Partnerships between Divisions Seek to Enhance Mission Outreach

On the second day of Executive Committee year-end meetings for the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s South Pacific Division (SPD), secretary Mike Sikuri provided an update on the partnerships between the union conferences and missions of the SPD and their counterparts in the Southern Asia-Pacific Division (SSD).

Presenting a Mission Refocus report on November 12, Sikuri said the partnerships will help to enhance mission outreach in the SSD, where there are huge needs.

The church’s Australian Union Conference has a well-established partnership with the Southeastern Asia Union Mission, formed in early 2022. Focus areas have included sponsoring young people from Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam to study theology, education, and business at Asia-Pacific International University in Thailand; leadership development, mentoring and training visits; short-term (STORMCo) mission trips; and construction projects.

The Papua New Guinea Union Mission (PNGUM) has established a partnership with the East Indonesia Union Conference (EIC). Earlier this year, a PNGUM delegation crossed the PNG-Indonesian border to meet with their EIC counterparts, initiating various collaborative projects.

Additionally, the New Zealand Pacific Union Conference and the Trans Pacific Union Mission have partnered with the West Indonesia Union Mission, with a recent meeting laying the groundwork for future joint initiatives.

Sikuri said the goals of Mission Refocus include launching 20 projects with 200 long-term volunteers and 2,000 short-term mission trip participants. He emphasized the importance of proper training to ensure that the volunteers are well prepared before being sent out.

SPD associate officer Eva Ing updated Executive Committee members on the conference-mission partnership program, which was first introduced in 2007 and relaunched in 2023. This program connects each of the SPD’s nine conferences with two of its 19 missions. The exception is Greater Sydney Conference, which is partnering with three missions: American Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Cook Islands.

Ing highlighted the partnership between the North New Zealand Conference (NNZC) and Bougainville Mission in Papua New Guinea. One of the ways the NNZC is providing support to Bougainville is through leadership training. Bougainville Mission also identified a need for a boat to transport missionaries to new territories, estimated to cost NZ$20,000 (about US$11,700). The NNZC launched a fundraising campaign, and church members generously supported the initiative, raising the full amount.

“Many members in the North New Zealand Conference are pleased to have a mission focus beyond their own conference,” Ing said. “Supporting Bougainville Mission with a boat has helped many feel that they could do something to make a lasting difference.”

The original version of this story was posted by Adventist Record.