The Church of Pentecost Chairman Education Foundation to be established at the Pentecost University College (PUC) has been launched in Accra.
The novelty which is the brainchild of the current Chairman of the Church, Apostle Eric Kwabena Nyamekye, is expected to provide scholarships to needy but brilliant students across the country who will be enrolled at the university.
The launch which took place at the Dome of the Pentecost International Worship Centre (PIWC), Kokomlemle on Sunday, September 8, 2019, was attended by the clergy, corporate heads and representatives, the academia, students and members of the Church who contributed various sums of money to support the Foundation.
Prominent among the personalities present were Apostle Alexander Nana Yaw Kumi-Larbi (General Secretary), Elder Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari (1st Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana), Elder Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum (Deputy Minister of Education), Deaconess Elizabeth Sackey (Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister), all members of the Church, and Mr. Alhassan Andani (Managing Director of Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited), among others.
Exhorting the guests on the Parable of the Shrewd Manager in Luke 16:1-15, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, disclosed that changing the fortunes of PUC has been his major burden after taking over the leadership mantle of the Church.
“When I took over as the Chairman, one of the things that I used to think about is PUC. We have started the university and we cannot sit back and afford it to go through all these challenges.
“Even though PUC already has an existing scholarship scheme for brilliant but needy, underprivileged groups, the increasing demands for financial support makes the scheme inadequate to cater for all the students.
“To demonstrate my resolve and heart desire to ensure that financial difficulties do not become a barrier to the attainment of academic excellence, I proposed to PUC to establish a Foundation to support students who are struggling to meet the financial demands that come with tertiary education at PUC,” he stressed.
He added: “It is true that private universities are not doing well in Ghana, but it shouldn’t be ours [PUC]. Therefore, I thought that we should find a way of breaking through. When I prayed and thought deeply about it, God gave me some ideas, and the ideas are what we are seeing today.
“We cannot afford to see PUC struggle financially. We cannot afford to see PUC struggle to get students because private universities are suffering. Like the shrewd manager in the parable, we should ask ourselves what we can do now to salvage the school.
“In the parable, the master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly, but under normal circumstances we don’t commend dishonesty. Shrewd is not bad… it is about showing acute mental discernment, being sharp in practical matters and trying to meet solutions.
“We can’t sit back and look at our school suffer. We have to think through and come out with some ideas to put their financial difficulties behind us and move on. Since we have started the university, it behoves on us to build it, and we can build it.
“As Jesus said we should use worldly wealth to make friends for ourselves. I pray that we will be able to use the worldly wealth that God has given us to make friends, to sponsor young people, educate them, give them godly training and release them to possess the nations,” he said.
“All of us together should be able to change the story of PUC. Once you handle money, you can be part of this Foundation. We can build the best university in the world here in Ghana. The issue is not about government or the economic situation, but you and I, what we want to do. Once we decide that this is the way we want to go, heaven will arise and God will breathe upon that and turn our feeble efforts into greatness,” he concluded.
The Rector of PUC, Apostle Dr Daniel Walker, described the event as a historic and very important day in the life of the university, saying, “I have no doubt in my mind about the importance of this Foundation. On behalf of staff and students of PUC, I want to express our sincere gratitude to the Chairman for this laudable Foundation.”
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