Rev’d Dr. Uma Ukpai @ 80
CELEBRATING A MAN OF UNUSUAL GRACE
by Ima Nkanta
Gratitude, as the eagle glides gracefully to most defining moment in the journey of his life. It is the coveted age of 80 that our revered father will come January 7, 2025; with birthday celebration on January 9, 2025 at International Worship Centre, Uyo.
For a man who has touched numerous persons across the globe, it will be difficult to accommodate his teeming followers in one auditorium. Not even his expansive 120000 sitter auditorium being built in Ohafia, Abia State, as his legacy project, can accommodate at once the numerous followers and beneficiaries of Reverend Dr. Uma Ukpai.
The edifice, Uma Ukpai Prayer City, is “designed in the frame of an indoor stadium, the auditorium is projected to be the largest church auditorium in the world per Wikipedia criteria.”
Reports say that, ” The Prayer City will be a memorial legacy of the evangelical ministry of Rev. Dr. Ukpai.”
It is such an audacious dream of a man whose heart thinks quite very differently from others. He sees the invisible visible and invincible vincible and impossible possible. What a legacy of faith the 120 000 sitter auditorium is for the Christian world!
Rev’d Dr. Uma Ukpai deserves lots of accolades for the kind of impact his evangelistic ministry has made in the world. Many ministers of the Gospel have been motivated by Reverend Dr. Uma Ukpai into ministry, and quite many of them are doing well, especially in the evangelistic ministry. Although today many young preachers prefer propheticattain ministry than evangelistic.
You don’t blame them; how do you follow a man who will sing the same common lyrics of a local song all of us sing each day and miraculous deeds begin to happen, like fishes dropping from the sky over an icy mountain? But that’s such an unusual grace operating in his life and ministry.
Where others sweat and whine over obstacles, he would just smile at the same obstacles and at once they’ll disappear.
Here’s a glimpse into his life, as he once shared: “There were several mysteries surrounding my childhood; some of which I cannot explain till today.
I was fasting for seven days when a man saw me; stopped and said, ‘You’re going to be a preacher, you are going to have eight children but two will die in a motor accident, you will go as far as building schools and you will cross all the continents of the world.’
In a child’s mind, the world was just where I lived, that is from my village to the neighbouring village. It meant little to me. It’s only now that I’m preaching all over the world that I’ve come to place value on that prophecy.
In 1986 I was among the few persons invited to pray for President Ronald Reagan of America and it reminded me of the story of Jesus Christ riding an ass and matching through people’s clothes. In terms of fulfillment, I am greatly fulfilled, especially in touching lives of others, I am fulfilled.
We completed a 100 bed hospital about some years ago and we have kicked off the construction of a first class university in Uyo and other projects we are building in Abia State are ongoing. We’ve been able to give street lights to my village. We have been able to influence government to tar the road that goes to my village.
To me, there’s nothing better than doing what God has called you to do.”
Already, activities to mark the 80th birthday anniversary of Rev’d Dr. Uma Ukpai, the man widely acknowledged as being instrumental to the establishment of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, are underway. Several very important guests across the globe are expected to grace the 80th birthday celebration on 9th January, 2025 at the International Christian Worship Centre, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
