HOW THE LIVING FAITH DREAM WAS ALMOST TRUNCATED AT INFANCY.

Recently Living Faith Church Worldwide celebrated her 35th anniversary. Many however are not aware of a plan by conspirators to terminate the Liberation Mandate in its early stages.

Bishop David Oyedepo himself once told this true story. The setting was Tudun Wada in Kaduna, the year was 1985. Some 4 Nigerians had recently faced the firiing squad for dealing in hard drugs. The military government of the
day headed by Maj-Gen Buhari was bent on stopping Nigerians from use of hard drugs and substances. Pastor David Oyedepo had come into Kaduna Town about 2 years earlier and had been invited to a State Pastors' meeting. When asked about his mission in the state by the head of the meeting, he characteristically answered "To Take Over". This was not received very well as it sounded too brash and 'unchristian' for a 'newcomer'.

He started preaching and making bold statements like "I can NOT be killed', I can't be Poor! I can NOT be sick. I can NOT die now.
This was too much for both Christians and those from other beliefs. He challenged the establishment such as messengers from the Local Government who often tried to make him relocate from the premises used as a church for according to them 'making too much noise'. He always sent the messengers back to the authorities with sworn curses for any who dared to stand in God's way. A church member once came to him crying "Sir, please stop saying you cannot be poor". That same night, he mentioned the event on the altar and declared "Not just that I will not be poor, I will be the richest". The woman started laughing.

At this time, Pastor Oyedepo drove a beetle (volkswagen) and had just gotten a Peugeot 504. It was during this period that the stage was set to kill the Living Faith Church Dream.

One morning, Pastor David Oyedepo's former driver came to visit. He then went to the newly acquired Peugeot 504 and started to 'wash' it. Later, Pastor Oyedepo came out with his wife to go to work. To their chagrin, the driver had turned the whole car inside out, car seats, carpets and all. David Oyedepo jokingly asked him why he bothered being so thorough instead of giving a basic carwash. As the former driver tried to clean beneath the driver's seat, he let out a shrill cry on discovering the content of a small nylon bag tied and left there carefully. What is that? Demanded the young Pastor, wondering why the grassy content caused such a loud noise. Na weed Na weed! Cried the suddenly agitated car washer. What is weed? Oyedepo questioned further? Na 'igbo' was the reply. Oyedepo got more lectures on the 'marijuana' in his car from his visitor and former driver. Wondering how it got there, he casually asked it to be removed from the car and thrown away.

Appreciating the man for his 'overzealous' effort, he got into the car with his wife, Faith and they drove off. For some reason, there was a police checkpoint at the junction by the end of the road of his house that day. The policemen stopped the couple and immediately ordered them out of the car for a routine search. This was rather unusual as the couple were known faces in the neighbourhood. The shocker however came when one of the cops went straight to the driver's seat and checked beneath it as if he had placed something there. He found nothing, he searched some more and after being convinced there was nothing, they let the couple go.

What if marijuana had been found beneath the seat of 'erratic, bold-talker' David Oyedepo, Pastor of the 'Grass Cathedral' and Founder of Living Faith World Outreach Centre (LFWOC) that day?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Leke Beecroft