Perhaps you’ve heard about the amazing results in Papua New Guinea from PNG for Christ—an evangelistic event that surpassed all expectations in 2024. Elder Duane McKey, President of Adventist World Radio, reports that it resulted in more than three hundred thousand baptisms, with another three hundred thousand people attending baptismal classes throughout the country. By the time the event was over, all the Bibles in all the bookstores of PNG had sold out!
How was this bountiful harvest possible? The answer is simple: prayer, preparation, and Total Member Involvement. In March 2020, as our team from Adventist World Radio (AWR) returned from a successful planning trip to Papua New Guinea (PNG), we received news that the world was shutting down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We were forced to cancel the PNG evangelism plans for later that year. It was a huge disappointment at the time, but we can now see how God used this apparent setback for an even better comeback!
That initial delay resulted in four more years of planning, praying, and working together. By the time the event took place, the churches in PNG had been working together for four years. This preparation resulted in more than thirty thousand small groups and six thousand new branch churches, causing a shortage of trained pastors—all before the public evangelism even began!
Here are a few of the miracles and highlights from this historic event:
- We launched PNG for Christ with a mega medical clinic. Most people in PNG have limited access to healthcare given that 85% live in rural areas. Our hearts were moved by their suffering, and the gratitude they expressed. We provided twenty-six thousand services, including three thousand cataract surgeries, 1,400 dental extractions, diabetic screenings, and a host of other medical services. Hundreds of medical volunteers were involved, donating their time and resources.
- More than 2,300 evangelistic meetings were held simultaneously across PNG, with a huge attendance at every site. Guest speakers from all over the world participated. General Conference President Ted Wilson opened his meetings with seventy thousand people filling the stadium.
- AWR’s radio network in PNG, which transmits from eleven different locations across the country, broadcasted the meetings 24/7. Most people in PNG have no cell phones due to the poverty level, but they have radios!
- Entire evangelical churches made the decision to become Seventh-day Adventist. By the time the meetings ended, sixteen churches had performed “changing of the sign” ceremonies.
- AWR sponsored a group of twenty-four seminary students and four professors from Andrews University who participated in the event, each holding their own evangelistic series.
- A group of young men who were marijuana growers gave their lives to Jesus and uprooted and destroyed all their marijuana plants in a special ceremony before their baptism.
- One morning, the members of a local Adventist church were called to a prayer meeting a bit earlier than normal. The horn was heard at 2:00 a.m.! Someone had made a mistake, but they proceeded to the church for prayer anyway. They were still there at 3:00 a.m. when a massive landslide descended on the village. It was a terrible tragedy where hundreds lost their lives. Yet our church building, and all our members, were spared. This made such an impact that the whole village became Seventh-day Adventist.
- At one preaching site, when a baptism call was made, nobody moved to come forward. Then a lone dog walked to the front, as if responding to the call. When he reached the speaker, he turned around to face the crowd and sat down. Upon seeing the dog, the tension was broken and people began to surge forward!
The rich harvest experienced at PNG for Christ was not merely due to the preaching event itself. It was the result of much prayer, planning, and personal labor (preparing the soil, planting seeds of truth, and cultivating spiritual interest) by church leaders and members alike. “Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them” (Ps 126:6, NIV).
