Persons with disabilities in the 42 villages of Onna Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom state, have expressed gratitude to Apostle Elijah Jack, General Overseer of His Divine Redeemed World Ministry, Mkpok, for providing Wheelchairs, Clutches, food items and cash gifts to their members.
The message of appreciation was delivered through the chairman, Joint National Association of People with Disabilities, Onna chapter, Mr. Anthony Ufot Joe, at the Church premises behind Mkpok police station during the weekend.
THEWILL reports that the appreciation came on the heels of the unusual gesture of the cleric penultimate weekend, who donated over 30 walking aids, including wheelchairs and clutches, food items and cash worth millions of naira to persons with disabilities in the council area.
Speaking during the visit at the weekend, Ufot Joe recalled that he casually mentioned to Apostle Jack, to extend a hand of fellowship to his members and never knew it could come within a short time and in such a big way.
“My name is Anthony Ufot Joe, chairman of Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities, Onna Local Govt Area chapter,
“I was the one who met Apostle Dr Elijah Jack and pleaded with him to show some love to the people who were born different in his community and he accepted, I forgot about it thinking he will forget about us as other pastors and politicians in Onna have done to us.
“But on January 30th, Apostle showered us with clutches, wheelchairs, raw food items and cash empowerment. Truly it was more than expected, we have never seen this kind of love before, that is why we have come to tell him thank you.
“All of us would have come but I selected few of my members to come along with my president to thank apostle for entering the 42 villages in Onna to fetch all persons with disabilities and less privileged to bless us in his capacity, he gave us wheelchairs, clutches, raw food items and cash empowerment.
“We pray that God will bless him more abundantly untill he is able to reach out to people all over the world we are grateful, that is why we have come to say thank you” Joe narrated.
Joshua Jacobson Akpan from Ntan Ide Ekpe, who is the president of the group, expressed heartfelt appreciation and pleaded that seed capitals be given to those who want to trade on commodities while those who are able to work with their hands be sponsored to learn trades; such as tailoring, hair dressing, weaving etc. to be self reliance and end begging.
“I like what the man of God did for us the previous month and that is why we say a big thank you to him, May God bless and increase the man of God a thousand times in Jesus name amen.
“Some of us were unable to afford one meal a day, but knowing the man of God is a blessing to persons with disabilities in Onna, we no more lack food to eat, we now use our clutches and wheelchairs to walk, no more dragging our bodies on the ground and dirty our bodies. We will one day move to our governor to give us our workshop because we are not beggars but persons with disabilities.
“Most of us have skills that if we are trained, we can also train others so that we will stop begging.
We should be trained in soap making, hair dressing, oil palm production, tailoring and embroidery, personally I will love to learn embroidering.” The group president appealed.
Responding to the encomiums poured on him, Apostle Jack likened the gesture of the group to the one leper that return to give thanks to Jesus Christ after being made whole by His ministry. He however pledged to do more and to see them henceforth, as his responsibility.
“I must say thank you very much for coming around to tell God thank you, I remember in the Bible story about the ten leper, out of the ten that our Lord Jesus Christ healed, one of them returned to say thank you.
“For this very show of your gratitude, I want you all to understand that this serves as an encouragement to me and I also know that once in a while I know I have people to care about, you are my responsibility from today, I am very excited and comfortable that you came around.
“Looking into humanity is my main responsibility and God, I want you to understand that as God gives me the grace, I will continue doing this empowerment without bias God gives me the enablement.
“I also want to Advice you not to look at your condition, rise up and work, you can achieve whatever you wish, and work consistently towards your goal, as God blessed me, the next phase of empowerment will be training on skills, any skill you desire to learn, indicate interest and you will be thought.
“You will discover that having disability is not the end of your lives, there’s an ability in each and every one of you, you only need to discover it. God has a purpose for creating you, so that purpose must come to manifest.
“God uses situations that people grade as nothing or lost hope to glorify himself. I want you to know that in this life, you will be called and address as who God want you to be in Jesus mighty name Amen. God bless you all for coming around.” The apostle prayed.
