Bayelsa State Governor, Henry Seriake Dickson, on Thursday called on all Bayelsans, both at home and in the Diaspora, to sustain the annual Church Thanksgiving Service which has been fixed for November 2 every year.

According to him, the sustenance became necessary to ensure the promotion of peace, unity and economic prosperity of the state and among families.

Dickson threw the challenge during the 6th Thanksgiving Service held at the 10,000-seater Ecumenical Centre built by his administration.

The church was commissioned and dedicated to God on Tuesday by the General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, and witnessed by a former President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and founder of the Warri-based World of Life Bible Church (WLBC), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.

He said: “Today is a message for solidarity, reunion and hope. I am very happy for all Bayelsans for this special event. This is the first special thanksgiving service in this Ecumenical Centre. We are here in this House of God using our feeble hands. I am grateful that God used us to achieve it. This is the sixth thanksgiving since the birth of this regime. People thought we won’t hold this sixth thanksgiving service and subsequent ones.

“But it is by the grace of God that we are doing this. Why are we having this special thanksgiving sermon every? All I know as a person, all I know as a family man, all I know as a Governor is that God has been so gracious and good to us and we have very good reasons to bless Him.

“If we could continue to observe this special thanksgiving, we trust and trust and believe that God will reward all of us. We enjoin you to find time every November 2 to thank God for His blessings. We pray that this first thanksgiving will usher in economic prosperity in Bayelsa and our homes in Jesus Name. Let this thanksgiving be used to renew in us the determination to serve God and remain united.

“Like politicians, after election, winners and losers come together to fashion out better ways to move forward and bury their differences. My dear Bayelsans, wherever you are, of you can’t come to this Ecumenical Centre, pray and worship God. Continue to work for peace in your families and in Bayelsa state. Let’s review our friendship and work together.”

In his sermon, renowned evangelist, Dr. Uma Ukpai, used biblical references to explain why thanksgiving service was necessary in the life of humanity.