11 June 2009

Offering supports ministry to university students in Pacific

Wahroonga, New South Wales
Record staff/Ray Coombe

The number of Seventh-day Adventist young people attending universities in Pacific island countries has escalated dramatically in recent years. Pastor Nick Kross, associate director of Adventist Youth Ministries for the Adventist Church in the South Pacific, estimates that membership in Adventist university student associations now tops 15,000 and says the outreach opportunities to other students are phenomenal.

"Many of the Adventist student groups do outreach on their local campuses through singing group witnessing, running on-campus worships and Bible studies," says Pastor Kross. "Their university student conventions attract many non-Adventist students and result in baptisms. They desperately need pastoral nurture and help in their outreach by having local chaplains."

Obviously, many Adventist young people attend the church's own tertiary institutions, such as Pacific Adventist University, Sonoma College, Fulton College and Avondale College, in the pursuit of career training and academic qualifications. However, many hundreds more do not have the opportunity of gaining their education on a church-run campus or in a religiously-orientated
environment.

These university students from Papua New Guinea were baptised
at an Adventist students' convention in 2007.

"The pressures of secularism, materialism and evolutionary science are affecting many of these young people," explains Pastor Ray Coombe, director of Adventist Mission for the South Pacific. "The church wants to face this challenge with the appointment of university chaplains who can specifically minister to the needs of Adventist young people on university campuses across the Pacific."

The Adventist Church in the South Pacific has already supported the student associations with financial sponsorship of their conventions and a church in Fiji for the university group. But this year's Pacific Islands Advancement Offering (collected in Adventist churches in the South Pacific on June 20) will be directed to the specific need of university chaplains.

"We hope to raise sufficient funds for at least three new positions in this specific ministry," says Rodney Brady, the chief financial officer for the Adventist Church in the South Pacific.

"The call for additional chaplains in the Pacific islands comes at a time when outreach activities are beginning to gather momentum," adds Pastor Kross. "It's not just our own young people who will benefit. There is potential for scores of other students who are searching for a spiritual home."

Last year's Pacific Islands Advancement Offering, which helped provide additional ministerial budgets for the Adventist Church in New Caledonia, amounted to $A136,000, the highest total on record for this yearly offering.

"We are delighted with this response," says Pastor Coombe, "And we believe this current challenge with our Pacific university students will also bring a good offering this year on June 20."

Back to News.