Africa West Area Presidency Visits Vocational Training Center, Delivers Devotional On Spiritual Learning

Members of the Africa West Area Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints paid a visit to The Gathering Place in the Kasoa district of Accra, Ghana on 28 August, 2024.  As part of the visit to see the vocational skills that are being taught there, all three members of the presidency spoke in a devotional delivered to students, instructors, staff, and visitors.

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The Gathering Place is a vocational training program, offered free of charge, to Young Single Adults, both members of the Church and not.  The program is organized and implemented across the Africa West Area by local Church districts and conducted out of the local Church meeting houses.  Qualified instructors help train and educate participants in vocations of their choice, including culinary arts, construction, computer repair, sewing, graphic arts, wig making, automobile driving, and more.

The program has had great success in preparing students to be self-reliant through marketable vocational skills, with many graduates not only becoming gainfully employed, but with some able to start their own businesses.  However, the real focus of the program is to provide full and well-rounded individual and spiritual development.  For this reason, all students are required to attend institute classes as well. While visiting their institute class, Elder Adeyinka A. Ojediran, first counsellor in the Africa West Area Presidency, asked one of the students to read D&C 29:34, which says, “Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual.”  He then asked them to understand that everything about the Gathering Place, though ostensibly focused on temporal activities that teach vocational skills, is spiritually based and ultimately geared to their spiritual development.

Following the tour of the various skills-based classes, the Area Presidency, along with all others present, gathered into the large meeting hall where the presidency delivered their devotional addresses.

Elder Isaac K. Morrison, first counsellor in the presidency, was the first speaker and counselled students to live after the manner of happiness through self-reliance.  Referring to the Book of Mormon, Elder Morrison recounted the efforts of Nephi in teaching his people to be self-reliant.  Among the various verses he read to them, he noted 2 Nephi 5:17  “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cause my people to be industrious, and to labor with their hands.”  He then followed up with verse 27:  “And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.” He applauded the students' self-improvement efforts and reiterated the Area Presidency’s support of the students' commitment to improving themselves and becoming self-reliant through the Gathering Place program.

Elder Ojediran spoke next and began his remarks by referencing a 2000 conference talk given by President Dallin H. Oaks who said: “In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something.” Elder Ojediran counselled the students to remember that while their temporal training  to learn a trade or skill was important, they should never forget that their learning should include time to prepare for the next life. He referenced the Liahona that Lehi and his family used to guide their direction in the wilderness, and then he talked about the Liahona magazines that help us learn to find our way in life. He then invited everyone to pull out their cell phones and create a “Lia-phona” of their own by using their favourite picture of Jesus Christ as their lock screen, background, and screen saver, so that every time they use their phone, it reminds them of the direction they are to go in their journey to become what they should become.

President Alfred K. Kyungu, president of the Africa West Area, concluded the devotional by teaching the students about the nature of their learning.  Beginning with 2 Nephi 28:30, he taught: “For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts.” He explained that learning is an endless process, and that in our learning we should, as Alma expressed, “learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God” (Alma 37:35).  Then, referencing King Benjamin, he reminded them that when they are in the service of their fellow beings they are only in the service of their God, and as promised in Mosiah 2:41, he told them that in keeping the commandments of God, they would be “blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual," meaning they would be blessed in their jobs and business as well as in their personal spiritual lives.

The Area Presidency devotional at the Kasoa Gathering Place was the first of various planned across the Africa West Area.