A businessman and philanthropist, Isaac Owusu, has been commended for his benevolence to the Homabenase community in the Ashanti region after he single-handedly built a church for the local Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

He has also registered over 2,000 residents onto the National Health Insurance Scheme with plans to establish a gari processing factory to add value to cassava produced by  farmers in the Bosomtwe District.

Education Minister and Member of Parliament for the area, Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum, the leadership of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and traditional leaders have hailed the gesture of Mr. Owusu.

An imposing and magnificent edifice on the outskirts of the Homabenase farming community welcomes visitors to the community.

The benefactor, a businessman and native of Offinso, says he was touched by the plight of the local Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

Isaac Owusu says he was in the community in 2020 in the peak of Covid-19 to worship with the local congregants, only to be told they could not use the local basic school for church activities.

The district assembly had then ordered the closure of the school to all public activities, denying the congregation a place of worship.

“Barely 3-years ago, I came to Homabenase and because of the Covid-19, they were not worshiping in the classroom again. It rained so that day, there was no church. So in fact that touched me and I said let me put up a church for them.

Mr. Owusu’s intervention led to the construction of the new church. He personally bought plots of land from the chief of Homabenase, Nana Antwi Boasiako.

“It is not something that normally happens in our church in the sense that most of members have money; they have in abundance but they have not been in that line for putting up church building, and for that matter for others,”President of the South-Central Ghana Conference, Pastor Dr. Samuel Antwi-Mensah said.

Mr. Owusu also registered over 2,000 residents, mostly non-members of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church onto the National Health Insurance Scheme, donated cloth and soap to over 1,000 members of the community, and promised to build a gari processing factory for local cassava farmers.

He has promised to extend the gesture to another community.

“Well, we did National Health Insurance for 2000 of them and then the old people here, we donated some clothes and soap to them. Now I am planning of opening a small gari factory for them. I have seen that people here they do farming, so they will bring their cassava; we process it into gari for them.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT9j5so3a7w

This is to add value to the farm produce and also increase earnings of the local farmers.

This act of benevolence has attracted commendation from the Education Minister and Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, who witnessed the commissioning of the Church.

“First of all, I want to thank God for making us see today. The second gratitude goes to Elder Isaac Owusu for allowing God to use him to bless others. He is the reason why we have all gathered here. The government thus recognizes his generosity and benevolence. I am super excited today”he noted.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church is encouraging its well-to-do members to reach out to the poor in the church.

President of the South-Central Ghana Conference, Pastor Dr. Samuel Antwi-Mensah who made the appeal, observed that some of the church members who live below the poverty line require the support of wealthy men in the church for survival.

“We want to take this opportunity and thank our Elder Isaac Owusu and his family for coming out to help Homabenase Church in the Bomso District of the South-Central Conference,”he said.

“We want to take this time to appeal to our members, those among us who God has blessed that they should also be in the position to help our smaller churches; those who cannot put resources together to put up church buildings.

Some of them are worshiping under trees; some of them worship in classrooms, and others in homes and other places”Pastor Antwi-Mensah noted.