Pastor. (Mrs) Oluyomi Adejugbe is the chairperson of the Foursquare Gospel Church National Convention 2023. In this interview with DAVID OLUWAREMILEKUN JOSEPH, she speaks on what prompted this year’s Theme: ‘REST ON EVERYSIDE’ and what the church will do differently at this year’s national convention.
Can we have a brief about you, ma?
I am Pastor. (Mrs.) Oluyomi Adejugbe, I am the chairperson of the Convention 2023 and our theme is ‘Rest on Everyside’, 1st King 5:4. I am an Engineer by profession and I am a member of Foursquare Gospel Church, currently the District President of Foursquare Women International and Axis president Foursquare Women International, Shomolu Axis, Lagos State.
How has it been planning the convention?
Planning of the convention has been by the grace of God and God has really helped us. The positive aspect of it is that we started early and one thing that we know is that when you plan early, the execution is going to be very seem less and it would be very, very smooth because you would have done the *podia* review of whatever it is that might work against your plan. You would have been able to mitigate some of the gaps that you identified. So, we started since December. We were inaugurated in January this year and to crown it all, the most important aspect of it has been that we started with God; we started with prayers. We started praying since January 1st, 2023 as a team from 8:30pm till 9:pm and consistently God has been helping us. There is always fire on that Altar. There was never a day that we did not pray and people have been joining. It has been virtual through Zoom. God has been using a lot of people and we have been seeing testimonies abounding through all our prayers.
As a committee, we had about three responsibilities in terms of projects. The very first one was for us to do the enhancement of the auditorium. We have been able to enhance the auditorium to make it conducive to worshippers. We had to do a face lift also in painting and in doing the wall of the altar as well as putting the Altar right. And that has actually been a plus to us to the glory of God and the other part of it is that God has really been good to us. We have a walk way that people can go through to use the rest room and during raining season, they always find it very difficult to go because under rain they can’t walk the stretch but God laid it in our hearts as a committee that we need to put a shelter there and to the glory of God, we have been able to put a shelter there and I know that this is going to really gladden the hearts of the conventioners and all the participants because come rain, come sun shine, they have a covered place to pass through to where they can ease themselves.
The second aspect of our project is what we call ‘Foursquare family recreation center’. It is the state of the art mini-stadium to the glory of God that we have been able to put together using artificial grass and our pitch is already standing to the glory of God. We have a pavilion that is well tiled, everything set in a high standard that can attract all the levels of people that can come and relax themselves and then enjoy football game, and by the special grace of God, we have a programme on Saturday that is going to bring all our Axis together and one thing they will achieve even through that aside from the fact that people would come and play football is that it is going to bring about bonding.
Most of the time when people come to Ajebo Camp for a programme because of the constraint here and there people don’t have time to relax, they don’t get to meet themselves. For example, I have seen a situation whereby my friend told me he was in Camp for like a week and we never met. So, on a Saturday like this, when people will be coming around to just cheer people that are playing football, we have our football teams ready, they have been playing Axis by Axis now, they are going into semi final, quarter final in McPherson University, and the final is going to be on our football pitch to the glory of God.
We are of the considered opinion that when you come to Camp, apart from the Spiritual blessings, you need to gain bodily blessings as well, fitness and body exercise. It profits, that’s what the bible says. So, we now said let us build a gym, a modern one. It is going to be well equipped, the equipment are already on the way as we speak. We also have a games room so that when our youths come, aside from the fact that people are playing football, you can come and play table tennis in the games room, play all other games and that is what we are doing. Then as a committee, the spirit of the Lord lays it upon us to have a give back to the community. It is an initiative from this committee to the glory of God. We constructed a Police Station, our police station is a modern Police Station to the glory of God and that is already standing, everything about it is already ready and we are ready for commissioning.
What are the major challenges you encounter?.
Some of the challenges are challenges of workers which is normal in any construction sites. To the glory of God, we don’t really have challenges other than trying to meet our target and having slippage in schedule. The major challenge that I can actually say is that of economy which is affecting everybody. Our estimate went up with about more than one hundred percent of what we have estimated. So, the challenge actually made us to start prioritizing what we needed to do and what we needed not do. The issue of economy is biting very hard. For example, when we’re planning for this convention, a bag of rice was thirty-two thousand (#32,000) now, it is Forty Eight thousand (N48,000,00). You can imagine the gap.
The expectation was that we were going to have not less than thirty-five thousand participants physical aside from online that is going to be hundreds of thousands, so if the minimum planned of participants is thirty-five thousand, you can imagine the feeding because as an organization, we feed from day one to the end of the camp. Sunday is just when we don’t feed because at least people are set to go to their homes and we feed twice a day, morning and evening. So, considering that fact and the enormity of what the planning contains, the economy crunch really challenged us but we bless the name of the Lord because people rose up to that challenge. A lot of our District overseers supported us, a lot of people in Foursquare organization supported us financially and then we bless God for our organization as well to the glory of God.
Being a 6-day a programme, is there any accommodation arrangement for those who may want to stay for the whole programme.?
Yes, we have categories of accommodation. We have different cabins and members of our accommodation team are really working tooth and nail to ensure that there is no gap, we know that definitely there will still be some little gaps and we have alternatives, we have plan B, we know that we are not going to run into any crises by the special grace of God.
What should participants be expecting?
Wow! I told you that we have been praying since January 1st, 2023. Apart from that, we normally go to Camp on a monthly bases to do Jesus walk on this camp. We have brought down the presence of God to the glory of God in a mighty way. The blessings that people would receive this year will be unprecedented. It will be astonishing because the spirit of the Lord is already here, one thing we know is that the blessings of God this year will not elude anyone, everyone will testify of Rest on Everyside. It is not only going to cut across the organization, it is going to be extended to all members of our family and all our associates to the glory of God. This year is going to be mind blowing and we are sure that we are going to achieve that to the glory of God.
What are your plans for crowd control?
We have accommodations, we have our auditorium ready, the surge that we are expecting will actually be on Sunday, we are making extra efforts to get seats and we are preparing the mind of our people that in case there is any surge, we have solutions.
What would make you feel personally fulfilled at the end of the convention?
It is that people are blessed and they go home rejoicing, no evil news, everybody comes and leaves this place with laughter, with joy in their hearts. We have seasoned ministers of God. Our General Overseer, Revd. Dr. Sam Aboyeji and Rev. (Mrs.) Bisi Aboyeji will be ministering. Pastor J.T Kalejaye will minister, Apostle Joshua Selman will be here to minister together with other anointed ministers of God. I believe that this year, people will have astonishing testimonies that will be there in the memory of everyone till eternity and to the glory of God. As committee members, we have been praying, we have been connecting ourselves to the socket of the Holy Spirit, interceding for everyone. We are people of faith, we are so optimistic, when we have done our own, we know that God is there to crown everything with great success.
As a woman, how do you manage your work, family, ministry and planning the Convention programmes together?
Thank you for that question. In addition to being a woman of God who is happily married, I am also working full time in a multinational company. So, it has been God. Again, one thing that God has helped me to do is that God develops people. In the time past, I had always been organizing training for people on team work, on balancing your home, your ministry and your work and all of those that I have been able to do, God has used me to deposit in people’s lives is now coming to play. I do my work well and I am also a very busy person in my place of work but above it all, I will confess to you that it has been grace. My husband has been very supportive. We are in it together, my children are in it together with me. My daughter was one of those who supported us financially because she saw it as a good ground to sow. We have always been having prayers together as a family.
This year, we receive tremendous support and that was how we were able to do our projects to the glory of God.
and then