HISTORY OF THE ASSOCIATION

We started in September 1994 through the late Pastor Adeyanju who informed us at one of the meetings in the Bronx how the Good Women in Nigeria are doing good works in the church by propagating the work of God.  After the meeting, Lady Evangelist Rebecca Oyedeji told me that we too should start our own Good Women in our church.  On that Sunday that she told me, I brainstormed on how we should go about this.  A novice to this situation, my first impulse was to get all the women in the church involved, because I believe we all want to be Good Women.  The following Sunday, I gathered all the women together, we prayed to God for guidance as we were about to start our Good Women Association. 

We embarked on this journey and all the women expressed their enthusiasm, I informed them that I am going to be collecting one dollar each Sunday from every woman in the church.  Some of them gave more that day.  The next Sunday, we did the same thing and thereafter, I started recording the names with the amount given on a piece of paper.  I did this for a while then the use of envelopes was introduced.  I started putting member’s names on the envelopes which were distributed every Sunday for their donation.  The money collected, were further placed in a larger envelope.  Later, another idea came to mind that I should do a small yearly calendar.  I used plain paper cut into small pieces, where I wrote the dates of each Sunday in the year and drew lines in between those dates.  One day, my son, Adebola Omotade (to God be the glory, is now one of our youth pastors) saw me writing and ruling the pieces of paper, he asked me what was that for and I told him and he took it from me and did it on the computer.

In 1994, when we bought our Cathedral, we elected our officers with the direction of our Late Pastor Abraham Adegoke Oyedeji.  Late Deaconess Dokun was the 1st Treasurer, Deaconess Temidara was appointed the Financial Secretary and Lady Evangelist Browne was elected the Secretary.  Upon the ordination of Lady Evangelist Browne’s husband as Pastor, Mrs. Ojugbele was elected as our Secretary. After Deaconess Temidara was appointed, she modernized the envelopes by placing individual member’s name on the yearly calendar.  Deaconess Temidara is still the Financial Secretary and is now being assisted by Mrs. Obadina Jnr.  Since the re-location of Mrs. Ojugbele, Mrs. Obadina Jnr is our new Secretary and is assisted by Mrs. Adeyeni.  By now we had collected a huge sum of money.  We informed our Late, daddy, Pastor Abraham Oyedeji that we wanted to open our own account and he gave us all the necessary documents to do so.  The account was opened and Late Deaconess Dokun, Lady Evangelist Browne and I were assigned to be the signatories.  After Late Deaconess Dokun re-located, Deaconess Akingbade was selected to be the Treasurer.  To God be the glory, we have been waxing stronger and stronger since then.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Over the years, the Good Women Association of Christ Apostolic Christ, 1st In the Americas have celebrated, presented and contributed both physically and spiritually to the support, enlightenment and advancement of members and organizations both inside and outside the Church, thereby propagating the Gospel and making an impact.  To mention a few, home visitations were done, trips were organized to Sight and Sound which fostered fellowship, gifts were presented to members who celebrated their landmark birthdays, gifts honoring our grandmothers on Mother’s Day were given.  We still continue to present gifts to our fathers on Father’s day and provide financial and moral support to our women and families in need.

Our achievements over the years, have hopefully left no stone unturned, but the desire to do more is overpowering.  We purchased the first Church van in 2002 and the second van in 2016 costing over $31,000.  We have generously donated to the Goke Food Pantry (named after Late Pastor Abraham Adegoke Oyedeji), Faith Home Ede, Ilesha & Alure Motherless Homes, Church Annex and out Main Sanctuary renovations.  We are always in support of the Church and that is why, our Late daddy, Pastor Abraham Adegoke Oyedeji always called us Iya ni Israel (Mothers in Israel).

To accomplish all these tasks and achievements, various fundraising events were organized by our talented mothers-in-the-Lord such as, selling of candies, calendars, t-shirts, and flea markets, to mention a few.

CHALLENGES, STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS

“….The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”(Matt 9:37-38) As we grow in the Lord, we are facing some challenges, such as relocation of members to other states, an aging membership and lack of enthusiasm from our young adults, however despite these challenges, we are seeing a turnaround.  Many new members are becoming active in the association and to God be the glory, some of our youth members are part of the planning committee for this anniversary and we greatly welcome and appreciate their ideas.  

Philippians 4:13 say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Truly as Good Women of God, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us in wisdom, knowledge, understanding and riches.  Our strength as Good Women comes from the Lord, who enables and blesses us with wonderful godly women whose labor in His vineyard never ceases.  We are currently looking into investment opportunities brings glory to God. 

FUTURE GOALS

We have been called to serve and while we are still living, we will serve the Lord, reaching out to the world around us until we go to Heaven and hand these work to our children.  This is one great opportunity given to us to serve the communities around us as well as the nation many of us has originated from, Nigeria. 

Our future endeavors are as follows, but not limited to:  

  1. Initiation of a Hospitality Committee to meet the needs of members of the Church
  2. Donation of fairly used clothing and household items to various communities in need in Nigeria.
  3. Donation of food to the needed in various areas in Nigeria.
  4. Donations to the homeless in New York
  5. Getting our Youth Leaders more involve in the association.

I sincerely thank all Good Women in our Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey assemblies who attended meetings and programs regularly, were punctual at meetings, and honored the Lord with their time and substance.  Your support and labor of love, financially, spiritually and morally will never be in vain.  The Lord will remember you for good and reward you accordingly, always meeting you at the very point of your needs, in Jesus name.  I also thank Evangelist Okusanya and Deacon Adebajo for distributing our collection envelopes every Sunday to our members, may God reward you abundantly in Jesus name.  With great sincerity and appreciation, I thank our pastors, husbands, families, brothers and sisters in the Lord and our friends who had and continue to support the association financially, spiritually and physically, may the blessings of the Lord continue to flow in your lives in Jesus name.

Finally, I encourage us using these verses of Scripture which says, “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God; And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;” (Col 3:22-23).  Good Women, we are servants of God called to do God’s work, we are therefore accountable to God and so our allegiance should be to Him and His work.