wfn.org | PNG Governor General Adresses Adventist World Session

[APD <APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com>]

July 2, 2000
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schäffler, Editor-in-chief
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland 
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
www.stanet.ch/APD/2000/GK 

Papua New Guinea Governor General Addresses 
Adventist World Session

Toronto, Canada, 02.07.2000/ANN/APD           Sir 
Silas Atopare, Governor General of Papua New Guinea 
(PNG), addressed the World Session of the Seventh-
day Adventist Church July 1. 

"I am proud to be Seventh-day Adventist," said 
Atopare, who has served as PNG's Governor General 
since November of 1997. He spoke of his conversion 
experience when as a boy he almost drowned in a 
river, and he credits his rescue to divine intervention.

After this experience, his father enrolled him at a local 
Seventh-day Adventist school where he made his 
personal decision to follow Christ and join the church.

"I would like to take this opportunity to tell Seventh-
day Adventists around the world to hold on to the 
truth of the second coming of the Lord," he concluded.

Accompanying the Governor General in Toronto, 
Canada, are his wife, Lady Agatha Atopare; the Official 
Secretary to the Governor General, Mr. Tipo Vuatha; 
and Aide-de-camp to the Governor General, Captain 
Jerry Geno.  Over 2,000 Papua New Guineans are 
participating in the General Conference World Session-
one of the largest contingents from a single country in 
attendance.

Seventh-day Adventists began their work in Papua 
New Guinea in 1914 at Manus. Adventists currently 
make up eight percent of the state's population and 
number almost 200,000 baptized members. 
[Reporters: Cherie Bowman and  Heather Osborn for 
ANN/APD]