There was tonnes of steel in the voice of Senior Sales Manager Edward Entee when he broke the news that Airtel Adom Praiz 2015 had been postponed indefinitely because American gospel artiste Hezekiah Walker had been hospitalised.
Little emotion was shown on his face as he relayed the crashing news. It takes 12 months of work to get one night of praise and worship performance with an international gospel star.
One lousy bout of ill-health had flushed down the drain 365 days of hard, hard work – almost flushed down.
Yet Edward Entee who often fasts during the planning season for Airtel Adom Praiz, showed no shock in a way that appeared nonchalant and perhaps even disrespectful to the huge effort invested in this concert.
At a time when the team was asked to “curse God and die” because Airtel Adom Praiz 2015 would not come off, the Adom team choose the recommendation of a dirty, hungry, imprisoned cleric, Apostle Paul – “in everything give thanks”.
Adom Praiz team blessed God and now – the gospel show-stopping event lives. Hezekiah is well and he has made it clear that as rains fall to the ground, he and his team will fall on Ghanaian soil for Airtel Adom Praiz 2015.
The setback did not stop a comeback and affirmed my great belief, that complaining Christians are clueless Christians.
We don’t know what could happen if he came in October. Heck, we don’t even know what will happen this November.
But praise and thanksgiving is a sure anti-virus against doubt, against fear, against defeat.
So indeed, really, really indeed, the ‘Every Praise’ hit singer will join Ghanaians praise God on November 21,2015 at Perez Dome, Dzorwulu in Accra.
When you pass through the office at Multimedia, the great sense of relief oozes around the Airtel Adom Praiz team nowadays. A smile – a sort of payday smile is plastered on their face when you climb up the stairs to visit the team.
Who can deny them this great feeling of peace?
International artistes are a pretty odd colony of professionals. A whole show can be called off because the preffered guitarist in the team wanted maybe KLM but got maybe Alitalia.
Or his daughter cried during breakfast. They are sensitive group of professionals who can simply say ‘okay so sorry we can’t come’ to Ghana – a country ranked 89 most productive nation out of 187 economies.
For a pretty tiny country among the league of nations, attracting superstars without breaking the bank is every event organiser’s nightmare.
In Africa, it’s Nigeria or South Africa or pretty much nowhere else. But Multimedia’s Airtel Adom Praiz is a game-changer. Consistently, popular gospel icons with their bands are flown into the gateway to West Africa to lead enthusiastic music lovers in a live concert.
And there has been no greater need, no greater occasion, no greater reason to praise God than this year.
Ghana is walking through the valley of the shadows of death. Without any interest for exageration, the darkness in the country is literal and yet also figurative. Dark economic times and dark daily nights because of a power crisis. Businesses,families,graduates,workers are struggling.
It is easy to think that it is not a very good time to flash 60 cedis notes for a ticket for each member of the family. But for this year’s Adom Praiz, a ticket is not a statement of participation. A ticket is a statement of faith.
Like the widow who brought out several empty jars before the prophet Elisha in 2 Kings 4:1-7, Airtel Adom Praiz is a way of bringing out your family, your business,your work before God himself.
Telling God in the combined words of David and Joshua, that despite a painful walk “in the valley of the shadows of death”, you and your “family will serve the Lord”.
Telling him that if a dark economy has not stopped people lavishing money to bury the dead, then a dark economy will not stop the living from lavishing praise on the one true God.
For the many here at Airtel Adom Praiz, when Hezekiah Walker mounts the stage for ‘Every Praise’ it will not be merely a time of celebration.
It will be a time of testimony. A testimony of how a gospel show nearly failed but God let it live.
A testimony that as a people, if we refuse to curse God in difficult times but rather chose to bless him, then indeed we shall not die but live to declare the works of the Lord just as the Psalmist predicted.
