REPORTER'S DIARY: Thursday Afternoon With The Diocesan Pastor Of Port Harcourt

PASTOR Joseph Chike was in the company of two other men when I arrived his Aba Road office in Port Harcourt that Thursday afternoon.

The sun was shining at its most brilliant best, warmly bathing the Garden City with its golden rays.  Despite the near-stinging effect of the sun, it was indeed such a bright, beautiful afternoon, one that provoked pleasant feelings and encouraged extra friendliness even towards total strangers.

 Indeed, it was an afternoon well suited for the equally pleasant assignment that had brought me to Port Harcourt that day.

Pastor Joseph Chike During The Interview

The visit to Port Harcourt was a recent idea conceived to serve a most significant need of today.  Indeed, the Watchman Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement has continued to record a tremendous influx of men and women seeking to know God better and craving His intervention in several aspects of their lives.

The pure, undiluted Word of God being continuously dished out from the Watchman Pulpit of Many Colours and the sound, examplary   Christian conduct which the Movement is known for and which it promotes with matchless zeal has continued to constitute great attraction to many sincere seekers of God.

Indeed, tremendous blessings and deliverance have reached many people, even outside the Movement, as God continues to demonstrate to all and sundry that the Watchman Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement is a place He has chosen to place His name, His Word, His Spirit and His power. 

Also, a  couple of years ago, God gave a revelation to the Watchman General Superintendent, Pastor A. C. Ohanebo, on His Three-fold End-time Project, which He, also, has committed in the hand of the Watchman as the instrument He has elected to use to champion the project. 

Pastor A.C. Ohanebo, General Superintendent, Watchman Catholic

Charismatic Renewal Movement

This Three-fold End-time Project has given rise to the International Gospel Ministers’ Conference of the Hour (IGMC) organized annually by the Movement as the forum where Pastor Ohanebo gives series of expository lectures to explain the details of the vision and the modus operandi for its execution as he received it from the Lord.

This conference has been a great blessing to many pastors, evangelists, Church leaders, missionaries and several ministers from Nigeria and several parts of the world who are embracing the vision in great numbers.  The number of participants to IGMC has continued to swell tremendously every other year.

Given these developments, questions are beginning to be asked by observers and other Christians in several quarters: what is the history of this Movement and wherein lies its strength   that makes it possible for it to stand and tower even in the midst of abounding decay, holding aloft   the time-tested, God-honoured, cherished ideals, life-style and practices of Apostlean era Christianity and propagating same with equal zeal and strength? 

Pastor Joseph Chike

The answer is not far-fetched.  Indeed, the strength of any building is in its foundation.  So, what are those exceptional Christian virtues and qualities with which the foundation of the Movement was laid, and which those very early Watchmen and direct converts of Pastor Ohanebo had learned from him, have continued to abide in, and have  passed on to later generations of Watchmen? 

These same virtues have continued to constitute the Movement’s distinguishing character.  And it is only from those early Watchmen who heard directly from Pastor Ohanebo at very close quarters, who observed him closely, and imbibed the exceptional Christian life and character he lived and advocated who would be in the best position to provide the answers.

This will help older Watchmen to seek further consecration  and closer walk with the Lord in order not to be swept away by the ravaging wind of these last days. It will also serve as an essential orientation to new entrants and some others outside who are coming in contact with the Movement from time to time in order to help them become better Christians and remain in the experience.

At Charismatic Signs, we thought it urgent to go after one of the elders, get these information from him and publish same for the edification of our readers.

So, when I got Pastor Joseph Chike on the telephone and shared these concerns with him and he agreed to talk, I was elated. 

And when I was shown to his office that afternoon, the serenity of the place was a direct contrast to the bustle of human and vehicular activity at Aba Road whose clear view I could still command from his first floor office.

Pastor Joseph Chike And His Wife, Fidelia,  At A
WCCRM National Leadership Conference  At Logos  
International Secondary School (LOGISS),  Awo Omamma,
Imo State, Nigeria, In 2003 

His visitors soon left and we commenced talking. We spoke for about fifty minutes.

It was Pastor Chike who had prayed at a spot he could still remember at the premises of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Ebute-Metta, Lagos, in the early 1980s asking God to send them a Bible teacher because of the deep yearning of his heart to know God more. 

And when eventually God sent Pastor Ohanebo to that parish and Pastor Chike discovered the stuff he was made of, he embraced his teachings with all his heart.

 He was particularly struck by his humility and exceptional, transparent Christian character. So he was stuck to him. It was also the same with some others with whom he had been in the then Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

And despite the strong opposition that arose from those who were averse to true Christian doctrine and practice, they still continued to meet in the evenings, learning at the feet of Pastor Ohanebo until they were all taught to salvation.

In May 1983, they were shown the way out of the place by those who could no longer stomach their new faith and new lives. At that time, Pastor Chike had found and hired a flat at Ojo-oniyun Street , Ebute- Metta, and his palour became their maiden fellowship centre.

Pastor Chike spoke more. He told me of their selflessness in service   which they had learnt from Pastor Ohanebo, their obedience, lack of inordinate ambition, right-living and strict pursuit of heaven as a singular ambition.

In the next edition of Charismatic Signs, I will publish the interview with Pastor Chike.

It is my belief that we so much need the counsel of these early Watchmen, born out of genuine experience, in other to survive these last days.

Incidentally, the Sunday before that Thursday, Pastor Ohanebo was at the 16B, Elechi Beach Fellowship Centre of the Watchman in Port-Harcourt.  And Pastor Chike in a pre-message remark told the audience that they were  about to hear his pastor and mentor under whose ministry he had sat for over twenty years; the man he yearns to hear always.

Strange miracles happened during Pastor Ohanebo’s ministrations in Port Harcourt that Sunday.  You can be sure that Charismatic Signs   will not fail to give you every detail of it.

--By The EDITOR

    May 2003
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Click Here To Read The Pastor Chike Interview