Ghana #4: Presbyterian Lay Training Center in Tamale and Journey to Upper Presbytery
by Jeff Ritchie
Monday morning saw us at the Presbyterian Lay Training Center in Tamale. This is the primary place for training catechists, who are unordained pastors serving in the rural churches and preaching points throughout both the Northern and the Upper Presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.
We were greeted by the staff and shown a presentation of the work of the Center which is quite ambitious. In addition to the training of catechists, they have four special programs done in partnership with the presbyteries: Mobile Training, Dialogues for Peace, Encounters for Transformation, and Youth for Work.
The latter is a quite innovative project that is only a year old and is designed to offer hope to young people that they can make a living in the north (and not have to migrate to southern Ghana). Young people are identified by their churches and sent to the Center to be equipped with practical and entrepreneurial skills for career building and improved opportunities in the job market. Currently, the following skills are taught: agribusiness, fashion design, carpentry, hairdressing, and weaving.
Our excitement about the innovative training programs was tempered as they shared the challenges of their Center. Its buildings are in dire need of upgrading, and the vehicle, so key to the mobile training, is over twenty years old!
Over lunch, the Director, the Rev. Dr. Martin Nabor, told us his story and gave us an insight into what the leadership of the Lay Training Center is accomplishing in spite of their challenges. An orphan by the time he was nine, he overcame countless obstacles with the help of others to become a leader who was now “paying it forward.” The Rev. Nabor and the other faculty of the Center are helping youth and lay leaders see the gifts God has given them; improving those lives through training; and watching them make a difference in church and society as they put their training into action. Power to you, courageous and faithful staff of the Lay Training Center in Tamale!