Oct. 8, 2015
For Immediate Release

By Kasey Ricketts, student news writer

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - The Rev. Tafue Molu Lusama, general secretary
of the Edalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu (Tuvalu Christian Church), will be the guest
speaker during the last Kentucky Heartland Institute on Public Policy (KHIPP)
event of the semester Oct. 12.

The event
will take place on Oct. 12 at 5 p.m. in the Banquet Hall of the Badgett
Academic Support Center (BASC) at 110 University Drive, Campbellsville, Ky.
Everyone is invited free of charge.

Lusama is
from the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu where he was raised in the
traditional island style. As being general of the Tuvalu Christian Church, he
is helping serve almost 94 percent of the total population.

He earned
his theology degree in Samoa and has pastored throughout the South Pacific.

Lusama also
received his Master of Arts in Religion in Taiwan with a specialization in the
intersection between morality, theology and climate change in the Pacific
Islands.

Since 1992
he has served as an ordained minister and holds the highest position within the
Tuvalu Christian Church.

Lusama was involved in setting up the Tuvalu Climate Action
Network and has served as an official delegate in United Nations climate
negotiations.

He offers a powerful and visual witness to the loss that his
people are facing due to rising sea levels. He focuses less on the causes and
technicalities of climate change but emphasizes the impacts and injustices his
people are facing.

Lusama places a particular focus on the moral and ethical
implications of climate change, noting the importance of a biblically based
Christian response to this problem.

“James wrote that ‘faith without works is dead,' and we need
Christians through-out the world to work along-side of us. As the leader of my
denomination, I cannot remain silent knowing that the negative impacts of
rising seas is the greatest challenge my people will face,” Lusama said.

During the KHIPP event, Lusama will be sharing a first-hand
account of the real impacts of rising oceans upon the land, families, churches
in the fragile island communities of the South Pacific.

Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed
Kentucky-based Christian university with more than 3,500 students offering over
80 programs of study including 24 master's degrees, seven postgraduate areas
and eight pre-professional programs. The website for complete information is campbellsville.edu.