News from Alotau in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea.

On Tuesday, January 7, 2009, Evangelist Tave Doyafi traveled to Alotau in the Milne Bay Province to encourage and strengthen recent converts into the present truth. After three nights and two days on the sea, Tave arrived at Alotau where Freddy Bogea met him at the wharf and took him home.

Freddy Bogea and Elder Alipi are the lay workers coordinating the work in Milne Province at the present time.

An amazed audience listens to a revival sermon in Papua New Guinea.

When Tave arrived at Agita Estate, in Alotau, he found that the people there were not organized. However, the folks were happy that Evangelist Tave had arrived, and they arranged with the community leader for an evangelistic program to proceed on Sunday.

Freddy had been assigned to work night duty at his place of employment. Even before Tave was asked to hold the evangelistic program, Freddy had informed Tave of the commitment. Now the two brothers became concerned about whether or not Freddy would be available to help with the evangelism and his help was much needed. Freddy talked to his employer about the situation, and they agreed that he could come to work late, at 10 p.m.; so he was allowed to give his needed assistance to the evangelistic program.

Elder Alipi, who accommodated Tave Doyafi, had just returned from his work holiday and was scheduled to commence work on Monday. This also presented a problem as they also really needed his assistance at the meeting, as well as Freddy’s. The Lord also had this under control. Late in the week, Elder Alipi’s supervisor called him and told him that he had done some rescheduling and he wouldn’t be needed for another week.

The late change by the management to allow Freddy and Alipi to be available for the one-week program was evidence that the program was arranged and controlled by God.

Evangelist Tave spoke to the folks at the small church at Agita of the experience of the children of Israel at Red Sea: “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” Exodus 14:13. Tave told the folks that it is not they that had arranged and brought him there. He said it was the Lord who arranged and brought him to Agita and he advised the folks to wait and see what the Lord would do.

Revival sermon in Papua New Guinea.

Further, the church at Alotau does not have a sound system, and Evangelist Tave Doyafi also does not have one. Tave normally uses a sound system, which belongs to the Hevare family; but the Havare’s had taken it with them to the Chimbu Province. Not having a sound system was a big problem for the folks at Alotau. Once again, the Lord had everything under control. To everybody’s surprise, a non-believer offered to loan his stereo-type amplifier for the program.

After the first night’s program, the news spread out to the nearby villages; and the people started flooding to the meeting. In the audience was a man who rejected the message presented when Henry and his son Brett conducted the street evangelism work in Alotau. As the meeting continued, many people who opposed the revival message brought by Henry and Brett attended the meeting. When Freddy saw these people, he could not believe that these folks would faithfully turn up for the meeting, as they had bitterly opposed the message. Some of these folks were even Adventists.

A huge audience regularly attended the meetings during the week. The message presented sank deep in their hearts and raised a desire for more. The audience commented that the message presented was short and they were not satisfied even though the sermon was averaging 45 minutes long, so they requested more. As a result Evangelist Tave had to adjust his sermons and extend the programs to 9:00 pm at night.

People sit outside to listen too.

It was exciting to see the different types of people accepting the truth. On the fourth night, the Adventists who had been in opposition to the program had a change of heart and accepted the revival message. They then became active workers in the program and provided a choir, which added a really nice flavor to the program.

On the fifth night, a priest of the Anglican Church attended the meeting. Immediately after the program ended for that night, he came and took the microphone. He had a message to give to his entire congregation. He said, “I am really blessed with the message presented and urge everyone to accept these truths and attend every nightly program.” Some of the Catholic youth commented that they had been blind, but now they could see.

Evangelist Tave was even invited to conduct his program at the local Seventh-day Adventist Church whose members had originally opposed his work.

Now the Palm Oil Company has allocated a piece of land for a new self-supporting Adventist Church in Alotau. We should see big changes occurring in this new field in the near future. Your prayers are needed to support the work in this part of the country, that the people may receive the present truth and be ready to meet Christ at His Second Advent.

By Evangelist Tave Doyafi. Donations for this work can be sent to Missions Projects International, PO Box 59656, Renton, WA 98058. Phone: 800-467-4174 E-mail: info@missionspro.org Website: www.missionspro.org