Fako East Member of Parliament, Hon. Etombi Gladys Ikomi has organised a massive thanksgiving to God Almighty for His wondrous deeds in her life. The thanksgiving ceremony which took place at the Ebenezer Baptist Church down the Limbe beach, was spiced by the presence of her classmates, The Subteens, Sakerettes of the 1967-1972 batch, who came from all over the country to support their own.
The parish pastor of the congregation, Rev Ngu Gabriel in his sermon drawn from various verses in the book of Psalms, emphasised on the need to praise and thank God at all times. Under the theme, 'Our object of praise', the servant of God called on the Christian faithfuls to worship and praise God for who He is; to worship His name, His power, His wonders, His loving kindness and His works, and challenged them to do so at all times and in all circumstances.
After series of praises, the representative of The Subteens, Mrs Helen Gwanfogbe, alongside the Hon MP came out to explain the essence of the ceremony.
According to Mrs Gwanfogbe, “God has been wonderful to us in many ways, and He has decided to raise one of us into Parliament. We just thank God for who she is and for the fact that God has lifted her up to this high office. We wish that God grants her the wisdom to carry out her services, grants her patience and good health. She is a dynamic, creative and a very accommodating person; we have confidence in her, and wish her God’s grace and blessings”. She further told The Sun that Hon Etombi has had a steadfast walk with God and never wavered in her faith, which is something all of them have to emulate.
After the church service, the Hon MP offered a grandiose reception at her residence at the end of which she narrated to The Sun that “It’s a wonderful thing to see my mates join me to thank God, I am so happy that so many people came;we are thanking God for good things today, but we should always remember to thank Him for all the challenges we face in life, for He is God at all times”.
On her assessment of her period as MP so far, she said “It has been truly a year packed full with new experiences; we have had many seminars in Parliament to build capacities and in my constituency, we have done quite a bit over a short period of time. We had treatment of women with fistulas in the southwest region, we built capacities for farmers, train and equipped them on how best to improve their farming habits and gave them inputs and equipment.
Also, we have opened a functional Parliamentary office open to the public, and visited more than 20 schools during their end of year graduation and prize award ceremonies and gave gifts and other school inputs;supported youth impact seminars during this holiday in churches, and also church conventions for women; it’s been God’s doing and He has truly been good to us”.
Nonetheless, Hon Etombi says there is still much to be done in the days ahead “There is quite a bit in the pipeline; we are hoping to be able to support health centers and hospitals which are not well equipped and need urgent attention, continue with a lot of capacity building in different fields for youth employment especially in agriculture and the development of ICTs”.
It should be noted that the thanksgiving ceremony coincided with her birthday this month, reason why the MP was joyful and ceaselessly praised God all through the ceremony.
