All Liberians, especially the over 2000 members of the Great Trinity United Methodist Church at home and abroad have been given a divine prophecy to arise and shine above all odds beginning 2020 in the Name of Jesus Christ.
They will arise and shine now when they sincerely change their odd minds and attitudes to more positive ones as required by the Gospel of Jesus Christ which mandates mankind to put Almighty God First and to love your neighbors as thyself in all things.
Rt. Rev. T. Alexander Kanwie, Associate Pastor of the Trinity UMC gave the prophecy last Sunday, January 5, 2020 when he, in place of the senior pastor, delivered the first sermon on the first Sunday of the year 2020 during the first divine worship service held at the Great Trinity UMC in the Borough of New Kru Town on Bushrod Island in Monrovia.
Preaching from the Biblical text Isaiah 60:1-3, under the theme: Arise and Shine, Rev. Kanwie prophesied that Almighty God has destined sincere and real Christians to arise and shine above all odds beginning this 2020 year.
According to him, the message is equally intended for all Liberians, especially true and sincere Christians to change from their odd minds and attitudes to arise and shine in keeping with God’s plans for them in the 2020 year.
He revealed that a true Christian religion prioritizes God Almighty in all things and actions, noting that 2020 won’t be rewarding if their hearts, feelings, emotions and their entire lifestyles of true Christians still remained odd and dirty as was in the old years.
He observed that so-claimed True Christians have knowing or unknowingly been living in gross sins and darkness, and so their time has come for them to arise and shine away the darkness by desist in playing deceits, playing church, doing injustice, don’t care attitudes, undermining others, womanizing and lesbianism, among several others, because darkness has nothing to do with light.
Rev. Kanwie emphasized that sincere Christians must arise from acts of witchcraft, raping, bewitching others failures, confusions , destroying others’ homes, lives and jobs as well as denying others the opportunities , if such true Christians must shine beginning 2020. Pastor Kanwie revealed that true and committed Christians are shown by faith and actions taken or failed to be taken in favor or against the least of their brethrens in the world.
According to him, Almighty God is ready to guide true and committed Christians to their respective destiny if they get serious now with Almighty God their maker and provider of all things; stressing that there are many rooms for all persons to get things right with Almighty God now because tomorrow might be too late to renew their relationship with Almighty God, their maker and provider.
Rev. Kanwie then made a shrine call and prayed for Almighty God’s Mercy and Blessings upon both the congregation, all Liberians, the general Christians including the government, the entire country and the world for peace and progress.
The prophecy and prayers could hardly be digested by the huge congregation when the TUMC Senior Pastor, Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Sunday Say won mounted the shrine to proclaim the 2020 Roadmap for “The Church with a Heart of Love and the Spirit of Giving”(Acts 4:32).
Pastor Saywon firstly thanked and invoked God’s multiple blessings upon all the TUMC members whose high levels of cooperation, collaboration and coordination were enjoyed in 2019, confessing that “ your cooperation had yielded us peace, unity and love as well as joy across the church membership”.
He confessed that these inputs have borne lots of concrete achievements including the completion of the new church edifice, the installations of the chandelier, windows, fans, the painting, placement of pews, the building of a house for its 50 KVA generator purchased and in-used including the successful hosting of two major conferences in 2019, among others.
Rev. Saywon who begged for the exchange of forgiveness between his pastoral team and the congregation, for wrongs done to each other, further lauded Mr. Edmund F. Forth and his committed and faithful financial committee from which the financial secretary Madam Monica B. Baryor and Mrs. Margret Weagba were honorably certificated and retired for long services.
Inkeeping with Proverb 29:18 and the United Methodist book of Discipline, paragraph 340.5-1,Pastor Saywon proclaimed that his Roadmap or vision 2020 for the church includes the total renovation of the parsonage, the raising of the church’s fence to prevent constant intrusion of criminals and the purchase of vehicles for both the senior and associate pastors for the effective ministry.
Pastor Saywon encouraged all units in the church to select their projects for 2020 concerning the parsonage in consultation with the church council and the pastor. He also asked each member of the church to provide four of six inches cement blocks or LD$2.40, 00 toward the fence project while encouraging each member to honestly and sincerely with the fear of God only and just pay their monthly tithes to buy cars for their two pastors excluding the two sets of choirs with similar needs.
Dr. Saywon also re-introduced daily Morning divine Prayer meeting between 6am-6:45 am under the supervision of the deaconesses and monitored by the pastors.
The senior pastor also mandates the administration and Board of the Trinity UMC school to erect two storey buildings over its old edifice beginning 2020 because the old edifice does not represent the people of the Great Trinity, a church with a heart of Love and the spirit of Giving in a troubled society.
Mother Eliza D.J. Kronyanh sanctioned the 2020 Roadmap of the church after She, as the council chairperson, along with her 50 Council members got inducted into offices by Rev. Dr. George K. Weagba, Vice President for Research and Institutional Development of the United Methodist University (UMU).
Those inducted include Mother Eliza D.J. Kroyanh, Council chairperson, Bro. Jefferson S. Kanmoh, Co-chair, Cllr. S. Witness Doyen, Lay leader, Bro. B. Augustus Tarpeh, Associate Lay Leader and Bro. Columbus W. Nyenkan, Secretary, among others.
Mother Kronyanh assured the pastor and the public that the Trinity UMC under chair at home and abroad will rise up to the 2020 Roadmap and life up to mission and mandates of the United Methodist church in Liberia. She encouraged her council and members of the church at home and abroad that they all can jointly make it successfully in Jesus’ Name.
The men of the church have won with wide margin the cash-in monthly competition between the Trinity men and women in 2019. The church also bestowed annual honors and gifts to winners of its Birth Months Cash-in Monthly Competition for 2019.
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia, His Honor Joseph N. Nagbe along with Journalist D. Sonpon Weah II, and several others who are born in the Month of February won the first prize with over LD$100,000 a huge cake and crate of soft drinks. The Church Council Chairperson, Mother Eliza D.J. Kronyanh and several others born in the Month of July won the second place with over LD$71,000 while Madam Chelsea J. Nagbe along with others born in the Month of June won the third place with over LD$31,000.These monthly cash-in contests are part of the Council’s funds raising strategies to build the build and run effective ministry.
And the well jammed divine worship service on the first Sunday in 2020 ended joyously with merry making and wide eating up to 6pm at the compound of the Trinity United Methodist Church established since 1964 in Central New Kru Town on Bushrod Island, Monrovia.