early 2,300 persons were baptised on Ela Beach in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, at the end of the ACTS 2000 satellite evangelistic program, July 21. An estimated 40,000 witnessed the special ceremony.

Related Links

It Is Written Daily Reports ACTS 2000: The Website

Sixty ministers waded a metre into the water. Pastor Mark Finley (below, right), speaker for the series sponsor It Is Written, gave the baptismal charge from a platform on the beach. He welcomed the new members to the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church on behalf of the General Conference. Laurie Evans and Wilson Stephen, presidents of the South Pacific Division and PNG Union respectively, welcomed the new members on behalf of their fields.

The Governor-General of Papua New Guinea, Sir Silas Atopare, an Adventist, appealed for church members to be faithful and to act as witnesses to non-church members.

Finley spoke to 700 staff and students at the University of Papua New Guinea following the baptism. Thirty-eight were baptised during the meeting at the Sir John Guise Stadium that evening.

Thirty-six persons, including a former member of parliament, were baptised during the 15 consecutive evening meetings leading to the ceremony. Another 441 persons, including church members and ministers from other denominations, were baptised at other downlink sites in Papua New Guinea. A baptism at Lae three days after the Port Morsby event added 368 persons to the remnant church, including a centenarian.

How will the church nurture these new members, asks Papua New Guinea foreign affairs minister John Pundari, a Seventh-day Adventist. He helped raise K170,000 (US$56,800) from various sources for the country's largest ever evangelistic program. "It's important they do because broken families have been united, and well-ordered families means a well-ordered society," Pundari says. He attributes the success of the program to the Holy Spirit. "Don't underestimate its power."

Nearly 150,000 have been baptised during the 10 ACTS programs uplinked from cities as diverse as Los Angeles, California, USA, to Santiago, Chile--since 1999. "I'm trying to make the most of every opportunity to speak to a group," speaker-director Finley says.

_________________________
Royce Williams is the global television director of It Is Written.