's the only way to go from surviving - to thriving.


My deployment to China is strategic and timely as the Commander of the Army of God takes His rightful place to increase…and possess the land (Deuteronomy 8:1).


It’s all about Him and His will be done and His Kingdom come on Earth as it was in Heaven.


The Beijing Conference, which was successfully completed at the beginning of February 3rd – 6th that saw our very own Evangelist Ps. Joseph Kingal who delivered the word of God as the main Guest Speaker.


This is all part of God’s doing because Papua New Guineans are covenanted people of God.


It is Papua New Guinean students studying here in China who are the main driving force behind the success of the Beijing conference and others in the past (Shenyang Conference in 2007).


Papua New Guineans are covenanted People of God. Therefore, where ever we are if we are genuine with God, truly the King of Glory will come and take His rightful place thus glorifying you in turn will glorify Him.


We cannot try to glorify ourselves with any homemade glory but God Himself will glorify us when He takes His rightful place in us.


“And we know that all things work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”


“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be called the firstborn among many brethren.”


“Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called, whom He called, these He also justified, and whom He justified these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things?


“If God is for us (PNG) who can be against us?” (Romans 8: 28 – 31 NKJV).


God bless PNG!


Note: Albert can be contacted on E-mail: gaul_bire@yahoo.com.au Ph: (058610) + 51775358, Mobile: (058610) + 158 11086607



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