By Sam Eyoboka & Olayinka Latona

LAGOS—THE ongoing Holy Ghost Congress of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, is a spiritual gathering of expectant worshippers desiring divine solutions to their numerous socio-economic and very often health challenges, including some out-of-the-ordinary phenomenons like bareness and deadly medical situations.

Pastor E.A. Adeboye, General Overseer, Redeemed Christian Church of God and Pastor (Mrs) Folu Adeboye at the RCCG 2016 Holy Ghost Congress. Photos: Lamidi Bamidele.

The spiritual fiesta since its inception on December 18, 1998 with a theme; “Divine Visitation,” at the Lekki area of Lagos has been yearly underscored by undeniable spectacular miraculous occurrences which attracts millions of people to the Kilometre 46, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway venue.

Spectacular happenings
Despite the spectacular happenings during the various meetings where several men of God complement the efforts of the General Overseer of the mission, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye to win souls for Christ through miraculous happenings and solving purely physical as well as spiritual challenges with abundant testimonies which are responsible for the huge attendants each time, the mission has not only developed the Redemption Camp into a vibrant town, it makes deliberate efforts to daily upgrade facilities therein for the benefit of residents and participants who may not immediately receive their miracles instantaneously.

Unlike many Nigerian human habitations where existence is dreary, nasty and often extremely disorganised, the Redeemed Camp is a town that works. The air is clean and fresh, the roads are free of potholes, and the general decay associated with urban living in Nigeria is almost non-existent. Electricity supply is uninterrupted, clean water runs at the tap, environment is sanitised and decent transportation system is in place. Sanity and serenity of the City might not be as a result of prayers, praise and worship. Rather authorities in the town have made deliberate efforts to implement rules and regulations to ensure that the place is not turned to another Nigerian nightmare.

Since moving to the camp ground, the first family of the RCCG had faced several challenges, including that of a phenomenal growth with attendant challenge of providing adequate facilities to meet the needs of the growing population of residents and visiting millions of adherents seeking God in diverse ways especially Nigerians bogged down by ailing economy which can no longer sustain their incomes.

Vanguard took time out of the Congress happenings to find out about other facilities in the Camp.

Reacting to a Vanguard inquiry about the state of security in the large Camp which is hosting a mammoth crowd of worshippers at this year’s Holy Ghost Congress, a pastor who pleaded anonymity told our reporter that he was only able to say that the church had actually put in place measures that will guarantee safety of lives and property.

Similarly, the church’s head of the Medical Team, Pastor Femi Adeyemi, who volunteered comments on medical facilities in the camp, assured that medical facilities in the camp are being consistently upgraded to meet medical challenges during the congress. According to him, though the mission believes in divine health, but adequate arrangements must be put in place to forestall any medical eventualities.

State of preparedness
Asked about the state of preparedness, he said: “We are good to go as usual. There are things that we normally do and all those things are already in place. Whenever we have programmes like this, we have things we deliver on. When you look at the way the camp is, we have many facilities within the camp. We have the maternity and it’s fully ready as usual.

We have the Arena Clinic which is usually the hub for most of the activities. If you get there now, you will see that everything is in place and people have started coming in.

“Red Cross is already there. We cannot fully restrict the direction of flow of vehicular movements, we also have mobile clinics scattered all over the place. We have about eight ambulances, fully equipped. We have the health centre which is like a secondary facility where you can do all sort things including surgery. We also do surgery in the maternity now.

“Then when you go to the new arena, there are two places, one close to the G.O’s office and is fully equipped. Right under the altar where you have the ushers, we also have a big facility there. There are three big ambulances in specific locations and mobile clinics that will be scattered around the place.

“The issue now is that should there be need for anything, it’s a matter of knowing who is in charge. We are all doctors but when the chips are down, if you need a general surgeon, a gyneacologist, psychiatrist and whatever, we have specialists. That’s the way the whole thing is coordinated.”

“The game plan is this, during the convention, we had about three to four deliveries in the new auditorium. If we hadn’t prepared for that, we wouldn’t have been able to do that there. We know occasionally whenever we have big human flow, we normally have issues with traffic, so what we do is, whatever may be the issue or circumstances we have on our hands, we should be able to manage from any point at least for the first 48 to 72 hours after which if we want to say we want to evacuate; the evacuation we do per se will be within the camp ground.

“If you want to move someone now from the new auditorium, it’s either we move the person to the clinic at the old arena or we move him to the health center. So that’s the way we work. God forbid, should we have a case that is unusual or very heavy, like I told you, whenever we are on ground like this, the human resource we have is because we have such kind of human resource that’s why people gather from all over the country. The moment the program finishes and we can’t continue with this management, we now evacuate to wherever. We don’t just take people to wherever, we still evacuate them to places where we are very influential to ensure a good outcome of whatever happens,” Dr. Adeyemi explained.

He also took time to explain why heavily pregnant women take the risk of travelling long distances to the camp during similar programmes, saying “most of the times, when people have issues, they find it difficult to open their mouth to say it. The bible says the name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous runs in to it and are saved. There are so many things that happen to people that when they come they cannot open their mouth to say it but it’s between them and God. And we cannot deny them that factor. Just like we see heavily pregnant women, we also see people who discharge themselves from hospitals. If people discharge themselves from hospitals to come to the camp, it gives you the kind of idea of what things are.”

As the end of the year approaches with harmattan dusts, what are the likely health challenges that people have especially when in a crowd like that?

“One of the very common things is to do with issues with cold, malaria, diarrhea. And occasionally people get dehydrated and exhausted. You can imagine walking from the junction to the new auditorium. Even if you are a sports person, by the time you get there, you will be tired. So what we do is if the place is dusty, we have lots of face masks. There are facilities like nebulae in all of the ambulances. We invest so much in that. We have the ones that just battery operated. For exhaustion, we give the person some water to drink and glucose and they are good to go.

“Occasionally whenever we have gathering like this, medically, there are some things we call cold cases and there are things we call emergency. Most people come with cold cases because they know that on grounds like this, they are going to get everything free. Some come with old sores or wounds in the leg, these are not emergencies. But they will still come knowing fully well that when they come, they will be attended to and given their medication. We don’t drive them away. They are also welcomed within the one week and they are done and out. At times when we have programs like this and every other person is gone, some of us will still be here running around to make sure that every person that came and were moved somewhere are doing well. That has reduced dramatically now,” Dr. Adeyemi volunteered.

Asked what the cost implication of such medicals to the mission, he hesitated before saying: “There’s a tangible cost and intangible cost. And many at times, the intangible cost far outweighs the tangible cost. When it comes to the issue of medication, funds are provided for us to do some things. But can any fund ever be enough? There’s no parish that’s ever enough. The reason the auditorium is not fenced is because it keeps on expanding. But one thing I can tell you is this, should we exhaust everything we have, which has never happened before, all we need to do is to cry out for help. You don’t want anybody to die….”

Adeboye lists conditions for healing virtues

Chief host of Holy Ghost Congress, Pastor Enoch Adeboye Tuesday night outlined ways to attract the healing vistures of God, which include living a holy life and a life of soul winning, stressing that many Christians are yet to realise the danger of not winning souls.

Pastor Adeboye began by saying that not all deaths are sudden, some death creep in to human beings in a very slow manner, warning also of the danger of taking human lives because, according to him, the life of the animal is embedded in the blood.

He maintained that the healing virtue of the Creator of the Universe can only be attracted to a life devoid of sin, “as powerful as the Lord Presence is, if there is any little sin in any life, there will be no healing. So, many Christians do not even know what sin is, because if they do, they would see the urgent need to deal with it.”

Continuing, taking an exhaustive voyage through bible passages, he maintained that the one desires the healing virtue of Jesus Christ must be an avid soul winner, drawing attention to the bible book of John 15:1-10 and Mark 2:1-12, both of which carried a warning from Jesus Christ when, he said: “….every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he will hue down…. If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”

Adeboye then opined that until sins are dealt with and forsaken totally, you will not encounter that healing power of Jesus Christ. According to him, all those living holy lives now, cannot be bothered by the hues and cries of a prostrate economy because “when they say there is no money in the country, don’t believe that. Where did the all the money go? Did the money just evaporate from the land? When the restoration of God comes, the nation’s money will exchange hands.”

There certainly will be a complete restoration in the land, “because what God cannot do, cannot be done.”

Recession: Meduoye assures participants of God’s intervention

GENERAL Superintendent of Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria, Rev. Felix Meduoye has reassured Nigerians that God has the capacity to turn the current economic downturn around for the good of the nation and its citizens.

Delivering one of the two sermons of Day Two of the ongoing Holy Ghost Congress on Tuesday night, Rev Meduoye said the theme of the Congress, “Complete Restoration” was very apt and timely as God will cause divine restoration for the Nigerian people, saying: “When you are restored, you will eat in plenty, even in time of famine and recession.”

Speaking on the topic: “Fullness of Joy”, Meduoye said that happiness is good but joy is deeper, absolute and also satisfies the soul and that joy is an important element in the kingdom of God and also essential in a man’s life.

Describing God as the only source of true joy, the cleric stressed that when God is the source of one’s joy, such joy will be continuous and endures for ever and that such joy can be contacted in God’s presence. He warned that those who abandon God’s presence are exposed to danger and cannot experience fullness of Joy.

He emphasised that God is the source of joy and anyone desiring joy, must take some three very fundamental steps which include accepting Jesus Christ; abiding in Him always and a consistent lifestyle of purity.

The Foursquare General Superintendent, warned the congregation that sin is a killer of Joy hence Christians should always be the carrier of God’s presence, live a lifestyle of purity, praise, praying and preaching the gospel and not forsake the gathering of the brethren.

Glory of Nigeria will be restored, said Rev. Rathod

UNITED States-based Indian preacher and senior pastor of Covenant Family Church, Pastor Stephen Rathod, a spiritual son of the founder of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Rev. Josiah Akindayomi yesterday predicted a restoration for Nigeria economy while ministering at the ongoing Holy Ghost Congress.

Born in India and graduated from high school at the age of 16 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat India, Pastor Rathod entered Gujarat University in 1966 and graduated in 1970, with a B.Sc in Chemistry and a Masters degree in Organic Chemistry from the same university. Speaking on a topic titled; “Faith to recover all”, the Rathod who was ordained pastor by the founder of RCCG, late Rev. Akindayomi in Lagos, Nigeria in 1980, lamented the current state of the Nigerian economy.

“I came to this great nation called Nigeria for the first time in December 1979 that was 37 years ago. I love Nigeria. Nigeria is God’s country and it will be made whole again in the name of Jesus. When I came to this country and landed at the Lagos airport way back in 1979, I had to give $1.80 to get N1. Today, I am told to give $1 to get N480. As a prophet of God, I declare that the glory of Nigeria will be restored,” he streamed loudly and got a corresponding loud response.

Before I came the Lord asked me to declare this: any prophecy that has not come to pass, I heard God say to me: “I will watch over it to perform My word. It will come to pass speedily.

It’ll be delayed any more. It’ll not be denied. I will see the glory of God manifest in Nigeria. I will not only see it, I will enjoy it.”

Earlier, he enjoined his listeners to always be steadfast and be diligent in their service to God which will be the tonic to attract the blessings of the Almighty, emphasising that Christians need to activate their faith like the biblical account of the woman with the issue of blood, who declared that she would be made whole from her debilitating condition.

“Do not just be the hearer of the word, but the doers of the word,” he said, noting that faith moved the woman to her victory.

…Kenyan archbishop also predicts restoration for Nigerian economy

A Pentecostal Archbishop from Kenya, Archbishop Gerry Kibarabara, winner of last year’s GBR Global Business Roundtable Leadership Award for his outstanding contribution to business in Africa, who is attending the ongoing Holy Ghost Congress, also commended the wisdom that produced the theme of this year’s congress, saying it was rife for Africa to experience a complete restoration.

Bringing greetings from bishops in the East Africa sub region of the continent, the archbishop expressed delight and appreciation to the vision of the General Overseer of RCCG, Pastor Adeboye who he described as a veritable source of inspiration to other religious leaders across the continent, especially the East African sub-region.

“He is our father and because this year’s theme is very timely because the time is rife for a complete restoration of all the continent had lost for one reason or the other. Collectively, we pray that the economy of Nigeria which is currently under, will be restored during this Holy Ghost congress. The Naira will be restored in the name of Jesus,” he prayed.