By Sam Eyoboka

AS part of its social corporate responsibility, publisher of a daily devotional, Our Daily Manna, Bishop Chris Kwakpovwe, led members of his Manna Prayers Mountain Ministry to offer free medical services to hundreds of less privileged in two locations in Lagos.

The medical intervention based on the ministry’s programme, Mercy Week, preceding its annual fasting and prayers, took place in the community surrounding its headquarters in Ogudu, Lagos and its branch in Lekki area of Lagos where people with different medical challenges were diagnosed and treated free of charge in line with biblical injunctions.

Bishop Chris Kwakpovwe (2nd right) supervising the medical team during the outreach in Lagos.

James 1:27 says: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Speaking on the initiative, Kwakpovwe, who resigned about 30 years ago for full time ministry, said the two-day medical outreach took place simultaneously in other 100 countries and locations where the ministry has branches.

The cleric, dressed in his pharmacy coat during the exercise with an ODM cap to shield himself from the sun, disclosed that he heard a divine instruction three years ago to show mercy and impact humanity before his church’s annual 14-day prayer and fasting holding every July.

Penultimate Saturday, with support from a medical team from oil major, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, as well as volunteers from the University of Lagos, Lagos State University Colleges of Medicine,  and the Lagos State Ministry of Health, freely attended to the old and the young with various medical challenges.

The team diagnosed, dispensed medicines and prayed for the attendees’ divine healing, while those whose cases were severe, were promptly referred to the hospitals for comprehensive attention.

To round off the Mercy Week, on Sunday, Kwakpovwe led some of his church members to visit some orphanages, old people’s homes and prisons where he donated gifts, food items and money to the inmates.

Amiang Enobong, who led the SPDC medical team, commended the bishop for the initiative, saying his company had been collaborating with various communities and organizations in the area of medical outreach, but the initiative of the ODM publisher had been so exceptional.

The Shell team later presented the clergyman with an award for his selfless services.

The Delta State-born preacher had lately been enmeshed in controversies leading to a legal battle, which he saw as persecution, not of him but the Body of Christ and has therefore remained unruffled, believing they are challenges designed to distract his evangelical mission.

He had blessed many through his devotional, Our Daily Manna, with millions of copies rolled off the press every quarter and reaching millions of families all over the world every day. At the last count, Kwakpovwe has written over 70 books.