In this interview with Yanju Uwala, the Provost of the Apostolic Church Nigeria LAWNA Theological Seminary, Ayegbaju, Ilesa, Osun State, Pastor Gabriel Olugbenga Ayotunde Alakuko, PhD, gives an insight into how God has been manifesting himself in the seminary. Below are excerpts:
The seminary recently held its 34th convocation how did it go, sir?
It went quite well. The Lord led and we followed. For instance, a day before the graduation proper, we had no money in the account because we had paid some bills but there were quite a lot of bills that were still unpaid. We had borrowed some money and did some things on credit. But at the end of the day, God glorified Himself. We can comfortably look back and say God was faithful
You said during the dedication of the Staff Quarters that the project was “a move of faith”. Sir, can you briefly explain this statement?
We started the project when the Federal Government announced the lockdown as a result of Covid-19. We could not move around the way we would have loved to. Nobody knew when the lockdown would ease. But it was amid the lockdown that we made all the moves. At the end of the day, we spent about N54million or N52million in the execution of that project. We experienced God’s favour in the course of the construction. That is why I said it was a move of faith because we could have abandoned it because of the lockdown. But God inspired us to continue with it. It has been a journey of faith, a structure of faith, and a house built by prayer.
From your experience what would you tell people who may handle such project in the future?
My advice is that they should hold onto God and follow his direction. I never intended to be in this office, but since God brought me here, we have always gone back to him to lead us in all that we do. You will discover that every Semester we have one prayer, if we don’t pray that prayer, we won’t begin the Semester. That prayer is that “God, you are the Provost, take charge”. That is our way of handing over everything back to God and asking Him to be in charge so that we can just follow His directive.
One of our former Registrars would say, “This is a spiritual military cantonment. The Lord is the one who makes decisions, so if you allow Him, he will do what He would do. But if you don’t allow Him He will just be looking at you because He would not force Himself on you.
I believe we should always commit our ways to God, let us allow Him to lead us. I remember the guest lecturer at the convocation, Rev. Prof. Dapo Asaju, said, “God’s work done in God’s way, will never lack God’s resources”, I believe this. You may not understand how this will happen. But when you work according to his plan and purpose, you will have no cause to regret.