In a ceremony that witnesses described as “meaningful” and “moving,” 150 people, mostly students of Mount Diamond Adventist High School near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, along with some parents, committed themselves to God through baptism on the school campus.
The ceremony crowned two weeks of the PNG for Christ 2024 evangelistic meetings on the site, with two international speakers and the coordinated efforts of regional church leaders, school faculty and staff, and local church members.
School leaders planned every part of the baptismal ceremony carefully. Each one of the 150 candidates had been requested to write a statement, which a leader read as they were walking into the baptismal pool in threes, some of them in tears of happiness, to be baptized. As the candid statements were read, a wide-ranging perspective appeared around the students’ backgrounds, hopes, and dreams.
“I grew up in an Adventist home, but we rarely ever went to church,” another one shared. “Only when I enrolled at Mount Diamond did I discover Bible truth and felt excited to get to know the Bible for the first time. Today, I want to be baptized to publicly witness about my commitment with Jesus.”
A third read, “I grew up in a Sunday-keeping Christian church, and my faith didn’t mean too much for me. But after I was sent to this boarding school, I was surprised to find out that there were so many things I didn’t know about the Bible, including the Seventh-day Sabbath. I have studied and accepted God’s truth as it is in the Bible, and now I am ready to show it by getting baptized. I feel so happy to have decided to follow Jesus!”
Once more this story proves us the importance of true Christian education. It ratifies that its main goal is preparing us for the Kingdom of Heaven.
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