In the dark of the night, the first Seventh-day Adventist church members were arriving for a massive baptismal ceremony scheduled to start at 7:00 a.m. Many walked for miles, and others used private vehicles, chartered transportation, and several other means to reach the place of the ceremony in time.
“There are 5,000 people waiting to be baptized,” organizers said, “and we must finish before noon, when the low tide will make baptism by immersion impossible.”
By the time the ceremony started, thousands of candidates, church members, leaders, and guests were already lining up and sitting on the wave breakers on both ends of the beach. The first 12 pastors began to baptize as regional church leaders prayed over the loudspeakers for those committing to God through the biblically mandated ceremony. A couple of hours later, 48 pastors were baptizing candidates. By 11:00 a.m., the ceremony was finished for the most part.
The baptism in the ocean was one of the ceremonies that crowned the last official day of the PNG for Christ 2024 evangelistic series. The project combined the efforts of Adventist World Radio, the Total Member Involvement initiative, the South Pacific Division and Papua New Guinea Union Mission of the Adventist Church, and local church fields to share the gospel across the country. According to organizers, international and national speakers preached at more than 2,000 sites, both in the eastern part of the New Guinea island (the western part belongs to Indonesia) and in other outer islands that make up PNG.
“This is a spiritual feast,” a church member commented, “a spiritual feast as we have never seen.”
After the ceremony was done, there was still a lot of work to do for the massive group of volunteers.
“At least it’s the last day. Tomorrow you will finally be able to rest,” one of the visiting guests said to a local church member.
“Tomorrow?” he answered. “Tomorrow, we are launching our retention program for the new converts!”
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