Religion
I have a strange relationship with God – Pastor Femi
Pastor Femi is a senior Pastor in the Redeem Christian church of God. His exploits in ministry still remains a mystery till date especially when considers the fact that he is yet to attain the full age of forty. Recently, he sat down with Hallmark reporter, Julius John and bore his mind on issues concerning his call and ministry.
How did your journey into the ministry begin?
One thing I discovered is that right from my early days in school, I always find myself playing a major role in the areas of evangelism, counseling and prayer. Most times when I go out to evangelize with my colleagues, what I noticed is that most people always want me to come and pray for them.
I started out in the Anglican Church where I was seeing those traits in me. As a young boy, I had a very strong passion for the things of God. As a matter of fact, I wanted to always do more when it comes to the things of God. Soon, I realized that I needed water baptism to function effectively in the things of God so I decided to look for a church where I can be water baptized. That was when I came to the Redeem Christian Church of God. There, I joined the baptismal class and was able to do water baptism.
How did you get born again?
I gave my life to Christ when I was in Anglican Church in 1990. It was at a three days crusade that I had an encounter with the Lord and it changed my life completely. The man of God who ministered at that crusade made an altar call which I refused to come out for. However, when I got home and slept, something strange happened.
I had a dream where I saw myself fetching water inside a pit. All of a sudden, I fell into the deep pit and started crying for help but no one showed up to help me. The more I screamed for help, the further I sank. That was how I woke up. By the second day of the crusade, the man of God made reference to that dream. Right from the altar, he narrated my dream to me as if he was physically present. After narrating my dream in the open crusade, he now said whoever had that dream, needs help and the first help the person needs is salvation help. That was how I came out to totally surrender my life to Jesus.
How can you describe your early days in christianity?
My early days in Christianity was very challenging because in the Anglican church where I got born again, the way things were done then were quite different from the way things are done in Pentecostal churches today, which the Redeem Christian Church of God is a part of. However, most of the things we young converts did then were quite strange particularly to the Anglican community. As a matter of fact, people saw us as strange people who did things in ways they saw as strange.
There was a time things were so tough for me because I was having an issue with my father. The issue was so serious that he instructed me not to go to church again. It got to a stage where he had to lock my room so that I don’t have access to it just because I was going to church.
In 1992 when I first wrote my West African Examination Council (WAEC), I did not make my papers. This only compounded the friction between me and my dad who felt that it was because of my devotion to church that I failed my examination.
My friends on the other hand cut off completely from me. They refused to either visit me or have anything to do with me again because the kind of life I was living was quite different from them.
When I was in SS2, my Uncle who happened to be one of my teachers in school was the one in charge of exams. He now sent me to buy Palm Wine for him and other invigilators but I politely refused, telling him that I was born again and as a result, could not run such an errand. This made him immediately get enraged. He felt I had embarrassed him. This made him visit our house to report me to my father. As soon as my father heard his own side of the story, my father instructed him to flog me seriously in his presence. This however, did not deter me from following the Lord. I refused to give up on my salvation. I kept on in the faith and was committed to my salvation.
One question that has become a recurring decimal each time people ask me questions that relate to my love for God is what has kept me going in this Christian race. The truth is that there are many things that has kept me in the faith inspite of the various challenges along the way.
I remember when I was in Kwara State Polytechnic; there was a young man who was like a senior brother to me. He was about concluding his school but he had accommodation challenge so he was staying with me. He told his people that in was the one that accommodated him. All of a sudden, he got a place in Iwo, Osun State for his Industrial Attachment so he left for his IT. Interestingly, for reasons best known to him, he did not tell his people where he was going or how to reach him. Since I was the last person they knew he was staying with, his people, when they started looking for him, decided to arrest my mother so that she would produce me and I will tell them where they can find this my relation.
However, thank God that I visited the village that time because I did not know what was going on at all. I and my mom visited the family. There I told them we needed to pray because at that time, I did not know where the young man was. I prayed that my brother who goes by the name Omolayo would come back home. I went as far as telling them that I do not know where he is presently but because they had gone as far as accusing my mother of an issue she knows nothing about, he would return before a date I gave them. To the glory of God, before that month was over, Omolayo came back home. When he was asked what made him come back all of a sudden, he said he just had a prompting that his parents were missing him so he decided to return home. Since that day, anytime his mother sees me, she always says I am a special child. She was surprised that I could pray and God could answer.
This was an experience that really boosted my faith and solidified my love for God.
All through my journey with God, I have made up my mind not to look back. My determination has kept me going inspite of the trials and temptations that have come my way.
Before we go into your life as a minister, let us talk about you as a christian. can you remember unforgettable experiences which you would like to share with us?
One of the incidents that readily come to my mind happened at a time when I was not born again. It happened when I was in school and I was playing then with my colleagues in the secondary school. In the school farm when we were just playing and trying to mimic what we had seen in one of the local movies we had watched, I had a serious injury. There was a hung wood that entered into my leg which kept me out of school for three months. Even when I went back to school after the whole term, I was still struggling. However, one thing I discovered is that even when I joined my mates, God still helped me. I still had one of the best results then. How God helped me then is something I can never explain.
There was also another time when we were holding a festival which was a usual occurrence then. That period, I was made the head of the festival. In the evening of that very day, I was fetching water and all of a sudden, I fell into our well but God brought me out. How I came out still remains a mystery to me.
Similarly, when I wanted to write my common entrance examination, my father used to sell the gun powder hunters use for hunting. There is a friend of mine who has a local gun. Due to our closeness, he asked me to give him some of my father’s gun powder and some bullets which I did.
