Papua New Guinea’s Opposition Leader Welcomes Doug Batchelor Visit as “Strategic” Ahead of National Elections
March 30, 2017: Veteran Adventist evangelist Doug Batchelor has arrived in Papua New Guinea to a grand, politically-charged welcome.
Papua New Guinea’s news site PNG Facts reported that the country’s opposition leader and former Prime Minister Don Polye received the evangelist.
Batchelor had come to the country for an evangelistic campaign run by his Amazing Facts television ministry.
Polye, who is an Adventist also, skipped both a Parliament session and a party fundraising dinner to welcome Batchelor at the country’s Mount Hagen-based Kagamuga airport on March 29.
PNG Facts reported that a crowd of 60,000 joined Polye to catch a glimpse of Batchelor, who arrived with his wife on a chartered plane.
After receiving Batchelor, Polye walked together with the Adventist evangelist down a red carpet.
Polye’s welcome remarks heralded Batchelor’s arrival as timely, given the country’s upcoming general election.
“The message which you will be presenting to us is very strategic. It will change us to become a better nation with upright values based on the Word of God and Rule of Law,” said Polye.
“Your message will guide our people to make informed decisions in choosing their leaders,” he said, mere months from the country’s June 24 to July 8, 2017 election.
Polye said that Papua New Guinea was in need of “divine intervention.”
A slowing economy and accusations of corruption in the government are both challenges facing the country’s current Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill.
Out of a total population of 7 million in Papua New Guinea, the country’s Adventist membership stands at about half a million.
Adventists in the country have an established tradition of serving as lawmakers.
