•Pastor WOLE OLADIYUN Reveals The Story Of The Church
+Countdown Begins To His 60th Birthday.
Pastor Wole Oladiyun is the General Overseer of CLAM Church, which is set to celebrate 20th anniversary from the 2nd to the 8th of April 2018. Not many people know that he started off his career at the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Church many years ago. Only a few persons even know that his dad too was close to the late Pastor Ayo Babalola, the founder of CAC.
On the wall of his office at CLAM Church, Omole area of Lagos, is a photograph of his father with Prophet Ayo Babalola in the 70’s “That photograph you are looking at there is my father with Prophet Ayo Babalola”, he explained. “The photo was taken in January, 1970. All these men standing in the photo are wonderful Christians. My foundation was laid in the CAC. We were taught the word of the Lord and to rely absolutely on the word of the Lord, to live a life of Holiness and Integrity and to be Hardworking.
My father, who was a Goldsmith, was a multi-tasking person at all times. He was a Goldsmith. He had a Cocoa farm. He was into 2 to 3 businesses together. He did farming. He also engaged in acting. He was engaged in other, petty businesses. So, was my mother. My father even taught me Goldsmithery, but I have even forgotten that now. My mother was a trader. She traded in Garri, Cassava Flour, Cocoa, Palm Kernel, so, I was born into that family, where I saw my parents multiplying money in their own little way”.
Probably that must have influenced why I am very Shrewd and Frugal with money. I invest and multiply money instead of spending money. That is why I live a very modest life and anybody can check me out, on that claim by the grace of God.”
So, my background has informed me to be able to be prayerful. That is why by the grace of God, I am one of the prayer priests we have in Nigeria and Africa.”
Number 2 is to respect humanity, to fear God and honor humanity by improving on humanity. That is why I am involved in corporate social responsibility perhaps that was why last year God enabled CLAM to build a children ward, a world-class, in my hometown so that it can be used to take care of children. I am passionate about children, about youths. I learned all these virtues of integrity, being open, right from when I was a child in the CAC to hard work and civility which cost nothing but earn you everything. That is why I live my life in a simple way.” Below is his interview with City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE.
Excerpts
You will be 60 next year. How do you see your life?
I give thanks to the Lord for preserving my life till date. As a matter of fact, I never knew I could live up to this age. When I look back at my past and my background, when I was young, the only thing my parents offered me was Jesus. We used to attend Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) founded by the late Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola.
What was your growing up years like?
I grew up in a place where poverty was the order of the day. That was at Ile Oluji. I was born on April, 2nd 1959 and I grew up in a quarters where there was Acidic Poverty, Chronic Poverty. My father was a Goldsmith, my mother was a Garri seller. My father was also into farming. But the income would not pay the bill of the family that time.
How bad was the situation?
It was a quarters where there was no toilet, where you had a common dunghill for stooling. It was just God. There were epidemic outbreaks and diseases, easily one could have died through one of the diseases, but God saw us through. So many other things had happened to make one think that one would not have survived this far. But it has pleased God to make me live this long. It is by His grace that I have come out of all these problems. In all, I say Glory be to God.
By the Grace of God. He has enabled me to be able to touch lives, but I want to do more, that is very paramount. I want to be more caring to humanity to affect my nation. I want to do more in the area of my passion, which is prayer/soul winning. I want to do more there. I want to go to more villages, more towns to bring liberation to the land and the people. I want to do more for humanity. I want to be able to raise more leaders for the next generation in all spheres.
I want to teach people about how to be successful in righteousness. Thank God, I am versatile. Apart from my engineering background, I have an MBA. I am naturally imbued with business acumen. I inherited that from my father. I want to teach more people in the boardrooms. As a Prophet, I know what can move some companies forward. By the Grace of God, I have that gift combined with the managerial sense that God has given me. I think God can use me to push many organisations upward. Since God has enabled me to be a core family man, I want to take more care of my family.
How does the phenomenal rise of CLAM fit into the vision of the church?
The vision of CLAM singularly speaking is Apostolic Revival for Global Soul Harvesting. We are out to promote the unity among the Apostles as it was in the body of Christ. Both in the spiritual level and mundane level. Some of the traits of the Apostles are (1) Unity Of Purpose (2) Passion (3) Care and Given. Then Charity. These are things that are obtainable in CLAM in the last 19 years, making God Himself to be happy with us by releasing His grace upon us for His passion and goal. God has enabled my ministry to touch humanity and the heart of God. So, God is depending on this Ministry. So, He is happy with us. That is why He has given us meaningful growth.
Can you tell us a bit about the church’s growth and expansion?
We have been affecting our immediate community in this Omole Area. We renovated the palace of the Baale of Omole, equipped the place with Furniture, Computers, the Police Station, Remand Home, we’ve awarded scholarship to indigenes of Omole. By the Grace of God, because of the Godly passion I have worked for women not to suffer, right from my childhood, I did something for them. I lost my father at age 11 and I took up the responsibility of taking care of my mother, so I developed passion for women` so that they don’t suffer.
God granted me the financial power when I was 50, to be able to build a maternity home for His grace, so that women can deliver in safety and see their children being nurtured for the Lord. He has laid the foundation for CLAM Maternity Hospital when I was 50. It is a 3-storey building/complex comprising a modern diagnostic centre with gadgets, a special labour room, emergency ward, surgery with 8 suites for women, who want to recuperate.
This is one of those things that can outlive me in the ministry. We would start a vocational centre very soon in our camp, where we can bring together miscreants to come and learn trade in goldsmithery, and foundry etc. We want to embark on massive farming, and plantation so that we can sell the products to people at affordable prices. We also want to set up a research and development centre.
Part of my vision is to be able to fit a solar energy panel in every room in Nigeria. I want to invest in Solar power. I want to be able to fabricate our Panels, Storage, Capacitors and Converters. The concept of solar energy is this. The energy comes from God free, you need a panel to collect it, the panel now transfer the charges into a collector called the Capacitor. When it stores it, it must now be connected to Electrical Energy, so, there must be a converter. When it connects it, you then use it in the house.
These are the kinds of things we need to do to put smiles on people’s faces. I am passionate about Nigeria. I love this country. It is the best country in the whole world. We are believing God to have a sport center to train youths in Wrestling, Boxing, and you take it as a career.
If you look back in the last 20 years, will you say CLAM has been able to achieve all it planned to do?
Not really, because of some constraints. For any organisation to grow, you need 3 major products. (1) Manpower (2) Machine and (3) Money. In these 3 areas, we have not been able to have adequate provision to meet up with the vision. In the case of Manpower, you employ people. You train them, when they should stay and work, they go away. Many people are under you, but they don’t share your vision, but they are there because of their belly. Once the money is not adequate, you can’t procure machine. You will use the money to pay for the manpower. I thank the Lord for how far he has helped us, but we have not been able to meet the required target.
What explains the phenomenal growth of CLAM?
The Grace of God, the help of God, the favour of God and the Mercy of God.
Prayer and Evangelism are the 2 key areas. I am not a church planter. That is why I didn’t go into it. Many people have given me choice properties, I have returned them because I am not called into it. The grace of obedience to what He says I should do is a factor. Everybody knows that I am a core Prophet in the House of Prayer and I am passionate about Evangelism. And talking about the kind of Evangelism God sent me,
He gave me some mandates, “go to towns and villages for soul winning and when you get there, don’t take money from any one.” That’s my mandate. He said when I get there, I should look at fellow minister, who are suffering and help them. I have discovered that many Ministers, who are better than me are in the villages, but because they don’t have resources, they can’t preach to the unbelievers because the unbelievers are feeding them.
So, we have to rescue them, making provision for them, so that they can preach. These are the things I do. It is a silent ministry. By the Grace of God, we are covering grounds. We have travelled far and wide. We have gone to Niger Delta, The East, Akwa Ibom, Ondo State, Cotonou, and these areas, people have become happy and power of God is touching them. People are having succour and solace.
Whenever we go, we give them Shoes and Clothes. Another dimension God has added to my Evangelism is the medical ministration. This was demonstrated in my home town, Ile Oluji, last year. With the help of Pro Health International in Jos and with the help of NDDC, we stormed Ile-Oluji with over 30 medical workers from the US, and other places in Africa and gave the people free surgery. They did cataract surgery and it commended us to them, people said if Jesus people could do this, let me serve their Jesus. That’s my new dimension to my soul winning venture.
As at the time God called you into the Ministry, how did you feel?
It was tough because when the call came, it was at the peak of my life as a young man in business. I had a very flourishing Civil Engineering Company, I had JNISSI Chemical Ltd. that was supplying Cadbury, Nestle Skimmed Milk Powder. I was one of the big players, that time. Then, I was selling spare parts. I was importing knocked down parts from aboard. I was running a Pharmacy with my cousin. I was selling wood. I had about 5 businesses and the call came. I resisted it for about 3-and-half years and I suffered. And God took everything away. And at the end of the day, I surrendered on April 2nd 1998..
