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National Youth Fellowship Diaries
The early years
·
The
fellowship was started by Rev. Dr. Comfort Lawson under the divine direction of
the Holy Spirit.
·
The new
youth program was started on May 16,
1968 with teenage boys and girls drawn from the Korle Gonno assembly
children service, which began in the early months of 1957.
·
The first
youth group included Bros. Isaac Nii Boye Anum (National Youth Chairman, 1998),
Henry Gripman, Emmanuel Gripman, Baah Buxton, Kwame Edu, Daniel Ampah Quaye and
John Cudjoe. Others include: Sisters
Dora Akushia Amoo (now Mrs. Osekere (Rev.), National Women Fellowship Leader, 2005
-), Lydia Lartey, Doris Jackson, Rose Jackson, Naomi Tagoe (now National Young
Ladies League Leader), etc.
·
Youth
meetings were previously held on Tuesdays.
·
In 1971, the first leader, Eld. Mrs. Marian Aboagye was appointed
to lead the fast growing movement. For about 8months, she was ably assisted by Mrs. Vivian Commey (the Black American
wife of Rev. Frank Commey, one of the first Pastors of the Church) who came on
vacation with her husband.
·
Rev. Amaziah A. Armah and Rev.
Ezekiel Odarkwei Mills took over the leadership and teaching of the youth
from Eld. Mrs. Aboagye in 1973 to
ease her difficulty at the time since her assistant had returned to the U.S.
with her husband.
·
The first youth branch after the Korle
Gonno central youth fellowship was the Nima
Assembly. Others then followed suite.
·
In 1975, Sis. Dora Akushia Amoo was then appointed leader of the Korle Gonno Central Youth Fellowship. Since then,
then fellowship was led by its peers.
·
Upon her
return from the United States in 1976,
Sis. Lawson requested for a national coordination of the various branches of
the Movement. The first National
Executives were then appointed. They were: Eld. John Kwame Aboagye, (first qualified Ghanaian Aeronautical
Engineer and a Bible Teacher of the Church), Chairman; Pastor Moses
Pappoe, Vice Chairman; Bro. David Martin Lawson,Secretary.
They were charged with the responsibility of overseeing and coordinating all
activities of the fellowship, e.g. organizing quizzes, outreach programs, etc.
·
In the same
period between 1975 & 1976, the
late Apostle Azu Crabbe, then a
young pastor, organized youth all-night
services every two weeks on assembly and district levels dubbed “MetuNwom”. Paving way for a somewhat
smooth take off of the fellowship at the national level (but still within
Greater Accra).
·
The first District Level elections were
held in 1980 (In the Greater Accra
Region).
·
The
fellowship’s fortnight all-night service
was disbanded by the church
authorities in 1981, leading to a
halt in almost all youth activities.
·
In February 1983, an all-male prayer group led by Rev. Maxwell Ashirifi Nunoo (then an
Elder) emerged, reviving the fellowship again. The group included: Bros. Edward
Amarboi Amartey, Isaac Larkotey, Isaac Ahene Nunoo, Benet Adade, Emmanuel
Ashong, AmalaiAmarquaye, Bismark Nunoo, Nii Okai Nunoo, Emmanuel Aryee Quaye,
Nii Nunoo.
·
Upon his
retirement from active service, the Youth Fellowship actually took off from
where the founder left off being the first to organize National Conventions
before any other organ in the church.
·
The first National Youth Convention was
held at Nsawam in May 1984. It constituted the following
Districts: West 1, West 2, West 3, ‘A’ East, Tema (all in the Greater Accra
Region) and Nsawam.
·
The
convention program was instituted to revamp and strengthen weaker branches of
the church, build membership faith, win more souls and to plant more branches
of the church, which was greatly accomplished.
·
The Nsawam
convention was as a result of a member’s call to help bring to Nsawam the
vibrancy of the fellowship in Accra. The request was put forward by Bro.
Michael Laryea, a member employed with Barclays Bank as a Clerk, and
transferred to Nsawam.
·
The
convention was organized in a curfew period.
·
A total of a
little over seven hundred (700) members were present for the first national
convention at Nsawam.
·
Upon allegations of impropriety after the
eighth national convention at Takoradi
in September 1988, the fellowship
suffered a six-year suspension –
suspended from holding any youth activity nationwide.
·
By this
suspension, the first drafted church constitution had to withdraw the
fellowship from the authority of the Church Administration (N.E.B) and placed
directly under the authority and supervision of the founder’s office; thus,
Rev. Dr. Comfort Lawson.
·
The first church constitution was drafted
by Rev. Dr. Bannor.
The new era
·
The ban on all youth activities was lifted in 1994 and a new National Executives appointed, with Rev. Francis
Kpakpo Addo as Chairman.
·
The first
convention after the lifting of the 1988 suspension was held in Kumasi from
September 1st – 4th 1994.
·
After the
1988 suspension, measures were taken by the National Executive Board (NEB) to
rectify the anomalies before constituting the second National Youth Executives.
The following were agreed on:
1.
Age limit was placed on membership of the fellowship, which was pegged between 15 – 22yrs. After
membership objection, the age limit was raised to 30yrs. The 1999 Church
Constitution however re-pegged the age limit between 13 – 20yrs.
2.
Youth Pastors
were attached to all Local, District and Regional Youth centres.
3.
Bible
Teachers were appointed to handle all aspects of youth programmes and teachings
at National Conventions.
·
Rev. Maxwell Nunoo remains the longest serving National Youth Executive, having served in various
capacities in all five administrations since 1984.
Credit: National Youth Coordinating Executives ( NYCE )
