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TO DIE OR GO MAD?

Testimony of Dr. Alex Adom

John 10:10

The thief does not come except to steal, to kill and to destroy but I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly

Baby Smoker

On the 1^st of February, 1979, a young boy was born at Bodada Buem, a small village near Jasikan in the Volta region to Mr. &Mrs. Adom. This was a village that was well noted for idolatry and the entrance, midpoints and exits of the village were openly decorated with notable shrines which people consulted from time to time to unravel mysteries. This baby would neither eat nor sleep giving the parents sleepless nights. They therefore consulted the shrine and the verdict was that he was a reincarnated child who had come back angry, hungry and dissatisfied because he did not have a peaceful death during his previous lifetime. In order to pacify and sooth his spirit, the oracles prescribed that he should be given some cigarettes and alcohol to calm him down. I was that baby who at that tender age,  had his first dose of alcohol and cigarette and this was a seed which was later to mature and bear fruits which will become evident as you read along.

Induction Into Ancestral Worship

My grandfather was an ex-military officer who had been conscripted into the British Army to fight in the Second World War. I was never fine and happy with my parents until class 2 when I packed bag and baggage out of my parents’ home and relocated to my maternal grandparents’ home. When I got there, they sought to find out why I had come and I told them I had come to stay. They thought I was joking but I stayed with them up to class 6.

 Whilst serving with the British army, all the military men from my village were receiving divine protection from the gods of my village so my grandfather didn’t know any other God apart from his traditional idols.  It might interest you to know surprisingly that he was a church elder who also doubled as the Chief Executioner in the Buem traditional area. In the traditional parlance, the Chief Executioner is such a powerful and dreadful office. He had in his possessions all manner of knives which were deployed in making executions for sacrifices on behalf of the chief. They worshipped the knives and the spirit of the knives could at times possess them and use them for all manner of demonic operations. So I grew up developing a keen interest in ancestral worship under the tutelage of my grandfather.

One day my grandfather took me to his room and told me that there was going to be a big gathering of all the elders and power brokers of the Buem traditional area during which he wanted me to sit in front of him. He therefore opened a trunk and showed me a big golden idol. He told me that I was going to carry the idol in front of him during the gathering so he gave specific instructions to my teachers to release me to come home at 10am.

When God is ahead of you, no matter where you find yourself, He protects you. Unfortunately on that day, my teachers forgot and kept me in school till 1pm. By the time I came home, the ceremony had started and someone else had been assigned the responsibility of carrying the golden idol. I wept inconsolably and cursed my stars but I didn’t know that God had a different agenda and purpose for my life. Today the man who held the idol before him is alive back at home and he can’t define his bearing in life but God saved me and preserved my life for such a time as this.

Street Life

When I was going to JHS, I had to leave my grandparents to stay with my parents at a village near Kedjebi. From there I passed the BECE and gained admission to the Senior High School. All this while, I still stood staunchly by my traditional religion because even though my father went to church and sometimes preached on Sundays, he would come back home and treat himself to a good bout of alcoholic beverages. For us, Christianity was more of a comic relief than a way of life. I failed one of my subjects in the SSCE so I had to come to Accra and here I sunk into moral decadence and street life became a better of me. I was staying in uncompleted structures and became an affairs boy at Abosokai and at the same time shuttled from one construction site to the other to win bread when business was not brisk. I graciously became a factory hand at Letap Pharmaceuticals and it was during this period that I came to the rude awakening that the graduates who got employed with the company were treated differently: they were given a well-furnished office, car and decent accommodation those who were employed .

Aborted Occultism

Spurred on by this observation, I decided to quit the job and go back to SHS to rewrite the entire exams. In that secondary school I met a friend who promised to initiate me into a secret to passing the exams with ease. He said he was going to introduce me to a certain society where I would be endowed with supernatural powers that could make me invincible and enable me to see all exam questions far ahead of the exam. He took me to the dormitory one night when all our friends were at prep and asked me to lie on the bed. Before he could dish out any further instructions, the priests descended on the dormitory and raided the place and I was spotted and accosted but the guy had mysteriously vanished from the scene. I had to lie and put up a defence upon interrogation that I was not feeling well and therefore decided to come over to the dormitory to sleep. I was warned and left to go scot free. I managed to pass the SSCE without the guy’s assistance.

To Die or Go Mad?

There was something that was curiously a bother to me: my father’s junior brother, a graduate of the University of Ghana in the 1970s who was an ordained minister of the gospel became mentally challenged and to date, he is yet to recover. My grandfather was constantly warning me not to meddle myself in Christianity using the sad case of my uncle as a classic case study. He was always quick to remind me that if I became a Christian, I was likely to suffer the fate that had befallen him.  I believed him as the evidence was clearly staring at me in the face.

In my village, anyone who tried to go the University either died or became mad. Mindful of this situation, my parents cautiously encouraged me to go the Teacher Training College even though I had passed very well. I gained admission to Jasikan Training College, and whilst there, I applied to the University of Cape Coast and got a positive response. My best friend arranged for the most powerful of all the jujumen in our village to bath and fortify me with all manner of concoctions before I could be released to go to UCC. Knowing the circumstances surrounding my admission, I decided to add religion to my studies even though I wasn’t required to do so. I became so excited with African Traditional Religion and delved deeper and deeper because I wanted to challenge Christianity. I also joined the Profane Association of West Africa (PAWA), a deeply occultic choral group whose specialty was singing profane songs. I became a drunkard and had to skip lectures most of the time.

Healed From Liver Cancer

By the time I got to final year, the waywardness was beginning to tell on me and I started falling sick. I was finally handed a death sentence when I was diagnosed with a cancer of the liver. This was an incurable terminal illness and the drugs that were being administered on me were just palliative and not curative. I had an imminent and inevitable appointment with death but I couldn’t do anything about it. A lady friend of mine by name Lydia Boateng who happened to be my course mate invited me for a prayer meeting held on campus by a colleague student and I honoured the invitation.

During ministration the man of God who didn’t know me mentioned my name surprisingly. He went further to describe my village and said that the people in my village had ganged up to terminate my life that week. At that point I became scared and had no option but to step forward because I knew what was in store for me. I finally surrendered and gave my life to Christ Jesus as my lord and personal savior. They laid hands on me and prayed for me. I was asked to do three days fasting and afterwards, I recovered and was able to go for lectures and go about my schedules normally. God had healed me. Then I got to know that there is a power that is above all powers and this drove me to show a lot of interest in the things of God. Today, that lady who invited me to the prayer meeting is my wife and we are happily married with four lovely kids.

Unfortunately, I graduated, left UCC and didn’t have the opportunity to go through discipleship to become thoroughly grounded in the things of God. I found myself in South Africa (SA) by God’s grace on a scholarship to pursue my first Master’s degree after which I got another scholarship to do my PHD. In SA, it was the norm for the young men to gather in drinking spots and restaurants to make merry and to indulge in drinking, womanizing, smoking and what have you. Even though by then I had married and given birth to a child back home, it got to a point that I started drifting away from the things of God because the environment was so polluted but I thank God that in the midst of all the chaos I still hanged on to Him.

In Search Of Greener Pastures

Whilst working with the Eastern Cape Department of Education, I decided to take an MBA which normally does not attract any scholarship and I went on my knees seeking the face of God for a breakthrough. Graciously around the same time, I got an appointment with the South African Local Government as a Strategic and Integrated Development Planner. I therefore wrote to the department of education for my appointment to be terminated but surprisingly, they kept paying my salary until I completed the MBA. The salary stopped hitting my account immediately after I had completed the MBA. This was indeed the finger of God at work.

After acquiring all the certificates and securing a good job, I realized that my commitment to the things of God was dwindling and I prayed to God to bring me back to Ghana so that I would have a closer walk with Him. I told my colleagues of my plans to relocate to Ghana and they all advised against it. Without doubt, the job was an attractive one that came along with lots of opportunities and I was comfortable and solidly well positioned. Almost every week we slept in the best of hotels holding seminars and workshops and as strategic planners we met with all the people of influence and power in SA.

The Saga of The Returnee

 Back home, my parents vehemently opposed the idea and cited the election petition of 2012 as an index case to buttress the uncertainty and insecurity in the Ghanaian political terrain but I was not the least perturbed and was just focused on coming back home to have a deeper and closer walk with the lord. The truth of the matter is that in this world, you can pursue all your dreams and desires but if Christ is not in the center of your choices you will run into crisis and misery, die and end up in hell.

I came to Ghana for holidays and tendered in my resignation. My employers followed up to Ghana to convince me to rescind my decision but I cited grounds of insecurity for my actions. They promised to give me 24hour body guards but I declined. Life was very tough back home as I had to start from ground zero. My first appointment was with a private University and my first salary was a cheque of a meagre amount of ₵800.00 which couldn’t even buy me fuel. It was an insult compared to what I was earning in SA but I was adamant and wanted to stay on to serve my God. The land I had bought on which I was developing a project became a subject of litigation and land guards took over the place. The land owners took me to a jujuman and half of my body was almost rotten and for one month I couldn’t even wear a singlet. The scars from those wounds are still present on my body today. Then it dawned on me that I had to hold on firmly to God and not give up. I started praying and fasting and patronizing any Christian programme that came my way just to make sure that I was fully grounded and saturated with the word of God.

Take The Key

From 2013-2015, life had come to a standstill for me and nothing seemed to be moving on well. One day whilst I was fasting and praying, I fell into a trance where I saw myself coming from Jasikan to my village. When I got to the cemetery, I saw a hand sprouting from one of the graves holding an old rotten key. Then I heard a voice say: “take the key”. I took the key from the sprouting hand and in the vision I saw myself in my father’s bedroom. My grandfather was a very wealthy person who kept a safe in his bedroom. I was instructed to open the safe and in it I saw four aloe Vera plants tied with a rubber band in a bag of sachet water appearing as though they were dead. I received further directions to go and plant and water the aloe vera and when I did, they sprouted and grew rapidly into matured plants.

Until then, I had written numerous applications to several places in search of a job but I didn’t get a single response. I continued praying, fasting and fellowshipping and barely a week after this dream, I received a call from the department of Development Studies –University of Cape Coast (UCC). In that same week, I received another call this time from the Department of Management studies-UCC to come for an interview. As if that was not enough, I got another call from UNICEF for yet another interview. With all these options stirring at me, I decided to join UCC.

No Weapon

I thought my woes were over but I started my job at UCC with a scandal which had serious implications on my integrity. The very first examination I conducted with my head of department got compromised and the questions were leaked. An investigation was set up to unravel the culprits and my testimony was crucial to uncovering the faces behind this shameful act. Dreading what was in store for them, the perpetrators went to the extent of consulting the powers of darkness to kill me in a road traffic accident so that I wouldn’t be able to testify against them. The accident indeed happened as orchestrated but God delivered me. I was driving to Takoradi when I came across a tipper truck abandoned in the middle of the road. In an attempt to swerve the abandoned truck, I moved to the opposite lane only to be greeted with an onrushing articulator truck. It ran into my car and I found myself summersaulting several times. My car which was Takoradi bound found itself heading towards Cape Coast. It had been shattered beyond recognition but I was spared. I’m able to say this because later on, the people behind the accident came confessing and apologizing to me for what they had taken me through.

They thought they were out there to take my life but God revealed Himself to me in the course of the accident. I heard a clear instruction to go and join the University Interdenominational Church (UIC) to manifest His power. I battled with the idea but I finally yielded and went to UIC where I met men and women worshiping God. One of the people I met at UIC introduced me to the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International. At my very first meeting at the FGBMFI, the main speaker called me and in a word of prophecy cautioned me to be very careful with my life because God was going to use me and take me round the world. Right after the meeting, I had an appointment with the United States Embassy and straightaway I was given a 5 year visa. Since then, I have been globetrotting on business trips and seminars spanning across several continents in the world. Admittedly, I’m tired of travelling around the world and will want a break. The bare truth is that our God is a God of all creation and if you don’t take a stance, the opportunities in life will overtake you. Don’t allow anything to take you away from the things of God for there is nothing that is more valuable than knowing Jesus and making Him known.

Before I joined FGBMFI, I was suffering from persistent chronic headaches and I had to subsist on pain killers at all times but now the healing power of Jesus has touched me and the headache is no more. I don’t have to rely on pain killers any longer. In this fellowship you will meet men and women who have the heart for God and they will show you how to serve God better. If you haven’t accepted Jesus as your lord and personal savior, I invite you to do so now and your life will never be the same again.

Editor’s Note:

Dr. Alex Adom is a lecturer at the School of Business-UCC. He is a member of the UCC chapter of the FGBMFI where he serves as the Business Development Director