President, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, and founder of Word
of Life Bible Church, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, has joined the league of
Nigerian Preachers that own private jets.
Oritsejafor’s jets, marked N431CB,was delivered to him,yesterday, at
the celebration of his 40th year of being on the pulpit, which held at
the Word of God Bible Church in Warri, Delta State.
Although,the aircraft was not flown to the venue of the occasion, the
announcement of the USA manufactured 10-seater Bombadier/ Challenger
601 aircraft, at the occasion by one of the pastors,was greeted with
loud ovation and applause.
The Challenger 601 is a heavy jet that sits up to 10 passengers and
has a range of 3,900 nautical miles. It has a full enclosed lavatory and
a flight attendant for additional comfort. The luxurious and spacious
cabin of the Challenger 601 is perfect to conduct meetings or simply
relax.
The jubilant congregation spent over 15 minutes congratulating one
another even as the recipient did not make any comment on the jet said
to have been purchased for him by the church.
Why I left Church of God Mission
As part of a multiple jubilee celebration, the National President of
the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Joseph Ayodele
Oritsejafor, for the first time, spoke on the controversy that trailed
his exit from the Church of God Mission, CGM where he started his
spiritual voyage 40 years ago. According to him, “after I have left my
life was still connected to that great man” (Archbishop Idahosa). He
spoke with SAM EYOBOKA. Excerpts….
What will say was the turning point in your life?
The turning point in my life was the day I gave my life to Christ
which changed every thing. I believe that change begins from the inside.
One of the reasons Nigeria is struggling today is because the
transformation agenda we are talking about is not yet focused at
per-sons and who they are from the inside.
The constitutional amend-ment they are currently talking about…I
don’t believe that the problem of Nigeria is the constit-ution. You can
amend it, but who will implement the new one? Is it not the same people
who have being using the old one. Everything about chan-ge must begin
from the inside.
If the man inside doesn’t change the man outside won’t change either.
The turning point of my life was the day I took that decision in Sapele
to give my life to Christ, because suddenly I saw myself the I way I
really was. A clear picture came to me and I realized why I was living
that way.
It’s because I was living my life without God. I was trying to live
my life the best way I could without realizing that there is a better
way. There is an invisible person that influences us as Christians even
when you don’t see any-body. That was how the change in my life began
because the places I used to go I stopped going there and the people I
used to move with I stopped because the change on the inside did not
agree with those kind of people. I bought a Bible and I started seeing
life in a different light as my eyes opened to better possibilities.
Were these things pre-destined? Is it possible that God decided to
take you through that route, ugly it was, in answer to an earlier prayer
by your mother?
My mother became pregnant and had me because she desired to have a
male child. She went to the First Baptist Church, Broad Street, Lagos
which was pastor-ed by Dr. J.T. Ayorinde who later became the first
Nigerian General Secretary of the Baptist Conference.
My mother went there to pray and challenged God; ‘if you give me a
male child I will give him back to you’. That was the begin-ning of the
beginning but you know that was the commitment made by another person on
my behalf. I grew up and went my own way but God Who knew those
commitments…you see it’s strange that Moses started life in the home of
his enemy; he grew up there, understood the lives of his enemies,
educated by them and got the best of every thing among them.
When I look back now, I can boldly say that a lot of these
experiences, ugly as they are, actual-ly prepared me for what I am
today. I have disco-vered that there is no experience that we go through
in life that is wasted; good, bad, ugly. They are all useful. That is
why the Bible says ‘all things work togeth-er for good…’ I am happy
today because there is no way I could have learnt the things I learnt
then if I didn’t go through that way. No experience is lost and I am
grateful to God.
I cannot applaud myself for those experiences, but I thank God
because I have gained a lot and continue to gain from them. While there
are bad things in those ex-periences, yet there are some usefulness in
them because one can learn, one has learnt and one continues to learn
from the experiences.
Pastor Oritsejafor, CAN president
Can you relive your experience at the Church of God Mission where the turning point actually started?
I will never forget Church of God Mission because that was where I
became a Christian. I was in the Baptist Church but I knew nothing about
God. I gave my life to Christ under the ministry of the late Archbishop
Benson Idahosa and immediately became an active part of the church.
One thing I would be grateful to God for about that man was that he
was able identify potentials in people. I knew him from the day I gave
my life to Christ but the day I had the closest encounter with him that
changed my entire life was during an evening service in Benin; the place
was packed and he wanted a song and I jumped out to lead the song.
By the time I fin-ished that ministration, he asked me; “Who are
you?” I told him my name and he said; “I know your mother. Tell your
mother I want to see you. I want to see her too.” That was how a very
close contact started and I started com-ing to his home and spending a
few days there even when I had returned to Sapele.
He liked me. I became assist-ant pastor and very vi-brant but there
were certain situations I don’t want to get into, that lead me to go to
the Baptist seminary. He didn’t like it. However, when I re-turned, my
heart was to start a church and I went on a seven-day fast. But on the
day fifth day the Lord said to me: “Break the fast.
I have answered your prayer.” So, I had to break the fast and the
very next day, I had a knock on my door and it was Archbishop Idahosa
with three other persons. It was strange to me. He asked me what I
wanted to do now, but I couldn’t answer him.
So he said, you must be a pastor in Church of God Mission. “You don’t
have a choice. I didn’t come to ask you. I came to tell you.” The way
he said it, there was no room for discussion. He added: “When I leave
here, I am going to see your mother to tell her the same thing.”
The interesting aspect was that God spoke to me later: “That’s why I
told you to break the fast that I have already answered your prayer.”
That was how I came back to Church of God Mission where I was asked to
start a church. In six months my branch in Sapele became the larg-est in
CGM as a whole.
It grew so much, that in three months I gathered enough money to buy
microphones, amplifiers and everything at a time when no other church
except the Idahosa branch had a micro-phone. I went to Benin to tell
him, I have the money and I wanted to buy these things, because I didn’t
know where to buy these things and he was visibly shocked.
He took me in his car and drove to a shop in Benin and show-ed me
what to buy and I paid before he took me to garage where I chartered a
vehicle to Sapele. I didn’t ask him for any assistance and knowing him,
he didn’t even vol-unteer any. He was excited and I could see something
in his eyes saying; “I knew it. I know I made the right choice!”
Eventually, I moved to Warri and a lot of people thought that was a
mistake. At the service this morning, I said; “when you submit to people
they become res-ponsible for your mistakes and what have you.” Idahosa
told me to move to Warri.
It didn’t make sense because at that point there were people who knew
me as a friend to Reinhard Bonnke and many other heavyweights at that
time. Some persons were not happy, wondering what I was going to do in
Warri. However, I prayed and God said ‘go.’ Against all odds and
advices, I obeyed and moved to Warri.
I had some ugly experiences when I came but it is part of my life
that I am ever grateful for because it helped to mould me. If there was
anybody I learnt anything from, it was the late Archbishop Benson
Idahosa. I don’t care what anybody thinks of him, I think he was a hero
as far as I am concerned. He was a great man; an incredible man. I thank
God for all the exp-eriences I had in CGM.
But you left the place in not too pleasant circumstances…
It depends on the way you look at it. It wasn’t pleasant because I
thought that was where I was going to be for life—especially after the
fasting experience and the archbishop walking into my house and the
confirmation I got from God—but what I didn’t realize, and most of us
do, is that life comes in phases.
There are different levels and at every point when you have to move
to another level, sometimes there could be frictions. It could be rough,
tough. But all that is just a sign that you are about to move to
another level. It was in November 1987.
The interesting thing about my life is that a lot of the very
fundamental things in my life seem to always happen in November. I was
born in November, got converted in November, I married my late wife in
November; I met my present wife in November, Word of Life started in
November and many more.
We went for the CGM convention which used to be in the first week of
November and certain things began to happen on the platform which
shouldn’t be. I tried to go from behind to sort out whatever it was, but
what I discovered later was that there were certain people who were
instigating crisis.
I didn’t know then, but now I know. I tried to sort out things but
no; to the point where it became obvious that I could no longer remain
there. There were pronouncements that were made publicly that it would
be out of place for you to remain in a place where there were such
public pronouncements about you; telling you to move on.
It was that bad that some foreign guest speakers had to stop by in my
hotel room to say; ‘young man, you have to move on.’ I can’t even tell
you some of the things they said. I tried all my best to contain it but
to no avail. The whole country was tensed up be-cause of the incident
and I was surprised that the events stirred up so much emotion across
the country.
The very next week, my very good friend, Dr. Ezekiel came over to
Warri here to see me and we sat together and I drafted a letter of
apology to the late Archbishop; while I knew I didn’t do anything. Dr.
Ezekiel took it and went to Benin and gave it to him. He waited till the
late archbishop read the letter.
Dr. Ezekiel told him to pray for me, which he did in his presence. I
wasn’t there. Later, I went on my own to see him and he prayed for me.
Though he would still go out there, saying things about me in the media,
but I never replied. It would have been very stupid of me to reply,
because your father is always right.
Your father is never wrong! Never! It’s a foolish child that goes in
public to compete with his father. That is my philosophy even till date.
Throughout the period I didn’t make any defence, but I was sneaking in
and out of his house and he would laugh. I never questioned him for
anything he said, because I think he never meant those things he was
saying about me.
The man loved me and I don’t believe he meant to hurt me when he said
those things he said about me. When my late wife passed, he was one of
the first people that came to my house. He came, sat with me and spent
consider-able time with me, praying with me. I could see the tears in
his eyes.
Before I got married to my new wife, I took her to him for his
approval. He sat her down and threw some bombs at her apparently in his
effort to get something out of her and at the end he took me out and
told me to go ahead. He prayed with us.
Though I left the CGM but I was still there, in the sense that the
connect-ion remained and we contin-ued to work together. For the last
two, three years before he passed, I attended his conv-ention uninvited
and quite naturally they would put me on the platform and all that. That
probably was the most important part of my life in Church of God
Mission be-cause after I left, my life was still connected to that great
man.
That marked the beginning of Word of Life Bible Church. No doubt
there would have been some experiences either pleasant or not. What
would you say such experiences were?
When I got saved God ministered to me, saying that at a time I would
go back to my beginning. I was born in Lagos where I started my early
life. So, my thinking immed-iately I left Church of God Mission, was
that I would go back to Lagos. I didn’t un-derstand that my beginning
was right here.
My plan was to move to Lagos because that was home or so I thought.
But in my usual way of doing things I had to pray just to get proper
clearance from God. I prayed and He said: “Son, you are not going
anywhere.” I was discouraged because all my things were already packed.
I prayed again but God still said ‘this is home. You are not going
anywhere. This is the beginning.’ That was one experience I will never
forget. So, I had to start Word of Life Bible Church. It was rough,
because I had nobody that I could call my own. There were just one or
two people that I could send a message.
To find money to rent a place…..look it was rough! I didn’t have
anything. There were those who were just laughing at me, saying ‘you are
crazy. You are stupid.’ But I took the risk because this was God’s mind
for me. After I prayed, I settled it. I fixed the date.
At that time, being a military era, you couldn’t preach on TV. I
couldn’t go on TV, so I couldn’t even make any announcement of TV. Radio
and TV stations would not accept any religious advertisement. So what I
did was to hire a microphone and one horn speaker and mount-ed them on a
rickety vehicle with one of cousins who likes talking inside the
vehicle.
While the vehicle was driving round Warri, she was announ-cing the
beginning of Word of Life Bible Church. Do you know that even at that I
was afraid of what was going to happen on the inaugural day which was a
Sunday. I in-tentionally fixed it on a Sunday because I know it was a
day of worship and those who want to come would come.
I left my house late that day because of fear, but to my greatest
surprise there were people there and I spent most of the service
weeping; not out of sorrow as such rather it was joy. I didn’t know that
people would turn up but they did. I immediately announced a two-week
prayer seminar, which started the next day, Monday. Pastor John Ahre of
Life Christian Centre in Ughelli sang for me that day a song he reckoned
I loved so much; “Lean on me.”
The next day, I started the prayer seminar and whatever offering we
gathered we used to make one or two chairs. I just carpenters around who
were coming to our aid. Small small we gradually developed until we
moved here.
How has the 40-year journ-ey been?
Trying but exciting. Un-certain but today I can say fulfilling.
Adventurous but today, I can say I can see clearly now. I am grateful to
God. One thing I would say to young people, don’t do anything if you
are not sure, it’s God. The way I see people getting into ministry
today, is very troubling to me. As a leader of Christians in this
country, I am very troubled. As a leader of the youngest move of God,
which is the Pente-costal Movement, I am very troubled.
We are almost an uncontrollable group of people and the way it is, is
because we have had an experience which is called the Holy Spirit
experience; which is good. The problem that has come out of that is that
when people cough, they say its the Holy Spirit. They talk nonsense,
they say its the Holy Spirit.
How do challenge a man who says he’s motivated by the Holy Spirit?
This is what we have done to the Pentecostal Movement and it very
painful. The consolation God gave me is that for every move of God had
had its own teething and trying periods beginning with the great Roman
Catholic Church to the Protestatant, the Anglican, Lutheran, Method-ist,
to the Presbytarian, Baptist and so on. There are trials, problems that
happened so long ago that people today don’t really know.
