Former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) and founder of the Word of Life Bible Church, Warri, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafo’s best kept has been revealed.
His wife, Pastor (Mrs) Helen Oritsejafor disclosed that; “This is a man, at the age of four, he could not speak until he was five when God gave him a voice. Do you know his last name, Oritsejafor means God has given you power to speak?”
“When Daddy gave his life to Christ and decided to follow His path…though he came from an affluent home….he knew what God wanted him to do. After God saved and delivered him from his past lifestyle, he went to seminary, his family rejected him, he went out with nothing, he would buy bread, cut from it to eat and use the remaining as a pillow.”
“Daddy has been in ministry for 46 years now, but in the last 30 years, it’s been one church besides Lagos and that is in obedience to what God told him. Daddy is a man who sticks to whatever God tells him to do. He would always say that he doesn’t have any point to prove to anybody.”
“He’s traversed all over the world and quite naturally, he would have been able to start branches all over such places because there were people literarily pleading for his approval to change the names of their ministries to Word Of Life Bible Church, but he would tell them God hasn’t directed him to such arrangement. We have been paying huge sums transporting people from Benin, Sapele, Asaba, and all over Delta State for Sunday services at the International Gospel Centre here in Warri.”
“Some of his pastors came to him on a number of occasions, saying ‘Daddy, we’re spending a lot of money to fuel our buses bringing members from different locations. Why don’t we open branches in these places for the convenience of such members in faraway places?’ But it appears that has changed….. Yes! Before the 30th anniversary of the church, God spoke to him, saying: “Word of Life has come of age. It’s now time to begin to do what I have never asked you to do.”
“You know besides starting branches, he has never ordained any of his numerous pastors for 30 years. What he usually did was to bring you to his office and pray with you and that’s it. God said the first thing to do was to conduct a screening of over 1,000 ministers for the first ordination service in Word of Life. And we ordained close to 1,000 ministers in one fell swoop.”
“After the ordination, he announced we were going to have branches and to the glory of God, over 80 teaching centers across the state were transformed to become branches and the International Gospel Centre is now the headquarters of Word of Life Church. He told us that He wants to use Word of Life Bible Church to heal the land; not only spiritually but also financially, materially, maritally and in every other sphere of human life.”
“People often regarded as nobody, through Word of Life, he will now make them people of substance. It was that mandate that led me to the markets where, by the special grace of God, over 700 children have now been given scholarships from primary school to the university level. It’s the greatest joy for us to see that people who could have ended up as agberos or street urchins can now have an opportunity to acquire education.”
“When you talk about indigent students, these are the real indigent students which is different from church members some of whom can afford to pay their children’s school fees but would just want to take advantage of the opportunity. I am looking at 10 to 15 years from now to see these children graduate from various universities, fulfilling destiny to the glory of God.”
– Culled from VANGUARD