Aboodi, Sarah Kai

Early Life

Sarah Kai Aboodi was born in the year 1925 at Teshie-Accra. Her parents were Numo Ago Aboodi and Mad. Kai Sackey both of blessed memory. Her father Numo Ago Aboodi hails from Teshie while her mother Mad. Kai Sackey was a native of Ga Mashi-Accra. Her grandfather was Nii Ayitsuru, a native of Ga Mashie, and her grandmother Naa Koshie, a native of Asene-Accra. She was the sixth born of her parents.[1] At the time of this writing, she and her senior sister Takor Aboadi are the only surviving persons left; the rest have passed on.

She did not receive a formal education because her parents did not send her to school. She had a little training through Sunday school by the Basel mission during her childhood and enabled her to read the Ga Bible partially which helped her to quote the Bible during preaching and other Bible discussions. According to her, she always gives thanks to the Holy Spirit for helping her to read and understand the Bible. Even though she is old and weak, her experiences and knowledge in teaching and explaining the word of God remains fresh. She considers teaching the word of God as the key principle in soul-winning and healing. Although she did not receive a formal education, she is proud of educating all her children.

Childhood

Prophetess Sarah Kai Aboodi started her childhood life at a village called Mobole in the Prampram Traditional Area in the Greater Accra Region. Mobole is still a farming community not far from Afienya (also a farming community). At the tender age of ten, her mother sent her to Mobole to stay with her cousin Mary Tsotso. Her cousin at the time was married to a farmer called Kojo Nartey a native of Prampram. Sarah supported her cousin and her husband in their farming activities. She also learned how to win stones for building construction. She learned this job from her cousin and her husband who did that during the dry season, when farming activities had reduced to the barest minimum.

At age twenty, Prophetess Sarah Kai Aboodi left Mobole back to Teshie. With her experience of hard work from Mobole, she decided to go into trading. She sold foodstuffs such as maize, cassava, dried cassava (kokonte), beans, fish, fruits, and vegetables. She traveled to Kwawu, Nyafuman, Banzuma (Juaso), Asesewa, and other many villages to buy these foodstuffs in large quantities. She later added the sale of clothes and chop bar (local restaurant) operation to her foodstuffs business. This she did until she got married.

Married life

Sarah Kai Aboodi married a man named Ataa Nunu at the age of 24. This man was a fisherman from Gbegbeise, a suburb of Accra. As a result of the marriage, she left Teshie and went to stay with her husband at Gbegbeise, which was still a small low-lying farming community at the time. Their ten-year marriage was blessed with three children.[2]

At the time, Gbegbeise had a large pond that separated it from other adjoining communities. This pond necessitated that everyone leaving the community and going to Accra would have to walk through it and then continue along a definite footpath to Accra, for there was no transport at the time in the year 1950. Today, Gbegbeise is a big community adjoining Mamprobi- Agege.

According to Sarah, one day in 1935 when she was crossing the pond on her way from Accra, she saw a very nice stone (a brightening stone) in the stream. After looking at the stone for some time, she picked it up and played with it as she walked. She finally threw the stone away before she got home. The following day she started to suffer a severe headache and fever. She also started having bad dreams when she slept at night, and lost sleep regularly as a result.

This condition lasted for almost two years, until one day her husband took her to a fetish priest in their village Gbegbeise. To her surprise, she saw the small shining stone she picked from the stream at the shrine. The fetish priest asked her if she had seen that stone before in her lifetime. She narrated the story to the fetish priest. The fetish priest sat down quietly for about ten minutes without telling her anything. He later went inside the shrine to perform some rituals. She heard the fetish priest singing, ringing some bells, and also drumming. The fetish priest finally came out only to tell her that his gods wanted her to serve them (i.e. she will become fetish priestess). Although she was sick and needed healing, she mustered courage and rejected the offer of the gods.

After some days, the husband again took her to a Presbyterian pastor to be prayed for. The pastor, after praying for her, directed her to see a prophetess called Gbalor Lamley at Ama Missa (now Korle Gonno) in the year 1938. Gbalor Lamley was once a fetish priestess, but had been converted by the Basel Missionaries. Sarah went to Gbalor Lamley’s camp, and was healed within a year there. Despite receiving her healing, she stayed and served Gbalor Lamley for another three years (between 1938–1941). Sarah was later baptized by Prophet Ablorh Lawson (the founder of Divine Healers Church). In the year 1941 after baptism, she started seeing herself in my dreams [sic], preaching to large crowds of people. Prophetess Sarah Kai Aboodi finally left Korle Gonno (Prophetess Lamley’s camp) after a total of four years (1938- 1941) and rejoined her husband at Gbegbeise.

Immediately she announced her presence in the village by praying for sick people and those who suffered apparently spiritual attacks. Sarah identified herself as the object of spiritual attack from the gods she refused to serve, saying that they did not make things easy for her. When she lost her third born child, named Atsre Nuhu, it was interpreted to her as either the doings of the gods she refused to serve, or as an attack caused by the family of her husband. This incident caused her to intensify her prayers and her studies of the Bible. Nevertheless, the attacks kept coming until she felt she had to leave to survive. Thus, after ten years (1969), Prophetess Sarah Kai Aboodi’s marriage came to an end. This was after she had given birth to her fourth child. She then left Gbegbeise and went back to her father at Teshie.

While at Teshie, Prophetess Sarah Kai Aboodi got married again to a man called Shamo Larbi. Shamo Larbi was a military officer at the time and also a native of the Teshie Ane We clan. He was born on the 14th of August 1938 at Obedeka, a suburb of Nsawam. His father was called Numo Osabutey from Teshie Ane We; his mother was Dedei Anteh also from Teshie Ane We. He joined the Ghana Armed Forces in 1972, and became a sergeant.

In this second marriage, Prophetess Sarah Kai Aboodi was blessed with twelve children. She was blessed to have five sets of twins and two singles.[3] Prophetess Sarah Kai Aboodi’s childbirth scenario was a great surprise to the people of Teshie because it was not common among married couples and families. As a result, she was given a nickname by the people “Haadzin Anye” meaning twins’ mother.[4] Prophetess Sarah Kai Aboodi never relented on her trading activities although she had to take care of all these 15 children of hers. She continued travelling to towns and villages to bring a large number of foodstuffs to Teshie to sell on retail bases.

Sense of Calling and Ministry

As in her trading, Sarah also never relented on her prophetic work and church activities. She was always found at the Teshie beach praying. Sometimes, she goes to the Teshie beach at dawn and midnight to pray and this baffles the fisherman who met her on their way to fishing. Some of the fishermen started calling her a witch but that did not stop her. She prayed at the beach all the more. People who had a spiritual problem started joining her at the beach to be prayed for. In turn, she also started visiting sick people at home and prayed for them. Besides praying, Sarah supplied herbal medications to those whose condition requires that in addition to prayers. She continued with this method for over ten years and as a result, became popular in Teshie.

By this time, her prophetic work had begun powerfully, leading to the formation of a prayer group in her father’s church: the Apostolic Reform Church. Together with her prayer team, they started organising church and prayer sections for her sick patients. This continued until Christ Healing Church finally emerged in the year 1985. Prophetess Sarah Kai Aboodi was someone who believed strongly in the Holy Spirit and also has strong faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ through whom she did all that she did. (Phil 4: 13). Within three years she became so popular in Teshie. Some leaders of the Apostolic Reform Church became envious of what she was doing and therefore started giving her problems. These problems continued to the point that she and her prayer group were officially asked to leave the church.

Sarah and her prayer partners continued their prayers at home as usual until they started Sunday morning church services in 1979. This was followed by teaching services on Wednesdays and Fridays. The church was named Christ Healing Church from its inception and it is still the same today. The name came from a member who had come for 21 days of fasting and prayers. Sarah also prayed over the name and felt that it was confirmed to her by the Holy Spirit in the year 1985. Locally the church is called Haadzin Anye Sormoh meaning “twins’ mother church.”

In 2001, Sergeant Shamo Larbi passed away a Christian in May 2001. He was survived by his wife and their twelve children, seven boys and five girls. Twelve years later, Sarah Kai Aboodi died peacefully in 2023 at the age of 98.

Benjamim Amartey

Notes

The rest of her siblings are Mamah Aboadi, Takie Aboadi, Takor Aboadi, Korley Aboadi, Boye Aboadi, Nii Kwei Aboadi, Amon Aboadi, Jani Aboadi, and Adey Aboadi. Her children’s names are: Kwanoa Nunu, Atsre Nunu, and Adjeiwa Nunu. Kwanoa Nunu was born in August 1953, Atsre Nunu was born in May 1956, and Adjeiwa Nunu in January 1959. Unfortunately, Atsre Nuhu died at the age of six. All the other children are alive at the time of this writing. The first set of twins were Isaac Oko and Akweley Larbi born in October 1965. The second set, Akwetey, and Akueteh Larbi were born in December 1968. The third set, Akueteh, and Oko Larbi were born in February 1971. The fourth set Akweley and Akuorkor Larbi were born in July 1978 and the last set Akweley and Akuorkor Larbi were born in March 1981. Tawiah, the first single was born in April 1974, that is after the third set of twins, and the second single another Tawiah Larbi (junior) was born in June 1984, making a total of twelve children. It may interest you to know that when she established her church, the church also had a nickname” Haadzin Anye Sormoh “meaning The Twins’ Mother Church.

Sources:

Prophetess Sarah Kai Aboodi (Founder of the church), interviewed on 4/2/2020, 16/03/2020, 10 and 18/05/2020, Teshie, Greater Accra Region by the writer.

Prophetess Rebecca Akweley Larbi (General Overseer of the church), interviewed on 4/2/2020, 16/03/2020, 10 and 18/05/2020, Teshie, Greater Accra Region by the writer

Original article reprinted with permission from: Benjamim Amartey, “The History of Christ Healing Church, Teshie” in The History of African Independent Churches - Book One, eds., Mary Bjork, Lynn Hansen and Thomas A. Oduro, (Accra: Type Company Limited, 2022), 358 - 387. This biography has been edited for posting on the DACB website. All rights reserved.