NUPENG celebrates

Donates N1m to church
BY BIMBOLA OYESOLA bimbeechampion@yahoo.com 08033246177
It was praises, encomium and com­mendation for the leadership and members of the Nigeria Union of Pe­troleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), who returned yesterday, for their yearly thanksgiving at the All Saints’ Anglican Church, Okochiri Par­ish in Okrika, Rivers State.
This is even as the union made a donation of N1million to support the work of God and in appreciation of God’s grace and glory over the union in the last one year.
Led by its National President, Comrade Igwe Achese, NUPENG has drawn many other labour leaders and friends to the thanksgiving service where it equally redeemed a pledge of N500,000 made during the dedication of the church last year.
The church also reeled out other contributions of the union to the progress and advancement of God’s work in the church in appreciation. According to the church, it would have been impossible for both the congregation and the friends of NUPENG to sit in the all-imposing church without the financial supports of NUPENG.
The church stated: “We have to commend NUPENG for its unflinching support, all the way. The church would not have been what it is today in terms of development if not for what the union has done. The union was there in the building and other infrastructural development.
“As we are all sitting, you will see that the chairs are padded and not a wooden ones and unlike in the past where we have problem with our electricity, that has been a history since NUPENG donated a 40KVA power plant to the church. That is not all, the lights and the chandeliers are all contributed by this great union. As if that is not enough last year, the union also gave us a modernized keyboard to match up with the present standard of the church, as an ultra modern building.”
In his sermon, the Cleric, Godwin Oraene has charged christians to be dedicated in their service towards God, in terms of righteousness and holiness.
“When you are serving God irrespective of the challenges, you must remain dedicated, because God would surely answer you, but you must learn to wait on him and trust him absolutely, just as we read in Luke 1 when Zacharia and his wife Elizabeth continued to serve in spite of their bareness, and God eventually heard them”, he said.
He also charged christians to give to the works of God and the needy, maintaining that God always have a way of lifting those who support His works and the kingdom.
Comrade Achese in an interview however expressed that the contributions to the church was just in appreciation of God’s support to the union and his leadership.
He said, “God has been sustaining the union, despite all our challenges. It was also in appreciation of God’s faithfulness, when I was going to contest for the president of the union, I told God that if I got elected as president, I would serve Him and build His house. Being the president has not been an easy route to tread. Now, we are building a tanker park on a 28 hectares of land; that project will cost us over N5 billion and we have started fencing. Definitely, it was not easy to get to the point we are without God.”
He said it was in the same spirit that he wanted to contest for the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).