Ministers of the Gospel have been implored to create an enabling environment in the Church for Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) to worship God in a congenial atmosphere.
The Chairman of The Church of Pentecost, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, who made the call, said PWDs are also children of God and, therefore, needed to be given the space to express themselves before God in the Church.
Apostle Eric Nyamekye made the call at a service held in his honour at the Rev. Emmanuel Kwadwo Kyei Memorial Temple at Tarkwa on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, as part of his working visit to the Western and Western-North Regions.
He made the intervention during a presentation on Vision 2023 by Apostle Joseph Kwame Assabil, Takoradi Area Head and Executive Council Member, on the Local Church, which is the focal point for most of the Church’s spiritual life and development activities.
The Chairman further advised them to be innovative and learn from other pastors who are doing well in the implementation of the vision.
Some of the pastors shared their experiences on how they are implementing the vision in their districts. One of such experiences shared by Pastor Dr. DeGraft Issaka Suleman, General Manager of Pentecost Clinic, Tarkwa and Resident Minister of the Emmanuel Worship Centre at Tamso, on ministry to the PWDs, received the attention of the Chairman and was subsequently adopted for use by other districts. He has collected data on all PWDs in his district for effective discipleship and has put in place structures to help them have a serene environment to worship in the district.
Apostle Joseph Assabil, who doubles as the Coordinator of the Western Regional Coordinating Committee, entreated the ministers to make conscious effort to implement the vision at their respective districts to make the transformational agenda of the Church a reality.
Per the Vision 2023, the Church shall strengthen ministry to persons with disabilities. In doing this, working groups/teams shall be set up to look for and share the gospel with persons with disabilities at all levels.
The Church shall also design intervention programmes to help care and attend to the needs of the disabled community, including the provision of braille materials for people who are blind, listening devices for people who are hearing impaired, and large prints for people who are visually impaired.
It shall create disability awareness in any ways practicable among members, educate the members to make their assemblies disability-friendly. This may include the provision of climbing ramps, special toilet facilities, disable friendly parking spaces etc.
Again, skilled persons as well as interested and committed members will be trained in how to communicate, evangelise and disciple persons with disabilities.
As part of the vision, persons with disabilities won for Christ shall be assimilated and integrated into the local church, and that at least each central assembly will be required to have a sign language interpreter to facilitate communication among the deaf and dumb during church services.
The Church shall further endeavour to partner with Government to equip persons with disabilities won for Christ with the needed skills to be productive in the communities in which they live.
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