BISHOP CHRIS KWAKPOVWE’S REAL HUMAN SIDE
If there is one daily struggle Bishop Chris Kwakpovwe, publisher of Christian devotional, Our Daily Manna, contends with, it’s the urge to go back to his first love which is Pharmacy. The bishop last wore his Pharmacy coat about 30 years ago after he grudgingly answered the call to serve in Lord’s vineyard. He has since been battling with the temptation to return to the profession. However, last weekend, the affable presiding bishop of Manna Prayer Mountain was in an exciting mood as he had the opportunity to proudly wear his coat, even if it’s just for a day, as he examined some people who are nursing different ailments, dispensed medicines to them and prayed for their total healing.
Kwakpovwe’s welfare ministry last Saturday June 30 and Sunday July 1 held its annual programme tagged ‘Mercy Week’ to provide succour to the hundreds of less privileged through a free medical outreach. The Bishop with support from the medical team of the leading multinational, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company alongside volunteers from University of Lagos and Lagos State University Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy Schools and the Lagos State Ministry of Health, attended to people with different medical conditions at two venues in Lagos (Lekki and Ogudu).
The two-day event which took place simultaneously in about 100 countries and locations where the ministry has its branches, was closed with visits by Kwakpovwe and his team to some select orphanages, old Peoples’ homes and prisons where they donated gifts, food items and money to the inmates.
The Delta State-born preacher has lately been assaulted with various frivolous controversies which he sees as a persecution, not of him, but the body of Christ. Nevertheless, he has remained unruffled and has not allowed those challenges to distract his evangelical mission thus the enthusiastic feeling towards the success of the annual Mercy Week. At the last count, Kwakpovwe is credited with writing over 70 books.