“The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful then a thousand heads bowing in prayer.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

 

Tope Adeboboye

These days, sanity is gradually returning to Ikorodu community. After years of unending onslaught in the hands of kidnappers and the Badoo cult of ritual killers, calm is steadily returning to the community.

For many years, the community was clad in a habit of notoriety. Everyone cringed at the mention of its name. Across Nigeria and even abroad, many nursed pity for the dwellers of Ikorodu, a sprawling Lagos town with many suburbs and communities. Yet, you could hardly blame those that saw nothing good in the headquarters of Ikorodu local Government Area.

But that was then. Now, a Christian mission is working hard to repair the battered town and rewrite its story.

Last year, Ikorodu was the headquarters of the infamous Badoo cult, a mysterious band of bloodsucking ritual killers. For long, they struck in many parts of the community, spreading death in the most heinous manner.

From time to time, members of the group invaded homes of potential victims, armed with a pestle or a hefty stone. With those weapons, the Badoo members crushed several innocent heads, sending many to their graves. Sometimes, entire families were mauled and murdered in such callous fashion.

For close to 40 months, the group operated freely, killing and maiming at will. It took the initiatives of the present Commissioner of Police in Lagos, Mr. Edgal Imohimi, working with members of the Onyabo Vigilance group and the Aare Gani Adams-led  Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), to end the activities of the evil group.

Following the end of the satanic reign of the cult, a Christian mission, Joy Cometh Ministries (JCM), has been working to restore hope to the inhabitants of the traumatised town through its unusual modes of evangelism.

In the days that Ikorodu was being battered by activities of the Badoo group, many were they that took their baggage and fled the community. Curiously, that was the very time JCM decided to purchase a piece of land at Ibeshe Road, from where it commenced work to repair the brutalised community and its battered inhabitants.

JCM was founded by Pastor Olaitan Aromolaran, a former Provincial Evangelist with the Redeemed Christian Church of God. In November 2016, the church held its first service in Ikorodu. Since then, the ministry has been bringing a steady respite to the people through its activities.

As soon as the ministry took off, Pastor Aromolaran founded what is today known as Club Five Loaves, a group through which the church executes its humanitarian initiatives.

Recently, the church concluded a free vocational training programme that sought to rescue hundreds of people from the grips of poverty. Over 600 people benefitted from the programme where experts in different vocations were brought in to train interested members of the community, irrespective of religion.

Pastor Aromolaran said Christians must begin to act like Jesus if they ever wanted to be like Christ, recalling that while Jesus was on earth, his entire life was spent on people and for people.

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“I have also sat down to think about the missionaries that brought Christianity to Africa. What did they do that made our forefathers abandon their religions and embrace Christianity, a new and unknown religion? I realised that they identified with the people. I also realised that the best way to take people out of poverty is to teach them how to navigate their ways from poverty. That was why we gathered about 600 people and taught them different vocations.”

Joy Cometh Ministries, he said, evangelises by wiping tears from the faces of people. “We preach Christ everywhere, not just in the church. We are currently rehabilitating a bad road in Majidun. We have a prison ministry, and we just got back from Kirikiri. We meet the inmates and give them food and gifts. We have been to several homes of motherless babies. Every month, we visit communities and give a minimum of 600 people food, clothes and gifts. And as we’re doing that, we are preaching Christ to them. Each day, people are coming into the kingdom of Christ. You could see the number of people that attend our two services on Sundays. And the church is less than two years. Recently, the school that we established clocked one year.”

The pastor, who is the convener of the Night of 365 Hallelujah held each December in Ikorodu, explained how the name, Club Five Loaves, came into being.

“Jesus did not wait to have 5, 000 loaves of bread before he started feeding the people. He had just five loaves, and he started. But the five loaves continued to increase, and there were even leftovers. That was how we started sharing the little we had, and God has been multiplying it. That was how the name came into being.

“Whosoever waits for the rain will never sow. Before God would put something in your hand, he must have put it in your heart. Whosoever will walk on water must first come out from the boat. So the first thing we did was to come out of the boat of unbelief, and we started doing it with what we had. And God has since been blessing us. We have been to several locations rendering help and making people laugh.  And it has been helping us to reach the people with the gospel. Our mission is to help the people make heaven and also make them relevant on earth.”

The church also has a football club. Why that, you asked the pastor.

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“This ministry came into existence during the Badoo menace,” he explained. “Youths in Ikorodu were fully engaged in cultism. So we organised a seminar and asked the youth what they wanted. Some of them with football talent lamented that they had no opportunities. So, we started a football club, and we feed them with the word of God. Some of those boys are abroad now on trial. Initially, it was difficult and financially demanding. But God has been so helpful.”

He also explained the concept of the ministry’s 1

“Let’s face it, if Pastor Adeboye, Bishop Oyedepo and other established men of God should be in Ikorodu today, there would be thousands living here who would never go to see them. Yet such people must be reached. That is why we go to the streets and begin to evangelise. We do that why service is going on here. We go there with food, clothes and money. We identify communities’ needs and help. We have drilled boreholes, given children scholarship, and so on.

“The money that is in the church isn’t for the pastor. God said, ‘that there might be food in my house,’ not in the house of the pastor. That does not mean that the pastor will go hungry. I believe it is a sin for me to keep money in the bank and see people going hungry or naked. We are not going to give what we don’t have. But if we have it, we keep giving it”.

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The pastor said it is unrealistic to expect government to solve every problem in the country. “No government in any nation does all. That is why the private sector handles things that government should do. What I think govt can and should do is to create an enabling environment and policies that would enhance the performances of ministries that do charity works. If we say government should give us money, how many churches will government give money to?”

Pastor Aromolaran said Message for youths. I see a better tomorrow. I believe Nigeria is blessed. The president and vp we have. Having them both in one dispensation is a sign that God loves the nation. The youths should be hopeful of a better tomorrow and they should start working for it and prepare or leadership Mr. Olakunle Omolajo Sopade, President, Club Five Loaves, explained that the recent empowerment programme was aimed at lifting people of the community out of poverty. “We also wanted to help some of the church members that have nothing doing,” he said.

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Over 600 people attended the free two-week training where beneficiaries were tutored in different vocations. Some of these were shoe-making, catering services, hairdressing, gele-making, cake and pastries, photography, soap-making and the like. The church also took care of the 14 facilitators.

“It was a successful programme because some of them had even started doing their business even before we concluded the programme. Right now, many of them have started making money from the business. We actually gave some of them that did very well in the training some tools they could start the business with. We are also looking at giving some indigent ones that did quite well money so that they can start practising,” he said.

“The club also reaches out to people living in different areas every month,” he continued. “We have been to Ibeshe, Igbogbo, Ogolonto. Recently, we gave bags of food to about 500 members of the church that were in need. You cannot evangelise to hungry people. We first feed the people, then we minister to them.”

Anne Ogundare is the secretary of Club Five Loaves. She said the club spent quite a tidy amount during the vocational training. The club also spends about N600, 000 during the monthly empowerment programmes in different communities in Ikorodu. She said the church might hold another programme before the end of the year.

Some of those that benefitted from the vocational training told the reporter that their lives have been transformed by the experience.

Madam Iyabo Mebude said she learnt how to produce soap, toilet wash, after-shave, air freshener, insecticide, antiseptics and bleach.

“By the grace of God, that is what I have been producing and selling since then,” she said. “And it is highly profitable.”

It was a similarly positive experience for another participant, Ope Monday who was trained in shore making. He explained that he has since been earning his livelihood from making and selling shoes.

“I am a security guard,” he told the reporter. “When I heard about the training, and I was told it would be free of charge, I registered. I was trained and now, I make and sell shoes. In fact, I usually display my shoes during the church programmes, and sales have been good.”

Mrs. Esther Tolu Ogunbode was one of the facilitators. The CEO of Facelifted Makeovers, Ikorodu, she was in charge of the make-up during the training. She described the programme as a great success even as she hoped that the church would do another pretty soon.

Another participant, Mr Oluwafemi Oloruntoba attended the catering class. The man, who is a professional tile setter and building material trader, said he had loved cooking since his childhood. The training provided for him an opportunity for further development, and he grabbed it with both hands.

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Madam Idowu Oluwafemi attended the free training and focused on hairdressing. She said financial challenges had been preventing her from getting a salon, but she expressed optimism that she would rent one soon.

Equally excited was Motunrayo Ogunyemi who learnt how to make cakes and pastries.