Archbishop Michael Olushola Oluwatusin, President of the Holy Apostolic Church Worldwide, Bucknor, Oke-Afa Isolo Lagos, was a successful business man when God suddenly called him to work for him. In those days when working for God as shepherd was not a fancied vocation, Oluwatusin stoutly rejected the call, and even attempted plunging into the Lagos Lagoon in his bid to run away from God’s call like the Biblical Jonah. But today, he shares his fulfillment working for God as shepherd in the below interview with Christian Benefits’ Funmi Olarinde. Excerpts
Please can we meet you sir?
I’m Archbishop Michael Olushola Oluwatusin, the President of the Holy Apostolic Church Worldwide.
How will you describe God’s move in your church this despise the COVID-19
The church of God is progressing despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that include lockdown of churches. God is still miraculously working in the church with awesome testimonies. Sick people at the point of death are healed being; including mentally unstable people. Some women had the fruit of the womb. God delivered several people from the kingdom of darkness and gave them salvation. God continues to marvelous miracles at Holy Apostolic Church Worldwide.
Briefly share with us how the Holy Apostolic Church was founded?
The Holy Apostolic Church was founded by our late father, Michael Segunowo, at Osogbo, Osun State. Before then he worked as a barber in Osogbo until 1938 when God called him to leave barbing to work for him. God took him into the bush for about a month. He returned from the bush with special water with which he started ministering salvation to people. Along the line God instructed him to return to his home town in Ekiti. That was where he formally founded the church in 1941. God gave the name of the church “Ija Mimo Lati Orun Wa’ (The Holy Apostolic Church) to him on a prayer mountain. When he aged he appointed and anointed me as his successor. But an opposition arose from some of members of the church. This opposition led to a court case. We spent about 24 years on that case. With the help of God I won the case. The step the opposition took against my selection was similar to the one that Moses in the Bible experienced. But God proved himself. Since my ascension as the successor witches and wizard had severally confronted me. They severally queried my deliverance of people from their power of darkness.
Before your selection had God specifically called you into ministry?
God had called me into ministry since when I was five years old. Nobody trained me in ministry. It was God himself that raised me. I have been seeing visions since I was five years old according to my family. I was ten years old when God told a certain man of God to pick a servant of God from my family. The man picked me and went away. Later he brought me back but the spirit of God took me away again for many years before the man returned and took me away again. I decided to stop schooling and learned photography for about five years. God gave me time to work as a photographer for two years but he collected all my earnings in one day. Apart from photography I also sold photography accessories. God told me to leave my work and serve him but I proved stubborn until I had a police case in 1974. This case pushed me to go and drown in a lagoon. But when I got to a lagoon I lacked the strength to plunge into the water. So I rested beside a coconut tree and slept off. While I was asleep I had the noise of a programme and woke up. When I woke up the spirit of God directed me to the church where the programme was being held. When I got there I started telling people visions from 6:00pm to 12:00pm. I was given 3 pounds and 7 shillings as a reward from people. I had written and dropped a letter at home that I was going to drown in a lagoon. When I got home my people told me they had been worried and were searching for me when they saw the letter. Some people from the church ministered to me and I never returned to the studio from that day. I started the ministry and my apprentices took over my studio.
What is the mandate of the church and the gift God endows for the mandate?
The mandate given by God to the church is to see visions, to heal the sick and to deliver people from the kingdom of darkness and to proffer solution to problems. Some of the gifts God endowed me for the mandate, include the ability to pray and fast. I rarely eat during the day. Most times I eat in the evening. God also endowed me with the gift of seeing visions and how to counter the works of the devil.
What are some of the church programmes in line with this mandate?
We hold pregnant women meeting from 8:00am-10:00am every Monday. We hold vigil every Tuesday from 12:00pm-3:00am and Prayer meeting every Wednesday from 5:00pm-8:00pm. We hold workers meeting from 8:00am-10:00am every Thursday. We hold a general vigil every Friday from 10:00pm-4:00am. On Saturday we hold Bible lecture from 5:00pm. We start Sunday worship service with Sunday school from 8:00-9:00am and the main service starts from 9:00am
Who are those you look up to as your mentor or role model in the ministry?
Unfortunately those I regarded as my mentors and role models are dead. Most of the church leaders that one could look up to as mentors are fetish and untruthful.
They can lead one astray because they have gone astray themselves.
Finally, how will you describe the contribution of your wife in the ministry? She contributes in many ways. She puts my mind at rest. She is not harsh. She avoids fights between us. She assists me in the ministry; taking care of pregnant women and assisting the children in getting admission into higher institutions.
