Former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, has recounted how he was mentored by the late founder of the Church of God Mission (CGM), Benson Idahosa, in the 70s.
Ortisejafor, the founder of the Word of Life Bible Church, specifically recalled how Idahosa, pushed him to start two branches of the CGM in Sapele and Warri, both in the present day Delta State, despite being an inexperienced pastor at the time.
He said he, alongside his mother and another pastor, started a branch of the CGM in Sapele but was asked one day by Idahosa to leave there to start the second branch with minimal or no assistance from the church.
“In 1974 or early 75, myself, my mother and a few others started the branch of the Church of God Mission in Sapele. We got a place, everything. I was assisting the pastor. My pastor told me to face evangelism. I was doing it wonderfully for him. But after a while, the late archbishop (Idahosa) called me and said Ayo, I said ‘yes sir’, he said ‘go and start branch 2.’ I said ‘yes sir.’
“And I said ‘I hope you will give me a few people from branch 1 that will go with me.’ He said ‘you are a stupid boy.’ He said, ‘I thought you told me God called you?’ I said ‘yes.’ He said, ‘did God call you with anybody? I said ‘no.’ He said ‘go and start the church, nonsense.’ I said ‘yes sir.’ I said ‘sir can you give me a little money to hire an instrument to do a small crusade, and to do one or two things?’ He said, ‘can you what? Am I the one who called you?’ I said ‘no.’ He said,’ who called you?’ I said ‘God.’ He said ‘get out of my front., if you need money go and meet God. If God called you, go and meet God, let God give you money.’
“I borrowed money from my mother to hire sound equipment, get a carpenter to make a platform and I did the crusade. On Friday, I got a place where we have the church. That is where we started the branch 2 of the Church of God Mission – Abbott field. I don’t know if any of you…. There was a field there, that was where I held the crusade. I was fasting while doing the crusade. I was alone but I think Pastor Bethel from Port Harcourt came to join me. I was alone. And people came. They didn’t know I was alone. I was there alone. Not one person from the other branch came. It is not their fault oh. They were commanded not to come near me. It was by command. So everybody stayed away.
“On Friday, the place was jammed. I prayed. I didn’t know that somebody that was there went to Benin to tell Idahosa what happened that Friday. So, on Saturday, as I was about to preach, Idahosa just showed up. I cried, not out of sorrow but out of joy. I couldn’t believe it. He just showed up. He started petting me there on the platform. Look, I was like a baby. I am telling you I was broken.
“He took the microphone from me and he preached powerful word and people gave their lives to Jesus. And he told them, tomorrow Sunday morning, meet me at Abott. I knew he wasn’t going to be there, anyway. But he said meet me there. On Sunday morning, everywhere was packed full.
“In six months, I was the only church that could muster enough money to buy a microphone, loud speaker anywhere, at least in this Niger Delta side. Only Idahosa church had a microphone and loudspeaker. Everybody else, na hand them dey take preach. By one year my church was the largest in the Church of God Mission.”
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Oritsejafor said while he was celebrating himself for the feat, the late archbishop called him one day and asked him to proceed to Warri (Oritsejafor’s hometown) to start another branch.
He said, “I was celebrating myself. Idahosa called me and said Ayo, I said ‘yes sir.’ He said ‘I know you are from Warri.’ He said ‘now you have to go to your home town.’ I said’ when?’ He said ‘now.’ I said ‘sir, I am just…’ He said ‘you are just doing what? Did God call you only specifically for here (Sapele).’ He said ‘you are going to…’
“Some people came, even unbelievers said ‘we will sponsor you,’ I said ‘no, if this man moved me from there to here and I succeeded, now he is moving from here back home, I should do much better.’ That was how I went to Warri. My story is very long.
Ortisejafor, whose church, Word of Life Bible Church is based in Warri, said he told his audience the story for them to appreciate the task involved in God’s calling.
“But I told you that to make you understand what it means to be called. I was on that platform. People didn’t know my pain, the struggles. That is why I told the story,” he said while urging them to love their pastors so that they could lead them (congregation) with joy and not with pain and sorrow.
The man Ayo Oritsejafor
Oritsejafor, now in his 80s, celebrated his 52 years in full-time ministry in 2024. He started the Word of Life in Warri, an oil city in the Niger Delta region in November 1987.
In 2005, he was elected the national president of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), an umbrella body of all Pentecostal churches in the country. Five years later, Pastor Ayo was elected the national president of CAN, the body of all Christians in Nigeria.
