Straight talk and free food at Ghana's pastor school

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Created on Thursday, 18 October 2012 00:00

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Straight talk and free food at Ghana's pastor school

Number of applications to bible institute in north of country soars, with graduates spreading the word across Africa

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Afua Hirsch, West Africa correspondent

Students travel for days on the back of lorries to get to the school, sleep on mattresses packed into crowded dorms, and fill themselves up by killing and sharing an entire cow. Welcome to pastor school in northern Ghana.

When the Calvary West Africa Bible Institute – a small school near Ghana's border with Burkina Faso – first opened its doors in 2007, it had modest goals of improving the quality of ministry in the country. However, news of the school's offer of free board, food and tuition to aspiring pastors soon spread, and students began arriving from all over West Africa.

"We started getting students from Burkina Faso in 2008," said Atiah Robert Asaakurigo, 32, who founded the school in Bolgatanga. "A Burkina graduate told his friend in Mali. A Mali graduate who told his pastor. The pastor in Mali told a pastor in Guinea. Now we have students from six or seven countries."

"There is nothing like this in Mali, so I travelled two days by lorry to get here," said Janet Sissoko, 17, a student from Mali. "I want to go into ministry because I like to share the word of God with the people."

The institute is well-known for its outspoken criticism of Ghana's booming church industry, with Asaakurigo regularly speaking out against churches accused of corruption, abuse and fraud.

"There are churches where you have to pay a consultation fee before you can see a pastor, and you have to pay again before they will pray for you. They make noise and say it's prayer, they do all sorts of gymnastics so that you will believe them. We are a refuge from these churches – every single one of our students comes here with stories of robbery and abuse. We are sending our students out to release the people from these criminal churches who are holding them captive."

Asaakurigo's message has struck a chord with many people in the country, which has suffered a spate of scandals involving pastors.

There are almost weekly reports of abuse in the growing number of charismatic churches, with pastors claiming that "fetish" gods have directed them to have sex with members of their congregation.

"In Ghana you will find a lot of churches that aren't even Christian. They are mixing up Christianity with traditional religions," said Asaakurigo. "I realised that there are a lot of robbers, rapists and crooks in our churches – and that it all comes from the leaders. I had a calling to try to build leadership – I am a pastor of pastors."

Church attendance is high in Ghana, where 63% of the population are Christian, 16% Muslim and 21% practising indigenous beliefs.

In Nigeria, which has experienced a similar growth in evangelism and charismatic churches, 89% of adults say they regularly attend church services.

The school, which began life in a house in Bolgatanga in 2007, initially took on 17 students. Now the number has more than doubled to 46, with three times that number applying to join each year.

The institute is funded by a small group of missionaries from a church in California, who provide $2,000 (£1,250) a month for running costs, including food, bills, materials and staff salaries.

"Our brothers and sisters in America ask us how we survive on the money, but we manage," said Asaakurigo. "We buy a cow every two months, the students kill it, then skin and butcher it before freezing it and working their way through the animal."

Demand for training in ministry from other West African countries – including Niger, Mali, Nigeria and Guinea – has led to an influx of students from Francophone countries who lack English or even basic literacy skills.

"Many of the students can't even read or write a single letter, let alone speak English," said Akelembona Mark Tamura, 27, who teaches English and literacy at the institute. "I don't speak their languages and they can't speak any of mine, so we have to communicate in sign language.

"We have students coming from countries like Niger where there are very few Christians, but it seems this is changing, the number is really growing," said Tamura. "More and more of them are coming here to get the Bible training."

Source: The Guardian UK