The Agape touch: How church impacted Mende residents through sanitation exercise

By Toyin Adeniyi

They are not officials of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority. They are members of the Agape Generation International Church, Mende Maryland; Lagos,. cladded in sanitation attires and set out to clean up the Mende community.

It was the church’s own way of demonstrating the love of Christ and impacting the people. The exercise which took place on Saturday August 16 was done ahead of the yearly conference of the church with the theme, “No more shame” which starts from August 21 to 24.

Need to impact the community

Chairman of the planning committee for the yearly conference Dr. Sylvanus Jatto gave an insight into the community effort of the church.

He explained that the exercise was in line with the theme of the church’s anniversary which is “No more shame”. It, is to impact the community by keeping the community clean”,

According to him the sanitation exercise was the church’s own way of letting the community know it cares for its immediate environment.

Excitement

Members of the church joyfully took part in the exercise. They showed up in their numbers ; actively taking part in cleaning the environment; picking up trash, cleaning the gutters, and cutting the grass,

A member, Mr Richard Akinbuli, says he was motivated to be part of the team because it’s a way of giving back to the society. “We are focused on giving back to the community and not what the community can give to us”. He said.

Mr Simeon Eriogbhe on his part reinstates the aphorism that cleanliness is next to Godliness while adding, ‘We as a church are projecting Jesus, so keeping the community clean is necessary”.

Beyond cleaning

Aside from the cleaning exercise, the church provides free water to residents around its location in Mende and holds a yearly sales programme known as Jara Sales where essential household items are sold at a cheaper price to residents.

The church has done two food sharing programmes in the year during which hundreds of people were fed

All these are being done because Jesus commanded it as noted by Dr. Jatto

Another member, Ms Glory Ebhowe submits, “The church itself is a community so I believe that different contributions to the society matters a lot”

Response of community people

The church’s activities do not go unnoticed by residents of Mende. In the course of the sanitation residents showed appreciation and gratitude.

Jato recalled that one of the community leaders, Mr. Sunmola, now late, once helped the church to check the excesses of land speculators known as omo onile when the church was being built..”That is the kind of support we have gotten from the community people” Jatto said.

Destiny conference

Beyond the cleaning exercise, the church is set for its destiny transformation conference coming up from 21 to 24th of August 2025.

The event will feature the feeding of people with both the word of God and food. The church plans to feed about 500 people in the area during the conference.

Secretary of the planning committee, Mr Aniekan Usen said the major purpose of the “Conference is to see how we can reach out to many souls through the Word of God and also impact our environment positively.

“The word of God admonishes us to reach out to the lost starting from Jerusalem. This community is our own Jerusalem so we are reaching out from here to many who are willing to listen to the word of salvation.” He said .