Joseph Talipuan, Stewardship, South Pacific Division

Summary: Stewardship Joseph Talipuan talks about what is happening in the South Pacific Division.

Two very real uncompromising tensions exist in the South Pacific Division: 1) that everything happens as a result of something tangible or must have a reasonable explanation to it, and 2) that life is mysterious and anything is possible including supernatural miracles. The tension is real and relentless in many circumstances.

From the sophisticated cities of Australia and New Zealand to the primitive mountain hamlets of the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, the message has been to make God real from deep within instead of an outward show or display. True religion has to do with the heart more than the outward body. Hence a relational stewardship emphasis has been made across the division to help people understand this. The following brief captions show some of the things that we have been inspired to do and are doing as we come to terms with this reality.

Papua New Guinea Union Mission

In PNGUM there were two major discipleship events. We had the first largest stewardship event ever held at Keya Camp. There were 10,000 to 15,000 people present. Dr. Erika Puni from the GC and I were the main presenters. The meetings were mixed with stewardship and soul winning programs. Under the union leadership of Pastor Benjamine Kola people were baptized every night.

Afterwards, we had leadership trainings for the Bougainville and New Ireland pastors along with district seminars throughout the country.

Trans-Pacific Union Mission

There has been continued focus on key church leadership throughout the Pacific that included TPUM. As a result, there was a major stewardship seminar for pastors conducted in Fiji along with other leadership trainings which were coupled with evening revival meetings in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

Newland Pacific Union Conference

The concept of stewardship was shared in the Cook and French Polynesia Islands in which Dr. Puni conducted a seminar in the Cook Islands.

Australian Union Conference

In AUC their emphasis is heart connection with God. The people there have taken this very seriously. The initial nationwide initiative was to encourage individual devotional life with stewardship emphasis. Their first book, 7 Week Spiritual Journey, complied by Pastor Lionel Smith, one of their conference directors, is a popular resource. It was adapted for the world church and has been printed twice in the union conference.


Division Wide

Overall, the whole work of stewardship is getting more exciting. The South Pacific Division has declared 2010 as the Year of Stewardship throughout the division and three division-wide initiatives have been put in place:

Week of Stewardship Emphasis Sept 25th – Oct 2nd 2010.

Special issue in the Record highlighting stewardship in SPD.

Special postures advertising the Week of Stewardship Emphasis.