​Nonbeliever Risks Life to Transport 4,000 Adventists to Camp Meeting

Landowner sees Adventists amassed on his property and decides to help.

By Andrew McChesney, adventistmission.org

A nonbeliever singlehandedly helped 4,000 Seventh-day Adventists cross a dangerous river to attend camp meeting in a remote mountainous province of Papua New Guinea.

The 35-year-old stranger ferried hundreds of church members — two at a time, sometimes shrieking — on an inner tube across the fast-flowing Waghi River over the course of five days.

The June 3-10 camp meeting, attended by more than 6,000 people, culminated with 336 baptisms.

“He is not an Adventist, but he saved all the Adventists who wanted to go to the camp meeting,” said Joanis Fezamo, president of the Adventist Church’s Eastern Highlands Simbu Mission, whose territory includes the site of the meeting.

The “Karamui Simbu Area Adventist Community Services Federation” camp meeting usually is organized closer to Goroka, the town where the mission headquarters is located. But church members decided to hold this year’s camp meeting high in Simbu Province mountains to accommodate the hundreds of remote villagers who have had to make a long and dangerous trek to the attend the gathering every year.

Reaching the Site

A mission airplane flew 2,000 church members at a steeply discounted price to the meeting site, which is only accessible by air and foot. But 4,000 people who couldn’t afford the roundtrip airfare of 400 Papuan New Guinean kina (U.S.$120) decided to make the two-day trip by foot.

The group of men, women, and children made good time until they reached Waghi River several miles (kilometers) below their mountaintop destination. The river was too fast and rough to cross.

The owner of the land, Veai Apkas, saw the Adventists amassed on his property and decided to help, said James Kiangua, the mission’s stewardship ministries director, who has spoken with him.

First, Apkas lowered a long cane across the river. Those who could swim held onto the cane and swam across. But hundreds of women did not know how to swim, so Apkas inflated an inner tube from a car tire and offered rides.

“We thought everyone would cross with the cane, but the women didn’t want to try and feared for their lives,” said a local church elder, according to Kiangua. “They didn’t know how to swim. So, the Holy Spirit intervened by allowing the person who owns the land to step in voluntarily to float them on the inner tube.”

Apkas lay on the inner tube, two passengers got on top of him with their luggage, and they paddled their way across the river. Each crossing took 5 to 10 minutes. Then Apkas returned alone to the opposite bank to pick up the next pair of church members.

“He risked his own life going back and forth many times for five days,” Kiangua said.

Prayers and Screams

Women prayed before getting on the inner tube, and they cried and screamed as they crossed.

“Everyone who wanted to cross prayed and submitted their lives to God,” Kiangua said. “It was dangerous to cross. This water has drowned many people.”

No one was injured crossing the river.

“The Lord is good,” Kiangua said. “Everyone managed to get across, and we enjoyed a good camp meeting.”

On Sabbath, a stretch of another river was blocked so pastors could baptize 336 people.

It was not immediately clear exactly how many local villagers attended the camp meeting. Church leaders only know that 6,000 people made the long journey by foot and airplane.

After the meetings, some church members reached out to loved ones to raise money to take the mission airplane back home. Others used the inner tube again. Again, no accidents were reported.

A local pastor has begun visiting Kiangua and his family and is building a friendship with them.

Kiangua, when thanked by church leaders for his kind assistance, said he was blessed by the experience.

“I myself am also blessed by saving God’s people,” he said.