During a thanksgiving service organized by the beneficiaries and hosted by the Seventh-day Adventist church in Gada Bivu Jos, group leader Sylvester Dalong shared they were initially adhoc staff with the Ministry of Lands and Survey for Plateau State, but the State government approved their permanent employment in April 2014. Unfortunately, the succeeding administration terminated their appointment in 2015 without any justifiable reason.
"By the intervention of Yohanna Manoah, an elder in the Gada Biyu Seventh-day Adventist Church, the joy in our hearts today knows no bounds as God made it possible for us to be reabsorbed, " Dalong testified.
Dalong, a member of the Roman Catholic Church in Qua'an Pan, added: “We came to say thank you to God for the remarkable things He has done for us using Manoah to show compassion devoid of tribal, ethnic or religious affiliation.”
Another beneficiary, Bot Rwang, a member of the Church of Christ in Nations in Barkin Ladi L.G.C., thanked God for making Manoah an agent of positive change. Rwang said: "So many of us were roaming on the streets without jobs, but Elder Manoah's assistance has enabled us to secure a job with the state government, and that is why we came to his church to say ‘Thank You, God.’”
Delivering his message at the thanksgiving service, the president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the North East Nigeria Conference, Emmanuel Jugbo said the Church sincerely appreciates Manoah for his act of benevolence, appealing that Adventist members who are in positions of authority should emulate such spirited gestures to help lift unemployed people, especially the teeming unemployed graduates, out of poverty.
In his sermon titled "Where Are the Nine?" referring to Luke 17: 15-17, Jugbo noted the gratitude of the leper who came to thank Jesus. Indeed, he was not only healed, but new hope was also given to him. Unlike the other nine, he came back to thank the Lord for the gift of a new life. This was exactly the group’s approach as they returned to the church to thank God for Manoah’s influence. The pastor showered praises and blessings on Manoah for representing the Church well in the ministry, and called on members to emulate him.
For his part, Manoah explained that the gesture was borne out of his love to Jesus and constant desire to serve humanity. "Whenever I celebrate my birthday, I always reflect on the number of lives I have touched within the period in focus," Manoah reflected, encouraging members of the body of Christ, especially Seventh-day Adventists, to put machinery in motion and enhance empowerment programs for youth in the Church and beyond.
This storywas originally posted on the West-Central Africa Division’s news website