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“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1Peter2:9)

My name is John Fatoyinbo generally called Shepherd Fato. I was born into a polygamous family and I am one of six children out of which I am the eldest. My Dad was a Muslim while my mom was a Christian, but both of them are deceased now. Before their death I never grew up under their parental care but rather it was my grandmother that brought me up. I grew up to know that my parents lived separate lives. My grandmother believed so much in idol worshipping and always sought protection from the idols through a series of sacrifices. Routine worshipping of the idols were made in the house and annually we all traveled to our home town for the festive celebration of the god of iron (called Ogun) and which was mandatory for my dad to do annually. It was in this pagan lifestyle that I grew up. Although in the midst of all this the moral standard was high. My grandmother never failed to discipline me in order to instill some moral values into my life. The gospel of Christ was known to me. Year in year and out I always spent Christmas with my mom. But the mission and purpose why Jesus came was not known to me rather what I knew were the gods that my grandmother worshiped.

CALLED OUT OF DARKNESS

In my elementary school, I was such a good pupil and my results were always commendable. However toward the end of elementary school, I began to hang out with bad company who taught me how to sneak out of school and go to the movie house and even at times we stayed out of school completely. This lasted until I moved to high school. In my second year of high school some of my friends became born again Christians and I resisted every attempt of theirs to share the Gospel with me. But as God would have His way I was arrested and became a born again Christian in 1992. My new identity was no longer that of a pagan but a royal priesthood; it was no longer that of a sinner but a holy nation. Before that I used to join my grandmother in idol worship, but now it is the true God I worship through Jesus Christ. In my new found faith in Jesus, I renounced all gods and resisted any food that emanated from sacrifices made  to idols. Because of this action, I fell out of favor with my grandmother and the devil used her as a weapon of persecution and she tormented me.

Several time I was chased out of the house; my Bible was seized: I was beaten, ridiculed, and even threatened to stop my education. As if this was not enough, my grandmother sent for my mom to explain to her that I had been bewitched and that there was a need to cast out the spirit inside of me. Ordinarily I would have expected my mom to understand my new found faith, but because she did not want to offend my grandmother, she simply agreed with whatever my she wanted to do. In their resolution, I was taken to the village where they intended to perform some rituals in order to appease the gods and cast out the Holy Spirit. I was brought before an idol and they asked me to bow down to the image and appease the god. I refused and quoted, “Thou shall not have another God before me.” Each time I refused their offer I was beaten. And there was a particular time when I was locked up in the shrine room. While in the room I was praying and asking God to give me strength to overcome all these trials. After three days in the village, all their efforts became fruitless, so we came back to Lagos and my grandmother sent me packing for her house.

All of this persecution lasted for 3 years until in December 1994 when I lost my mom in a car accident. Things began to take on a different dimension. I was made to stay with my dad and stepmom. And rather than growing in faith, I became weak and over time I became a nominal Christian. It was during this period that I became exposed to immorality. As a way of punishment for backsliding, I found it difficult to secure admission into the university. Like any backsliding Christian, I retraced my steps back to God. And as God still wanted to use me to work in his vineyard, He gave me admission to study accounting in the University of Lagos

GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE

Coming down to the University of Lagos has made me see the plan of God for me. In my first year I was eager to serve God so I joined a fellowship on campus and was very active in the evangelism group. But on one particular occasion, I was on my way to the hostel, when I came across Shepherd Mark Hwang who walked up to me and invited me to the Sunday worship service in UBF. Since I was attending a fellowship already I never gave it a thought, but he was persistent in inviting me for Bible study. Then in 1999 he invited me to the Easter Conference which I found to be a wonderful conference where students were made to study the Bible deeply. Thereafter, I was regularly having one-to-one Bible study with Shepherd Mark. Through this, I could see God’s purpose for my life, that God has chosen me to be a royal priesthood. As a priest, I have to take the word of God to students on campus, pray for them and help them to grow spiritually. After a while, Shepherd Mark left Nigeria for Korea but God used Shepherd Peter Park to keep me fit spiritually and to be focused. But after my degree and serving my compulsory time in the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), I got I job in Port Harcourt. It takes about 9 hours to drive from Lagos to Port Harcourt. Shepherd Peter advised me not to take the job, but I was stubborn and did not listen to my spiritual Leader. I left Lagos, but after 9 months in Port Harcourt I became spiritually empty there and then I decided to return back to Lagos and stay until I got another job. During this time I put in for a professional course in accounting and later became a Chartered Accountant. I have every reason to thank God for shedding light into the darkness in my life. I thank God for my life of faith. Career-wise God has been faithful and in all ramifications I have been enjoying the favor of God. God helped me to get job in a communication company and later on at Samsung Electronics. He helped me to establish a house church in October 2008 with Shepherdess Aderonke who I cherish so much, and I see her as a gift from God. God blessed our house church with a son named Samuel Ireoluwa who will grow to become a servant of God and be influential in his generation. And very soon my coworker will soon have a second child. In all this I give God the glory for what I am.

Recently when we had our 20th anniversary for UBF in Nigeria, I thought of our fruitfulness as a shepherd of God’s flock. But I realized that I have been living a job-centered life focusing on my career without sharing my time and resources with sheep. I repented of this attitude and asked God to help me in time management and to sacrifice my time to go to the campus regularly. Presently I have 2 sheep that I study with on a weekly basis, but I know I can do much more than that. I am still praying that God will fill me with the Holy Spirit to serve God’s flock and be a source of blessing to campus students.

One Word: I have been called to declare God’s praises.