By Tony Eluemunor

Some stories are difficult to write. This is one of them. Sitting
inside the Christos International Worship Centre that afternoon of
Sunday this year’s 15th ofJune, I had difficulty fighting back the
tears that had misted up my eyes. Oh, I’m not your average spring
chicken journalist. Name any situation that could draw tears from a
journalist and I have experienced it with my eyes totally dry. I was
in the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo’s entourage, which was the first team
to enter into Odi town, Bayelsa state, after President Olusegun
Obasanjo “odinized” it when troops of the Nigerian Army outdid
themselves in man’s inhumanity to man and leveled the entire town.
Only two buildings there did not bear the scars of war; the First Bank
building and the Anglican church. The foul smell of rotten bodies
assaulted the nose from the bushes.

I have, under the escort of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force,
toured the rebel zone during the Ivorian Civil War and saw how war
devastates Africa. I have been inside the Isreali museum that keeps alive the
memory of Hitler’s effort to wipe out the Jews of Europe, visited the
Nigerian Civil War museum in Umuahia and descended into the Ojukwu
Bunker in that town and tears did not blind me.

Yet on that Sunday, 15th of June this year, as I watched the Bishop
David Ogudu Foundation empower some 250 widows and the very needy,
the sick and totally helpless, I kept dabbing my eyes so as not to
cause a scene. I went out a few times to rinse my face with water. I
was simply overwhelmed by the goodness I saw in the church as help
reached the helpless and I saw with wonderment how some widows would
lovingly embrace a bag of rice as though that very bundle was a lover.

It dawned on me that Nigeria could be a sorry story to some families,
that many children would often go to bed at night, very, very hungry.
It hit me that some families would watch a member die of malaria
attack because they lacked the money with which to buy anti-malaria
tablets. That day brought home the fact to me that Nigeria is not a
modern welfare nation-state. The tragedy of our cities engulfed my
heart; the city has no pity; where you fall is where you lie.

And the power of what just one man, Bishop David Nwachukwu Ogudu, who has been
doing for years, did that day, touched my very soul. There in the church that
day were some 250 of the neediest of the needy in Nigeria to receive
some succor – and they were not disappointed.

Oh, I was emotional all right watching the widows receive the bags of
rice, watching their faces light up with an angelic smile. But that
was not what got to me. There was a woman, a grandmother no doubt,
whom the scouts of the David Ogudu Foundation had identified as
someone who needed much more than rice. She was so incapacitated that
she couldn’t walk. Added to that she was so helpless that she totally
depended on her daughter whose only source of income was to leave the
home daily in search of families that had dirty clothes or dishes or
any such menial and low-paying job to do and she would be paid. She
and her grandmother depended on such income for their total
sustenance. Oh yes, trust Nigerians, some neighbours often try to help
them, but then grandmother and granddaughter live in one of the
poorest Abuja neighourhoods, a decency-forsaken place without water or
electricity supplies.

So, the Foundation’s scouts who compiled the list of those to benefit
from the Ogudu Foundation largesse submitted that grandmother’s name
as a matter of course- for a bag of rice. But Bishop Ogudu sent the
scouts back to ask in what ways a real change would be effected
in that woman’s life. Oh, bless his heart, Ogudu decided immediately
to uplift that woman beyond her dreams. If she couldn’t walk, then she
would need a wheelchair to enable her to see the sunshine and ramble
around her own little corner of this earth that God created.

Then, there was the question of her livelihood. Ogudu decided that a
grinding machine – for grinding pepper, egusi (melon), tomato, etc would be a
source of an inflow of funds for her upkeep no matter how little. Who
would manage it? Oh, her daughter would learn to operate it.

So, as the wheel chair was being handed over to that woman’s
representative, I remembered the story of the little boy who beckoned
on a person who gifted a wheelchair to him to come closer so that he
would memorize the features of his face, adding “so that I will
recognize you in heaven”. It was more than I could bear. My eyes misted
up.

Then, the game-changing grinding machine was also handed over. I knew
that a life fate had mocked was getting a new lease. Things had just
got better – just because Bishop David Ogudu of Christos International
Worship Centre, Abuja, a man from Okposi in Ebonyi state, had decided
to make a difference in the life of a woman who was not from the
South-East geopolitical zone. He is just a Bishop, living that
unforgettable quip from the late American President, John F. Kennedy:
“On this Earth, God’s work must truly be ours”.

Oh, the Bishop Ogudu Foundation goes beyond the yearly empowerment of
widows. It has a special focus on educating youngsters who lacked the
funds for school fees. So far, it has seen dozens of people graduate
from secondary schools and the universities, people who would
otherwise lack the benefit of a good education.

Bishop Ogudu does his best to fund the Foundation because of his
belief that the talents which God in his infinite mercies imbued His
children with should not be frustrated but must as much as possible be
nurtured to flower – for the benefit of all of humanity. Of his, there
is only very little that only him can do. Luckily, some good-hearted
persons, from within Christos Church, which he oversees, and from
outside the church and even from outside Nigeria, have been partnering
with him to spread ever further afield this delectable gift of God.

Sometimes, this is surprising. One would have expected a real Prophet
of God such as Ogudu, who with all confidence would tell a total
stranger that “thus says the Lord” and later that person would return
to give his testimony of the truth he heard from him, through whom the sick is routinely made whole,
to insist in giving others concrete help, instead of prayers alone, to make better their economic fortunes. Yes, he stresses
hard work as much as prayers, even as he holds that nothing sets a
person on the path to success or heals as a word from God. No wonder
Ogudu has written dozens of books to guide Christians on the path of
holiness as well as becoming successful in human endeavours.

Enough said! We all remember the “a picture is worth a thousand words”
saying. So I present here some of the pictures taken that day. Oh, I
only need to add one thing: not many people will be able to focus
their charitable acts in such a way as to ensure that their efforts
actually enhance lives. That is why partnering with foundations is a
worthwhile venture – as churches are stepping up to uplift those whose
existence the Nigerian nation state cares little about as there is no
welfare system, no public buses, no food pantries or soup kitchens for
the poor, no free-health care for the poorest of the poor.

Then, the game-changing grinding machine was also handed over. I knew
that a life fate had mocked was getting a new lease. Things had just
got better – just because Bishop David Ogudu of Christos International
Worship Centre, Abuja, a man from Okposi in Ebonyi state had decided
to make a difference in the life of a woman who was not from the
South-East geopolitical zone. He is just a Bishop, living that unforgettable quip from the late American President, John F. Kennedy:
“On this Earth, God’s work must truly be ours”.