By WHAT could have inspired a young man to embark on a dangerous adventure of riding a bicycle across the country that took him nine days covering more than 600 kilometers? Why would a father bid his wife and child bye and undertake a hazardous trip knowing anything could have happened to him and he may not come back to meet his family again?
On Wednesday January 15 this year, Mr Daniel Ephraim Williams, popularly known as ‘Babadan’, took off from Eket, in Akwa Ibom State on a bicycle. His destination was the Redemption City, in Ogun State. Armed with few groceries, the Bible, Open Heavens, (a daily devotional of RCCG) and gospel tracts, his mission was to celebrate the birthday of the General Overseer of the Church, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye who will clock 83 on March 2, 2025 and also to key into Vision 2032 of the Church to expand RCCG membership to 40 million.
In the course of the nine days of his journey, Mr Williams, who is also a minister in the Church, went through a terrifying experience which he admitted wasn’t easy.
His story:
“It has been my aspiration to travel to either Abuja or Lagos riding a bicycle. Cycling a long distance has always been my dream, although I have been doing 70 to 120 kilometres before. When the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye announced vision 2032, I was prepared to key into it and also use the opportunity to celebrate the 83rd birthday of the General Overseer. Moreover, I did not just embark on the journey but I prayed and sought God’s direction and that was what really helped me.
Support from my family
“Initially my wife and my mother were not happy about the adventure but after much persuasion, they agreed. My mother was filled with fear and she asked why my pastor should support such a mission. But she eventually agreed and gave her blessing. After a series of prayers and waiting on the Lord, I got the direction of God and the prayers and support from my wife, my mother, my pastor and well wishers. The experience was a hard one, I was even advised to quit and come back home. Others described it as a dangerous adventure. But it was a journey of patience, determination, focus, resilience, love and hope in God. If I were to consider the challenges, and my experiences on the journey, I would have quit but these qualities kept me going.
Challenges on the journey
“Climbing and descending hills was very tasking and most times there would be about four hills to climb one after the other. Going down the hill would be easy but climbing the hills was very strenuous, it took a lot of calculations, strength and energy. Bad roads really gave me a tough time. I would have to wait for trailers, buses and other cars before I could navigate these bad roads and this drained my energy a lot. I also had to change the back tyre of the bicycle three times.
“The roads were lonely, and there was the fear of insecurity. The roads were so lonely that I could describe them as ‘no man’s land’. I encountered accidents on the road. There was one accident I saw at Abudu Bridge, which was very pathetic. A truck fell into the river with all the passengers and there was no one to rescue them. The scene really shocked me.
“I also encountered extremely frightening big snakes on the road and had to stop and wait to allow them crawl back into the bush. It wasn’t an easy experience cycling through seven states (Akwa Ibom, Abia, Imo, Anambra, Edo, Ondo and Ogun) covering 668.1 kilometers of the journey.
“In order to achieve part of my mission, which was to evangelise, I stopped at major bus stops and road junctions to share gospel tracts and to preach the gospel. In the course of the journey, I stopped at any RCCG parish in the evening to rest for the night and continued the journey the following day. But where there was no parish of the Church, I lodged in any available guest house.
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“It wasn’t easy at all. But by God’s grace, my determination and resilience, I was able to overcome these hurdles. To be sincere, I believed the God of RCCG was with me and would see me through. At one stage, I became weary along the way.
“When I got to a place called Okada, I thought I was in Ore and that I was gradually approaching Ondo. But after I made an inquiry, I was told that I was in Okada, in Edo state and not Ore. Right there, I realised I still had a lot of kilometers to cover. At that moment, as a human being, I was discouraged because I had thought I was already approaching Yoruba land. But I encouraged myself and continued on the journey.
“I eventually arrived the Redemption camp on January 23rd and upon my arrival, I was warmly received by Assistant Pastor-in-Charge of Province, APICP CSR, RCCG Redemption City Continent, Pastor Oluwafemi Oyetunde, who then took me to the National Overseer, RCCG Nigeria, Pastor Sunday Akande who received me on behalf of the General Overseer, Pastor Adeboye and prayed for me.
Culled from Vanguard
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