Sam Adeyemi, the senior pastor of the Daystar Christian Center, has revealed why he relocated to the United States.
Speaking on the recent episode of the Mic On Podcast, the cleric said he and his family had been residing in America during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The 57-year-old said they were planning their return when violence arose during the EndSARS protest against police brutality.
Adeyemi was among the notable figures who faulted the police for using bullets and tear gas to disperse #EndSARS protesters.
During the interview, the cleric said each time he and his wife choose dates to return to Nigeria, they would have “bad dreams” about something terrible happening to them.
The clergyman said he then called a meeting with leaders of Daystar to inform them about the development, adding that they resolved to keep the church running while he resides in the US.
Adeyemi disclosed that he and his wife eventually decided to stay in the US after the church leaders’ Zoom meeting.
“When COVID-19 started, all our children were in the US, so everyone stayed with their families. We stayed with our children. The week services resumed was when EndSARS started, so we were preparing to return to Nigeria. When the EndSARS protests ended in violence, we stayed back a bit,” he said.
“When we were ready to return to Nigeria, a different experience altogether happened. My wife had a dream in which she travelled to Nigeria and returned to the US, which was a bad dream. I told her I would not say I liked this dream. Three days later, I had a dream.
“We both travelled to Nigeria in my dream, and I was in a big fight. I was being attacked violently and had to ask the Holy Spirit in my heart what to do. He said I should call the name of Jesus Christ. I shouted ‘in the name of Jesus Christ’ in the dream and didn’t realise I shouted out loud in real life.
“My wife woke me up at 2:00am by hitting me and asking what was going on. We decided to take it seriously, especially considering a dream we had three days earlier. We prayed fervently, sensing danger.
Three hours later, I fell back asleep and had another dream. We were in Nigeria this time, and I was in a fight.
“A few days later, we called family members in Nigeria, and one person said I’m feeling very uncomfortable about you travelling to Nigeria.’ We called another family member who said, ‘I feel uncomfortable about you coming. What is going on?’
“We just turned and looked at each other, pondering the situation. Then I said, ‘You know what? I’ve been a Christian for 40 years. At this point, if God is speaking to me, I should have an idea that it is God speaking. Something is going on. I don’t know what it is, but I want to pray more.
“And at that point, we called a meeting of all the leaders in Daystar Christian Center, the top 120 leaders on Zoom. They said you’ve never deceived us before. If God asks you to stay, stay as long as He directs. We’ll continue this journey.
“Six months, we were still in the US, one year, tearing me apart. I discovered that until COVID-19, I’d been out of Nigeria for eight weeks. To now be away when you had the church with 40,000 members”, he said.
