W F Kumuyi: Champion of the Bible

 "If that man teaches you and you don't understand, then nobody else can."

• colleagues of W F Kumuyi at the University of Lagos

When we see great people, we have a sense of wonderment. This writing walks the reader through familiar terrain on the making of Pastor W F Kumuyi, the champion of the Bible. 

W F Kumuyi's early years were intriguing, he was born into a very religious household and was the first-born of his father. He realized soon enough that he preferred playing to academic rigors. 

His preference to play over work in the early years of his life meant he excelled in outdoor activities but performed poorly in academics, sometimes he left school during the day to play drums. His interest in the outdoors extended to farming; his father was a farmer. 

On one of the exciting days at the farm, his fellow farm companions were pursuing a rabbit; he joined in the pursuit of the rabbit, as one of the boys lifted his cutlass to make the kill, it hit Kumuyi's leg instead causing him pain, the only soothing reward he had from that day was the head of the rabbit rationed to him, he still has that scar today. 

On the academic front, he struggled early on and didn't understand the jargon of arithmetic, english, geography, civics and lamented on why students had to take subjects that don't seem enjoyable. To him, it was a more enjoyable experience playing drums and chasing rabbits than calculating the squares of numbers. This resulted in ridicule from teachers who shouted discouraging and nasty words at him. 

In 1960 at the age of 19, he reflected on his life and asked himself why he could easily play drums, enjoy farm work and complete his daily activities but found it difficult with school work, he realized it was laziness and decided to change. He collected the notes of his more studious classmates, copied them and updated his own notes. To motivate himself, he wrote his desired grades down where everyone could see - arithmetic A1, geography A1...- his classmates found this amusing and made a lot of hilarious comments in jest. Kumuyi, a man of his own mind studied hard and got excellent results, afterwards the school authorities employed his services to coach the junior students after his graduation. 

He personally enrolled for his A-levels after his father had told him he wouldn't be able to afford paying his fees anymore, he studied hard and finished with excellent grades earning A1 and A3 grades in pure and applied mathematics. The University of Ibadan admitted him to study mathematics, he finished as the overall best graduating student in his set, this feat; achieved by daily study from day one till the last day was a show of consistency at its best. 

After his BSc programme at the University of Ibadan, he moved to the University of Lagos. He walked up to the head of department and told him he was very much interested in working at the department; he got hired without an interview. 

*****

Kumuyi grew up in a very religious household and quickly found his niche in drumming. He left home for secondary school owned by a kind atheist who financed his education, he obediently followed all that he learnt in school, it wasn't until he went to higher institution that he began to question the beliefs of atheism that he had learnt.

Answers began to come when he stumbled on the writings of European evangelists: Wesley, Finney, Spurgeon. These books helped and he found the light within him, he became born again, sanctified and baptized in the Holy Ghost. With more clarity, he sooner realized he was passionate about showing the light of the gospel to the people around him. 

As a lecturer at the University of Lagos, he enjoyed the respect of his colleagues because of his exceptional mathematical intelligence - he often taught without notes. One day, he sat and reflected on what direction his career was going to take, he had two choices: either he went on as a lecturer and moved up the academic ladder or he followed his passion of bringing the gospel truth to people around him. Afterwards, he wrote a resignation letter and sent it to the authorities; it got rejected and the letter torn, the authorities weren't ready to let go of one of their best brains. 

The fire of passion for souls within him wasn't quenched, it only burned more intensely with each passing day, he started teaching his students and colleagues around him biblical truths, his focus was so constrained to teaching the word that his academic research programme suffered to the extent that the university sent him a warning letter which urged him to focus on his job or risk being fired. The academic research work would take a year to complete, he requested for three months to complete the research work and took a journey to Alexandria, he finished the research work in just three weeks. Genius! 

When he got back, he wrote another resignation letter, this time he pleaded with the university to let him go, the letter was accepted. He left the services of the university along with his students, colleagues and superiors who loved the teachings and in 1973 the deeper life ministry was born. 

The rest is history; the ministry grew from a membership of tens to millions. 

***** 

After over 45 years in the ministry and giving sermons amounting to over 6,500 hours in talk time, Pastor W F Kumuyi isn't showing any signs of slowing down, instead he is dedicated than ever to preaching biblical truths to people all over the world; thus rescuing them from the pitfalls of ignorance and deception. 

A worthy point of note is Pastor W F Kumuyi didn't build the Deeper Life Church around himself but instead built the church on the doctrines of the bible and around a purpose higher than his humble self - Heaven! His sermons, admonitions, disciplines, inspirational messages are all directed to achieving heaven's goal. 

He is humility personified and has a twinkle in his eyes.

As he clocks 80 in a few months, I am thankful to have been opportune to hear his spirit-filled words of wisdom and power. He is a blessing to this generation. He grows in strength day by day and is more vibrant and dynamic than ever. 

A man whom you look at his life and say, Thank you God!