Today:
I watch videos by my Pastor Sunday that seek to correct perceived ills in the Nigerian Church. I listen to language been used on fellow co-labourers in the Lord's Vineyard. My ears seem to fail me.
In 2002, I was fired up! I ran with the vision that God had filled my heart with. I had read of one Sunday Adelaja, a Nigerian Pastor who part of a great revival in Ukraine. I made up my mind to go visit with him and return home to tell the story. I met with Bishop Wale Oke and he gave me money to buy my air ticket to Kiev. He had been to Ukraine and he encouraged me to go see what God was doing.
I began to do some research and I concluded that his work in Ukraine was an extension of Apostle Andrew-
According to ancient history, in 40AD Apostle Andrew, one of the Apostles of Jesus, after preaching around Byzantium and the Black Sea, traveled north, reaching the River Dnipro in the land of Russia. He halted on the shore beneath the hills of Kiev, the future site of the city of Kiev and the great monastery of the Kiev caves. There, he said to his disciples who accompanied him: "Believe me: on these hills the grace of God will shine forth. There will be a great city here, and the Lord will raise many churches in this place and enlighten all of the Russian land with holy baptism." Ascending the hills, he blessed them and planted a cross, foretelling the conversion of the people and land of Russia.
As the day of the fulfillment of this prophecy drew close, God stirred the heart of one of His choice servants, Hudson Taylor, a missionary to China and founder of China Inland mission.
In 1855, during one of his furloughs to England, Taylor was preaching when suddenly, he stopped. He stood speechless for a time with his eyes closed. When he began to speak again, he explained:
“I have seen a vision. I saw in this vision a great war that encompassed the world. I saw this war recess and then start again, actually being two wars. After this, I saw much unrest and revolts that will affect many nations. I saw in some places, spiritual awakening.
In Russia, I saw there will come an all-encompassing national spiritual awakening so great that there would never be another like it. From Russia, I saw the awakening spread to many European countries“
To further continue this prophecy a few years ago, Dr. Lester Sumrall, during his visit to Ukraine gave the following prophecy”
“I am giving a new vision to my people in this country about my visit. It is not about the revivals that you have read in the books. It is not about strong waves that I have poured on churches. What, I will be doing in this place has never happened before in the history of any country but it is going to be like the days I pounded my church. It is not only going to be a spiritual revival, it will be reorganization in political, and economic spheres. First of all, the doors will be closed and my people will only depend on my help;
Secondly, the church will be fully secure and will be provided with everything required to feed the hungry and thirsty that will be coming to my people when the famine will grow stronger.
Thirdly my sheep will know my vice and will obey my Holy Spirit and there will be unified thoughts, words and actions among them:
I will open the doors of this country but not for people to come in as it was before, but to release this fire from this country to the whole world..”
The Boy Sunday.
Sola was born into the Adelaja Royal family of Idomila, a village situated near Ijebu Ode in Ogun State. She grew up in this quiet and scenic village enjoying all the privileges of a princess. She grew up pampered and wanted for nothing. She grew up to be the cynosure of all eyes as she was very beautiful and very soon caught young Titus’s heart. He wanted none other than the princess Sola so he did all he could to outmatch her other suitors. Sola, it appeared, also had a soft spot for him and it was therefore not surprising that some few months later, the people of Idomila came out to witness the union between Sola and Titus and to celebrate with the newlyweds and to wish them happiness. But their marriage was not to be “happily ever after” as most people thought.
In a short time, Sola took in and she nurtured this precious gift to term. She also nurtured pain and abuse from Titus.
Titus had changed so to speak because after their marriage, he started showing some traits that she never got to know of while they were still courting. Titus was a heavy drinker and he was addicted to alcohol and when inebriated, Sola, pregnant with child, felt the brunt of his temper and got beaten at every opportunity. The slightest mistake earned her a thorough beating.
She grieved silently for the man she married. She bore her pain in silence trying to make her marriage work but word got to her family that the precious princess was at the risk of losing not only her life’s but the baby’s life, if she continued staying with her husband. The family summarily withdrew their daughter from the union.
She grieved silently for the man she married. She bore her pain in silence trying to make her marriage work but word got to her family that the precious princess was at the risk of losing not only her life’s but the baby’s life, if she continued staying with her husband. The family summarily withdrew their daughter from the union.
It was with pain and disillusionment that the princess packed her things back to her father’s house. On a very beautiful day, the 28th of May 1967 to be precise; the cry of a baby was heard in the palace. Sola had given birth to an adorable baby boy, Sunkanmi Sunday.
Titus heard the news that he had become a father so he got ready and made plans to go and claim his son since he wasn’t allowed to have his wife back despite all entreaties. He however got a surprise, as he was not allowed to come unto his son. He was banned from ever going near the boy. He left with bitterness in his heart. It is pitiful to say that till the day that Titus breathed his last, he never met his son.
Time, they say, heals all wounds and so it was that Sola’s heartbreak healed with time although not without scars to show for it. Two years later, she remarried. She gave birth to three children, Doja, Tunde and Funmilayo.
Little Sunkanmi grew up not bearing his father’s name. He knew his grandmother as Mum and his real mother as Auntie.
At the age of six, a few days into his primary education, at St. Paul Primary School, Ilene, calamity struck the Adelaja family. Three member of the family died in quick succession, (Source Times Newspaper article) finances cut off abruptly.
Time, they say, heals all wounds and so it was that Sola’s heartbreak healed with time although not without scars to show for it. Two years later, she remarried. She gave birth to three children, Doja, Tunde and Funmilayo.
Little Sunkanmi grew up not bearing his father’s name. He knew his grandmother as Mum and his real mother as Auntie.
At the age of six, a few days into his primary education, at St. Paul Primary School, Ilene, calamity struck the Adelaja family. Three member of the family died in quick succession, (Source Times Newspaper article) finances cut off abruptly.
Sunkanmi who was used to being driven to school in a car, now had to go by foot (barefooted). It was a drastic decline. In addition to this, emotional torture became included as kids at school called him "bastard" because he knew not his father. This made him very bitter in those days. Just after gaining entry into Secondary School at Idomila Commercial High school; news came that Titus his father lad passed on. Sunkanmi cared less, as there was really no relationship.
Undaunted by life’s harsh treatment, Sunkanmi forged on and at the end of his secondary education, he got admission into the then University of Ife and won scholarships to study in Columbia State University, U.S.A. and the Soviet Union. He was 18 years of age when the full explanation of the circumstance surrounding his birth (his true mother & father) was revealed to him: these issues did not bother him as he was yet unsaved.
Six months to his 19th birthday, through the television Ministry of W.F. Kumuyi, Sunkanmi gave his heart to Jesus and had fellowship with the brethren for 6 months after which he left for Minsk, Belarus to study journalism. Taiwo Adelaja, his uncle was already in Moscow at this time studying journalism. Taiwo was a great inspiration for the young lad and was instrumental his studying journalism. Locked behind the Iron Certain, God began to prepare him for the great task ahead.
Undaunted by life’s harsh treatment, Sunkanmi forged on and at the end of his secondary education, he got admission into the then University of Ife and won scholarships to study in Columbia State University, U.S.A. and the Soviet Union. He was 18 years of age when the full explanation of the circumstance surrounding his birth (his true mother & father) was revealed to him: these issues did not bother him as he was yet unsaved.
Six months to his 19th birthday, through the television Ministry of W.F. Kumuyi, Sunkanmi gave his heart to Jesus and had fellowship with the brethren for 6 months after which he left for Minsk, Belarus to study journalism. Taiwo Adelaja, his uncle was already in Moscow at this time studying journalism. Taiwo was a great inspiration for the young lad and was instrumental his studying journalism. Locked behind the Iron Certain, God began to prepare him for the great task ahead.
I had written this in 2002.
When I visited the church in Kiev, I witnessed salvations on a daily basis. Miracles were happening in home fellowships. The church was affecting positively every strata of society. All I prayed for was my own personal revival. The Spirit was moving and I could feel it.
He had been faced with a lot of challenges, one, the communist back ground of the people, the other and perhaps the most daunting, a black man as he was, doing what he was doing in an all white enclave.
The people, including top government officials were not particularly comfortable with that fact, posing many challenges and obstacle to him, including threats to his life.
"All that," the cleric said, "was not completely unexpected. As a communist setting, the intellectual, the aged and the young have been trained and brought up to believe that there was no God, they were involved in magic and other ways.
"So, talking of the glory of God was strange to them, as they never believed there was God."
"As it were, we really needed the holy spirit, God, to give us the word, the message to minister to them and touch their hearts. Alot of work was really done.
"Another problem we faced was that with the realization of the limitations of communism and its collapse, the populace did not have anything to do with another form of communism. There was the fear that religion could enthrone them in another form of detention.
"So, to get around that, we went to the prostitutes, the outcasts, drug addicts, the alcoholics and social outcasts.
"It worked out. We preached the ministry to them and tried to restore them.
"With those people delivered and cleaned up to once again become normal people, their parents started coming to the church to find out what happened.
"It dawned on them that there must be something about what we were trying to do.
"The church became socially relevant to the community with government realising that we are doing what they couldn't do.
"As it were, resolving the social ills of the society gave us the edge.
"With more people, being touched and coming into the church, I spoke to the businessmen among us, telling them that they didn't need to give money to the church but to fund projects of benefits to the poor.
"I told them that I will find it difficult to cope, seeing poor people live around me.
"One of the businessmen, a banker, he owns a bank in the country, bought the idea that we set up a student centre, undertook to fund it with $10,000 monthly to commit his business to the Lord.
"We set up the centre, he was giving us the $10,000 monthly to fund the place and we began to provide people with three square meals daily at the centre.
"Before we realized it, we were feeding 2,000 people daily at the centre, the government became overwhelmed. There was nothing they could do to us anymore.
"Since we fed them, the people became our friends, they were ready to listen to us anytime, the government had no option but to befriend us because they realized that the people would resist any government that would fight us".
Pastor Adelaja has no doubt broke into Ukraine, once a traditional stronghold of communism. The church grew rapidly, beating all imaginations and even causing some upsets in some quarters. Some had insinuated that they were involved in rituals just as envy set in for others who wondered how a man, a black man at that, could come from another country to do better than them.
Adelaja was not one to be deterred, saying: "As a pastor, my priority is to make men. Infact, in Russia, people call me a factory that produce successful people. Everybody around the country call me factory to tell you the impact we have made in the society.
"My focus was to remain a developer of men, I work to train men to become fulfilled and successful."
"Besides, some of the miracles God had performed through us had also helped the church. God has been using men to spread the word of knowledge and in our own case in the Ukraine, every member of the over 20,000-member Church is involved in the spread of the word of God.
"So, the last three years, for example, we had about five people raised from the dead in our ministry.
"I was not involved in any of them , they were done through members of the church".
Today-
I watch videos by my Pastor Sunday that seek to correct perceived ills in the Nigerian Church. I listen to language been used on fellow co-labourers in the Lord's Vineyard. My ears seem to fail me.
Where is My Pastor Sunday Adelaja? Somebody help me find him.
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