Victory Bible Church International (VBCI), one of the mega charismatic churches in the city of Accra has initiated processes aimed at making its premises conducive for congregational services in the midst of the Covid-19 threat.
This comes on the heels of a partial relaxation of restrictions on public and social gatherings announced by President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on May,31, 2020.
As part of the Covid-19 preparedness plan of the Church, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, disinfected the Church’s entire headquarters facility. The disinfection exercise was carried out using chlorine, Ethanol, and hydrogen peroxide. A team of about twenty five (25) officers of Zoomlion, the waste management company, carried out the exercise.
THE VBCI FACILITY
VBCI at its headquarters branch located at Awoshie in the Ablekuma North Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, has a five thousand seater state of the arts auditorium, a youth church service area, young adult ministry area, children’s ministry facility and many other meeting rooms. All these facilities were fumigated as part of the first steps being taken by the leadership of the church to make the worship centre ready for services.
RATIONALE BEHIND FUMIGATION EXERCISE
In an interview with journalists after the exercise, Assistant Executive Pastor of the Church (Dominion Sanctuary), Rev. Anthony Anderson, noted that even though the Presiding Bishop, Rt. Rev. N. A. Tackie-Yarboi, has instructed that all Victory Bible Churches in Ghana remain closed inspite of the fact that the President has partially lifted the ban on public gatherings, it was the plan of the Church to ensure that safety measures are put in place in order that no Victory Bible Church facility becomes a spot for the spread of the novel Coronavirus.
“We want to be sure that all our members can come to church and go back without picking up any form of infection. Already in Victory Bible Church, every month, we do fumigation of the premises. This is one of many steps we are taking before we come back to church to resume normal services,” Rev. Anthony Anderson said.
RESUMPTION OF CHURCH SERVICE
The Deputy Executive Pastor indicated that the Church is going to continue with its online services for now. Congregational worship, he said, will definitely resume along the line but there was no plans to rush.
“Even if the President says today, all Churches can go back, we will assess the situation on our own and when we are convinced that it is safe for our people to gather, we will bring them in. There is no need to rush anything, we just need to know that our members are safe and anybody who visits us is safe,” Rev. Anderson echoed.
TEAM LEADER OF ZOOMLION
Lola Asiseh Ashitey, National Coordinator for Zoomlion’s disinfection exercise who led the team to carry out the exercise noted in a brief interview with journalists that the fumigation exercise at the Headquarters building of Victory Bible Church International was successful.
She added that she has recommended to the Church to carry out a disinfection exercise every quarter. If the timelines are anything to go by, the Zoomlion team will be back at the premises the Church on the 6th of September 2020 for the next disinfection exercise.
