Joint ordination for Nigerian couple

Since they met at university in Nigeria, Albert and Chinwe Obadeyi have done everything together, sharing a life as a married couple, as students, as work colleagues at GE Money in Shannon and on Sunday, they will both be ordained pentecostal reverends of their church, Foundation Ministries in Ennis.

As part of their work in the community and with the church, Chinwe and Albert visit people in hospital who have no-one to look out for them and they sing with them.
“We also include those who are disabled and bring them to a sing-song, so that they know that they are somebody, that they are not forgotten. We run free computer classes for those who have no idea about computing. Generally, we want to spread the life of God through all these projects we do and also through our music.
“We organised a concert this year in Glór and the fruit of that makes us happy. It is a concert where Irish people and all nationalities come together because it is a time of togetherness,” Chinwe explained.
Speaking about their upcoming ordination, Chinwe explained, “It’s actually recognition of the work we do. We’re looking forward to it. The bishops in the UK saw the tremendous work that we do in Ireland and across the world and they said it’s worth recognising.”
“We stand as God’s representatives and what drives us, the command that Jesus has given to us, the message of Jesus, was to reconcile man back to God and when he was gone, he said he was handing that ministry back to you.
“As a pastor, your main work, whether through music or hospital visits, is to reconcile people back to God. With all these things happening in the world now, these scandals are making people’s hearts negative towards God, so what we try to pass on is that God is still good. We don’t just preach it, we live it, in the neighbourhood, in the workplace, everywhere. We try to bring joy to people,” she added.
The couple has also been working hard towards providing help internationally and as Albert explains, there is one project they are striving towards at the moment.
“A thing that’s close to my heart is the orphanage in Uganda. That’s something we each have set our hearts to do. Even though we are here, we know we are living comfortably, we know there are people over there who cannot even get basic things to survive, so we decided we should set up an orphanage in Uganda and we hope to have a complex, a school, hospital and playground. We have the land already and now we’re raising funds for the building of it,” he said.
The two have organised people to look after 200 orphans, but as Chinwe acknowledged, the conditions people live in are “deplorable”.
While both Chinwe and Albert are Nigerian, they were touched by a story told to them by Priscilla Flynn, also a member of the Foundation Ministries, of conditions in Uganda.
“She had this burden to do something for them and we felt we had to do something,” Chinwe explained.
The couple are now hoping to visit the site in Uganda early in the New Year to kick-start the building process. They are also heavily involved in integration projects and much of this is centred on music.
This ordination means more responsibility in the long run for Chinwe and Albert but they will also become figures to be looked upon in the community. It will be a learning process for both of them.
“It will help us with the administration of our work here in Ireland, as reverend is more recognised. Not many people recognise the word pastor. It will make the work easier,” Albert explained.
Given that both pastors will now become reverends, they have 12 student pastors hoping to fill their places in the church. It is hoped that those studying towards that position will be ordained in the new year by Chinwe and Albert.
Chinwe and Albert will be joined by friends and members of the Foundation of Ministries from across the country on Sunday at 4pm at their church at Unit 1, Gort Road Industrial Estate, Ennis.