Ololade Adeyanju/
A Canada-based church has ordained a Nigerian journalist, Chief Femi Shodunke, as an Elder.
Shodunke, a one-time Deputy Editor of the Nigerian Compass newspaper, was bestowed with the status alongside three other women members of the Christ Reconciliation Ministries International (CRMI). They are Helene Tabah Keating, Mary Eyere Tataw, and Lydia Besong Nkongho.
At the service held at the church’s headquarters in Fort McMurray, Alberta Province, the leader of CRMI, Apostle Lewis Ayuk Nkongho, said that the ordination, as the first set of elders, was a surprise decision as directed by the Holy Spirit.
Nkongbo said: “And today, God wants us to honor them. I don’t honor them with levity; I honored them with God’s grace, and I want to pray that the church should honor them as well. And you will not look at them henceforth with levity because you will miss the blessings they have.”
While addressing the Elders, he said: “I know this caught you by surprise; so it was not prearranged. So, it’s not me; it is an endowment that God wants to give to you. Now you will make it more public, because you are public now. You have been hiding, so the manifestation of His presence will become public given upon you that even when you salute somebody something will come out.
“We are recognising them as elders in this church. These ones standing here, they carry the spirit, they carry God’s presence, they carry God’s glory. Don’t make mistake that those who stand on the pulpit always are the carriers. There are people sitting at the pew that carry more grace than the people standing here; many, they have the grace that is bigger than people standing on the pulpit.”
Nkongho described Shodunke, popularly called “Oluwo”, as a gift to the church with his abundant wisdom and knowledge.
His words: “Most of you can not tell us message that was preached last Sunday, but he can tell you message preached six months ago. This is grace; I say this is grace. There’s a day I greeted him in front of my house and we all laughed. I was not alone and he told me pastor you greeted me, I said yes. But, he said I felt something within you; that’s been over a year, but I greeted many other people, they did not catch it.
“So, from that day, no matter what’s happening, I knew for God to have made him to understand that truly there is something in me that connected to him, that’s how God did it. Me, I will give high five everyday, but you will not see it, but if it is God’s time you will see it. It’s God’s time.”
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