The Givers Embassy Church reiterated its commitment towards alleviating the burdens of widows, the poor, the unemployed and the vulnerable persons in the society,
To fulfill this obligation, the church recently organised an outreach where it put smiles on the faces of no fewer than 27 widows and other church members in Lagos.
The church, at the event, donated foodstuffs, including bags of rice, spaghetti, and other palliatives to them. It also provided interest-free loans and set up Employment Academy to train and empower the women who had lost their husbands.
The event was held at the NUT Pavilion, Alausa, Ikeja Lagos.The General Overseer, Dr Edward Olutoke said: “In our church, there is no giving of tithes or collection of offerings. We love to alleviate the sufferings of the widows and the vulnerables. We do this by taxing ourselves. We empower them by setting up the Employment Academy, where we train, empower them and give them interest free-loans as start-up’’
He debunked the general belief that giving of ‘’ tithe or offering is an injunction that, if not observed, attracts God’s wrath.’’ He said he decided to change the narrative and to achieve its mission, the church has put in place an Employment Academy under what it calls “the poverty fighting squad’. The academy identifies unemployed but trainable congregants, engage them gainfully, train and support them financially to pursue their various callings. “The church pays them, while they go through the training,”
Dr Olutoke said, “”When one looks back, one will discover that early missionaries built schools and hospitals which the poor masses had access to, but unfortunately, today, schools and hospitals owned by different churches are out of the reach of their poor members whose offerings and tithes were used to establish these facilities.”
A widow, Mrs Edith Oji, one of the beneficiaries, said she lost her husband five years ago. She disclosed that she was faced with huge task of raising four children singlehandedly. She appreciated the church for the donations,
According to her: “We received a lot of foodstuff, a bag of rice, groundnut oil, noodles, tomatoes and pepper, sachet of tomato pastes, spaghetti, and cash for transportation’’.
In addition, the church promised to give the widows interest-free loans without to start small businesses. ‘’We appreciate the Employment Academy under “the poverty fighting squad’ that would help unemployed , train support , engage our children or wards We thank Dr Olutoke, his generous team and Prof Sola Fosudo for handling business loans of widows doing businesses and for start ups.
Another business woman and guest, Mrs Victoria Adedare appreciated the church for other projects for the people. She praised the church for impacting the lives of the communities around them. She said with the laoan, she would be able to take care of her children an d equally send them to school. She called on other churches and corporate organisates to emulate the church’s kind gesture.
