Jump Start # 3954
Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
Throwback Thursday: an article written many years ago
The Conversion of a Juju Priest
Recently, I received word from my friend bro. Odoemelam about the 1985 conversion of his father, Friday. The Odoemlam’s live in Nigeria, West Africa. Read for yourself the interesting story of how the Gospel of Jesus Christ works upon the heart and the soul of an individual.
My grandfather, who was the chief Juju priest, died in 1959 and after his burial, my father was crowned the chief Juju priest after him. When I grew older and stronger in the filed of preaching, I started preaching to him the way of salvation. He declined paying heed to the Gospel message and concluded that Christianity was a Western religion. At a time I gave up and stopped preaching to him, but as I converted others like him to Christ, my spirit was restless over his destiny. Then to provoke his thought to realize how serious I was, I charged my children to stop receiving gifts from him. He drew my attention to my children’s attitude towards him and I told him to inquire from them why they behaved so to him. When he did, they told him that he was an idol worshipper who made a living from serving the devils. When he heard this, he shed tears and was dumbfounded.
As I as studying his case, I observed that he believed in God but misunderstood how to serve and worship Him. The second thing that I noticed was the he feared he could be stricken dead by the devils for forsaking them. Immediately, I decided t pray with fasting on his behalf. I asked God to destroy the spirit of fear of the devils so that he could obey the Gospel. My wife and I prayed and fasted many times and at last, God Almighty answered from above.
When we went home for a Gospel meeting, my wife went to him and sounded the Gospel message once again to him. On the 19th of December, 1985, we invited him to our morning devotion to which he attended. We prayed for him to give God the glory and showed him what God in His love has done for him. I also told him about the certainty of death, but what mattered was whose servant he would die. In the evening he told us that he decided to follow Christ. Then one of my sisters asked him what would become of his idols and Juju? Then he declared that they would be burnt tomorrow. All of us rejoiced to hear that from him.
Then on the 20th of December, 1985, during the invitation at the Gospel meeting, he confessed his faith in Christ. We took the brethren home and gave them charge over the whole idols to be burnt to ashes.
The whole village was turned “upside—down” as they beheld the idols and Juju with human skulls on flames. All glorified God. He was baptized into Christ that afternoon and his conversion has brought many to Christ. Those whom he left behind in the devilish cult threatened and boasted of his sudden death for exposing them to ridicule. But alas—the old man is waxing stronger and stronger, both in health and faith! God is pleased and everyone is happy.
Roger
October, 1987
Extra note: I was blessed to get to know both father and son Odoemelam through many letters. Both have since passed on to the glory of the Lord.