OLUFUNMI OLUYEDE MARCHING ON IN VICTORY



Rev Mrs Funmi Oluyede with Husband, Rev Ajibola
...smiles of God-wrought victory



March is normally one of the most important months on the calendar of Christ Chapel International Churches, CCIC, where I worship. The senior founding pastors, Rev Dr Tunde & Rev Mrs Ebun Joda were both born and got married in March. So, we not only celebrate/mark their birthdays and wedding anniversaries (more often against their wishes), but also seize the opportunity to honour them at what is known as Founders Day. This year hasn’t been and won’t be an exception. But that is a matter for another day.

I am today dedicating this write-up to another March-born pastor, who will be 50 on Tuesday (22). Rev Funmi Oluyede, was until December 2010 (along with her husband, Ajibola) was pastor of Ikeja chapter of CCIC, which happens to be my centre, and it is not an exaggeration to say that outside of my mother, my wife and a few other women I have come across, no other person of the female gender has impacted my life as positively and as enduringly as this woman of God.

She would blush at this, I know, and perhaps even feel a bit embarrassed, but I am glad to confess publicly that, this woman, thirteen years younger than I am. is one of my spiritual mothers. It’s not so much what she taught in words, and those were quite often profound, but what she taught in action. I could tell you a million and one things that I learnt from this wonderful woman of God and her husband who literally took me, my wife and our children under their wings from that moment when we met at 92 Adeniyi Jones Avenue, Ikeja where the church was located. It would however suffice here to simply state that if I understand anything about agape, the God kind of love; unconditional, sacrificial and unceasing, it is because, “Rev Mrs” demonstrated it again and again to me and my family.

All of the foregoing, however, important to me as they are, do not begin to explain why I am dedicating this column to her. You see, if the enemy had its way, we would never have celebrated the 50th birthday of this leader of men and women, except perhaps post humously. We might have strung together the best of tributes in flowery language laden with “was” and all kinds of past tenses, but she wouldn’t have been here to hear or read them!


But thanks be to God, who always gives us the victory in Christ Jesus! “Mummy Oluyede” as my children like to call her, took ill. She was eventually diagnosed with cancer of the brain and, as doctors are wont to do, given two years to live! Yes, she went through all kinds of experiences; but she held on to God and His promises. Today the two years have come and gone several times over and she’ standing.

Now that’s only part of the story. When I say she’s standing, I in fact understate it; she is firmly on her feet running even. Today, Mrs Olufunmi Oluyede is busier than she’s ever been; busy serving the Lord in several capacities than she ever did.

Check this out:

When the 2011 Spring Meeting of the American Bar Association, Section of International Law (ABA International), holds April 5 – 9, 2011 at Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill Washington, DC, USA, she would be there not as a delegate but as a Member, of the Planning Committee, who also served in both the Marketing Outreach Committee and Sponsorship Committee. She has served as an ex-officio member and second vice-chair of the Lagos branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, and is today National Treasurer of the national body. At this level, she currently also is on the NBA Human & Environmental Rights National Committee inaugurated on December 9, 2010 by NBA President, Joseph Bodunrin Daudu SAN, at his first Human Rights Roundtable for stakeholders to review the state of Human Rights in Nigeria.

Pastor Oluyede is Vice Chair, International Bar Association - Africa; Vice Chair, American Bar Association (ABA), International Human Rights Committee & Women's Interest Network; ABA Ambassador/Membership Country Representative (Nigeria); Life Member, International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA); Vice Chair - FIDA Nigeria, Lagos Branch.

Dear readers, please join me and all of my brethren in the Rehabiah Family in celebrating our very own dear Rev Mrs Olufunmi Arinola Oluyede, as she marches on into her second 50 years – to the glory of God.