Global Mandate Conference missions series (1)
He would have been long dead and forgotten. But he found grace. Today, Olufemi Arowaji, an ex-cultist who mysteriously escaped being burnt alive by some irate mob during his days in the cult is now following after Jesus.
He is not only following, he is drawing people to Him. But he says God called him primarily to reach out to children.
An alumnus of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Arowaji has been in Badeku, Oyo State doing missions for about eight years now. Badeku is a largely Islamic community. Despite all the odds, Arowaji has remained consistent.
He told Church Times that the children’s project started in 2016 after his graduation from the School of Missions.
“ I actually went to God, in prayers after graduating from missions school. I asked the Lord to lead and guide me to where He wanted me to serve. The Lord told me to raise Army for His kingdom among Children..”
That inspired Holy Spirit directive made him establish Chosen Generation Children Ministry in Badeku, Oyo state. God further gave him a template to run the project on.
“God told me to establish Bible clubs for children. The vision is to reach out to children everywhere. But we needed to start from our Jerusalem, which is Badeku.” He said.
Persecution
The first Bible club meeting was an exciting one. “We had just three children in attendance. That was encouraging. But then I was wondering how the project would blossom.. It was a great delight to watch children listen to the gospel and see them participate in some of the activities we outlined for them”
That first meeting however was to set him against the community. There were opposition and attempts to stop what God was about to do.
“We were confronted with different challenges. There were attacks from different quarters both physically and spiritually. Many forces tried to prevent us from fulfilling this divine mandate.
“I could still remember very vividly how some group of Muslim fanatics came to attack me in one of our meetings, accusing me of converting their children to the Christian faith. But I was not deterred because I was sure of what God told me.
“There was no time we forced children to come to join us. The children come on their own. Sometimes their parents encourage them to come. But some fanatics in the community were not comfortable with that.”
But then, Arowaji and his team has had to do some evangelism, preaching specifically to children through road walk around the Badeku environ. But it comes with a price.
“Many times we trek several kilometers going from one village to another without food nor money in our pockets just to make sure that the gospel is preached among Children in rural communities.”
The GMC connection
Arowaji was doing that for a couple of years.He still goes on evangelism. But efforts to get support from churches and individuals were not yielding the desired result. “It got to a point I was on the verge of going back. It looked as if there was no hope for my future.” But God stepped in.
He said, “To the glory of God, some burden bearers, vision enablers like the Agape Generation International Church through The Global Mandate Conference came to our assistance.
“The GMC which is being championed by Rev. Toyin Kehinde has been of great help to us both physically and spiritually. We can only pray that the Lord will continue to bless the ministry.”
Still, on the support he gets from the Global Mandate Conference, he said, “In 2017, a year after we started, I received a call from one of the GMC team in Lagos, asking if there is any school-age child who is not in school? We were still few then. With the help of the Lord, we picked two of the children who were not in school. Christiana Akande and Salaudeen Rodiat. Incidentally, these children were orphans.
“Christiana was eight years old then but she had never been to any school. But with the intervention from Agape, God changed her story and that of Rodiat.
They are now being sponsored through school. The real indigenes of Badeku initially did not want their children to attend the Bible club, because eighty percent of them are Muslims.
“But that singular gestures from GMC caused a kind of revolution in the Bible Club. God used that gesture alone to establish and announce us in Badeku and its environs. Parents started allowing their children to come for the Bible Club meeting when they heard of what was done for the children.”
Today, the Children’s Ministry of Arowaji which started with just three children in Badeku now has over 200 Children in Badeku alone. Apart from that, the ministry has additional five centres altogether (Oke-Adu, Jago, Ojoku and Akamo Bible club centers ) with over 500 children altogether.
Read also: Olufemi Arowaji: From Cult missions to Christ’s missions: https://churchtimesnigeria.net/global-mandate-conference-olufemi-arowaji-from-cult-missions-to-christs-missions/
Waiting on God for supply
Arowaji said the greatest lesson he has learnt in ministry is to wait on the Lord for provision and support. “we have been taught to wait upon the Lord for provisions and that has really helped us a lot. I must confess that God has also been good and faithful to us in all ramifications. We have been able to achieve the success we have today because of God’s unfailing love for us”. he said.
He said The GMC has since been giving his ministry monthly financial support which has been helping the ministry to stay afloat.
Arowaji reasoned however that the ministry will still do with more support. “Unlike an adult-based church where offering and tithe are collected, in children’s ministry, you are the one doing the spending. The children have no money to give. We still have to support them and spend consistently.”
He said the GMC has served as a platform that God has used to harness resources for missions. “I can assure you that as believers support GMC, missionaries connected to them will find it easy to carry out their God-given vision and plan.”
Beyond the regular support, Arowaji stated that the annual Global Mandate Conference has been a liberating one for mission enthusiasts.
“I find the yearly conference a soothing therapy. We come every year to Lagos and get refreshed. We are equipped always whenever we come for the conference and we get new ideas on how to run our ministry
Note: Plans are underway for the 2023 Global Mandate Conference for missionaries. It is a platform that brings missionaries together from all parts of Nigeria and Africa. If God is leading you to support missionaries kindly contact
Deacon Leslie Johnson 08033047831
Or
Mrs Tolu Dawodu
+2348023382811