Retirement and thanksgiving service have been held for Rev. Peter Piak Bandim to bring to an end 9 years in active pastoral ministry and 24 years at the National headquarters. The occasion was held on Sunday 27th September 2020 at Evangel Assemblies of God, Adabraka, Accra in the Accra West region. Until his retirement, Rev. Bandim was an Associate Pastor at Evangel Assemblies of God and former National Administrator, Assemblies of God Ghana Ministers’ Pension Scheme at the Assemblies of God, Ghana head office.
The ceremony brought several dignitaries from far and near including the Executive Presbytery Officers, Head of Operations, Regional executives, District executives and ministers across the country. The sermon was delivered by Rev. Prof. Frimpong-Manso, the General Superintendent and the text for the occasion was taken from Daniel 6:1-5, 10 & 13, with the title of the sermon been ‘Daniel a distinguished Administrator’. Prof. Paul Frimpong-Manso indicated that Daniel was a tent minister, secular administrator and a prophet who distinguished himself. He elaborated four characteristics of Daniel which includes devotion, dedication, discipline and determination.
In his sermon, the General Superintendent, Rev. Prof. Paul Frimpong-Manso also emphasized why lay workers and tent ministers must be embraced in the ministerial work. He encouraged the use of lay workers and tent ministers with professional credentials and expertise who have devoted their time and life to serve God like Rev. Bandim to be respected and acknowledged as such.
Prof. Frimpong-Manso asserted that Rev. Bandim as a pioneer National Administrator served with dedicated, devoted and determined heart as Daniel. The General Superintendent in his good will message acknowledged the role played by Rev. Bandim and concluded that if you walk through muddy waters, you leave footprints and acknowledged how Rev. Bandim shaped the Accounts and Treasury department during his tenure as the head of accounts department and also when he assume the national administrator position of the ministers’ pension scheme and that the headquarters will forever remember him as one of the key Management staff.
Goodwill messages was also read by the General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Kwame Bismark Bansah to highlight the contributions made by the celebrant to the General Council. The Chairman of the Ministers’ Pension Board, Mr. Baba Mahama officially declared him as a retired minister of Assemblies of God, Ghana and presented to the celebrant his End-of-Service Benefits (ESB). Various gifts were also presented to him by the region, district, local church, well-wishers and friends.
Rev. Bandim and his family rendered their most sincere gratitude to all who were present for the ceremony for the roles they have played in diverse ways.
Assemblies of God Ghana in 2014 reviewed and implemented a revised policy to retire Ministers who turn 65. This policy seeks to give retired Ministers a befitting retirement package after serving the organization and this has been an improvement on the old policy. Below is the profile of Rev. Peter Piak Bandim
Profile of Rev. Peter Piak Bandim
Preamble
…believe that your greatest contribution is always ahead of you. You might retire from job, but never from making contributions. Indeed, life is about contributions, not accumulations”. (Hymn W Smith)
“The lord said to Moses, this applies to the Levites: Men twenty -five old or more shall come to take part in the work at the Tent of Meeting, but at the age of fifty, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer. They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the Tent of Meeting, but they themselves must not do the work “. This then is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites”. (Numbers 8:23-26, NIV)
These quotations that have been the driving force or convictions of this National Administrator who zealously crisscrossed the country to discharge his job description over the years.
Biological and Spiritual Births
Peter Bandim was born in Nakpanduri, in the North East Region of Ghana, to the late Chief Bandim Dannib and Madam Mingbari Bandim in 1954. Both parents were illiterate, peasant farmers and pito brewers and the oldman also doubled as a commissioned market day toll collector for the district council. They were converted by the Assemblies of God and joined the Nakpanduri Assemblies of God church. Much later in life his father was made the chief of Nakpanduri and its traditional jurisdiction. Not only was Peter born to Assemblies of God parents but also in the Nakpanduri Assemblies of God Clinic (pure Jew; isn’t he?) What a blessing. He was brought up in the Children’s Sunday School. These were the days when the white missionaries rewarded the child who could keep all their 52 pieces of picture paper for the year; and produced it at the boxing Day Children’s party at the mission bungalow.
The reward was a piece of cake and a tot of syrup. Th e weekly evening Christ Ambassadors meetings were a delight to attend. To a very large extent I owe my humble Christian beginnings to these illiterate parents and the Nakpanduri church. With this unique kind of parental Christian upbring and monitoring Peter is unable to pinpoint his exact day of ‘born again’ experience. He however, remembers when the then pastor of the church (Rev. John S. Yajen) baptized their group in 1972 in a river.
Basic and Secondary School Life
In 1964 little Peter was sent to Class One in the Nakpanduri L/A Primary School and rose up to be Compound 6 Prefect and played in the School’s football team. He always exchanged the first and second exam positions with his senior brother Issahaku Bandim termly. He entered the Nakpanduri L/A Middle School in 1970 where he continued to excel in his academics and sports. In Form Two he passed the Common Entrance but could not enter Tamale Secondary School (Tamasco) because he was a few names below the cut off line. He joined his senior brother, late Hardy Nualeb Bandim, a teacher at the Kpandai L/C Middle School in 1972. He was the delight of his teacher because of his excellent academic performance and made the school’s sports prefect, in less than a year’s stay; but he had to leave for Navrongo Secondary School (Navasco) in the same year; coincidentally with his senior brother Issahaku Bandim in 1972. Life here in Navasco was equally lovely. Peter’s academics were still not bad, though he could no longer get the first or second positions, now he managed with the 5th to 8th because, they now had ‘gathering of champions’ from all over the three northern regions and beyond. Navasco had a beautiful and huge chapel for Christian worship and a mosque for the Muslims. Sunday afternoons were set aside for Christian Scripture Union (S.U.) meetings; many a time the headmaster; Mr. Collins McDonald was in attendance.
These are nostalgic times for him. The S.U. really deposited so much Christian morals, virtues and leadership grooming skills in him. Peter became the Aggrey House Prefect, an S.U executive member, one of the 100metres, 200metres and quartet sprinters in his tapering years in Navasco. He graduated with O/A Levels respectively in 1977 and 1979.
Tertiary and Professional Training
Peter entered the then Institute of Professional Studies (IPS, now University of Professional Studies, Accra, UPSA) in 1981, to pursue the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAGH.) and graduated in 1982 with the Intermediate. While in IPS, he was the local Ghana Fellowship of Evangelical Students (GHAFES) Secretary and a drummer during church services. Whilst attending IPS in the early 1980’s, he perched a friend who lived at the Labone Estates. His Living room was my bedroom, except when the visitor’s room was vacant.
The nearest AoG church to me was Evangel AoG and the poor student had no lorry fare to go that far. One Saturday evening, Rev. Holdbrook and his evangelism team visited our home and invited me to their church. (The Baptist Church). From then on, I fellowshipped with them, faithfully, joined the evangelism team, elected as Youth President and finally became a Sunday School Teacher and Deacon.
Labone Baptist was a lovely church and with caring members, especially their pastor and his wife (Rev. & Mrs. Holdbrook). They offered me their outer house to stay in for free rent and utilities.
I will never forget Rev. Holdbrook’s voice: ”Brother Peter, we want to offer you our outer house to live in, do you mind?”. Can you imagine my answer to this miracle? That was months to my wedding. Meanwhile I was still perching in somebody’s living room. A few weeks later, he came back asking “Brother Peter, what are your wife’s colors, we want to paint your apartment in her colors before she arrives”.
Furthermore, they were the highest donors at our wedding. Today they are also here to celebrate with my family. Rev. and Mrs. Holdbrook, God will always bless you for your selflessness, generosity, magnanimity and Christian heart. I owe you a lot for ameliorating my humble, poor beginning in Accra, in those days of the “Rawlings Chain”. Space cannot afford more testimonies for your supports to me and my late wife Lydia.
In 1990 he did a Post Graduate Certificate in Organization Development at UCC. In his quest to improve upon his Christian knowledge and Bible teaching and leadership training skills, he enrolled at the Southern Ghana Bible College now (Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, AGTS) in 2011 for a Diploma in Theology (Dip.Th).
Furthermore, because of his passion for counseling and conflict resolution, Peter is currently pursuing a programme in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) at the CPR GIMPA (now suspended by Covid-19) and also, a Diploma programme in counselling being organized by the Christian Council of Ghana, at the Trinity Theological Seminary.
Work Experience
Whilst on vacation in his secondary school days, the then white missionaries in the Nakpanduri AG Clinic occasionally offered him some jobs during the long vacations, to help him raise some money for his schooling or the Christ Ambassadors Youth Camps. After his graduation from Sixth Form in June 1979 he was handed a Senior Accounts Clerk job with the First Ghana Building Society, Tamale Branch in September 1979. God is good!!! This was the genesis of real business life when he began to fend for himself, go for evening choir rehearsals at the Tamale Central AoG church after work, put aside some money for tithes, further studies, marriage, wedding, funeral donations and more. While in the Tamale church he became a Chorister, Sunday School Teacher and Song Leader. Rev. Joshua Winnal Mankrom of AoG, Madina District, Prophet Peter Anamo (not AoG) and others, were the students in his teens class.
In 1985 he was employed as an Internal Audit Supervisor with the then Tema Food Complex Corporation (TFCC and now GAFCO) and worked with them for ten (10) years until its divestiture in 1995. Thereafter, he spent a few years with William Ofori & Co and Infitco GH. Ltd as an accountant at both places, before finally joining the General Council of the AoG Ghana as the pioneer Accounts/Treasury Manager in 1997-2012. He has served under the following General Superintendents ((GS) and Ag General Superintendents (Ag GS) Superintendents: Rev. Dr. S.B. Asore, (GS); Rev. W.W Dontoh (GS); Rev. Moses Seidu Sumaila (AG GS) and Rev. Prof. Paul Yaw Frimpong Manso (incumbent GS)
Rev. Peter Piak Bandim retired as the pioneer National Administrator of the novel unique Assemblies of God, Ghana Ministers’ Pension Scheme. This is a department he was seconded to from the Accounts Treasury Department in 2012, to set up systems and put up structures. He did singlehandedly for 2 years, using ingenuity, discretion, experience and self-motivation, under the supervision of an external management board. By His grace, the Scheme is praiseworthy, talk of the town, universally acclaimed by both Ghanaian denominations and foreign AoG churches for its novelty and uniqueness that has put a smile on the faces of especially many a rural retiring AoG pastor.
Other Offices he held at the AoG Headquarters in his near 24 years’ service
include;
1.Accounts/Treasury Manager for 15 years
2.Additional Responsibility as Director of Administration after the exit of Rev. Dr. Stephen Y. Wengam from that office
3.Additional Responsibility as Administrative Secretary after the exit of Rev. Jerry E.K. Adjorlolo from that office
4.Member, AoG, Ghana 75th Anniversary Planning Committee (Chaired by Rev. Charles
Appiah- Boachie)
5.Member, AoG Ghana Constitution Review Committee (Chaired by Her Ladyship Mrs. Georgina T. Wood)
6.Initial Educators and Fundraisers Committee for share purchasers from AoG local churches and members for the establishment of Prime Insurance Co. Ltd and
7.Vice Chairman of General Council Staff Credit Union (very vibrant to date)
Ministry Life
Rev. W.W Dontoh and his officers conferred on the celebrant an Exhorter rank in February 2011 in view of the ministerial roles he played in office and his local church, up to that point in time. He was or had been a local church Treasurer, Men’s Ministry President, Sunday School Teacher / Secretary and Accounts/Treasury Manager; at Tamale Central AG, Tema Central AG, Evangel AG and AOG HQ. He entered the SGBC in the same year (Sandwich) to acquire theoretical knowledge for ministry and graduated with a Dip.Th in 2013; as an Exhorter again.
Work with the Ministers’ Pension Scheme
In 2008 Rev. W. W. Dontoh’s team of Executive Presbytery Officers (E.P.O) constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Anthony Effah of Exhibition AoG Church to propose modalities for the EPO’s creation of an AoG Pension Scheme. I was a member with Rev. Bentil. Unfortunately, the committee never had a meeting.
In September 2009 the then Acting General Superintendent (Rev. Moses S. Sumaila) reconstituted and recomposed the committee with the same terms of reference and I was again a member and again with Rev. Bentil. In 2012 Rev. Prof. Paul Frimpong Manso’s team of EPOs renamed it a management board and reconstituted it as follows:
- Mr. E. Baba Mahama-Chairman
2. Mrs Evelyn Daawee-Keelson-Secretary
3. Rev. Peter Bandim – National Administrator
4. Rev. Sam Ato Bentil-Member
5. Mr. Alex Owusu-Ansah-Member (“Brother General”) and
6. Mr. Samuel Ewool – Member
7. Mr. Yaw Adubofour (Co-opted Secretary until he left for the USA)
This new management board was given additional terms of reference and made a supervisory Board and seconded him from the Accounts/Treasury Manager department, to be the pioneer National Administrator of the Assemblies of God, Ghana Ministers’ Pension Scheme. It has been a lovely time of knowledge acquisition from these secular and spiritually endowed board members over the years: He will in every minute appreciate you for the wealth of rich knowledge acquired from working with you all. Will miss the fun we had during our annual regional rounds (do you remember Baba’s definition of a good hotel on sight?)
