Since penultimate week when the shocking news of the death of Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s son, Pastor Dare Adeboye broke, condolences have continued to pour in from far and wide for the Adeboye family. From the presidency to governors, top men of God from within and outside the country and from the general public, condolence messages have been flooding in. For many, it was probably the most shocking news they have heard in a long while. Nobody saw it coming. It left the entire Christian community in utter grief and pain. And the hearts of many went out to Pastor Adeboye and his wife, Mummy G.O. There was no telling how much the death of their son would’ve shattered them. No parent wishes to witness the very end of their child.
Pastor Dare was a man loved by many. He was a natural leader and someone many described as a loyal friend. You could count on Dare in your time of need, one of his attributes that endeared him dearly to his parents. Dare was also an incredibly humble and intelligent man. You couldn’t spend only a few minutes with him and not see how intelligent he was. Once you engaged him, virtually on any topic under the sun, Pastor Dare’s intelligence and brilliance would come shinning through. His younger brother, Leke Adeboye, said as much during his few minutes’ tribute to his late elder brother last week. According to him, “Pastor Dare was the first black African and Nigerian to become the head boy of the school we attended in England, a school that was founded in 1886. If the ministry hadn’t called us back to Nigeria, he would probably have become the first black Prime Minister in England.”
Pastor Dare was the kind of son any parent would dream to have. He was brilliant, he was respectful and strictly kept out of trouble as a young lad. He was the type of son who paid a lot more attention to his studies than he did to the many frivolities that got a lot of young people distracted from their primary goals in life. And perhaps the part about him that brought joy to the hearts of his parents the most, Dare loved God from the moment the Lord opened his eyes as an infant to the moment God closed them. He was barely 12 years old when he gave his life to Christ and never looked back since then. With very little or no persuasion from his highly religious parents, he dedicated his entire life to the service of God.
To Pastor Adeboye and Mummy G.O., their son, Dare, no matter how much they tried to conceal it, was their favourite child. He was a child in whom they were well pleased. And they loved him specially from the moment he was born because he was also their miracle child. Many have wondered why Pastor was called the miracle child by his parents. Let us tell you why.
Dare was the third child of the family. His was a miraculous birth as the previous children nad been born through Caesarean section and the parents had been advised not to have anymore children. But Dare’s pregnancy could not be terminated when I came and the doctors had predicted that it will be a choice between mother and child. Their prediction turned out wrong. Amazingly, both mother and child survived and even more miraculously, it was a natural birth, hence he became their miracle baby and they showered on him all the affection any parent would on a beloved child.
It was a clearly devastated but emotionally strong Pastor Adeboye who broke his silence several days after the passing of his son. Adeboye, who preached at the May 2021 edition of the church’s Holy Ghost service, urged everyone to always thank God and say ‘It is well’ even in the face of crises rather than ‘blame and question God’.
At the programme, Pastor Adeboye spoke from the studio of the church’s station – DOVE Media – alongside few officials including his wife, Folu Adeboye, while members of his church gathered at the auditorium along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
He said: “Whatever we have is given to us by God, be it wealth, wife, husband, children e.t.c and if it got taken away by God, all we can do is give God glory for actually giving us the privilege to enjoy those wealth or kids temporarily and it is not for us to complain, blame and question God.”
With Biblical reference to Ezekiel 24:16, he said, “God took away Ezekiel’s wife and asked him not to mourn over her”.
“What we see as sorrows might be joy in the sight of God, I mean His ways and thoughts are not the same with ours, we shouldn’t forget that both good and bad happen at God’s command. (Lamentations 3:38).
“Finally in all things let’s learn to say thank you father and It is well. God bless all of you in Jesus’ name,” Adeboye said.
The Adeboyes will surely miss their beloved son, Dare. He was a star who, in his short but eventful 42 years on earth, made them immensely proud to be his parents.
– WALE LAWAL
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