From petrol drinker to church elder

Otto Wanrae is from Ganai, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Despite being raised in the Catholic faith, Otto found himself hanging out in the wrong crowd. He and his friends frequently went out drinking, and when there wasn’t any alcohol available, they would strain petrol and drink that.

After attending an evangelistic campaign run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in his area, Otto was convicted and enrolled in baptismal classes. He was baptised in 1996 in Ganai by Pastor Gideon Sari, in front of his family and friends. He continued to attend church and, in 2005, migrated to the Pomio district of East New Britain with his wife and children.

Arriving at Ar’ees Village in Pomio, Otto found there were no Adventists in the area, and he would travel for several hours with his children to the nearest village to worship. After several years of prayer, his prayers were answered when a small piece of land was allocated to build a church in their local community.

After the church was completed in 2005, Otto spent time in outreach, sharing the gospel message, counselling, and offering prayers, but people were reluctant to receive the Adventist message as the majority of the community are Catholic. However, this did not deter Otto. Instead, he became even more passionate about sharing the message of God. After much prayer, Otto’s wife, formerly a Catholic, is now attending an Adventist literacy school and accepting the truth of the gospel.

Otto is now serving as an elder of the Ar’ees Church and continues to reach out to his local community, knowing God can lead them to accept the truth just as his wife did.