- Talks About How She Started 17 Yrs Ago
Rev. Mrs. Elizabeth Femi Joseph is a kind-hearted woman whose gesture cannot be quantified. To Rev. Mrs. Femi, nothing gives her more satisfaction than reaching out to the orphans, physically challenged, old people, less fortunate and those who are in dire need of financial assistance
She is also a missionary that has traveled far and wide; teaching and reaching out to the needy through seminars and conferences. She is also a renowned relationship counselor whose many books on relationship have helped rebuild and strengthened lots of embattled marriages and relationships.
She is a member of Motivational Book Writers Association and of course, the founder of The Mission For The Needy- an NGO that caters for the aged, widows and orphans.
The mission became operational in 2000 with 7 members, but currently houses over 600 people across various homes.
In an exclusive interview with City People’s Seun Joseph, Rev. Mrs. Femi Joseph reveals how she has been able to achieve so much with so little. She also reveals the real reason behind her caring for the needy, her decision to build a home for the needy and how massive the project has become within 17 years… Enjoy.
Ma, Can you tell us what inspired this initiative, The Mission For the Needy?
Right from when I was young, I could remember vividly how I was beaten severally by my mother simply because I used her change to bless others. Right from my younger age, if I have 20 kobo, instead of me to give mummy, I will buy drinks for mummy’s visitor. I will say “mama Lekan was here but I’ve used your change to entertain her”, and she will start beating me.
And right from that time, I have had this unusual passion for old people, you cannot see a young person with me as a friend, either they are 80 years, 70 years, and the closeness or affinity will be beyond what I could explain. I love going to them and helping them, right from when I was young till today, and that is why all my very close friends are aged. When they see me it’s like Christ is with them.
Rev. Mrs Femi Joseph
They can open up to me what they cannot open up to their biological children. And I will pray and encourage them. And this has started about 17 years ago when I received the call of God upon my life that I should go and put a smile into people’s lives. I looked at myself, nothing to write home about.
No history of a rich family, but the Lord gave me the mandate. I have called you into The Mission For The Needy and I have sent you to bring a smile to the faces of the underprivileged. Right from that day, he has never failed me. We have been doing it alone as a mission. I will tell my covenant partners I want to do this and this and they will all stand to support as if they are the ones that received the vision.
They will play their role effectively and voluntarily. Everybody is committed to the vision. It’s beyond my imagination because what we do personally is in millions. You will be there by the Grace of God on the 19th. It is beyond what anybody can take credit for. That over 600 people will be there and will go home with big loads of dresses, bags of rice, Custard, juice, shoes; name it.
Some parents will have four children and all of them will have wrappers to tie for Christmas. We can’t explain how God is doing it. Everybody is longing, people come from Abuja from Badagry, from Kwara; everywhere across the state.
Then when this thing started I was given a scripture, because I was justifying it that maybe I didn’t hear well. How can God call somebody that is not rich to be the mother to the needy? Do you know what God told me? I should go to the book of Nehemiah chapter 2 and study it. Nehemiah was a houseboy and his duty was to taste the food and wine of the king. When anyone wants to poison the king, it is Nehemiah that will eat the food and die. But one day he received a vision. The Lord opened his eye of revelation to know that he was going to build the wall to surround the whole of Jerusalem. Does it make sense? He wasn’t scared. He wasn’t afraid.
He went to the king with boldness. Dear sir, if I have found favour in your sight, can you release me to go and build the wall of Jerusalem? The king didn’t behead him. Instead, he asked how many days will it take you? Do you know that Nehemiah did not answer the king? He kept quiet. The next thing he said was to request that the king help him draft support letter to all his governors so that he can get all that he needed. The king, with his queen by his side, started writing the letter without question. City People Magazine is the King and I’m the Nehemiah without any genealogy that the Lord had decided to bring from the mud to make an impact all over the world that I cannot explain.
So that is how he has been doing it without any support, I can’t explain it but he keeps blessing us. And he has even bought the land without anybody contributing a kobo, through somebody I cannot even meet and say thank you to. And he said now is the time, speak out. Go to City People, God will do what remains. Let people know what you are doing. Before, I was doing it personally. Like 50 to hundred people will bring used dresses. I will be the one to wash all of them and package them with the support of my biological children. Then I didn’t have the fund to employ anybody to wash for me, but now I have dry cleaners that I pay to wash and package the clothes. Some now bring new wrappers and clothes in large quantity. God had elevated it now.
How can you access your growth since you started 17 years ago?
The growth has been unbelievable. When we started, we had 7 people in the orphanage. But now we are up to 600 to the glory of God. We have over 70 Widows. We also have over 40 aged. Charitas home has 46 people. Salvation Army in Ajegunle has 62 people. There are so many homes we cater for. We are like a mother to all the homes. Even the deaf and dumb, it has expanded beyond what I can be doing alone. So I said let me reach out to the world for support.
Has there been any case of adoption in any of your homes?
People come to us but I have never granted them that request, because it is not in my power to do so. What God asked me to do is to go and get them and get them food, shelter and cloths. The bible said in Isaiah 58 “Is this not the fast that I requested of you?” he said you are just punishing yourself if you think you are fasting and you are not helping the needy.
He said ‘go and change their garmets’. In preparation for December 19, we have acquired over 400 assorted toys and each pack we have two Indomie, sweets and story books for each person. Fully paid for. There are some children their parents could not buy them an ordinary biscuit, not too talk of toys and they are now going home with a total package that every child needs. You’ll see some of the children crying tears of Joy. You’ll see parents too receiving their gifts.
We have a lot of trousers and we give them according to their sizes. We give shoes, bags and so on. God has singled us out to embark on this mission.
Can we quickly run through your background? Where are you from?
I am Rev Mrs. Olufemi Joseph, I got married February 12 1977 to the love of my life, Henry Abayomi Joseph. To the glory of God, we are blessed with 3 boys and 3 girls and wonderful grandchildren. I married quite young. I did not do “Sisi” at all. In fact, I went to the university in my husband’s house. I started with Pitmans of London.
I have all the certificates in Pitmans. I was a confidential secretary stage1; stage 2; stage 3 typing and shorthand. So I was working with customs and excise. but when we wanted to do the marriage my husband said he doesn’t want any man to snatch me from him, that I must leave that Custom job. That was when I now went back to school to study commercial education (NCE) and received the certificate from Ahmadu Bello University (NCE). After that, still in my husband’s house having children, I went back to the University of Jos to study Education Planning and administration. B’Ed. And to the Glory of God, the Lord has been faithful. To everybody, they believe I must own a school because that was what I studied in school, but I never had a passion to have a school in my life. I was a teacher when I finished my NCE. I was at Holy Saviours College until the government took it over. So I’m a pensioner to the glory of God from the ministry of education.
So it has been the life of helping others.
I want to tell you; come on that day when you see 600, 700 crowd and you think you have seen a lot. There are lots of people who come here privately every one of them seeking one form of assistance or the other right inside this small office.
Some will complain that their children have not eaten anything all day. We try within our capacity to sort these issues and we thank God for using us to put a smile on people’s faces.
Sometimes I will not have much in my account and request for funds will be very pressing. I will just pray to God for help and within an hour or two, some of our committed partners will just call and say he/she has a token give to the mission.
But sometimes people send…
(Cuts in..) They don’t. Nobody except in December. Nobody. I don’t have anybody but God that has been sustaining me. Only in December when I want to do the carnival. That is when some people will bring their used clothes. If 100 people bring used clothes, only one person will bring new.
Where are you from?
I am from Egbe, Kogi State.
I want people that have the same passion and the vision to help the needy to please see to it that the 6 plots of land are built. The land is located at Mowo. They call the village Ikoga. They should please join us and help to take care of these wonderful children.
To reach Rev. Mrs. Femi Joseph, call her on 08023240563. You can also support the vision by donating to this account Rev. Mrs. Femi Joseph First Bank 2001993679
