On Sunday 4th of June, the Seventh-Day Adventist community of Asaro Watabung District witnessed a one-of-a-kind traditional contribution ceremony towards the upcoming PNG for Christ campaign next year. The event took place at the district headquarters at Mapemo.

Churches from the four divisions in the district came together to contribute money using a traditional method of payment. The money (notes) were tied to a long bamboo pole and presented to the district. This method of payment is usually done when paying for bride price and compensation settlements.

In addition to the contributions from the churches, Ilopanek Foundation (Someone Who Cares) Inc, a humanitarian nonprofit organization, donated a total of K100,000 to this project. While pledging the funds, the president of the Foundation, Mr. John Glanville, said, “It is worth giving for a worthy cause to help transform the lives of our people in the community and we are proud to be part of this great initiative by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church community here in Asaro Watabung district.”

The event was witnessed by many distinguished guests including Pastor Malachi Yani, Papua New Guinea Union Mission of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church President, Pastor Joanis Fezamo, Eastern Highlands Simbu Mission of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church President, government representatives, business representatives, community leaders and gospel workers.

Pastor Fago Peter, the District Director for Asaro Watabung District, was pleasantly surprised by the outcome of the contribution. “The outcome is unexpectedly unbelievable as we didn’t expect the churches to come with such amounts of money in a short period of time, like they did today for only two weeks,” he stated.

Another missionary Wesley Moirafa shared a heartwarming story from the event. “While gathering with our congregation and contributing, we were surprised to see drug addicts who joined us and contributed money towards this great cause of the gospel commission,” they stated.

The PNG Campaign for Christ is making great strides in its outreach mission in Papua New Guinea. An example is the traditional donation ceremony held in the Asaro-Watatabung district, which is a testament to community unity and support for the cause. 

Story Source: HERE!

Yesterday, May 20th, 2023, Busanim Creek Seventh-Day Adventist Church celebrated World Adventurer Day. This special day is dedicated to celebrating the wonderful journey that Adventurers are on. Adventurers are children aged 5-9 who are part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s youth ministry program. They learn about God, nature, and themselves through a variety of activities and programs.

The theme for World Adventurer Day 2023 was “A Wonderful Journey.” This theme reflects the fact that being an Adventurer is a journey of discovery and growth. The program was led out by the little children assisted by their parents, guardians and teachers. The church was delighted to witness these young Adventurers discovering new things about themselves, God, and the world around them. They also learnt how to collaborate, solve difficulties, and create new friends.

After the program, a combined lunch was held where children could fellowship together and eat. World Adventurer Day is a time to celebrate the wonderful journey that Adventurers are on. 

Busanim Creek Seventh-Day Adventist Church was proud to celebrate this special day with their young Adventurers.

Busanim Creek Seventh-Day Adventist Church recently conducted its first health check for 2023 aimed at promoting good oral health among its members. The program was initiated by the Adventist Health department of the church and was facilitated by dentist Fred Sebastian of Your Dental Friend.

The health check was conducted over two days, starting yesterday and concluding today. The check mainly focused on removing cavities, treating sore teeth, and performing tooth implants. The program was initiated due to the high level of concern among Adventist members at Busanim Creek regarding their oral health.

On the first day of the program, many members turned up, joining the long queue to receive their oral health check. Unfortunately, some were sent back due to the shortage of anesthesia.

Today, the members returned to continue the check as well as to collect their tooth implants, prepared by the dentist. The program was deemed successful, and the health leader, Miriam Warahin, expressed her gratitude for the high turnout compared to the previous health checks conducted last year.

The health department of the church aims to improve the overall health of its members by conducting regular check-ups and promoting healthy habits. The success of this program is a testament to the commitment of the church and its members towards better health.

In 1997, the Bishop family became missionaries for the Gogodala project in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with Adventist Frontier Missions (AFM). When Jeff Bishop left Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he had been teaching for the past four years, he missed his students. After arriving in Balimo, the Middle Fly District of the Western Province of PNG, he met a teacher who was the principal of the Balimo government elementary school, Daniel Sewanene.

One day about a month after the Bishops arrived in PNG, Jeff asked Daniel if he could take a video of a few of the teachers’ classrooms so that he could send the video back to his students at Grand Rapids Junior Academy.

After filming the video in the kindergarten classroom, where a woman named Alice was the teacher, Jeff stopped by the next day to thank her for letting him take a video of her students. He then told her that he had already sent the video to his students back in the United States. 

After Jeff informed her of what he had done with the video, Alice asked Jeff if he would get her a book the next time he went to Port Moresby, the capital city of PNG, but unfortunately, she couldn’t remember the name of the book. She said that she had been listening to a radio program a few days earlier and the person on the show had mentioned that his listeners should purchase that book in particular. She had sensed that this suggestion was very important. 

Jeff wondered if it might have been Adventist World Radio (AWR) that she had been listening to, since they had a radio program in PNG. Jeff decided to pick a book that he thought could have been suggested on the radio program, especially if it was AWR. So he asked Alice if the name of the book was The Great Controversy. Alice exclaimed, “YES! That was the name of the book!” Jeff was very surprised that he was able to accurately guess the actual book she sought. 

Determined to help, Jeff went to see a government worker named Judah. Judah was the only government official Jeff knew, so Jeff went to Judah’s office to see if there was a phone he could use to order The Great Controversy. Judah told Jeff that he had the only government phone in Balimo City, but that the phone didn’t always work, but he could try.

Jeff was able to contact Les Anderson, the manager of Adventist Aviation, who was also a pilot, about getting him The Great Controversy. Les said that he was going to the union office in Lae the next day and would pick up some books for him. He mentioned that the union office was selling a three-book set including The Desire of Ages, The Great Controversy and Steps to Christ for 5 Kina. Jeff ordered five sets of books.

The day before Les was scheduled to drop off the books in Balimo, Jeff asked Judah again if he could make one more phone call to Adventist Aviation to see when Les was due to arrive at the Balimo airport. However, the phone did not work. In fact, that phone never worked again the entire five years they lived in PNG. God had enabled the phone to work just so Jeff could order Alice’s books! Within just three days, Alice received her set of books, and began reading The Great Controversy.

A few months later, Alice was in the Balimo Medical Center. With no running water, electricity or doctors, this center was not a hospital, however, they did have a roof over their heads, windows for light to come in, and nurses. Alice was suffering from asthma and having a hard time breathing. The nurses were trying to find a vein to insert an IV to give her medicine for her breathing, but just couldn’t find a vein anywhere.

As Alice lay there thinking she was going to die, she started considering accepting the Sabbath, which she had read about in The Great Controversy. Then all of a sudden, she said, “OK, God! I accept it. I accept the Sabbath, and I will keep it.”

Immediately after making that decision, the nurse found a vein and inserted the needle so they could give her the medicine. The medicine immediately solved Alice’s breathing issues and she survived. Alice eventually became the first person in Balimo, after Jeff and his family arrived to start the missionary project, to request baptism into the Seventh-day Adventist Church, because she heard about a book called The Great Controversy on AWR in Balimo City.

When Jeff traveled back to Balimo in 2012, a full 10 years after he had to return to America, he met with Alice to see how she was doing. She told him that the government eventually asked her to move to Awaba Village on the Aramia River and teach at the Awaba Secondary School. Whilst there, she was able to convince village members to start a Seventh-day Adventist Church. 

Jeff witnessed God’s handiwork and it was nothing short of a miracle!

Link: https://bit.ly/3reFrCz

Busanim Creek AYM (Adventist Youth Ministry) ended the year successfully with an investiture program yesterday despite the many hardships faced. 

A total of 68 registered AYM members of Busanim Creek Adventist church were awarded pins and honours for their unwavering faith and faithfulness to the club despite having faced many challenges throughout this year, 2021. 

The year 2021 was a very challenging year for the club. “The two major challenges we faced were the COVID-19 lockdowns and secondly, a good number of our club members were mostly new interests with non-Adventist backgrounds,” said Busanim Creek Pathfinder Director, Mrs. Kalibe Pangai “but with Christ on our side we managed to make it through,” she added. 

With so many sabbaths missed due to the COVID-19 lockdowns, the Busanim Creek AYM club leaders and directors managed to call in a “Catch-Up” weekend camp on the Friday, 26th of November to Sunday, 28th of November 2021 where most club requirements and honours were done. 

It was a tearful yet joyous moment for the dedicated club leaders and committed parents who managed to push through. Busanim Creek Adventist Church was the last one among the 8th organised churches in the new Huon District to finally invest its club members for the year 2021. 

30 Church members from Busanim Seventh-day Adventist Church came together to donate blood to the Manalos Mamas Medivac as part of their “Save a Life” program today at ANGAU Memorial General Hospital today.

The ‘Save a Life’ program is a follow up program that is initiated by the Adventist Health Ministry department of Busanim Creek Seventh-day Adventist church after the “Nutrition Week” program that ended yesterday on the Sabbath. The church's 25 members including 5 new interests, raised their hands to the call from the health department to take part in the “Save a Life” program.

The whole program was made possible with the support of Ilopanek Foundation, a community service oriented organisation to provide one of their truck to transport the volunteers to Angau as well as providing some light refreshments for the 30 volunteers who donated their blood today.

"The visit by the church today at the blood bank at Angau was indeed a blessing because we ran out of blood and just as well, the church stepped in with the 'Save a Life' initiative to donate blood," stated one of the the duty nurses Sister Lovelyn Dare.

"I am blessed to be part of this worthy cause to help save a life with my blood," responded the Adventist Health Ministry leader Miriam Warahin, "and I also look forward to organise more of such programs for the church to participate in.

The blood bank is always open from Monday to Sunday for any volunteers to go in and donate their blood. Donating blood is also healthy for the body of those who have more excessive blood. "We are thankful for the church family at Busanim Creek and we hope to see more of such kind gestures from our other denominations and communities too as well," stated the Blood Bank manageress Sister Mary Hungito.

Church families around Busanim Adventist Creek church gathered and attended the “Nutrition Week” program hosted by the church’s health department yesterday.

Keynote and guest speaker, Mrs. Gabby Akui who is also the health director for the local mission gave the opening presentations yesterday with the theme “I will go, Eat Right” at the church. Busanim Creek Adventist church Health Leader, Miriam Warahin said that the program is hosted mainly to emphasize on people eating healthy diets and having regular exercises to avoid lifestyle diseases as well as an awareness program for the up coming major health program that will be carried out by the local mission in the month of May.

“All free health checks that are to be carried out during the “Nutrition Week” are postponed to the month of May.” said Mrs. Akui, Morobe Mission Health Director. She also added that the free medical health checks will be carried out by the Morobe Mission Health Department during the Mission run program in May.

The Nutrition Week health program started yesterday and will continue each night until Sabbath.

Thirty-seven new members have been baptized into the Busanim Creek Adventist church yesterday on the 29th of August, 2020.

The baptism of the thirty-seven baptismal candidates marks the ending of the two weeks evangelistic meeting hosted by the local church, from the 16th of August to the 29th of August 2020, with Pastor Burgess Smacker (Director of the Advent Herald Ministries) as the designated guest speaker. The evangelism series program, themed “Count-Down to Eternity” was hosted for a total of two weeks which attracted not only new interests but also, backsliders and church members who fell out of church along the way.

Also joining the baptism on the Sabbath were Pastor Micah Akui (Morobe Mission Youth Director) and Pastor Vai Kovia (Four Mile Church Pastor), who helped conducted the baptism of the thirty-seven baptismal candidates.

New interested people also made their stand after the baptism showing their interest to follow Christ and his teachings when the appeal was made by the local church pastor, Min. Simeon Hamura.

Thirty-three new church leaders were ordained at Busanim Creek Seventh-day Adventist Church today by the PNGUM President Pastor Kepsie Elodo.

The 33 newly ordained church leaders will be leading out in the work of the church this year (2020) after their appointments by the church late last year.

"Church leaders must remain faithfull to this divine call, and every leader will be held accountable if they fail to do their part", stated Pastor Kepsie Elodo upon their ordination.

The church is now ready to roll out their plans and start their work after the ordination of it's leaders.