Berkley Center

Background: Reverend Taiwo Opeyemi is the Resident Pastor of the HeartClinic Christian Global Mission, which provides welfare, youth, and health support to Nigerians. Osuolale Joseph Ayodokun, a WFDD consultant, spoke with Rev. Opeyemi on November 18, 2017 to learn more about Reverend Opeyemi’s work, which he says is motivated by a commitment to ensure that every human being is able to live a fulfilling life. Through activities that include a youth sports program and welfare work, the mission works to recalibrate the heart of people back to God. During the conversation, Rev. Opeyemi reflects on how faith both influences and motivates HeartClinic Mission’s ongoing work, emphasizing an innate trust in God’s ability to change people’s lives. He describes the different areas of outreach the mission has to reach communities and sheds light on the path that led to him to this mission.

Can you please introduce yourself and tell me a bit about your career?

I am Reverend Taiwo Opeyemi, Resident Pastor of HeartClinic Christian Global Mission. I went to school at the University of Ibadan (UI), and I had my primary and secondary education in Lagos State. I received God’s calling into the ministry in 2003. It has been rough, but we thank God. I have been on mission to Port Harcourt. I have also been able to carry out one or two assignments in Lagos, where I had an evangelist assignment. I have been reaching out to souls, and my passion is to see how people can be safe and have a better life. Even the so-called “saved ones” need to have a better life. I discovered that when you are born again and as a child of God, you are still lacking in one area or the other, particularly in society where you tend to feel that your God is not real.

My ministry career started in Lagos and then moved to Ibadan when I gained admission for a program. I also had to run a distance-learning program in UI from around 1996. After that, I moved up to Port Harcourt where I was with a ministry with Zion Hill Church. Then, we went on mission to Port Harcourt and after that, I was sent back to be a pastor at a branch opposite of UI. I think then in 2013 I actually was getting a signal from God that my assignment was over in that commission. I then was under another commission and went and discussed it with my pastor. Then I got the call into the assignment into this ministry, which happened just last year.

Can you tell me about your organization?

The HeartClinic Christian Global Mission is located in Ibadan. The mission was founded by Reverend Victor Adelaja Odewole, who happened to be the general overseer of the commission. Our mission can be taken from the ministry’s vision statement: that the mandate that God gave to men of God is to recalibrate the heart of men back to God. Today, a lot of people are losing hope. Hope has been shattered and their hearts have been broken, including within the so-called “Christian fold,” family settings, and society. Many have actually lost hope and felt that there is no God. The mandate that is of the utmost importance therefore is to recalibrate the heart of people back to God. We have phrased it as “heart formation.” Commonly we tell people that our mission statement is the heart of flesh, which is taken from the book of Ezekiel 36:26. That is where the vision statement of this commission is taken from. Our mandate or the call of God upon our settlement is not a church, but rather a missionary mandate, which is intended to reach different ethnic groups and different sets of people. The mandate that God gave us is not just to go to church; He is not after building a church or having a cathedral, but instead He is after touching people’s lives. 

We have different arms of the ministry. The name of the ministry is HeartClinic Christian Global Mission. Under it we have HeartClinic Christian Center, which is the church arm. We also have HeartClinic Christian women’s ministry and HeartClinic Christian men’s ministry. We tagged the women’s ministry as “homemaker” and the men’s ministry is tagged as “change maker.” Then we have the youth ministry, which includes the HeartClinic Football Academy. There, we seek to discover potential in Christians, particularly in the area of sport, and then we get them prepared with the Christian spiritual mindset. There is another one that I want to mention, which is the HeartClinic Christian Leadership Institute. 

We just launched the HeartClinic Christian Chaplain Association where we develop people through trainings. We build their skills for the work of the ministry and some of them might then decide to be a volunteer worker. Currently, we have some workers who are in training and at the same time they are on the mission’s payroll. Some of them have a calling to work in the ministry and so our interest is to see that if you have a call from God, no problem, let us bring you in. We try to adopt the principle of Elisha. Because of the biblical stories of Elisha and the sons of prophets, we usually call them sons of prophets in the sense that they are in ministerial training. And also, we saw in that place that Elisha was able to fend for these people, at least to care for them. At a point, he told the servant to go and get food for them. 

Some of them have a fear of going into the ministry. You need training before you can go out and carry out the ministry assignment and responsibility effectively. For them to devote themselves becomes a challenge because they will question, “What am I going to be eating since I will not be working?” The question of whether or not they will be full-time for training for ministry work or work part-time is left to their individual choice. Some of them have the conviction that God wants them to go into full-time training, and for them, they think that is how they will get the best out of that developmental training in the ministry. In such cases, some of them will have issues meeting their family’s needs or fending for themselves. Thanks to the glory of God. God has been tremendous in ensuring that every one of us is on a payroll and that at least something is coming in monthly for us to live on. 

There is another arm of the ministry, HeartClinic Christian Leadership Institute. We have run about three sessions of school here. The first set was free: the garments, matriculation, gown, the refreshments, everything was done free. They didn’t pay a dime. They just got the form, filled it out, and we took them through the training. The other two batches were organized the same way.

In what area are you carrying out your welfare program and what population are you serving?

We have a welfare ministry that we started, I think, in April this year. Monthly, we reach out to people, sharing flyers and inviting people in the neighborhood and even outside this neighborhood, both Muslim and Christian. They come together and we give them food and then we give them the word of God. They then go back home and we pack some food items in bags and give those to them. Then sometimes we even give them livestock, like animals or fish or anything like that. We have been doing that and so far God has been helping us. In regards to attendance, each time we have from 180 to 200 or so in attendance. 

Besides giving of food and other edibles, what other things do you give in your welfare ministry?

Other things we give include clothes. We suggest to them that if they don’t have anything they are doing and they are looking for a job, they can just come around to me as resident pastor. We have some organizations around here where we can send them to seek a job. I think about two people have gotten a job through this platform. I remember that for one individual, I had to give him money because some of the job agents collect money for application forms, so I said, “Okay, take this and go for it.”

Yes, we also give them medications. Some of our partners are pharmaceutical shops. We want to do medical outreach. We are even able to run some tests on people that came around. So far, God has been helping us on that.

What informed the formation of the youth football academy and what do you want to achieve through that?

The football academy is under our youth ministry. Basically, we discovered that our youth today are not happy when people do not recognize and help to foster their talent. We are in a state where individuals or churches are not helping them to discover and cultivate the talent and the gift of God inside them. One of the particular and celebrated talents that is now socially acceptable and that our youth are giving themselves to is sport. So, we decided to come up with the HeartClinic Football Academy, and our objective and aim is to be able to help people achieve their dreams by equipping them with moral principles via the word of God and also to assist them to secure opportunities, both local and international.

What are the objectives behind all these arms of ministry?

If we are to talk about the objectives, I think it is just to recalibrate the heart of people back to God. Letting them understand that their heart can rest in the Lord, that God can always meet their needs, and that He can always be there for them.

How big is this organization?

What I can say is that the ministry will just be two years on December 2, 2017. To the glory of God, we thank God for all that we have been able to achieve already. We currently have five staff on board. As for the ministry, the essence of the church and the aim of the G.O. is not to have a big church and have crowds of people. The church is just the place where we prepare people for the ministry work since our work predominantly is to reach out to people in the mission. When people for the welfare programs show up, it is unclear which people will attend to them since we only have a few workers in the church. That is why the church is like a chapel where we can all come together to worship and serve God and also receive further trainings. Talking about how big the organization is, I don’t know how to really quantify it now.

What are the goals this ministry wants to achieve by creating an arm for welfare and youth development?

I try to look at the official objectives here. It says to activate the power of God in all Christians with simplicity by preaching, teaching, and propagating the mysteries of God’s words as enabled by the Holy Spirit. Also, to liberate all men from bondage of souls through heart formation programs, services, and messages. It is to have Christian centers all over the world with structures that will promote righteousness and peaceful co-existence of believers. And also to develop Christian leadership institutes where Christian leadership trainings can prepare and ordain men of God for God’s assignment. It is to organize periodic retreats, concerts, outreaches, and revival meetings with God’s power, love, and grace towards man. It is to broadcast programs of biblical teachings and doctrine in the electronic media, social media, and cable TV and radio stations for the purpose of evangelism and promotion globally. It is also to initiate, encourage, participate, and engage in charitable activities towards all people, especially to those of households of faith. Furthermore, it is to cooperate with bodies whose aims and objectives are identical with or complementary to this ministry. And, like I have told you, we promote welfare by initiating business and career meetings to liberate men from financial bondage through the revelation of God’s words and truth. We also aim to build a woman’s liberation and development forum.

What are the activities you carry out at the welfare and youth development arm of your ministry?

For welfare, we organize programs monthly where we share food items and clothes to people who are in need. And not just for Christians, but also for Muslim and Pagans and the less privileged generally. Under the welfare arm, we also usually go out quarterly to reach out to the less privileged, i.e. the orphans. We go there periodically to share food and items that can meet their needs. So we organize programs like that—monthly welfare programs and quarterly orphanage programs. We usually go there and give them food and encourage them. Then for the youth, we now have the football academy. Currently, what we have done is to locate a particular field, then reach out to people from the church and gather them together for training. First, we pray and give them a little bit of God’s word and after the training for the day, we give them refreshments. Our subsequent plan is to see how we can spot those who are really talented in a particular area of sport, like football. Our intention is to then see how we can offer international opportunities for them, like finding a club that they can join to fulfill their football career. And through that, they will be able to earn some salary both locally and internationally. This is our aim.

Do you have any programs around education?

Yes, we are about to distribute books to primary school pupils. The design of the cover page of the book came out as at yesterday, so I was at Mokola to do some printing. Our intention is to give books quarterly, specifically at the primary school level. And for free. The school will be going on break by December, so by January we want to go and give them those books.

Where and what region of the nation are you covering?

Currently we cover Canada, USA, and Nigeria. Let me just say that as young as the mission is, we have a few of our staff, about two of them, who are working with our G.O. in Canada. Like I told you, the mission is very young. We still need more hands on deck to carry out this assignment. Currently, we do periodic retreats in Canada. And we have also been on TV stations.

For the welfare work, what population do you target?

We target every Nigerian.

Why do you do this welfare work?

Because we believe our Lord Jesus Christ encourages us to do so, particularly in the book of Mathew 24.

How does your faith influence or motivate this work that you are doing?

Everything boils down to faith. Especially because we have been able to do so much despite the fact that we have no sponsorship from anywhere aside from those who just started contributing, including those who started giving us medical supplies. Our faith as Christians makes a tremendous impact on the people we work with, especially because we believe that the mission cannot go unless we trust God for particular supplies and also trust God to transform people’s life. One of our aims is to see how people’s hearts can be recalibrated back to God.

How does faith influence the approaches your mission takes in carrying out this assignment?

Basically, since we have to deal with a lot of people who are not Christians, we need to channel our faith towards them, using our faith to affect their lives with love. We allow love to be the foundation and the driving force behind what we are doing.

Where does the funding come from?

Currently I can tell you the funding is coming from our G.O. That is the only person. We, the staff, also make our pledges from the little we are being given as contributions in a token way. And concerning the welfare activities, which involve the distribution of food items, we have had on two occasions now people that have given us about three bags of rice. But so far, we are still trusting God. A lot of them are yet to key into this vision with us. Majorly the founding is on the shoulder of this mission, especially and specifically the G.O.

What will make this work more effective if it is available?

More partners who can donate and also more volunteer workers who can support us because we have room for that. We have some volunteer workers in some of our programs who have actually joined our mission work. Some of them are not from this church but they join us to carry out the assignment.

Is there anything besides funding that you need?

Basically, since it is about work, tools are the major thing that we need and that is a concern.

So what are the tools?

What I am saying about the tools is we need partners who can donate in-cash or in-kind materials. We have some partners who donated used clothes, aside from the clothes we bought ourselves.