Thousands throng maiden anniversary of Uwem Ministries International for God’s blessings.

Akaiso Akaiso, Uyo.

When Apostle Uwem Akpan had a call to serve God the first time through Bishop Joseph Essien she probably must have dismissed it with a wave of hand. On the second hand, she might have thought Bishop Essien was playing a fast one on her to compel her to remain with him as she was a very good chorister in the church choir.

But this call kept on repeating itself for not less than ten times and for ten times she ignored. Like Jonah who was taught a lesson in the belly of a fish after he dodged the call of God to go to Nineveh to preach the salvation gospel to the people, hers was a seven month of painful and unabated menstruation.

“As I was lying down in pains I heard a knock on the door. I thought it was probably a visitor and I asked who is at the door?. I heard no answer, the next thing I saw was the door forcefully opened and a bright light coming in and a voice telling me to squat down.

“I squatted down and the next thing I saw was a round stone coming out of me and a hand was placed on my chest and the second stone came out and the menstruation and chest pain seized automatically.  He called me Uwem and said I love you very much.

He told me I am going to use your mouth to heal the people”, she explained.

According to her, unlike some people who claim God calls them without knowing by what name, God didn’t only call her by her name but He approved Uwem Ministries International as the name for her church.

Hence, the church was founded one year ago. To celebrate the maiden anniversary of the church a series of activities was lined out.  “We started the week long celebration on Tuesday followed by award ceremony where faculty of education, University of Uyo bestowed on me an award for impacting positively on humaniy, soya and variety night and rounded off with a thanksgiving service on Sunday,” she said.

On Sunday the ‘D’ day, thousands of people thronged the auditorium of headquarters of the church located at 101, Senator Godswill Akpabio international stadium “Nest of Champions” road, Uyo hoping to be blessed by God.

They include the sick in body, the financially broke, political juggernauts, students seeking academic excellence and men and women praying for a spouse or marital blessings and bliss, even both parents of the General Overseer and numerous relatives were at the service.

In a sermon she preached before conducting deliverance on the congregants, the Canadian based woman of God admonished christians to allow God’s light to shine through them in their daily living.

“In whatever situation you may find yourself make sure you look unto God and let His light guide you from the beginning to the end to show the world that you are serving a living God”.

The GO who laced her preaching with several portions of the Holy book as a point of emphasis, slammed heavily on  backwardness, mediocrity and lack but stressed that there is no problem God can’t solve.

Her sermon was straight to point as she has the knack for putting the right words in the right places and making them work wonders as a psychotherapist and psychologist. Thereby making worshippers glued with rapt attention as she went on to tell them what they wanted to hear. Even though the sermon looked a little extensive because she was actually in high spirit due to exigency of the moment nobody complained or slept off. She came prepared.

Sitting under her ministration, you cannot battle with worry. As she preached frustration vanished and smile took over even if it was a waning one.

High point of the day was ordination of some ordainees. As she carried out the spiritual empowerment, she reminded the ordainees of the essence of being faithful in little things and small beggining as reward is always overwhelming.

The woman of God who doesn’t only empower spiritually,  has a sizeable numbers of orphans she cares for their daily upkeep across Africa and Europe all year round for some time now.

Here in Akwa Ibom state, she mops youth off criminality by engaging them in the round leather game . As we speak, she owns two football clubs which she feeds, accommodates and pays stipends to. The two clubs and the trophies they won were celebrated and prayer offered for continued success of the two clubsides.