Heroes of the Church 18

The Founder’s father, a Methodist carpenter of Porto Novo, prayed for a son and vowed to give him to God’s service, as Hannah and Elkanah did. Samuel was born in 1909, and his father guided him until his death in 1939.

Moise Suru Afoyan of Zevu, Porto Novo, was a friend of the Founder. The Constitution records that Christ restored him to life, and that he foretold the storey house the Founder would build, a testimony fulfilled in his lifetime.

Wolisata was one of the early prophetesses of the Celestial Church of Christ. Through her came the very first spiritual hymn of the Church, given in the first week of October 1947 and preserved today as Hymn 762.

Emmanuel Mawunyon Guton, nephew of Papa Oshoffa, was the first prophet of the Celestial Church of Christ. Through him came the seven candles, the Pajaspa, Holy Communion without wine, the Mattah and the watchnight song. He later served as an Evangelist in Cote d’Ivoire.

Iya Yaman (Felicia Yaman Oshoffa), first wife of Papa Oshoffa and Mother of the Church, kept the Founder’s home, stood beside him at Grand-Popo, was valued for her prophetic insight, and welcomed the Lord at Makoko in 1954 when He came as a blind stranger.

According to the Church’s Constitution, the name Celestial Church of Christ came down from Heaven through Alexander Yanga, a man receiving spiritual healing at the Pastor Founder’s residence, who wrote it on the wall in chalk after seven days in a trance.

Porto Novo, 1947: an expatriate police officer refused to drive away the crowd at Papa Oshoffa’s house and suggested an open-air meeting instead. In Papa Oshoffa’s own words, that meeting marked the beginning of the Church.

On 29 October 1982, Papa Oshoffa named five men who together formed the highest authority of the Celestial Church of Christ worldwide. This Heroes Month we remember their lives and their labour.