His story is an amazing one. He was born to be great. And he serves as mentors to many folks in christiandom. Bishop David Oyedepo is such a rare breed who has impacted many lives through his ministry. Bishop Oyedepo was brought up by his grandmother in Osogbo community. It was Bishop David Oyedepo’s grandmother who nurtured and taught him Christian ethics, with the early morning prayers which she attended with him every morning which she never misses. She also taught him how to believe in his destiny.
The Bishop gave his life to christ in late 1969 through the help of his teacher Betty Laser. He is the founding Bishop of Living Faith Worldwide, popularly known as Winners’ Chapel, He met with God at the very young age of 15 and he obviously might not know in particular where God was taking him to. He had a beautiful background and being born to a muslim father has never discouraged his Christian faith for once.
Born 63 years ago in Osogbo, David Olaniyi Oyedepo is a native of Omu-Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria. He was raised in a mixed religious family. His father, Ibrahim, was a Muslim healer.
His mother, Dorcas, was a member of the Eternal Order of the Cherubim and Seraphim Movement (C&S), a branch of the Aladura movement in Nigeria. He studied architecture at Kwara State Polytechnic and worked briefly with the Federal Ministry of Housing in Ilorin before resigning to concentrate on missionary work. Oyedepo received a Ph.D. in Human Development from Honolulu University, Hawaii, United States.
His soujourn into the pastoral calling and having a tabernacle began when he revealed he received a mandate from God through an 18 hour vision in May 1981, to liberate the world from all oppression of the devil through the preaching of the word of faith. This is the inaugural vision that led to the founding of the Living Faith Church World Wide (LFCWW), first called Liberation Faith Hour Ministries, in 1981.
Two years later, on September 17, 1983, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, ordained David and his wife, Florence Abiola Akano (known as Faith Abiola Oyedepo) to become pastors and officially commissioned the new church. Living Faith Church (a.k.a Winners Chapel) started in Kaduna but moved to Lagos, in September 1989, to start a new branch of the church.
Pastor Faith Oyedepo comes from a family of 8 children and being the number 6. She gave her life to Christ in 1976 as a teenager.” He once talked about his journey into matrimony and ministry. “I was in courtship with my wife then, she was my fiancee. I documented my vow and I invited her. We entered into a church and I showed her the vow. Would you still be willing to follow me? I asked her and she said yes.
I asked her to sign and she did. He met his wife, Faith at age 28 at a motor park in 1976 and courted for about 6 years and later in 1982, he married her. Pastor David Oyedepo who married his wife as Florence Abiola Akano changed her name to Faith Abiola Oyedepo. They have four children together (David Jr, Isaac, Love and Joyce).
The beautiful woman of God celebrated her birthday and pastor Oyedepo went all that to celebrate her, also during their 35 years wedding anniversary, he also reminisced on how their marriage has been, Happy birthday to my heaven sent wife,40 years together and you only have become more beautiful inside and out. On their wedding anniversary, ”Happy wedding anniversary to my heaven sent wife, Faith Abiola Oyedepo.
It gets sweeter by the day” his wife also wrote on the anniversary, to my husband, many years of love and laughter and it is still only gets better each day. I thank God for choosing us, as one to live so unashamedly to him”. They are 35 years stronger in marriage, waxing stronger and still counting. Highly disciplined and gradually raising their immediate families along, the 1st born, son and scion of the family is Pastor David Oyedepo Junior took after his father in everything, David Jnr was ordained as Pastors in May 2007 by Kenneth Copeland. David Jr pastors the London Branch of the Church with his wife, Kemi. he is the resident Pastor of the church in London and regional overseer of the European Network of churches. He got married to former Miss.
Kemi Olubu on July 26, 2008 and they are blessed with 2 children. Pastor David being a student of the school of Faith himself, has help in propagating the Church spread mandate in the UK and Europe in general. He attended Oral Roberts University and Oklahoma Christian University where he received his Bachelors and Masters degrees respectively. His wife, Kemi Oyedepo, who is also active in her own assignment in the ministry, and together they are raising a godly family. The church is located at 1 church hill close, Green street in Dartford, Kent, London.
The 2nd born of the family who was also ordained as a pastor by Kenneth Copeland in May 2007 is Isaac Oyedepo is the present Resident Pastor of Winners’ Chapel International, South Africa and he also got married to former Miss, Ayomitide Omogbadegun on December 17, 2010 and they are blessed with 2 children. Quite doing well in the running of the South African Church, he has en-massed a lot of congregation with his faith based doctrines.
The family’s third born is pretty damsel, Love Oyedepo Ogah she is also into ministry in other capacities as she is often seen on mission trips with her mother most times. Her husband is one of Bishop Oyedepo’s Personal close aide and they met while they were students at Covenant University. The last born of the family is Precious, a product of Faith Academy, she is currently in America and also has some peculiar functions she operates in church whenever she is in Nigeria.
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