I SUFFERED A LOT, I USED TO BRUSH WITHOUT TOOTHPASTE - SAM ADEYEMI

Ahead of a leadership conference that he is
going to host come November, Pastor of the
Daystar Christian Centre, Sam Adeyemi, speaks
on the growth of his brand.
As a child, life wasn’t a bed of roses for the man
of God, unlike other children of the affluent. But
he certainly experienced modest comfort at a
point in time.
When his father was a civil servant, he had the
kind of fun that children of the middle class
have. Later when the old man became a
contractor, things turned better for the family
and life turned rosier for the young Adeyemi.
Unfortunately, life showed the family another
card. Old Adeyemi’s business encountered
trouble and finally collapsed. Without invitation,
poverty stepped in. That is how the proverbial
mouth that used to eat beef began to run after
bones.
I tasted poverty and real hardship. I used to
brush my teeth without toothpaste,” Adeyemi
says.
According to the pastor, motivational speaker
and financial teacher, that singular experience
eventually shaped everything he has become in
life.
He notes that after he accepted Jesus Christ —
when he was still an engineering student in a
polytechnic — he got a kind of vision in which
God situated him in a context where he was
teaching a group of people.
This happened in the course of a prayer. He
found the idea funny initially, as he did not
believe he was cut out for teaching. But his
decision to heed the signals has transformed his
life and the church that he eventually founded —
although he found it tough in the first three years
of its existence.
Noting that he is sometimes amazed at the
progress Daystar has made, he says what
hinders the progress of many people and
organisations is what he calls the culture of ‘big-
mannism’.
This is bossing around when one is supposed to
be a leader — a leader whose armours ought to
be compassion, humility and the urge to develop
the potentialities of other people.
Culled from Punch




Sourced and edited by DANIEL IKECHUKWU EKWUNIFE