Farewell to a General, Missionary Statesman and CLEM Overseer, Dr. Peter Okoh

Your love, your care, your generosity, your listening ears, your humility, your friendship, your determination, brilliance, grace, your passion are beyond expression. Oh, how God used you to raise men from nowhere and enthroned them among the princes. Some bite the fingers that fed them but no doubt much stick to pursue the course you lived and died for.

The ease with which you planted churches has no equal. You brought in tent-making to the forefront of missions as I saw you plant churches from the rank of an inspector to Deputy Commissioner of Police, an exemplary tentmaker. Apparently, you were doing church planting even before then but to the best of my knowledge, your labor took a missionary dimension from just a Policeman/Church Pastor since 1988.  I remembered our divine encounter at Yikpata, my visit to your home at Lafiaji, all in Kwara State. You were posted to Ajaokuta, then

with 24-hour electricity and full air-conditioned accommodation. Comfort was not your pursuit but how the gospel could get to the very dark places where early missionaries were chased out. From that comfort zone, you relocated to use Igumale as your base to confront the territorial powers in that region that tend to deprive the Lord of the potential harvest in the land and His Lordship. I saw the landscape of the entire ministry changed from just a ministry to a mission outfit.

You treaded where conventional missionaries dare not. The land was dark, thick darkness! A land where men drink palm wine with a human skull. I remembered my solidarity visit in 1994 where I met you mourning. A woman and her husband had handed over their child to be burnt in obedience to the demand of the juju priest. In my impatience, I asked why you did not arrest them. Then you were a Divisional Police Officer. Your response was to confront darkness with light. According to you, you were first a missionary than a Policeman. In a matter of years, the story changed.  You planted Jesus not only in the land but in their hearts and used your salary to build them churches.

Your work grew like wildfire. You were not an armchair missionary but an apostle indeed. Not a title carrier but a laborer indeed. You spent, you were spent. It was beyond the four walls of the Christian Life Evangelical Ministry (CLEM). You were humble enough to learn from wherever you can access grace and knowledge to push the work of frontier missions forward. That brought you to the Advanced Missions Leadership Institute in Jos anchored by Grace Foundations. You sent your team to the School of Cross-Cultural Missions and we are glad they are making a huge difference in the ministry today. Some of them, George Juku, Martha, Kenneth, Anthonia are still in the workforce and we are proud of them.

You were very generous. Grace Foundation missionaries were like your missionaries. Some of them were faithful enough to report back to me how much you invested in them. I was not surprised when I heard of the numerous battle you had gone through. No one can confront the Devil so severely that the Devil will not fight back. I truly wished that as a friend, you should have shared with me some of these battles. I should be aware long enough to at least stand with you in prayers. Thank God I traveled to see you and together in tears we prayed. I never knew it was our last meeting on earth. We will miss you dearly. This is no doubt a huge loss to the vineyard, to pioneering missions in particular but we join the host of heaven and the songwriter to sing, "it is well". We will miss you but the trumpet may not delay and we shall meet again. Adieu, General, Adieu my brother and friend. Adieu, Dr. Peter Audu Okoh.