City of Refuge Reiterates Vision to Touch Lives, Transform Communities

The City of Refuge International has reiterated its vision to touch more lives and transforming communities in Nigeria.

The Senior Pastor, The City of Refuge International, Pastor Oloche King Adaji, while speaking with newsmen in Abuja, said its vision is not only to preach the gospel of Christ, but to bring about developmental change to lives and communities by reaching out to different demographics through strategic interventions.

Adaji said the vision to open the church was divine, adding that: ‘’The vision to open The City of Refuge International was divine. Every divine vision comes from God, and he gave me the name. It was not something I sat down to craft, I only received it. He gave me the name. We started just two months now, but God has been good to us. I served in Dunamis International Gospel Centre for 20 years, and God gave me a direction to start this, and the work is amazing.’’

He said the mission of the church is to guarantee a glorious destiny fulfillment through the agency of God’s word, presence and power.

‘’The Lord told me we are in the days when humanity is facing a lot of assault from the devil. Bombardment from hell. You remember what the Bible says in Revelation 12 vs 12, the devil has come down because he knows his time is short. And because of this, the assault against humanity is immense and unbelievable and God has used The City of Refuge International Church to raise a safe pavilion, haven with a covert canopy, a spiritual asylum for God’s people and God says we should do this for him,’’ he said.

Speaking on the rising deplorable security situation in the country and the world, he said it wasn’t strange as the Bible has prophesied it earlier.

He said: ‘’We are in the last days and the world should look up to God. My counsel is for us to look unto God. Nobody lives in the world forever, so let’s take the path of peace, dialogue, reconciliation, and talking out our differences like what is happening in Israel and Palestine where properties and life are destroyed and development hampered.”

The pastor, who is also an author while quoting the President, Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo, urged everyone to look unto God, saying: “Life is a battleground and not a playground, and this is the reality.’’

Speaking further, he urged everyone to be the solution and not the problem, stressing the need to be patriotic.

On the incessant marriage collapse amongst couples, Adaji recalled the marriage in Galilee was blessed because Jesus was there, the marriage did not end in shame, the wine finished and he replaced it.

He said the major reason for marriage collapse is lack of knowledge and urged couples to read literature on marriage and understudy people who have so far succeeded in marriage.

On her part, Pastor (Mrs) Deborah Oloche King Adaji, the convener of Deborah Adaji Foundation, said her immediate family has used the platform to impact the lives of people positively.

”Empowering women by strengthening their socioeconomic status and providing them with the knowledge and skills needed to live a sustainable and healthy life is our goal.

‘’Deborah Adaji Foundation is a platform where my family has used over the years to impact the lives of people and reach out to the less privileged. It has existed before the church. It was founded on September 2nd, 2019.

‘’Although it was named after me, it is our family’s social responsibility to the world and community aimed at ameliorating the sufferings in the world. And we do these by accomplishing our vision which is enhancing the lives of women, youths, and children,’’ Mrs Adaji said.

She said the foundation has multiple initiatives, which include Entrepreneur Skills Development Initiative, Health Care Support Initiatives, Education Development and Counsel Initiatives, Community Development and Social works initiatives and Children Support Initiatives.

Via the Children Support Initiatives, she said the foundation does go out for different outreaches, which include visitation to orphanage homes and bless them with school bags, food, and other writing materials.

‘’Under the Community Development and Social Works Initiatives, we do visit communities and support them with food items, we recently visited Benue State to give succour to indigent communities there.

‘’We have also done a lot under the Entrepreneur Skills Development Initiative where we have trained women, and we have lots of success stories under these initiatives. In the first training, we registered 30 women and graduated 27, in the second training we registered 34 and graduated 32. The third training will commence from July to September 2021.

‘’Our joy is to assist the less privileged to earn a living. We are targeting women to empower them so they should not be stranded if their husband is not there and if he is around, they should be a support system to the family,’’ she said.

Adaji said some of the specialized training of the foundation include catering and event management, hair and soap making, beads making, entrepreneurial skills development (mentality renovation), and the initiative has led to the development of a social enterprise, Women Enterprise Network, which result in interested women being impacted to go into business.

According to her, ‘’We are open to international and local partners to give more succour to the less privileged and touch more lives.

‘’We don’t want women to be redundant because an empowered woman is an empowered home, an empowered woman encourages and supports an empowered man as well as the children, because if the woman is empowered the home is built and the society is built and developed. There won’t be agitation that can lead to a trial or crisis in the family and joy will be multiplied.

‘’We are passionate about training and impacting children. When you impact on the youths and children it will in turn help to build a solid future and that is why we focus on the children, youths, and women,’’ she said.

Mrs Adaji said the foundation has recorded some success stories, resulting in a lady, Catherine Obande, who was recently trained and has a training centre, where she trains others.

‘’Others who are also giving back to the society after our training are Jane Adaji, and Fortune Benedict, amongst others.

‘’In 10 years, we want to have representation all over the world, giving succour to people across the world,” she said.

‘Finally, she emphasized that everyone should seek God, seek peaceful coexistence, and make a difference by making the world a safer place. When you seek God,” she said.