I would rather bless people around me than buy a private jet – Gospel singer, Shola Adedeji

Gospel singer, Pastor Shola Adedeji, has said if God blesses her, she will rather extend the blessings to people around than buy a private jet.

Adedeji said she had to make the “people that God placed under me” comfortable, rather than thinking about amassing wealth and worldly things.

She said this in an interview, adding that she has a non-profit organization that helps people.

Adedeji said, “I’ve been based in the US for the past 25 years going to 26 years. My family and I live there. I love Nigeria and I’ve been around to promote my music to see what God can bring out of it.

“There’s a purpose God has destined for us. I believe there is a calling upon my life. It’s not something I just woke up one day to go into the ministry. When God wants to instil something into your life, you just see that all things you do are things of God. You want to be in His presence. You want to help other people especially with the music ministry. God keeps giving me songs; ideas keep coming. So, I now went before God in prayer and received my confirmation or conviction that God really wants me to go here and propagate His word around the world. These are what motivated me that gave me that boldness and strength I’m using today.”

She spoke on her mission and trips across African countries, saying, “For now, I’ve been going to African part of the world like Nigeria, South Africa maybe five to six times a year. I travel on ministerial assignment. I also have a women’s ministry. It is called Women of Virtue International. We have our headquarters in New Jersey whereby we empower women; we motivate them and we do transformational programmes that will transform their lives; it is for women to discover themselves. How can they know who they are even after getting married, having children? What are the things they can do to be who the Lord destines them to be? I travel a lot for this programme.”

According to her, the humanitarian service enables her to empower widows, old people or senior citizens.

She added, “Even, in the US, I’m the director that facilitates our food pantry whereby we give our food to the community. We give our food; we give our clothes; and we give out school supplies to the kids.

“In Nigeria, we’ve been having a lot of empowerment programmes for the youths, the younger ones and for the elderly. We have a situation that a lot of people that came for the empowerment programmes are teachers. And we discovered that they can also do something else apart from teaching. So we empower and encourage them to go into even decoration; how to become an MC at programmes; how to make soaps and other things like that.

“We actually have different programmes for different gender of people. For example, men, there was a time we went to the grass root somewhere in Ibadan; we gathered full men who needed bikes like okada to be able to support their families. Even though we didn’t buy a whole okada for them, we were able to support them a little bit so that they could buy on a hire purchase and continue to pay.

“To me as a servant of God and as a preacher, the first thing we need to think about when God blesses us is that He wants us to bless others. Are the people around you comfortable enough before you decided to go and buy a jet? I don’t have any problem honestly speaking if as a preacher I have a private jet. But with the situation of things around the world today, what is the purpose of having a jet when people are suffering around you. The Bible says we should go into the world to preach. It doesn’t say if you don’t have a jet you cannot preach the gospel. To me, if God blesses me, the first thing I want to do instead of buying a jet is to make sure that the people that God has placed under me are comfortable. So, it’s not about a jet as long as I can get to where I’m going comfortably with other means. We need to help other people. “There was an instance I read on the internet when a well-known preacher said that he was able to acquire three jets during the COVID and was boastful about it. I don’t think that’s good. If you have a jet you should not be boastful about it and you have to make sure that the people around you are comfortable. I think that is the most important thing.

She spoke on how she had been coping with combining family responsibility with church work and helping others.

“It has been a little bit difficult. I’m not going to lie to you about the family, church, raising kids, taking care of things. But I just continue to ask God for wisdom and for direction. And what I do is to make sure that my family is okay. I make sure they are comfortable before taking any step further; that is my primary responsibility before going out to take care of other people’s problems,” she stated.

She noted that her music is unique because God had given everybody a unique gift or grace.

Adedeji said, “When I’m ministering in songs, the atmosphere changes; the spiritual gift and the presence of God come down. It is not about the singing, but it is about the power that backs up the song. It is about the power of God that is behind that ministration and that is what makes it to be unique and different. And, it’s just the grace of God. The Bible makes us to understand that that the gift of a man maketh room for that man. So, it’s the gift, the power of God, the spiritual gift, the presence of God that comes down and all these change the atmosphere and that’s what makes it unique I believe.

She also expressed gratitude to a top gospel singer, Tope Alabi, for her guidance and encouragement.

She said, “I’m going to thank God in the life of our mummy, mummy Tope Alabi. Because when we composed the song, it was New Glory but by the inspiration of God when we came into the studio, she was like why don’t you go this way? Why don’t you sing the song this way? So, God used her to change some of the lyrics and that was how we came up with it. Though, we had New Glory before, it was New Dawn of Glory.

“As a gospel artiste, I have to continue to ask God for the grace to be unique. So, when you are unique, your song comes from God. So, it is the inspiration you receive from God that will help you to be able to touch lives of your fans because it is not just singing. It is not just about the song, but it is about the power of God behind your ministration. I believe as gospel artistes, we have to continue to ask God everyday for the strength, the enablement that we need because there is no other way to it. The anointing doesn’t come from the East nor from the West but it comes from God Almighty. This is what makes the song to be different from any other song.

“Unfortunately, things have already changed now because of what is going in the world. But, I believe that when we continue to ask God for divine inspiration, for the Rhema, I believe the fans’ lives will continue to change. That is what matters most.”