SHE DIDN’T TRY TO OCCUPY ANYBODY’S SPACE.
SHE LIFTED THE SPIRIT OF PASTOR TAIWO ODUKOYA. SHE LOVED HER HUSBAND WITH EVERYTHING SHE HAD AND HIS CHILDREN WERE HER CHILDREN. HIS GRANDCHILDREN WERE HER GRANDCHILDREN.
MANY IN FOUNTAIN (OF LIFE CHURCH) HAVE NEVER BEEN TO SOUTH AFRICA BUT AS YOU CAN SEE, WE ALL BECAME BLACK HALF-CASTE: NIGERIANS/ SOUTH AFRICAN AND PROUDLY SO, BECAUSE SHE TOLD US MANY STORIES THAT MADE SOUTH AFRICA FEEL LIKE HOME.
SHE LOVED BEING A NIGERIAN WITH EVERYTHING IN HER.
WE HAD MANY MOMENTS OF LAUGHTER: LAUGHING AT HER TRYING TO BE A YORUBA WOMAN, SPEAKING YORUBA TO ALL OF US IN HER FUNNY SOUTH AFRICAN DIALECT.
-Tribute from Pastor Ibukun Awosika at Pastor Nomthandazo Odukoya’s Night of Tributes
Fountain of Life Church, Lagos
Your Excellency, the Vice President of Nigeria, Mr Governor, our Fathers in the house and this family.
I will like to ask all the Pastors to stand. I want us to stand and salute to this great daughter of Jehovah. I want to tell you a story about this Church that is called the Fountain of Life Church and the gift of this man of God, Pastor Taiwo Odukoya, our Pastor and our Father.
A man who has specific talent for raising powerful women. Church Gist. The women of Fountain (Life Church): they are tough, they are strong, they are bold, they are courageous, they can take on whatever the assignment is and they will deliver on it. That is his gift and his talent and he taught us well and raised us well and sent us like an army to take on the world and we always come back victorious.
The challenge is when you have a house filled with tough, powerful, smart women and the mother of the house passes, the one who grew with them, nurturing them, the question you would ask is:
“Who can fit into the shoes of Pastor Bimbo Odukoya?”
“Who would have the courage and the audacity to walk into the place of a gifted, powerful woman who walked the earth running with her vision and her assignment?”
You know how children are when their mother die and their father become a widower and they wonder about that step-mother who might just come. So we could have our fears but God was merciful to us. In His mercy, He helped our Father, a man who cared enough about us, to patiently wait over a long period of time to hear God and to walk the journey of finding the most perfect fit we could ever ask for as a Church.
When he brought her home to us as a new mother to children who had lost their mother, she didn’t try to be taller than anyone. Church Gist. She did not try to be bigger than anyone, she didn’t try to speak over anyone, she didn’t try to occupy anybody’s space. She never for one minute competed with Pastor Bimbo Odukoya.
She came in as an angel with a talent and a gift and the ability to find the space, because I bet you, she had prayed and she asked the Lord to find her own Rehoboth, a place that was perfect for her to fit in. And Fountain (of Life Church) turned out to be her Rehoboth and we gained the gift of a mother. She was younger than most but wiser than many. Much cheerful than you can imagine, but she brought sunshine to our lives.
She lifted the spirit of our Father and she built her house with new linens that enhanced us. She taught us to laugh. She told us stories as grandmothers used to tell their children stories. If you understood what it was to have Tales By Moonlight, we had a story teller, the gift of our angel. Stories we were not part of. Many in Fountain (of Life Church) have never been to South Africa but as you can see, we all became black half-caste: Nigerians/ South African and proudly so because she told us many stories that made South Africa feel like home. She loved being a Nigerian with everything in her and we had many moments of laughter: laughing at her trying to be a Yoruba woman, speaking Yoruba to all of us in her funny South African dialect.
She was a woman of God in every way you can imagine. Church Gist. She was a lover of God in every way you can imagine it. She was a giver of love, more than you can ever imagine. She served God with every tiny bit. I sit a few seats away from her in Church and when Pastor Nomthi is worshipping, you will know her entire being is submitted to God. Her entire being! She doesn’t play, her eyes are closed. She is in agony and she is pouring her heart out to her God. She loved her husband with everything she had and his children were her children. His grandchildren were her grandchildren and every single member of this Church was asked to nurture and to love.
I try to imagine her song because she loves to sing and to worship. As I thought about what song would talk about who she is. Yesterday in Church, we sang a song, I have never heard it before but I called Tolu (Pastor Bimbo Odukoya’s first daughter) after and said, “Tolu, come. Please, can you please record the song. They are just 6 lines, don’t worry, it won’t take your time.” But she didn’t know what I was going to do with it.
This morning, I listened to the song over and over again, as much as it spoke my heart and my personal cry to God, I realized how much the song is truly Pastor Nomthi’s. It was her heart cry. Though you might wonder, shouldn’t we be in pain as a Church, we have lost two mothers! Who is asking? Who is our God? Who is in control?
This is a house totally and completely submitted to the hands of God and this is the man that will die serving God and we vouch for the integrity of our Pastor with everything that we have because we know this man, we love this man and we know he serves God with everything and we will die at the feet of God serving Him with all that we have. Because we know, though we do not understand all things, God has everything under His control and He is faithful and He is loyal to us and we know that He will keep us a Church.
We will sing this song and you will understand that it is truly Pastor Nomthi and it is actually Pastor Nathaniel Bassey’s song. You know me, I don’t know anything about songs, I wasn’t there when they were distributing the gift. She (Tolu) will sing it. Thank You Pastor Nathaniel.
🎶🎶Take the stage Lord and have your way.
I am just a vessel and nothing more
And when you are done, please take the glory.
I am satisfied just to see You glorified. 🎶🎶
Jesus is definitely glorified today as we celebrate His daughter. Thank you very much.
#PastorNomthiOdukoya
#NightOfTributes29Nov2021
#PastorTaiwoOdukoya
#PasstorTaiwoOdukoyaWife
#ChurchGist
Join any of our Telegram Channels.
t.me/ChurchGist
t.me/CGWitness
