Birth
James Gyimah was born in 1900 to Opanin Kofi Sintim and Madam Abena Kwakyewaa of Akim Akroso and Agona Nsaba respectively.
Education
James Gyimah attended school at Agona Nsaba whilst staying with a German of the Basel Mission. He worked as a cocoa purchasing clerk and later dealt in the diamond business. He also took to farming, producing foodstuffs and cash crops such as cocoa.
Marriage
James Gyimah got married to Agustina Yaa Apeaa of Agona Nsaba. They were blessed with six children (two daughters and four sons).
Conversion and Call into the Full-Time Ministry
Both of his parents were Presbyterians and so James was born into the Presbyterian Church. He rose to become a Catechist and an active leader of the Presbyterian Church. When he received the Holy Spirit baptism, he was rejected by the Presbyterian Church and the Salem Community at Akroso. Because the phenomenon of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was new, the people thought he was getting out of his mind.
Pastor McKeown desired to call James Gyimah into the full-time ministry few months after he had settled at Winneba. James Gyimah who was the leader of the African Faith Tabernacle, Akroso branch, rather recommended S. R. Asomani, his convert and an active member of his church. Rev. James McKeown made further attempts, but these resulted in the further recommendation of Yaw Amoako, J. A. Bimpong and Kofi Owusu all of Akroso.
Finally, in 1942, James Kwaku Gyimah yielded to the call into the full-time ministry and was stationed at Odumase near Obuasi but was later transferred to Wassa Simpa in 1944. From there, he was transferred to Nkawkaw in 1948 and later to Akroso in 1952. At the point of being transferred from Akroso to Simpa (Winneba), he fell sick and could not report at his new station.
Significant Contributions of Pastor James Kwaku Gyimah to the Church of Pentecost
- Even though it is on record that, in 1932, Stephen Kwabena Owiredu of Brekumanso, near Asamankese became the first person in Ghana to have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, emerging evidence indicates that James Kwaku Gyimah had had that experience earlier in 1931.
- In 1931, at a prayer meeting of the Faith Tabernacle Church at Asamankese, a word of prophecy was uttered through James Kwaku Gyimah that (He) the Lord was going to nurture that small group into a large international Pentecostal church that would take the gospel throughout Ghana, Africa and the whole world. The prophecy, however, added that those provisions would be accomplished after He (the Lord) had sent a white missionary to lead them. McKeown’s arrival in 1937 therefore was a partial fulfilment of the prophecy. That prophecy, which was re-echoed by the Lord through other prophecies in 1940 and 1948 have been considered as the Church’s covenant with the Lord. Today, that prophecy have been fulfilled beyond all human expectations as branches of the Church of Pentecost can be found on all continents of the world.
- James Kwaku Gyimah rallied people behind Pastor McKeown when he was disowned by the Faith Tabernacle Church at Asamankese in June 1938 on the basis of the ‘non-medication’ impasse.
- He personally invited Pastor McKeown to live in his house at Akim Akroso for two weeks before he organised people to mobilise funds to rent a bungalow there for Pastor McKeown where he stayed for four weeks before moving to Winneba.
- His ministry produced most of the founding leaders of the Church such as Apostle S. R. Asomani, the first to be ordained apostle of the Church in Ghana. Others were Apostle J. A. Bimpong, Pastors Yaw Amoako, and Kofi Owusu.
- He played pioneering role in establishing branches of the Church at Wassa Simpa, Nkawkaw, Akroso and their environs.
Death
On November 11, 1952, James Kwaku Gyimah was called to glory at the age of 52 having served as a full- time minister of the Church for ten (10) years.