The Inquirer Newspaper joined the faith of the Christian Community yesterday during a thanksgiving service ahead of its 34th anniversary ceremony slated for Wednesday, January 15, 2025.
Being on the newsstand since January 15, 1991, the oldest postwar newspaper, The Inquirer Newspaper, will celebrate another year summing its 34th year of service to Liberia and its foreign partners within its borders as part of its tradition over three decades.
In a regular way of entering or observing such historic day, the institution kicked off its activities with a special thanksgiving and intercessory prayer service at ‘My God Is Able’ Healing and Deliverance Ministries in Barnesville, where one of Inquirer’s former employees turned servant-of-God serves as the Pastor-in-charge.
During the service, the paper was charged to maintain hard work in order to retain its service to nation and as a way of giving back to the Liberian community.
Rev. D. Webster Cassell’s sermon acknowledged the institution as Liberia’s first post-war newspaper that is still on the newsstand and making headwaves.
Rev. Cassell, who served the paper as sports reporter for many years and was among the team that resuscitated the Inquirer when over eight employees left for greener pasture in 2019, now recounted the troubling days the institution faced operating in the society that posed many challenges to its works, explaining that the journey had only being possible because of the commitment and the time the paper put in to work harder.
Preaching on a theme centered on “Acknowledging and Admonishing Christians for Hard Work,” Rev. Cassell informed his congregation that the goal of earthly work is to impact and deliver results so that God who sees your individual work, will reward impartially.
In his wisdom, the touch-bearer of the Inquirer Newspaper, the late Philip N. Wesseh (PNW-The Gina), along with others saw the need to work hard to build an institution that now lives on and continues its work; being the voice for the voiceless and powerless population in the Liberian society.
“Philip Wesseh worked very hard for the Inquirer Newspaper that we see and today is a testament that his work for the future is alive to celebrate 34 years. Those that are at the institution have worked and need to be acknowledged. Keep on working hard for Liberia,” he admonished the staff.
He then lauded the institution’s management for initiating a new leadership style of building the next generation that will move on its sustainability ideology by giving young people the opportunity to serve and learn so that they all can have the legacy of their mentor living beyond 34 years.
He added, “Do not compromise your stance as you go along celebrating 34 years and more because you have to remain the voice of the voiceless. Bring up the young ones that are behind and do not cease to mold them properly and in the culture of hard work so that they will maintain this work like Philip Wesseh and the others did in the past.”
On behalf of the Inquirer Newspaper, the Managing Editor, Christiana Winnie Saywah-Jimmy, in a statement of appreciation, informed the church that since the establishment of the institution, it had witnessed God’s intervention in its operation on the basis of which a traditional thanksgiving is held every year.
She expressed gratitude to the family of faith at the ‘My God is Able’ Ministries through Mother Frances Barclay along with Rev. Cassell and his team, saying “Thank you for acknowledging us and admonishing us.”
She intimated that last year’s successes and achievements of the paper as a local print media evolved around everyone connected to its work and because God is the driver of it all, there is no better place to begin than the house of God who gives life and strength.
According to the Managing Editor, solving the daily managerial and operational problems of the entity, to include the payment of salaries, rent, and other arrears in time without confrontations and indebtedness and well as guiding ethical principles of the reporters to avoid damages, had all been the wisdom of the heavenly father.
Madam Saywah-Jimmy lauded her staff for their personal commitment to keeping the dreams of the entity in full swing and encouraged them all to take the message of the prelate as a working tool going forward in celebrating more years to come pointing out, “A man who will not work, will not eat.”
She thanked the public and her customers for believing in the paper; calling on everyone to join the 34th anniversary celebration at the institution’s head offices in Monrovia this Wednesday January 15, 2025.
