Pastor Oloche King Adaji – Senior Pastor, The City of Refuge International
The City of Refuge International is transforming the lives of people—but it wouldn’t be the force it has become without the distinctive visions of the couple behind it. Pastor Oloche King and Deborah Adaji.
Their vision is not only to preach the gospel of Christ but to bring about developmental change to lives and communities by reaching out to different demographics through strategic interventions.
The City of Refuge International is a faith-based organization with a vision of delivering humanity from the destructive power of hell, raising a pavilion, and providing a haven from the heat and limiting forces of life, the Deborah Adaji Foundation (non-governmental organization) believes in empowering women to be a game-changer in the world as they are the most important catalyst for positive change in the society.
Speaking with PLEASURES Magazine in Abuja, Nigeria, Pastor Oloche King Adaji, Senior Pastor, The City of Refuge International, said the vision to open the church was divine. ‘’The vision to open The City of Refuge International was divine. Every divine vision comes from God, and he gave me the name. It was not something I sat down to craft, I only received it. He gave me the name. We started just two months now, but God has been good to us. I served in Dunamis International Gospel Centre for 20 years, and God gave me a direction to start this, and the work is amazing,’’ he said.
Pastor Adaji said the mission of the church is to guarantee a glorious destiny fulfillment through the agency of God’s word, presence, and power.
‘’The Lord told me we are in the days when humanity is facing a lot of assault from the devil. Bombardment from hell. You remember what the bible says in Revelation 12 vs 12, the devil has come down because he knows his time is short. And because of this, the assault against humanity is immense and unbelievable and God has used The City of Refuge International Church to raise a safe pavilion, haven with a covert canopy, a spiritual asylum for God’s people, and God says we should do this for him,’’ he said.
Speaking on the rising deplorable security situation in the country and the world, he said it wasn’t strange as the Bible has prophesied it earlier.
Pastor Oloche King and Deborah Adaji
He said, ‘’We are in the last days, and the world should look up to God. My counsel is for us to look unto God. Nobody lives in the world forever, so let’s take the path of peace, dialogue, reconciliation, and talking out our differences like what is happening in Israel and Palestine where properties and life are destroyed, and development hampered.
Pastor Adaji who is also an author while quoting Bishop David Oyedepo, urged everyone to look unto God saying ‘’life is a warfare and not funfair, life is a battleground and not a playground, and this is the reality.’’
Speaking further, he urged everyone to be the solution and not the problem, stressing the need to be patriotic.
Pastor and Pastor Mrs Oloche King Adaji have been happily married for (-) number of years, On the incessant marriage collapse amongst couples, Pastor Adaji recalled the marriage in Galilee was blessed because Jesus was there, the marriage did not end in shame, the wine finished, and he replaced it.
He advised everyone to ‘’know God before you need God and give God the right place in your marriage and life.’’
Pastor Mrs Deborah Oloche King Adaji
He said the major reason for marriage collapse was lack of knowledge and urged couples to read literature on marriage and understudy people who have so far succeeded in marriage.
On her part, Pastor Mrs Deborah Oloche King Adaji, the convener of Deborah Adaji Foundation said her immediate family has used the platform to impact the lives of people positively.
”Empowering women by strengthening their socioeconomic status and providing them with the knowledge and skills needed to live a sustainable and healthy life is our goal.
‘’Deborah Adaji Foundation is a platform where my family has used over the years to impact the lives of people and reach out to the less privileged. It has existed before the church. It was founded on September 2nd, 2019.
‘’Although it was named after me, it is our family’s social responsibility to the world and community aimed at ameliorating the sufferings in the world. And we do these by accomplishing our vision which is enhancing the lives of women, youths, and children,’’ Adaji said.
She said the foundation has multiple initiatives, which include Entrepreneur Skills Development Initiative, Health Care Support Initiatives, Education Development and Counsel Initiatives, Community Development and Social works initiatives and Children Support Initiatives.
Via the Children Support Initiatives, she said the foundation does go out for different outreaches, which include visitation to orphanage homes and bless them with school bags, food, and other writing materials.
‘’Under the Community Development and Social Works Initiatives, we do visit communities and support them with food items, we recently visited Benue State to give succor to indigent communities there.
‘’We have also done a lot under the Entrepreneur Skills Development Initiative where we have trained women, and we have lots of success stories under these initiatives. In the first training, we registered 30 women and graduated 27, in the second training we registered 34 and graduated 32 the third training will commence from July to September 2021.
‘’Our joy is to assist the less privileged to earn a living, we are targeting women to empower them so they should not be stranded if their husband is not there and if he is around, they should be a support system to the family,’’ she said.
Adaji said some of the specialized training of the foundation include catering and event management, hair and soap making, beads making, entrepreneurial skills development (mentality renovation), and this initiative has led to the development of a social enterprise, Women Enterprise Network. Via the interested women are impacted to go into business.
According to her, ‘’We are open to international and local partners to give more succor to the less privileged and touch more lives.
‘’We don’t want women to be redundant because an empowered woman is an empowered home, an empowered woman encourages and supports an empowered man as well as the children, because if the woman is empowered the home is built and the society is built and developed. There won’t be agitation that can lead to a trial or crisis in the family and joy will be multiplied.
‘’We are passionate about training and impacting children. When you impact on the youths and children it will in turn help to build a solid future and that is why we focus on the children, youths, and women,’’ she said.
The foundation had recorded some success stories. Adaji said a lady, Catherine Obande who was recently trained now has a training center, where she trains others.
‘’Others who are also giving back to the society after our training are Jane Adaji, Fortune Benedict amongst others.
