World church leader to visit

 THE world leader of the Seventh-Day Adventist church Pastor Ted Wilson will be visiting Port Moresby next week.

Wilson (pictured right) and wife Nancy arrive next Thursday and will be engaged in various activities organised by the church over three days.  

Wilson will be welcomed at the Jack Pidik Park in 5-Mile on Thursday afternoon.  He will be given a guard of honour and inspect a parade by the pathfinders.

Wilson will speak to church members and the general public for three nights starting Thursday.

He will also pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and open the extended health science building at the Pacific Adventist University.

A combined fellowship will be held on Saturday at Jack Pidik Park where he will deliver the sermon to be followed by baptism.

There will be reports given by the Papua New Guinea Union Mission president pastor Leigh Rice and South Pacific Division president pastor Barry Oliver. 

Wilson leaves on Feb 9 for Honiara, the Solomon Islands.

General-secretary of the Central Papua Conference Pastor Christopher Moses said preparations were well underway.

Moses thanked the organising committee members for ensuring that activities and logistics were all ready for the visit.

Wilson was elected as Adventist world church president in July 2010 during the general conference in Atlanta, Georgia, US. 

He was born in Takoma Park, Maryland, on May 10, 1950, the son of former Adventist world church president Neal C. Wilson and Elinor E. Wilson. 

He spent part of his childhood in Egypt. 

Wilson began his church career as a pastor in 1974 in the Greater New York Conference. 

An ordained minister, Wilson holds a doctorate in religious education from New York University, a master of divinity degree from Andrews University and a master of science degree in public health from the Loma Linda University School of Public Health. 

He speaks French and Russian, and served in the US, West Africa and Russia.

Meanwhile, a 10-day evangelism meeting  begins tonight at the Jack Pidik Park as a lead-up to Wilson’s visit.