Who Bishop Dag Heward-Mills is

A doctor first

Dag Heward-Mills trained as a doctor at the University of Ghana Medical School. By his own account, given the same way for more than twenty-five years, he studied there from 1982 and finished on 10 March 1989. He started the church halfway through the course, in a classroom on the Korle-Bu campus.

Interview: his own account of medical school. · Seattle, USA, 200811:28 (opens the recording on YouTube at 11:28)

Sources University of Ghana alumni office; Church Growth International conference programme, 2024

Hospitals

The ministry runs mission hospitals in Ghana. St. Kathryn’s Hospital in Accra is a 40-bed hospital offering general medicine and surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, and eye care, according to the board page of Church Growth International. St. Gamaliel’s Hospital carries its name on its front wall. Medical teams travel several times a year to give free care and medicine in the countryside.

Before we built… I slept and I woke up weeping about some people whose legs were cut off… the Lord has spoken to me that I should do something for this kind of people… that’s why we built that whole hospital

Watch · On the hospital for people who have lost limbs, Accra, 20233:06:19 to 3:07:05 (opens the recording on YouTube at 3:06:19)

when our hospital was being built I designed it myself… the theatre, when you wash your hands you come here… because I’ve worked in the theatres

Watch · Mampong, Ghana, 20151:08:16 to 1:08:47 (opens the recording on YouTube at 1:08:16)

Sources Dag Heward-Mills Ministries, Humanitarian; Church Growth International, board members

The blind, the deaf and the poor

His Help the Helpless charity cares for the poor and for people with disabilities. It has published Braille learning materials for blind pupils in junior high schools, renovated schools for the hearing-impaired in Ghana, and supplied schools for the deaf in Côte d’Ivoire.

Sources Dag Heward-Mills Ministries, Humanitarian; Ministry biography film, 2016

An orphanage

He founded the Lighthouse Christian Home, an orphanage in Ghana, which the ministry says was sparked by what Jesus said in Matthew 25.

we have an orphanage… we have our own orphanage with our own children that we look after

Watch · London, 200758:44 (opens the recording on YouTube at 58:44)

Sources Ministry biography film, 2016

Prisons

The ministry sends food every month to prison inmates in Accra and has renovated prison cells. On Christmas Eve 2019 church members fed 850 prisoners at Sunyani Central Prisons. In December 2021 a branch in Koforidua fed inmates and gave a Christmas meal to children at the Eastern Regional Hospital.

Sources Citi Newsroom, 28 Dec 2019; Ghana News Agency, 30 Dec 2021; Dag Heward-Mills Ministries, Humanitarian

Anagkazo

Anagkazo Bible and Ministry Training Centre was founded in 1996 to train men and women for ministry. Its campus at Mampong in the Akuapem hills opened in October 2015. In August 2022 Ghana’s National Youth Authority and Ministry of Youth and Sports held the national International Youth Day there, with the United Nations system in Ghana. The campus holds a museum of missionaries and ministers of the past.

VRT’s claims about Anagkazo, answered

Sources Anagkazo Bible and Ministry Training Centre; Citi Newsroom, 3 Aug 2022; UNFPA Ghana, 12 Aug 2022

His standing in world Christianity

In September 2016 he was elected to the Executive Council of the Pentecostal World Fellowship at its world conference in São Paulo. He sits on the board of Church Growth International, the body founded by Korea’s Yoido Full Gospel Church, and in October 2024 he preached at its conference in Seoul. A week before VRT’s broadcast, the World Assemblies of God Fellowship held its congress in Africa for the first time, in Accra, and listed him among the speakers as a member of the fellowship. In 2016 Ghana’s sitting president, John Mahama, was special guest at Lighthouse Chapel’s Good Friday service in Accra.

1. April 2026

   Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema received him at State House, Lusaka, after the Healing Jesus Campaign at the National Heroes Stadium. The meeting went out live on the President’s own Facebook page. Ghana News Agency, 10 May 2026; Graphic Online, 12 May 2026; ZNBC

2. 3 April 2026

   President John Mahama spoke at his Good Friday Miracle Service on Black Star Square, Accra. Waving his military aide back to his seat, Mahama said: “I’m telling him I’m with my family.” Graphic Online, Apr 2026; Graphic Online, 7 Apr 2026; Rainbow Radio, 4 Apr 2026

3. 30 April 2025

   Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio received him at State House, Freetown. State House, Sierra Leone (archived copy); Premier News, 2 May 2025

4. February to March 2025

   During the Honiara campaign, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele received him on a courtesy visit, and he spoke at the Prime Minister’s senior-staff morning devotion. Solomon Islands Government; Sunday Isles

5. October 2022

   Re-selected to the Executive Committee of the Pentecostal World Fellowship at its world conference in Seoul, after his election to its Executive Council in São Paulo in September 2016. PAOC, 14 Oct 2022; Religion News Service, 14 Oct 2022; MyJoyOnline, 14 Sep 2016

6. 21 July 2019

   He made a courtesy call on Namibia’s President Hage Geingob at State House, Windhoek, announced by the Namibian Presidency. MyJoyOnline, 25 Jul 2019, quoting the Presidency

7. 2014

   Made a member of Benin’s National Order of Merit, conferred on behalf of President Thomas Boni Yayi during the Cotonou campaign. Ministry documentary, from 17:52

Sources Citi FM, 14 Sep 2016; Church Growth International, board members; CGI Conference 2024 programme; Ghana News Agency, 12 Oct 2026; TV3 News360, Good Friday 2016; Wikimedia Commons, photo