Endless joy enclosed the congregation as the resident parish pastor, Oluremi Arowosegbe and his wife penultimate Saturday at the Christ Apostolic Mission Church (CAMC) Oke Igbala, Abule Egba, Lagos held the christening ceremony of their new-born triplet after more than 17 years of childless marriage.
For the past seven years that he has been parish pastor of the church, Pastor Arowosegbe has remained a popular pastor in the neighbourhood for his wife’s childlessness amongst as well as other reasons. But the massive crowd formed at the christening for one obvious reason: to rejoice and identify with the bearers of the biological miracle.
There was much rejoicing at the event. From a humble background in Ekiti South West local government, Pastor Arowosegbe was born on April 17, 1969 and wedded April 17, 1999 at the age of 30. The 47-year-old wedded his 41-year-old wife, Tayo, when she was 24. His father is late, but his mother is alive. The only son of three children, his younger sister has four children while his older sister has seven. Yet he had none until now.
He said: “We have been looking for the fruit of the womb for the past seventeen years. We wedded in 1999, on April 17, and I must confess that the journey was rough. It was not a tea party, but we thank God that He has turned things around. We are celebrating our bouncing babies today.”
On the amazing arrival of the babies, he said: “As regards the issue of having children, like every other couple, we were anxious with our expectation of a fruit of the womb after our wedding ceremony. When it did not come immediately, we saw the first year without success as a minor thing. Even the doctor told us after the first year that it was because of our anxiety that it had not happened. But when the years increased and increased, depression set in.
“By the time we got to our sixteenth year of marriage, we had lost hope completely! But then, all of a sudden, we just discovered that a miracle had happened. We cannot describe how it happened, because we still were doing the usual things. It was when we got to the hospital and did the scan and the result was positive that we indeed began to come to reality about the possibility of having and holding our own child. For me, I couldn’t believe it. I give thanks to God Almighty for making it a reality today.”
Pastor Arowosegbe recalled that his parents and family members did not put undue pressure on him despite the fruitless years. “No, my family didn’t pressure me.”
His wife added that her family also did not pressure her. “That’s because, they are all Christians,” she said in explanation.
But the couple agreed that they were widely mocked in their testy period. “Ha,” said the husband, “I was mocked several times, even from co-ministers, even from the altar! Even right from the vineyard, there were lots of mockery and derision. There was a time we were both at a programme and one of our senior clergy said to me openly, ‘better pray so that your mate’s children will not call you young man or brother!’ The senior clergy continued his derision at that programme, when he went further to say and ask that, ‘Sarah had a child at her old age but did she eat the fruits of her child?’
“But at that programme, I raised my hand and replied ‘that was Sarah’s story, not mine’. As far as my wife and I are concerned, whenever the Lord gives us our baby, we will eat the fruits and joy of our children. I said that in faith.
“That was just one instance. There were others like that. Moreover, there were a lot of people who advised her to leave the marriage. Yes, she was told to leave the marriage, told to abandon me. Also, there were other people who advised my wife to manipulate the matter! I was even at a place and there was a prophecy that I should be asked if I could produce, or whether if I met a woman, would I be able to make her pregnant? That was indeed a big ridicule. And there were other situations like that. But I thank God that those people became the first set of people to congratulate me.”
The joyous pastor, surrounded by the equally joyous congregation, friends and well-wishers gave the babies names as Peter Oluwafimihan Jnr for the male child, while the second, a female, was called Taiwo Prisicilia Omotayo Jnr. (The third child didn’t live). Pastor Arowosegbe laughed as he said: “I received the boy’s name in a dream, and when I woke, it was revealed to me that it is when a man has a child that he then becomes a man, which then meant that for 17 years, I was not a man. But now, I have become a man.”
Pastor Arowosegbe’s wife had her share of derision and mockery while she waited 17 years for a child. “It was not easy for me,” she said, “that’s because whenever the women in our church parish are having the naming ceremony of their babies, I am usually the one that has to carry their baby during prayers. Also, when they are having child dedication, I am usually the one that will lead the mother with the child to the altar. These, I was doing diligently and prayerfully for all those years.
“At the initial stage, it didn’t matter. I didn’t think much of it, but later, when it got to the point where the members of the church had to start praying for us for the fruit of the womb or raising prayer points that people should remember us in their prayers for the issue of the womb, it began to bother me. Again, when mothers of new born babies are asked to pray at child dedication, they will say that they are using their new baby as contact for their pastor and daddy.
“You know such words began to breed concern for me because it is the head that is supposed to authorise or decree such prayers on the members, and not the other way around. Though the prayer itself was not bad, but such situation did not really befit a man of God. So, a lot of things happened to us in the past years because of the situation of lack of a child. But now, we give God the glory. If I go on and on to mention names of those who mocked us, many people will take offence.
“The past has gone. Whatever happened in the past has gone. God just used the past to let me know the nature of people. I had to pass through that path for a lesson. Now, I know better. My husband also said this morning that people who mocked him in the past while he was in that situation; if they now want to be friends, there is no problem. It’s just that he knows better now and has become wiser.”
But was she fed up or did she consider her case hopeless at any given time? The pastor’s wife said: “It was not easy. When I clocked 15 years in marriage without a child, I began to tell God that at least if I do not have a child, please let me make heaven. So, that made me to be closer to God. I didn’t want to lose in both areas.”
Just as the couple was not prepared for pregnancy when it arrived, the couple was also not prepared for multiple births. Said the wife: “I was not prepared at all. But whenever we were asked to write the names of the child we wanted, I used to write the name of a boy and a girl. The truth is that I wanted twins. But God surprised me with triplets. Though the other one is not with us, people have urged us not to feel bad because God has a reason for it. So I believe that God has reason for all these things.”
Today, the couple is not only rejoicing over their set of twins, they are also expecting more children. When the wife was asked about the expectation, she laughed and said: “Why not, if God says I will have more, so be it.”
The husband added that “I am expecting twins with addition of the departed one to make triplets again.”
How did Pastor Arowosegbe react when he realised that his wife was likely going to have multiple births? He said: “I was so happy when we were told. I was so happy and elated because we were praying together that ‘Lord, we have been praying for long, please pay us back in arrears. So compensate us’. God has compensated us with this multiple birth. We are now praying that he should also compensate us with long life, to eat the fruit of our labour.”
Pastor Aworosegbe enthused that his new miracle would encourage his ministry and ministration. “This is definitely going to affect my ministration positively. That is because a lot of truth, a lot of declaration which I ought to have been declaring on my congregation, was sometimes held back because sometimes I stopped to ask myself, ‘is there anything to show for it in my life? Even when I had not held the children in my hand, just knowing that she was pregnant changed my ministration and ministry.
“I can now communicate effectively; a new ministry has been given to me. Even the spirit of God was telling me that I should gather the people looking for the fruit of the womb together every year, and the spirit of God has already given me the name of that programme. So I can feel it already that God is moving me to the next level. I came to CAMC. I am a covenant child. My mother sought a male child for long and that was what prompted her to come to CAMC where she made a covenant with God that if God gives her a male child, that child would serve the Lord.
“I thank God that the covenant my mother made came to reality in my life. Though the day she told me that she was pregnant, I did not believe it. That was because there were times like that in the past. So this time round, I waited and insisted until a scan confirmed it. So to me at that point, the loss of period, or delay in menstrual cycle, was not convincing enough. And since I realised that she was truly pregnant, she fully became the angel of my life in a new dimension.”
Rejoicing with the couple, Deaconess Omolara Okupe, a member of the church from the Ilupeju branch, said: “It is a miracle, though I was abroad and returned just recently, I was communicating with them throughout the pregnancy period. In relationship, I take the wife as my daughter. At a point, she told me she was tired of the marriage. But I encouraged her to stay, even told her that she will find joy in her home. I thank God that, today, she has found joy in her home. I must commend them because their faith has been strong too. If not, they would have been convinced wrongly by bad friends. She has not been keeping much friends and she has kept her virtue. Keeping many friends can lead one to do what one may not want to do. I thank God for their lives.”
The President and General Overseer of the church, Pastor Adesoji Ajayi, said: “It is the Lord’s doing. It is a miracle that is beyond the comprehension of man. She has been waiting and looking for the fruit of the womb since she got married in 1999 and I was the chairman of the occasion. But as the Lord will have it, the husband came to me some months back to say that they went for a test which confirmed that she was pregnant. I told them to go back and have another test which confirmed it again. It is a miracle. When it pleases the Lord to perform His miracles, he does so. This is a family that has been copulating for years with nothing to show for it, but only for such a woman to have three children in her womb is incredible. But it is true. It has happened here.
“I was not worried about the delay for three reasons. I wasn’t bothered because we serve a living God, and there are references in the bible of couples that waited on the Lord. The father of faith himself, the father of the three major monotheistic religions, Abraham, stayed for years before the Lord provided him with the son of sons called Isaac. So, if God wants to give you something spectacularly different, He puts you to a test to see if you believe in Him or not.
“Miracles are different from magic. Anything magical can be done in seconds and you will think it is real. It is not real. God told me that I should bring them to this parish, that it is here that he will bless them. I tried to transfer them but the Lord reminded me that He wants them here. So I let them be. Thirdly, when you are being tormented, just have your unflinching loyalty in the Lord. Once you do that, you will be an over comer. All you need is to wait. It is the lack of faith to wait by some people that do not allow them to enjoy the goodness of God. “
