Bishop Edith Elisha Ngozi Ezenekwe, the founder and General Overseer of the Brethren Gathering International Ministry, Obosi, Anambra state, shares a birth date with Nigeria. As she prepares to celebrate her 60th birthday, the mother of five children, in this interview with OLISEMEKA OBECHE & BEN OBIKA, shares the extraordinary story of her life-long obsession with evangelism and how she overcame obstacles and near-death experiences to reach the pinnacle of the pulpit.
Bishop, how do you feel celebrating your 60th birthday on the same day with Nigeria?
I feel great and grateful to God about everything concerning my life, from birth till this moment and till I draw my last breath. It’s all gratitude to God, the giver of life and everything therein. Apart from being born on the same day that Nigeria formally became an independent nation, I have passed through so many challenges, just like the country and, being alive, strong and well at 60 years of age means a lot to me. I will simply say ‘to God be all the glory.’ for this 60-year milestone.
You appear younger than your age, what is the secret?
(Laughing) The secret is obviously the grace of God; His mercy and love which nourishes me despite what I have been through in life. I consider myself a living testimony of God’s faithfulness to believers.
What do you consider your greatest achievement so far, looking back at your life?
My greatest achievement so far is winning souls for God. Through my ministry, God has given me the opportunity for soul-winning. I consider being the vessel through which many souls find their way back to the kingdom as my greatest feat in life.
Did you, as a little girl, ever envisage being a soul winner?
I remember that, as a little girl, things about God bothered me so much that preaching the gospel to my school mates became a hobby. I didn’t follow other young girls to misbehave as I was drawn more to spiritual things. I will say that I had always wanted to serve God.
Did you have any premonition that you would be the first female bishop in south east Nigeria?
Never. The truth is that I never wanted to serve as a pastor or full-time minister. I only wanted to serve God as a normal Christian; just to share the word of God with people. Even when people started calling me a prophetess, I often shunned them.
What do you consider as the most difficult period of your life?
The time my husband passed on. That was my first challenge in ministry. The children were still very tender then and I had to take care of them, alongside my studies and running the ministry. It was not easy at all but I succeeded through the special grace of God.
If not God, I would have lost my life. Aside God, my husband was my priority then. So, his death was very painful. During his burial, I made a covenant with him at his tomb that I would not disappoint him. I vowed that my children would not suffer but it was not easy for us because I also had to attend to the ministry needs. There were times when we did not have food just because we had to use the little we had to support the ministry. It was as if everything was crumbling as people began to question the authenticity of my claims about God through my ministry. Some were asking ‘where was your God when armed robbers shot your husband?’ It was really a tough question to answer and the only way to do that was investing more energy and resources into the work of God.
My children were the sacrificial lambs for it. Some of them didn’t start schooling at the proper times but, through God’s intervention, they still completed their education. My first son was in Junior Secondary School (JSS) 3 when my husband died. I managed to train him up to the university. And when he graduated from the University of Benin, he persuaded me to sponsor him abroad, that it would be better than suffering with us in Nigeria. I did that and, by God’s grace, he has been helping the rest of the family members. I’m grateful to God that today many people have used our family’s turnaround to learn that those whose faith are in God are never disappointed.
What was the vital lessons from the tribulation period?
I learnt a big lesson. Trust God forever in all circumstances, no matter what anybody says or thinks. Even when the whole world rejects you, don’t reject yourself.
Any lesson for other women from your life story?
Some women often come to me to ask about my secret and I tell them to be sure of their journey with God. Once you have known that the hand of God is upon you for a special assignment, you must not fear or lose faith. In fact, people might mock you but don’t let that weigh you down. You don’t also need to hate your mockers. You should love them and follow God diligently. There are some women who disrespect their husbands because of their so-called calling. This is wrong, your family must be the basis of your teachings which must also reflect in your family – your husband and children. If you humble yourself to your husband, God will double your anointing.
What does it mean to you being the first female bishop in this part of the world?
Well, I feel so special because I did not see it coming. I didn’t dream of being a pastor, let alone a bishop. So, I feel that everything that comes my way was a divine mandate; that’s why I feel special. I was consecrated February 2007. Since then, there has not been any approved consecration of any female bishop. Today in Anambra state, I am the only one.
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“You cannot live a life without challenges and troubles. I also believe that when you are with God in any challenge, He will surely see you through but when you neglect God, challenges might overcome you.”
How have you been able to use your ministry to project the encounter you had with God?
My ministry is my character. Whatever I preach, you must see it in my life and my family. By my behaviour and how I do things, you will know the kind of life I live. I don’t preach and do something differently. Bible admonishes us to ‘be the light of the world through Jesus in us and darkness cannot comprehend’. Even my church members, when they hear things about me outside the confines of the church, they get surprised because the report from people who are not even my church member gets them amazed.
Why Brethren Gathering?
It was in a dream that God ministered the name to me. I never wanted to go into full time ministry. I just wanted to be a Christian, not a church owner. However, when the revelations came, I realised that that was just how God wanted it and I simply complied.
How did you receive your altar call?
It was through my last and the only girl child, Nzubechukwu. My husband and I had planned to stop having babies after giving birth to four boys. Instead, God spoke to me that he was going to give me a baby girl to convince me know that I was called to ministry. He told me that if the next baby was not a girl, I should assume I was not called to serve him. The revelation came constantly and I begged God that I was not ready for any child again because things were very difficult with us then. Besides, I was very afraid of getting pregnant again due to the horrible experiences that I passed through. God ministered that I should give the coming child a name, (Nzube), and then leave the rest to him. I started sharing the testimonies to my neighbour even without being pregnant yet. While I was sharing the testimony with my neighbour, a giant size demon openly challenged me saying that what God promised me would never materialise. For a few minutes, I engaged the demon in war of words in the presence of my neighbour who was surprised as she was seeing nothing even as the demon was there. I faced lots of spiritual battles after that encounter but, through the grace of God, I conquered.
When I finally became pregnant, things got tougher. In the eighth month, my doctor said I would be admitted to his hospital because of the condition. I refused, arguing that there was no body to take care of children as my husband travelled. The doctor was not happy with me for disobeying his order. That week’s Friday, I had a dream in which I was travelling with that my neighbour to Asaba, through Onitsha, but it was like there was no (Niger) Bridge to cross. I assured the woman we would cross the river with our legs, adding that she should just follow my footsteps. At that moment a voice told me: “I have divided the sea for you; just move and don’t be afraid”. I told the woman that God had divided the sea for us. We walked through but, on getting to the end, of the river, I didn’t see the woman again. The next day (Saturday), labour started with severe pain. My husband, who had returned and was fast asleep due to fatigue, didn’t notice that I was troubled. He even said he thought I was praying. By Sunday morning, I couldn’t hold it anymore and we had to go to the hospital. My last payer was that God should make me deliver peacefully and confirm his word.
At the hospital, scan showed the baby was not mature enough. So, I prayed to God that He should not allow my baby to be put in an incubator and that if the baby was not a girl, I would tear my bible. Meanwhile, earlier in the pregnancy, I begged God to help me make the pregnancy to be twins since I had earlier lost a girl child. God answered this prayer and when I went for scan, the nurses confirmed that two babies were seen in the womb. So, when they carried out their check on me, they discovered that my condition was critical and quickly alerted the doctor.
They discovered that the second child was deformed and had blocked the passage way for normal delivery. One of the nurses shouted, ‘hey!’ Is this how Madam Ngozi will die?! I responded immediately, asking ‘which madam?!’ I told her I was not going anywhere’. By then, water coming out of my body was everywhere. When they eventually called down the doctor who lived upstairs, he started scolding me. “Madam Ngozi, you have come with your ‘wahala’ again. Did I not tell you to come on admission few days ago and you refused. Why did you come back to my hospital? Do you want to tarnish my reputation?!’ He fumed, vibrating. I simply told him to come and do his job. So, after examining me and discovered the situation, he told me that there was no other way except operation. When he told me that, I told him to go ahead. But that he must know that I will sue him if I didn’t go home with my baby, an empty threat that God wanted to use to do his work in that case. In the theatre, the doctor did not bother for someone to sign surety for my operation because he never believed that I would make it. Immediately, he cut me open without any anaesthesia and I immediately asked him what I did to him for him cut me like that. He said that, since I threatened him with court case, he was doing his job to avoid that.
He now, dipped his hands into my belly and brought out the deformed baby and put it into a bucket and searched for almost an hour for my baby girl without success. At a stage, he ransacked my stomach and placed my intestine on my chest and it felt so cold, as he continued the search, surrounded by nurses and his wife who was equally a medical doctor. When I noticed that the situation had become critical, I started worship songs and God strengthened me. After a long time, as I was worshipping God, I heard a loud noise on the edge of my bed. Immediately that happened, I started shouting ‘Thank You Jesus!’ Shortly after that, the doctor brought out something which he showed his wife and nurses, describing it as ‘blocked blood’ and asked the nurses to wrap it in a cloth, so that they will show me when I wake up. It was not a funny drama at all.
When my drip got exhausted, I woke up and asked the nurses around to bring the baby to me so I could see, but they didn’t allow me because the doctor had earlier given them an instruction that nobody should go close to the baby. I insisted and went there to see it, my surgical injury notwithstanding. There was no resemblance of human being in it and no sign of life. But God ministered to me to breastfeed my baby and so I expressed my breastmilk and went straight and performed the ritual of feeding a baby. By then, the foetus had not matured into a baby; no head or mouth or nose or whatever. I just put the breast milk in any position the holy spirit directed me. It was terrible. I continued to do so for four days and, on the sixth day, the foetus started forming miraculously into a baby.
This baby stayed for two months without moving or sucking my breast. Nobody was talking about taking her to an incubator, even though I had earlier denounced the incubator. She was never matured for the incubator. I only had faith and believed in God’s word and just left her to be placed in the holy ghost incubator. The transformation was completed and that baby is now my Nzubechukwu.
Her life has been pure miracle, filled with many amazing things. For instance, there was a day Nzube that had not started talking, suddenly called my mother, shockingly, and my mother responded. She asked my mother if she knew who she (Nzube) was. My mother told her that her name was Nzubechukwu; but she told her that she was her mother, my maternal grandmother, that is. It was a very shocking experience for a non-talking child to make that kind of statement. Afterwards, she didn’t talk again until she reached the stage of talking.
What is the most difficult thing you have encountered in attending to the spiritual flock under your care?
Truth is that when my husband died in 2000, it was not easy for me, but I did not know that greater battles lay ahead. In 2011, through my ministry, pregnant women who had fibroid, were miraculously delivered by God through shifting the fibroid away to enable delivery. At a point, I noticed that whenever I was preparing for a programme, I started having serious bleeding. It was later diagnosed as fibroid. I did everything I could to shake it off but all to no avail. It was disturbing me seriously.
This persisted and I had to undergo operation as advised by the doctor. I woke up one day and realised that there was an outpour of water from my body. When the doctor was called, he asked me to cough and when I did that with force, the stitches boke and my intestine all came out. At this point, the doctor quickly gathered his staff for another surgical operation. It was a matter of life and death. And all of a sudden, they realised that certain things were not ready, including electric power, for the operation. I was already feeling cold internally as if death was near but I clung unto God, insisting that I would make it. The operation still went successfully, to the amazement of everybody. Even the doctor later declared that my case was not ordinary.
The doctor was dumbfounded and, even till now, my God has been performing miracles in that hospital. Initially, he didn’t know that I was a bishop all through the period of treatment until some members of my congregation started visiting me and demanding to see their bishop.
Meanwhile, there was a patient in that hospital who sneaked out of the hospital one day to attend our programme. She had kidney problems but, after her encounter with God, the result of her scan revealed that nothing was wrong with her. It was really a miracle. She also came back after three months for another test and scan and she was still declared very healthy.
Meanwhile, the monstrous spirit that vowed that my baby girl would not be born to confirm my call, continued to torment us afterwards but we were persistence in prayers and the battle to defeat it. So, while my daughter was growing up, she still faced series of challenges that could have claimed her life. For instance, in 2012, my daughter led some youths in the church to a programme and, on their way, the vehicle had an accident and somersaulted several times before stopping on the edge of a cliff. By God’s grace, nobody died or sustained serious injuries. To those who saw what happened or visited the scene of the accident, it was pure miracle to have walked out of the vehicle alive. Imagine what the story would have been if those youths from this ministry had perished in that accident, alongside my daughter. The devil was put to shame once more, yet it did not stop him from coming after me, once more, through an accident.
Mine was a serious accident that took place on April 6, 2013, when I was coming from a programme; and nobody believed that I would survive it because I literally passed out. Even my pastor, who was travelling with me when another vehicle from nowhere rammed into our car, fractured his legs. Those who came to rescue us had to use axe to break the vehicle to remove us from the wreck. Something spectacular happened eventually when they rushed me to the hospital. A woman whose child was admitted at the hospital and was dying, later testified that all hope of getting her child back to life was all but gone but from the very moment I was rushed into the hospital’s emergency room where the child lay dying, the condition changed. I didn’t know about it but such is the way God has been using me to reach out to people. Anybody who saw me at the scene would not have believed that I would be well again. I stayed in the hospital for just two weeks and all my injuries healed. The journey of my life is not really an easy one but, in all, God’s word still remains valid. However, we continued this battle with this demon until one day when a giant monstrous bird, something we hadn’t seen before, fell from sky in front of our gate. Before then, God had already confirmed to me that the demon had been defeated. That was in 2018. I’m glad that we won the battle, but it took many years to be conquered. That is why children of God must not give up when demons show up in their lives. We can always win with God on our side.
The scene of the accident
Bishop Ezenekwe at the hospital bed after the accident
In a nutshell, I will say that the years 2000, 2011, 2012 and 2013 were unforgettable in my life and ministry because of the trials and tribulations that we faced and survived, to the glory of God.
What is the greatest thing you value in life?
Doing the will of God.
What has life taught you?
Life has taught me that depending on God is the wisest thing to do because life is full of challenges. You cannot live a life without challenges and troubles. I also believe that when you are with God in any challenge, He will surely see you through but when you neglect God, challenges might overcome you. I remember being frustrated in the beginning; the lack of education, loneliness, death of my husband, even Pentecostal troubles and questions regarding my call. Some doubted that I was called by God, but, in all these challenges, I still held Jesus tightly and he never disappointed me. I had a covenant with God and he didn’t fail me.
Bishop Ezenekwe waxing stronger with age- Bishop Ezenekwe and her only daughter, Nzubechukwu