The venue - Victory Bible Church. A banner behind the pulpit screamed 'RULERSHIP'. And it made some kind of ecclesiastical sense for a media giant-MGL-aware of a vicotorious year and its ruling status.

And so like a fitting nest high enough for an eagle, more than 200 staff settled inside the auditorium at Kokomlemle in Accra for the 2017 thanksgiving service.

They were blessed with the participation of the company's sponsors who have become quite frankly friends - MTN MD Ebenezer Twum Asante, Airtel MD Lucy Quist.

Arranged in a human bookshelf was the Multimedia International Choir - the name, an ingenious stroke of re-branding to hide the reality that this is a make-shift choir.

Yes they sang. And what was lacking was the record label quality of a choir was compensated by a record-label effort.

It was a choir focused on singing but with such an expensive assembly of singles, it was also a shop-window for bachelors too stressed by work to pay attention to - their gorgeous colleagues.

Their attire - white cotton top, a wave of violet and red, orange  sown at the edge.  A huge blue or red ribbon embossed on left breast as if it needed special protection from ogling eyes of men.

Praise time, Kwasi Twum who pays employees, played the tambourine with some delight that felt like a relief - a 400-staff payroll rolling on his mind 15 days to pay day.

For a praises session performed mainly in local languages, COO of Multi TV, Santokh Singh Ram Singh - a Malaysian - sat through his linguistic handicap as the whole exercise descended into confusing sign language for the head of TV.

Kwasi Twum would later ask the choir to repeat a Juanita Bynum song - ' You are Great'. And later take the microphone to repeat the three-worded sentence with a sacredness of a man who has found gold.

He explained his gratitude to God.  Kwasi Twum talked about a 'very harsh economic environment' last year. He said businesses contracted.

But for Multimedia ' we did not just survive, our TV brands became the most respected and sought after in the country", his words heavy with modesty, his heart heavy with gratitude to God.

And so for this unlikely family on a monthly salary, a platinum-plated gratitude, was nothing less.

Airtel MD Lucy Quist.

After exuberant jumping around, dancing around, a Bishop James Saah-sermon injected soberness into the congregation. it was based on Psalm 103

"Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases;Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion"

Like Parliament, the Bible has three Standing Orders, he said - 'rejoice always, pray continually, in everything and give thanks'.

He proceeded to give a brutal justification why 'there is nothing like a quiet thanksgiving'. God forgives our iniquities and forced hot-blooded congregation to remember sins that this article prefers not to name.

"The things we have done and you are polished up sitting here between you and God, don't even go there" he imploded.

Bishop James Saah

The men who massed up to the right rows shouted in a response that betrayed great suspicions than it confirmed special gratefulness.

He chastised the men proud of their six-packs as a statement of their health often oblivious that men with 10-packs have died.

Every sentence, a gunshot, each piece of scripture, a hammer, that broke down internally, an external facade of self-righteous, self-sufficiency.

The Bishop spoke until nice faces twitched in emotional recollection of God's many-sided goodness.  Emotions rose under the skin beneath some eyes, faces turned away and looked distant in brutal recollection of God favour as the congregation began to feel like a bunch of heartless ingrates.

A tear interfered with some make-up, and an instrumentalist needed to support his chin with the space between his index finger and thumb.

'There is nothing like a quiet thanksgiving'.

Bishop James Saah justified 27 years in the ministry with powerful prayers.

'Instead of shame my people shall receive a double portion' he prayed and cancelled Kwasi Twum's bad debts in a way that should relieve defaulters.

The CEO also rose up clapping and claiming in a hopefulness for double portion of profit when that portion of scripture was prayed.

In a provoking prayer session, the photographers suddenly found their cameras a burden, hindering their participation.  The cameramen were distressed that their recording equipment had suddenly became an albatross. One of them squinted into the lens but kept his mouth violent in prayer.

Country man Songo's Asempa programme 'fire for fire' featured in the Bishop's prayer language in an unintended endorsement.

A preaching, a prayer clothed the congregation with new power and confidence that they had made peace with God as they streamed out.

It was time for some food and drinks.

And like thanksgiving, there is nothing like a quiet queue when takeaway is involved.

 

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