Hundreds of people from the community attended Seventh-day Adventist churches in the South Pacific region to hear Christian author Philip Yancey live via satellite uplink on October 20.

Yancey, who has written 16 books and is a regular columnist for Christianity Today, spoke from the Adventist Church’s Avondale College, in Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia. He challenged church members to act as “grace dispensers” and adopt the New York City firefighters’ motto, “As others run out, we run in.” Making frequent references to the terrorist attacks of September 11, Yancey highlighted the additional need for grace when “dealing with the trouble-makers of this world.”

The Adventist Church in Australia had placed an insert in the catalogue of a national Christian bookstore promoting the program. Optus Television’s Australian Christian Channel replayed the program twice on cable. Some 190 Adventist churches in Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Central and North America registered to downlink it.

Neil Elliott, general manager of the Australia Christian Channel, writes that the program “highlighted the vibrancy of the Adventist Church.” Lyell Heise, senior minister of the church at the college, says it made a “powerful” statement about the Adventist Church’s commitment to the “primacy of grace.” “The program changed opinions about Adventist life and faith,” he said.

Adventist pastors around the South Pacific—from Port Lincoln, South Australia, to Aitkenvale, Queensland, to Gisborne, New Zealand—reported that a large percentage of those who came to watch the satellite downlink were not church members.