Churches Begin Year With Fast

Churches across Douala have begun holding fasting and prayer sessions to open the new year. Christians in their different congregations make use of crucial hours such as mornings, evenings and nights to commune with their Maker (God) in a relationship of deepening intimacy. Although prayers are sometimes held at noon in Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox Church. Most engage the months of January and February to organise the prayers which take such a form as abstaining not only from food and drinks but, most importantly, the turn from sin with a 180 degree turn towards God, His kingdom and righteousness. Messages are preached to effect a life of piety, practice of the Gospel message preached in the Bible.
While the purpose of such a session is always the same, most of them resort to praying with a fast with the intention of giving thanks to God for preserving them throughout the year or use the period from Christmas to the eve of New Year to ask God to transit them into the new year. With the start of every year, as it is this year, their communication with God through prayers (mostly Pentecostal churches) is mostly the application of the offensive and defensive principle against oppressive, obstructive forces that may stand on the way of their progress and prosperity. Some however engage fasting as a way to secure a vision of what God wants them to do in the course of the year.
Praying takes the form of hisses as in mainstream churches to more aggressive shouts as in Pentecostal settings. If you have lived in Douala in the past two decades, then you must have been awashed with shouts of “Holy Ghost fire!” “My Father, my Father!” or the release of the divine force through recitation of a Bible verse in s...