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NBC banned miracles on TV, but permits advertisement of alcohol
(The Sun)

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ROSE EJEMBI, Makurdi
Man in the pulpit Index

Evangelist Vero Enewa Aluma has been a blessing to her generation through her ministry, The House of Mercy Int’l with headquarters in Makurdi, Benue State. She spoke with Daily Sun recently:

My calling
I know that right from childhood, I knew that the hand of God was upon me, even when I had not yet given my life to Jesus Christ because deep in me was that hunger for God even as a child.

I remember that when I finished my secondary school, I told my parents I didn’t want to marry at all but that I wanted to go into the Convent because of the desire to serve the Lord. But maybe because I didn’t have a proper counselling and the knowledge I needed then, I didn’t go that deep.

However, when I repented, the condition under which I repented and the comfort I found in the Lord was so overwhelming that the whole of my heart and desire was to serve God and be a blessing to humanity.

Background
I hail from Ogbadibo local government in Benue State. I am a professional teacher. I was brought up as a young child in a polygamous home and my parents at their level believed in children getting married early. So, I got married at the age of 16 and settled down to raise family. I was however intercepted in life by the sudden death of my husband which slowed down so many things in my life. But the victory came when I met the Lord Jesus Christ in that condition in 1988.

I was a teacher with the Nigerian Airports Authority now Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), but I had to seek for transfer to be re-deployed to the personnel department and posted to Makurdi as the head of personnel department here in Makurdi. I worked there until November 1996 when I retired into fulltime ministry.

I began to sense the calling of God very strongly in 1997 when we inaugurated the Abundant Life Sisters’ Ministry, a non-governmental organisation that reaches out to the need of women and children and focuses on the less privileged.

When the calling became obvious, I had to resign from the employment of the Federal Airports Authority. I remember the reason I gave for my resignation was to pay full attention to the work of the Lord. Initially, it was not easy because the challenges of raising four children who as at then were still in the primary school and the fear of who will take care of them if I left my job was there. But God gave me the assurance that no one that put his hands on the plough is ever put to shame.

Going into full-time ministry
The Abundant Life Sisters’ Ministry is a ministry that reaches out to women, raising and blessing families and giving a particular focus to the less privileged, widows and orphans. As we obeyed the Lord, the ministry was growing and the vision was enlarging.

Our motto is passion for souls and compassion for the needy. We have definite mandate to win souls into God’s kingdom and this we do by holding crusades and mass evangelism. The compassion for soul is the aspect that move us to help the less privileged. Currently by the grace of God, we have quite a member of orphans and fatherless on our education scholarship. We have a school, Heritage Christian School, and we place the orphans and fatherless on scholarship in that school. There are also children in other schools from primary to the tertiary level who are on our scholarship. The widows are also enjoying micro loans just to help them to start a business because we realise they have become the burden bearer after the death of their husbands.

NBC’s ban of miracles on TV
I want to say that I don’t understand why, but I am sure they have their reasons for doing that. But my personal observation is that the gospel should be balanced. It is obvious in Matthew 4:25 that Jesus has three assignments – to preach, to teach and to heal. A situation whereby you promote only miracle and you don’t preach and teach the word, it is not complete. And we must try and judge our motives. Why are you promoting miracle? If you are promoting miracles to make a name for yourself, then something is wrong with that.

I will also like to use this forum to ask NBC to look into other areas because it is very easy to clamp down on religious activities while there are many other activities that are corrupting and polluting our children. If they must ban miracles, they should also look into some advertisements like alcohol, films, cigarettes and movies that are beyond the level of children.

Challenges of the ministry
The truth of the matter is that operating by faith is not comfortable to the flesh. When the Lord says leave all and follow me, you know following without knowing where you are going is so difficult for the human mind. The number one challenge is walking by faith because the carnal mind would want to know the result immediately. But with God, it is one step at a time. And when you are obedient in the first step, then He will tell you to take the next. You can’t stay at the beginning of your calling and know the end.

The second challenge is finance. The gospel is usually very expensive and I believe that is one of the reasons why the flesh comes in and you hear all manner of stories. As a pastor, you are supposed to keep planting churches, and so, you need men and money to do that. For evangelists like myself, you need to hold crusades and regularly be in the media. You need money to buy air time.

But the joy of it is that people are blessed, lives are being touched but there is a price to pay. Midnight prayer, prayer and fasting, denying yourself and your immediate family several comfort to be able to reach your target. Sometimes, it seems as if you are at the mercy of men to give to the work of the gospel. You are not really at their mercy but you need their help, their prayers, you need them to give for this gospel to be preached.

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