Let
me introduce you to Pastor Maclean Dogbey, Minister-In-Charge of Faith Baptist
Church in MAfi-Zongo in the Central Tongu District, Volta Region of Ghana. He
is also the minister-In-Charge of Faith Baptist Child Development Center, a
partner project of Compassion International Ghana.
He
is a very young pastor who to me is very exceptional when it comes to dealing
with child development issues as well as his involvement in the children’s
ministry. His involvement and his desire to make things happens has compelled me
to get closer to him and ask several questions.
His
reply was,” I love children and God love children, God loves me and I must love
what God loves”, he said when we do
something for children, we are doing it to God
and He will be pleased, so he must
teach the children about God so that
when they grow, they will know God, love
Him and tell people about God so that this children will have favor
with God and of men. ‘they will know,
God did not just send Jesus to come
and take our sins for nothing, but also fulfilling the great commission and
this is what I am call for and I am doing it’
He
has the time to visit the children ministry, teach them and make sure he also preaches
at the adult section. He said, if I didn’t meet them one Sunday, is like I am
refusing to do the work I am ask to do’
The
most suprising of all is, he do home visit on some of the disadvantage children
to encourage their parents on the health and education needs of their children.
Like that is not all, he went to a village in the locality which is a little
distant from Mafi-Zongo called, Mafi-AdiekpeKorfedeke, in this village we have about
300 hundred inhabitants including adults and children. There is no education
facility in the community whereby children walk about two miles before coming
to school every day. That means throug from Monday to Friday; children have to
walk through and fro to access education. He said, his visit to the community
has made him to understand that, unless the children are twelve years they
cannot go to school because walking up and down will be a difficult thing for
them. He further stated that, most of the children that are female could not
make it further because some of them becomes school drop outs due to teenage pregnancy;
some also refuse to go to school because most of their developmental stages
were spent on farm for that matter they have the desire to go into farming
rather than going to school.
He
says, “look at this children do you think they can walk the distance that we
have just covered for a whole week? Education is good but some are suffering to
have access to it. This people don’t have light no water source, no school that
means they lack everything and are living in poverty. Thank God you come here
in dry season if not you would have removed you sandals and trouser before you
can access this community, during raining season, those who can walk to the
school are separated apart because considering their age, it’s very risky to
allow them to cross daily. This can even take a whole three months making an
academic term”
“So
after I visited this place I quickly organize my church elders and we put ourselves
together and this gave birth to this school here.”
He,
his entire church elders have organized some resource and with the help of the
community members to put up a school. He goes to the school to teach these
children every day. During dry season, he goes to the school with commercial motorbike
but during the raining season, he must walk to the community to teach, this he
said, is what he is mandated to do.
He
also said some of the parents did not see the need to provide school learning
materials for the beneficiaries so he provides to them exercise books, pencils,
erasers, rules and even the school uniform that they are wearing.
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| section of children receives their school uniform |
During
our interactions, he said he will be doing this just to prepare them so that
they will be fit to go to the next school when they are old. Or he will be very
happy if government of civil society organization comes in to provide basic
amenities to these people so that their plight will be thing of the past. One of
the school beneficiaries said,”she is very happy to start school early than most
of his brother and sisters and by God’s will she will be great and help solve
his community problem”
He
said I deeply develop this passion and sacrifice because of his involvement
with Compassion International Ghana and God bless them for coming into the rescue
of the vulnerable children in the community in which he lives.
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| section of children who were given exercise books |
