Posts in category: Pentsos News

PENTSOS AWARENESS WEEKEND MESSAGE

PENTSOS is 41 years. We blessed the Lord for his faithfulness.

We bring you greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has been gracious unto PENTSOS in repositioning us to be relevant and visible.

The theme for this year’s PENTSOS Awareness Week-End celebration shall be “Re-branding the social ministry to drive the Possessing the nation’s agenda of the Church”.

The theme has been carefully chosen not only to affirm the commitment made by the Church as enshrined in the Vision 2023 Possessing the Nations Agenda but also to create the necessary atmosphere that will propel the attainment of this aspiration.

Commitment 10 in the Vision 2023 Possessing the Nations Agenda of the Church of Pentecost

“We shall be committed to embarking on strategic partnerships with government in developing the nation. We will, as a result, refocus and restructure and reposition PENTSOS to work effectively as a development-oriented organization as well as a corporate organization cast in the mode of other faith-based development organizations”.

We implore our cherished Area Heads, Pastors, and Members to join us in celebrating the goodness of the Lord upon PENTSOS in the past 41 years. PENTSOS indeed has been blessed through your collective efforts.

We take this opportunity to thank the Executive Council of the Church; the Chairman, Aps. Eric Nyamekye and the General Secretary for their support and guidance.

We appreciate the efforts of the National PENTSOS Board and past Directors of PENTSOS especially Eld. Dr. Yao Yeboah and Eld. George Afrifa for their contributions and hard work. PENTSOS has come this far through your efforts.

We also appreciate our Area PENTSOS Coordinators for their support.

The Pentecost Social Services (PENTSOS) has trained 54 youth in Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District in Beekeeping and Honey production. The two days training was held on 31^st October, 2020 at Sawla through partnership arrangement with Nkunim Foods, a private sector business which will act as the off-takers for the honey when harvested. The Sawla Area of The Church of Pentecost identified, selected the beneficiaries and organized the venue for the training.

The Beekeeping enterprise is a project under PENTSOS Livelihood programme title “Enhancing Livelihoods of Youth in the Church for Sustainable Economic Development (ENLIK4S)” which aimed at building productive capacity and creating employment opportunities for unemployed youth in the church. PENTSOS through these community level livelihood projects which are income-generating will serve as an immediate and short-term measure in creating jobs for the members of the Church in deprived communities in the Oti and Northern Regions of Ghana and reduce the impact of COVID 19 and also curb rural-urban migration.

Nkunim Foods based in Accra and expert in Bee keeping and honey production provided the funding and also led the training which included a practical demonstration on how bees can be properly kept to produce uncontaminated honey for supply. The company also supplied 62 hives to all 54 participants and will purchase the extracted honey from the participants at a 50% share on each harvest, thereby creating a ready market. The participants expressed their joy for the business opportunity and the project will establish a collaborative network of beekeepers to ensure that best practices and lessons are shared.

The PENTSOS Directorate through its Health Service Unit has donated two hospital beds as part of their promise to the Ashiaman Area, to the Sandford CHPs compound now Sanford clinic in Kofi Kope at Afienya as a way to support them in serving the community.

In responding to calls by the CHPS compound for assistance in securing beds for patients who access services, the PENTSOS Directorate made this donation in curbing the situation where many patients who are admitted at the facility will be lying on benches and on bear floor for want of beds.

 Pastor Oduro Ampaw the District Minster representing the Area head Prophet David Kankam Beditor thanked the social service arm of the church for the prompt redemption and how beneficial the gesture is to the people.

Mrs. Sabina Dadzie, the nurse in charge, and the team were highly elated for the prompt redemption of the pledge and how timely it was for the provision of quality care to the people and express their keenness to ensure the people of Kofi Kope get the best of care.

Elder Alexander K. N Frimpong the Health Coordinator and Ms. Belinda Otabil, the Administrative Manager for health representing the Director of PENTSOS identified the gesture as part of the demonstration of the role that the social services are playing in the realization of the possessing the nations agenda of the church.

The Pioneer Old Students of Pentecost Preparatory School (PPS) on Friday, 9th October, 2020 donated nine ultramodern hand washing machines valued at eight thousand, six hundred and forty Ghana cedis (GHS 8,640.00) to their alma mater. Lawyer Broni Bediako, the president of the Old students of the school, presented the nine sets of the machines to the school.

In an exhortation, Apostle M.C Asiedu, the Suame Area Head, admonished the students to take their lessons seriously to reach the highest height in life. He encouraged the students to add value to achieve greatness. Forgetfulness, he said, can be a hindrance to progress and thus, prayed for the students for God to give them retentive memories in their studies. He expressed his appreciation to the Old Students for the kind gesture. In attendance were Ps. Fred Obboh (Local Manager), Ps. Patrick Yeboah Nketiah, (School Chaplain), Eld S. K Baah, (Suame Area PENTSOS Board Chairman), PTA Executive Members, Leaders of Pioneer Batch, Staff of PPS and the students.
Miss Rhoda Fordjour, the Senior Girls Prefect of the school expressed appreciation for such a kind gesture.

The Winneba Area, through its social service wing, Pentecost Social Services (PENTSOS), on Tuesday, September 22, 2020, donated personal protective equipment (PPE) to the Trauma and Specialist Hospital, located at Winneba in the Central Region.

The items donated include 15 boxes of Deva sanitisers, 1,750 pieces of nose masks, 20 gallons of liquid soap and 120 pieces of Flora tissue papers.

They were presented to the management of the hospital on behalf of the Area by Pastor Augustine Dorman Kantiampong (Area Executive Member), Pastor Enock Amoah (Area Secretary), Pastor Isaac Sunkwah (Area PENTSOS Coordinator) and Elder John Biney (Area Deacon).

Presenting the items, Pastor Dorman Kantiampong said the gesture is in line with the church’s commitment towards the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that the Area is also hopeful that the items would help to protect the health workers from the virus as they risk their lives to provide medical assistance to patients.

Receiving the items, the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr George Kwame Prah, commended the effort of The Church of Pentecost in the fight against COVID-19 and promised to use the items for the intended purpose.

Also present at the brief presentation ceremony were Mr Umar Nurudeen (Administrator), Mrs Mercy Andoh (Nurse Manager), Dr John M. Wireko (Clinical Coordinator) and Mr Samuel Ocran (Accountant).

After the presentation, Pastor Enock Amoah prayed for management, staff and patients of the hospital.

The Pentecost Hospital at Ayanfuri has set up an ultra-modern surgical theatre to provide quality healthcare services for people of Ayanfuri and other surrounding communities.

The surgical theatre was constructed at the total cost of GHS 271,000.00 with funding support from The Church of Pentecost Headquarters.

Due to the absence of a surgical theatre, patients in the Ayanfuri area and environs who needed surgeries had to travel to Cape Coast or Tarkwa to seek medical attention. In some instances, emergency cases that could have easily been handled by the hospital were referred to other facilities at the detriment of the patients.

Since opening the surgical theatre in December 2019, a total of 48 surgeries have been successfully performed at the Hospital.

Pentecost Hospital Ayanfuri was established in 1983 as a mobile clinic until 2001 when it became a static clinic. The facility was recently upgraded from a Clinic to a Primary Hospital by the Health Facility Regulatory Agency (HeFRA) in October 2019. Currently, the Hospital has a bed capacity of 20 for admitting patients whose conditions might require short-term hospitalisation and a total staff strength of 84.

Pentecost Hospital, Ayanfuri is one the 8 health institutions of The Church of Pentecost.run by the PENTSOS Directorate, headed by Elder Richard Amaning.

Pentecost Social Services (PENTSOS), a social ministry of The Church of Pentecost, has provided livelihood opportunities for 35 young people in the Nkwanta and Dunkwa Areas of the church.

The beneficiaries are mostly unemployed young women between the ages of 19 to 35 years as well as some young men who were salvaged from “Gethos” in the Ayanfuri community who were into drugs and other social vices. They have since been provided with immediate sustainable livelihoods in order to face the future with confidence.

PENTSOS has fully paid for the cost of apprenticeship training and provided them with equipment/inputs. In the Nkwanta Area of the Oti Region alone, PENTSOS provided 10 brand new sewing machines, uniforms, and other sewing kits as well as accommodation to 10 young ladies drawn from deprived communities.

Also, in the Ayanfuri District in Dunkwa Area, 25 youth have been supported with start-up kits and apprenticeship training cost to undergo skills training in bead making, bakery, glass fabrication and sewing.

Speaking at an initiation ceremony at Nkwanta, the Nkwanta Area Head of The Church of Pentecost, Apostle James Kwabena Asare, commended PENTSOS for the timely intervention in rescuing the young women who were considering travelling to the cities in search for greener pastures.

He added that but for the intervention, some of the girls would have been given out in marriages by their parents to reduce the burden of catering for them. He admonished the girls to focus on their apprenticeship programme and allow Jesus to reign in their hearts. He urged them to demonstrate to the world that Christians can make it and allow themselves to be used as instruments to possess the nations through vocational skills development.

The PENTSOS Director, Elder Richard Amaning, stated that the livelihood support to the youth forms part of the efforts by PENTSOS to build capacities and create employment opportunities for the unemployed members of The Church of Pentecost in deprived communities through skills development and apprenticeship programme under its sustainable livelihood dubbed “Vocational Skills for Sustainable Development (VoSSD).”

“The project will among others provide start-up support to 200 youth by providing them with the basic training kits/equipment and also support them with financial assistance to establish their businesses after completing the skills training programme.

“These youth after completing the skills training programme will also have to train at least one person for free in creating a sustainable cycle of employment. In the next five years, it is expected that at least 400 other unemployed youth members of the church shall be trained by the 200 would-be masters with employable skills,” he said.

The Pentecost Social Services (PENTSOS), with funding support from The Church of Pentecost Headquarters, has constructed a mechanised borehole to provide potable drinking water for school children and people of the Abunyanya Community.

For many years, people of Abunyanya, a community in the Nkwanta North District of the Oti Region of Ghana, resorted to unimproved drinking water sources for water supply, especially during the dry season. Due to the poor state of these water sources, water-borne diseases such as typhoid was very common in the community.

In 2019, The Church of Pentecost, through its social services directorate, came to the aid of the community by constructing a borehole to provide safe drinking water for the Abunyanya community and its environs.

The facility, situated on the compound of the Abunyanya D/A Basic School “C” at Kpassa, also provides staff and pupils of the school with safe drinking water.

Speaking to PENTECOST NEWS, the Headmaster of the School, Mr Ezekiel Bawa said that the school had always struggled with access to clean water during the dry season and therefore, relied on a nearby stream for water.

“We faced a lot of challenges as a school. In the past, we relied on a stream for water. The sad reality was that that stream is where animals also drink from and sometimes discharge their droppings in. So, it got to a point that we advised the children not to fetch water from the stream any longer, but the problem was that, if they do not go to the stream, there was nowhere else they could go to fetch water.”

This problem has persisted for a long time. So, when the PENTSOS team came to tell us about their intention to construct a borehole for us, we thought it was a joke. But true to their word, they have brought the water to us. Now, we have clean water to drink; the water is benefiting all of us; teachers, school children and the entire community. We also believe that the spread of water-borne diseases will now be a thing of the past. So, we are very grateful to The Church of Pentecost,” he said.

Grubi, a community located in the Krachi-Nchumuru District in the Oti Region of Ghana, had been without a potable water supply for several years. As a result, the over 2,000 people living in the community mainly relied on unimproved sources of drinking water (rivers, streams, and ponds).

Unfortunately, efforts made in the past by various organisations to get them underground water had failed due to the difficult hydrogeological terrain in the community and surrounding areas.

In 2019, the Pentecost Social Services (PENTSOS) with funding support from The Church of Pentecost Headquarters decided to go to their aid with the hope of succeeding where others had failed.

After a short prayer had been said, a single drilling attempt by the PENTSOS team yielded a positive result. The team have since drilled a high yielding borehole and mechanised it to provide the members of the community with safe drinking water supply.

The chiefs and elders of the community in expressing their excitement over the landmark success, donated a water storage tank (Poly Tank) to support the borehole mechanisation by the church.

The water facility has been christened “The Miracle Water” by the community people in gratitude to God for causing water to gush out of the Grubi land even when it seemed technically impossible. To God be the glory!