church founders 3

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.