Hope International (NZ) Ltd. Was formed officially back in 1987 after George Burnside, Ron Spear, and others visited New Zealand. Doug Hurley and I were the original founders and a board was formed. The self-supporting work had been going on in New Zealand since the early part of 1980. The work was financed by individuals who worked during the day and witnessed during the night. The formation of this self-supporting ministry was an attempt by dedicated laymen to promulgate the Three Angel’s Message as blended with the Righteousness by Faith message of 1888. It was first financed by the private saving of the founders and several sizable donations from conservative SDAs who believed the church which we all loved was losing the plot.
The ministry has gone from strength to strength and now has eight full-time workers operating computers, printing presses, a book shop, and mail orders for books, tapes, etc. There are several part-time workers and volunteers. It is obvious to those who have watched the spectacular progress of the ministry that a greater Hand than the founders or the board has been over the work.
The ministry’s work has expanded into the Pacific Islands, and at the moment we are actively at work in Fiji, Vanautu, Solomon Islands, and Papua, New Guinea. We support a full-time worker in Fiji who is having wonderful results in his health mission. We also ship tracts and large numbers of tabloid papers there. The Hurley family ran a health mission both in Fiji and Vanuatu. Last year I also ran a workshop in the Pango SDA Church in Vanuatu and an Outreach Mission in the capital, Port Vila. We have just shipped a large screen video projector to the Solomon Islands for the work over there. In Papua, New Guinea, the work is starting to explode as the common people are finding out about the Righteousness by Faith Message. We have just shipped a printing press, plate maker, and a quantity of paper to the brethren in P.N.G. this will allow cheap tracts containing our vital truth to go like the leaves of autumn all over this exciting country. We work in the Islands very closely with various ministries in Australia who are doing a wonderful work all over the Western Pacific. The ministry helped with speakers to P.N.G. Last year and will again send a speaker in July, if our visas get granted. There is a growing opposition to the work by those who are not going in themselves, yet they are trying to hinder those who want to go in.
The ministry runs two or three camps a year in New Zealand. Our big camp is at Easter, which is Autumn. It is held in the country and is very well attended by people from all over New Zealand. We hold an October camp in New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington, which is at the bottom of the North Island. We are holding a camp in late June this year in Auckland which is the largest city in New Zealand. The ministry brings speakers from many parts of the world and they travel the length of New Zealand giving talks to conservative SDAs and holding outreach meetings. The ministry has been supporting street workers for many years. Hundreds of thousands of tracts have been handed out on the streets in just about every city and town in New Zealand.
We have had a booth on health for several years now at the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Show. This has been a great opportunity to share vegetarian cooking and the basic laws of health. Thousands passed through in a matter of days. Two hundred boxes of clothing have just been packed for the Pacific by kind volunteers at the ministry. We also continue to send inexpensive Bibles to every part of the world.
The ministry has made several nationwide drops of newspaper which Australian Carey Rowlandson has pioneered. The mailing list has grown from about 35 in 1987 to approximately 1,000 today, This is a fair indication of the blessing God has given us as He takes the work into His own hands (Testimonies to Ministers, 300) and cuts it short in righteousness with the common people. We are committed to giving to all who wish to listen in the South Pacific area, the opportunity of eternal life through Christ Jesus the Son of David according to the flesh.
The End