Female clerics must have spouses’ full support —Mrs Olowere

Evangelist Rachel Oluwafunmilayo Olowere, wife of Prophet M.O. Olowere, speaks with Rita Okonoboh on how it has been 39 years as a prophet’s wife; challenges she has experienced as a mid-wife, and offers advice for couples on making marriages last. Excerpts:

HOw did you meet your husband?

I’m a native of Ibadan. I attended a Bible School in Kwara State from 1971 till 1973. I was a Bible teacher for a year and a half, before I came back to Ibadan. At the time, my husband was already very active in the ministry. He approached me and told me he was divinely led to ask me to marry him. When he asked me, I felt it was a very serious question. I prayed about it. Humanly speaking, I kept looking for ways to run away from that proposal. However, God sent me a message, saying if I refused, wherever I went and whoever else I got married to, He wouldn’t support it. In fact, even after having children, I still looked for ways to be in the background. Till now, many people don’t even know I am Mrs Olowere. We got married in 1978.

Why didn’t you want to marry your husband at the initial stage?

First, I felt he was much older than me. I was really young at that time and I found it a little bothersome since he was around 20 years older than me. However, God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not ours.

What was your family’s reaction to the proposal?

My family is very spiritual and I am the last child of the family. We are a family of evangelists. They prayed about it and supported it. In fact, someone I met at the time, whom I felt would support my decision to refuse the proposal, said he had also been told by God that I would be married to Prophet Olowere.

How is it being a pastor’s wife?

It has been interesting. If it was my selfish desire to marry a cleric, I would have abandoned the journey a long time ago. However, since it’s divinely ordained, God has been proving Himself mighty. At the beginning stages, sometimes, my children had to trek far distances to go to school, and there would be no food at home. Sometimes, they would meet church members who would offer them money, which we would manage to make something to eat. Through it all, God has been faithful. I was a trader before I got married, but after the wedding, God told me I had to dedicate myself to supporting the ministry full-time. There were many challenges, but God saw us through.

What’s your advice for pastors’ wives?

I would want them to understand that by virtue of being spouses of pastors, there would be challenges. In fact, outside the ministry, whatever productive venture one is into, one will face challenges. So, we must stand firm in the faith, trusting God to help us overcome. There have been many times I’ve been attacked, in the physical and the spiritual, but God has been ever-protective. So, we must trust God, no matter the challenges. We must be strong in prayers and fasting. I did marathon fast even while pregnant sometimes. As Christians, we have a duty to always pray and fast.

How did you find yourself as a midwife?

I started midwifery in 1981, and it was divinely ordained. There have been challenges, and, in some cases, for some of the pregnancies, God would instruct that I take charge of the birth of the child. Even when people come to ask specifically for me, I always ask God before taking on the delivery. And sometimes, such deliveries are tasking. We don’t use science. We work strictly with prayers. There have been times, when the child was delivered as a stillbirth, but through prayers, the baby came back to life. There was one memorable experience. The woman was also a minister of God and she said God told her to come to me. After the baby came out, the placenta was still in her. The Holy Spirit asked me to check what was going on, since it was a while and the placenta had yet to come out. As I tried to trace the placenta, I realised that the placenta had stuck to her insides. So, gradually, I started easing it off, till I got it out. The child of that birth is married with children now.

It would seem that more marriages are breaking up nowadays. With your experience, what advice would you offer for lasting marriages?

There is no marriage without its challenges. Remember that the husband and wife before marriage are strangers. Even within a family, there is conflict, how much more two strangers who choose to become one. I would advise couples to be patient, enduring and tolerant. With these in mind, there is no challenge they cannot overcome. When a person jumps from one marriage to the other, he/she is toying with his/her future.

Some churches do not subscribe to the notion of women preachers. What is your take on that?

Whoever God calls, as a woman, you have no choice but to respond. A female cleric needs the support of her husband. However, sometimes, there are lady evangelists, who hide under the label of being preachers, and neglect their husbands; that is wrong. Even if the husband is not in the ministry, the female-preacher must have the full support of her husband. Even outside the ministry, if a woman doesn’t have her husband’s support in whatever work she’s involved in, there won’t be progress.