Reverend Mrs. Roseline Oduyemi with Gbenga Dan Asabe of Asabeafrika |
exclusive encounter with widow of one of Nigeria’s and Africa’s richest men of
God, the late Pastor Gabriel Oduyemi of Bethel Wonder City Church, Lagos, Reverend (Mrs.) Roselyn Oduyemi told us the story of how she had
feared in the last decade without her flamboyant husband who is the first
Pentecostal Pastor to buy a private jet in Nigeria. This amiable woman of God who has since been
piloting the affairs of the Ajah,
Lekki—Lagos (South West Nigeria) based Bethel
Wonder City in this encounter with your Africa’s number 1 Celebrity
encounter blog, Asabeafrika told us
real reason why it is good for a man of God to have a private jet. She used her
own husband as a case study, drawing several happenstances that took place in
his life time to back her point. She
didn’t forget to tell us how her husband’s death nearly derailed her from
ministry work at a time.
was privileged to meet Reverend Mrs. Oduyemi sometimes ago
courtesy her Associate Pastor and ICT
guru, Dr. Ope Banwo, in company of two of her church administrators, Pastor Peter Onasi and Pastor Ayomikun Olaoluwa while the minister of God was on a media
awareness program across Lagos (South West Nigeria).
L-R; Pastor Onasi, Pastor Ayomikun, Dr. Seye Khinde of City People Magazine, Rev. Mrs. Roseline Oduyemi & Pastor . Ope Banwo |
managing your husband, Pastor Gabriel Oduyemi’s Bethel Wonder City Church after
his demise?
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years that he passed away; the important thing for me is that I am not in
ministry because I was married to my husband who has gone home to be with the
Lord. Actually, the day he died the marriage ended scripturally. I was not in
ministry because I was married to Gabriel
Oduyemi, I am in ministry because God called me into ministry and God
didn’t die, I have a purpose for my life. When we stand before God on that Day
of Judgment, my husband is not going to speak for me, I will speak for myself.
So, I made up my mind to hold unto God, to look unto Jesus and continue with the work. God has blessed me with wonderful
Pastors. From the senior pastor to all the pastors, God has blessed me with
loyal people, hardworking pastors, pastors who love me, pastors who love the
work to continue. Has it been a journey? Yes! Have I gone through stuffs? Yes
because everybody goes through trials in life; we stand by the grace of God.
Mummy G.O. Rev. Mrs. Roseline Oduyemi of Bethel City, Lagos |
female General Overseer?
comes to church; in the realm of the spirit male and female are one, the Holy Spirit in the man is the Holy Spirit in the woman. Number two,
the church belongs to Jesus Christ
it is not your personal property. And so, you follow Him, you listen to Him it
has to do with motive, what is your motive? What is your agenda? What do you
think God is asking you to do? Are you there because you want to be known; are
you there because you want to be popular? Are you there because of financial
gains? I am so sorry for people who think that they are starting church to make
money. If truly God has called you then you depend on Him for everything. And I
am talking for those of us who depend on Christ and no other source; He is the
author and finisher and perfecta of our faith. It begins and ends with Him. So,
when you know that you are going to lean on Him, you are going to trust Him.
You are going to depend on Him, you are going to follow His words; you are just
going to make your life all about Him. You look up to Him.
Pastor Ope Banwo takes a rare shot with Mummy G.O’s Hummer Jeep |
Christ alone but today, men of God are seen to run churches like their private
concern, buying jets and living an extravagant life all around. Do you see a
crisis here?
was the first Pastor to own a private jet in this country for the sake of
evangelism. It was strictly for evangelism; now, what is wrong for a pastor
owing a private jet? Take somebody like Baba
Adeboye, do you know how many
parishes he has all over the world? If he is to go by commercial airlines he
won’t be able to accomplish anything. I was in Israel (sometimes ago) and we
had a service for the (former) president, now Bishop Oyedepo preached and Pastor
Ayo Oritsejafor was there and we had several men of God at the event. Do
you know what it means for them to leave their various churches? Now Bishop Oyedepo I spoke to him because I
went to greet him and he said to me ‘I am
going back to Nigeria tonight’
because he went there to do a job and he did it very well and he left after the
assignment. These are busy people; Pastor
Ayo, these are all busy people; so this jet, jet, jet is not for fun. And
when you talk about chatter, it is just easy for them to maintain the jet
because maintaining a plane is very expensive. Now, why will people buy jets?
People buy jets for flying into parties but we are talking about something for
the kingdom, building the kingdom, expanding the kingdom. It is just because
people have this mindset that church people must be poor. It is wickedness; our
God is not a poor God. He owns everything and as long as what He blesses us
with is used for the kingdom, it is okay. I will tell you a story; a president
of a nation invited us when my husband was alive. I won’t call his name. So, we
flew into his country; we initially had a crusade in one nation and we flew
into another nation. Now, you will discover that flying within Africa
is not a joke, it is very difficult. Now if you go on a crusade, there is your
team with you, you go with equipments, lights and you have your technicians and
all the people with you, you are paying hotel bills. Now after the crusade you
want to leave and they are telling you that the next flight is next week, you
are there paying bills. Anyway, we flew into this nation and the president
invited us. So we met with the president and my husband began to minister to
him and he was a very arrogant person, he is still alive. He is a very arrogant
man and I understand. Did you know what happened?
The GDA with Mummy G.O. Rev. Mrs. Roseline Oduyemi |
Rev. Mrs. Roseline Oduyemi with her one of her Pastor talk to the media executives |
just saw the watch my husband was wearing; it was the same wrist watch he was
equally wearing. That changed everything, you can’t believe it. I was there.
Just something as simple as a wrist watch because he now knew he was talking to
somebody that was on equal pedestal with him and that was how that man got
saved. When he got saved, we started fasting and praying with him, we had a
crusade in his nation and he will call for us to pray with him and fast with
him. The first time he met my husband my husband was just wearing up and down
and all that but he will see my husband and say to my husband, ‘Pastor, I like your tie, I like your suit, I like your shoe’ this is a
president of a nation. Yes, because people need to know this things; to reach
certain people you have to appear in a certain way. There are places I have
gone to minster and women look at me, people look at me and say ‘well, we look at you and we are thinking if
you are like this, we can follow Jesus’.
City People Magazine Publisher, Dr. Seye Kehinde, Rev. Mrs. Roseline Oduyemi and Pastor Ope Banwo |
Do you see it? So, it is not about
the flamboyance of it, people have got it wrong; it is about the kingdom;
expanding the kingdom of God that is what it is all about. It is not for our
personal aggrandizement. Let me tell you another story, we had a crusade in
another nation. In that nation, they said they don’t want any Christian adverts
bla-bla-bla. Now when the coordinating pastors from that nation came to us to
talk about the strategy for the crusade, the pastors said they wanted to take
the picture of the Limousine and I said ‘darling,
this people will keep talking about you’ my husband said ‘who cares, whatever they want to do, let
them do’. Do you not know, these Pastors told us themselves that when they
went back to their nation, the minister of information said “Is it that pastor with that Limousine? Put
his advert on radio, put it on television”. I am telling you. So, you can
use anything to win soul for Christ. Another thing is let us leave men of God
alone. Do you know what it is that one day they will all stand before God to
give account? It is not a joke. I don’t criticize people, whatever you are
doing weather you are a man of God or not, a woman of God or not, one day, you
will stand before the God of heaven and earth to give an account. He will judge
all of us, it is a serious thing, and it is a fearful thing. The Bible says you
teachers, those of us who teach His word would even be judged from a higher
standard. So, it is scary.
Reverend Mrs. Roseline Oduyemi talks with Media Executives |
with your husband on those jet-set crusades?
was humbling because God choose us from nothing. You see when you go through
this things it is a humbling experience. You know you realize that it is all
about God; it is not because you are so intelligent or because you are so
beautiful or you are so anointed, no, you are dealing with the souls of men.
The Bible says what does it profits a man to gain the whole world and lose his
soul? So, one soul is precious. The
evangelism still continues, you can’t stop, that is what it is all about. We
have to reach people, people are hurting, people are dying, and people are
suffering. I mean there is too much happening so we are on, reaching people,
making life easier for people
City People Magazine Publisher, Dr. Seye Kehinde, Reverend Mrs. Roseline Oduyemi and Pastor Ope Banwo |
husband humbled you enough to start catering for widows?
(Roseline Oduyemi Global Outreach) Ministries is about reaching out to people,
making a difference. I will tell you something, you know about four years ago I
went for a television interview. One of my brother and friend who is a big man
of God was also being interviewed and it was Christmas time and they were
asking him about Christmas and his family; and he said ‘I will do this for my family, I will do that for my family
bla-bla-bla’, and where I sat my heart was just sinking because I thought ‘oh, God! ‘My God; and I began to
remember how my Christmas as a family (When hubby was alive) used to be and I
was just getting sad and sad as this man was talking. And I said to myself ‘get
out of it’. Ok, life has not ended. When I got back home I was a bit sad,
a bit oppressed, a bit depressed but I used the word of God and got myself out
of it. Do you not know the next day
another man of God sent me a cheque and I said ‘God, did you hear me?’ Then I thought ‘Okay, this is me, I should
be thankful. I should be grateful because God has blessed me, what about that
widow who has nobody? What will she be going through?’ I went to church and
I spoke to the pastor in charge of the women and I said ‘this Christmas we want to
give gifts to widows’ and she said ‘ok’. So the Lord helped us to put
together some gifts and I said we want widows from our environment because we
didn’t have a lot of widows in church. That year we had about a hundred widows
and I said I don’t care, let them just be widows weather they are Muslims,
Christians or anything, let them just be widows.
Dr. Seye Kehinde,Reverend Mrs. Roseline Oduyemi & the GDA |
Do you not know, widows came,
from widows in their eighties to widows in their twenties, we had a little
party for them and bought a piece of clothe; six yards of Ankara for each one. When we started giving them and I saw this old
women dancing, I just began to weep. I was crying. Because you saw women who
you knew have gone through stuffs they didn’t have to tell you their stories.
That was how we started the widow’s ministry. Initially I wasn’t going to do
it. Today, we are reaching out to widows, we are reaching out to children we
are reaching out to young people. It is all about reaching out, reaching out
and making life easier and better for people because there is too much pain and
too much hurt in our land. That is what I am teaching and training, being there
for people.
Dr. Ope Banwo giving an instruction to the GDA before Mama Oduyemi |
out of the ministry work maybe based on challenges beyond your
imagination?
The GDA wishing Reverend Mrs. Odeyemi a safe trip back to Bethel |
one of those days during the initial months after his demise, I thank God for
the leadership in Bethel (Wonderland) we had vigils every Friday and they
(Pastors) will pray for me. And one of those days, we were praying and I just
opened my eyes and I said to God ‘God I
don’t really think I want to do this thing’. I said because we suffered so
much in ministry. You know we went through a lot, a lot of wickedness, envy, a
lot. And I said ‘do I really want to do
this thing, I don’t think so’.
Why should I be the one? my children suffered in school, we went through a lot
as a family, as a ministry and I thought ‘I
need to pull out here’ but you know Jeremiah said ‘the word of God is like fire in my bones’ if I don’t do this thing
it is going to be pretty worse for me. So, I knew that, that is my life that is
my calling, that is my purpose and that is the reason why I leave. And there
was nowhere else to go, nothing else to do, so I am doing it.
Reverend Mrs. Roseline Oduyemi’s Hummer Jeep glides leisurely |