My Journey

As a first-year university student in Nigeria, I received Jesus into my life on February 23, 1985. After a few months, I had the desire to serve the Lord. I felt I was inadequate for all the service opportunities within the campus fellowship I was attending. So, by process of elimination, I decided to try out the children ministry outreach to one of the churches in the university town and I ended up being a Sunday school teacher.

Initially, the language was a bit of a barrier because I was not fluent in my native language and the children did not understand English which was the country’s official language. Even though, I interrupted my teachings frequently to ask for translations, I found the children were very patient with me. For the rest of my time in the university, I taught the children in that church.  

After my graduation, I continued serving in the children church by default and I taught different age groups. For many years, teaching children in the Sunday school was basically a means of service in my local churches.  And for all those years of teaching the children, I bought into the then popular opinion that teaching children was sowing seeds in their lives that would germinate when they became adults based on Proverbs 22:6. I believed that teaching children was for futuristic purposes. This shaped my false belief that if children were saved and discipled for Christ in their childhood, then it was okay for them to backslide as teenagers, because they would eventually come back to the Lord as adults.

It wasn’t until 13 years later, that God corrected that erroneous belief and children ministry became a calling of God on my life. By then, I was already married and was a stay-home mom to 2 children with a flexible business on the side. On the morning of October 27, 1998, God gave me a life changing epiphany based on John 17:17 – Sanctify (or set them apart) them by Your truth. Your word is truth. This revelation was that, if taught the undiluted truth of God’s Word at their level, it was possible for a child to become saved and live for God daily at any age. I became totally convinced that children can be consistently SET APART by the truth of God’s Word as godly children affecting their generation for Christ right from their childhood, hence, the SET APART CHILD. From that point on, the set apart child became the foundation my writing and teaching ministry to children were based upon. 

That same morning, the vision to start a Bible club was conceived. So with the encouragement of my prayer partner, I started the Set Apart Bible club in my neighborhood on the 9th of November 1998. Within the three weeks period, God gave me the ability to write the Bible lesson materials for the children in the Bible club. For the next 3 years, I created quite a bit of resources to minister to children in different settings, encouraged and supported the start of more Bible clubs, held seminars and rallies for children and produced a free monthly newsletter for children.

In 2001, I relocated with my family to America. I found that settling down in a new country with a family was a huge and daunting adjustment. I went to college to train as a nurse and had to work full-time at the same time. The cultural and social differences coupled with challenges of schooling and working while being a mom to two young children made it difficult to do any children ministry. For the five years we were in the US, I hardly ministered to children. 

In 2006, my family relocated again, and this time to Canada. After trying so hard, I was unable to get back into the nursing workforce. (I jokingly tell people that all the money we spent on my nursing education was just to make me comfortable with the western culture.) As a result, I essentially became a stay-home mom and had a lot of free time to pursue a more active ministry to children. 

For the 14 years we were in Canada, I was deeply involved in my local churches children ministry as the coordinator/minister. As the ministry head, I created policy & procedure and training manuals, and organized many children outreach programs. I also got invited and traveled to speak at children conferences and to train children’s ministry teachers within and outside the country.

In addition, I was able to devote more time to writing materials for children and teachers/parents. I produced my own lesson and activity materials for my local churches usage and created activity materials for the other curriculums to make teaching them easier for the teachers. After the doing the latter for many years, I decided to self-publish my own curriculums. This started initially as a passionate hobby before transitioning into a full-time occupation.

Again, in 2018, my husband and I moved back to the US. Over the past few years, God opened my eyes to the “burdens” and burnouts that children church teachers were experiencing in my home country of Nigeria. These challenges originated from lack of easy to use and affordable Bible curriculums and inadequate training which I believe that God has given me a two-part vision to address. As a result, since moving back to the US, I have taking a less active role in my local church children ministry to devote my time to making this vision a reality as God leads.

The first part of the vision is to make available child-friendly children resources for the churches, hence, the 100% free resources on this website. The second part of the vision is to organize training seminars for children church teachers which does present some challenges. But I am trusting God for His grace, provision, divine connections and timing to make this vision a reality.

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