Apostle Williams, The Church Is Grieving And So Is Your Terrestrial Family- Lanre Odukoya

And the man died!

Suddenly the tic-toc of the clock faded, the sun would neither set nor rise again. The downpour momentarily simmered into light showers until no more sound of the rain is further heard. The heart won’t pump its blood and the vigils won’t appease God- all is lost and won. The man of God died and took along his smile.

The church is grieving and so is your terrestrial family- even some of those who hurried you to your grave barely a month before you made the biblical ’70’. Apostle J.M. Williams was a man I admired closely and remotely in more ways than one. His living exemplified selflessness but which would later dim his light without his consent. Beyond description, he exuded compassion, chose to forge legacies against the lure of materialism, was a father in every sense of the word, a pastor in the league of one and an incredible listener to the dream of the youths whom he fondly called ‘the rising sun’.

I will miss the purity of your smile, the sanctity of truth you preached with profound sense of purpose and the seamless humour that spiced your exhortations. I was distant from you because of a few truths I couldn’t handle and the personal resolves I made which I knew you could persuade me to drop. I’m a proud product of your grooming even if in just scanty years.

You have inspired the world with your story, I pray all you laboured for receive a new lease of life as you sojourn on to meet your creator. When you meet Him, remind Him to look after all you left behind, tell Him to grant your lost sheep unmerited grace to retrace its way back to His loving care, you would need this to look down and smile at the ashes turned to beauty. That was what you lived for.

I join the Chapel of God’s Shekinah and all well wishers to commiserate with the family you left behind. May God grant them strenght and the wherewithal to live better than yesterday.

Good night is the hardest to say when the storms are gone and no more fighting left, but here’s mine till we meet to part no more.

Tribute by Lanre Odukoya