Olaoluwa Ajifolokun
Former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and founder of Warri-based Word of Life Bible Church, Ayo Oritsejafor has given a rundown of his early life, how he could not utter a word for the first five years of his life, and how God tailored his journey to the point of making him an instrument in His vineyard.
He made the recall in a video message sighted by our reporter online.
In the message, Oristsejafor who was also President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria at some point talked about his struggles, his mistakes, and his journey of faith.
He recalled how his mother prayed to God for a male child and how she promised God that if God fulfilled his part of giving her a male child, she would return the child to Him.
His words: “My mother was a prayerful woman. She went to the First Baptist Church in Lagos, gave an offering, and told God, ‘If you give me a son, I will give him back to you.’ Oritsejafor recall.
The cleric who shared the same first two names with Apostle Joseph Ayodele Babalola said not long after the prayers his mother conceived and later gave birth to him.
But as a child, he faced a big challenge. He couldn’t speak until he was five years old. During those years, his great-grandmother often took him to the Christ Apostolic Church where Apostle Ayodele Babalola was pastoring and would leave him at the altar. “People would ask why I was put at the altar, but Apostle Babalola one of the founders of Christ apostolic church (CAC), would say, ‘The boy can’t talk, leave him alone there.’”
But the miraculous happened. On his fifth birthday, he suddenly began to speak. It was a turning point in his life.
Journey into gangsterism
But as he grew up, he strayed from faith and became unruly. “I became a chronic unbeliever,” he recalled adding, “I drank alcohol and did drugs. When I was young, we didn’t have cocaine or heroin, but we had pills called the uppers and downers you take some to go up and some to go down. Sometimes, if you are not careful you will be in between you are not up or down.”
He recalled a time he stood under the shower and felt the drop of water like painful needles on his skin.”
Oritsejafor said one day, while walking down the street, half drunk and high on drugs, he began to cry out to God and asked him to come to his help. He prayed, “They told me you are God. Help me, don’t leave me like this,” he said.
Just three months after that intense prayers, God turned his life around and he became a Christian. This change happened more than 50 years ago.
Grandmother’s prayers
He said his great-grandmother always believed in him. “She told my mother and anyone who would listen that she wouldn’t die until I started preaching,” he said
His grandmother lived to be 120 years old and passed away peacefully three years after he became a preacher.
“I have been doing this (preaching) for 52 years and I know when God is talking to me”
He said God once spoke to him and said “Son look at your life”. God asked him the second time to look at It again”. and he discovered God had been faithful to him over the years.
He once reflected on how God had saved him from two near-death experiences
“I couldn’t hide it because it was all over the news, I had cancer but I’m alive today. I beat cancer. My story is plenty but I can’t tell you everything” he added.
In the online video message, He encouraged others to remain in faith and serve the Lord.
“If God could do all this in my life, why wouldn’t He do it for you?” he asked.