Charity work, the responsibility of Churches
The General Overseer of Port Harcourt based Omega Power Ministry, Apostle Chinyere Chibuzor has said many Nigerian churches have enough resources to embark on charity work including providing free schools and food for people.
He made the remark recently at the inauguration of a free specialist hospital built by the church in Port Harcourt.
Chinyere whose church is known for operating about 11 free schools in Rivers State and a number of charity work including rehabilitation programmes for ex-prisoners and a host of other empowerment programmes said the OPM charity work were made possible by the offerings and tithes of church members.
“What I want people to realize is that money given to the church is not pastors’ money. It is the money given for the common good. It is true that pastors are supposed to be taken care of, but they are not supposed to spend the entire church money on themselves and their families. They are only entitled to a fraction for their own sustenance while the rest is to be used for the common good.” He said.
He noted further that many churches in Port Harcourt are making more money that his church but regretted that greed and selfish aggrandizement would not allow them to plow such money for the good of all.
He reasoned, “If every church in Nigeria opens a free school I do not think that will be too much. We are called to serve the people and I believe the church can do it.
“If just one church out of every ten church in a street is able to build free school, the rate of crime in Nigeria will drop. Many children are on the streets because some of them cannot afford to go to school. There are many children who go to bed daily without food. This should be a source of concern for all. The church should begin to work on taking people out of the streets.”
He disclosed that OPM has a food restaurant where food is given to people free. “We feed people free. Every Sunday people that are indigent can go to the welfare and collect raw food items. Those who don’t have transport are also given transport. We do that every Sunday for the last eight years. All these are made possible from the offerings and tithes of the people.”
He called on other church leaders to begin to think more of the people and work towards eradicating poverty in Nigeria.