SEVENTH – DAY ADVENTIST
NORTH-EAST SIERRA LEONE MISSION STATION (NESLMS)
A REPORT ON YOUTH ACTIVITIES
PRESENTED
BY
JOSEPH L. CONTEH
(YOUTH DIRECTOR)
REPORTING PERIOD: March – December, 2011
A REPORT ON YOUTH ACTIVITIES FOR 2011.
To God be the glory!!
Mr. Chairman, distinguished Guest from the West African Union Mission, President of the Sierra Leone Mission, Directors of the North-East and South-East Mission Stations, Pastors and Wives from the various fields, Departmental Directors, Members of the Executive body of the NESLMS, invitees and observers here present, I here warmly greet you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
May I quickly register my profound gratitude to God for the strength, wisdom and understanding that he bestowed on me in leading out in the activities of this great department (youth department).
BACKGROUND
I received the mantle of leadership early March, 2011. The foundation then was too weak and the future was blink and uncertain. Although Leadership training seminars were conducted by Pastor John T. Moiba in the recent past for youths in Makeni and Rosengbeh, there were still no formalized pathfinder/AY clubs in all the churches in the region. However, there were some organized youth singing groups and choirs in some major churches that gave me a tickle, sensation and zeal to plug on. As I prayed about it, I heard a soft voice saying: “Fear not, am with you; only be of good courage, I the Lord thy God will direct you and support you”. I concluded it was the Master – Jesus speaking, I therefore made up my mind and responded with tears, “here am I Lord use me as a vessel in thy hands”. From that day, I saw myself moving in directions that I did not understand with double spirit.
CHALLENGES AND MITIGATION PROCESS
FIRST CHALLENGE: (TIME MANAGEMENT)
The first biggest challenge was TIME Management. It was difficult to balance time between my official job (a full-term employment) as a senior finance officer in a fast growing Microfinance Institution, having seven branches all over the country and thisMission work that is voluntary and on part-term basis to cover all churches of the Nine (9) districts in the North-East Mission Station. To keep a balance for planning, correspondences, trainings and coaching, I had to reduce my time of sleep, recreation and other personal time to catch up with the assignments. I had to teach my youth the same ideology to plan their time to get a balance between their school work, church, home and personal time to meet with the pathfinder/AY trainings.
SECOND CHALLENGE: (YOUTH TRAINING MATERIALS)
A second challenge was the lack of youth training materials (Manuals) that were essential to start well organized youth programs.On several occasions, I had to engage on phone and even held meetings with Madam Edna P.Thomas and Pastor John T. Moiba in Freetown to secure the needed materials. As God could have it, these two people had enough time and courage to support me in many ways. I have available some basic training materials both printed and soft copies. Pastor Edward K. Turay and Pastor Joseph M.S. Tarawalie were also resourceful.After reproducing most of these materials, I called up a meeting of all the church youth leaders of this mission station for a one day Pathfinder/Youth leadership sensitization and training seminar at Matotoka. This same meeting was used to share Pathfinder/AY training manuals and materials as a means to equip our youths in all our districts. The only districts that did not benefit from this package were Yele, Patifu Mayappoh and Mile 91 districts due to the absence of their youth leaders. Pastor Edward K. Turay and Pastor Joseph M.S. Tarawalie were used as the main facilitators for that training.
THIRD CHALLENGE: (FORMATION OF OFFICIAL PATHFINDER/AY CLUBS)
The third challenge was to form official Pathfinder/AY Clubs in all the districts with limited Human Resource that have the knowledge, skills and willingness. The strategy I used was to build a solid foundation in Makeni as the Head quarter of the North-East Mission Station. Starting from March’ 2011 to December’ 2011, youth of the four worship places in Makeni constantly met at the S.D.A. Central Church for meetings and trainings for two days per week ( Sabbath afternoon – 3:00 P.M to 6: 00 P.M and Sunday – 4:00 P.M to 6:00 P.M). The Sabbath afternoon meetings were for spiritual, Health and basic pathfinder lectures/Trainings; whilst, Sunday meetings were for Physical Drills, games, nature study and planning. It was rewarding!! There was not a day in which the attendance went below twenty. Total Pathfinder/AY membership for Makeni is sixty-five (65).
Having got this base, I encouraged them to buy their Pathfinder Uniform. The use of the uniform and skills demonstration at specific church gatherings like 13th Sabbath Meetings and special youth functions or occasions helped to attract more youths (Muslims & Christian of both our churches and other denominations).
In order to spread the youth clubs to the other districts, I used the Makeni youth to launch the Pathfinder/AY clubs in Magburaka and Matotoka. The youth were taught to recognize themselves as one body in the church though they find themselves in different districts. This oneness (UNITY) gave way to the rapid spread and development of the youth ministries in this Mission Station.Without wasting time, I made a plan to tour all the districts and to launch the Pathfinder/AY Clubs in the major district towns.
See below detail information of the statistics of the districts:
DISTRICT / CHURCH / ADVENTURER MEMBERSHIP / PATHFINDER MEMBERSHIP / AY MEMBERSHIP / GRANDTOTAL
MAKENI / Central church / 5 / 4 / 14 / 23
New Beginning / 2 / 4 / 14 / 20
The Lord Our Hope / - / 1 / 8 / 9
God Has Spoken / - / 2 / 11 / 13
SUB TOTAL / 7 / 11 / 47 / 65
MAGBURAKA / Magburaka / 2 / 7 / 19 / 28
Matotoka / - / 6 / 15 / 21
Rosengbeh/Mapaki / - / 7 / 21 / 28
- / - / - / -
SUB TOTAL / 2 / 20 / 55 / 77
KUNIKE / Makali / 3 / 4 / 17 / 24
- / - / - / -
SUB TOTAL / 3 / 4 / 17 / 24
KONO - EAST / SaqueeTown - Koidu / 3 / 5 / 17 / 25
- / - / - / -
SUB TOTAL / 3 / 5 / 17 / 25
MASANGA / Masanga / - / - / 10 / 10
- / - / - / -
SUB TOTAL / 0 / 0 / 10 / 10
YELE / Yele / - / 8 / 18 / 26
- / - / - / -
SUB TOTAL / 0 / 8 / 18 / 26
PATIFU MAYAPPOH / Mayappoh / - / 2 / 3 / 5
- / - / - / -
SUB TOTAL / 0 / 2 / 3 / 5
GRAND TOTAL / 15 / 50 / 167 / 232
FOURTH CHALLENGE: (ORGANIZING REGIONAL YOUTH CAMP MEETING)
Having formed several youth clubs as shown above, the biggest challenge was to get the youth to a camp meeting in order to inject special spirit and energy in their hearts. The target was to have them together during the period of Christmas holidays which seem to capture the minds of young people to indulge in uncontrollable immoral act of celebration. We targeted 21st – 27th December, 2011. The location was Matotoka in Magburaka district. It was a great battle to convince parents, guardians and the youth themselves. Nevertheless, God prevailed on majority of the youth, parents, guardians, church members and pastors to fully support the program. At the end of it all, we had a wonderful youth camp meeting. Below is details of the camp report:
ATTENDANCE:
YOUTH CATEGORY / MALE / FEMALE / TOTALAdventurer / - / - / 0
Pathfinders / 9 / 8 / 17
AY / 65 / 52 / 117
TOTALS / 74 / 60 / 134
SPECIAL EVENTS:
CATEGORY / PATHFINDERS / AY / TOTALINVESTITURE / 17 / 115 / 132
BAPTISM / 2 / 32 / 34
The success of this camp meeting came through the cooperation and support of the parents, Guardians, church members, Elders, Youth Directors, Youth Leaders, youths, Pastors and Mission Officers. I also involved special people from outside this mission station in support of this program.
CAMPGUEST OF HONOUR
Special Guest of Honour includes the following:
- Pastor John T. Moiba, Secretary of the Sierra Leone Mission- Freetown. He championed as master of all ceremonies for the camp. He also preached on the Sabbath Day.
- Mrs. Edna P. Thomas from Freetown. She facilitated part of the Health and Doctrinal sessions.
- Bro. Alfred Turay from Freetown. He led on the general drills through out the camp.
CAMPFACILITATORS
CampLecture facilitators include:
- Pastor Joseph M.S. Tarawalie – North-East Mission Station Director.
- Pastor Edward K. Turay – Makeni District Pastor.
- Elder A.B.D. Sesay – 1st Church elder, The Lord our Hope church, Makeni.
- Elder John A. Turay – 1st District Elder, Makeni.
- Elder Abie Sesay – Women Ministries Director.
Lectures and activities were all centered towards spiritual, health, church doctrines and recreational matters. This was aimed at developing the total youth.
FIFTH CHALLENGE: (APPOINTMENT OF DISTRICT YOUTH DIRECTORS)
Viewing all the challenges within the youth ministry, I decided to set up my administration in a way that reliable, willing young people are totally involved in managing the youth ministries at district level. I therefore wrote letters to the pastors and various church/district board members to appoint me district youth directors apart of the various church youth leaders. The appointment was done for every district I visited. Below are the details.
DISTRICT / YOUTH DIRECTORS APPOINTED / TOTALMALE / FEMALE
MAKENI / 2 / - / 2
MAGBURAKA / 2 / 1 / 3
KUNIKE / 1 / 1 / 2
KONO / 1 / 1 / 2
MASANGA / 2 / - / 2
YELE / 1 / - / 1
TOTAL / 9 / 3 / 12
Having gone through all of the above challenges within this short time of the reporting period, I have now realized that this mission is possible through God’s leading and the support of all pastors and church members in this mission station.
FUTURE PLANS
- Training of Youth Directors and Leaders on youth management.
- Increasing the capacity of all youths through additional trainings.
- Inclusion of music ministry in the department.
- Evangelism through witnessing.
- Introduction of Pathfinder/AY activities in our mission schools.
- Introduction and creation of income generating activities in the youth programs.
- The establishment of a PathfinderAcademy.
SPECIAL REQUEST
The North-East Mission Station youth ministries department humbly request the support of the West African Union Mission Authorities, the Sierra Leone Mission officers, Directors and department heads of the different mission stations, Pastors and all members in Christ Jesus with different talents and abilities to come to our aid in ensuring that we achieve the above objectives. Great prayers, ideas, materials and funds are the most needed at this hour.
May God richly bless you all. To God be the glory!!!