The church is to help people

By Deidre Tautua 07 May 2017, 12:00AM

The problems are obvious.

Hardly a week goes by without an incident where someone is killed in Samoa as a result of alcohol abuse – or abuse of other sorts.

Two weeks ago Police Spokesperson Su’a Muliaga Tiumalu told the media that they are working together with the Liquor Board on the abuse of alcohol by members of the public.

“It seems that many of the incidents happening are all caused by alcohol,” he said.

“So we are looking at the amount of alcohol put into drinks by the local companies and if we see that it’s too much then we will raise the issue with the Liquor board to look into this.”

“Maybe advice the local manufacturers of vodka and beer to put down the amount of alcohol they put into these drinks.”

For Pastor Gary Webster, he believes the answer is in the Bible. And it is about love.

 “If you look at Jesus life, He did three things, He loved His Father, He healed people and He preached,” he told the Sunday Samoan.

Pastor Webster is the President of the Tasmanian Mission of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

“He loved His Father. When we connect with God then we going to treat human being differently aren’t we? I can’t say I love God and yet the seventh commandment says ‘don’t commit adultery’ and yet I’m sleeping around with other women but I say I love God that’s not how it works.”

“But since I love God I then start loving people the right way and that’s what happens when I follow this book (Bible).”

“So the role of the church is to do what Jesus did? What did Jesus believe? So let’s do the same thing.”

Moreover, he said the role of the church is to help all the people.

“When you looked at Jesus’ life, He loved his Father, He healed people,” he said.

“He healed lots of people not only he healed them but He fed the hungry twice and He just went about helping people.”

“So that’s what the church needs to do all of us Christians.”

“Not just about preaching and speaking we need to be doing because Jesus was big into doing.”

“The third thing Jesus did was preaching. He did a lot of preaching.”

But not to preach publicly but he taught people one on one for instance He had time for the woman at the well, He had time for the prostitute and all people one on one and so this tells us that He was interested in people.

“So that’s what the church needs to do and if we are going to make a difference in our world and we need to be saying ‘how can I help people?’ especially in the area of health and physical.

“For example that’s why our church has an emphasis on helping people because that’s what Jesus did and we need to help people always.”

By Deidre Tautua 07 May 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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