Papua New Guinea

Seventh-day Adventists first sent religious literature to Papua New Guinea in 1891 on the London Missionary Society boat. In 1895 church leaders decided to send a missionary family to New Guinea, a decision they abandoned when they heard news of cannibals murdering and eating several missionaries of the London Missionary Society.

A few Adventist church leaders made short visits to safe native villages of New Guinea from 1902 to 1905. These visits further convinced them of the need to send missionaries to live on the island. They thought Fijian missionary trainees would adapt more easily to the steamy climate, local food and leafy houses of New Guinea. Septimus and Edith Carr, who had previously worked in Fiji, and their Fijian assistant, Benisimani (Beni) Tavondi arrived at Port Moresby on June 25, 1908.

The missionaries rented a house and began making contact with the government officials, other European and national missionaries and planters. They became familiar with the local area, visited native feasts and gave out salt to befriend the villagers.

The only way the missionaries had to procure property was to request the government to buy the land from the local people and, in turn, lease it to them. Carr lodged a request for sixty hectares north-west of Sogeri. The exact site was called Bisiatabu, meaning "holy" or "sacred" because the locals thought the devil lived there.

The new site was used as a plantation. Soon more missionaries came to help. The missionaries officially started a church on the island on July 11, 1910.

By 1913 the Bisiatabu station was a typical mission outpost. A small group of local boys, who worked in the gardens and plantation, also took classes in Bible, reading, writing and singing. They learned Bible stories from picture rolls. A few of the older boys even helped to organise Sabbath School, or Bible classes, in nearby villages.

It seems the local people regarded the Bisiatabu station as just another plantation with work opportunities. With one or two exceptions, they showed little desire for schooling and training. Despite many attempts by the missionaries, the years 1914 to 1920 were not productive for the Papuan mission. Young men continued to work and attend school on the plantation but none showed any interest in Christ.

Missionaries came and went for a number of years. They concentrated their efforts to increasing the number of students at the Bisiatabu station and to building new mission stations. A few villages agreed to give the missionaries land for a second school in Efogi. The local people cleared the site, dug foundation holes and cut logs from the forest. School was first conducted on the veranda of the missionaries' home. Better facilities were built later. A native materials church was dedicated at Efogi on January 2, 1926.

Later, the missionaries leased two hectares of plantation along the Vailala River in response to the local people's request for a school in the area. Using the leasehold as a home-base, they conducted a school in the nearby settlement of Hiloi. Soon the missionaries established two other stations at Korela and Aroma.

Vailala, Korela and Aroma were only the beginning of a vast network of mission stations which multiplied rapidly in the last 1920s. As soon as a station was started, more requests came in from the surrounding areas. The missionaries did not have enough staff to cover the villages asking for teachers. Some stations were supervised by Fijians or locals.

The pattern of mission stations continued to expand into the 1930s, extending north to Emirau and Mussau Islands. Later, in mid-1934, stations were established in the populous highlands of mainland New Guinea, first at Karinantu and then at Amoura and Bena Bena.

Up to 1934 there were still less than fifty baptised members in the Papuan and New Guinean regions. Six years later the membership total had jumped to over a thousand, due largely to the increased opportunities for expansion which began in the early 1920s. The Adventist Church in Papua New Guinea has continued to grow very fast since the Second World War.

Prior to the Second World War, most of the areas where Adventist missionaries were stationed had not been entered by other mission groups. Some of the inhabitants were practising cannibals. Spirit worship was the norm. The web of society was bound by the fear of evil spirits and associated taboos. The challenge of the missionaries was to demonstrate a life of Christian love and freedom from guilt and fear, rather than imposing a sophisticated set of taboos based on European tradition.

Pacific Adventist University

The idea to establish a tertiary institution to serve the needs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific Islands first originated in the 1970s. At a meeting in Honiara in 1977, church leaders decided to establish a tertiary college in the region. A suitable site was soon found about twenty kilometres out of Port Moresby. The college opened its doors in February 1984.

The College gained recognition across the South Pacific region rapidly. Its Education graduates are recognised as registered teachers in Papua New Guinea and accepted to teach in all other countries of the region where they have worked. The Papua New Guinea Association of Accountants recognises its Business Diploma graduates as affiliate members. The Melanesian Association of Theological School recognises its Bachelor of Theology program.

The National Executive Council of Papua New Guinea Government endorsed Pacific Adventist College as a private university, with its own philosophy and its specific focus on Pacific developing countries in 1996. The College became a university on December 11, 1997 when the Papua New Guinea National Parliament passed the appropriate act.

Several South Pacific island governments and many international aid agencies sponsor and support students who study at the university. Graduates of the Pacific Adventist University now serve the Adventist Church, the governments and private industries across the Pacific region in a wide range of capabilities.

View our Education Section to find out more.