I wrote this article on 29/03/2020 and shared it widely on social media when Covid-19 began ravaging the world. At the time, Bill Gates’ wife Melinda Gates was said to have "prophesied" that there'll be dead bodies lying on the streets of Africa. One year on, may we reflect on how we (Africa) have fared as far as the pandemic is concerned.

Has Melinda Gates predictions come true? Many other world leaders and international bodies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) predicted doom for Africa. How has the world, especially the western world fared with regards to the pandemic? Is there a God factor in all of these? Please read on: "Africa will write its own history, and it will be, to the north and to the south of the Sahara, a history of glory and dignity..."

My all-time favourite childhood story Book is titled "Martinko: Or, Without God in the World." It's a story about a Slovakian boy who was orphaned as a baby and raised by a family in a small Slovak town. He became a shepherd watching and caring for the town's livestock.

Having never gone to school, Martinko never learnt about God. But one day, a stranger comes along and teaches Martinko about the Good Shepherd; and this changed Martinko's life forever.

It's a small book I always carried with me everywhere I go (went)! One day, the unthinkable happened! I lost my Book. For days, weeks and months, I couldn't get over my loss. The first few days and weeks, I cried. Till this day, I just can't tell or say precisely what endeared this Book so much to me.

Perhaps I saw some similarities between myself and the orphaned Martinko. For me, growing up without a father figure, there was a void in my life that needed to be filled. There was an inner longing for something that wasn't there. There was a hole that needed to be filled.

Alone with my uneducated mum who couldn't provide me with answers to the many questions I had in my mind, I longed to search for the answers myself. Many days I would go on a walk, roaming the vicinities of Michel Camp and Kakasunaka No.1 and No. 2 all day long.

Like the Slovak orphan, there was a longing in my inner soul and spirit for something. And the search for that something took me into the woods sometimes, with my Book. Like Martinko the Shepherd, I was always on a journey. Though it's been many years now since; I still remember the Slovakian Orphaned Shepherd Martinko. The human body comprises a soul and spirit. This world is not our home. One day, we'll have to meet our Maker, whose Spirit and Soul we are made of.

Whilst in Pentonville in the summer of 2013, before my encounter with the Holy Spirit, Minta Addido, my Bible Teacher in the prison told me that Christianity is now in Africa. And that, even though the West brought Christianity to Africa, the West have completely abandoned the Gospel. It means then that, God's DWELLING is in Africa since the West has rejected God, whereas Africa is longing for God. May God therefore prove to the world by minimising the impact of Covid-19 on the African Continent!

Pope warns of West's 'Desert of Godlessness' April 11 2009 03:44 AM

Increasingly secular Western societies risk drifting into a "desert of Godlessness," the Pope warned in his Good Friday address yesterday.

Speaking during the Way of the Cross procession at the Colosseum in Rome, he said "religious sentiments" were increasingly ranked among the "unwelcome leftovers of antiquity" and held up to scorn and ridicule. He used this year's Good Friday meditations at the Stations of the Cross to compare attempts to purge religion from public life to the mockery Jesus faced from the mob.

The Bavarian-born Pontiff - shown unveiling the Crucifix yesterday as he led the Passion of the Christ Ceremony in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican - used uncompromising language as he attacked efforts to secularise society. Speaking at the seventh Station of the Cross, where Jesus was made an "object of fun", he said:

"We are shocked to see to what levels of brutality human beings can sink. Jesus is humiliated in new ways even today. When things that are most holy and profound in the faith are being trivialised, the sense of the sacred is allowed to erode. Our life together is being increasingly secularised. Religious life grows diffident. Thus we see the most momentous matters placed among trifles, and trivialities glorified."

The Pope prayed that Christians would respond to the problem by growing in faith. "May we never question or mock serious things in life like a cynic," he prayed.

The procession at the Colosseum, where thousands of early Christians died as martyrs, tends to focus on the troubles facing the world. (©Daily Telegraph, London).

"Christianity Is a Generation Away From Extinction" in Britain," Says Former Archbishop of Canterbury. Unless the church makes a substantial breakthrough in attracting young people back to the faith, Christianity in Britain is just "a generation away from extinction," says former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey.

Referencing the Church of England's warning that shrinking attendance could challenge its role as a "national institution," Lord Carey pointed out at a Christian Conference that clergy are currently grappling with a "feeling of defeat" and congregations are weighed down with "heaviness," according to The Telegraph. On top of that, he said, the public's reaction to all of this is simply "rolled eyes and a yawn of boredom."

Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, highlighted the gravity of the dying church by telling members they need to "evangelize or fossilize." Sentamu declared the need for a strategic campaign aimed at the "re-evangelization of England," much like the ministry of the northern saints such as Cuthbert, Hilda and Aidan who spread Christianity in Anglo-Saxon times.

"In many parts of Britain churches are struggling, some priests are diffident and lack confidence; a feeling of defeat is around. The burden seems heavy and joy in ministry has been replaced by a feeling of heaviness," said Lord Carey, highlighting that people had become dismissive toward the gospel.

"The viewpoint could be expressed in a variety of non-verbal ways: the shrug of indifference, the rolled eyes of embarrassment, and the yawn of boredom… So many people do not see the average church as a place where great things happen," he said.

"To sit in a cold church looking at the back of other people’s heads is surely not the best place to meet exciting people and to hear prophetic words… It is still the case that people are essentially looking for spiritual fulfilment," he added.

"One of the most worrying, most urgent groups we need to invest in is young people. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves," Lord Carey noted. "So many churches have no ministry to young people and that means they have no interest in the future. As I have repeated many times in the past we are one generation away from extinction. We have to give cogent reasons to young people why the Christian faith is relevant to them," he said.

Personally, I, Maxwell MAUNDY, have witnessed the death of the Church in Britain. During my time in the UK, I spent a year living and working in the coastal picturesque countryside town of Hastings in East Sussex. I was attending the Church of England close to my residence in St. Leonards. On a typical Sunday Church service, there were only a handful of very old people (Grandpas and Grannies).

There were hardly a youth or young person in Church. The only person I saw younger than the Grandpas and Grannies was the Priest himself. The situation would be no different from the Catholic Church nearby, unless there were some Africans living in the area. There were not many Africans in Hastings, especially St Leonards where I stayed.

During my days of Evangelism on the streets of London - mostly in Croydon - it was amazing to know how British children and youth have no idea about God, or His existence. On this note:
"God bless America...” NO, America NO longer knows God!
"God bless The Queen...” NO, The Queen and her Subjects (British) NO longer know God!

"God bless our Homeland Ghana...” YES! YES!! YES!!!
God's Dwelling is in Africa because Africa is longing for GOD!
Please GOD, Let Africa emerge victorious against western leaders' predictions that Africa will be the worst hit by corona virus!