VANIMO Town Seventh-day Adventist Church, affectionately known as Tawa Church, mobilised 109 of its members on Sunday, May 3, 2026, for a landmark outreach visit to the Vanimo Correctional Institution Services (CIS), one of the largest single-day church visitations to the facility in recent memory.
The initiative was originally driven by the church’s Youth Department, which had planned the CIS visit as part of its outreach program. When other departments realised they had similar activities on their calendars, the decision was made to combine efforts bringing together Adventurers, Pathfinders, Adventist Community Services and other ministries under one unified mission. The result was a visit of remarkable scale and impact.
FOOD, LITERATURE AND FELLOWSHIP
A total of 214 inmates were fed during the visit — 211 male inmates including three expatriates from Pakistan, and three female inmates, one of whom had a young child with her. The church also extended its hospitality to 17 CIS wardens, ensuring that the officers serving the institution were not overlooked in the day’s generosity. More than 300 pieces of Christian literature were distributed to inmates, placing the gospel in their hands alongside the food placed in their bowls.
The Tawa Church outreach is a reminder that when departments set aside individual agendas and move together as one body, the impact is multiplied. What began as a Youth Department initiative became a church-wide expression of the gospel in action, practical, personal, and powerful.
