How time flies! It’s
been ten years since the death of Abiodun Kumuyi, beloved wife of Pastor W. F.
Kumuyi, the highly revered General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life
Ministry. When this great woman passed on on April 11 2009, very few sensed
that she had unobtrusively left behind lofty precepts far beyond the ambience of church business. Fewer still were aware that although these ideas were bred
in a humble religious cradle, they represented an answer to the suffocating
sophistry of secular man.
 |
| *Mrs. Kumuyi alighting from an aircraft |
Apart from her husband, their two children,
Jerry and John, along with a cluster of brethren who worked with Biodun or
watched her at close quarters, there was probably no other person (or group) in
the church that had an inkling of the weighty work she was doing as she paced
the grounds of Deeper Life Bible Church , Gbagada, Deeper Life Conference
Centre, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and International Bible Training Centre, Ayobo,
now converted into Anchor University, the institution promoted by the church and
as she travelled worldwide with her spouse.
Majority of Deeper Life Church members and
of the larger world may be forgiven if we did not discern her contribution in
her lifetime.
This world of decadent values is given to recognising only the voluble and voluminous.
Our age contemns those who shroud what they do in simplicity and meekness.
Society approves the showy and upbraids the lowly. It enlists a juggernaut to
crush those who stand for self-effacement.
But to be sure, Sister Biodun Kumuyi did not
seek man’s approbation. There’s no record she did. Nor is there any that she
lamented the lack of popular applause. She couldn’t have, being fully conscious
of her Creator’s more enduring commendation reserved for her hereafter.
Starting with her involvement with the
Christian Women Mirror Magazine, Mummy (as she was fondly called by the church
folk) assembled a team of keen professionals who, of course, were in the first
instance genuine believers. They shared her vision of delivering a monthly
journal that would cater for the interest of the women in the church.
We must quickly address a point here to draw an enduring bestowal in this
field. Although the magazine started in October 1992 as a forum for the sermons
of the pastor, Biodun moved beyond that vision to accommodate other features
needed to build a woman into an all-round Christian homemaker. Under her
supervision as she heeded the plan of God for the magazine, the publication
became a quiet weapon of evangelism.
By the time Biodun died a decade ago,
Christian Women Mirror had become a must-have in almost every home! Although
it’s a Deeper Christian Life Ministry effort, it has ceased to be a
denominational journal. The reason is because its contents are catholic,
rooting fundamental Biblical teachings into everyday practical use for the
woman, her home, church and society.
Sensing the erosion of moral values in the
country, chiefly because of failing families and ungodly training of the youth
and children, Mummy Kumuyi’s publication now features well written,
Scripturally-based pieces to fill the gap and save the society from collapsing.
A Health Tips column is also on offer in the magazine to complete a full-orbed
presentation necessary for building a sound home.
Absolute credit for this success must of
course be given to God. But He used Biodun Kumuyi as the vessel that bore the
vision.
It was a high calling which would have
instilled in others a false sense of self-esteem and achievement. Others would
have flaunted the success as a personal one. The manifestation of these
elsewhere would have been the ornate display of the photograph of the woman
beside the pastor on billboards. But Biodun, out of deference to what the Bible
teaches about the place of woman in church, operated silently behind the
scenes.
This style in no way reduced her impact or influence. It rather was responsible
for the giant strides of her work, both in the church, among the women and in
the society. It couldn’t have been otherwise. Her modus operandi had Divine
approval!
The overall result is that the Christian
Community within and outside Nigeria has been endowed with a publication whose
objectives are non-denominational even if it’s a denomination that publishes
it. But it’s not only the church that is gaining from Sister Kumuyi’s legacy.
The whole society benefits on account of the fact that when you train or
educate a woman and a child, it’s the entire nation you have empowered, given
the superior numerical strength of women both in the church and in the society
generally.
Her work in the Women Ministry of the Church
was no less phenomenal. She was reputed to have designed, planned and executed
enriching programmes for women. For this class of citizens who the society and
government had neglected or marginalised, the programmes offered hope and a
sense of worth and belonging.
Countless testimonies have streamed in since
the woman’s death of how she demonstrated a squared understanding of James
2:14-17. The following is one entry I came across recently: she (Biodun Kumuyi)
was a virtuous woman who lived what she preached and believed. In her usual
quiet and unassuming way, she was able to reach out to a lot of widows and
trained a lot of fatherless children.
She started women in small-scale business
through a scheme whereby they took loans and paid back as their businesses
grew. They didn’t pay any interests and with some she wrote off their loans.
Those who were genuinely struggling with financial problems had a listening ear
with her. She gave to them "liberally…Her motivation …was to ensure that
no woman backslid from the faith as a result of financial or material lack …
Women were lifted up from penury, (their) children’s school fees were paid, and
broken homes were re-united through her counselling and prayers. Most times,
she gave (money) through a third party so the receivers would not idolise her.”
It is obvious that death can’t destroy this
noble pitch of servanthood, discipline, humility and submissiveness wrought in
a churchyard. For everyone who has testified to Biodun Kumuyi’s exploits in
evangelism has, in effect, spoken of her desire to restore life to the
oppressed of the society.
In turn these affirmations of Sister
Biodun’s work represent a stinging vote of censure on our governments and
institutions whose enormous resources, far more than the woman’s, aren’t
deployed to the service of the common man, but rather are ploughed into the
coffers and interests of a selfish thieving class.
Mummy Biodun Kumuyi’s unostentatious
lifestyle of liberality to God and man has lasting lessons to our sinking age:
only through open-handed service to fellow man can we truly honour God and
uplift society!
Postscript: Above is
updated version of my tribute to Biodun Kumuyi on the first anniversary of her
death.
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