GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. YINKA OLAIYA - SHE CAME, SHE DID, SHE FINISHED WELL.

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EvangelistBee


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Mrs. Olayinka Olatimehin Olaiya

It was sometimes around 5pm United States Central time. This was well into the night in the United Kingdom. I received a call from my brother in law, Femi Olaiya on my cell phone in Houston. He wanted to know where I was. That was strange - Very strange Question. Why would Femi want to know where I was? He needed me to be alone. We exchange very short pleasantries and he dropped the bomb – Yinka Olatimehin Olaiya, his wife of about 19 years was dead. She has gone home to rest. She died after a long but tenacious battle against cancer. She fought. She chose not to go without a fight. I have seen that life is not meant for those who cannot fight. Someone said if you cannot fight for something, you are not worth living. A life with a purpose will fight to fulfill it. Paul knew when it was time to go and he declared:

2Ti 4:7-8 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

The immediate challenge I had was how to inform my wife – Korede, who had been in full front of the warfare asking God to spare her life and grant her further extension as He had done before. She and her “Sister Yinka” or “ Mrs O.” as she always calls her are very close. Sometimes they spend such a long time talking and praying together on the phone that if she had been a man I would have been jealous. After getting two Pastor friends to come help out
and 3 hours of consistent crying and heartbreak, my wife calmed down. This continued with some intermittent cries in the night asking if it was true that Sister Yinka was gone? She had built a network of Christians to pray  for Yinka in Houston and in Nigeria. It was even after Yinka passed that I got to know that  she went as far as getting in touch with Dodie Osteen, Joel Osteen’s mum who got to actually speak/pray  to Yinka  on her sick bed as Dodie had previously been healed of Advanced Cancer too.

Our solace in all this has been that God is sovereign and He is faithful. Our commitment to Christ and service is not a function of what we feel or what we get, it’s a function our duty as mortals.

It been some days after the news and my heart tugs to pen some facts about this amiable woman and how other Christians upon whom the end of the world has come to can continue their own race learning from her. She was one in the six billions people who will pass by here but she was different and unique. She was a model and that gives us a challenge.

Php 1:27  Now, the important thing is that your way of life should be as the gospel of Christ requires, so that, whether or not I am able to go and see you, I will hear that you are standing firm with one common purpose and that with only one desire you are fighting together for the faith of the gospel.(GNB)

Please be patient with me as I tell you about Mrs O.

HUMILITY

Anyone who knew Yinka knows that she was humble - extra humble. You can approach her anytime and she will be down to heart with you. In her own way and at her own level, God blessed her but she won’t go about shoving it in people faces. When she shares her testimonies of her many deliverances from Cancer and the odds against her, she does it without taking God’s grace for granted. When we got married newly, we were living in a small apartment in the backside of Lagos and barely had enough resources to host people, yet she insisted to visit and stayed with us – The way we were, Very unassuming. She was a very practical woman. Yinka cannot visit without leaving a tone of Humility behind! She was humble to a fault.

REAL AND PURPOSEFUL WOMAN

1Co 9:24  Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

She was a real and purpose driven woman. She knew her God assigned role as a woman and stayed there. In these days when the world is muddled up with the definition of who is a woman and who is a man, Yinka was a real woman who was proud of being one. She celebrated her womanhood. She was a wife and mother – even on her sick bed. She was always in touch with her children directly from the hospital anytime she was admitted. I witnessed this twice. Her heart is always with everyone. The Biblical definition of a woman is one that is purposeful – helps, cares, supports – always there for her home and community. The Bible calls her a virtuous woman and it even congratulated a man that finds such to marry- because they are rare and getting rarer!

Pro 31:10-12 - Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

They are loaded with favor and flavor. Yinka was a special menu! Ten out of ten!

In these days where a lot of Eves are struggling to become Steves and Vice versa, Yinka was a “Eve” who celebrated it. She was a mum to the core even to adults. Her home is a place you want to visit- a home where an “Old school mum” and a Classic “Aunty” as her staffs call her lives. Surely her husband found a good thing and all of us knew she was a crown to him.

Pro 12:4 A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband:

CARING

Another extension of the strong feminine side of Yinka is that she feels. She does not struggle to empathize. She goes beyond sympathy. Anyone who had been with Yinka will acknowledge this. She does not waste her tears but when there is need for tears to pour on your behalf and money to pour from her pockets to ameliorate the pain, she will gladly oblige. I have some experiences that stuck. In 2006, I had a very major attack and setback in my business. Our major branch was robbed and a lot of stuffs were taken. I was so frustrated to the level of wanting to call it quits with God. It was bad. In the midst of the melee, Yinka showed up one early morning. The only thing she did not do was slapping me in order to wake me up to be strong! She had this calming effect on issues. Even when God made the earth, He needed the Holy Spirit to calm things down and start putting things in order based on His instructions.

Gen 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

That’s was how Yinka was. She stayed with me and the Holy Spirit used her to fill some of the void. She cried with me, prayed with me and reminded me that I had told her in my early business years that my work is a ministry and so no quitting. She left me with hope and strength. In another instance, one of our friends, the lady who was my wife’s chief bridesmaid on our wedding day was shot in the leg by armed robbers with her husband. The injury was so bad that it took years of surgery in South Africa and India to literally rebuild the leg back. One day, weeks after Yinka had about the incidence and how we have been raising money for the multiple surgeries in India, she came and gave me money to send to them! She cares! Excuse me – she does care!

PRAYERFUL

Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Yinka and her Clan

When Tomi, her first child was a baby, she visited us with her new baby. Tomi got sick and was flushing. He became weak. After lots of treatment and drugs, he was not getting better, she called a “time out”, handed over the baby to my wife and shut the door in the room like Elijah did with the Shunnamite son and cried and prayed. She cried unto the only One who can help her and it stopped. Sometimes we forget that real praying is serious crying – to God. Crying when it matters is not a weakness but our human way of submitting to His will and expressing our helplessness. In the Scriptures, we find a long list of people who cried. Jesus himself cried- At the tomb of Lazarus! David cried at Ziklag until He could weep no more! The children of Isreal cried and God himself acknowledged their cry! Yinka knows how to cry and pray! A lot of Christians say the phrase,” I will pray for you” but they never do. If Yinka promises to pray for you, you can take it to the bank. She will not only pray, she will follow you up to find out how far you have gone and if the testimony was here.

WILLINGNESS TO LEARN

Don’t even go there!  Yinka was always willing to learn. You hardly see her without her bible and a book. Even when we visited her in a hospital in Aylesbury, United Kingdom in 2011, I finished one of the books in her “library” in her hospital room in less than 48 hours. She was always asking me what books she needed to read particularly on Personal development, finance and business. We shared and discussed books like the “Millionaire Next door” and the “Millionaire Mind”. Those days when they were out of Lagos, she would walk straight into my study whenever she visits to devour books. She used to like Readers’ Digest too! In her early business days, she will call me to ask for what she could do to change things. She was willing to learn. When she and Captain O (her hubby) attended our company’s 10-year anniversary, she went back and gave awards to her staffs too. A man who stops learning starts dying. A man who cannot absorb cannot adapt. A man who does not have it cannot give it. You are what you know! Insight is not only given, it is sort for! I have heard her call people including her new Brother in- law “My Teacher”.

FULLNESS OF LIFE

Sister Yinka knew the power of now. She is not the type that postpones what can be done now.  I saw this more when she was in and out of her health battles. When she is out of the hospital, she celebrates life more. An incidence humbled me in 2011. Our families got together in our Lagos residence. We wanted to go for dinner and felt maybe she should be left out because of her mobility constraints. She refused and insisted to go with us. When we got to the Restaurant, we had to turn around to the back for her to access through the Restaurant kitchen door so she won’t need to be carried on the stairs. Each step took about 5 seconds but she just won’t let go- all to have a wonderful evening with her family members. She was not going to see some of them again for another year when they come back on summer break. She lived her life to the full. Our mandate is not to seat and wait for death – our mandate is to walk in dominion.

Joh 9:4  I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

RELEVANT( EVEN IN PAIN)

Even when Yinka was going through her own challenges she would seek out to lift up people who have similar challenges. In the mid 2000’s, after God gave her the first victory in the series of battle, she was always on the lookout for people who are facing the cancer scourge for the first time. She will collect their phone numbers or hospital addresses and call or visit them at her expense. Few days back in church in Houston, I saw one of the Sisters we all thought was a bad cancer case two years ago when the attack rendered her bedridden. Here she was in front of me in church praising God. My wife was the one who reminded me that those were one of the people Yinka encouraged and prayed with by sharing her own testimonies of how she should have died a long time ago. Her testimony laced with a charming demeanor filled with humility will wake up any dead bone. She was awesome!

RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

She knew who she believed. Some years back I was worshipping in a Pastor friend’s church in Ghana and he was introducing a Pastor in the service. After he finished, my friend said all I can say about him is that “He is a Christian”. You can be a Pastor and not be a Christian. That was profound for me. Yinka Olaiya was a Christian with no apologies. She carried her faith on her forehead. She was deep and yet contemporary. I remember when we were in school in the “King of Universities’ at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife in Nigeria. It was around 1988. I was chosen as one of the squad leaders to lead street evangelism in the town. Yinka Olaiya and two of her “bosom” friends were in my squad. I think she was in her final year then. Initially, I was a little bit scared that this “classy” Sister might not respect my authority as a junior in fellowship. When we had some planning issues, she reached out to me and helped out against the “profiling” I had about her. Our friendship never looked back again until we became family members. She was willing to serve God. We always look forward to her contribution in our family devotions whenever she visits.  You have to be sure about who you know and what you know. They asked the blind if it was true that Jesus, whom they labeled a sinner, had healed him. He told them….

Joh 9:25  He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.

THE CHALLENGE

Yinka in Aylesbury, United Kingdom with family members

I have heard a lot of comments in the last few days querying why God did not intervene again this last time as He had done for her in the last 8 years. She will declare to you,” I should have gone a long time ago but He preserved me and healed me repeatedly”. The last time she got back from United Kingdom, she had a thanksgiving service. Holy people die. Murderers die. That’s a fundamental way to be reminded that we are mortals. The challenge is for us to remember clearly that there is a place after here that our choices now will decide where we will end - Heaven or Hell!

Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

The time to let go of all that easily beset us from fulfilling our purpose is now!

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Yinka, my family and I and a lot of your friends look forward to reuniting with you on the other side because you came, you did and you finished well.

EVANGELIST BEE.

www.evangelistbee.com

No. 129– 21st February,2012

NOTE:  PLEASE HIT THE "POST A COMMENT" BUTTON  AT THE END OF THE COMMENTS AND FEEL FREE TO  COMMENT ON WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT YINKA OLAIYA AND HOW SHE HAS BEEN A BLESSING  AND LETS  CELEBRATE GOD’S GRACE IN SISTER YINKA LIFE. GOD BLESS.