Baru Dirye, national health secretary for Nazarene Health Ministries in Papua New Guinea, passed away November 24 after a short battle with cancer.

"Baru has motivated disciples to lead, started church plants, and guided hundreds to Christ," said Ingrid Kiper, a missionary to the Philippines. "He was an inspiration to all who knew him, and the church mourns with his family."

Nazarene Health Ministries includes rural and community health care programs, as well as Kudjip Nazarene Hospital and the Kudjip College of Nursing.

“[Dirye] was not only a top administrator in the health care ministry, but he and his wife, Christina, have led a hugely successful Nazarene church plant," said Dr. Scott Dooley, Kudjip Nazarene Hospital administrator. "What initially started as a simple house church a few years ago eventually led to the single biggest baptism in the church’s history in [Papua New Guinea] with 75 people baptized in one service!” 

Andy Bennett, a missionary doctor at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital, described Dirye as a “friend, brother in the Lord, leader, and man of God.”

Kiper said there is a "tremendous" reunion in heaven between Baru and his brother, Taime, who passed away in 2014. 

"Both of these men shared an insatiable passion for seeing souls won to the Lord," she said. "Rev. Taime was a longtime pastor, church planter, evangelist, the first national district superintendent in Papua New Guinea, and a chaplain for 20 years at Kudjip Nazarene Hospital. He was also the first ordained elder and first D.S. in Papua New Guinea. Taime and Baryu were the eldest and youngest sons of Dirye, an early convert of Lutheran missions in the northern Wahgi valley who joined the Nazarene church when it came to their village, Warakar. What a tremendous family legacy."

Prayer is requested for Baru’s wife, Christina, and their children. 

--Church of the Nazarene Asia-Pacific Region