By Sam Eyoboka & Olayinka Latona

RESIDENTS of Ebute Metta in Lagos were last Sunday completely overwhelmed by the unprecedented crowd of pregnant women and those believing God for the fruit of the womb, who besieged the headquart-ers of the Redeemed Christian Church of God for a special prayer sess-ion with the General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adeboye.

Thousands of expectant women and others who are trusting God for the blessing of womb from different parts of Lagos and neighbouring Ogun State besieged the pre-mises and all the adjoin-ing streets in the area as street urchins who use the streets as play-grounds, angrily protest-ed each time another car inches its way in search of a parking space.

All the nearby streets were completely taken over by participants and a few residents who were either returning home or attempting to go to their places of worship were directed to take alternat-ive routes because of the milling crowd of women who were desperate to be part of the rare event.

Some of the women who managed to make it to the venue discovered that there was not enough room for them in the church auditorium and even when they have decided to stay outside in the scorching sun, they had to wait for some mo-ments to grab a chair from among the ones hurriedly being rented.

They sat in the sun, many accompanied by their spouses while others were strapping children on their backs. There were several other marr-ied women who are beli-eving God for the fruit of the womb and who belie-ve their attendance of the programme would open the necessary door for their breakthrough.

The programme was actually packaged for the two categories of women and the organisers were not disappointed, but were pleasantly surpris-ed at the huge turnout of women as they hardly made adequate provision for the unprecedented crowd.

Drawing inspiration from the Bible, Pastor Adeboye who dwelt ext-ensively on the need for evangelism as the hub of the Christian race and one of the cardinal in-gredients for divine breakthroughs, said barrenness is not of God and therefore anybody who is barren must take a closer look at himself/herself and find out if he/she is winning souls for the Lord.

“The reason why some of our prayers are either delayed or not answered at all is because we are not winning souls,” he stated “if you want your prayers to be answered, begin to win souls becau-se the Bible says if you are not bearing fruits, God will tear you away from the tree.”

He argued that the advantages of winning souls are so numerous and they include the fact that “all the souls you win for Christ will not curse you; but will actually be interceding for you in moments that you will not understand,” stress-ing that he would have long backslided but as an avid soul winner he was sure all the souls he won have been praying for his restoration.

There was an incident when one of the pregnant women in the scorching sun at the occasion, slumped and was imme-diately rushed to the nearby RCCG Maternity Clinic where she was treated for exhaustion by Dr. Joseph Abayomi Afe who was on duty.

According to Dr. Afe, one of the volunteers who oversee the maternity centre attached to the church, said despite the crowd of expectant wom-en who turned up for the programme there was no incident beyond the asthmatic woman who was rushed in after an attack.

“To God be the glory, we never really had much emergency situation except that we had an asthmatic woman who went into an asthmatic attack; but we have attended to her and she okay,” he said, “apart from her there was no other incidence. She sat in the midst of the crowd and began to gasp for breadth because she was not  sitting in a well ventila-ted environment. But she is perfectly okay now.”

According to the doctor, an average of 30 babies are delivered monthly by women who cut across religion or ethnic barriers “essentially because we do not charge delivery fees for any delivery done in the clinic. The church bears the cost of every-thing and that is why even Muslim women troop here for their anti-natal counselling and delivery.”
Asked for the challen-ges facing the maternity, he said because it is mission-sponsored there are certain facilities that are not there yet. These, he said, include scanning machines, incubators and surgical equipment need-ed to do operations in the theatre.

The RCCG general overseer who was outside the country on an eccles-iastical mission to Europe during the gubernatorial elections, thanked God for the peaceful electoral exercise, saying: “We thank despite all the tension and fears expre-ssed by many Nigerians before the elections, April had come and gone and Nigeria is still in peace.”
He acknowledged the pickets of violence in parts of the country espe-cially the post-election violent eruptions in parts of the North, stating however, that there is need for Nigerians to thank God for  the peace in the country.
Turning to the wife of Gov. Fashola, Mrs Abim-bola Fashola who attend-ed the programme with the incoming deputy governor of the state, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope Adefulire, Pastor Adebo-ye congratulated the state governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, for his re-election.

He described the ACN governor, Mr. Fashola as a wonderful governor who had done tremen-dously well, adding “please tell him, we congratulate him for his victory and that we will pray for him more than ever before and that we are solidly behind him.”