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Pastor Duane Newport

Pastor Duane Newport recalls Beryl and his visit to Panama in 2007.

Duane was responsible for the Takapuna AG Bible school in the late 1990s and into the 2000s. Whenever Beryl was in NZ on furlough and after she was invalided off the field, she would lecture at the Bible School. Duane recalls that she was very accommodating, an excellent teacher and was held in high regard by the students. She could lecture on anything, in fact he would ask her to teach on all the ‘difficult’ books, like Ezekiel.

Duane on Beryl

At the time of her death, Duane clearly remembers her funeral, held in Takapuna AG. He recalls the awesome atmosphere and could tell that someone of great spiritual significance was being honored.

In 2006 Duane met Ps Julio Valdes at Manifest Presence Conference. Julio is humble yet caries a powerful, tangible anointing. Duane was touched by Julio’s accounts of Beryl and her work and decided to take Julio up on his invitation to visit Panama for himself. In 2007, Duane accompanied Ps Luis Cabral on a missions trip to Panama. It became obvious that Beryl’s memory was still very much alive and she was held in immense respect by the people. All of them had tales about Beryl and her steely determination to bring out excellence in them, and all were told with fondness and love.

Duane was amazed by the places Beryl got to. One visit to one of these villages involved a 5 hour car journey then travel several hours by canoe over the sea to an island where there was a church which had been established by Beryl and Julio. An overnight stay and yet more hours of canoe travel over the sea (Duane being warned not to fall out as they would not be able to retrieve him in one piece) to another island to visit an remote indian tribe who, being forewarned of their arrival, put clothes on for the occasion. There again was a church building established by Beryl. She clearly had a heart for people and tribes in areas that other people would not go and or not interested in. It was amazing to have been able to see what one person, sold out for Jesus could do in a nation.

As it turns out, this trip was the beginning of a call to missions which now sees Duane and his family based in the Philippines, which, it turns out, has many similarities with Panama – 300 years of spanish rule, animistic beliefs, many people in hard to get to places, extreme wealth and extreme poverty co-exist, just to name a few. Beryl and her work are inspirational, challenging and an invitation to pursue God for a similar anointing to touch a nation for Jesus.