The General Overseer, The Divine Glorious Bible Ministry Int’l, also known as Overcomers’ Assembly, Apostle Oladele Abolarin said at the 12 anniversary celebration of his gospel ministry, it is a celebration of God’s abundant grace, love and impact both in the church and the community where we operate. This year, where we are celebrating the faithfulness of God in ministry and my life, I encourage every Nigerian not to lose hope, but believe God to do only what He can do about Nigeria”.
In this interview with Emeka Nosike, Apostle Oladele Abolarin revealed how he abandoned every other thing to answer God’s calling. Today, that obedience attracted God’s blessings, achievement and fulfillment.
At 12 years of ministry, tells us your story, the good and challenges?
It began on October 1, 2013. It has been God all the way. God has been faithful. God has been the pillar, the maker, provider of everything you are seeing in this ministry. Now, we are celebrating the faithfulness of God in my life and ministry.
The anniversary proceeded a 5-day medical outreach, and other community empowerment, why such?
Anywhere you are, it is good to lay a good legacy of yourself. So as a church or ministry, God sent us to impact lives both spiritual and physically, things that can promote the gospel in your environment or community in which you operate. For instance, in the last 8 years, we have been embarking on different kinds of empowerment. We have picked up some community projects like maintenance of roads, clean-up exercises. We visit orphanages every year, reach out to the needy; we feed them spiritually and we provide their physical needs as well, and that is how to balance ministry.
Even Jesus in John 6:10, after Jesus had preached to them, He also fed 5,000 men.
This year, as part of anniversary celebration, we have visited Mosade Odugate Junior Secondary School. The school was established two years ago, now there are about 550 students, and we provided them with writing materials”.
What is your opinion on youth unemployment in Nigeria?
The Bible said, ‘Whatever your hands find doing, do it well. Whether you are a graduate or not, if you cannot secure office job, look for something you can do to employ yourself. Again, now that government is thinking towards agricultural development and empowerment, our youths can make themselves available and venture into agriculture. More to that, our youths should endeavour to acquire skills whether as a graduate or non graduate to become self-reliant, create job for others. By so doing, crime and unemployment in the society will be reduced. Let’s drop the idea of I have my certificate, look for something doing when you don’t have a job.
Tell us your success story in this 12 years?
We have not derailed from the assignment God gave us, preaching the gospel of salvation, healing the sick, delivering those in bondage, community empowerment. And God by His infinite mercy is backing us, that is the success. We have also gone further to acquire properties for the expansion of the ministry, we have another branch. Most importantly, we have our branch at Igbogbo where we have partnered Lagos state vocational school on adult education as part of our achievement. We do that to provide opportunity for those who didn’t have the privilege of going to school during growing-up to have at least basic education.
Your challenges in Ministry?
There are no challenges anyway. What I see as a challenge is people’s unbelieving attitude. Some of them see Pastors as God. So, when they make prayer requests, and the Pastor prays, if the answer doesn’t come immediately, they become discouraged, thinking that the Pastor is not sent by God. They want the Pastor to perform magic. Again, social media is not helping at all. People go there and dump all kinds of negative stories. The good news are not much heard on social media. For instance, in this church, there was a women who was brought here dead one Wednesday when there was prayer programme going on. They were taking her to mortuary, somebody advised her family members to bring her here for prayer. She was prayed for and she returned to live, and till today she is still worshipping with us. The only woman I know that has birth certificate and death certificate. Social media will not report such things. Today, all over the social media, they are talking about fake pastors. Yes! they are, but because there are original Pastors, that is why there is fake.
Five years from now, how do you intend to position Divine Glorious Bible Ministry int’l?
By the grace of God, in the next five years, the ministry will grow beyond Nigeria, it will become international ministry.
What is your message to average Nigerian?
My message to Nigerians is to move closer to God. God is everything. Make God your priority. Make God number one, and you can never be the last. The Bible said, Seek Ye First The Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness, and every other thing shall be added to you. Matt. 6:33. So, when you are mindful of God, God will be mindful of you. Serve God with love, oneness, one heart and believe in God.
In addition, a member of the Church, Eng. Sunday Oluwakeye said that the ministry was not handling spiritual things alone, but Apostle Abolarin, after praying for people, has been embarking on human and community empowerment. Since three or four years we joined his ministry, it has been awesome, our lives have changed for the better. His ministry is transforming lives”.
In the same vein, a pioneer member of the ministry, Aigbedun Felicia, said, “the ministry is contributing its quota in this community. We are celebrating our 12th anniversary, God is here. Two years ago, I was diagnosed with stage four cancer of the lungs. But God at work in this mountain healed me, and today I’m cancer free. We have seen lives transformed in different aspects, physically and spiritually”.
Most importantly, we have a branch at Igbogbo where we have partnered Lagos state on adult education to provide opportunity for those who didn’t have the privilege of going to school during growing-up to have at least basic education. That is another achievement of the ministry.
