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CHALLENGES OF PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Having successfully jumped through a major hurdle of land acquisition in the choice area of Port Harcourt, another equally intimidating challenge was how to go about the physical development of the property. The mere thought of motivating a scanty membership of twenty to raise sufficient funds to start up the Church building was to say the least, overwhelming .
According to a paper presented by Elder S.B.A Alale, ‘’ by the time we received a letter of allocation dated August, 12 1976. A good number of our members, including the acting Pastor, Olu Kolesho had been transferred out of Port Harcourt. Hence, attendance drastically reduced and this posed a serious challenge to the development of the Church.
Nevertheless, with a clear cut vision of where they were going to, coupled with unflinching determination and iron-cast commitment to succeed, the big dream was sustained. Elder Alale succinctly wrote: ‘’ On 26th February, 1978, while at Orogbum, we had the Church Building Fund launched. The estimated cost was N20,000. We started work with the little we had as the pledges were trickling in.’’
A MOTHER AND A MISSIONARY CHURCH
Today, ECWA D’Line whose early beginning was so humble and uncelebrated is widely known and refer to as a MOTHER Church with offspring dotting the landscape of Rivers and Bayelsa states.
A Missionary Church? Yes, because ECWA D’Line sends Missionaries and Evangelists to bear the Good news to some unreached areas of our states and beyond. She strengthens the hands of our struggling sister Churches in response to several Macedonian calls made to her. The Church have also offered scholarship schemes to many Evangelists and Pastors, even members who felt led and called the Pastorate. Likewise, humanitarian and member-welfare packages, especially, in crucial moments such as sickness and death, have added pluses to the Church.
In keeping with the cardinal goal and objectives of ECWA at the national and beyond, ECWA D’Line tries her best to ensure that high premium is always placed on rural-urban evangelism and church planting. Not just as a policy of spreading out but very important in obedience to the commandment of our Lord; ’’Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations’’
Interestingly, it is on this premise that ECWA D’Line has directly or indirectly mothered a number of House-Fellowship centers, Prayer Groups, Local Curch Boards (LCBs) and two Local Church Councils (LCCs) namely:
1. ECWA Choba (Jointly)
2. ECWA Eleme
3. Woji Local Church Council
4. ECWA Abuloma
5. ECWA Elele Prayer Group
6. Yenagoa Local Church Council
7. ECWA Mini Weli
8. ECWA Nwebiara, Prayer Group (Jointly)
9. ECWA Eberi Omuma, Prayer Group (Jointly)
10. ECWA Bori (Jointly)
11. ECWA Borikiri (Jointly)
12. Port Harcourt Local Council
13. Eleme Local Church Council
14. ECWA ALUU Prayer Group
Furthermore, the establishment of ECWA Model Schools Port Harcourt in September 1996 with three arm structures vis-à-vis Pre-Nursery, Nursery and Primary. This was a major mile stone in the annals of ECWA D’Line and the impact of the school is felt across the land as the quality of her products speaks for itself. Though, not intended to be a business empire but to keep alive the dreams of its founding fathers.
HARD EXPERIENCES OF THE CHURCH
From the above-listed issues, it is very obvious that D’Line Church had been through hard experiences just like any other Church standing today but in all these experiences the Church passed through, it has grown in leaps and bounds by way of always trusting and depending on the Lord for provision and direction. As a matter of fact, these experiences have molded the Church to be more focus with its primary call of spreading the gospel of our Master.
THE PRESENT STATE OF THE CHURCH
The Church at present is still on the march and as earlier mentioned above , its popularly refer to as Mother Church. In this regard, the Church is currently erecting a place of worship at ALUU. The project has gone far and almost in its completion stage. We are trusting God to complete the project any time soon.