The Nigerian Christian Welfare Pilgrims Commission has been asked to continue to sensitise Christians in finding solutions to challenges such as terrorism and killings in the country.
Akwa Ibom Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, who made the call Thursday when the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Mr. John Kennedy Opara, and his team called on him at Governor’s Office, Uyo, said: “The Commission, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and clergymen in the country must endeavour to sensitise Christians in proffering solutions to the various challenges facing the country, and I believe that God would use you all to turn around the state of this nation.”
“So, I encourage all men of God in the state and in the entire country not to relent in their prayers because if we were not praying, we would have been struck with worst disaster in the country. And I believe that soon, the insurgency we are facing now in the country would be a thing of the past because ‘after darkness comes light,” he said.
On the upcoming 2014 pilgrimage of Christians to the Holy land, Chief Akpabio noted: “The Christian pilgrimage is a moral and spiritual rebirth to the society and the essence of pilgrimage is to have an encounter with God, which I believe that with our trip to the Holy land, our lives can never be the same and ethnic/tribal sentiments would be brought to an end.”
The Governor thanked members of the NCPC for recognizing his efforts, pointing out that men of God have assisted his administration and that there is a strong partnership between the state government and the church, which he said was the reason his government had to increase the initial 200 number of pilgrims to 1600 pilgrims last year in the state, while the state sponsors the highest number of Muslim pilgrims to Mecca.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission, Mr. Opara, said the visit was to appreciate Governor Akpabio for changing the face of the state through development projects, for supporting the church and for sponsoring the highest number of pilgrims in the country to the Holy land, saying that God has used him mightily to touch the lives of the people .
Opara who explained that this year pilgrimage has three types of packages for Easter, Family and the General pilgrimage in December for everybody, stressed that the purpose of the pilgrimage was to encourage Christians to be strong and to have an encounter with God, calling on Christians to continue in trusting God.
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