“The Wind Was Blowing in Our Ears”

In 2016 the Adventist Church in Papua New Guinea (PNG) challenged members to start prayer groups as part of a program they called “PNG for Christ.” The members loved the idea, and soon most of the churches were having 5 o’clock prayer meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. As a major part of every prayer, the groups asked God for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit as promised in Acts 1:8.

By 2018 the people could hear God calling for a time of reaping! The church began planning for major evangelism programs at over 2,000 sites across the country. They invited guest speakers because they knew that inviting international speakers would make an impact and draw larger crowds to the meetings.

“I was invited to be one of the speakers for the 2020 PNG for Christ meetings, and was sad when everything was cancelled because of COVID-19,” remembers Pastor Terry Johnson, president of the Australian Union Conference. “In fact, the reaping campaign was delayed until 2024, giving several extra years for prayers and preparation.”

In many ways, this delay may have been the best thing that happened for the 2024 campaign, because it fostered a different sense and style of church.

Downsize to Upscale

During COVID, the government in PNG allowed churches to meet in groups of less than 150, so the Seventh-day Adventist Church encouraged members to invite small groups to their homes and churches for Bible Study and worship.

By April 2024, nearly 10,000 small groups were meeting in the homes of PNG members. Those groups were the catalyst for the 220,000 baptisms that were experienced in the Papua New Guinea Mission during the reaping campaign of 2024.

One engineer dedicated his backyard for sharing Scripture. He built a little shelter with tarpaulins, and every Sabbath, and once or twice during the week, he invited neighbors to join his family to study Scripture and worship together. Ten of his neighbors were baptized because he invited them to his home.

This story was repeated across the country.

Do not worry. It’s not about you. It’s about the Word of God.

Imagine 9,000 plus study and worship groups meeting two or three times a week for at least two years! The people discovered that when you are open to the power of God’s Word, He does incredible things in your life. The church baptized more than 40,000 people in both 2022 and 2023.

God’s call for a reaping was getting louder!

Papua New Guinea for Christ was scheduled to begin in April 2024.

Expect the Unexpected

“I didn’t know where I was going to be preaching until four weeks before I had to get there,” says Pastor Johnson. “I knew I was probably going to be in the city of Lae, because that’s where the union conference office is located and I needed to have access to the internet to continue doing my job as a union conference president in Australia.”

Monday, April 24 was the big travel day! Most of the guest speakers flew into Port Moresby, ready to experience the country’s motto: Expect the Unexpected.

“I flew onto Lae with seven other presenters,” says Pastor Johnson. “In Lae we learned that our team would be helping hold evangelism programs at nine different locations! I was assigned to the Omili Oval, a sports playground in the Northern part of the city.”

Pastor Johnson was told to expect about 2,000 people at each evening meeting. The first night more than 7,800 came! On the last night, there were 13,900 people at the meeting!

More than 75,000 people attended each night at the nine locations around the city of Lae. During his meetings, Pastor Johnson welcomed 540 people who were choosing to be baptized. Remember, these were reaping meetings. Most of the people had already been taking Bible studies and attending church. The meetings became a wonderful harvest of the diligent work members had been doing, and of the many prayers they had been praying.

“Please know,” Pastor Johnson told the pastors who were responsible for him, “I haven’t preached an evangelistic series in quite some time because I’ve been doing administrative chores. So don’t set your expectations too high.”

The leaders laughed, and one touched Pastor Johnson’s shoulder and said, “Do not worry. It’s not about you. It’s about the Word of God. God has chosen you to be here. We didn’t know who was going to be sent to us, but we’re thrilled that you are here.”

The nightly program called for at least 90 minutes of health talks and music led by choirs and quartets from PNG churches. That was to be followed by one hour of preaching each evening. Pastor Johnson listened through most of the music the first night and then asked who would be translating his sermon for the people.

“No one, Pastor,” a local church elder answered. “If we translated, the sermon would take two hours. That’s too long. We believe that God will translate for you.”

“I must have looked stunned to them,” remembers Pastor Johnson, “because I do not speak a word of New Guinea Pidgen, the common PNG language.”

“Pastor,” one of the elders quickly said. “If you don’t believe, you need faith. Please kneel, and we’ll pray for you again.”

Pastor Johnson knelt. The elders joined him, laid hands on him, and prayed.

“Lord, be with Pastor Johnson. We know he’s not familiar with how to expect the unexpected in our country, but we trust and believe that You are going to move mountains and work miracles. Bless the words that come out of his mouth because they won’t be his words, they’ll be yours.”

That was it. After the prayer, Pastor Johnson stood up and walked onto the stage, eager to do the best he could, with God doing the translating!

If you don’t believe, you need faith. Please kneel, and we’ll pray for you again.

A Rushing Mighty Wind

When Pastor Johnson finished preaching he came back behind the stage and sat down, fairly exhausted and ready for a moment alone. But the pastors and elders quickly took him outside where there was a large group of people animatedly shouting and praising God . . . in New Guinea Pidgin.

 “I didn’t understand a word they were saying,” says Pastor Johnson. “So, one of the pastors translated for me.”

“Pastor,” the people said, “We thought you could speak our language, because as you were speaking, we felt a wind blowing in our ears, and when the wind came through, we were able to understand you. You were speaking perfect Pidgin.”

“Wow! It’s still an emotional moment for me,” says Pastor Johnson. “Whenever I think about it, I hear the people talking about the wind blowing in their ears, and then I hear the pastor reminding me that it wasn’t about me, it was about God’s Word.”

Pastor Johnson preached 18 “windy” sermons during the campaign, and his wasn’t the only location where the people experienced a Pentecost moment during the meetings. Listeners in other locations also experienced the same miracle of the wind blowing in their ears.

“Acts 1:8 now has a new, deeper, meaning for me, and I’ll never preach quite the same again,” says Pastor Johnson. “I know about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I have seen it with my own eyes.