Adventist Mission South Pacific Division Winning Drunken Parents Problems
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YOUTH & ADULT MISSION 2019 • QUARTER 3 • SOUTH PACIFIC DIVISION AdventistMission.org Contents On the Cover: Retired insurance agent Joeli Rabo, 67, has planted three churches in Fiji. Read about his faith by “Always Pressing Forward” on page 24. PAPUA NEW GUINEA NEW ZEALAND 4 Winning Drunken Parents | July 6 20 “Hi, Hope Channel” | Aug. 31 6 Two Black Eyes | July 13 22 Gangster to God | Sept. 7 8 No Retirement Plans | July 20 FIJI SOLOMON ISLANDS 24 Always Pressing Forward | Sept. 14 10 Losing 90 Pounds | July 27 12 Inspired by an Employee | Aug. 3 26 Funeral Conversion | Sept. 21 14 Making a Bed | Aug. 10 28 13th Sabbath: No Leg, New Life | Sept. 28 30 Future Thirteenth Sabbath Projects NEW CALEDONIA 16 Working on Sabbath | Aug. 17 31 Leader’s Resources 18 Angels in the Storm | Aug. 24 32 Map = stories of special interest to teens Your Offerings at Work South Pacific Division Part of a 2016 Thirteenth Sabbath Offering funded children’s Sabbath School classrooms at ISSION M two churches on Maré island in New Caledonia. © 2019 General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists® • All rights reserved Pictured is the classroom at Tedine Seventh-day 12501 Old Columbia Pike, DVENTIST A Silver Spring, MD 20904-6601 Adventist Church. Read about Maré on page 14. 1-800-648-5824 • AdventistMission.org 2 Dear Sabbath School Leader, Andrew McChesney Editor This quarter we feature the South This quarter’s three Pacific Division, whose territory includes Thirteenth Sabbath projects are diverse. American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, “Save 10,000 Toes” aims to provide Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, health training to prevent the amputation New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, of the toes of people with diabetes. Across Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn, Samoa, the South Pacific Division, doctors Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, amputate 80 toes every day, the division’s Vanuatu, and Wallis and Futuna Islands. associate health director Paul Rankin told God is doing amazing things in this me. He said 19 percent of the region’s region of 40.5 million people with population of 40.5 million suffer from 518,016 Adventists, or a ratio of one Type 2 diabetes, a disease caused by poor Adventist for 78 people. I always pray lifestyle choices. The figure jumps to 47 for God’s blessings during trips to collect percent in American Samoa, one of the mission stories, but this time I started praying extra early — four months before seven countries that will benefit from the the trip began. Every morning, I asked Thirteenth Sabbath Offering. God to provide the best stories. Another project focuses on bringing God answered in a mighty way. As I Hope Channel to Tonga. A 2016 traveled to six countries over three weeks, I Thirteenth Sabbath Offering made Hope noticed an incredible increase in the number Channel available to all homes in New of powerful mission stories. I am convinced Zealand, and many people have visited more than ever that Jesus is coming soon! Adventist churches as a result. Let’s pray for a similar blessing in Tonga. Additional information about the Opportunities Thirteenth Sabbath projects can be found The Thirteenth Sabbath Offering in the box on this page. this quarter will help to: Special Features “Save 10,000 Toes,” a campaign to If you want to make your Sabbath prevent toe amputations through health services in American Samoa, Fiji, School class come alive, visit our Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Facebook page at the link: facebook.com/ and Vanuatu. missionquarterlies. Construct Hope TV and radio studios in You also can download the PDF version Tongatapu, Tonga. of the Children’s Mission magazine at bit. Produce “Daniel Children’s Series,” a ly/childrenmission, and Mission Spotlight 13-part animated series for children aged videos at bit.ly/missionspotlight. 8-12 following the adventures of Daniel and his three friends, in Australia. Thank you for encouraging others to be mission minded! AdventistMission.org 3 Winning Drunken Parents PAPUA NEW GUINEA | July 6 Talitha Hoyato, 19 and offered advice from the black book, which Talitha learned was a Bible. Talitha began to copy Mother. When the alarm went off, she also got into her knees and prayed. She read the Bible. Mother taught her to share what she learned in the Bible with others. As Talitha prayed, read, and shared, she saw that God answered her prayers. She believed in Him. The years passed, and Talitha grew up. When she was 17, she was baptized. alitha Hoyato’s parents were known Shortly after the baptism, Mother told Tas drunks and gamblers in Goroka, Talitha that she needed to move back a mountainous town in Papua New home to her birth parents. Guinea. They were so busy drinking and “Do you mean it?” Talitha asked, gambling that they often forgot about weeping. “You really want me to go back?” their 8-year-old daughter at home. So, With tears, Mother replied, “Because they didn’t mind when a kind neighbor you have accepted Jesus as your personal asked to adopt the girl. Savior, you have to let your birth parents The neighbor took little Talitha home know about Him.” and told her to call her “Mother.” Ellen White says in “Christ’s Object Early in the morning, Talitha awoke Lessons,” “If you have accepted Christ to Mother’s alarm clock at 5 a.m. She as a personal Saviour, you are to forget saw Mother slide out of bed and onto her yourself, and try to help others. Talk of the knees, and talk out loud to God. Mother love of Christ, tell of His goodness. Do even mentioned Talitha’s name. Then every duty that presents itself” (page 67). Mother opened a black book and read. Talitha’s parents welcomed her home, The next morning, the alarm again and she befriended three younger siblings, South Pacific Division awoke Talitha at 5 a.m. She again two brothers and a sister whom she had ISSION watched Mother pray and read. Later that never met. She set her alarm for 5 a.m. M day, several guests visited the house and and got up to pray and read the Bible. DVENTIST asked Mother for advice about personal She tried to tell her parents what she A problems. Mother prayed with the women had read, but they refused to listen. So, she 4 king would acknowledge Him. Story Tips “Dear Lord,” she prayed, “if you can change a king into an animal so he Pronounce Talitha as: ta-LEE-ta. realizes that You are God, then look at Ask listeners how they can “witness my Daddy, who is only an ordinary man. wherever they go.” One answer is, like Please do something that will cause him Talitha, they can read the Bible every pain so he will acknowledge You.” morning at 5 a.m. and share what they read with friends, family, and others. Shortly after Talitha began to pray this way, Father was arrested. Father, who Watch a video of Talitha at the link: bit.ly/Talitha-Hoyato. worked as an electrical engineer, hadn’t completed a contract, and his employer Find photos for this story at the link: bit.ly/fb-mq. sent him to prison. He began to believe in Jesus in prison. When he was freed after GUINEA NEW PAPUA Read another story about Talitha three months, he joined the baptismal next week. class at church. Talitha was overjoyed! But one month later, Father died from typhoid fever. He was 45. went to their bedside while they slept and Talitha didn’t understand what told them Bible stories. She prayed over happened, but she said God answered her them. She remembered that her adoptive prayers. “I expected my Dad to become mother had said, “To convert a soul is not an Adventist and for us to go to church our business, it is God’s business.” together as a family, but that didn’t After a year, Mother agreed to go to happen,” she said. “But I’m glad because church but expressed fear that the church Father died believing in Jesus. When Jesus members would make fun of her for comes, we will go to heaven as a family.” drinking and gambling. Talitha told her Talitha, who is 19 and studying to not to worry. become a schoolteacher, is glad that she “God sees the heart,” she said. “When has two mothers. “I always thank God for Jesus was here, He mingled with people my adoptive mother, who taught me to be just like you. So, don’t worry about what a disciple in my early childhood,” she said. others say. There is great joy in heaven “Now it has become part of me to witness when one sinner repents.” wherever I go.” Father didn’t say anything when Mother returned from church. Talitha Three years ago, part of the Thirteenth invited him to join them, but he refused. Sabbath Offering helped construct “You are just a kid,” he said. “Don’t tell children’s Sabbath School classrooms in me what to do.” Talitha’s hometown, Goroka, in Papua Talitha kept praying for Father but New Guinea. Thank you for your Sabbath changed her prayer when she read Daniel School mission offering. 4:28-37. She read that God changed Nebuchadnezzar into an animal so the By Andrew McChesney AdventistMission.org 5 PAPUA NEW GUINEA | July 13 Two Black Eyes Talitha Hoyato, 19 Then she remembered seeing women with marital problems come to her mother for advice. Her mother had directed them to wisdom from the Bible.