When the saints offer helping hands
• Church members serve communities in continental service project
By UGOCHI NWACHUKWU
Saturday, September 27, 2008

Living index

The song, “when the saints go marching on,” could have re-echoed across the country recently. That day, as if to emphasise the chorus of the song, “I will be among the number,” the people involved came out in hundreds. They were dressed in yellow short aprons. They came out with working implements. And they worked for three hours, in a special “All Africa Service project.”

Indeed, on Saturday, September 20, 2008 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Latter-day Saints came out across Nigeria, just as their counterparts all over Africa, to render services to their communities. They cleaned roads and markets, cleared debris from drainages, covered potholes on roads and streets, washed and cleaned hospital wards, motherless babies homes and old people’s homes. They painted road crossing and roundabouts, fixed bridges and other sundry services that helped the community.

As early as 6.30 am that day, the saints, as members of the church are called, had converged on their project sites, adorning the “Mormon Helping Hands” vests. The majority of adult members of the church, in Lagos, Benin City, Abuja, Calabar, Ile Ife, Ijebu Ode, Jos, Port Harcourt, Etinan, Abeokuta, among other cities in Nigeria, were involved. For them, serving their communities was in obedience to the biblical injunction that people should serve others.

In Lagos, members of the church worked in various locations, including Ikeja, Ogba/Ojodu, Agege, Egbeda, Okokomaiko, FESTAC Town, Surulere, among other places. They collaborated with government agencies and other churches in the project.

At Agege, the presence of the saints was felt on Old Abeokuta road, leading to Agege Market, where members of the church swept the street and cleared the drainage. The Isokoko Police Station, in Agege, Lagos also got a facelift and helping hand. The station was swept and cleaned by members of the church, in what a policeman said was “the first time the station was receiving such treatment in recent times.”

At Okokomaiko area of Lagos, members of the church devoted their energies in clearing a huge heap of refuse at Church Bus-Stop, Okokomaiko, on the Mile 2-Badagry expressway. Working with determination, they figuratively descended on the heap of refuse, which hitherto stood like a colossus. Within the three hours duration of the service project the refuse had been cleared and taken away in trucks provided by the Lagos State Waste management Authority (LAWMA).

Egebeda-Idumu road also received the saints’ touch. The road was swept. Drainages were cleared and a “zebra crossing” was painted at Abule Odu/Unity Estate Bus-stop to help pedestrians who are crossing the busy road.

Speaking on the service project, the first counselor in the Lagos Nigeria West Stake President, Peter Oyewole Oyedeji, said that leaders of the church set aside the date for members to serve their communities. He said that the programme was in obedience to teachings of Jesus Christ, who said that service is the hallmark of love.

He said that the programme was not a missionary activity, but an opportunity for members of the church to show that they care for people.

The National Public Affairs Director of the church in Nigeria, Brother Onuoha Ukeh, said about the project: “When people inculcate the principle of service, they would understand better the teaching of Jesus Christ about love. The saviour said that the greatest commandment is, “love the Lord thy God and the second one is unto it, which is love your neighbour as your self.”

Mr. Ademuyiwa Adu from the Public Relations Unit of the LAWMA, who was at the sites of the project, with his men to cart away refuse generated in the project, said that with the programme the church had “underlined that cleanliness is indeed next to goodliness.”

He said that by calling its members out to clean roads and markets places, “the church is showing a good example that the environment should be kept clean. If we have other churches and organizations doing this, Lagos would be clean, as the government wants it to be.”
In Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State, members of the church service their communities in various areas.

According to President Francis O. Nmeribe, Stake President, Aba Nigeria Stake, about 600 members and close to 300 non-members participated in the programme.
The church, he said, collaborated with the community leaders, explaining while His Royal Highness Ezenwoko Christian Iheme, Okpu-Ukwu I of Isiala Okpu Autonomous community, Aba flagged off the exercise.

Nmeribe said that Elder Alexander A. Odume, Area Authority Seventy and Priesthood Chairman of the National Public Affairs National Council of the church in Nigeria, was on hand to receive the royal father at the event.

He revealed that the Stake worked together with members of the commercial motorcycle association operating on Okpu Umuobo Road (Temple Road) in the service project.
The stake president said: “It was a thing of joy and excitement as members and non-members worked together to clean up Okpu-Umuobo Road, which houses three wards meeting houses and the Aba Nigeria Temple. Blocked drainages were cleared, the road was cleared of sand and trash that had hitherto removed the shine off the road.

“At the Abia State Teaching Hospital Temporary site (Aba General Hospital), the Aba Central and Industry Road Wards performed their activity with staff and students on the campus joining them to clean and clear the roads of overgrown grass and drains of blockages.
“Osisioma Ward cleared a long stretch of the Amapu/Ibeku Road, an important earth road that is always overgrown and has been a safe haven for hoodlums.”

He said that the traditional ruler, Ezenwoko Christian Iheme, donated a tipper which was used to evacuate refuse and his wife mobilized women from his community to join in the clean up exercise.”
The September 20, 2008 All Africa Service Project was the second in the series organized by the church. The first service project was held on October 28, 2007 across Africa. The project will hold every year.

In this year’s project, members of the church donated an estimated 300, 000 man hours serving their communities.