Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye is a man of God and a child of God to start with. He is spirit filled, very hardworking, has passion for people and very passionate about whatever he does and as we all jokingly call him, he is a coach.
He doesn’t want anybody around him to end up being a nonentity. He wants you to make it in life. Even while he was a lecturer in the University, none of his students would ever fail exam because if he noticed your weakness, he would seat with you and make sure he taught you until you got it. That same attribute in him, has helped him to be an achiever.
He will stand by whatever he is doing in life until he sees that he has a breakthrough. Not only that, we know that he is a lover of the Word and he is a Teacher, an Apostle, you know, whatever offices God has for His Ministers, he is qualified to be one of them. At various time in his ministry he operates in all these offices and we thank God for his life. He is a father to a fault. As he fathers the church, he fathers his children the same way, in a loving way. At the same time, rebukes and chastises when necessary. He loves and showers his love over them. He is always ready to do anything for any child who is obedient and teachable.
For me as his wife, I have not seen him as a husband as such, but a friend and a brother. He has been very loving, very compassionate, he understands people, at least he understands me. I find him interesting to live with because without understanding there would be fighting. He respects and gives people dignity. Whoever you are, he will respect you for whatever God has called you to be even in the vineyard. As he does it outside, he does it in the house.

He will not only says by the word of the mouth, he also shows it. I think I said it sometime ago that in those days when we were still holding Congresses all around, because of the bulk of the work which was mainly on him and myself, after the congress he would just go out there and buy me shoes and things like that. That is because that is the only way he knew to appreciate but now he knows better. Probably you heard him often at times talking about it on the pulpit until I stopped him, that he must not put me in the open again. We fought about it, because I said he should just stop talking about me in the open.
For me, it is to tell the whole world the kind of husband I have. He is very appreciative. Because of this, I pour out myself into whatever he does so that he can be successful. He accommodates people, whoever you are. He accommodates people to make sure he builds them. He is a builder! You can see it in the ministry, several people are being raised, by the grace of God, through him, through his teachings, his examples. He has indirectly built vessels especially within the RCCG hence we have so many teachers in the ministry, pastors, evangelists, apostles even though we don’t call them apostles but we know we have them in RCCG.
Of course, there have been a lot of changes. By the time we married, he was not yet a born-again Christian, though a nominal Christian. We all go to church. I can say I even knew more of the Bible because I was already a Scripture Union (SU) member in the college. Transformation, a great one came after being born again. When we got married, we were together, being unborn again, for some 13 years or there about, until we became born again.
So, salvation is the only key aspect where he has changed. He became more compassionate. He has more passion. We have heard him talk about it that it used to be very difficult to bring tears out of his eyes. However, from the time he became born again, he can shed tears for anybody even while he is counseling, because now he has passion and compassion for people more than before. I want to say that while he was still very young, he was extremely active in sports.
Though he may not be jumping up and down as a volley ball player now, he still maintains that stature and strength for sports. I think every man should emulate him because he would take his walk in the morning which makes him to be fit, very fit. Of course, increasingly, the Holy Spirit is giving him a lot of visions and inspirations, more than before.
He has always had inspiration for writing because he wrote a lot of poems in those days. In those days whenever he wrote a letter to me, apart from about five sentences, the rest would be poems. He has transferred that passion to writing hymns and songs every year. Because of that particular gift in him, he wrote about three plays which we acted and they brought tears to the eyes of the people during the convention—The second coming of Jesus; The Noah’s Ark and the other one that he wrote, we acted when we were still using the headquarters church in Ebute Metta for the convention.
So, you could say that most of the gifts that God has given him have been used better since when he became born again and with the inspiration God you can say that he has been a sharpened gift more than ever before.
When we talk about family issues, we start from our children. We find time, a lot of time for them because when they are at home, they know that we are their parents and we play our role as their parents. We don’t just leave them like that; at least everyday we pray for them. What we do for them in those days; but we don’t have the time today, is eating together in the same bowl. All of them are married now, so they have their own homes but the relationship is very cordial, people can see it. Since none of them is disobedient, they hear what we say and they feel with us, they are side by side in the ministry with us in their spirit and in their doing.
Every one of them has his role to play in the ministry; as you all know, all of them are pastors. The one who is not on the pulpit is doing one thing or the other to make sure God is glorified in the ministry and there is no loop-hole somehow. So, we still find time for the children and even the grand children. For the extended family, it is what you know how to do before you become great that you will continue to do. If you forget your source, there is no way you will not dry up.
All his extended family members are well taken care of. We are in good rapport with them, they come, we share things; they tell us what their problems are. We don’t leave them with their problems. In their joy we rejoice together. If they are having marriages for their children, we are there. That is why many of them are now in the Lord which gives us great joy, both his family and my family. Coming to friends outside, we may not be drinking beer with them as we did in those days, but God has given us a lot of opportunity to have a lot of influence over our friends, by that, many of them are in the Lord today.
Disclaimer
Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Vanguard newspapers or any employee thereof.