Chris Kwakpovwe Biography (Education, Early Life, Ministry)

An accomplished preacher, Christian minister, trained pharmacist, teacher, businessman and author. He is the founder and senior pastor of Manna Prayer Mountain (MPM) Ministry Worldwide, headquartered in Lagos. He is also the author and publisher of Our Daily Manna, a daily devotional.

He is widely travelled, and is a regular speaker in churches, university campuses, leadership conferences, seminars and crusades (anointing services) in various countries of the world and he has a very strong burden to seeing a people raised by God to publicly depopulate hell, with a strong private and solid fellowship with God. Having put his name on the world stage

Biography

Chris Kwakpovwe Biography was born on the 15th November 1961, in Ugheli, close to Warri in Delta state of Nigeria; Bishop (Dr) Chris Kwakpovwe is the first of twelve children of a middle class family of Pa Stephen Kasoro Kwakpovwe, a retired educationist and Mrs Theresa Kwakpovwe. Despite the hardships of his physical environment due to the Middle Class lifestyle of his parents, he enjoyed the loving support of his parents and the church community, who cherished him as a gifted child.

He was saved from death at age six when he was almost drowned in the popular Ibalegbe River in Ughelli. Being a child of destiny, God sent a driver, who came to wash his car, to rescue and revive him after he had been taken for dead.

Education

He had his childhood and primary education in Ughelli. At an early stage of his life, amongst other areas of his life, he attracted attention among his tutors with his brilliance in education. He achieved academic success through sheer hard work and determination. His very high IQ unfailingly secured him a full scholarship award in 1973 by the then Bendel State Government to study in Government College Ugheli, which at that time, was one of Nigeria’s elite secondary schools.

Then, he proceeded to Government College, Ughelli, Delta State, for his high school education. In 1978, he gained admission to the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) to study Pharmacy and graduated with his first degree in 1983. In 1999, he obtained his PhD in Theology. He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in Theology by the Calvary Academy in collaboration with the Lighthouse Christian University, Brooklyn, New York, USA.

Early life

He was claimed to have had an early encounter with the Lord as he became born again at the age of 14, precisely on February 3, 1976, as a student of Government College Ugheli, Delta State of Nigeria. As a very young convert, the zeal of the Lord consumed him, and he gave his all to evangelism. He often used his feeding pocket money to print gospel tracks to share to his fellow class students. He gave Bible classes in the local community in partial fulfillment of his role as a staunch member of Students Christian Association. His unadulterated passion for the gospel earned him nicknames, “Preacher Boy” and “Christopher Jesus” by his classmates as a way of mocking him. Rather than quit his Christian faith due to hardship, he would carry his bicycle to preach the gospel in the suburbs villages and creeks.

Preaching the gospel became so risky for him at a point that he came across some assassins who warned him one evening while returning from an evangelism trip on bicycle. His unwavering faith almost caused acrimony between him and his father who at some point refused to pay his school fees because he was giving too much attention to evangelism rather than his studies. He however, always acknowledged his father’s influence, saying it was him who instilled great and indelible moral values into his life. He always taught him to work hard and put in his best efforts. Being a retired principal, his father taught him that life is full of tests and he must fight to win and also to have the highest score in the test. His father taught him that that life is full of many challenges. Being a great disciplinarian, his father never let him quit on anything and was very tough on him at times. He never allowed him to feel sorry for himself or make excuses. He never forgets these words from his father: “I want you to be a lion amongst sheep!” “Failure is only temporary, quitting is forever. Be a man of results, Chris.” These constant motivational words echoed from His late father, reshaped his destiny and also became a drive that motivated him to study hard.

The gospel had such a grip on him he had to jettison practicing as pharmacist. He has to answer God’s call to full time gospel and became a pastor on a full time basis.

Personal life

He is married to Flora. And as a husband and a father, he sacrificed the joys of family life and of seeing his children grow up to work for God

Ministry

After he became born again in 1976, he worked as a church worker at Warri with Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor of the then Church of God Mission and also with the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa at Benin City. He also worked with Bishop Felix Omobude of Covenant Church Benin City, Nigeria.

As an undergraduate in the University of Ife from 1978 to 1983, he served variously in key executive positions at the popular and fire-brand Evangelical CHRISTIAN UNION (ECU), the largest Christian Body of the then university of Ife where he was a STUDENT PASTOR. He worked with the then very popular white missionary late PA ELTON of ILESHA, Nigeria. It was pa ELTON who also commissioned the late ARCHBISHOP IDAHOSA into ministry.

He also had a stay with the Assemblies of God church as a student minister. From 1977 to 1978 he was molded under the revered Pastor Kumuyi of the Deeper Life Bible Church. Later he attended and worked as a key officer at the Christ Chapel international churches (CCIC), Lagos, under the Rev Dr Tunde Joda.

Also, years ago, he served as an assisting founding pastor of the Chapel of Praise Church under Bishop Isaac Nwaoji for years! The Lord then called him into full time Ministry in 1992, having combined Pharmacy and Ministry for 9 years. He got his Ph.D. in theology, in 1999 and also on Sunday December 16th 2001, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Theology by the Calvary Academy Lagos. He was publicly consecrated as an Interdominational bishop in 2011 at the Manna Prayer Mountain Lagos by many colleges of bishops as a conglomerate under the leadership of the Archbishop George Amu.

Furthermore, he went into full gospel ministry in 1992, after a stint in pharmacy and preaching for nine years. He served as an assisting founding pastor of the Chapel of Praise Church. He became a Christian writer when he started authoring and publishing Our Daily Manna with readership in several countries in Africa and beyond. On 7 July 2013, he was ordained as Bishop by the United Pentecostal College of Bishops USA/Nigeria.

Challenges

A young man, sometimes, he missed out on a normal life spent with family and friends to fight for the cause he unshakably stood for which is the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Life was very brutal during his early stage of answering the full time ministry call. He lived a wretched life so badly that he had to put up in a dilapidated house with leaking roof. He went on empty stomach with his family because he could barely make the ends meet. The hardship was so bad people around him started insinuating he would have done something very terrible to be inflicted with such inhuman suffering,

The misery of his trials took a heavy toll on him and this actually made him attempt taking his own life before God made a transforming intervention. He transited from that awful experience to an author when he received a divine direction to start writing a devotional booklet with the title, ‘OUR DAILY MANNA’.

Our Daily Manna’s was first printed with twenty five thousand naira, which he borrowed from a man called Mr. Ojo. From fifty copies, Our Daily Manna devotional has grown to hundreds of thousands of copies which circulated round the world today.

Books

He has been recognized as an international speaker, leader of a global ministry, an anointed writer(who shakes up the world every day with his devotional write-ups,) with over 70 books and editions to his name, including motivational Christian books, mini-books and devotionals, which include the following:

War Against Haman
My Womb Must Open By Fire
A Seven Day Prayer Plan On There Shall Be No Loss: Turning Loss to Gloss and taking back your Crown!
A 3-Day Prayer Plan On Releasing Power To Change Your Situation – Virtue Secrets
Blasting Down Your Wall of Jericho
A Seven Day Prayer Plan On Wasting The Wasters of Your Destiny
An 8 Day Prayer Plan on Provoking God to Remember You in the Midst of the Multitude

Philanthropism/ Programs

He oversees an annual religious programme tagged World Anointing Night which was “streamed live in more than 200 countries” in February 2018.

He also has a welfare ministry called Mercy Week, an annual two-day medical outreach through which he provides succor to “hundreds of the less privileged” with different medical conditions with a medical team consisting of “Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company alongside volunteers from University of Lagos and Lagos State University Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy Schools and the Lagos State Ministry of Health.” According to media reports, the medical outreach programme “took place simultaneously in other 100 countries and locations where the ministry has branches.”

He is also the president and founder of The Dream Centre (Nigeria) and Manna Mercy Foundation – a vision for widows, widowers, the emotionally bruised, divorces, drug addicts, ex-convicts, the sick and such alike. He has contributed immense time to see through philanthropic needs of humans generally.

He also organizes the annual Month of Mercy in the month of June to reach out to the needy, orphans and the sick. He brings in doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others.

He holds the annual 21- days fasting program to begin each year with the annual end of the year anointing service which holds at the massive TBS (TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE) Lagos with attendance of over 700,000 souls every January.

Past offices held

He worked with Christian bodies such as: Scripture Union, The Nigerian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (NIFES), The Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) of which he was once a zonal vice-president

He was ex-president of the Nigerian Christian Corpers Fellowship (NCCF) in 1984

He is the President, BOARD OF GOVERNORS of the Liberty Bible College International.

He was the vice president of the PFN, Maryland, Ogudu and Ojota zone of Lagos state and served in various committees in National programmes.

He is the President, Board of governors of the Liberty Bible College International.

Awards and honors

He was profiled as one of “100 Most Influential African Pastors” by Pleasures Magazine.

He has received a lot of awards such as:

Meritorious Service Award 2015 by Global Liberation Outreach
Ambassador Of Pharmacy Award 2007 By The Nigerian Association Of Industrial Pharmacists
Award of Excellence 2011 by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)
Award Of Recognition By The Bible Society Of Nigeria 2014
Honorable Life Award By Honor And Care International Fellows 2014