How A Homeless Man Turned General Overseer Of A Nigerian Pentecostal Church
Are you one of those about giving up on life because of seemingly endless rough times?
The story of Apostle Chibuzor Gift Chinyere, General Overseer of Omega Power Ministry Worldwide (OPM) is likely to provide the needed tonic that will ginger you to call the bluff of life’s challenges and succeed.
The clergyman’s life experience and eventual journey to the top is also likely to serve as a spinal
transplant for those who have lost the backbone of focus and determination.
Incidentally, his church also holds out hope for the less privileged including prostitutes to acquire skills that will enable them live decent lives.
Up till 2004, Apostle Chinyere whose church rates as one of the largest in Rivers State, lived in the valley of life. For years, he lived under the bridge at the Ogudu area of Ojota in Lagos. Later, he moved to Diobu, generally regarded as Port Harcourt’s Ajegunle.
Within that same period, he eked out living from selling GSM re-change cards.
By dint of divine touch and handwork, Apostle Chinyere now shepherds hundreds of thousands of faithfuls and has left no avenue unexplored to give hope to the hopeless.
In recent years, his church has spread the gospel of hope to the shanties of Port Harcourt, Prison yards and brothels within and outside the Rivers State capital.
The Christian organization runs free computer programmes for less privileged slum dwellers, prison inmates and prostitutes. This is aside the free schools and other skill acquisition schemes of the church for its members and non-members alike.
Speaking recently at the graduation of about 120 persons who went through its five-month Diploma Course in computer and Information Technology organized for residents of Bundu Waterfront, one of the Port Harcourt slums, the clergyman said his heart goes to the poor because he was one of them.
“I want to touch the lives of the less privileged. I was living under the bridge, an ordinary re-charge card seller. I have real feelings for the less privileged and that is why I want to empower them.
“Since God did it for me, I believe he would make some others very great. We are doing what we do for those who cannot pay back”.
Apostle Chinyere told Daily Sun that the church chose Bundu Waterside because it is populated by the less privileged.
“There is high level poverty there. I will not do it in GRA because people in GRA have money to go to school. “Go there (Bundu) and see how people are living. People live near waterside, inside shanties. I feel for them, having remembered how I was some years ago, and wish to give them the best of computer education.
“For sustainability of the programme, we have given many of them employment. We have so many Chief Executives in the church and we have referred so many of the beneficiaries of the programme to places to work. So, as we speak with these employers, they employ them”.
The OPM General Overseer explained that the various empowerment programmes of the church are open to members and non-members of the church. He advised the youth within and around the state to avail themselves of the programme and become gainfully employed.
He assured that although the various programmes gulp several millions of Naira, the church would not be deterred.
“The challenges are so much because the project runs into millions of Naira but we won’t stop.
“We have even gone ahead to offer 26 scholarships in Abia State. A few days ago, the church offered another 36 scholarships, one recipient from each of the 36 States of the Federation to study to any level in the university”.
He frowned at the high school fees being charged by many educational institutions owned by religious organizations in the country and accused the church of contributing far below expectation to national development.
“A lot of churches have not done enough. If you look around, you will find some churches that build schools and their fees are unbelievably too high for the poor.
“That is why OPM started building schools. We give them school uniforms, free books and they don’t pay school fees. They just come to school and learn”.
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