The third edition of the annual event of Living Faith Church, worldwide, Faith Tabernacle Prison Ministry Canaan Land, Ota, organized to celebrate the God of all wonders in our midst, held today the 7th Day of November, 2021 at the Covenant University Secondary School hall, Canaan Land, Ota Ogun state. TAAD event is our own cross over to a new season.
Dignitaries were in attendance amongst whom were:
The Vice Chancellor of Covenant University: Professor Abiodun Adebayo who gave the key note speech for the event. Also present were the Chairman of Deacons Assembly: Deacon Sam Anefu and his team,The National Executive Director of Prison Fellowship Nigeria (PFN): Barrister Benson Nwagu, his lovely wife and Pastor Sule a member of PFN board, the Lagos state PFN Chairman: Mr. Sunday Agbolade, Mr. Rotimi Oladokun who Represented the Nigerian Correctional Service’s Controller of Lagos state and other senior officers with him from Kirikiri custodial Centers (formally Prison), and some members of the Deacons assembly, and other representatives from various service units,
with several Pastors of Living Faith Church, including the Former Children’s Church department leader: Pastor Paul Idowu.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE EVENT.
After the opening prayer, Pastor Yemi Odude current Chairman of Faith Tabernacle Prison Ministry gave the opening remark. The guests present were introduced, three prayer points were raised to thank God for the wonders God has done, where we are now in Faith Tabernacle Prison Ministry and where God is taking us.
A run through memory lane was given by the immediate past leader, narrating how the Faith Tabernacle Prison Ministry began the year 1993/1994 with the aim of reaching out to Inmates of Nigerian Prison as it was then called, now custodial centers under the coordination of Prison Fellowship of Nigeria. The Faith Tabernacle Prison Ministry was a unit under Harvesters Squad, the then evangelism service group of Living Faith Church until 2018 when the evangelism service group was suspended by God’s Servant, Bishop David Oyedepo for operation wonder double prophetic Agenda to accommodate everyone in the evangelism field.
Then Faith Tabernacle Prison Ministry became an independent Ministry. In 2016 we started of the Liberation prayer Altar, a prayer focus for the prisons to be turned to correctional centers among others. In answer to that prayer the government promulgated the Correctional service Act to achieve that purpose in 2019. We await the fulfilment of the second arm of our prayer which is the industrialization of the custodial centers in partnership with the Nigerian Correctional Service.
The service units under Faith Tabernacle Prison Ministry were listed to include:
Custodial Counselling (as scheduled by PFN), Onesimus project, (a pre-release skill acquisition training program), kingdom tree (outreach to family members of inmates), Training team, Prayer team, Logistics team and Legal Aid Team(pro-bono legal assistance to indigent,born again inmates), Correctional Officers Advancement Project (COAP, a ministry to Correctional Officers and their Children called the Daniel generation), Prisoner’s journey (an initiative of Prison Fellowship International), Liberation Prayer Altar ( kingdom advancement prayer platform with inmates), Juvenile correctional Home outreach team ( Oregun, Sabo, Transit home Ipaja and Rehabilitation center, Owutu, Lagos.)
Furthermore, Good report of great and mighty wonders God is doing in our harvest field was shared, which includes:
The liberation prayer Altar recording am attendance of 472 inmates and 146 giving their lives to Christ, welfare material supplies to minimum of 1200 inmates, free hernia surgery done for 15 inmates in partnership with Faith Tabernacle medical Team, one ex-inmate rehabilitated and given accommodation, an ex-inmate who gained admission into university in 2016 but was abandoned by his parents because they were muslims, FTPM took care of his tuition fee, accommodation and laptop for project.
Ministry to Correctional officer sprang up and Testimonies abound of impacts. Ministry to the cottage industry of the correctional service at Kirikiri, 29 officers in attendance, 15 got born again, Daniel generation had 89 children in attendance, talent discovery seminar was organized in conjunction with covenant University to see them make career choices in line with areas of Divine empowerment. To the glory of God.
Several welfare materials were sent to the various juvenile correctional homes.
A Correctional Officer shared a testimony of how her encounter with Faith Tabernacle Prison ministers inspired her to write and publish her book with outstanding impact. The Daniel Generation presentated a Drama. An Ex-inmate testified of how God granted her release after engaging in the Liberation prayer Altar.
The Chairman of Deacons Assembly gave a remark to encourage the ministers to keep up the good work giving glory to God for the great impact so far.
The vice Chancellor of Covenant University gave a key note address on strategies to rehabilitating Inmates and ex-inmates integration into society. He spoke of the spiritual rehabilitation as engaging in bible school and all activities engaged in by Faith Tabernacle Prison Ministry. He made reference to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s experience while in prison with an inmate who felt he was unforgivable for his offence but through his counselling God restored the inmate, he was released and became president while the inmate was released, sponsored to bible school and he is now a pastor of a Baptist Church. The VC also spoke of skill acquisition to rehabilitate inmates, like the Onesimus pre-release skill acquisition training project which covenant University currently partners with.
The representative of the controller of Nigerian Correctional Service Lagos state gave a speech on public- private partnership in effecting the correctional measures in the new Correctional Act, calling well meaning and charitable Nigerians to partner with the correctional Service to achieve this.
After a session of second praise, Pastor Paul Idowu representing the resident Pastor led the Prison Ministry team into the next phase in Ministry as prophetic blessings were released on members of the Faith Tabernacle Prison Ministry for exploit in this new era. The program ended with a closing remark from the current leader and a love feast.
To God be all the glory.
