Pastor Bunmi Salami carries special anointing. She is a special woman of God whose life remains a worthy example for others to follow. She runs Transformers International Christian Centre, a church in Gbagada, but she moves from one location to another across the country preaching, touching lives, healing and winning more souls for Christ. She runs worship centres in Lekki, Opebi, Gbagada, VI, UNILAG, Ikorodu. She is married to Pastor Kunle. Pastor Kunle and Bunmi Salami are the Lead Pastors of the Transformers Place, a vibrant and dynamic ministry. The ministry holds a fast-growing non-denominational prayer fellowship (Father Lift Up My Head) at different locations around Lagos, Nigeria and beyond. They have a mandate to set the fire and passion of God all over the world. She also runs A Day With Jesus, an All-Day Open Air Crusade where the spirit of God Ministers Deliverance Healings and Restoration to every attendee. As our Pastors have been led we share points of contacts to people with diverse needs, Baby baskets for expectant parents and, Mantles for impartations amongst others. People have shared testimonies from previous editions which includes the following testimonies.
Many don’t know her story. Many don’t know she went through a lot at the start of her Ministry along with her husband. When she entered the Ministry, she got pregnant but unfortunately, she had Ectopic Pregnancy, meaning, she had her pregnancy outside the Uterus (outside her womb). This troubled her to no end. It is a dangerous medical condition that often leads to the death of Mother & Child. She carried the pregnancy for 18 months, instead of the normal 9 months duration. She told City People Publisher SEYE KEHINDE her story. Below are excerpts of the interview.
How did God call you into the Ministry?
I got called at an early age when I was very young. I was in my Primary School level. I always dream a lot. And when I dream, my mum will always tell people, haa! Bunmi has had a dream about you. She wants to tell you and I will tell the person. And as I am telling the person, I am interpreting the Dream. My father is a Pastor. He will say take her to the person she has dreamt about. She was still a Muslim, before she got converted. A whole lot of my fathers family members were Ministers. Though they were in K and S in those days. But they were all Ministers when I was in Primary School, the sign was there that I am going to be used by God and I remember I was the only one that goes to Church in my house. I went to the Catholic Church. I used to spend all my day in church. Whenever they are going to church, all the Catholic sisters will be calling me to follow them to church.
I grew up in Lagos here. I attended St. Leos, the one in Ikeja. I attended St. Judes in Ladipo, Lagos. The first thing I did when I was in Form 4 in Secondary School was I joined the prayer team in a church called Legion of Mary. What we do is to pray around the neighbourhood. I have a passion to pray for people. In my group, though its a Catholic church. I was part of the Charismatic Union. They had anointing. They speak in tongues. I joined them. I was the only girl that was single, everybody else was married. One day we went to General Hospital in Ikeja, and there used to be one man there who was very sick. I will give the man food and take care of him. One day when we went there, we didn’t see the man again. They said he has been transferred. I was crying and crying. I could not do anything in the house on that Saturday except to pray & fast. They all knew I used to pray when I was a young girl.
The one that shocked them was when they took me to see one man. He was a soothsayer, we got there and my mum said I brought my daughter here for prayers. The man said that the girl should not come in. That is me. My mum said why? He said as you are here, I can see some angels surrounding her. She is amidst the angels. The man said I can see things. I can hear things. He said if I come near him, he will be blind. The man said sorry I can’t help her. She is a Minister. She has anointing. That is how I started. I was going to a church called Faith In Christ Mission Church in Lagos here. I started ministering the Gospel. My General Overseer said to me that I should continue to Minister the Gospel, that the Lord will use me. Before then, I do know I hear things from God, about people and I tell them. That was how I began to grow in the Lord. Then, suddenly he told me that I should join the Prayer Warriors Team to pray with him. I remember the year they were going to anoint me as an Evangelist he said No, that it is not time yet. Eventually, I heard the word from God that I am going to use you, Olubunmi.
What year was this?
My first assignment actually began in the Ministry the year I had my girl. My girl is now 19 years. That was when I actually had my 1st assignment. That was the 1st church we floated and I had to go on assignment. That was in Bariga area before we came to Gbagada here. And that was when I had my 1st assignment, though I have had other assignments before like you have people given to you to grow them in 6 months. So, I was growing people. My G.O. will give you like 60 people and you are to turn it into 100. So, we would train them and work on them. After growing them, they will give me another group, until one day when he said he wants me to go and work outside. And funnily enough, I was sent on assignment for the 1st time in my life as a Pastor with a complicated issue of pregnancy. Maybe that was why I came up with the Basket. I carried my baby for 18 months and then when my G.O said I should go for an assignment I just said you know about my case, sir. He said the Lord knows about it. So, I entered the Ministry with a very big problem but I told the Lord. I will not stay in my house for one day. I will be preaching the Gospel until I have this child. I remember I preached every day for 18 months and then I had the child. They called the kind of pregnancy I had Ectopic Pregnancy. When it got to the time, we didn’t go to the clinic. We didn’t go and see anybody about it. We just prayed and Doctor said you don’t survive Ectopic, you will bleed to death. I said I will survive it. And I survived.
How did that experience of carrying 18-month pregnancy make you feel?
It shaped me a lot. In the 1st place, it made me stronger in the Lord, because of that experience I fast every day of my life. No 2, I came away with the feeling that God is mighty. When I went to do the scan, the lady doing the scan was crying. She said you can’t survive. You have a big mass outside your uterus, you are going to bleed to death. She said, two, even if there is a Surgery or Caesarian Section you are not going to survive. I said, me, I will survive it. And I did survive. Then, I became a Pastor. I was pastoring in church. I was active. I never missed any programme. I had no car. I will move from Abule Egba to Gbagada every day, 4 times a week and I will get home around 11 pm or midnight and I became stronger in the Lord. I was preaching all along and I told the Lord, I have a Covenant with you. As far as you can let me have my baby alive, I will tell the whole world how powerful you are. If made me stronger. And I remember that when I was praying for the child, there was a day I was praying and I had a revelation I saw that the baby girl I was going to have will be tall, dark-skinned girl. And that was what happened. The girl today is a tall girl. Wow. That is my 4th born. Then we had a boy as the 5th. The birth of that one was a Miracle. We didn’t see the pregnancy at all. And we had him. That encounter made me know that God is mighty, powerful.
During that time was when I went to Reinhard Bonkee Crusade. I remember, on the last day of Reinhard Bonkee Crusade, I was lying on the couch in the church. I lived in the church then. My G.O was like Olubunmi, why are you here? I said sir, I can’t even stand up. He said go and finish your job, jare. Go and do your work. I said I am bleeding. He said does God know you are bleeding? Go. My team led 5,000 people to that crusade. I went. Nobody in my team knew I was bleeding. I went and came back and I continued my job. Suddenly I felt movement inside me and I went back to the clinic and they told me that there is a baby there. The doctor said the baby that was outside the Uterus is no longer outside, it is now inside the womb. I said wow! And I had the baby.
One afternoon, when the doctor was not even around, it was a nurse that was on duty. And the baby came out with a chord all around her neck. And myself and husband said, give us a scissor, we would help you to cut it. And we did. When the doctor came, he said it in Yoruba, omo ti on dodge. The baby that was dodging. We didn’t see you for months but we knew the baby was there. I had her in a miraculously simple way. I had her, stood up & left. There was no surgery done. No CS done. No bleeding. And there is no baby I have had that I did not go to church the next day. So, that baby came. She came on a Friday, and I went back to church on Sunday. The other one, Miracle, came on Sunday and I preached that Sunday. I feel that encounter of 18 months pregnancy gave me the Grace to serve God the more. I was praying more, I was learning more. I went to Faith Bible College in Otta. They had an affliation with Faith International Ministry in Tennesse in America. I had my BSc there. I had my Diploma there. I had my BSc in Theology. I have a Diploma in Christian Counselling/Bc in Theology.
So, when we were having one of our retreats, everybody was fasting, the girls, the women all were praying and fasting. I was seeing them one after the other. I was praying for them. They said I should break, I said I can’t break I am fasting. I now told them I had a pregnancy, that is complicated and it is Ectopic. They said haaaa! They all stopped. They all began to cry. I said they should not cry. What happened again? I think in school, that year I became an award winner. I won an award. I was given the scholarship to come and become a Regional District Leader, I told them I have to go and become a Pastor in my church.
I remember when I finished my school and my G.O came for the graduation ceremony, two things happened, we were going to graduate and I was going to be ordained as a Pastor/Reverend. When my G.O came he saw me and he saw the owner of the school. Are you Reverend Bunmi’s G.O haaa, you are so lucky she is gifted. She is good. She is this. She is that. She is a blessing. Can we have her? No, you can’t have her she has to come back to the church. That was the year I became a Pastor full time.
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