‘I could not face myself’; a survivor tells it all on Joy FM

Finding beauty in ashes is the story of a survivor who made it to Joy FM’s ‘I survived' programme on the Super Morning Show Thursday.

Rev. Henry Paa Nii Augustt stood on the beautiful citadel as a Bank manager until, without warning, he was suddenly dismissed.

According to him the harrowing experience which followed, was such that he could not even face himself.

Mr. Augustt felt he had not just let himself down but others too, including his wife, children and colleague workers, whose jobs came on the line because of his acts of indiscretion.

Having built a reputation as a respectable banker in the community in which he lived, it was now time to explain to the many prying neighbours why he was home that long.

“I could not keep telling them that I was on leave,” he recounted pensively.  

It took every gut in him to rise up to the occasion of asking for forgiveness from his wife before stepping into some homes in the neighborhood to announce to them his misfortune of no longer being a banker.

Augustt is now a ‘house husband,’ who depended on the benevolence of Helen, his wife to pay the school fees of their Junior Secondary School kids, the rent and bible school tuition at the Trinity Theological Seminary.

Recounting his glorious days in the bank, Augustt said he was manager, who had been transferred to another struggling branch of the bank.

In days he had turned things around and the bank was doing well. He felt invincible, he narrated, and that got into his head.

This got him to bend the rules as he gave out inappropriate loans.

An audit found out, leading to his eventual dismissal after one year of torturous investigation in which period he was interdicted.

Augustt lost all entitlement as a bank manager.

He also lost a poultry farm that had been run aground, by persons in charge because he was an absentee farmer.

“I felt angry and disappointed in God that He could not rescue me,” he said of his state during the days of the crisis.

“But God had a better plan,” he told Animwaa Anim-Addo, sit-in host of the SMS.

Perhaps God did not want me to become a banker,” he added.

It was much later in life when he became the head pastor of his church that he understood ( in part ) why God allowed such a situation to befall him.

That marked the beginning of grace in the grass. The road to becoming a man of God did not come on a silver platter.

It was his pastor who was kind enough to pay for his admission fees and another registration cost to the Trinity Theological Seminary.

It was not his intention to become a pastor when he enrolled for the bible module programme. He wanted to study the bible for himself and use it to mend his life yet God had a better plan.

 Rev. Henry Paa Nii Augustt is so happy with what he calls the second part of his life. 

He finds more fulfillment and the many productive engagements God is deploying in him.

He serves as a premarital counsellor and a pastor. 

From 2011–2013, mainly from his own resources and solicitations, he ran a half-hour Love and Relationship Radio Show on Spring FM, 102.7 at Mampong Akwapim.

During this period, he was able to raise funds to repair the pumping machine of Mampong School for the Deaf which had broken down for years.

Between 2006 and 2010, he was the Treasurer for Accra East Baptist Association.

From 2010–2014, he was also the Treasurer for Accra Ministers Fellowship of the Ghana Baptist Convention.

Currently, he is a Member of the Board of Ghana Academy of Christian Counselors.

 

 

 

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