Adventists clean Mt Hagen city

By MALUM NALU in Mt Hagen
The Seventh-Day Adventist Church has taken it upon itself to clean up Mt Hagen because the newly-established city authority is  doing nothing.
Samuel Mollen, general secretary of Western Highlands Union of SDA churches, said this clean-up campaign would spread throughout the Highlands and eventually the rest of the country.
The work of the SDA Church in cleaning up Mt Hagen has attracted nationwide admiration and put to shame the responsible authorities.
“It comes with a world church theme called Total Membership Involvement,” Mollen said in Mt Hagen.
“Involvement in any community service activities right across the country, and right across the world.”
He said Western Highlands Mission covered Western Highlands, Jiwaka, Enga, Southern Highlands, Hela, West Sepik and Western.
“The headquarters (of Western Highlands Mission) is in Hagen so we have organised cleanathons right across the major cities and towns in these seven provinces,” Mollen said.
“We did the clean-up in Mt Hagen in April and July.
“When we cleaned the town, we used our own resources, and at the same time set up programmes for other centres like Wabag, Mendi, Tari and Jiwaka.
“We have about 80,000 members in these five Highlands provinces.
“We realised (after cleaning Mt Hagen) that the people’s mindset had changed, and for weeks after that, they walked the streets without throwing any rubbish because they saw that the place was very clean.
“Later, unfortunately, the rubbish grew up again.
“We are thinking of doing another major cleanathon in October.”
Mollen said marijuana and homebrew consumption was also a major problem throughout the country.
“The church usually organises big crusades in towns and villages, where we talk on health issues concerning young people, including marijuana and other things that affect our young generation,” he said.
“If all of us, including Government, do not do anything to address this, we will not have good leaders in future. Expect chaos and trouble in future.
“Our church is conducting big evangelistic meetings where we emphasise the negative impact of marijuana and other substances.
“Health and the gospel come together in the SDA Church.”