TESTIMONY: SOME IMPACTS OF THE 1ST YCLA MEETING IN MY LIFE AND MINISTRY

It’s my utmost delight and great privilege to testify to the impact of the 1^st edition of YCLA (July 9-12 2014) in honing and polishing my vision for service in God’s kingdom and further activating previously latent aspects of my destiny.

By the grace of God, I obtained a Kingdom perspective for Christian service early in my Christian life which began in 1983.   I was inspired to start publishing the Christian newsletter Church Arise! in January 1998, and it is all about standing up for God’s Kingdom at these peculiar end times. My first book published in 2001 was titled “The Time is Fulfilled” and it was based on the Lord’s introducing the Kingdom in Mark 1:15.  Yet, I still remember quite vividly, the feeling that I was hearing about God’s Kingdom for the first time ever, as Pastor Segun Olanipekun unfolded the theme for the 1^st YCLA: “Come let’s ….renew the Kingdom” (I Sam. 11:14) on the evening of Wednesday July 9 2014.  By the grace of God, I was taken to new depths of understanding on the subject of Kingdoms and Covenants, especially with the links back to our father Abraham.  I was considerably stirred up in my spirit and without any doubts, the meeting resulted in considerable enhancement of the quality of my services in the cherished Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The follow-up visit of Pastor Segun in November to shed more light on the concept of City Builders Network (CBN), which held at Camp Young Ede was a glorious capping of my 2014 YCLA experience.
Hitherto, my concept of winning my “mountain of influence” for God was limited to my general calling as an educationist.  Especially as I was the Head of my Department at that time, I was inspired by the YCLA meeting to use the office and clout to stimulate my colleagues and students on the path of functional education and nation building. I continuously reminded them that as arguably the best Physics Department in the country, we have a duty to inspire others in nation building in our unique circumstances.  My commitment to communicating the truth of Creation Science, giving the almighty God due glory for His work in creation, contrary to the “official” evolution-theory position, also received a nudge.

With the vision of CBN further amplified at Ede, I understood that I can go further to win my particular professional field for the Kingdom of God.  As I am engaged primarily in environment/public health area, this seemed a tall dream indeed.  Unknown to many outsiders, the environment-public health field is vastly dominated by evolution theory-inspired new age thinking.  It is considered a major, perhaps THE major, instrument for actualizing the humanist’s vision for a one world government. A vision that apparently requires as cornerstone, values irreconcilably opposed to traditional Judeo-Christian values.  Why, you can easily whip the whole world in line by bringing up subjects of impending global catastrophes (e.g. anthropogenic global warming or some forthcoming health pandemic).  Knowing this, new agers of all sizes and colours over the decades have long established themselves in the field of environment and public health with only very few discerning Kingdom-minded Christians able to at all understand what’s going on.

Confronting this kind of establishment and network, even if only in one’s little corner on the planet, is reminiscent of a David versus Goliath conflict.  And frankly speaking, I could see no David around to lead the confrontation.  I was blissfully resigned to the idea of occupying and holding current grounds rather than pursuing new ones.  And wait it out till the Lord’s imminent return.  

At the Ede follow-up meeting however, I was inspired  with fresh understanding that the least of us in the endtimes is to be as David (Zech 12:8); that to facilitate the Lord’s landing, we need to prepare the Runway, breaking through enemies established lines as may be necessary (2 Sam 23:16).  And that there has never been a better time to do exploits on the planet than the season we are in.(Dan. 11:32)  The small stone cut without human hands is destined to grow, cast down all existing kingdoms, till the mountain of the Lord’s House is elevated above every other mountain – philosophies, ideas, concepts (Daniel 2:44, Isaiah 2: 2).  With the long unbroken hours of in-depth and inspired teaching, I was re-assured that by tapping into the Abrahamic covenant and mantle now prophetically made available through the meetings, I can expect the living God, the God of Israel, to yet enable any interested individual to go possess their mountains, not minding the resident giants, as did Caleb and Joshua in their days.

The challenges were of course considerable, but by the grace of God, the vision only grew in me.  In February 2015 the Lord gave me a clear vision and concepts for a non-governmental organization to promote Public Health and management of the Environment in Nigeria, based on an overtly Creation Science worldview (as opposed to the standard Evolutionary Science in current practice). To fully embrace the vision for this use of Science to provide Life more abundant for all and sundry (John 10:10), I took an official leave off my regular duties at the Obafemi Awolowo University (though I still continued teaching and supervising my postgraduate students).

Even as I stoically embraced the vision and prepared to implement it, my attitude was more like that of Barak in Judges 4:8.  I determined that all my key “instigators” [the Deborahs, as it were] must join me in the battle by agreeing to serve on the Board of Trustees, otherwise I would have found a good “excuse” not to launch out.  Naturally Pastor Segun was on the Board of Trustees. 

By God’s grace, the LivingScience Foundation kicked off formally on February 8, 2016. Within that time, we were able to convene the 1^st National Conference on Environment and Health (May 17-18) with a vision of mobilizing local expertise to seek customised God-honoring solutions to a number of peculiar key environment-health issues in Nigeria.  With literally a zero budget, God helped mobilize men, institutions, and resources, and He granted us unimaginable victories and good success.  Even in the midst of a national strike by the national labour unions, affecting movement across the nation, well over a hundred delegates turned up for the Conference. Significantly, the common description of the Conference by most participants was that it was an “eye-opener”, largely to the scale of ungodly and largely detrimental influences wielded by the new age establishment on environment-health issues in Nigeria.

Our post-conference activities have also been similarly blessed by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Conference Communique has been communicated with about 150 top stakeholders in Nigeria including 6 Federal ministers, over 40 legislators, and dozens of influential media houses and relevant State departments and agencies in the country. After the Conference, the Nigeria Television Authority which covered the event and featured it both at zonal and national platforms invited us to start a weekly grassroot public enlightenment series on the Environment and Health at the Osogbo station.  We are still trusting God for long-term sponsors before we take off. The first scripts are however ready, and we had the opportunity of presenting part of these at an impromptu half hour live chat on a popular breakfast show at the local state radio station at Ile-Ife on Thursday 7^th July.

Parallel to all these, we have been able to kickstart a  chapter of Creation Science Club at the Redeemer’s University, Ede.  Our vision is to replicate  this in institutions of higher learning all over Nigeria in due course.  In the meantime, by the grace of God, I have been invited to give a University-organized public lecture at the same Redeemer’s University in September.  I will be using it as a platform to further push the visions of the LivingScience Foundation.

We understand the journey is only just beginning. As a matter of fact, our registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission is just being finalized. Kindly visit our website, www.lsfnigeria.org to learn more of what the LORD is doing with the little vision activated at YCLA 2014.   I am trusting the LORD for even clearer visions and impartation of more wisdom and strength in this 2^nd edition of YCLA-ALS. Praise the LORD!

Joshua Ojo (PhD)

Professor, Health Physics and Environment