Church ends drugs, alcohol awareness drive

THE Alotau Lutheran church has completed its first-ever drugs and alcohol awareness training workshop – with great support from its congregation and clergy.
The five-day training at the Alotau Lutheran church involved 34 men, women and youth from its Fergusson Island and Alotau congregations.
The workshop was conducted by the Evangelical Lutheran church social concerns office coordinator Pastor Sere Muhuyu.
Topics covered included drugs and alcohol effects, a community responses, Bible and alcohol, a Christian response, alcoholism and your emotions, 10 signs of alcoholism – all taken from a manual in Tok Pisin called Ating Spak Em I Swit Moa Long Yu? (Do you think drunkenness is acceptable to you).
Muhuyu said it was the first time the workshop had been conducted in the church’s Southern region.
He said the workshop had prepared the participants to help their congregation members and the public to be aware of the dangers of drugs and alcohol.
“The training will give you hope and encouragement to know and avoid the dangers of drugs and alcohol,” he said.
“For your own personal safety and wellbeing my advice to those who consume drugs and alcohol is to stop and those thinking to take up the habit to stop it,” he said.