Kata Ragoso

Every General Conference session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is a unique event with delegates, special guests, and other visitors from around the world. The 1936 and 1954 sessions were both held in San Francisco, California, and the high point of both were the presentations of Kata Ragoso (also spelled Rangoso), a delegate from the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, who became an ordained minister and mission president. On May 30, 1936, Ragoso told the assembly that he and his people had been caught in the depths of paganism. They “lived a life of sin,” and their “thoughts were evil continually.”55 They worshiped evil spirits, were addicted to all kinds of vices, and practiced violent acts, including head-hunting. But, twenty-five years earlier, the missionary G. F. Jones had come to their island and preached the Adventist message.

By God’s grace, they “cast off the fetters of paganism” and experienced a complete transformation —even in the areas of diet and hygiene.

Ragoso attested, We are now able to live happily and peacefully because of the wonderful gospel that has been brought to us.

I want to tell you definitely this afternoon that none of my people who have accepted this glorious message desire to return to the worship of idols and to paganism. Today 5,000 of my people are rejoicing with you in this message of a soon-coming Savior. Over 100 of them are ministers, teachers, and departmental workers among our own kith and kin.57 The everlasting gospel is much more than just a wonderful theory; it is the marvelous transforming power of God.

Ellen White, writing of the conversions that Christ is making in human lives through His mercy and abundant grace, says they are “so amazing that Satan, with all his triumphant boasting, with all his confederacy of evil united against God and the laws of His government, stands viewing them as a fortress impregnable to his sophistries and delusions. They are to him an incomprehensible mystery.” Wonderful grace has changed uncountable lives throughout the ages. You and I need this transforming power in our own lives daily!