•Reveals The Story Of The Church @ 20
If you watch TV regularly you must have seen Pastor Gbenga Oso, on some of the local channels giving. Thanks to God for blessing many couples who through his prayers have had couples. Some have had twins. Some have been blessed with triplets. Once a month, the couples usually come together with Pastor Oso, who is the General Overseer of Laughter Foundation International Ministry to hold thanksgiving and the programme is shown on TV.
The big news is that, Laughter Foundation Ministry is 20. And the Church is celebrating it big, having been blessed with hundreds of couples who have had kids after receiving the divine prayers of this respected man of God who is so humble.
How did the church start? Where did it start? How many people attended the first service? And how did Pastor Gbenga Oso get his call to go ahead and set up his child-bearing Ministry in March 1997? These and many more were the questions City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE asked the Church’s G.O last week. Below are excerpts.
How did Laughter Foundation Ministry start?
The mandate came from God, 20 years ago for me to begin to pray for couples in need of children, couples that have been married for some time, who unfortunately have not been able to have children. And you would know that they would have done everything like go to hospitals and they can do all these and it will yield no result. So God spoke to me that I should start a Ministry that will basically focus on that.
At that time we didn’t have a church that was doing that, that was basically doing that. What churches will do is, during the normal service, maybe, have 1 or 2 minutes to pray for people who are believing God for Children.
But God specifically told me that I was going to start a Ministry and the only thing that Ministry will focus on was to be child bearing matters. I had been a minister before that time.
When I heard that I had a clear picture of the message. I heard that and the Ministry started in March 1997 with about 8 people in attendance and then we went on. The attendance was growing little by little. It was at that point I knew the power of the media.
Why you will ask?
Its because somebody just advised me. Look, this thing you are doing is rare. I don’t know anybody doing this kind of thing in this country. Go to the media. Put this thing on Radio and TV. So he helped me get someone who put together a promo. We ran it for a week. After that, the attendance multiplied. Infact the hall we were using then became too small. And we moved to another one. A lot of people started coming. Inside was filled up. Outside was filled too. From that time, we continued to use the media, starting from the radio to TV and eventually to print media. The journey has been wonderful in these 20 years. Testimonies abound.
There are so many testimonies. I can’t remember 1% of those testimonies of people who have done everything; a human being should do to have children that it has not been possible.
Can you share some with us?
Ok. There is one. A couple came here, few years ago. The woman has been married for 35 years without a child. Of course before she came here, she had gone around, done everything. She was also working in a hospital. She eventually came here after making so much efforts to get pregnant. As God was doing it for people, she became pregnant. By the time she delivered that baby girl she was 59 years old going to 60 years. For a woman to have a baby at that age was nothing but a miracle. These are some of the things we see here.
There was also a woman who came here and God answered her prayers. By the time she had her 1st born she was 54. Many people were surprised that she could have her 1st child at 54. She had a 2nd child at 56, here. She still comes to church with those children.
One happened very recently. Its about a couple who got married in Nigeria. The husband came from the UK to get married to the wife in Nigeria and later the wife joined him in the UK.
And then it was time to start making babies. And nothing was happening. There, they were exposed to the best medical practice in the UK. Their marriage was going into years. They got married at one of our branches in Ibadan.
What is the significance of Ibadan to Laughter Foundation Ministry?
Many don’t know that Laughter Foundation Ministry actually started In Ibadan before I moved to Lagos.
But we still have branches in Ibadan. This couple got married at one of our branches in Ibadan. Then, the man went back to the UK. The wife later joined him. The wife knew what God has been doing in Laughter Foundation. They didn’t have any of such in the UK. They were members of a church. A very fantastic church but no child. The problem the wife has been having is bad dreams. Anytime she got pregnant, she will suffer bad dreams and that will finish every thing. At a point, she was not getting pregnant and they started doing IVF After they did 6 IVFs and there was no child, the wife told the husband and said look, I know where I came from. At Laughter Foundation in Nigeria this kind of thing is dealt with easily.
So she spoke to the husband that they should relocate to Nigeria. As difficult as it was, the husband agreed with her, since having children has become a big issue. The wife knew that what they were facing, could be taken care of here at the Laughter Foundation Church. It is always a problem that God solves easily here. So the husband now started applying for jobs in Nigeria. He was working with an Oil company in the UK, London.
He was applying for the same job in Lagos so that he can be here in Lagos and be attending our church here.
Luckily for them, he got a job and they relocated back to Nigeria. They said they had every thing going for them in the UK but the issue of having a child was more important that all that. The wife resigned from her job and both relocated completely.
Then they both started attending Laughter Foundation. To cut a long story short, the IVF went to 7, meaning they did 7 IVS that failed.
But within years that they have been attending Laughter Foundation the wife got pregnant. She was afraid that she will lose the pregnancy again. Of course I told her not to worry. I had some time to pray with them before the pregnancy came. I saw their names in the forms people fill.
In our church, when you come here for the 1st time there is a form members fill. They fill counseling forms. And in it they narrated.
Because of the level of their challenge, I had to invite them and I started praying with them. So, the wife got pregnant. And she was afraid she will lose the pregnancy and I told her, not here. Such things don’t happen in this place. Like I predicted, she was able to carry the pregnancy through and she went back to London to deliver. And she delivered a set of triplets. That was their first delivery in their 9 years of marriage – 2 boys and 1 girl. They came back to Nigeria to do dedication and then the wife went back to the UK with the children. The husband is still here. I told him to start looking for a job in the UK because of his children. Its not good for a woman to raise children alone without the father. He is one of our Deacons now. He is here every Sunday. The wife also calls me once in a while to appreciate God.
During the delivery something also happened. When she was about to deliver in London they were always calling me when the delivery was close. I was talking to them, I was praying with them. The delivery was through Caesarian Section.
After the CS was done, the doctor told her that there was another issue. The doctor said she has a very big ovarian cys+ inside her, as big as a baby. She said he called the Consultant while doing the caesarian section that he has seen something.
Should he remove it then or leave it till some other time? The consultant asked the doctor to leave it till some other time, that he will think of what to do with later. It was a large ovarian cyst. She called me. I didn’t know such thing was happening. I only prayed for her. When the babies were out I congratulated them. After she was discharged a few days after she got home and called me.
She said Daddy, we appreciate God for what he has done. But there is another big problem. She explained that the doctor found huge ovarian cyst inside her. She said after delivery she was even feeling she still has another baby there and that her belly was still big. And that is the ovarian cyst the doctor was talking about. She was telling me, she is afraid, she didn’t want to go through another surgery again. I now told her that the God that gave you this baby through prayers will do something. So, I prayed for her and I asked her to be calling me. I was praying for her everyday. They asked her to come back to the hospital after one week. She went back and the thing was still there. It was very big. She could see it through the scan. She came back and we continued prayers. They gave her another 2 weeks to come back after which they will now decide what to do with it.
But I kept telling her that God will do something about it. I kept telling her that she will not need to do another surgery. By the time she went back after 2 weeks of her last visit to the hospital the ovarian cyst had disappeared completely. The doctor was shocked. He said I can’t find anything there. The doctor had to re-scan her. He sent her to do citiscan, maybe citiscan will be able to detect it where it is. She went for citiscan and there was nothing there. The doctor told her she was free from the ovarian cyst. That is one testimony.
So, this child bearing issue has been our main focus. That is why we get solution faster and easier than other places.
There are so many testimonies. God has been awesome. People come from all over the world to participate in what we are doing here. And God attends to them. I too I move out of the country to preach.
A couple came from the US to be part of us here. They told me that, what brought them here is the testimonies they heard from their friends who didn’t have children before but who now have abroad. And they kept telling them that if they don’t go to Laughter Foundation Church in Nigeria there is no way they could have children. The woman said after listening to 4 different people she knew very well telling them the same thing, they decided to come to Nigeria.
She said she went to Canada to visit a friend she has known for a long time and when she got there, she saw that her friend has a set of twins. She also told her about Laughter Foundation and that was it. The couple decided to attend our Monthly Miracle Service in Nigeria. They just created time. They came and went back. A lot is happening here.
At Laughter Foundation, God answers peoples prayers. People who are waiting on the Lord should come over here for prayers. There is a solution here.
At Laughter Foundation, we monitor pregnant women up till the last moment of delivery. We pray for them. Like I said about the couple that had triplets. After they went out of the country I kept monitoring them and praying for them. That is what we do for all pregnant women here. We have what we call Pregcnant Women Prayer Meeting for pregnant women. It holds once in a month. The moment a woman begins to attend the prayer meeting we start special prayers for them. They fill forms. And we start monitoring them to make sure that person does not lose the pregnancy, and to make sure that person does not lose the baby during delivery and that person must not die during delivery because that happens a lot in this part of the world. We ask pregnant woman to attend hospitals. We are not against pregnant women attending hospitals. All we do is to give them prayer attention.
Because of the way we monitor pregnant women up till the time they deliver, we don’t lose our babies during delivery. And for the 20 years, of this Ministry, we have never lost a woman in the delivery room. It has never happened. We have had so many women go to the delivery rooms to deliver. In all the 20 years of this church, we have never lost a woman in the delivery room, despite all the challenges, in our environment especially spiritual attacks. Women will come and tell me their challenges.
There is a testimony from a woman who came here with her husband. She said she has been dreaming that she will die in the hospital when she goes to deliver. Not only that. Even her friends, Christian friends, spiritual people have been telling her that she will die during delivery. Also, the hospital in which she was to deliver was a Christian hospital.
At that hospital they told her that they had a revelation that somebody will die. She was the one they were referring to. When she was getting close to delivery I prayed for them. When she came to tell me with her husband that she was going in soon for delivery, I prayed for her.
When she was about to go, she said, daddy pray for me ooo! Pray for me that I won’t die. I now asked her, what’s the matter?
She now told me everything. How people have been having dreams that she will die, how in the Christian hospital where they pray a lot they told her somebody will die. I just told her, you won’t die. I told her that in all the years of this church, no pregnant woman has ever died during delivery. I told her you will not be No 1 that will start. I prayed for her. I told the husband that wherever she is going in for delivery they should let me know. And I will pray for her in the hospital so that her mind can be at rest. Me, I knew she would not die. She went into the delivery room. I was talking to her husband. In a few minutes she delivered by herself and came out. The day she came to do testimony and she said this thing, I asked her, I told you, you won’t die. You didn’t believe me. You have delivered the baby. In our church we have several, countless, number of women who have gone to the delivery room and back. The reason is we monitor them right from the beginning of the pregnancy to the time the baby cries out after delivery, because we always ask the husband to be there, when the wife has gone to deliver. I would speak with the husband to know what is going on.
Atimes I may have to talk to some doctors. I do that a lot.
For example, a delivery may have to be through Caesarian Section operation and some women will say No, No, No, I didn’t tell God that I want to do CS and the doctors are having problems convincing her to do it. To resolve it, the husband will call me and I will talk to her that she should allow the operation to be done. CS operation will have to be done if the baby is too big. It is to avoid the possibility of the baby and mother dying.
In such instances I will talk to the woman, look, let them do it. Its me that is praying for you. When I talk to God about you, God will answer. Let them do this thing. You will be okay. Your baby will be okay. So I do that. We follow up our pregnant women so that nothing bad will happen to them in the course of delivery.
