CPC Women's Ministries Brings END IT NOW Campaign to Rural District
The Women’s Ministries (WM) of the Central Papua Conference (CPC) usually conducts its main events in the city of Port Moresby. This year 2021, it was different. The CPC WM’s-organized End It Now campaign was staged at Hula village, 94 km (58 miles) outside the capital city.
The campaign was the first of its kind to be held in the rural district thanks to the commitments and efforts of the WM leaders of Kwikila District who have liaised with the CPC Women’s Ministries to bring such an event to their community.
The End It Now campaign is the worldwide church event and the women folks in Kwikila District were very much part of it.
CPC’s WM director, Min. Julian Lava, when invited to the district on Thursday 26th August, was in shock to see 2,500-plus women young and old from different Christian denominations joined hands with Adventists in a massive End It Now march from Kamali to Hula village, a distance of 5 km (3 miles) chanting ‘stop violence against women’ with placards spelling out words such as ‘End it Now – Adventist say no to violence.’
Accompanying Min. Lava to the event were CPC’s Stewardship director, Pr. Wally Kapi and Ministerial Seretary Pr. Gibson Lohia.
The invited guests to the event were greeted on the road with women in uniforms chanting, bellowing and expressing their voices against violence. One of the invited guests was the local Parliamentary member, Mr. Lekwa Gure who decided to get off his vehicle and walked with the women for the last phase of the march.
Min. Lava in her address to the people who gathered at Hula to witness this first-of-its-kind event said this year 2021 the church chooses to focus on the issues of youth, violence and pornography and the church must find ways to help deal with the harmful and destructive effects of this issues. She further stated that the Adventist church encourages its members and leadership to facilitate awareness in their churches, communities, schools and workplaces to let the victims know that the church cares for them.
Merolyn Pokana, a local women leader, was very vocal about the event and its significance. She said the home was now becoming a very dangerous place for violence. She called on the men folks to honor women as weaker vessels and wish to see the change beginning at home.
MP, Mr. Gure, who was the former Civil Aviation and Labor Minister, shared the same sentiments saying to break the cycle of violence is to start at home. ‘Family unit is the basic unit that constitutes a society. Thus, if the family unit is breaking down, our society breaks down as well.’
The End It Now campaign was observed by several Adventist churches in Port Moresby city. Through social media posts, these churches were June Valley and Mango Avenue SDA churches. The WM director thanked those churches who have taken heed of the circular advising them to celebrate the day in their respective communities.
