By Edson Kuso
The Evangelical Lutheran Church, Bel Circuit in Madang hosted a weeklong Youth Bible Study as a way forward to engage youths in church activities and to keep them away from illegal activities.
The church is looking forward to initiate many youth-oriented activities to counter the rising law and order issues in the communities in Madang. The Bel Circuit Youth Bible Study Camp is held annually in the month of August within the five Lutheran churches located in the Bel area of Madang district.
ELC Bel Circuit Chairman Wesley Bosley said the church is working to bring in youths to engage in church activities so that they can refrain from taking part in unlawful activities.
“We want to attract and engage the youths so that they won’t take part in illicit activities such as consuming drugs, homebrew, theft and violence,” Bosley said.
The Riwo community leader and advocate for youth and church activities Hood Kasas said youths are being left out and are not given the opportunity to participate in development activities and discussions, therefore they turn to crime.
“We see that failure in law and order is due to the lack of youth participation in development, I believe in this. Therefore, we encourage church activities to keep the youths engaged. We have this activity annually,” Kasas said.
Mr Kasas said the church is now taking on the challenge to engage youths in church and development activities as a way forward in reducing law and order issues in the province. He is calling on the government to empower churches to continue to carry out their work to address lawlessness including other social problems.
