HOW ZION MINISTRY STARTED WITHOUT MY PLAN – EVANG. EBUKA OBI
By Oki Samson, Trek Africa Newspaper
World renowned evangelist and Founder/Spiritual Director of Zion Prayer Movement Outreach, ZPMO, Evangelist Chukwuebuka Anozie Obi has explained how the prayer ministry started out. He recalled how he was rejected in many places. He noted that this is consistent with one of his three vows never to start a church. He also assured that he remains committed as a layperson in the Catholic Church.
In his special interview with Trek Africa Newspaper and other selected media organisations, Evangelist Chukwuebuka Anozie Obi reflected on how the journey began for Zion Ministry. ‘A time came when I came to Lagos to work. The person I was working with had issues with me. I remember the day a Yoruba man came to buy goods. As I was selling to him, he had a wound, a smelly wound that refused to dry for years. And as I was selling to him, I placed my hand on the wound, and the next day, the wound dried. The next day, I saw more than fifty (50) people in the office. My boss told me this is not why I called you to come here, the time has come for you to go.’
‘Then, when I went to the Catholic Church, I didn’t feel safe because people will be disturbing me, even right from the church which can also make some priests angry. Even when the mass is going on, you will see people telling me, touch me, pray for me, you know. I keep running from one Catholic Church to another on Sunday. Even in my office in Idumota, a lot of people come in there to look for me. They are not coming to buy, they are coming for me to pray for them. In my house, my landlady gave me a quit notice because sometimes they will bring someone that is suffering from epilepsy in the night, knocking on the gate. I was so miserable that I don’t have a hidden place.’
‘Somebody told me that there is a place called Prayer Estate where some pastors normally go there to have a quiet time. So, I started going to that place. It was very bushy then. I started going there to pray. When I started going there every Sunday after mass, people got to notice that I always go there on Sundays. That’s how people started coming there to look for me. That was how Zion Ministries started. We never planned for one day. I never planned to have a ministry, I never planned to have a prayer group called Zion Ministries. People started coming in their hundreds, at that time, to look for me. Then cars started coming in, bringing people. The owners of the land said, no, no, that a lot of people are coming here to look for him with cars, inside this bush. We have to stop him. The landlords banned me from coming. But they left some other pastors that have small groups.’
‘When they stopped me, people said no, we enjoyed his prayers. People from nowhere contributed money and I supported them. That was how we came here. When we came here, we started to say, what name are we going to call this? Coming here today is not something I planned or budgeted for. It’s something I see that I cannot explain. It has never been my plan to have a ministry.’
‘People bought the first four plots here. Before you know it, four plots could not contain us. People keep buying. Zion people keep buying. From the beginning of the current street, people even demolished over eight houses of people, which we bought. For each of them, we didn’t buy any of them for less than 200 million.’
On donations and giving to the prayer ministry, ‘People you see that bring money here, it’s willingly. Nobody forced them, nobody taxed them. So, my whole journey, if I begin to explain it, tomorrow we cannot live here, but it has all the grace of God. There is nothing wrong with tithe. It’s one of the scriptural principles. I’ve never preached about it here for people to be giving me. There are other ministries that collect tithe. Personally, I let people do what they want to do. I’ve never asked people to bring me first fruit before. I have never asked people to give me tithes. I’ve never done any bazaar here. Any time we have a project, I will say members, we have this project. That is all. You will see people willingly give. That is how we run here.’
About his relationship with the Catholic Church, the man of God hinted: ‘Many priests love me, many bishops love me, but some are still doubting me. What is he doing? Why would he possess such power? He’s not a Catholic priest. Why would he possess that power? Why would he pull such a crowd? Some of the saints like St. Anthony, St. Padre Pio passed through the same issue. So some of the priests and bishops that don’t agree with me, I don’t blame them. Everybody will not agree with what you are doing. Even Jesus Christ was not accepted by everybody. There are some priests that call me from outside the country who tell me ‘you are making the church proud, we have never seen any ministry by a layperson as large as this in the history of the world, not just Africa. No Catholic ministry, no Catholic member has had such millions of people. If they blow me, I will stay in the church. One thing I love in the Catholic church, nobody can bind you not to be a Catholic. I am getting to the level that I can never be anything except Catholic because I am already confirmed. The only thing you can do to make me not to be a Catholic is you will go and wake late Bishop Hortshire from the grave. That oil of confirmation, he should take it out of my head. But so far he can’t do that, I must remain a Catholic. That is my stand in the Catholic church. I love the church and I’m going nowhere. I would die here.’
