Jemi Ekunkunbor
19 July 2008
interview
The plight of widows in our society is no longer news. With certain communities still embracing obnoxious traditional and cultural practices such as widowhood rites, women are the worse for it. The implication for many is that on the death of the man, she is left in the cold after properties have been carted away by husband's relatives and landed property confiscated while children are left confused and with their lives taking a sudden plunge. Five years ago, Pastor (Mrs.) Ruth Iwunze got the call of the Lord to do something to alleviate the sufferings of widows.
This, she has pursued vigorously and with passion in the last few years. Called Tabitha Foundation, she runs this ministry alongside her role as a senior pastor and wife of the General Overseer of Love Base Assembly, based in Festac Town, Lagos. For her, the plight of widows was not strange as she revealed that she and her mother have taken that familiar, painful and lonely path that all widows and their children walk through.
What was your mother's experience as a widow?
I'm an only child. I was three months old when my father fell ill. He had stroke and was down for 18 years. I used to see him when I come into his room. We couldn't talk or share. He would just look at me and I used to go to other families and see them play with their fathers. With me, it was just my mother. She played the role of both father and mother to me. Until I got married, I was still sleeping on the same bed with her. When he passed on, there were things that happened, but, today, I thank God that the rejected stone has become the cornerstone. So, I know what widows pass through and I'm sure that if my mum were alive today, seeing what I am doing now, she would be very proud of me.
What is this Foundation about?
Tabitha Foundation was a vision given to me by God. Like I said, my mum was a widow for about 30 years. So, when I see widows, I see their pains, their cries. Most of their children are out of school, they can hardly eat, or maintain themselves. The Foundation is also about under-aged girls in the street. I am believing God that, very soon, He will help me build a home for them. I see a lot of them walk into the church. Some are sexually abused and the undergraduates among them have to do things to make ends meet. Those who are pregnant can't go back home, they are out there in the street. I have a burning desire for them too. That is what Tabitha Foundation is out to do. I got the name from the Bible. Tabitha is about a woman of good works.
What was the heart cry of God when He gave you this vision?
God was really crying out for widows. I have had several revelations about these people. I remember one day, I was going out with my husband; he was driving and this vision came about this very old woman who came to me, asking for tissue paper and I had two. I said to her, if I give you this, I won't have any. Still, I found myself giving it to her. I also had the case of a woman whose husband died of AIDS. She has four children and the husband's family took everything away from her so that she cannot even pay her children's school fees. There are widows and there are genuine widows who truly have needs.
When you get a call like that, does it not show that, sometimes, the Church goes in a direction that is different from God's desire?
I agree. You have a point. That is why I believe God to open the eyes of people to see what He is calling them to do. Our church is eight years old but, from our first year anniversary, I've identified with the widows. By the grace of God, we've not lost anyone in the church. But the three or four we have, came into the church and God has used us to put food on their tables and to put roof over their heads. Last year, we made a call to widows and we had about 168 of them come to our church from different churches. I think the church needs to stand up and say there is need to do something for them.
So, what specific plans do you have for Tabitha Foundation?
By the grace and help of God, I plan to put about 200 people on scholarship. My husband and I also believe God to build mini-flats for these women because some of them live in shanties built with zinc or just wood structures covered with tapaulin and their children are prone to all kinds of infection. You also have to be careful in helping them so that they won't just be running from one church to the other looking for help. So, we want to put food on their tables, give scholarship and cloth them. On Sunday, one of my pastors sent a girl to me, she had an accident in 2003 and she lost her right hand and she needed an artificial limb. This is a young girl who is not yet married. She wants to go back to the society and start doing something and I said okay, let's see what we can do for her.
A lot of people come to church but they still uphold obnoxious cultural practices. What role does the church play with this kind of Christians?
I don't know about other churches but we tell them it can happen to anybody. We pray for long life, we pray that God will take away reproach from our lives. So, if you do that, it's whatever you sow that you'd reap. If you don't treat your brother's wife well, God forbid, tomorrow, it can be your turn. I have this belief that life is about treating people well. Anything can happen. Somebody once asked me why I have this burning desire for widows, and I said, I know their pains.
I know what it is to be a widow. My mother was one. For 30 years, I know what she went through. I was alone with her. She would cry. You know what it is when the man you've stayed with morning, afternoon, night is gone? By the grace of God, here at the Love Base Assembly, we tell our brethren that you must treat your brother's wife as your own wife and show love. I tell every woman there is nothing like being a housewife, get up and do something. It is when you solely depend on your husband that everybody will now know that this was the man keeping you.
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