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Teens Programmes in the North England Conference

Teens Programmes in the North England Conference

The NEC teens have been having online programmes since June after the need to have virtual programmes was identified

Lynne Sesinye-Samwinga

Since the lockdown began in March, different departments in the North England Conference (NEC) have turned to virtual streaming to reach different groups within the Conference and beyond. Like other departments in the NEC, the Teens Ministries department started planning programmes for the teens. 

On 18-22 August, the NEC Teens Ministries department under the leadership of Pastor Ikwisa Mwasumbi, had its first series of presentations on Christian music by Christian Berdahl. This music seminar exposed the methods used by Satan to entrap Christians into music that is not of God. Christian uses the Bible, Spirit of Prophecy, science and even the music industry itself to back up his presentations. 

On the first day Christian introduced the music seminar by talking about the impact of music on the brain. On the subsequent presentations he talked about the different genres of music and their history. On Saturday he talked about the different types of worship music using the acronym MUSIC. He stated that music should be Meaningful, not trivial. It should not diminish the beauty and dignity of God. Godly music should also be Untainted and not lead us to think in a worldly way. It should be Spiritual and not encourage aggressive behaviours and thoughts. Godly music should also be Inspirational, not degrading. He also said that godly music should be Clear, not disguised or confuse the Christian or the truth. 

The seminar which was broadcasted on Zoom and Facebook live was watched by people in different continents. Viewers were able to reveal on Zoom that they had logged in from Brazil, Malawi, Russia, just to name a few. One young lady from Russia was eager to learn more from the presentations as she was planning on recording an album.

On Sabbath the teens from Worcester church led in the Cornerstone lesson for an hour before Christian presented his last seminar of the series. The seminar was well-received by some of the teens who stated that, "It was an eye-opening seminar. Often we don't think that the type of music we listen to or play matters to God." 

From 22-29 August, there was another weeklong programme for the teens on the history of Africa. During the summit, historian Professor Kofi Owusu-Mensa presented on the story of a great African civilisation which most young people hardly hears anything about. Every night for a week people logged in on Zoom and watched on Facebook live to hear more about the African history and culture.

The NEC teens have been having online programmes since June after the need to have virtual programmes was identified. On 21 June, which happened to be Father's Day, Pastor Ikwisa Mwasumbi called a Zoom meeting for parents and leaders in the NEC to discuss what programmes they would like to see planned for their teens and Pathfinders. There were lots of suggestions from parents and leaders.

On 25 July, the teens logged in on Zoom to discuss the Cornerstone Sabbath School lesson with their peers for the first time since lockdown. Since then they have not looked back. They keep coming back week after week with the encouragement of the NEC Teens Committee which includes Helderberg Jackson, Lynne Sesinye-Samwinga, Pastor Isaac Liburd, Sharon Wallace, Clifton, Keshia Mellis and the Teens Leadership Training cohort. The other programmes that this committee have been working on includes mental health presentations as well as a midweek prayer meeting.

The committee has more virtual programmes planned for the teens, whilst churches are still closed.