I WOULD HAVE HAD A BABY MAMA AT 16!
I have said before that, at a certain point in my life, practically every man of God I knelt before to pray for me had the same thing to say, "You are a great man of God! A prophet sent to the nations! I see a glorious future before you!"
/1 I received the prophecy in person and it was given out publicly in church meetings to a point that I sort of became inured to it.
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NANOS GIGANTIUM HUMERIS INSIDENTES
My father was a lover of classical literature and Latin, and he imbued the love of both into me. From childhood, I picked up a lot of interesting quotes from his collection of classics (Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Dickens...
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...George Orwell, etc.). I also picked up a few Latin phrases.
There is a saying in Latin (attributed to Bernard of Chartres) that particularly resonates with me: "Nanos gigantium humeris insidentes", which translates to "Dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants" in English.
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MY BRUSH WITH DEATH
We had a family function that I was supposed to attend. I was also expected to handle the video coverage for the event. By all means, it was inconceivable that I should miss it.
/1 The problem was that, a few weeks to the event, I started feeling a very deep-seated reluctance to attend it. And as the days went by, it became a nearly incapacitating feeling of dread and aversion to the impending journey.
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BEFORE THE BIG BANG THEORY, I WAS "YOUNG SHELDON"!
Growing up, my nickname bestowed on me by my brothers was "Daddy's Pet". Not that our father showed favouritism towards me or any of us for that matter...
/1

...But because my brothers told me that he had mellowed considerably by the time I was born. So, even though I had my fair share of our father's firm hand of discipline, I never quite experienced some of the harsher disciplinary measures that my older brothers endured.
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THE BLESSING OF A GODLY HERITAGE
My mother, Felicia Adefunke Adeleke, was a study in contrasts.
She was gentle and soft-spoken, yet she was also an incredibly strong woman who concealed an unbelievably powerful iron hand underneath the most velvety of gloves.
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She was warm and approachable, but also stern and extremely disciplined. Did I say she was soft-spoken? Indeed she was, but she had such an acerbic wit that all she needed were just a few strategically chosen words to give you an instantaneous cognitive recalibration.
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THE POWER OF A GODLY HERITAGE
One of the best gifts that God gave me in this life is the gift of blessing me with excellent parents. Now I know that most people think their parents are the best thing since sliced bread, but mine were truly exceptional.
/1 My Dad, Adebayo Atanda Adeleke came from very humble beginnings, a gifted child with limited opportunities who grew up on a farm around Oyo Town. His big break in life came when one of his uncles came to visit and saw that he was not going to school at the age of 12 years.
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THE CHOSEN ONE
After God said an emphatic NO to my idea of who I should marry, I moped around for a while. I guess I was miffed that God didn't let me have my way and was a little brokenhearted that my romantic expectation was dashed by God.
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I was not interested in considering any other person for a while. But this was a season when, for reasons I could not readily fathom, it was as if a spotlight had been beamed on me and eligible sisters were showing interest in me both overtly and covertly.
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MY WIFE AND I INITIALLY DIDN'T LIKE EACH OTHER!
Over the last few instalments of this story, I have made reference to my wife, and indeed, she is one of God's greatest gifts to me. But the funny thing is that, when we initially met, we didn't like each other!
/1 I met Adeshola Olafusi in 2006 in UCH Ibadan. I was pastoring a church on the campus and she had come to visit a patient in the hospital, whose brother was playing drums for us. So, she came along for a meeting in the church.
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THE JOURNEY HOME
Once my release from HarvestHouse Christian Center @harvesthouseng was graciously granted by Rev. Gbeminiyi Eboda, I began my transition into life at The Vineyard Assembly @tvanigeria.
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@harvesthouseng @tvanigeria My wife and I attended our first service back there on Sunday, 10 March 2019. Apostle Bukki Gbenro was not in the church that day, but we were recognized by Prof. Debo Olukole who introduced us to the church, and we were warmly welcomed by everyone.
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LEAVING HCC
Once I settled in my heart to say YES to the call to lead The Vineyard Assembly, I communicated my decision to the Founding Pastor, Apostle Bukki Gbenro @PsBukki.
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@PsBukki The next step was that my wife @MrsJeshurun needed to give her consent to me taking up the role, and her decision needed to be reached independently of mine, which consent she eventually gave after a couple of months of praying and weighing the decision.
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THE BOMBSHELL AT THE SHEEPGATE
After receiving the clarion call, as I explained yesterday, I knew WHAT God wanted me to do (return to pulpit ministry) and WHEN He wanted me to do it (NOW!), but I had no idea where or how.
/1 I had (and still have) no doubt in my heart that I am called by God -- it is one of the few certainties of my life. But I have never felt the urge to start a church. And I understand that NOT every genuinely called servant of God must start a church!
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THE CLARION CALL
As I wrote yesterday, I was having the time of my life at @harvesthouseng , serving with wonderful people under the leadership of a great Pastor in an awesome church. My tech business was thriving. I was planning to relocate out of the country. Life was good!
/1 @harvesthouseng As far as I was concerned, pulpit ministry was in my past.
I had obeyed God and lived that life. Now, I was going to live life on my own terms. But then, God's purpose intruded into my placid life once again and kicked me out of my complacent delusion.
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THE HCC YEARS
When we got back home after the cathartic experience we had at Alpha Cathedral on Father's Day, my wife and I compared notes and we concluded that we should give the church a try to see if we could settle down there.
/1 So, we started worshipping there every Sunday. But we kept a very low profile and just slipped in and out quietly while keeping to ourselves. But one day, while Rev. Eboda was preaching, he made eye contact with me and looked surprised to see me in the congregation.
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RISING FROM THE ASHES
Sometime in May 2016, while still mourning the cataclysmic events that presaged and culminated in my exit from my former church, I began to sense in my spirit that it was time to get back up and take my place again in the Body of Christ.
/1 As I was picking the signal, my wife also did, and she came to speak to me about it. Also, a couple of my co-ministers in my former church came to me with a direct word from God that it was time for me to arise and actively rejoin the community of saints.
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2016: MY ANNUS MIRRABILIS
To say that exiting KKM Inc. in 2016 was a traumatic experience for me would be as much an understatement as saying that the Sahara Desert is sandy, or that the Atlantic Ocean is wet.
/1 I am sure that many people, even those close to me, still do not understand just how gut-wrenching and devastating that decision was for me, and how leaving KKM was one of the hardest things I ever did in my life.
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The LORD your God is with you; his power gives you victory. The LORD will take delight in you, and in his love he will give you new life. He will sing and be joyful over you, as joyful as people at a festival." The LORD says, "I have...taken away your disgrace.
Zep 3:17-18
/1 As you go into this new week, The LORD your God will be with you. His Presence will abide with you. His glory will surround you. His Spirit will dwell afresh in you and on you, and His grace will partner with you in all your labours.
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MY DEPARTURE FROM KKM INC.
In all my years in the King's Kingdom Ministries, I never considered leaving the church for somewhere else. I had so completely bought into the founder's vision, even to a fault.
/1 I imbibed and embodied the values and the spirit of the church, and I basically built my life around it. The Pastor used to say that he could give me a task and go to bed because, come hell or high water, I would find a way to get it done.
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KKM: A TRAINING GROUND
Finally securing admission to the university did not in any way interrupt my work of ministry in KKM Inc., to which I so completely dedicated myself that many wondered if I was truly going to school at all.
/1 One of the things I will forever remain grateful to God for concerning my sojourn in KKM was the opportunity I got to do several things, thereby building a multivarious degree of competence in several aspects of Christian ministry.
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YINKA GOES TO SCHOOL
After my ordination in 2006, I felt that I had embarked on a path of life that was outrightly divergent from my previous dreams of academic glory and scholarly acclaim.
[A thread]
/1 I had finally reached a state of equanimity about my academic prospects. I had no more ambition in me for academic stardom or desire to break new grounds in the field of medicine. I was done with schooling, or so I thought.
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THE KKM CHAPTER
After accepting my calling into ministry in September 2005, I attempted to join TVA Inc. and SPCC, but God vetoed both moves. So, while still transitioning out of UCHCF, I kept asking God where He wanted me to serve. Enter Pastor Tope Opaleye.
/1 At that time, Pastor Tope Opaleye was Pastoring the Royal Worship Centre on the ground floor of HOR1 (House Officers' Residence 1) in UCH. The church RWC was an arm of his ministry (King's Kingdom Ministries, popularly called KKM back then).
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THE CALL
By late 2005, after the two destiny encounters I wrote about in the last couple of days, I had clarity about what direction my life was supposed to take. I knew and accepted that until I settled the issue of my calling into ministry, I wasn't going anywhere.
/1 So, my prayers changed.
I began to tell God in prayer that I was finally willing to do His will, that He should give me instructions as to what to do, and that I would obey Him.
I meant it, and God knew I did.
So, the call came.
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