Messiah comes to PAU

June 30 saw the presentation of 520 copies of the book Messiah to students of Pacific Adventist University (PAU). The book is an adaptation of The Desire of Ages by Ellen White into contemporary language.
The arrival of the book was seen as very timely by PAU, as it came a week after the conclusion of the Week of Prayer conducted by Dr John Hammond, director of Adventist Schools Australia for the Australian Union Conference.
Graham Chester, deputy vice-chancellor of PAU, says, “Dr Hammond had taken a very successful Week of Prayer, using the theme, ‘Unlikely heroes of the cross.’ We decided to capitalise on both the Week of Prayer and that theme.
“We launched the book as the ‘Hero of the cross,’ the Messiah. During the opening part of vespers we had our speaker for the evening, Dr Paul Petersen, the South Pacific Division’s (SPD) field secretary, present a copy of the book to a representative from each of the six schools.”
At the conclusion of the program, students collected their copy of Messiah from their school deans, who were located at one of the five exit points of the chapel.
When asked about the reason for giving out the books, Dr Petersen said, “So that the students can read and come to know more about the Messiah, the Desire of Ages, and build an intimate relationship with Him.”
Dr Petersen also encouraged the students to read a chapter a day as part of their daily devotional readings.
Students were enthusiastic about receiving the book, with several students expressing their gratitude to God for giving them the gift of the book for free. One student commented, “I heard of this book and wished I had the money to buy one. If I were to buy this book, I would have bought it for more than K30 but I’m so thankful that I got one free.”
A non-Adventist student also remarked, “This book will not only help me in my gospel class but also enable me to come to know more about the Messiah and what the Messiah expects of me.”
Mr Chester says, “I would say that the giving of the book has been very well received and we will only know in the kingdom just how much good it actually did.”
The university expressed thanks to the Signs Publishing Company, which provided copies of Messiah.
Liz Dunstan, Signs book department manager, says, “This completes an SPD initiative to encourage young people to read more Ellen White by providing them with subsidised copies of Messiah. More than 1000 copies were distributed as part of this project, which began with a promotion in The Edge and ended with this mass distribution at PAU.
“In the past two years, we’ve managed to offer this book for $A5 to young people in Australia and New Zealand, while providing it free in the Pacific.”—Adele Nash/Edna Worri