The story of the just concluded 21st Holy Ghost Congress of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, with a theme, ‘The Great Turnaround’ will not be complete without mentioning the Christian Social Responsibility component of the programme.
According to the Special Assistant to the General Overseer on Missions and Pastor-in-charge of RCCG Region 19, Pastor Brown Oyitso “it was heartrending to see children and adults suffer hunger, disease and insecurity.
The protracted security challenges in the North East of Nigeria has led to increasing humanitarian crisis with many internally displaced persons (IDP) camps being overcrowded. In some IDP camps in Maiduguri, Borno State, over 22,000 persons are sheltered; and despite foreign and national interventions, there is still much work to be done.
Faith in the Redemptive names of God (19) “This is because many of the camps are in deplorable state—-food shortage, lack of schooling facilities, lack of power supply and poor sewage management, amongst others are challenges they have had to battle with,” he said in a statement by the Africa Missions Global.
“According to a United Nations news report (October 6, 2018), it is estimated that 7.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in affected states like Yobe, Adamawa, Kano, Bauchi, Borno and Katsins states of the country. “In order to improve the lives of the IDPs, Africa Missions Global with the support of the visionaire, Pastor (Mrs) Folu Adeboye, as well as other partners and donors, built a camp that provides shelter for 50 households in Maiduguri, Borno State,” he said.
Continuing, Pastor Oyitso said the first phase of the project commenced in August 2019, and was commissioned on November 22, 2019. “At the commissioning ceremony, the Deputy Director of Operations, Borno State Emergency Management (SEMA), Alhaji Abdulahi Sulaiman, Brigadier General P.O. Ilodibia, NGOs of Justice Development and Peace Commission, as well as Christian Aid were on hand to witness the presentation of keys to the rooms and mattresses to the beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries were excited and full of appreciation to Africa Missions Global and the Redeemed Christian Church of God especially even as the pastor in charge of Region 16, Pastor Sesan Akinnawo, promised that they would be empowered so as not to depend on donations alone.
SEMA promised to do everything possible to help the occupants of the shelters. The director of HIM Global Security, Peace Ambassador, Joseph Somotey donated a generator and a cow for the IDPs Christmas party. The occupants were grateful to Pastor (Mrs.) Folu Adeboye for the vision of Africa Missions Global and the way it has affected their lives.
More testimonies from the Congress……………..
God breaks 15-year barrenness of Bayelsa First Lady
The service also provided an opportunity for the Bayelsa State First Lady, Dr. (Mrs.) Rachael Seriake Dickson, to testify that after 15 years of barrenness, God has given her quadruplets after the prayers of Pastor Enoch Adeboye during a visit to Bayelsa.
Cancer healed
So many other testimonies where shared at the congress including that of a US-based Nigerian, Olabanke Akinjayeju who testified how God healed her of stage 4 cancer of the breast.
She said the Lord used Pastor Adeboye to pray for her after she had refused to continue with chemotherapy treatment in the US. She had requested to be brought to the camp and had seized the opportunity to meet with the RCCG G.O who prayed for her. After the prayers she began to have dreams where the Lord showed her several Bible passages which pointed to her healing and deliverance. She got hold of the scriptures and started confessing them. In the midst of praying a dove landed in their house and refused to go. The dove, according to her, has become their pet.
But then the Lord healed her completely. Interestingly her husband is a physician while she is a clinical pharmacist.
Insanity Disappears
The testimony of one Adewale Oluwaseun Opeyemi was also striking. He testified how God delivered him from the spirit of insanity which came upon him while in faraway France. He also testified how he was delivered from 15 years of sleeplessness. According to him, his insanity disappeared after Pastor Adeboye prayed for him during one of the special services at the church’s headquarters in Ebute Metta, Lagos. He also spoke of another encounter where he met Adeboye during one of his prayer walks on the camp where a pronouncement was made on him that put an end to his 15 years of sleeplessness.
Pastor Rathod’s sermon on the mount
SENIOR Pastor of The Covenant Family Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, Pastor Stephen Rathod, an unsaved son of a Methodist pastor in Gujarat, India, didn’t serve the Lord until he came to the United States in 1974 to study at the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
After more than 40 years of ministry, he has no regrets. He is still on fire for God and is consumed with making heaven his home and taking as many with him as he can. He lives what he preaches and preaches what he lives. He is passionate about ministering to ministers and challenging them to preach what they live. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa to teach the Word of God and train ministers.
During a sermon, “The role of faith” on Thursday evening at the just concluded 21st Holy Ghost Congress of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Rathod, a regular face at RCCG events worldwide narrated how a Nigerian scholar in the US was instrumental to his conversion experience and his eventual connection to the General Superintendent of RCCG, Rev. Josiah Akindayomi and later the General Overseer of the RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye.
The greyheaded Rathod said,”I came to America, the very first weekend my classmate from Nigeria asked me if I would like to attend a fellowship and I said something because I was not born again then. This Nigerian young man took me to a Bible fellowship where I got on my kneels and gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the reason I love Nigeria more than anything else because it was a Nigerian that took me to a Bible study where I got born again at Pentecostal Holy Ghost church.
“In 2016, I got a phone call from Houston that my friend who brought me to the Lord Jesus Christ has gone to heaven. I am very grateful to Nigeria for producing the man who brought me to the Lord Jesus Christ. May God bless Nigeria.
“Pastor Adeboye is a G.O. but in my own case, Pastor Stephen Rathod is O.G. What does O.G. mean? It means ‘Original Gangster’. Who are the original gangsters, those who don’t get caught and don’t get shot.
“I got born again on a Friday, prayed on Saturday and this was the prayer that I prayed: ‘Look here God, I was a four star general in the gangs of India, I was number one in the whole state. They did not fear or care for anybody”. I told God that I want to be a four-star general in the army of the Lord.
“We went to church that morning and the pastor put his hands on me and said: ‘Thus said the Lord, before you are conceived in your mother’s womb, I ordained you a prophet to the nations, you will travel all round the world to preach the gospel and the spirit of Jeremiah, Elijah and John the Baptist will be upon you and I will breath on you the breath of life. My head was burning like fire.
“In 1979, the young man who brought me to Jesus, his roommate was a Nigerian, Pastor Yemi Ayodele told me that a pastor from Nigeria would be around and I agreed to see the pastor. That was how I met Papa Akindayomi, Pastor Adeboye and two other pastors.
“If you are asking me why I am here, I will tell you. I have served for 40 years, I am Daddy G.O.’s host. I was his bag boy who carried his bag. I was his driver, dry cleaner, secretary before all these bodyguards. He did not worry about bodyguards, he had OG. I became Daddy G O’s son and I am happy to say I am Daddy GO’s friend.
To the pastors ………………
“Do you know there are too many haters watching our programmes than the believers? Why are we saying these, because now I am scared for the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
“The church mission’s statement says: ‘To make it to heaven. To take as many as possible, holiness will be our lifestyle. But some of us had left, some of us are playing around and not talking about holiness. Pastors; young ministers do not sell your birthright because someone in America promised to give you some dollars. Please do not do that.
All the biggest churches then in Tulsa are no more but RCCG is still marching on. “All the RCCG churches all over the world, all the senior pastors, elders, deacons, deaconesses and workers, I am calling you that if you call him Daddy you, you must preach holiness as he does. Do not just call them Daddy and Mummy and you are not doing what God wants them to do. Your turnaround will not come until you turnaround from playing games with RCCG doctrine, vision and mission statement. “In America they don’t like me because I preach holiness.
In 1985, one man came with me to the convention and he asked me to tell Daddy G O to take down the sign of RCCG and he would support him, his church besides the Bible college. I told him there was no need to tell Daddy because I know what the answer was. The answer was ‘The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want.’ Listen to me, he did not take the sign down because RCCG was supernaturally given to Papa Akindayomi, the man who could not read nor write.
Daddy GO did not sell us out. Why are you selling us out? RCCG is still standing and marching today because of holiness. True freedom through Jesus Christ(2) Plane is a necessity, not a luxury “Let me talk to the haters. All those who are talking about Daddy GO’s plane, you were not there, I was there in 1983, when I used to have the glory car (that’s the car that smokes when it moves) and Daddy G.O has a white Toyota.
In 1983 at the first old auditorium, Daddy G.O said ‘I see a jet plane, I see a runway’ and people were like what is he talking about? This guy has a white Toyota and his friend a glory car and he is talking about jet. All the haters, the word came in 1983 and in 2009 the jet came. I have not seen the jet but I rejoice because the word of the Lord has come to pass. Vanguard
