By Sam Eyoboka and Olayinka Latona

THE 63rd annual  convention of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG)  may have ended but, without doubt, the reverberations will linger for a while longer, especially with the outstanding testimonies even by high profile individuals  and  the miraculous feats at  the one week spiritual fiesta as well as the number of babies delivered, many of whom might be christened Adeboye or Enoch for obvious reasons.

It will also be remembered for the huge crowd of women that trooped out strapping babies and dancing heartily to songs supplied by the church’s mass choir, for dedication.

One sure way to measure a growing concern or organisation is  constant review of its management strategies. The church has just resolved to separate the office of pastors-in-charge of regions from direct administration of provinces. Feelers  indicated that pastors in charge of regions will now restrict their sphere of authority to their stand, regional headquarters parishes, and make their remittance to the national office. When promoted, pastors in charge of regions will have to relinquish their offices as pastors in charge of provinces as another people would be appointed to administer the provinces.

Apart from the spiritual activities that the Redemption Camp provides, this former den of the underworld serves as home for over 10,000 people and several business concerns. To make life meaningful for the dwellers, the camp authorities, apart from providing social amenities like independent water treatment dam that produces millions of litres of water daily, good road network, schools, health center, maternity home, hostels, security personnel, children amusement park amongst others, went ahead to install a 25-megawatts power generating plant which provides electricity for the entire city.

The camp, we learnt, has been generating its independent electricity for the past five years, hence it is self sufficient and dwellers do not experience headaches associated with epileptic power supply like majority of Nigerians across the nation. Residents benefit from the three turbines powered by gas and liquid fuel systems that generate a combined total of 25 megawatts which guarantee constant power supply in the camp all day round.

One other highpoint of the just concluded spiritual gathering of eagles was the inaugural service at the proposed 3-kilometre by 3-kilometre auditorium effectively making the Redemption Camp,  which started on a piece of land measuring 3.25 acres in 1982, the largest Christian camp in Africa. The novel vision, which was  mooted by the  RCCG  General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, during a similar meeting in August 2013, when completed with its upraised altar and an adjoining prayer foyer that can be seen two kilometers away, is expected to accommodate some 12 million worshippers.

The  new auditorium, if completed, could be used for the Holy Ghost Congress in December. Thanks to the man of vision,  Adeboye. All those who responded to our enquiry said whatever he says is possible is possible and that is what “drives some of us”. One of them said: “When power supply generation started  at the camp, people didn’t believe it  was possible but today it is a reality and it is relatively cheaper than what you find in the power sector.

The Director of Electricity Generation and Distribution Services Department of the RCCG, Engr. Bolaji Mofoluso Oyesiku, not only confirmed that development, he told our reporters that the church utilised  close to 10 mega watts of electricity at the annual convention of the church. According to the former Managing Director/CEO of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, there was no way the Ibadan DISCO could have supplied that amount of power to an individual consumer.

Oyesiku, who joined the mission in September 2012, explained that the RCCG decided, in 2010, to generate its own power to meet growing demand within the camp.

On how they bill consumers in the camp, he said: “Residents are now being charged because  we don’t want people to waste electricity as they do all over the country.  Fortunately, the person supplying us meter was a fellow I knew in the power sector, but I had to bring another one to create competition and enhance quality and give us meters as at when due.

“Because they are on pre-payment, everybody tends to be careful now. It’s only the banks that we cannot give pre-paid meters because, anywhere in the world, industries are exempted from pre-paid meters because of their transformers. We give them bills. They cannot afford to owe us because we can easily knock them off. We give them normal maximum demand letters because of their transformers but every other resident is on pre-payment.”

Pastor Adeolu Adeboye,, who spoke on behalf of Team Nehemiah, a group of 145 church members committed to raising funds to transform the expansive Redemption Camp to a model Christian city and make it accessible, safer and habitable for  worshippers, described the 2015 convention as the most remarkable in terms of attendance and crowd control. The team is responsible for construction of bathrooms and toilets and renovating existing ones to promote sanitation and cleanliness in the camp, in addition to providing chemicals such as  chlorine and resizing sewage collection systems.

When ‘the All Sufficient God’, that was the theme of the convention,  came visiting, He left behind countless number of people healed of diverse ailments, brought two dead persons back to life, brought joy to thousands of families where sorrow was reigning. There were  high praise and extraordinary musical ministrations by the mass  choir and different choirs from different parts of the country. There were also group seminars for the young ones, youths, men, women and the elders just as there special seminars and special events like the melody hour, service of songs, children hour and youth hour. In addition to the ordination services, the programme also featured graduation of bible college students and baptism service.

The convention also provided an opportunity for the Pastor Brown Oyitso-led Africa Missions Global to showcase some activities of the group which included the promotion of the gospel in the continent and around the world; the development of sustainable holistic programmes and provide services that will improve the quality of life of children, youth and families in the continent and around the world.

Participants at the convention will not forget in a hurry that a total of 114 babies were delivered in the camp’s maternity home during the programme and  thousands of persons  trooped out at every altar call.  A  total of 12,358 persons were ordained deacons/deaconesses, assistant pastors and pastors.

With such spiritual support coming from Aaron, Joshua and thousands across the globe,  Adeboye would not be envied when he euphemistically declared that he is richer than the world’s richest man, Bill Gates, because  those with him are more in number and are greater than those with the latter.

“If Bill Gates needs shoes, he would have to go to the market to buy them, but  if Adeboye should announce that he needs shoes at the one kilometre by one-and-half kilometre Arena, where the convention took place, the auditorium might not contain the shoes people would bring to him”, the G.O. told the  participants.

“I have houses in, at least, 188 countries of the world, where we have our churches; so I am richer than Bill Gates. Each time I visit these countries, my children would be struggling and saying ‘daddy, come and stay with me.’ If I announce here that tomorrow morning, I need a car to travel to the new auditorium, how many cars do you think would be made available to me by you my children? Those of you that do not have a car of your own, very soon, God will give you your own cars. So, I am appealing to you to become an incurable soul winner before you leave this convention ground and your cup will overflow. “

Adeboye, on Sunday morning, dedicated the church’s new nine square kilometre auditorium on a hill situated between Shagamu in Ogun State and Ikorodu in Lagos State  to mark  the grand finale of the  RCCG  convention which began one week earlier. Apart the ordination of 1,184 full pastors who had the privilege of being the first persons to be so honoured on the hilly Arena, a total of 75 elders were also ordained.