Edokpolor Osaro Martins is a senior pastor at the Ark of God's Covenant International Ministries, Lagos, Nigeria.

He is happily married to Dr. Blessing Osaro-Martins (PhD).

He studied Chemistry and Mathematics in the School of Education, University of Benin, Nigeria (1992). He also studied Christian Theology in Banjul Bible Training Centre, The Gambia. (2002).

He is an experienced teacher of christian theology and doctrines (christology, pneumatology, soteriology, and eschatology etc), practical ministry, and the 66 books of the Bible.

He is a preacher of the gospel with over 20 years experience.

He is the founder and owner of Joli FM digital radio, and a product distribution business in Lagos, Nigeria.

He is the author, and broadcaster of Sovereign Realities, a non denominational devotional.

He is willing to collaborate with ministries or well meaning believers for the course of the gospel of Christ.

To reach him, send email to [email protected] or WhatsApp chat only to: +2348171983018.

Welcome to 12-Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, His creation.

Our prayer is that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Praise God for you, Pastor Osaru Martins.

It's a great pleasure to connect with you.

What part of the world are you in today?

I'm in Lagos, Nigeria.

What was the trigger for you starting your ministry?

I believe from the onset that God is actually involved in my life.

To start with, the meaning of my name.

Osaru is a Nigerian name, particularly from the Edu tribe in Edu State in Nigeria.

And that name, Osaru, simply means God is alive.

Now, that name was given to me by my parents who were not Christians.

Until then, my parents were not Christians, but they gave me that name, meaning God is alive.

And God has proved in diverse ways that He is truly alive in my own life.

Starting from my early days, I was born and raised up to 19 years in the rural area of the state called Edu State in Nigeria.

For the first 19 years of my life, I never visited any city.

I just lived in a small community, a small village.

My parents were just peasant farmers trying to sustain themselves and their family.

But right there in the village, I knew, though I couldn't just pinpoint what exactly God was trying to do with me and in my life, though my parents actually were not Christians because there was no church in my community back then.

Until when I was around 17 or so, then some German missionaries came to my community.

They came from Europe, from Germany.

They came right down into the deep jungle where they started the church in my community called the New Apostolic Church.

The elders in the community couldn't join because they were so engrossed in their traditional way of worship, but they were able to gather us, the young chaps.

So that was how my journey with God started.

I started from there.

Then when I was 19, about 11 months in Taba, I lost my both parents.

My mother passed.

Eleven months later, my father passed.

Then I was given to my mother's younger sister who was a teacher in the city.

That was how I came out of the village, joined my elder sister, sorry, my mother's younger sister in the city.

While I was there, I had the opportunity of joining the church.

And from there, the journey of my walk with God started.

What is the distance between where you were living to the city?

I wouldn't know the kilometer, but it's about an hour drive.

How did you get into ministry, to becoming a pastor, specifically from being a science study?

There was a time after staying with my mother's younger sister in the city for a period of 10 years, an issue came up.

I know that was an orchestration for God to take me out of that place.

An issue happened and she asked me to leave the house.

While I was leaving, the only place that came to my mind was my friend's place.

And I went there that night.

It was in the night.

I left the house around 11 p.m. our local time.

Got to my friend's place, another part of the city, about an hour drive from where I was staying.

Got there around 12, after 12 midnight.

I got there and I met my friend's father, still sitting outside.

But you know how God works?

That man was a pastor and he had a church in his compound.

Then I met him.

He took me in as a pastor.

He consulted me the following morning and said that he would want to follow me back to see my auntie.

Then we went but my aunt was resistant.

She said no.

Then we left there, went to the rural area, met one of my elder brothers and that one said the same thing.

Then he brought me back to his house and said that now as human beings we have done what we are supposed to do.

Now this is the time to turn to God.

Then he placed me on seven days dry fasting.

So in the process of the fasting God revealed himself and I knew that it was all over, that I have to start my life.

And that was how I actually got into knowing what ministry is all about.

I was with him for one full year, joining him in the work of the ministry.

He brought me into his office and from there the whole thing started and God began to manifest himself in my life.

What is the biggest challenge with ministry where you are?

What I see as the biggest challenge in ministry is being able to carry people along the way you expected it to be.

It's a big challenge.

You are doing your best as a pastor for people to know God.

The people you are working for, they are not seeing your effort.

They are not seeing your effort.

They are not serious with God.

Another thing again is you are trying to teach, you are trying to preach, you are trying to practicalize what God is showing you, what the Holy Spirit is teaching you and the people you are trying to bring along, they are not seeing it, they are not serious.

To me, it's the biggest challenge.

When people are not serious with God, when people are not committed to God, when people really don't know who God is, not having that personal relationship with God, people try to look at Christianity as another form of religion.

To me, that is the biggest challenge.

I don't see Christianity as a religion.

I don't see Christianity as a religion.

I see Christianity as a relationship with God.

If as a Christian, as a believer, you see Christianity as another form of religion, then for me, I see that as just hypocrisy, not being close to God.

So it's the biggest challenge for me so far in ministry.

Five years from today, you're listening to this conversation.

Leave a message for future you, Pastor Osaru.

What would you say?

Five years from now, I want to see myself doing greater things for the Lord in terms of reaching to the ends of the earth with the gospel of Jesus.

Five years from now, I want to see that I have so many other books added to what I have now.

Five years from now, I want to see that Joliet FM, that is the digital radio station that I co-founded, is able to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

I want to see pastors coming there to preach.

I want to see myself being able to find pastors coming to that station to preach the gospel of Jesus.

It is my utmost desire.

This has been a great pleasure, my friend.

In closing, is there anything else you'd like to share?

I'm believing that God will enable me to teach this gospel of Jesus deeper than I am doing right now.

That people will know God better than they do now.

People will have that personal experience with God because the biggest and the greatest message anyone can preach that can convert another soul is the message of personal encounter.

So when I preach, when I pray with people, I always pray for that personal encounter because it is the personal encounter that will bring the conviction.

No man, no human being has the ability to convert another.

But when the encounter is there via the Holy Spirit, when the person you are talking to, no matter how deeply inclined in any other religion, if the person has an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the biggest way to convert or the easiest way to convert such a person.

So I will desire that every soul that has not been saved to every soul not saved have personal encounter with the Lord Jesus.

So Sarah, a pleasure, a treasure.

Thank you for being on What is Inspired by 12-Minute Converse.