And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. – Exodus 12:26-27
Every once in a while in people’s lifetimes, there comes a person (male or female) who looms large and is literary all over the life’s pages, effortlessly steering or being part of various events in their respective lives. The late Reverend Felix Saforo-Sakyi was one such person in my life, touching and crossing paths in religious circles, professional, and even social circles, many members of my immediate family were touched by this soft-spoken, calm, gentle giant.
The announcement that Reverend Felix Saforo-Sakyi had graduated to his eternal mansion in the sky, hit me hard, so hard, really hard. I suffered a mental block as basket after basket of memories filled up with the many areas the giant Man of God called Felix Sakyi had on us and even Malawi.
“Rest well Daddy. You fought a good fight. You run your race. You finished your course. Heaven welcomes you with a great reward. I wish I could have had you here forever, but it was time and I know you’re having the best time with our Lord Jesus…” his daughter Sarah Sakyi Ankamah wrote in her Facebook post that was marking the one-week celebrations of his life on June 7, 2023.
American poet, Rod McKuen’s poem Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows in the second stanza, states: “I have come as far away /as means and mind will take me / trying to forget you…..”
Elder Felix Sakyi and his wife Elder Patient Sakyi, as they were known when they were members of the Blantyre Christian Center (BCC later changed its name to Word Alive Ministries International – WAMI), became trailblazers of the small city church. They were instrumental in the church’s expansion program known as Kingdom Advancement Ministries, Love Auction (borrowed from a Ghana church activity) fund-raising using church member birth months, rebranding from BCC to WAMI, and finding a pastor for the church, going through turbulent times, sailing through leadership challenges, praying for the sick, country, and attending social functions; all the while raising five children and posting them to Ghana for their tertiary education in Ghana.
At the time of his passing Reverend, Felix Sakyi wore many hats in members of my family’s lives when he resided in Malawi.
What can I say? Reverend Felix Sakyi was a strong empowering strength to me as a young married Christian wife with three sons and surprisingly (maybe not) to my whole family.
I am yet to completely grasp his passing, still processing his death, still processing that left Malawi. Rev. Sakyi effortlessly left large footprints in my life everywhere – starting with work in my father’s bakery business (the first by a Malawian), he was continuing from the company’s founder Graham, Rev. Felix Sakyi was the audit manager for the family business. my Mom and Dad, my husband, and my children. I am overwhelmed and deeply saddened by his passing.
- As the Senior Partner at Graham Carr and Company, Reverend Sakyi came to supervise audit teams for my father’s Mkulumadzi Farms Bakery. The first time I learned about Graham Carr and Company, (which is an accounting business firm that offers a variety of services including auditing), was when the first and founding Senior Partner of the company, Mr. Graham Carr, who along with his management team, were guests at my parents’ home. The company was later the audit firm for the bakery. According to Mr. Carr, his company was established in Malawi to provide accounting services, that operated on strict accounting morals and values along Christian lines.
2. Reverend Sakyi and his wife, MaiBusa Sakyi, were my mentors, and spiritual advisers in my career as a journalist and issues arising in my personal life. The two were like an aunt and uncle to me that happened to be members of the same church as me. Before I became a born-again Christian, Elder Sakyi was among the church leadership members that former and founding Pastor Barbara Tippet consulted for me to interview her for my Daily Times interview of prominent women in Malawi for an article on the column. Pastor Tippet was the first female pastor in Malawi. The Sakyi’s often prayed with me on all manner of issues sprouting out in my life, including coming to be with my family when our house was robbed by armed robbers, children going through illnesses, staying overnight the time my husband passed, and much more.
3. Rev. Sakyi was a giant with numerous hats in my children’s lives: he and MaiBusa Sakyi sat at the front row at my first son’s wedding; as an elder, he accepted my 11-year-old son’s application for church membership (afterward, the church set 13 years as the age at for acceptance into church membership) and giving my son a job as an audit rookie the Monday after his graduating from Kamuzu Academy. Reverend Sakyi and other WAMI pastors walked beside my sons to their father’s burial site.
4. Rev Sakyi was a brilliant role model, a staying force, stilling troubled waters in an extremely novel Pentecostal church, of which he, his wife, and I and 10 other people attending Blantyre Christian Center, were received as members of the church. Church membership has swelled from one meeting house with 13 members in 1987 to a membership of over 9,500+ spread through multi-meeting houses in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu, and outside in Mozambique and Zambia. Today in the global high-tech environment, the church has an online chapel that meets every Saturday afternoon from the Malawi diaspora in six-plus countries.
As people consider the first baby steps BCC took in the 1980s, growing into Word Alive, in the picture is the Ghanaian national, his wife, and family (five children), that were very much part of the establishment and growth of the glorious, growing church with ministries of power, excellence, and integrity where Jesus is central.
I am yet to completely grasp Reverend Saki’s passing; I am still processing that he and his family never left Malawi at all.
Rest in Jehovah God’s eternal loving peace and glory till we surely shall meet again yonder beyond the Pearly Gates.
