How it all began

Early 2006, upon the adoption of a resolution to start a Preaching at Magodo by the leadership of New Estate Baptist Church, Surulere, Lagos (NEBC), consultation began with the leadership of Magodo Home Fellowship. A crusade with which it was hoped to kick start the Preaching Station was organized in June of that year. Soon, leadership of NEBC requested a meeting with the Magodo/Ketu Congregation on a Sunday evening. Pastor Amos Kunat came with the leader appointed for the Preaching Station, Deacon Dele Adeogun. In the course of that meeting we were informed officially as a group of the decision the NEBC has taken to start a Preaching Station in Magodo, and that it was planned that we will start on the first wednesday of September 2006, with mid-week services. And so we started.

The name of the Church was divinely inspired into the heart of our leader, Dn. Dele Adeogun. At his first meeting with the Ketu/Magodo Congregation he informed members of the Pulpit Committee that while waiting on the Lord for 40 days preparatory to the take-off of the Preaching Station, the Lord laid it in his heart to name the Church 'New Light'. He said the Lord told him that He would make the Church a City on a Hill that cannot be hid; that the Church was going to be one that will make tremendous impact on its environment. He said that members should go and pray about it against our next meeting. Coincidentally, soon after he said so, PHCN restored electricity which had then been off. Other members of the Pulpit Committee prayed for several days about the name of the Church and when they reconvened they unanimously endorsed the suggestion of Dn. Adeogun.

We had the first mid-week service on September 6, 2006. We were 33 adults and 11 children. It was at in the home of one us, the family of Bro. Jide and Sis. Jumoke Oladipo along Emmanuel Keshi Street in Magodo. We were worshiping on Sundays at NEBC Surulere throughout September while holding our midweek services on Wednesdays at The Oladipos in Magodo. On the last Sunday of September, i.e. September 27, 2006 we were sent forth by NEBC. They prayed for us and they asked us to go in His Name. We started our first worship service in the home of, the Oladipos on Sunday, October 1, 2006. We were 68 in all.

Soon, we realized that we had challenges of space and we had to move. To the glory of God we were able to relocate to Conference Hall 2, Grandview Shopping Mall, in January 2007. We had a Church office on the first floor and a Meeting Room opposite the Conference Hall was hired for our children. Our first worship service at Grandview was on January 14, 2007. We were told that Conference Hall 1 was already being used by Christ Embassy and the major challenge we had to confront was how to conduct our services in a way in which it would be of minimal disturbance to one another. We found out from Christ Embassy and they said their services formally started at 9:00am and so we decided that we shall be starting at our own 8:00am with the main worship service so that by the time they were starting at 9:00am we would be finishing and then we will have our Sunday School.

In spite of our best efforts at minimizing the disturbance of one Church by the other and vice versa, we found almost immediately that we had not gotten to our Rehoboth. We had challenges with our brothers in Christ Embassy in form of noise from one end to the other. It didn't take long before we realized we had to look for what should be our permanent location and God did it miraculously. At every point in time when we had a challenge and it became so difficult and the deadlines were getting to close, God stepped in miraculously.

Grandview had always been there even before we started but somehow the information we were getting prevented us from approaching them initially. But when we had to move from the home of The Oladipos, we approached them and they agreed. In identifying our permanent site a lot of options were considered, but God had this place in mind for us. We are on a three plot of land which used to belong to three different people who decided to sell at the same time using one agent. Having identified that, we still had the challenge of funds. Our membership on October 1, 2006 was 68, made up of adults and children. At that time the cost of each parcel of land then was around about N12,000,000.00 (Twelve Million Naira). But we have a Father that has never failed us. We approached the agent and suggested the idea of instalmental payment and he agreed. Even then, meeting the dates of the instalmental payments were challenging for us but at the nick of time on each occasion we were able to meet our obligations. And so, within three months we paid for these three plots of land and by September 2007 the land was ours.

Those who were here when we bought the land are those who can really appreciate how it looked. It took faith and it took the leadership of our Pastor then, Dn. Dele Adeogun for our movement to this location to be sustained. We want to bless God for his leadership. He kept on encouraging us.

After struggling to purchase the land, we needed to renew our tenancy in Grandview. Again God led a family (the Family of The Otaniyis) to release a whole wing of a duplex in their property along Adebola Ogunsanya Street, Magodo for our use. So, from January 2008 we had that facility. We called it Family Life Centre. That was where our children worshipped. We also used it when we had special programmes. We rented Grandview Hall only for Wednesdays and Sundays and so when we had programmes outside those days we used the property for those services in addition to the use of the Family Life Centre for our children. The Otaniyis provided that place totally free of charge.

Just as we were figuring out what to do with the three parcels of land, a problem arose in respect of one of them. We had to hold several meetings with someone that tried to lay claim on it. We had to cough out extra N6,000,000.00 (Six MillionNaira) to be able to solve the problem that arose. The Lord was again there to provide.

As we were solving those problems, those of us who have to deal in land at the Registry in Alausa will be aware that the Lagos State Government suddenly decided to revoke the allocations of various parcels of land in Magodo, Isheri and some other areas in Lagos State and suspended processing of land documents in Magodo. The Lord stepped again on our behalf. One of our brothers in NEBC took us to those at the helm of affairs at Alausa, we pleaded and they assured us that whatever exercise that was being carried out in respect of land in Magodo will not affect our Church and that we would be allow to continue to process our documents. And so once again the Lord stepped in.

As we all know, currently in Lagos you cannot develop until you have a building plan approval. Meanwhile, you cannot have approval until your documents are perfected in your name. So in order to be able to relocate from Grandview, the idea of having a beautiful tent came up. Once again the Lord used our brothers in New Dawn Baptist Church, who had done a similar thing to help with the order, importation and clearance of the two tents. We have a tent for the main worship service and a smaller one for our children. Initially it was very discouraging to relocate here. The whole of the land was waterlogged. The farthest we could go at the time we purchased the land was somewhere near the entrance of the premises. We had to begin to sandfill gradually from the beginning of 2009. The sandfilling caused a lot of challenges and was most expensive. We were advised not to use laterite but to use sharp sand, which was a lot more expensive. At the last count we must have put in over 290 lorry loads of sharp sand. The consolation we have is that the Lord has always been there every inch of the way for us.

The tent was imported from South Africa. The initial idea was to get the manufacturers to come and install it but they gave us bills which was prohibitive. Again, the Lord came to our rescue. We decided to leverage on the competencies which our brother churches gathered when installing their own. We were able to install the tents without having to bring the experts from South Africa. The tent was mounted and we moved in at the end of November 2009.

Meanwhile, at the first service of January, 2008 it was decided by the Church that we should set up a Pastor Search Committee. The Committee worked for over two years submitted its recommendations through the necessary channels with the result that our Pastor, Pastor G. E. Omodele resumed on May 1, 2010.

The Church has taken its Community Social Responsibility very seriously. It has donated electricity generators and telephones to the Magodo Police Station, given monetary donations to the Magodo Residents Association a couple of times, planted trees on the ever popular Basheer Shittu Street, donated safety jackets to motorcycles riders in Magodo, partnered with the Federal Road Safety Commission to embark on safe driving at the Ketu Motor Park, visited Motherless Babies Homes several times to donate clothing, food and cash, supported Churches within and outside Lagos State in their Ministry works through various cash donations and for four consecutive years has supported the Baptist College of Theology, Isolo in cash and through the provision of infrastructure. The list goes on and on to the glory of God.

Since the establishment of the ministry the Lord had bless the congregation in form of marriages and fruits of the womb. Several Members have wedded while much number of children has been born by members of the Church.

Within a year of the setting up of the Preaching Station, the Church started its own Mission Station at Alakuko, called New Radiance Baptist Church.

They were baptized in 2008. Another group was baptized at the New Estate Baptist Church, Surulere in 2010.

From the congregation of 33 adult 11 children on September 6, 2006 during our first midweek service to 68 members on Sunday October 1, 2006, we have grown to about 140 adults and children today. To God be the glory.