Mother’s day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in May. It complements similar celebrations honoring family members and this year’s celebration as usual coincided with the Women’s Ministries day celebration of Assemblies of God Ghana. This day was celebrated in all local Assemblies of God Churches in Ghana and the Nsawam Central AG church in Eastern Region ‘B’ was not left out. The day was marked with several activities including women’s ministries parade, drama by the WM theater group, singing and dancing.
There were series of programs organized within the week towards the main celebration on Sunday. The head Pastor of the church, Rev. David Owusu Ansah in his exhortation to the church emphasized on the need for mothers to be responsible. He noticed that most of the social vices been perpetrated by the youth today is as a result of some parents who were not responsible in keeping watch over their children. Notwithstanding that, he commended mothers who have shown compassion and care even when some fathers neglected their responsibility to take care of their children.
Rev. Owusu Ansah also praised the women’s ministry for their unflinching support they have constantly showed to his ministry. He stressed that “Like Mary Magdalene, Susanna and others who contributed to the ministry of Jesus, Nsawam Central AG Women’s Ministries have also been supportive and encouraged them to continue in that spirit. The Christian woman must walk under the influence of the Holy Spirit so we can bear the fruit of the spirit, he stressed. Rev. Owusu Ansah concluded by congratulating all mothers in the church and wished them a “happy mother’s day’’.
The guest speaker for the occasion, Ps. Daniel Arthur in his sermon outlined some characteristics that mothers should possess in reference to a Bible text read from Exodus 2:1-6. He emphasized that every woman must be courageous like Jochebed who defied the decree by Pharaoh and rather chose for her son Moses to live. He further stipulated that motherhood is not seen as only giving birth to your own child but by way of nurturing other people’s children, you automatically become a mother. He used the daughter of Pharaoh to prove this point. “Even though Moses was not the biological son of Pharaoh’s daughter, she had compassion and treated him like his own” he said. To this, Ps. Arthur posited that when we have the opportunity to care for other people’s children, we should have compassion on them and not maltreat them, because we don’t know what the future lies for those children. He said “that child you are taking care of who is not your child is a great president, lawyer, pastor, teacher, etc”. He further encouraged the women to keep close eye on their children so that they don’t go astray. He said Miriam had a duty and that duty was to keep watch over the baby in the basket and she excelled in that duty. In other words, women have a responsibility to train their children in a Christian manner.
In conclusion, Ps. Arthur asserted that women need to be celebrated and asked “where was Moses father when all these were happening and Hannah’s husband when she was praying? He urged Fathers to also take time off their busy schedules to help mothers in nurturing their children.
The Chairperson for the occasion Mrs. Grace Atta-Adjepong also took the opportunity in her closing remarks to thank the executives of the Women’s Ministries for such honour accorded to her to chair the occasion and urged parents to pay more attention to the personal hygienic issues of their children and also enroll in the national health insurance as well as renew their children’s health insurance card to assist them access health care since she bears witness to the strides the scheme has made in tackling barriers in accessing health care in our developing world.
Funds were also raised to support ongoing projects being undertaken by the church. The program was climaxed with refreshment for all church members provided by the Women’s Ministry.
