Before the establishment of VGR activities in Nigeria, the believers at the time were receiving sermon books and tapes mostly from the then Spoken Word Publications and individual ministers from the U.S and Canada. These books and tapes of the prophet's sermons were sent to individual believers with whom they had contacts. The resultant effect of this arrangement, was that many believers and churches did not have access to the sermon books, and the audio tapes were not even at a reach. Many believers had not even heard the voice of the prophet by this time, and no sermon books for most of the believers. Only a very privileged few had access to the books. There was no organized system for the sermon books to be received by all the believers and churches. What we had was a few ministers and believers who had the contacts, receiving the books by post.
You can imagine what the situation was like at that time. This was how the sermon books and tapes were handled until 1984, when Voice Of God Recordings came on the scene, and changed the situation forever, with the establishment of lending libraries. In 1985, Brother Joseph Branham in company with Brother Billy Paul Branham and a few others, visited Nigeria to assess the needs and how to get the message to the believers in the country. This visit afforded them the opportunity to meet with some of the ministers, and marked the beginning of a new era in the message history in Nigeria.
In 1986, VGR contacted Brother Cosmas Maduka, a believer in the message, who has an import based business, to allow the use of his company facilities to ship and clear the message materials to Nigeria. This meeting was held in the United States in Harrisburg, when Brother David Branham met with Brother Olu Omotoyinbo, ( Brother Cosmas Maduak’s pastor) who was in the US at the time. Brother Olu promised to deliver the message to Brother Maduka when he returns back to Nigeria. Brother Maduka gladly accepted the opportunity to do that for the Lord and the first shipment was done in 1987. This means that the believers in Nigeria were now to be receiving sermon books, and have access to the tapes through the lending libraries. This opened a brand new world to the believers in Nigeria.
MY RELATIONSHIP WITH VOICE OF GOD RECORDINGS.
I got involved with VGR distribution work in 1987, when VGR began its maiden shipment to Nigeria. The operation at this time was small and the shipment coming into the country was also very small, being in few pallets, but this was a great blessing as the known churches at the time believing the message were now having direct access to the sermon books. At this time, I was working as a full time employee of Brother Maduka’s company, Coscharis Group Limited. Interestingly, I joined Brother Maduka’s company in April 1987. And VGR started shipment some few months later. I started handling the distribution process along with my then present job in the office.
In March, 1990, Brother Joseph Branham, decided to establish an office in Nigeria. With this decision, Brother Maduka asked me to take over the responsibility as a full time staff being seconded to VGR. I accepted the new challenge, and I began traveling around the country to visit the then existing VGR lending libraries. During the visits, I took pictures of the libraries, with the conditions of the tapes and books, which I sent to VGR Jeffersonville. These reports began a turn of events in the services of VGR in Nigeria. A new mailing list was compiled and the volume of the material coming into Nigeria tremendously increased. I had my first VGR national meeting with the churches in Nigeria in 1990, and this was held in Lagos at the office which we were using for the work.
I have since held several meetings with the ministers in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, and Benin Republic, and also organized the mailing list for Ivory Coast in 1995. I have also visited VGR in Jeffersonville a number of times. I presently serve about 900 churches in Nigeria, and also churches in Togo and Benin, and I help with the work in Ghana.