“My mission is to equip youths from different churches and communities in order to mould them in building a better nation.”
These are the words of one determined individual who has had an impact on the lives of youths for over twenty years now.
Shane Baiva, who comes from Gaire and Barakau has always had a life-long dream to help others.
Baiva came up with the initiative to help youths through a conference he founded called the Worship Warrior Conference.
Through this conference, Baiva has helped many youths become the people they are today.
The conference itself is an annual Church initiative program of the Body of Christ aimed for youths of different churches in Gaire and the whole of Central Province.
“I started this conference based on experience. I was once a youth who went through the hardships of life just like most youths these days.”
“As a youth growing up, I was faced with a lot of challenges. This is the reason why I created the conference as a way of empowering youths to positively impact the community.”
He said that things such as music is used as a base to involve more youths to participate.
“We pick an avenue for them to engage in by creating what we call electives. This way, they are given a choice on what topics they are most interested in. Electives include; leadership, courtship, mentorship, motivational speaking and career talk.”
Baiva who comes as a motivational speaker for youths, said that everything taught during the conference is based on one’s spiritual side of life.
In other words, the conference tries to base the spiritual lives of youths to their daily lives.
“Most importantly, we aim to build youths to have a good career in life for the future by using the Word of God. We try as much to give them advice on something they want to pursue in life.”
“During the conference, we also provide other training sessions such as vocal training for those who are interested in singing, whether it be for a Church choir or becoming a local artist one day.”
In terms of invited speakers, Baiva said they are invited based on where their profession and life experience stands.
This include Church leaders, leaders from different aspects of life as well as people who have some way faced a number of problems in their lives growing up.
He said these are the kinds of people with living testimonies who he believes will have an impact on youths.
“We also carry out special awareness sessions, where we look at community needs and issues that need to be addressed such as drug and alcohol where most youths are involved in.”
According to Baiva, based on previous conferences held over the past years, there were good outcomes and positive feedbacks given by youths.
He said that more youths requested for the Conference to be extended over its scheduled time.
“We have had youths come back to take part in the conference even to this day, especially those who joined in years ago. One thing I would say about us the coordinators of the conference is that, we do not only mould youths during the conference, but we also help them all year round based on their needs.”
Additional studies such as the school of worship or school of biblical foundation studies are also provided for youths in which they take part in and are issued a certificate at the end of each conference.
“Most of these youths use these certificates as a reference when applying for jobs and I would say, many of them have been successful. This is why the conference is so important to them for the benefit of their long-term goals.”
Baiva has also supported those who were unable to complete their formal education by providing them the necessary information and lessons that any other formal school would provide.
“For this year’s conference, we have invited a number of speakers to join us including Glen Burua himself who will be our motivational speaker for the event.”
The Conference which started at a village setting in Gaire, has now expanded to other parts of Central Province.
Baiva said that the aim now is to expand to other parts of the country including East New Britain and Morobe Province with the hope that more funding is made available.
“For now, the funding of this program, comes from my own pocket money including the help from some of my other church colleagues and friends. We have funded the conference for years now.”
Shane Baiva who is an author by profession, has written a total of twenty books and forty-nine booklets.
Baiva is the youngest writer to be declared by the former Late, Governor General, Sir Paulias Matane.
“My aim now for the future of the youths is to make sure the conference runs in all twenty-two provinces with two conferences held in a month.”
Apart from the annual WWC, there is another program that runs under the coordination of Shane Baiva, called Worship Night. The Worship Night usually runs once every two months.
Baiva concluded that the conference will be taking place from the 13th-16th of this month at Gaire Village.
He has also made an appeal to everyone to help contribute at least K1 towards this worthy cause.