A church without the Holy Spirit has no sense of direction – Prophet David Kankam Beditor

Prophet David Kankam Beditor

The Ashaiman Area Head of the Church of Pentecost, Prophet David Kankam Beditor, has admonished congregants in the Ashaiman Area to have confidence in the ability of the Holy Spirit to direct their path to wealth and safety.

Speaking at the Area Week-3 programme on Wednesday morning at the James McKeown Temple on the theme, “coming with the Holy Ghost fire,” Prophet Beditor likened the Holy Ghost to the attributes of fire and implied that as the smoke from a fire gives a sense of direction to a wanderer in the forest to ran to safety, so does the Holy Spirit directs and guides the path of the believer to their ordained destination.

He explained, “when someone is lost in the forest, the smoke from a fire shows the person exactly where people are. It is the same way the Holy spirit shows the church direction...in our business and living …a church without the Holy Spirit has no sense of direction…it is the Holy Ghost that puts the church in auto pilot. It directs the church by himself in difficult times.”

Prophet however cautioned that the initial stages of the Holy Ghost baptism may not be entirely gloomy, “but when you get to the level of the Holy Spirit, you become stable…the church does not struggle to take control of difficult situation.” he added

Furtherance to that, he expressed the point that one cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit and continues to experience hardship or misfortune because the power of the fire resident in them is able to melt away all difficult situations and also cause them to do exploit.

He continued to explain that the presence of the Holy Spirit puts to flight all alien armies from the life of the receiver. Therefore what is expected of the Christian is to continue to flame into fire the Holy Spirit in order to light their path.

Also speaking at the evening session of the programme was the District Pastor of New Moneomanye District, Pastor David Dorsu who took turns to describe the three dimensions of the Holy Spirit, “God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”

He indicated that the presences of the Holy Spirit renews all aspects of the believers’ life and leaves no traces of iniquities. “If the Spirit of God dwells in us, all iniquities are gone. We no longer live for ourselves.” he said

Pastor Dorsu reassured the congregants that the presences of the Holy Spirit would ensure that they do not struggle and that every declaration that proceeds from their mouth shall be establish by God.

About the Area Week

The Area Week is a period where the congregants of a number of Districts located within geographically determined boundaries of the church meet for prayers and teachings for a period of one week. The Area Week-3 is therefore the third gathering of all 15 Districts located within the boundaries of Adeji Kojo, Kantmanso, Afienya, Ashaiman, and Sackey in the year. The programme brought together about 1400 congregants including Pastors, Retired Pastors and Apostles across the Area. The weeklong programme which began on Monday 4 November would end on Friday 8 November, 2019.

First Published/Citinewsroom.com

Ghana Celebrates International Biodiversity Day in Accra

A cross section of participants

To collectively address biodiversity loss for sustainable development, Ghana joins the international community to mark the 2019 International Day for Biological Diversity in Accra under the local theme; “Promoting our indigenous Foods and Medicines; A Catalyst for Achieving the Ghana beyond Aid Agenda.”

Stemming from the international theme, “Our Biodiversity, Our Food, Our Health,” the local theme was adopted to promote the consumption of our indigenous foods and medicines within the parameters of sustainable development agenda, and in line with our national development priorities as well as to leverage knowledge and spread awareness of the dependency of our food systems, nutrition, and health on biodiversity and healthy ecosystems.

Hon. Minister for Environment, Prof.Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng

Speaking at the event, the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng admits that sustainable development cannot be achieved with our dependency on the rich and indigenous foods and medicines.

Therefore as the country aspires to be a country beyond aid, there is the need for an integrated system to embrace the consumption of indigenous foods. 

This he adds can only be achieved by conserving the lands and water for food production, safeguarding and restoring our agricultural landscape and seascapes, implementing measures that support the production and consumption of healthy foods rich in vitamins and minerals, well as supporting traditional foods, culture and knowledge.

The Minister further indicates that the decline and loss of agro-biodiversity and also essential knowledge of traditional medicine and local food has direct link to disease or health risk factors such as diabetes, obesity, malnutrition, and has a direct impact on the availability of traditional medicines.

The moderator, Samuel Dotse who also happens to be the CEO of HATOF Foundation was of the view that healthy biodiversity is not a luxury- it is the foundation of all life on earth.

It is therefore important for the country to see biodiversity as the foundation for our food and health and a key catalyst to transforming food systems and improving human health - anything short of this, the very survival of humankind will be threatened.

Expert Panel

The event created the platform for experts to discuss existing policies, strategies, plans and other innovative approaches being adopted to promote the production & consumption of our indigenous foods and medicines , and exchanged knowledge on how to encourage citizens to embrace the grow, eat, and wear Ghana agenda.

Also in attendance were students, civil society organizations, the private sector and industry players, faith based organizations, and the academia.

A number of innovations were also exhibited in line with the theme of the programme.

Exhibitors

Climate change will retard Ghana’s development gains if not tackled

Mr. Samuel Dotse

The Chief Executive Officer of HATOF Foundation and the Country Coordinator of Climate Action Network-Ghana, Mr. Samuel Dotse, has expressed concerns about climate change which he says is severely impacting Ghana and continues to threaten economic growth and livelihoods of vulnerable populations across the country.

He indicated that if the national action plans put forward by government are not timely and adequately implemented to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, the country’s economy will suffer growth.

“If we fail in the implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions, it is likely to retard our developmental gains and hinder our quest to becoming a fully-fledged middle income country”. He warned

According to Mr. Dotse, “climate change is now a development issue that must be tackled from the development perspective”.

With the evidence of impact such as drought, deforestation and biodiversity loss, sea-level rise, floods, erratic rainfall pattern, increase in temperature, and water stress, across the country, climate change affects all sectors of the economy including agriculture, health, energy, transport, water, and forestry therefore actions plans put forward in Ghana’s Nationally determined Contributions, as our commitment to undertaking climate actions must be carried out not under business as usual conditions,” he said

Speaking at the press briefing organised by Climate Action Network-Ghana on Friday in  Accra,in the lead up to the Africa Climate Week Scheduled from March 18-22, 2019 in Ghana, Mr. Dotse called on the media to join in the Campaign for ambitious climate action to promote equity and social justice between peoples, sustainable development of all communities, and protection of the environment.

Mr. Dotse further announced the Network’s commitment to support the government of Ghana in its domestic and international resource mobilization strategy for the implementation of the national action plans, as well as inspire business, community, and individual actions to achieve Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contributions.

Climate Action Network-Ghana is a network of individual Ghanaian civil society organisations admitted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and committed to the protection of the earth against harmful climate change caused by the constant and fast-growing emission of greenhouse gases by humans.

About the Africa Climate Week scheduled from March 18-22, 2019 in Ghana

At the press briefing, Mr. Dotse updated the media on the Africa Climate Week, while he provided background to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement and how the Africa Climate Week promotes efforts to implement the Paris Agreement.

He informed that the Africa Climate Week represents the first major climate-orientated event in 2019 that aims to mobilize financial support to implement countries’ including Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and climate action to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Ghana requires $22.6 billion to implement all the 31 programmes, made up of 11 adaptations and 20 mitigation programmes of action put forward in the Nationally Determined Contributions from 2020-2030. Of the $22.6 billion, $6.3 billion and $16.3 billion are expected to be mobilised from domestic and international sources respectively.

The 2019 Africa Climate Week will also act as a focal point for actors to showcase ground-breaking solutions to climate change.

It also serves as a lead-up to the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit in September 2019, bringing together diverse actors from the public and private sectors- to catalyse ambitious action on the ground to reduce emissions and strengthen climate resilience.

The theme for the ACW “Climate Action in Africa: A Race We Can Win” resonates with the September Summit and will focus on the following six transformational areas:

• Energy Transition
• Nature-based Solutions
• Cities and Local Actions
• Climate Actions
• Carbon Pricing
• Reducing Emissions from Industry and Building Resilience

The event has attracted over 2000 delegates including UN staffs, Scientists, Ministers, Policymakers, youth delegates, and non-Party stakeholders from businesses, community initiatives, financial institutions, and city municipalities across the globe.

The high-level segment on the morning of Wednesday, 20 March, will be formally opened by the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo; Ghanaian actress and television personality, Joselyn Dumas; and COP24 President MichałKurtyka.

First Published/Citinewsroom.com

Government called upon to Collaborate with Youth to Implement Climate Actions

Participating youth in the Workshop

An on-ground consultation workshop on youth and climate change adaptation has been held among selected young people and youth organisations working on climate adaptation in Ghana last Wednesday 27 February 2019 at CSIR-STEPRI, Accra.

The one-day consultation was in support of Adapt for Our Future Project being implemented by YOUNGO - the Children and Youth Constituency to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The project seeks to outline youth climate adaptation actions, challenges young people face and how these challenges are overcome. The outcome is expected to feed into the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA) Flagship report on Adaptation to be presented at the side-lines of the upcoming UN Climate Summit in September 2019.

The consultation in Ghana gathered inputs, past experiences, and learned lessons from the participating youth brought together from research institutions, private sector, local governments and civil society organisations, working on climate adaptation at the local, national and international levels.

The consultation also had experts from climate change negotiators, private sector and the National Disaster Management Organisation who shared their experiences and engagement in climate adaptation and their involvement of youth in that regard.

Speaking at the workshop, the Principal Programme Officer from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who is also a climate change negotiator, Dr. Antwi-Boasiako Amoah provided the youth with insight into climate change from the global perspective to government of Ghana’s adaptation measures to dealing with the impacts of climate change.

Dr. Amoah revealed that climate change adaptation and development is sometimes difficult to distinguish but indicated that climate change is not abstract and that “it is about survival… something that is telling on our living every now and then, practically every day” the reason why it required collective effort in dealing with it. Dr. Amoah also noted the absence of a policy framework on engagement of youth in climate change processes, decision making and intervention as a hindrance to effective engagement of youth in climate actions.  “The future of the country is compromised if programmes do not serve youth and youth are not involved,” he warned.

The Head of Climate Change Department, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Madam Charlotte Norman also shared the work of NADMO in dealing with the impact of climate change - like flooding, as well the organisation’s involvement of the “youth in research and innovation at the early stages” to support Ghana in its preparedness to ensure a climate resilient and climate compatible environment. She expressed her appreciation for the organisation of the workshop and asked that such collaborative workshops are often held for the youth to place themselves in identifying their roles, and opportunities for an enhanced engagement in the country’s climate change agenda.

Mr. Thomas Kankam, from Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), the umbrella body of all private sector operatives in Ghana, also presented the business case for climate change and indicated that although profit-making has been the primary objective of businesses, the private sector is gradually coming to terms with the need to prioritize environmental sustainability as businesses are not done in vacuum. He then assured the youth of their willingness to further engage them to transform ideas into action and create opportunities for future plans and programmes.

The consultation ignited passion among the youth, and promoted active thinking on how to initiate, sustain, and enhance local adaptation measures. Participants called on government to collaborate with youth and youth-led organisations to implement its Climate Change Learning Strategy, including integration of climate change into the educational curriculum.

The EPA, the national climate change focal institution was also called upon to coordinate climate actions of youth, and lead policy processes together with other relevant sector institutions such as the National Youth Authority to institutionalize engagement of youth in climate action as a requirement.

The consultation was organised by HATOF Foundation, Agorvie Youth for Sustainable Development (AY4SD) and Abibiman Foundation on behalf of YOUNGO.

First Published/Citinewsroom.com