A total of 54 participants completed the Level 1 adult literacy training course offered through the Central Papua Conference (CPC) Women’s Ministries department in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
Conducted over eight days, the course focused on assisting grade 10 leavers and above, who have had limited teaching experience, whether formally or informally through the Church’s Sabbath School, children’s ministries or youth departments.
The course registered more than 20 illiterate adults. Tok Pisin was the language of instruction.
Participants came from the city and rural districts throughout CPC. One young family walked four days from the small village of Boto to attend.
At the end of the program, Conference women’s ministries director Joy Koi acknowledged the facilitators, teachers and learners who participated during the workshops. With a special emphasis on women, she elaborated a growing concern: “Literacy is important to the Church in two principal ways; to nurture the members and as outreach. It is obvious that unless a person can read with at least a minimal degree of fluency, he or she cannot read the Bible or anything else the Church produces. These persons cannot do any type of Bible study that requires reading or writing.”
A consortium comprising representatives from the PNG Union Mission, South Pacific Division, ADRA, Pacific Adventist University (PAU) and Sonoma College developed and accredited the course.
The program was opened and closed by CPC secretary Pastor Rex Koi, who thanked the facilitators and participants, urging them to read the Bible and find Jesus for themselves and “to empower our people to follow on with their education and make meaningful contributions to the great gospel commission and in society”.
