The Schools Outreach Ministry has organized a two-day seminar for its Area coordinators. The programme took place at the Pentecost Convention Centre from Friday 30th July to Saturday, 31st July, 2021 and had about 100 participants which included representatives from all areas, the National Coordinating Committee (NCC), members of the Youth Ministry’s National Executive Committee and some Travelling Secretaries. The programme was part of activities to kick-start the full implementation of the ministry and was organized as part of the Youth Ministry’s mid-year review meetings which was chaired by the Patron of the Youth Ministry, Aps S. O. Asante.
The seminar began with an exhortation by the Deputy Director of the Youth Ministry, Eld Dr Eric Apau Asante, who addressed “Blockages to the progress of the Ministry.” He addressed the need to recognize obstacles to the smooth running of the Ministry and to deal with them for maximum impact.
The National Coordinator of the Schools Outreach Ministry, Eld Desmond Addison, gave an Overview and talked about the Focus of the Ministry. The key focus of the ministry, he said, was to ensure that every pupil/student has heard the gospel of salvation preached to them in clear terms. To achieve this, he outlined practical steps that could be embarked on as developing simple salvation messages audio and videos, developing simple Gospel games workbooks, planning evangelistic outreaches to schools and others. He further talked about the levels of leadership in the ministry.
Addressing the gathering, the Youth Director, Pastor Ebenezer Hagan, spoke on “Possessing The Campus to Possess Society and the Future.” He gave a breakdown of population of students in the country. He mentioned that 5.9million Ghanaians, representing about 19% of the population are in the ages of 15-24yrs, forming the bracket for SHS and tertiary students, with about 11.3million forming the basic school age category. He made the participants realize that many young Ghanaians are in school and so possessing the schools means possessing our nation.
Eld Addison further showed the work done by the National Coordinating Committee. This included materials that are still being developed, which are the handbook, the quite time manual, reporting format and adverts for the ministry. He concluded by introducing the social media handles of the ministry and he website which is still under construction (www.schoolsoutreachministry.org)
Elder Felix Amofa Frimpong, a member of the NCC of the ministry, also presented on some strategies that can be adopted to enter into the various educational institutions with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He educated the participants on how to use the teaching of sounds to also preach the word of God to pupils in primary schools and also on how to form Bible clubs for various age groups of students.
Participants were also put into groups based on their regions and made to come up with ideas on how to make this ministry more impactful, after which was a moment of intensive prayer.
The Schools Outreach Ministry was established at the 2021 General Council Meeting to focus on winning pupils/students at all levels for Christ to possess the campuses for the Lord. It’s core mandate is to ‘advice on how CoP can create more ministry opportunities for itself in educational institutions.’ To achieve this, the ministry is expected to expected to embark on massive evangelism to all educational institutions, placing emphasis on basic schools (Primary and JHS) since they have not been captured into the existing PENSA system. The ministry is also expected to help these students/pupils to be well grounded in the Lord by helping them establish individual consistent devotional lives. In addition, the Ministry will support school administration in instilling high moral and civic values in pupils/students and offer assistance to produce academic excellence while scouting for opportunities for the Church of Pentecost in the areas of enlistment of chaplains and counsellors, strategic lands for projects and many more. The Ministry is expected to have teams at the local, district and area levels that will directly reach out to schools in their domain.
At the National level, the Ministry is led by an 11-member team appointed by the leadership of the church. These are Eld Desmond Addison, the Coordinator, Eld Dr Joseph Budu (Deputy Coordinator), Dcn Alex Anning (Secretary), Mrs Priscilla Yirebi (Youth ministry NEC representative) and Eld Edward Koomson (Evangelism Minsitry representative). The rest are Mrs Joyce Albina Assan, Dcns Olivia Serwaa Opare, Eld Prince Gyan, Eld Felix Amofa Frimpong, Eld Reindorf Anaba and Eld Daniel Yaw Sarfo.
The team is also assisted by the Schools Chaplaincy Committee, which is mandated to organize all teachers who are CoP members and equip them the necessary training to be able to serve as chaplains in all institutions as the opportunities are opened to the church. They will be expected to also coordinate discipleship, mentoring and counselling efforts of the Schools Outreach Ministry. This team is led by Eld William Takyi with the following members; Eld Dr Maxwell Nyatsikor, Eld Frank Danso Abeam, Mrs Mavis Osafo, Mrs Lydia Bonzoe, Ps Nelson Adu, P/Ovr Emmanuel Owusu Kissi, Ps Richard Atobra and Eld Albert Mensah.
Working Directly under the Schools Outreach Ministry is also the National Crusade Team for Schools Outreach which is responsible for the planning and execution of evangelistic crusades and outreaches to all educational institutions. This team is made up of Ps Kwadwo Obeng (Chairman), Bro Bernard Twumasi (Crusades Coordinator), Eld Emmanuel Danquah (Head of Music), Eld Ebenezer Krampah (Head of Follow Up and Discipleship), Eld Emmanuel Ayisi Manu (Head of Takeover campus and media evangelism), Bro Stephen Amoako (Head of Prayer), Ms Christiana Attafuah, Dcns Bernice Bedele and Dcns Angela Osaah Gyamerah.
As the next line of action, the Area Coordinators, were charged with mobilizing a list of all schools and CoP members who are teachers in their areas. They are also to organize training sessions for the district and local teams and the teachers and also create awareness of the Ministry in their area to court the support of the entire church. They will also develop operational strategies to help them reach out to all educational institutions in their jurisdiction.
At the end of the training, participants went home having rich knowledge and understanding into the Schools Outreach Ministry, and were charged to be committed to ensure that they possess the campuses for Christ in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Report by:
Simon Nyarko Teye (Eld)
