HOW ONE WORD FROM BISHOP OYEDEPO CHANGED MY LIFE
Archbishop & Rev. Mrs. Udeme Simon
Marking 30th anniversary of the Church is a great achievement. How would you describe your journey in ministry all these number of years?
The journey has been interesting; it has been full of ups and downs. To be honest with you, in 30 years, we have climbed mountains, we also sometimes saw ourselves in the valley but in all these, we are still here in the ministry, and God has seen us through it all.
Can you please recount some of the valley experiences you went through?
Before Great Faith Church started, I was with my master, Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Church Worldwide, known also as the Winners Chapel. I joined him in September 1983 in Kaduna where Oyedepo started his ministry.
What took you to Kaduna?
Yes, I was searching for greener pastures, and that took me to Kaduna after my school certificate. In the 80s, it was easier to pick a job in the north than in the south. I got a job with the British High Commission, Kaduna, where I worked in the visa section.
What was it like in Winners Chapel then?
Then Bishop Oyedepo trained us like soldiers, but before I moved to Winners Chapel, I was with Deeper Life Bible Ministry, where I grew up to the position of a zonal leader. In the 80s, Deeper Life was not a church; it was a non-denominational Bible study centre. So, whichever church you belong or attended then, you could be a member of Deeper Life Bible Ministry, provided you are committed. And so, I was there, growing up, singing in the choir, doing ushering service.
What then took me to Winners Chapel? A friend invited me for a wedding in Winners Chapel. When I got there, I saw the way Bishop David Oyedepo was preaching at the wedding; it was quite more interesting than I used to hear in Deeper Life Bible Ministry. I heard Bishop Oyedepo said that “God created us to live a meaningful life.” I never heard that in Deeper Life; what we were taught then in Deeper Life was that if you are in pleasure here on earth, you are doomed for hell fire.
It might interest you to know that throughout my time at Deeper Life Bible Ministry I didn’t wear a suit, I didn’t wear cover shoes, because we were told they were pleasurable things; they described them as worldliness and we were preaching same to others. I even threw away my turntable; a disc player and television then, because they were tagged as worldly. So, I packed them up and threw into the well; not in the dream but in real life. In those days, you don’t carry a lady that is not your wife in front of your car, otherwise you’ll be suspended.
My own biological sister whom I brought from home to live with me, so she could further her education in Kaduna, was asked to move out from my apartment to stay with a sister in the church somewhere distant from me; how she was going to feed and take care of herself, as a student in school wasn’t their problem. It was that serious then. But today, thank God for massive changes; things are better now in the Deeper Life.
So, it was in that condition under the Deeper Life Bible Ministry that I heard David Oyedepo said that as a born again believer, God wants you to live a meaningful life here on earth; that word struck my heart, I was restless, but I summoned up courage to put up a letter that I was vacating my role as the zonal leader, and that I would be worshipping with the Living Faith, then known as Liberation Faith Power Ministry.
I was well known where I worked with the British High Commission; because I had converted some white to the church. But I had to leave and started attending Winners Chapel, and from there to Great Faith Church, Uyo.
So, this is what I called a valley life experience in ministry, I started from Qua Iboe Church in my village, and moved to Deeper Life in Kaduna, later to the Winners Chapel, and then 30 years ago Great Faith Church started in Uyo. It’s a whole lot of experience!
Let’s look at that early stage of Winners Chapel in Kaduna. How was it?
Yes, being a man that was so committed, I was loved. Bishop Oyedepo took me closer. Most of the times he took me in his car, he fondly called me Simon. We were up to 5,000 in Kaduna, but I was still very popular, he introduced what we called Cell fellowship and made me in charge of the Metro Chapel. The Bishop was then using me as a reference point because I was very effective.
Having made that kind of impact, why were you transferred from Sokoto to Akwa Ibom?
I was transferred here, because there was nothing like Winners Chapel then in the South South region. I started it in Uyo, Calabar, Abia State and Port Harcourt. I stayed in Uyo and coordinated the planting of Living Faith in the region.
Archbishop Udeme Simon and daughter, Evang. Deborah Simon
Having made such impact in the Winners Chapel in the northern and southern regions of the country, why then did you leave to start Great Faith Church 30 years ago?
In five years after I started Winners Chapel in Uyo, God led me to a place at Ikot Ebido but the Uyo Capital City Development Agency came and said we cannot build church in that place, and that if we build they would pull down everything. The battle was between God and Satan, I said let’s see who will win; forever God cannot lose a battle.
I mobilized the church, and the church members stood by me in the site, we dug the foundation, laid it and built it as if the world was ending the following week, so we just built like fire brigade, and within one week, we have gotten far, and when the council heard it, the head of the organisation came with bulldozer. Meanwhile, I had arranged the church members, I told them don’t move, no one should move even if the driver of the bulldozer and police are approaching, raise a song and clap hands.
They were surprised, one lady that came with them from that ministry approached me, she was a member of Church of God Mission but worked with the town planning council. She said man of God, can I mediate for the Church, because as the church people are singing, praying, it will be wrong for them to release bulldozer and break the church, what can you do? I said, I don’t have anything to say, I want to see this battle how it will end and God will become a loser for the first time in Akwa Ibom State, because he has never lost battle anywhere else.
Another person came and pleaded that I should change the shape I gave to the building, that it doesn’t matter, he advised me to take it out that when they leave, even if I want to put it back, I can because they will not come again. I accepted, and they went to him. They told him I’m going to reshape the pointed part, he said alright provided I have done that, the bricklayers began to reshape it right there. The man then embraced me, shook my hand, and said, he has never seen an aggressive man of God like this. Faith was haunting me. Today, the building is still there. I passed through there, after many years, and I noticed that the area is well-developed; Governor Umo Eno even built a health centre there.
And so, when the building was completed, I brought Bishop David Oyedepo here for five days. He made very powerful statements and prayed for me before the Akwa Ibom people. But as soon as he left, a week later, I heard God said, ‘Your work, your assignment is finished here.’ That was what I heard. I asked myself, ‘How can I build this kind of church building and I’m not there to enjoy it?’ Humanly, I was thinking whether something was wrong with my head or not.
That was why when I started Great Faith Church, with Hosanna night, you won’t see a vacant seat to sit down, and we were blocking the road. I brought Archbishop Benson Idahosa to Great Faith Church single handedly, he came with 35 people. Then the attacks from fellow pastors started coming in to blackmail me, and stop people from attending my programmes.
This is why I am so grateful to God for keeping Great Faith Church alive and active in the kingdom for 30 years now, against the expectations of detractors who wrongly thought that the fire of revival that Great Faith Church once ignited in Akwa Ibom State through my years of service in the kingdom would be put out. Rather, we have emerged more than conquerors in all.
