He said the world went through emotional, intellectual, moral, financial, civil and spiritual exile, and prayed that God would return the world to its former state of prosperity and blessings.

Rev Anaba, Founder of the Fountain Gate Chapel, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said in Job 42 :10, the lord turned the captivity of Job and gave onto him twice as much as he had before, and said “I am believing God that from tonight, 31st of December, that for every Ghanaian; God will begin to turn our captivity.”

In attendance at the event were the Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Madam Paulina Patience Abayage, the Upper East Regional Minister, some Ministers of State including Municipal and District Chief Executives and Regional Executives of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

When the GNA visited the Our Lady Queen of Africa Catholic Church as part of its coverage of church activities in the Bolgatanga Municipality to usher in the new year, the Parish Priest, Reverend Father George Omondi, in his sermon, said 31st December night services offered Christians the opportunity to thank God for His blessings.

He said “some of us have very good and sweet memories of the year that is ending because our hopes were fulfilled, our intentions were granted by God, we saw progress in our job, we enjoyed good health, peace at work, good relationships at home and prosperity all over.”

At the Holy Ghost Temple of the Assemblies of God Church, where the young and old displayed their dancing skills to express joy and gratitude to God for seeing them through 2018, Reverend Dominic Ziba, the Head Pastor, in his message, called on Christians to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things would be added onto them”.

Similarly, members of the Bolgatanga Circuit of the Ebenezer Methodist Church who were mostly clad in white, sang hymns to glorify God for His blessings and mercies on their lives, while the Superintendent Minister, the Very Reverend Cosmos Kabaya, used the occasion to call on all stakeholders to focus and depend on God to move the nation forward.

At the Saint Cyprian Anglican Church, the Venerable Cannon Dennis Tong, preaching the sermon, said “because of the power of God in us, we are no more slaves of the elemental spirit of the universe”.

He said as Christians “we cannot allow these wicked spirits to molest us”, adding that “If we have God in us, we will be filled with grace and truth because God gave Jesus the grace and truth and we are in Christ as one”.