Abstain from sex, youths told

A church elder has called on young people not to have sex while dating.
God designed sex for marriage, Seventh-Day Adventist Church Central Papua Conference director for family life Daniel Lavaiamat told 48 participants during a week-long session on courtship and marriage.
Lavaiamat was the lead facilitator for the session which ended on Saturday at the Kanudi Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Port Moresby.
He said sex was the recreational process God built in humans and was a joint effort of the father, mother and God to recreate mankind.
He discouraged young people from having sex on the earlier stage of friendship.
He urged the 48 participants, aged between 15 and 25, to abstain from entertaining their emotions or feelings.
He advised youths and senior pathfinders in the Kanudi youth ministry that to build a happy marriage they must fully cover eight states of courtship and sex was the last state at the wedding night or the honeymoon.
He said that marriage was a sanctified act which was holy.
Lavaiamat added that the education of youths on character-base abstaining (CBA) was needed to reduce the evils in society.
At the completion of the session, the participants made a commitment in front of their parents and church congregation to keep their bodies pure and holy until marriage.
The Kanudi Youth Ministry and Family Department conducted the session.