By Rita Enemuru, Reporting
The Living Faith Church (aka Winners Chapel), Ugbowo, has given out hundreds of thousands naira worth of palliative to striking members of academic and non-academic unions (ASUU and NASU) of the University of Benin, Edo State.
The act was carried out on Sunday, July 31, 2022, to members of the church who were affected by the ongoing six months strike of the unions.
This was contained a statement made available to Stonix News on Sunday, August 7, 2022.
While presenting the palliative, the Resident Pastor of Living Faith Ugbowo, Pastor Edwin Ogelenya said the act was a recognition of the
plight of the members to demonstrate the love of Christ.
“We are aware and understand what you are going through and with a genuine sense of concern for your welfare, the Church has decided to offer some measure of assistance to you to cushion the effect of the burden at this very moment and to further demonstrate what Christianity is all about” he said to the workers.
“Love is to be demonstrated and not just to be sermonised,” he said.
Noting the disruption the strike action has caused students, he concluded his address with a prayer for the quick resolution of the dispute between the striking workers and the government.
He also prayed that the little token distributed to the workers will not be exhausted until their salaries are paid, after the order of the encounter of the widow of Zarephath with Prophet Elijah in the Bible (1 Kings 17:14).
Present at the ceremony were some officials of ASUU, the Secretary of the Union in Edo State, Dr Success Abusomwan and the immediate past chairman of Edo State Chapter of ASUU, Professor Julius Iyasele.
In his remark, Dr Abusomwan on behalf of the Edo chapter of ASUU, UNIBEN Branch, thanked the leadership of Living Faith Church, represented by Pastor Edwin Ogelenya, for this-first-of-its+kind gesture to members of the union.
He said: “This is not just a gesture to members of the church alone, but to the entire members of the striking unions and we will forever remain grateful.”
Professor Julius Iyasele also expressed his appreciation to Living Faith Church for the initiative and unprecedented show of compassion to its members.
“We on campus know what the situation is right now; It is not only that there isn’t money, but even when the money is available, it cannot put food on the table because of the hyper-inflation in the market; his act of generosity is highly appreciated,” he reiterated.
Some of the beneficiaries of the cash gift thanked the management of the Church for the act of kindness as they took turns to laud the church for coming to their rescue.
