Mr. Sola Oladipo - TI Contact
P.O. Box 71597 Victoria Island Lagos Nigeria E-Mail: solaf@excite.com
Mrs. Stella Okojie - TI Contact
C/O Mr Samuel Owahabanun Okojie Procurement Unit Mobil House Victoria Island Lagos, Nigeria    E-Mail: stekus@hotmail.com

History of TI in Nigeria:

TIE in Nigeria was set up following the Conference at Coma Ruga in Spain in 2001. Sola Oladipo and Mrs Stella Okojie were both commissioned at the worship service on the Sunday morning. They came representing their church in Lagos.

DGWG wrote to their minister on 8th August 2001 confirming their appointment as joint TIE Representatives for Nigeria.

Dr Daniel Kolawole Olukoya, Mountains of Fire & Miracle Ministry. P.O. box 2990., Yaba. Logos. Nigeria

Other early contacts

Dr Godwin O Nwaku, P.O. Box 371. Ijeshatedo, 101015 Lagos. He is a consultant for a number of companies. He was due to attend the conference in Spain, but failed to do so. He has written a book on Christian Leadership. Copy sent to DGWG. He says he is a missionary evangelist.

Nwachukwu Francis. He wanted DGWG to arrange an invitation to England. DGWG did not do so as the conference was in Spain. E-mail: fchineye@aol.com

In July 2001 Ken Smith received an e-mail from Pastor Clement Ikechi Oparaocha, the Administrator & Commandant of the Church Movement Services – e-mail: cioparaocha@hotmail.com saying he had been an executive member of Tentmakers in Nigeria, in charge of survey, research planning and training.  Ken Smith forwarded this to Angela Pursey, who had at that time taken over as General Secretary (a post she held until 2003). The letter is on file with DGWG. It appears he wanted support for CMS.

 In 2002 DGWG received a number of “confidence trick” letters. There were bombs in Lagos in January.. Sola reported that a tentmaker training schedule had been prepared for operating during 2002. Every Sunday evening a group met for mission prayers. In the north of Nigeria Islam was becoming more militant and a number of States had introduced Shari’a law, which had resulted in Christians fleeing south. However this had weakened the church in those States and the Christians remaining were hard pressed to maintain a  witness or fund their pastors. (letter on file) In December Sola reported work on a series of booklets “Praying for the World”.

 In June 2003 DGWG received an “Application for Membership” of TIE from: - Pastor Emmanuel Opara

Christian Pentecostal Mission, 11 Egede Lane Mile 2, P.O. Box 1190 Diobu., Port Harcourt, River State, Nigeria.

DGWG forwarded the request to Ken Smith and sent copy to Sola, with a request that Sola checks the genuineness of this. DGWG never heard the result of any enquiries.

2004. Both Sola and Stella planned to attend the TIE Consultation in Bulgaria in May. , however this proved impossible, but they received a copy of the Report and later GUIDELINES, suggestions on setting up and operating a Tentmaker Information Exchange. Also a copy of the Report was requested by the Revd Tiowa Diarra of Mali, and this led to him being appointed as the TIE Representative for Mali, and a major step forward in developing TIE in Africa.

2005. Invitations went out to the TIE mini-conference to take place 14th – 16th April in Bamako, Mali.  Existing TIE representatives were invited, plus delegates from Burkina Faso, Togo and Gabon. Again both Sola and Stella planned to attend, but difficulties over flights eventually made this impossible. We conveyed to them the results of the conference – (a) to begin a training programme in Mali in August, and (b) to plan for an “All Africa” conference in 2007. In April  the Revd Tashemi Lawrence of the Triumphant Fellowship Church in Aba Abia State made contact and this was passed to Tiowa Diarra and also Sola. Stella dealt with this. Sola and Stella have contributed ideas re the 2007 Conference to Tiowa.