Workers of the One-In-Town Integrity Restaurant decided to join organized labour in one of its numerous demonstrations to protest government’s ‘poor policies’ gradually snuffing the happiness out of their lives.

By design or coincidence, management of the Integrity Restaurant approved that it workers can as well take 20 more days off. Calm down, your favourite restaurant is not about closing down.

Rest assured! Management thought it wise to seize the opportunity to implement something akin to their name but has been on the table for years – a cafeteria without attendants.

Services of experienced hands who can cook mouthwatering continental and local foods were hired on part-time basis to put their talent into display.  Assorted foods ready-to-be served lined up the table. Fridges stocked with all kinds of drinks. Everything needed at a restaurant was available at the Integrity Restaurant except people to serve patrons. You serve yourself and pay for the service without compulsion.

Unmanned Coffee Shop at Pentecost Convention Centre

This is not possible in my country Ghana. Yeah I know the doubting Thomases are around. Why can’t it be possible? At least in the Netherlands, you only have to drive to a fuel station, pumped in the product yourself without any attendant helping you. When you are OK with the litres in your car, you move to a stall manned by one person to settle your bills.  Here the fuel entering the car is monitored on a computer.  But the Integrity Restaurant decided to go a step further. No human or computer monitors what you buy. One has to be truthful to himself, could that be too much to ask?

Within hours, news went viral about Integrity’s bold initiative. People were eager to swamp the restaurant to treat themselves to sumptuous foods and drinkables. This is indicative of how the novelty has been accepted.

A prophet whispered a mundane refrain to me on how he sees legions trooping to locate the restaurant. I paid less attention to him, anyway. Call him a stubborn prophet; perhaps I am the hardened soul. Within a split second, my head swung first to the left, bounced back, unable to take its perpendicular position, the accompanying force propelled it to the right side, then to left again. The repetitive movements and the alacrity with which they occurred caught me seeing bling, bling, bling stars. It was a stunning voice storming through my ear drums. In fact my right ear which the hurricane first hit suffered a lot: the ear lobe was flapping as though it was just secured by the devil to fan himself in hell.

It took the Love of God to give me a second chance to hear again after the cacophonous sound from the Prophet to get my attention nearly shuttered this already fainted eardrum. The reckless honking and tooting by careless drivers and self-regulated shops-turned-clubs playing monstrous noise they called music day and night have already done enough damage to my ears.

All that the Prophet was strenuously trying to get to my hearkened heart was: “I see the good, the virtuous, the righteous, the saints, honourable et al, as well as the bad, the depraved, the sinful, the evil, the corrupt and their cohorts, with a common determining spirit googling the Integrity Restaurant in eagerness.”

Many googlers discovered where Integrity is located and from all directions, they set off to satisfy their hunger, and curiosity. An angel travelling along with a devil mustered “we are surely going to experience the taste of Paradise soon”. The devil didn’t utter a word, he just nodded. Forcing out a word could easily expose his evil intention. You will shudder to know his aside. I didn’t want to hear either.

Those from Koforidua, Kumasi etc drove through Accra, hit the George Walker Bush Highway towards Mallam. The journey continued from Mallam joining the Accra-Winneba road going westward. My people from Central welcomed colleagues from Western as they set off on the Winneba road. They didn’t stop at Winneba, they by-passed the Aboakyire people speeding in Accra’s direction.  Commuters, from north, south, east and west converged at Kasoa, a popular market city.  In fact Kasoa is the Hausa word for market. The original name is Odukpong Kpehe.

They graciously followed the signpost southward into the ocean, well not exactly into the wide sea. They will at least have to run through Gomoa Nyanyano. They turned at a branch road with a screaming directional billboard – Pentecost Convention Centre. Here we come! After several minutes of maneuvering, they exclaimed excitedly as they arrived at Yesu Krom (Jesus’ Town) as the area is christened. Buildings here are on the soil of Gomoah Fetteh: the township proper is a bit remote from the Centre.

Pentecost Convention Centre is such a magnificent edifice to behold. The first time a colleague discovered the Convention Centre built by the Church of Pentecost for any Christian-purposed gathering, puffed out encouraging words from his fluffy checks.  Not a member of the church though, he gave me a broad smile and complimented: “Members of this Church would not relent on paying tithes if they are being used for such just and noble causes”. Yeah you arrrrre right!

The Centre has a range of guest houses meeting international standards for all class of people. It has a canteen – with different department – which can sit hundreds of hungry bellies. It has several auditoriums from 200 to 5000-seater capacities. The building design combined with the greenery produces a waoowing spectacle. There is always this naturally scented breeze blowing around. You gotta be there!

The Centre now holds the Pentecost Theological Seminary, training Ministers for Ghana’s fastest growing church – The Church of Pentecost of course! The Church now accounts for 8 percent of Ghana’s population. That’s according to the Chairman of the Church, Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah in his state of the church address at the 14^th Extra Ordinary Council Meeting as captured by the 166 edition of the Pentecost Fire: the official magazine of the Church.

Sorry!!! Thousand apologies to all travelers. The Integrity Restaurant were meant for wannabe Pastors alone. Disappointment all over. Forgive me, it’s my bad.

Hostels at the Pentecost Convention Centre

The Seminary played host to 129 students across the globe who underwent training to strengthen them physically and spiritually to propagate the word of God as Ministers. The composition of 2013/14 year group is as follows: 109 from the various areas of the Church in Ghana and 20 from fourteen nations outside Ghana namely: China(1), Italy(1), Switzerland(1), United Kingdom(2), Nigeria(2), Liberia(4), Cameroon(1), Togo(1), Guinea Bissau(1), The Gambia(1), Malawi(2), Zimbabwe(1), Burundi(1) and Ethiopia (1)

To be a man of God, CHARACTER is key. And INTEGRITY to me is Supreme. Handlers of the 129 aspiring pastors therefore decided to test their integrity.

A Coffee Shop (my Integrity Restaurant) was therefore set up at the Centre’s canteen meant only for the ministerial students. They have on sale drinks, pastries, fruits, scratch cards etc. Two of the under training Pastors, usually refer to as Probational Overseers – Samuel Opata and Samuel Dogbe – were tasked to only restock the coffee shop. And that was all. No other human involvement in transaction. The would-be pastors do go there as often as they can, pick anything of their choice, without anybody watching over your shoulders, one is instinctively obliged to pay for the item purchased and take his change, if there is any, from the money box.

At the end of the course, the students proved themselves worthy to be men of God. The unmanned Coffee Shop did not run at a loss. Each and every patron distinguished himself creditably, Principal of the Pentecost Theological Seminary, Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Anim declared at their Commissioning Service in July.

The 129 Ministers and their wives being Commissioned

A regular patron of the Coffee Shop, Pepease-bound Overseer Ebenezer Kojo Afedzie shared his experience on how he and his colleague Ministers’ integrity was tested. Osofo Afedzie was a nominee from Adwen-Bu District under Kaneshie Area.

“The idea behind the Coffee Shop was not communicated to us,” he narrated, “it was only introduced to us as one of the several places we can shop from.”

At the end of the course they were informed that the idea was to tease out their “TRUSTWORTHINESS”.

“If we can be truthful to ourselves and handle such a thing, then wherever you are, whether there are people around you or not, you can be truthful to God without anybody watching,” Overseers Afedzie sermonized.

Of course, one has no business being in the ministry, if this didn’t work.

“If everybody will behave this way, without always watching over our shoulders to do the right thing, the country will develop,” he said as he recommended that the test is extended to cover the entire Church.

After this practice has gained ground and accepted among the saints, the next step, hopefully, is in Isaiah 55:1 ““Come, all you who are thirsty,
    come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without cost.”  If you agree with me say AMEN!

Well, well, well. How many of us will sail unscathed should we be put into such test? I bet you a number of Pastors we have in Ghana will woefully fail. I am sure you have lost count of the number of pastors who have brought the name of the Most High God into disrepute. They are always in the news for the bad reason.

Never mind, man is fallible. As human as they are I don’t blame them entirely.

It is for this and many other reasons why the Church of Pentecost enshrined in its Pastors handbook, strict rules to save the son of man from falling.

I doff my hat off in salute for the 129 Ministers who passed that INTEGRITY test.

 

Email: myessel@gmail.com