Herewith the English Translation of the History of Celestial Church of Christ as told by the Reverend Pastor Prophet Founder S.B.J. OSHOFFA during evening service on Wednesday, 18th January 1969 at MAKOKO, the headquarters Church of Celestial Church of Christ, Nigeria Diocese.  The History was related in place of the regular sermon for the Church service.

        It is a thing of pleasure that I am still alive today twenty one years and some months after the birth of our Church.

       Right here today at MAKOKO, the Headquarters of Celestial Church of Christ in Nigeria, I have been asked to give a short history of the Church for posterity.  But before doing so, I shall start by giving a short history of myself to clarify matters.

        My Father was a Methodist born and bred in Dahomey (now Republic of Benin).  His Father, OJO, and his mother, KOSHINA, came from Abeokuta in Nigeria to Dasatre where they settled.  The artificial boundary between Nigeria and Dahomey set up by Europeans meant that my father was a Dahomean.  His name was OSHOFFA (this is obtained from ‘OJU KI ISE OFA TI OTA LE TA BANI KA SUBU or, for short, OJU KO SOFA’, which was shortened further to ‘OSOFA’, in Yoruba language; and it means, in English, the human eye is not a spear that an enemy can fire at one to make one fall).  He had many wives each of whom bore him up to five and six children.  All the children were, however, female and only one survived. This made him entreat God according to Methodist doctrine: “O Lord if thou would give me a boy, I shall give him up to thy service just as Hannah and Elkana did”.  As a result, I was born in 1909 in Porto Novo of a Nigerian mother named ALAKE IYAFO from IMEKO, Egbado Division, Abeokuta province. I was named SAMUEL and also  BILEWU (BI ILE AIYE

BA WU KO GBE,  SUGBON MO MO WIPE MO TI TORO RE LODO OLORUN) which means ‘if you prefer to live in this world, then you are welcome but ... if you prefer to live above in heaven, then you are equally welcome to go, but I know I specially requested for you from God’.

        In fulfillment of my father’s vow to God, I was sent at the age of seven for God’s service to a Methodist Catechist MOSES YANSUNU, father of Evangelist NATHANIEL YANSUNU of our Church.  Because my father was not happy with the way I was treated he brought me back home and later sent me at the age of thirteen to stay with Rev. Bishop David Hodonu Loco, the Methodist Bishop of Porto Novo, formerly of Methodist Church, Olowogbowo, Lagos, Nigeria.  I was there with some other children. After a number of years.   Rev. D. H. Loco was replaced by Bishop Garner from London.  The new Bishop ordered that we pupils should participate in making blocks for a new College building.   We all refused and so he sent us all back to our parents.  When I got back home, my father admonished me that I was different from the others because he had specially requested for me from God and so I had to do the work.  Whereupon he took me back to the Bishop, but the Bishop would not reverse his decision.  My father said there was no alternative but that I should learn to be a carpenter like himself.

        I became proficient as a carpenter.  I was good at roofing buildings, wood planning and working with ebony which I bought regularly from a friend.  I kept on working happily as a carpenter until my father died on June 15th, 1939.

        After my father’s death, I continued to bear the burden until December 1946 when I decided that I would henceforth trade in ebony.  I myself will go into the forest to purchase ebony and bring this into town to sell to carpenters.  I began this trade, going into the forest in search of ebony.  I bought it cheaply and brought it to town to sell at a premium.  I continued this lucrative trade until one such trip in May 1947 during the floods.  As usual I had my Bible with me.  I enjoyed praying very much.