Last Friday, 25TH of August, 2023, the Spiritual leader and founder of INRI Evangelical Spiritual church, Primate Babatunde Elijah, held a ground breaking event tagged 7 Hours Of Praise. It is scheduled to be an annual event and the very first edition was held inside the church’s magnificent auditorium. It was a highly successful event that showcased several gospel talents that come from within and outside the church.
By 5 am in the morning, the entire auditorium was packed full. There was no single available seat. No seat was unoccupied. Long array of chairs were promptly arranged outside the auditorium for people who could not find seats inside to use. Everyone seemed in jubilant mood. The church’s choir was already dishing out soul lifting songs to whet the appetite of the expectant audience.
Primate Ayodele kick-started the event with powerful prayers for the children. He is a man known to be passionate about the well being of the young ones. He understands that the young ones are the basis on which the future will be built. The globally known and respected man of God also declared the event an annual event, assuring the large crowd that the 7 Hours of Praise programme will now hold every year. After the prayers, the two anchor persons for the occasion stepped out. The very young and eloquent Jude and his co-anchor, the very pretty and energetic Damilola Lawal were a fantastic team as they co-ordinated the seamless flow of the programme and ensured there was no dull moment. The duo did extremely well.
The programme officially started with 5 powerful renditions from different choir groups from various Parishes. These exciting performances from the various choirs set the tone of the day. They literally brought the auditorium alive. By the time they were done, everyone inside the auditorium was on their feet, all charged up and ready to praise God for seven straight hours.
After the different choir groups were through with their performance, next came Inioluwa who also raised the bar with a fantastic performance. Mitchel of the Tobechuckwu choir was the next to perform and he left everyone in awe of his breathtaking rendition. Next was the sign language presentation, everyone loved this part as it provided an enriching insight into the intriguing world of sign language.
The next set of performers to come after the sign language presentation was first, Sister Rebecca popularly called Oriki Jesu. She thrilled the audience who were already charged up and in the mood for an intense praise session of the Lord.
Brother Solomon and the Ariya Team also came well prepared. They made good of their few minutes slot to entertain the audience. Same with the Hausa choir, they did well and got the crowd dancing to their super renditions.
Sister Temilade’s breathtaking ministration was hugely appreciated. She sang like a songstress. Next came the children choir who were also allowed time to praise their creator and dance before him. The Itesiwaju group also showcased their talent and love for the praise of God with their exceptional rendition.
Brother Gbenga Karounwi also gave a good account of himself. After his performance came Sister Juliana Aanu who dazzled everyone with her sonorous voice. The young and pretty singer wowed everyone with her deep praise songs. Brother Agbo-Ola who began his performance with, ‘Awa to pe to si’ and got everyone singing along with him.
Brother Izu practically brought down the roof of the auditorium when he came on stage. He is an Igbo man so his renditions were done in his native language and the crowd loved every moment of it. His energetic performance was something else. He fired up the auditorium and got eveyone wriggling their waists to his exciting selection of popular Igbo gospel songs.
Olumide Agbetu also gave a good account of himself. Same with sister Folake who also raised the bar of performances of the event. Another singer, Fesoke from Ekiti, did pretty well. She sang her praises in her native Ekiti dialect and was appreciated by everyone.
Another singer who really thrilled the crowd was Brother Pedro from Badagry. He really entertained the audience. From the very minute he took the microphone and sang his first line, the crowd loved him. His rich and sonorous voice got everyone clapping for him. He sang with considerable ease and enjoyed the participation of everyone who were either singing along with him or simply dancing to his songs.
One of the surprises of the day was when one of the anchors, Jude, stepped out to perform alongside his pretty wife, Ololade. Together, they delivered a scintilating performance. Their choice of popular gospel songs excited the crowd as they sang along with them line after line.
Sister Temi too got the crowd singing along with her. She performed with a lot of desire. Same with Akin Ade and Brother Michael, they were a delight to watch. Sister Deborah did quite well too. She excited the audience who reciprocated by singing salong with her in loud voices. Next was Brother Kola, a core musician and instrumentalist. His perfoprmance was purely instrumental. He got every instrument on display to entertain the audienced. He was well appreciated. Brother Funsho also got same warm reception.
Another stand out performer was the ebony beauty, Omo-Olope. She said she was stepping on the grounds of INRI for the first time and she gave lasting impressions of herself. Her performance was top of the shelf. She praised God with deep Yoruba languge (Oriki) that resonated well with the crowd. Everyone loved her performance. She got the crowd on their feet dancing through out her few minutes on stage.
Brother Zachariah came next with his Apala flavour kind of gospel which thrilled the audience. His kind of music was unique and it got everyone grooving to it. Brother Yoju is also another dynamic performer. He is a skilled performer and an experienced musician who knows exactly how to get an audience entertained. He interacted with his audience and took them with him on a musical voyage that lasted several minutes until he was signalled to end his performance by the Primate so others too could have their time. The audience didn’t want him to stop.
Several artistes too also had their time to entertain the crowd and they all did creditably well. Everyone left the auditorium feeling richly blessed and energised to serve God even more than before. And that, incidentally, is one of the reasons behind the 7 Hours of Praise concept. To strengthen the faith of many Christians and lift up their spirits, regardless of the situation they are going through. And a lot of people were richly blessed by the programme. Many will be looking forward to next year’s edition of the 7 Hours of Praise programme as they count on Primate Ayodele’s assurance that it will be an annual event. Surely, this very first edition is one that everyone who attended will remember for a long time to come.
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