REPORTER'S DIARY: In Cotonou, Fellowship Is A Delicious Experience

MIDNIGHT was already getting set to assert its hardly felt presence on the well-lit streets of Cotonou, the commercial city of the Republic of Benin, when we checked into our place of lodging. 

The day was Saturday, June 26, 2010, and Pastor Mike Iheanacho (the WCCRM National Director of Theatre and Performing Arts) and I were billed to worship the following Sunday (June 27, 2010),  at the Watchman Fellowship Centre, Opposite Benin Gulder, By Cinema Concord, Irede Akpakpa, Cotonou.

Pastor Jude Obiajulu

   We met a very lively church, a pleasant mix of Beninoise and Nigerians, all happy Watchmen, worshipping God with infectious joy and excitement. The choruses were first sung in English. After sometime, two young girls took over from the chorus leader to continue the chorus session in the indigenous language.

 And just like virtually everyone happily participated when the English songs held sway, the entire church became even more alive when songs in the indigenous language took over. The whole thing was so enthralling and overly edifying. Indeed, fellowship here is a delicious experience.

  When Pastor Mike Iheanacho went to the pulpit to give the day's message, the congregation registered their appreciation with ovations and prolonged clapping. While this was on, he went straight to the balloons used in decorating the church hall and exploded them.

 “This is a sign that Benin Republic is about to explode!” he announced to the people who greeted the declaration with more clapping.

 “Begin now to train workers to contain the explosion that will soon occur!” he declared, looking in the direction of Pastor Jude Obiajulu, the Watchman National Pastor in Benin Republic, whom he further told that God had taken note of his long period of toiling, praying, fasting and dedicated labour, and that it was now time for God to reward that labour with an explosion. 

Cross Section Of The Congregation During The
Sunday Light Fellowship


His message that day entitled, “Jesus And Emmanuel” plus the accompanying ministrations was a great blessing to the congregation. It was a great day before the Lord.

  As I interacted with the brethren, I came away with the impression that what Pastor Jude Obiajulu has raised in Benin Republic is a church God would be proud to identify with.

It is the kind of church that brings joy and consolation to the man of God, the General Superintendent of the Watchman.

The workers here have one quality that stands them out, namely, rendering even strenuous assignments with most edifying cheerfulness. They seem to relish, and derive immense fulfillment from rendering whatever service, no matter when or how they are called upon to do it.

Pastor Mike Ihenacho Ministering During The Programme

    When Pastor Obiajulu came to Cotonou, he met about twelve Watchmen gathering to have fellowship at the premises of a school. About six other churches shared the place with them. He encouraged them to find a place of fellowship, and what they found was a deep, swampy gulley which was leased to them.

The people had no money, so he returned to Lagos and brought money and they began sand-filling the place. It took 150 trips of sand delivered by a big truck to reclaim the place. They had agreed with the landlord that the cost of reclaiming the place would be taken as rent for them.

Pastor Obiajulu told Charismatic Signs in his office in Cotonou after the Sunday Light Fellowship that God told him to open his purse and invest in the building of the fellowship centre and he gladly obeyed.

The Music Ministry Performing During The Programme


That place was dreaded and regarded as the devil's den, but since God led them to the place, they reclaimed the place, and within one month they were able to raise a structure and start fellowship. The people around marveled.

Many had expected them to meet with tragedy for daring to enter that place, but their confidence rested on the fact that God had led them, and the work they were doing was His own, and so, nothing could happen to them.

Sometimes, they would come to church and see sacrifices made and placed at several points in the church, including even the pulpit area, but they were still not deterred. They would just remove them and continue worshipping God. Today, God has granted them a victory that has become a big testimony.

The devils even attacked Pastor Obiajulu's thriving business concerns in the course of time in a bid to discourage him, but God has remained faithful and has been showing him favours, he told Charismatic Signs.

   From Cotonou, the Watchmen are making in-roads into the rest of the country. In Agbomase which is in Port Novo, the capital of Benin Republic, a full-fledged, fully indigenous Watchman fellowship is flourishing now. The Fellowship whose Pastor is a Beninese records an average of 80 worshippers on each fellowship day.

A Tour Of The New Church Building Under Construction


 But sometimes, on Sundays, it records up to 90 people  all indigenes.  Pastor Obiajulu told Charismatic Signs that the Port Novo church has been a great encouragement to him. Not too long ago, a family gave them a plot of land where they are temporarily holding their meetings, but recently God enabled them to acquire eleven plots of land at the cost of 1.7 million CFA.

 The proposed building on the land is estimated to cost 12 million CFA (about N3 million). They have also started gathering people who have responded to the gospel in Calavi, another town, and are planning to hold a crusade there soon, and then acquire a land for fellowship. Meanwhile, the fellowship holds in a brother's house.

    We later visited the new fellowship centre they are building in Cotonou which when completed would be a three-storey structure. The ground floor would be the main church auditorium while the first floor would be galleries. The second floor is going to be the Youth and Children Church while the third floor will be offices and rooms for pastors' meetings.

    There is no stopping the Watchmen in Benin Republic. They are eager and willing to conquer the land with the gospel.

And with Pastor Obiajulu leading a flock that has bought into his vision and eager to prosecute it with him with zeal and enthusiasm, it would not take long before the proclaimed explosion occurs.

When next you arrive in Republic of Benin and wish to contact the Watchmen in the country, call +229-9748-3865; +234-803-306-5562

--- BY THE EDITOR