AINTRALASIAN tECORD and advent warIc survey Elton Robert H .Parr Registered for posting as a Periodical—Category A VOL. 81, NO. 47 PRICE: 13 CENTS November 22, 1976 URGENT CALLS FOR WORKERS C.A. TOWNEND, Lay Activities Director, P.N.G.U.M. God's Spirit at Work THEY COULD have reported on record baptisms in their areas, but their president, Pastor Ritchie Way, asked them to do In the past, the Mount Hagen area has been very slow for evangelism. But now, "God's Spirit is working mightily," reported something different. He wanted the fifty-five workers attending Pastor Noel Opium. Bayer River, Tambul and Nul are just three of the the Western Highlands Mission leadership course to think about areas that have opened recently. Pastor Opium asked for fifteen new the unfinished task. The workers met with fifty-nine teachers workers. from the Eastern and Western Highlands Missions at Paglum Wabag valley is the old established area of the Western Highlands school, August 13-21. Mission. But Pastor Ray Newman showed on his map where eighteen men should be placed. Waliya, Wape, Sirunki, Awas, Tsak and Ayal Pastor Way asked each District director to make a map of his area and are names that you probably won't recognize, but they have opened for mark the places where we are now working, and where the people are the preaching of the three angels' messages. calling for us to come. Each evening the workers joined in prayer that Brother Russell Gibbs is the District director at Laiagam. Could we God will send workers into the harvest field while it is ripe. help him to find fifteen workers to go to places like Hewa, Kepelam and Pastor Timothy Pilitu, District director from Mendi, told of Kindaret? tremendous openings in Mendi town, Lai valley, Napu, Ialibu, Erave Then there is Tan District, where Brother Warren Price is District and especially Kagua, where six workers could be placed immediately. director. Have you ever heard of Tipipa, Hangopo, Yamiyo, Mount Here the leaders of one small church group want to become Bosovi or Hagiup? These places need workers. We could place Seventh-day Adventists. They say their people are with them, and it fourteen workers in the Tari area. could mean hundreds of new church members. Thursday's seminar discussed ways to answer these calls. It seemed From down on the steamy jungle plains of the Fly River came Pastor that only about six men could be sent into these new areas. But what Kovah and his team. He reported progress in an area where the else could be done for the other eighty places? These men discussed Government hopes to open a big copper mine. Four more workers are how local church elders, most of them illiterate, could be trained to care needed to help these needy nomadic people. for the work in their home villages under the supervision of an area Kandep is high up in the Highlands, where most of the people live pastor or minister. This plan will take time to implement, but above 6,000 feet. Pastor Ororea showed on his map where he could experiments in some areas have proved that these local elders can do place six more workers. much to make the work go ahead. Western Highlands ministers and teachers from the Eastern and Western Highlands Missions gather at Paglum School for leadership and in-service training courses. 2 :: AUSTRALASIAN RECORD :: November 22, 1976 Three teachers concentrate on ideas presented in a leadership course. A worker takes an opportunity to witness for Christ to a local village man. Concentrated Study Each morning Pastor Lewis Lansdown, P.N.G.U.M. Youth director, led out in two hours of leadership training for both the teachers and ministers. Then the teachers continued their in-service training under the direction of Pastor Ray Richter, P. N.G. U. M. Education director, Brother G. Barnett, Primary Schools supervisor, and Brethren Kain-de Koi and Ronga Paul, the local Mission Education directors. The ministers studied "Witnessing for Christ" with Pastor Calvyn Townend,, P.N.G.U.M. Lay Activities director, and Pastor John Hamura, Western Highlands Mission Lay Activities director. Pastor Yori Hibo, P. N.G.0 .M. Stewardship and Temper- ance director, spoke on stewardship. Pastors Way and Newman talked about local develop- ment. Since we left Paglum, the number eighty-six has come into our minds often. Men are needed. Funds are needed. Since coming home I have checked all the names in the village directory, and I find that these men would be On Sabbath afternoon, two men were ordained to the gospel ministry. In the front row from the left are Pastor Sanbai placed in areas where more than 200,000 Williams with his wife and two children, and Pastor Andum Kend with his wife and four children. Others taking part in people live. Those leaders have a big burden for the service were (back row, left to right) Pastor Paul Piari, chaplain of Togoba Rural Health Centre, Pastor Ritchie an unfinished task. Everything we heard at Way, president of the Western Highlands Mission, Pastor Calvyn Townend, Lay Activities director, P.N.G.U.M., and Paglum enforced the belief that the "fields are Pastor Joseph Yambian, District leader, Western Highlands Mission. white ready for harvest." We must channel every resource into the harvest field now! "We need not expect all sunshine in this world. Clouds and storms will cluster about us, and we must be prepared to keep our eyes directed where we saw the light last. Its rays may be hidden but they still live, still shine beyond the cloud. It is our work to wait, to watch, to pray, and to believe. We shall prize the light of the sun more highly after the clouds disappear. We shall see the salvation of God if we trust in God in the darkness as well as in the light. "All trials, all afflictions, all peace, all safety, health, hope, life, and success are in God's hands, and He can control them all for the good of His children. It is our privilege to be suppliants, to ask anything and everything of God, submitting our request in submission to His wise purposes and infinite will."—"Our High Calling," page 318. A group of expatriate mission workers enjoy a Sabbath meal outside the home of the Graham Barnetts at Paglum. Families present were the Warren Prices, Graham Bametts, Glenn Stanleys, Russell Gibbs, Ritchie Ways, Ray Newmans, and Calvyn Townends. Photos: R. Gibbs. November 22, 1976 :: AUSTRALASIAN RECORD :: 3 ANYTHING, BUT THAT! My musings come to an abrupt halt as I realize that the Lay Activities leader is awaiting NORMA O'HARA, Sabbath School Superintendent, Perth Church, Western Australia an answer. PIGTAIL RIBBONS flying, school bags swinging, socks skew-whiff and shoe-laces -He repeats his question, "And so we thought draggling, we tumbled out of school. Now came the most hazardous part of the journey we would bring the idea of a Vacation Bible School to this Council to discover your home—the school front gate. Here we delicate schoolgirls had to negotiate the crowd of response. Are you favourably inclined? What boys that gathered there for the express purpose of name-calling, tear-teasing, do you think?" hair-tweaking and elbow-jostling. It was like running the gauntlet. A quick glimpse around the Sabbath School But this afternoon was different. Those Council members reveals a variety of reactions. Had not this young minister stood outside the I don't have to dredge my mind for a variety of unruly boys from the neighbouring school school wearing sandwich-boards, had he not seemed to have already found their object of acceptable excuses. There are plenty on the tip seen the possibilities of winning children to amusement. There he stood in the centre of of my tongue which would help me wriggle out Christ, had he not expended time and effort to them—a slender, tall, dark young man with a of it reasonably legitimately. whet the appetite for more, I hate to think what But then I stop. serious and earnest face. He was wearing other course my life might have taken. sandwich-boards. And remember. It certainly made for a diversion and attracted not a few comments, some of which were not altogether polite. But to each query about the "Sunshine Corner" that his sandwich-boards so neatly advertised, he merely gave a wry smile and answered mysteriously, "Come and FROM A HAPPY HOLIDAY CLUB— see." So we came and saw. And we liked what we saw in that crowded little church that evening. We came back for more the next week, and the FIRST-FRUITS! next. Each time we would wriggle and squirm J. HARDERS, Communication Secretary, Victoria Park Church, Western Australia our way through shouted choruses, slides with ANGELA NEMETH was just seven years old when she first attended the Happy Holiday Club the old lantern projector and verses from a in May 1974, held at the Victoria Park Youth Hall. At the end of the week of club activities, her rather dull black book. mother came to see what her little girl had been doing. They also came to the Saturday night But there was a time each evening when the parents' programme, and Mrs. Nemeth was so impressed that she asked about putting Angela into wriggling stopped and we sat on our stools in our church school next door. So when second term began, Angela was enrolled. John and Jan open-mouthed wonder.