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Very soon, the Assemblies of God Church, Ghana will no longer spend huge sums of money to rent venues and facilities to host and perform its regional and national activities and programmes within the Greater Accra jurisdiction.

This is because, the Regional Council of the church has commenced a massive project to construction a first-class retreat centre at Shai Hills Resort located along the Accra-to- Akossombo highway. 

The ultra-modern project which promises to be first of its kind when completed will include amenities such as 4,000-seater auditorium, hotel, sports arena as well as social centre.

This development was disclosed by the Greater Accra Regional Superintendent of the church, Rev Dr. Joseph Baisie during the 22nd Regional Council Meeting held at the project site, (Shai Hills Resort) last Thursday, February 9 under the theme: “Liberty In The Spirit”.    

Reasons For the Project

Explaining why the Church needed such facility, Rev Dr. Baisie said the quest for a retreat centre has been the heart cry for the church to get it within the confine of greater Accra.

He noted that, what necessitated its immediate construction is the fact some ministries in the church on many occasions spend whopping sums of money just to rent venues just to undertake their retreats or seminars.

Regional Superintendent specifically cited an example of the Women Ministry when they rented the Catholic University grounds for retreat and end up spending a whopping sum of GH₵ 100,000.

Rev Dr. Baisie said “now (we have) this place, why can’t we also (develop it) so it becomes ours and bring them here so that we use the money to defray cost and even the work of the ministry?”

Commenting on the occasion, the Regional Superintendent said “We come, we socialize and fellowship” which is our motivation for this gathering.

According him, the other motivation for the Council Meeting is to address “very salient issues” that have gone on over the period but the leadership could not have time to converge and address it except here.

He said, therefore, “this year, we take the opportunity to address the issues”, explaining that the event is also a place where the General Superintend (Rev. Dr. Paul Frimpong Manso) has the opportunity to come and bring his address so that the corporate vision of the church is spelt out for us as pastors gathered here can send the message to their respective local churches.   

“Liberty In The Spirit

Speaking on the why the church chose the theme for the occasion, “Liberty in the spirit” Rev Dr. Baisie said, “in the spirit of God comes, liberty”. He explained that where there is spirit of the Lord, there is Liberty.

Spiritually charged man of God said “we must act as people, who have been saved, liberated within the confines of the scripture and not legalistic what we do. Liberated to work, liberated to give, liberated to evangelized, liberated to go into social intervention” adding, “we must move.”

No Political Witch-Hunt

The Regional Superintendent has meanwhile counseled politicians to desist from witch-hunting their opponents.

According to him, “We’ve had peaceful election and let’s sustain the peace and let’s stop the kind of things that are going on the airwaves and we must respect people in authority. You don’t just go and insult somebody. It doest matter what he has done, but let’s give some decorum to our political era and respect people in authority”.

For him, he said he is thankful to God for “wonderful and peaceful election”, one that it all we Ghanaians have stood for and we’ve gained it. However, “one of the things which we have to do is that sustainability without witch-hunt is very important.”