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Opinions of Friday, 27 October 2023

Columnist: Lenny kuuku Simmons

A piece about Elvis Agyemang's wife (Queen Alpharian)

Pastor Elvis Agyeman with his wife, Lady Mercy Agyemang Pastor Elvis Agyeman with his wife, Lady Mercy Agyemang

A few days ago, Pastor Elvis Agyemang, Chief Alpharian, celebrated his birthday, and the people of Ghana and beyond joined him in thanking God for His mercies, faithfulness, and blessings. I celebrated with him too, and wished him a happy birthday.

But this piece is not about him; it's about his wife, Lady Mercy Agyemang (Queen Alpharian). On her husband’s birthday, I saw videos of her presenting gifts to Korle Bu Teaching Hospital worth Ghc500,000 ($50,000); I saw the Land Cruiser she cruised in to get there and then the bodyguards and all, and I asked myself, if this is not honor, then what is it? No one can doubt that God has honored the man of God on whose behalf she drove to Korle Bu, and, as his wife, she too has received this heavenly fragrance.

Unlike Apostle Joshua Selman, who had entered the world stage as a bachelor, Chief Alpharian landed on the scene with a wife. Now the question is, how could a man with a wife be this anointed? I think the answer is not in the man, but in the woman, so the question should rather be, what kind of woman should a man marry and still be able to chase God and catch Him?

Catching God is no joke, especially catching Him to such a level where you can implore Him to act on behalf of a whole generation. God is hidden and this hiddenness has frustrated many who have attempted to find Him, with some giving up on the way, while others have perished in the wilderness. Many atheists will tell you that the hiddenness of God is the number one reason why they don't believe in the existence of God. “If He exists,” they will say, “show us.” But I think men like Apostle Selman and Chief Alpharian have taught us that God can be found.

Personally, I know very little about finding God, but I know that to find Him, you would have to give Him your whole heart, not for a day or two, but for a lifetime. So, the anointing of the Nigerian Apostle can be easily explained as “he gave his whole heart to God, I mean, everything. As a bachelor, I think this will not come as a surprise since he had no woman in his life. What about Chief Alpharian, who had already made vows to a woman even before he caught God like this? How could he give God his whole heart when his heart had already been pledged to a woman?

This is not to say that Apostle Selman’s way was easy, far from it, but I think adding a wife when one hadn't caught God yet increases the weight. On thinking about this, I was reminded of William Carey, the Father of Modern Missions, the man who said, “Expect Great things from God, Attempt great things for God,” and how his first wife Dolly could not endure after she had followed him to India and saw the squalor.

She berated and tormented the man of God, thereby tormenting herself until her passing in 1807. While she was alive, William Carey could not attempt any great things for God, for every move or jump of his was hindered. So I asked again, what sort of woman should a man marry if that man would like to attempt great things for God? I believe, the answer is in the First Ladies of some of our most anointed men of God, the answer is in Queen Alpharian.

Queen Alpharian is a sharer, a releaser, I believe, and not a hoarder. While most Ghanaian ladies will tell you that they wouldn't like to marry a pastor for fear of sharing him with God and the congregation, Queen Alpharian plunged in and married a man who is not only a pastor to our nation but also to countless others. If she had the same concerns while their church was small, then I wonder how she would have coped now that it has become a global phenomenon. The fact that she could do this shows that she never saw Christ nor His calling as competition, instead, she sees Him as her King worthy of obedience, no matter the cost.

From the beginning, You can see that she was all about the mission, and the need to help others. To her, marriage is a mission and the mission is to serve others, to see people delivered, and to see Jesus glorified. Think about it, how many ladies could back their man to go on a two-year fast, to the point of developing ulcer, all in the name of acquiring power or anointing to help others? Some ladies, without this mission mindset, will fight their man along the way, thereby reducing the oil on their head into “zomi.” And what good purpose can a zomi anointing serve?

I also believe Queen Alpharian is a sacrificer, not an instant gratifier. A classical case was when I heard Chief Alpharian mention that, one day, he came home and told his wife that the Lord said they should give away the only car they had. The man of God said, while he found it a bit difficult to break the news to her, Queen Alpharian, upon hearing this, encouraged him to do it.

“Give it up,” she said, “If that’s what the Lord says.” Don’t forget that giving up one’s only car means downgrading to Trotro or Taxi (Uber) but she couldn’t be bothered. Now, what if she had said no, what do you think would have happened? She knew that her path was one of sacrifice, obedience, and letting go of things. Today, she is cruising in Land Cruiser. Her sacrifice has paid off big time. The lesson here is that to be a person of deep faith, where your faith works for you, you must be a sacrificer and not an instant gratifier.

I could on and on and talk about her love for God, for her man, her humility and peacefulness and her believe in her man, but I’d like to rest my case here. Please, don’t get me wrong, this is not to say that Queen Alpharian is without flaws, but whatever they are, they are kept under grace.

Now, I leave you with the words of Captain Glover in “Hacksaw Ridge,” “Most of these men don’t believe the same way you do, but they believe so much in how much you believe.” So, we could say, Queen Alpharian may not believe the same way her husband does, but she believed so much in how much he believes. No wonder Chief Alpharian has turned out the way he has. I believe this remarkable woman of God is worth emulating.