Adventist Secondary School in PNG Dedicates a Room for Prayer

Kabiufa Adventist Secondary School (KASS) in Goroka, Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea, has dedicated a room for prayer at the back of the library building. 

Recently, a simple dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony included General Conference president Ted N. C. Wilson after he addressed the students in the campus church. 

“May this wonderful prayer room be a source of tremendous spiritual inspiration for the students and faculty of this precious secondary school,” Wilson said, just before cutting the ribbon.

According to KASS principal Lawrence Suto, the new room offers students a personal space. “Students can see that that is a place where they can come and share what is bottling up in them, bothering them — in any other situations they’re going through, it’s at their convenience,” he said. 

Earlier, the church was full and overflowing, with the roughly 600-seat venue not able to accommodate the more than 1,000 students and special guests in attendance.

“Kabiufa is one of those special places,” Wilson said. “I’m looking at the future leaders of God’s church in Papua New Guinea.” 

Suto said having the General Conference president visit his school was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. 

“I was a student here when [Pastor Wilson’s] father came around,” he said. “It’s about 35 years since then, and in my faintest dreams, it didn’t occur to me that I would be the principal and the GC president would come around during my time.”

During the service, Suto gave a brief history of the Kabiufa school and shared some of the needs that the school is experiencing. 

“Welcome to Kabiufa, the school of the prophets,” he said. “Since I started as principal in 2021, we have baptized 218 students, and this year during the PNG for Christ program we will baptize 163 students.”

Suto gave attendees a snapshot of the school.  “Our students are actively involved in outreach programs,” he said.

“This school has 35 teachers with fair representation from different provinces of Papua New Guinea. We have 13 support staff. The student population is at 1,127, giving an additional strain on the already existing structures.”

North American Division president Alexander Bryant and his wife, Desiree, together with Papua New Guinea Union Mission president Malachi Yani, were also in attendance, along with other PNGUM and Eastern Highlands Simbu Mission staff.

Before the inauguration ceremony, Wilson and his wife, Nancy, were welcomed to the school with a Pathfinder guard of honor, and the students lined the path from the front gate to the church to welcome them. 

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