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Tribute to Reverend Dr. TB Dankwa by Prof. JH Amuasi The first TB Dankwa Missions Fund and Public Lecture held at the British Council Hall in 2018. This is what I shared as Chairman’s Opening Remarks during the event: “REVEREND DR. THEOPHILUS BAMFO DANKWA – A MENTOR FOR MANY GHAFES ASSOCIATES AND OTHERS. My wife Joyce and I are absolutely delighted to be here to appreciate a mentor. Mentor means a wise and trusted counsellor or teacher. In Greek mythology, Mentor was Odysseus’s trusted counsellor. He was assigned the responsibility to raise Odysseus’s son Telemachus, while Odysseus was away fighting in Troy. When he returned after many years, he found Telemachus completely transformed. Mentor became the wise adviser, counsellor or teacher of Telemachus in the “Odyssey.”  The story of Mentor is demonstrated in the life of King Joash of Judah and his uncle Jehoiada the High Priest. Jehoiada, a wise counsellor, influenced Joash to live a God-honouring life.   Scripture says in 2 Chronicles 24: 1-2, 15-16 that: “Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years, and that Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Now Jehoiada was old and full of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty. He was buried with the kings in the City of David, because of the good he had done in Israel for God and his temple.” What good did Jehoiada do? He passionately mentored 7 year old king Joash until he became a great king. As long as Jehoiada the high priest was his counsellor, Joash served the Lord. Having someone in our lives to guide us toward faith and Christlikeness can be good and helpful. Even better is getting to know the Lord ourselves and learning to rely on the Holy Spirit to be our guide. That is making our faith personal, isn’t it? So it is with any type of mentorship. The mentor’s goal is to assist and guide his mentoree (or mentee as some prefer to call it) to excel in his chosen profession, be it sacred or secular. The story of Mentor is again being passionately demonstrated in our present time in the life of a man called Reverend Dr. Theophilus Bamfo Dankwa. He is the type of Jehoiada the High Priest of Judah. So, we have a High Priest of GHAFES. He has mentored quite a number of us already and is still being used by God in the mentorship business. And when we talk about mentoring, we are looking into investments that pay off, like it happened in the case of Jehoiada who passionately mentored 7 year old king Joash until he became a great king. We are gathered here this evening foremost to thank God and give Him glory for the lives of Rev. Dr. Theophilus and Dr. Mrs. Virginia Dankwa, to honour and celebrate their contribution to the GHAFES ministry and Christendom. We are also here to carry their mentorship business into a new dimension – what GHAFES Executive Council call “T.B. Dankwa Missions Fund” – to raise support to enrich GHAFES missions work. It is a launching ceremony that will include a maiden public lecture. Who wouldn’t like to be part of this noble (inaugural) cause? It should be an honour for us all to be here at such a time as this. So I, in particular, accept gladly to serve as chairman of this gathering to celebrate someone who has been mentoring me all these years. (Culled from: The first TB Dankwa Missions Fund and Public Lecture). I first met Osofo TB Dankwa (as I used to call him) at the Great Hall of the UST (now KNUST), Kumasi in 1971 at one of our Inter Hall Christian Fellowship meetings. He had then taken over from Rev. Gottfried Osei-Mensah as Travelling Secretary of the Ghana Inter University Christian Fellowship (GIUCF), now Ghana Fellowship of Evangelical Student (GHAFES). He became my mentor. The mentoring continued when we were both in the UK pursuing our separate programmes – he in Theology at London Bible College and I in Medical Physics. He used to visit me and Joyce at Northwick Park Hospital where I was studying and staying from 1977-1980. Then in 1989, when he and Osofo Maame Virginia returned to Ghana from Nairobi, Kenya after his tenure as IFES Regional Travelling Secretary for English and Portuguese speaking Africa, they introduced Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) for the first in Ghana. Osofo TB was the foundational member when the Men’s BSF Evening Class was established in 1991. He extended invitation to many men to join the Class and furthermore mentored many BSFers.  He was so committed to BSF and wouldn’t miss Monday Evening Class Meetings.  He was regular and punctual, and contributed effectively with wisdom during discussions and was an inspiration to all of us. He kept coming to Class when the Wednesday afternoon in-person Satellite Discussion Group (SDG) was created at East Legon in 2017, and then by zoom in 2020. It was only in September 2021 that he completely stopped joining us by zoom because of health challenges. Osofo TB, with great appreciation, GHAFES Associates and the entire BSF Class with its SDGs, salute you. The days of your pilgrimage on earth have come to an end, but we still hope for better days to come when we shall meet again in those “mansions with the blest!” The 12th century hymnist, Bernard of Cluny, put it comfortingly this way (MHB 652): “Brief life is here our portion;  Brief sorrow, short-lived care.  The life that knows no ending,  The tearless life, is there.  O happy retribution:  Short toil, eternal rest;  For mortals and for sinners  A mansion with the blest!” Fare thee well, our mentor and friend.

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