The Eyinju Oluwa Parish III held her second annual adult thanksgiving service recently at the church auditorium at 95, Isolo Road, Taxi Park, Mushin, Lagos. The theme of the harvest is “Harvest of New Song – Psalm 40:3”. The event attracted great men of God from various Celestial Church of Christ, and other Christian denominations. It was an atmosphere of songs of joy, praises and presentation of gifts.
Eyinju Oluwa Parish III is known for preaching undiluted word of God, healing and prophesying among other Christian virtues. Various church activities are being conducted in the parish aimed at winning more souls, sustaining those that has been won and giving accurate prophesies and helping the less privileged within and outside the church.
The publisher of The Unique Model magazine, Felix Mbata had a chat with Evangelist Adedamola Adekeye, who represented Venerable Superior, Evangelist, Prophet Animashaun, (JP) Ph.d, who bared his mind and revealed the essence of the harvest among other things, read and know more about the church.
Good afternoon sir, as one of the participants in today’s harvest, can you introduce yourself?
My name is Evangelist Adedamole, I am standing for Venerable Superior, Evangelist, Prophet Animashaun the presiding shepherd of CCC, Eyinju Oluwa Parish new rainbow, while we are having our second year annual harvest for the CCC, Eyinju Oluwa Parish III today.
What is the significance of the harvest?
Basically, the significance of the harvest is just an avenue to bring people closer to God, because in the book of Exodus, it is written that we should come before God three times in a year, the first time will be the Easter period, the second time will be December period, while the third time will be during the harvest when we are expected to bring the first of all our produce to the Lord. So like the Celestial is the representation of heaven on earth. So we are bringing our first produce to the Lord, so this is a season where we bring to the Lord, where we appreciate the Lord for all he has done for the past year and ask for more, because today marks the end of the year, by tomorrow, Monday it will be the beginning of the new year. So this is serving as the end of a particular year. So we are bringing our harvest to serve as our worship, our thanksgiving to the almighty God, that is the significance of the harvest.
Okay, now the year is wrapping up, can you compare last year harvest being the first year to this year?
Definitely, there will be a whole lot of comparisons, because last year we knew what the economy was like, the economy was a kind of better, but this year, it has been tougher, but God has been good and great, he has really showed up in so many ways. If you take a look at it, we moved from a smaller position last year to a greater position, it’s been a dimension for greatness this year. Because if we look at it, the harvest didn’t really been planned in a big way, but it turned out great because people, didn’t really come out with their full colour in the beginning, but seeing what was happening today, we are really so grateful to God, because everything just seem surprising and shocking because looking at the outside and everywhere, you can see the radiance on people faces, everywhere is just looking good. In fact, it was really different, even due that last year was magnificent, and this is super magnificent, even the turnout today is kind of terrific. I can say, we really appreciate God because he really showed up to us in marvelous ways. It was really great compared to last year. We bless God.
We learnt that you kicked off with a vigil before celebrating the harvest, is that the tradition?
Okay, like the harvest, some will say, harvest and thanksgiving but it is harvest, thanksgiving, now in Celestial, there is the belief that during the week of the harvest the angels descend from the heaven to support the church. We really appreciate God because he really showed up to us in marvelous ways.
Now, if you look at it, we didn’t just kick off with the vigil, we started last week Sunday, which was a Sunday service, the angels descended last week to bless everyone, and since the angels have descended, we usually advice people to be careful about whatever they say or do because the angels have multiplied in the surroundings and they are ready and willing to grant authority to whatever that is done around. And on Monday which you stated was the vigil, so the vigil is always part of the harvest.
The harvest recorded a huge success what made the huge successes?
It’s all thanks to God, because they said, if it is the will of man, it will not stand, but the will of God, will definitely stand, because we ourselves didn’t believe even it will be massively attended, to the extent that there was overflow. That is what is called eleventh hour miracle because God really turned up for us, because we didn’t even expect this magnitude, but it showed up in a way that everybody is happy.
Christmas is at the corner, what is your message to members of the church?
Well, firstly, Christmas is at the corner, Christmas is a time where we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, even though that was not the time He was actually born. Christmas is a season of giving, and thanks to God. So, my message to everyone is that we should continue in this mood even to the end of the year. We should continue in this mood where we can give to the less privileged and where those that have in surplus can lend to the poor, and let the less privileged enjoy too.
The country is kind of tough though we pray to God to give our leaders the wisdom and more understanding to lead the nation into greatness, but even the process of moving to greater height and great things. We should keep up with sharing of whatever it is that we have.
So, my message to people, is that this Christmas God will bless and grant us abundance, and even in over abundance, we should please, remember the people, because in the book of Matthew, the bible says that, Jesus Christ told the people that, when He was in the prison they came to check on him, when He was hungry, they gave Him food and the rest and they asked Jesus Christ, when did we do that to you? But Jesus Christ said, as long as you have done this to people that are lesser than you, you did that to me. So, in this season of Christmas where we are celebrating Christ, we should be able to do good to Christ, through our fellow human beings. That is my message.
What is your message of appreciation to people that devoted to the success of this harvest?
We cannot really say much because the gratitude is so awesome. If you look at it, it is not by our power, first, we give all thanks to God, and secondly, looking at it, things really turned around well. All hands were on deck and people turned out to be great because this year’s harvest is great, we put God’s grace first.
We will continue to be praying for people that made it great. The Lord will grant them more blessing, more exploits to do greater things in life.