Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities are fast becoming key socio-economic outreaches of many Nigerian churches today aimed at imparting the lives of people beyond the spiritual in obvious response to the adverse economic downturn in the country.
Christ Disciples International Prophetic Church (CDIPC) Ikotun, Lagos, is one of Nigeria’s frontline churches known for also ministering beyond the spiritual to the physical needs of the people, especially widows, orphans and other vulnerable of the society on the church’s platform of My Door Must Open Life-Transforming Foundation.
My Door Must Open Outreach is a weekly interdenominational prophetic and deliverance programme of Christ Disciples International Prophetic Church where people weekly receive spiritual solutions to various challenges of life. The outreach, which started about 14 years ago, attracts lots of people yearning for spiritual interventions in their lives, families, businesses, careers and other issues.
In the course of meeting the spiritual needs of people with awesome testimonies, the church upgraded the vision of My Door Must Outreach beyond just meeting the spiritual yearnings of people, to also meeting the basic physical needs of the throng of people from all walks of life that flood the weekly prayer programme. This upgrading eventually birthed My Door Must Open Life-Transforming Foundation.
Evang. Hannah Towobola, the coordinator of the foundation shares with Christian Benefits the vision of the needs-meeting arm of My Door Must Open Outreach: “My Door Must Open Life-Transforming Foundation is a life imparting vision with reference from the scriptures. We reach out to poor widows and the needy generally. There are poor people in every society. They are inside churches too. God has made provisions for the society’s needy. Our primary goal is to make them disciples of Christ and to have relationship with God. Whosoever is grounded in the word of God cannot be confused with different doctrines. Our vision is to touch the world both spiritually and physically.”
“My Door Must Open started in 2013. We celebrated its 10th anniversary two years ago. Aside going out for evangelism for soul winning unto the Lord, we ensure that the souls; that is, the people we win for the Lord are in better conditions. When we started meeting the physical needs of the people we catered for almost 400 needy people. About five years ago we started feeding people after every of our 3-day fasting meeting. We give financial support to older widows and clothe them. We serve based on our financial capacity. We receive both local and international supports and sponsorship. During our special programmes we invite specialists to address some special needs, including health needs and total wellbeing. We are planning to invite a gynecologist for those seeking the fruit of the womb. We visit the motherless children’s homes and the old people’s homes with support materials like food items and clothings,” Towobola disclosed.
My Door Must Open Life-Transforming Foundation is managed by a team of trustees with local and international sponsorship. The coordinator, Hannah Towobola, expressed profound gratitude to all the team members and the sponsors of the foundation locally and internationally. She acknowledged their immense supports and commitments to the good work. “We are eternally grateful to all our sponsors, locally and internationally, for their tremendous supports. I pray God continue to bless them in Jesus name, amen,” she prayed
Evang. Mrs. Towobola, who is also the coordinator of the Evangelism Team of Christ Disciples International Prophetic Church under the leadership of the church’s founder and general overseer, Pastor Favour Olu Lajuwomi, further told Christian Benefits that the church intensifies its evangelism efforts by ensuring that its evangelism team follows up the souls reached out spiritually and materially.
“After evangelizing them, we do follow ups and some of them join the church as members. We encourage others of the new converts who live in far distances to join local assemblies that are closer to them and where the word of God is properly taught. What matters most to Christ Disciples International Prophetic Church is soul-winning. We particularly and specially pray for widows, encourage them in the word of God, and share practical experiences with them. I am a widow myself. I recently did my 34–year-memorial as a widow.
“As a widow I find comfort in the word of God. I wrote a piece on my experience as a widow when I celebrated my 70th birthday. I thank the general overseer, Pastor Favour Olu Lajuwomi. He is a good mentor and a caring father to all of us. He is totally sold out for God’s work. He is a very precious gift to the congregation. He encourages and grooms people to relate with God on a personal level. He lives by the scriptures, depends on the scripture and follows the scriptures to the letter. He received My Door Must Open’s vision from Revelation chapter three. We enjoy spiritual foods that help us grow at Christ Disciples International Prophetic Church under the sound spiritual teaching and leadership of Pastor Lajuwomi,” Towobola testifies.
She further said that what distinguishes Christ Disciples International Prophetic Church is evangelism. “It is evangelism. We are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power unto salvation. We thank God for the results (the souls) that we have harvested for the Lord so far. We help people to come to the realization that there is nothing outside God. God has been gracious to us,” she remarked.
Towobola is totally sold out for evangelism. Aside serving as the coordinator of both the Evangelism committee and My Door Must Open Life-Transforming Foundation at CDIPC she also serves as the chairperson of the Evangelism Team of her local church.“I belong to African Bethel Cathedral Mission where I also serve as the Evangelical team chairperson. I was invited to a programme in CDIPC and thereon committed myself to evangelism here too by the virtue of God’s blessing upon my life. I’ve been going out for evangelism work regularly, which I believe God has given to me as a gift,” the amiable widow and devoted evangelist concluded.
