Petit Papa Noel – Christmas was far from then, but in hope of God granting us the life to see this year’s Christmas, the University of Ghana held its Carols Day service on Sunday 15th November 2009. It was a wonderful morning of seasonal carols from almost all choirs on campus, sandwiched with nine lessons on Christmas.  

Being also the last joint service and a kind of pre – examination service, we witnessed a powerful opening prayer session which touched on many obvious areas of concern. The congregation had a great time of praises and worship, after which the 1st and 2nd Christmas lessons were received.

The Ghana Fellowship of Evangelism Students (GHAFES) choir proceeded with a powerful song ministration which saw the whole crowd being on their feet. They ministered Kirk Franklin’s ‘Free’. Participants experienced a freedom from their examination anxieties as they joined to sing and worship with the song.
 
After the 4th lesson, the congregation was blessed to receive song ministrations from the famous “Impact Project Ministry”. In about 5 years of existence, the Adenta / Madina based non – denominational inter – denominational Choir have really made impact in music ministration. It was a great honour I guess, for them to grace this year’s Carols’ Service. Heavenly dressed in black, silver and gold, the Impact Project ministered a couple of songs blessing many with joy and hope!

 We received the fifth lesson after the ministrations from impact project. The sixth lesson for the day was read by Ms Bernice Adiga, an official of GHAFES. The seventh lesson was read by a former UCF vice Secretary Ms Victoria, the eighth by Mr Emmanuel Amuzu, the immediate past UCF president and the ninth lesson by Mrs Goergina Mensah. The lesson session was crowned by a ministration from the Chosen Vessels Choir

It was then time to receive the word of God. The UCF president introduced Rev. J. F. K Mensah as the preacher man for this eventful day. After a short prayer, Rev. Mensah began his sermon with his past life; which life had been washed away by the blood of Jesus. He told of how the devil used him when he had not received Jesus into his life. Rev. Mensah told us of how Satan enrolled him in masturbation, illicit sex and theft even at a tender age. He said that he lived a life full of arrogance till he gave his life to Christ, but acknowledged the potency of God’s saving grace and power which transformed such a person into a servant of God. Amen.

Speaking on his sermon theme ‘Can Africa win the war?’ he said that Africa is at war today all because of wrong lifestyles we’ve cultivated culminating to increased activities of crime such as cyber fraud, STD’s, armed robbery, sexual abuse etc. Rev. Mensah clearly stated that the youth of today were strategist catalysts to the betterment or otherwise of this continent. He challenged the congregation and other students of other tertiary institutions in Africa to sit up and get hooked to Christ, aim high, think about this continent and use the blessings of Christ to change the continent.

He expressed concern about how selfish many in this part of the world are, seeking only the good of themselves by every means possible even at the expense of the continent’s well being. Rev. Mensah encouraged the Christian community not to be only concerned about their academic pursuits, physical statuses and appearance and their dreams of life, but that whatever they seek to achieve would also give a better reputation to Ghana and the African continent as a whole; “the continent we have polluted with our sins”. He expressed worry at the lifestyles many of today’s youth were leading such as cheating in exams, immoral acts and the lack of integrity which he said had brought the continent into disrepute.
 
Rev. Mensah also encouraged the congregation to have a broad mode of thinking to be able to exploit the many untapped resources in our continent. He attributed the cause of Africans suffering from poverty our professional potential people running to the western lands to offer voluntary slave service to them to the fact that over the years, Africans have narrowly thought concerning how they could make the best out of the many resources at their disposal. The ministration ended with a prayer session for God to visit Africa and bless its inhabitants.

Song ministrations were received from the ICGC choir, the APOSA choir and the Great Commission Sanctuary Choir, after which the University of Ghana Mass Theatre took over with drama, choreography and poetry. They ministered with “Silent Night” and “Jesus is the reason for the season” (Kirk Franklin) along with a poem about the Christ of the mankind. Another song ministration came from the NUBS choir.

As always, the Child Evangelism Department (featuring children from the University Primary School) was not left out of the pre- Christmas celebration. They graced the occasion with poetry recitals and sketches which all communicated the message “Give your life to Christ”!
 
A special prayer session led by Rev Darko was dedicated to excellence in the examinations which had just started. The UG Mass choir ministered “yeyi waye” to crown the service. It was packed though, but had its message communicated – the birth of Christ should bring us closer to God.