Interestingly, the presiding Bishop and founder of Living Faith Church widely known as Winners Chapel, David Oyedepo has reportedly announced the purchase of a brand new aircraft to his congregation on Sunday.
We reliably gathered that the Church had sold out all her old aircraft including the helicopter and the Challenger 605 with registration, N633WM and purchased a new aircraft for church use.
Announcing on Sunday morning, Bishop Oyedepo who had unsuccessfully tried to join the Nigerian Airforce through the Nigerian Defence Academy in 1973 said to the congregants at the 50,000 capacity Faith Tabernacle during the first service.
“Men and brethren we have a brand new Aircraft at the airport’. Shortly before that he had announced in his sermon about the virtues of love and giving as well as exhorting on the need to focus totally on God that:
‘What God cannot give me, let me never have it.
Where God cannot take me, let me never get there.
What God cannot do for me, let it remain undone”.
The Bishop had announced in April 1982 at a ‘powerhouse’ meeting held at the inception of the Church among other things that God had told him that the ministry will soon be on wings carrying the gospel to the nations of the world. All except one of the several points itemized during that meeting has seen the light of the day in the 37 year old Ministry. Since 1996 when the first Aircraft, a Hawker Siddeley 25 with registration 5N-WMA (World Mission Agency), was purchased at one hundred million naira (N100 million), Winners’ Chapel has used at least 5 different fixed wing aircraft and one helicopter while each of them as a tradition is always sold for an updated model as they begin to age.
The Church has strong presence in over 60 nations of the world and has invested in heavy Church and educational infrastructure particularly in Kenya, Ghana, DR Congo, Congo Brazzaville, Benin Republic, Zambia and in over 30 more African countries as well as UK, USA and many more across the 6 continents. The Bishop and his lieutenants visit all the Churches located in these nations annually in what is called ‘apostolic visits’ usually between the month of April and October. It will be recalled that in one of such hectic visits in 2004, his wife, Pastor Faith Oyedepo fell ill and though she’s back to her duties in the Church, except for few visitations to particular nations, she is excluded from the rigors of the annual apostolic visits.
The Bishop and his team have survived a number of aircraft mishaps, the last coming in 2017 which led to thanksgiving across the branches of the Church Worldwide.