He came to Lagos without having a relation to stay with and had to sleep in a secondary building for nine months. Today, Prophet Okafor has become an international pastor with a lot of followers. He spoke on his journey into evangelism and other issues.

You’re light-skinned and quite handsome. Which of your parents do you look like?

My parents are dark in complexion. I’m the only light-skinned child among my siblings. While growing up in the ministry, people used to say “This pastor looks like Jesus.” Initially, my mother gave birth to only my elder brother, Daniel, but he later died. My mother had other children after his demise, but they’re girls and my father was uncomfortable with that.

My mother got pregnant again and prayed, believing God for a male child. Before I was born, prophecy revealed that she would have a son and that “he would be a mighty man of God and known all over the world.” While still carrying my pregnancy, my mother did something very unusual. She went to the market, bought a portrait of Jesus and placed it on her belly every time she was lying down. Eventually, I was born.

How do you cope with women as a pastor?

I’ll say I’m focused. I know what I’m doing and where I’m going. Women will not necessarily distract me. We are busy almost everyday of the week. Sometimes, we resume in the morning and close very late at night. My day starts at 2am and I pray till 6am or 7 am. I fast everyday also. I have been fasting for eight years on daily basis.

I am committed to this work of my heavenly father. If you don’t go to the river, you will not drown. My daily itinerary is from my house to the church, from church to my house. I don’t go to parties, I don’t go to functions.

Even when you were in the university, you didn’t party?

I come from a very disciplined home. We fasted twice weekly while I was growing up. We fasted every Tuesday and every Saturday. There was no time for misbehavior. My parents were not rich, they were poor. My father was a carpenter and my mother, a vegetable seller. During my primary and secondary education, I hawked vegetables for my mother. I was also an apprentice of sorts in my father’s workshop. He made chairs and I carried them to the market and sold them. So, there was no time for idling.

Tell us your journey into the ministry, how did it start?

By the grace of God, I didn’t grow up to say what I am going to do but I was born to do this. From the tender age of eight years, this gift became manifest. It was then my mother told me when she was pregnant with me that there were prophesies from great women of God revealing that she would give birth to a great man of God.

You may also know my name is not just an ordinary name. It’s prophetic. My native name Ihechukwu, means “the light of God”. My parents were Anglicans and we were born and raised in the Anglican Church. We also attended   house fellowship, which was like a prophetic ministry and these tendencies   manifested greatly there. The Lord told me, “I called you to be here. You have a mission, you have a mandate, go ahead.” If God says go and do something, it doesn’t mean you will find it easy on the way and because it’s God’s direction and intervention, He will see you through.

What was the initial challenge you encountered in the ministry?

I grew up mainly in Edo State. I was born and brought up in Benin City. I attended primary and secondary school in Benin, then gained admission to Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma.

When I finished, the Lord asked me to go to Lagos. It was like the case of Abraham, who was asked to leave his father’s house into an uncertain future. People would rather prefer to be in a place they are sure of than uncertainty. I relocated to Lagos even when my family had never been to Lagos.   I had no relatives in Lagos. I didn’t know where to stay. I came to Lagos with a polythene bag. I dropped at Ojota not knowing where to go. I strolled up and down the streets. I slept in a secondary school for at least nine months. Subsequently, I met this wonderful couple who mean so much to me. The man, Rev Chuks Elezie is an Anglican priest.

They took me into their home which was a three-bedroom flat. They gave me one room and from this one room the church started. Then, I was counseling people every Tuesday and before I knew it, within one month, the whole compound was filled sometimes with at least 200 people. The landlord became uncomfortable with that and threatened to evict the couple. Being a man of God, it was difficult for him to ask me to leave. The fellowship no longer held there. We now rented a hall at a school in Ojodu.