By Solomon OKPO
Nine years after the tragic roof collapse at Reigners’ Bible Church in Uyo, one survivor is looking back on the day that altered the course of his life a day he now calls “an unshakable reminder of God’s mercy.”
On December 10, 2016, he walked into the church barely ten days into a new assignment as a public servant. What began as an ordinary worship service quickly turned into a scene of horror when the roof crumbled, killing many and leaving scores injured.
He was among those dragged from the rubble bloodied, disoriented, and clinging to life.
“What should have been a normal day became the day death passed me by,”
he recalls, echoing the psalmist’s affirmation: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord” (Psalm 118:17).
His injuries were severe:
• a deep head wound that took eight stitches administered without anaesthesia;
• fractured ribs on his left side;
• and a hairline fracture in his right hip so delicate that doctors warned surgery could trigger paralysis.
To this day, the hip reminds him of “just how close the edge really was.”
Yet even his scars, he insists, carry spiritual meaning. The healed wound on his head formed the shape of a “C,” which his wife lovingly calls “a tattoo of God’s love.” He describes it as “a permanent signature of grace,” reminiscent of Isaiah’s assurance that God engraves His own upon the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:16).
As he reflects on the tragedy, his heart remains with the families who lost loved ones.
“Your pain is not forgotten,” he says, offering prayers for comfort in ways “only God can provide.”
His words echo 2 Corinthians 1:3–4, the promise of “the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions.”
Nine years later, he lives more intentionally, walking humbly and gratefully.
“I am here not by strength, not by wisdom, not by luck but by mercy,”
he says, recalling the timeless truth that “it is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed” (Lamentations 3:22).
From the ashes of a day marked by loss and survival has emerged a testimony of faith, gratitude, and renewed purpose, anchored in the conviction that the God who preserved him remains “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
The Evangelist News
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