A lady in one of the departments of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) at the Redemption Camp did everything to stay away from the last Holy Ghost Service of the church.
That day, she finished her work quickly, made arrangements for her quests but refused to join them for the service. She disappeared.
“God has blessed me with enough children, so I don’t want to be there when Daddy (Pastor Enoch Adeboye) prays for babies,” she had explained.
She didn’t have to explain. There is a saying among church faithfuls at the Camp that warns people to be careful about which of Pastor Adeboye’s prayers they say “Amen” to. The lady didn’t have to participate in prayers for babies when she didn’t need more.
The thousands of mothers who had been barren but took their babies to the altar for dedication by Pastor Adeboye at the 65th Annual Convention was also an eloquent reason for the lady to disappear. From all corners of the large Arena, joyous women streamed to the altar that night. In the end, an estimated pool of thousands of mothers had gathered there, some of them shedding tears of joy.
The scene at the old auditorium that was beamed on the screen showed a similar pool. The same exercise was done at other viewing centres.
“I rejoice with you all because my father visited your wombs and gave you joy,” he had said as he prayed for them.
Also, during the convention, 106 babies were delivered at the church’s clinic at the camp.
At the church’s monthly Holy Ghost services, testimonies of happy couples proudly displaying their babies are regular occurrences. Usually, as soon as they were beamed on the monitors, the congregation erupts with joy. The longer the waiting, the louder the shouts of Halleluyah.
One night, a woman, Julie Onawiena, caused a stir of excitement with her testimony: “I was 11 years barren after marriage and I had been to many places –herbalists, churches and hospitals- in search of the fruit of the womb. In one of those places, an herbalist made me swallow 7 boiled eggs in a minute; and in one church they bathed me in the night and told me to walk backwards without looking back. All that yielded nothing. In one hospital in Abuja, where I live, I was told after a thorough examination that I had no fallopian tubes.
“In one of the Church’s programmes in1995, Daddy GO relayed a word of knowledge he had received from God that there was a woman in the congregation who had no fallopian tubes but God was going to give her one. I jumped at it. I made a vow to God that if He blessed me with a child, I would name him Samuel and return him to God, when he clocked 20 years, to serve Him. In June this year, the child born without fallopian tubes was 20, and I came to give Samuel to God as I vowed.”
But in a church, where many women who had no wombs got pregnant and delivered healthy babies, some of those testimonies could perhaps be described as only routine miracles. In the book, STORIES OF PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE, there are many of such testimonies that made the September, 2017 Holy Ghost Service at the two auditoriums at the Redemption Camp and at viewing centres across the world so special.