The children and their teachers in a group photograph
A one-week programme of activities organized by the Children’s Service and the Junior Youth (JY) of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), Resurrection Power Preaching Point, Afuaman, in the Ga West Presbytery, Accra, ended on Sunday, February 19, with a thanksgiving service.
The programme themed, “The Transforming Child,” saw the children and the JY members through rehearsals for a transformational drama.
They were also counseled on good morals and lifestyles by the use of scriptures, according to Sandra Bekulai Quartey, one of their teachers.
The other teachers – Emmanuel Torgbor, David Gorleku, Isaac Owusu Nortey and Mrs Regina Lartey – corroborated the forgone.
In a message from the Department of Church Life and Nurture of the PCG, signed by the National Director, Rev Kwaku Bio Kyeame, and read by Isaac Owusu Nortey, the church observed that the stakeholders who are to work together to make sure that the young person is a transforming agent are the Church, parents/guardians, government, the society and the children themselves.
According to the message, the Church and parents/guardians should provide the spiritual, emotional, psychological and physical training and needs that will help the child to grow in wisdom, stature and in favour with God and man.
“The government and larger society need to ensure that the necessary social resources are available for the child to develop and discover his or her God-given talents and gifts and grow into a useful responsible adult,” it posited.
It stated that one critical role the Church is expected to play is to be watchful and ensure that parents/guardians, government, society and the children are all going according to the Word of God.
Earlier in a sermon, Eric Bedzrah, also a teacher in the Church, charged parents and guardians to monitor their children and make sure that they do not join the company of peers, who will make them adopt bad habits.
He was worried that some parents and guardians are so married to their work that they don’t have time to be with their children and advise them on the right ways they should go; and charged them to make time with their children.
Mr Bedzrah urged Christians to be morally, spiritually and emotionally upright for the young ones to emulate so that they will grow to be responsible adults to move the country forward in God’s direction.
He bemoaned the fact that although many Christians are often found in governments and public establishments, a lot of wrongdoings are perpetrated to the detriment of the majority of Ghanaians and charged politicians, in particular, to set good examples for the children, who are the future leaders to learn from.
Quoting from the Holy Scriptures, Mr Bedzrah said the Apostle Paul admonishes Christians to offer themselves as a living sacrifice to God but that injunction has been replaced with self-centredness and greed.
He therefore entreated Christians to always rely on God for His guidance.
Highlight of the thanksgiving service was a drama acted by the members of the Children’s Service and the Junior Youth, which depicted an unruly and obstinate child who got transformed through incessant prayers of his parents and was thereafter leading the family’s devotions.
By Peter Atiemo