Manuel Papake should not be alive right now.
Mr Papake was hanging a PNG for Christ banner at the main gate to the Kerevat Correctional Institute in Rabaul when he was electrocuted.
Prison chaplain Pastor Garry Laukei reports that as Mr Papake was lifting the banner using bamboo poles, the bamboo touched the 22,000-voltage power line overhead and he suffered an instant electric shock.
“A bystander saw him and thought he was dead,” Pastor Laukie said. “However, with his last strength, he miraculously shouted and an unseen hand removed his hands from the bamboo connected to the power line. He fell to the ground, unconscious for a minute, and then he was back to normal.
“People asked him if he was well. He said, ‘It’s not time for me to die, I have my program coming up.'”
Mr Papake is currently supporting the PNG for Christ program by welcoming people to the meetings each night at Kerevat. The only reminder of his ordeal: a scar on his finger.
“We praise God for the intervention for those who love Him—and Manuel is one of those who love Him,” Pastor Laukei said.
Mr Papake is serving a 13-year sentence at Kerevat Correctional Institute. Now a baptised Adventist, he witnesses to other inmates who have come to know and love Jesus as well through his influence.
