As A Minister Of The Gospel And A Preacher, One Major Challenge I’ve Faced Is The Gender Issue – Pastor Funmi Daniels

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As A Minister Of The Gospel And A Preacher, One Major Challenge I’ve Faced Is The Gender Issue – Pastor Funmi Daniels

By James Hughes

Pastor Funmi Daniels is the Founder of the unveiled woman network, a ministry with the mandate to help women rediscover their true worth and value in Christ Jesus thereby becoming true kingdom ambassadors, through the unveiled woman network, she holds yearly conferences for Ladies.She is an associate pastor at Covenant light Church, pastoring alongside her husband. She has been actively involved in various church planting projects and evangelistic outreaches.She has a passion to see people rise from the lowest points of their lives to a life of purpose and significance. She has a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication and has been involved in several trainings.She is happily married to her husband Mr Ovie Daniels and together they reside in the city of Lagos Nigeria.In commemoration of the International Women’s day, I bring you the inspiring story of a woman who hit rock bottom several times in her life but today she is helping other women rediscover their true worth and value and also Press for Progress.Childhood Influence I would say yes though it wasn’t directly. Childhood was a bit bumpy and I faced quite a lot of issues that young girls face today. I battled low self-esteem, I never felt I was pretty, I didn’t believe in myself and I constantly felt others were better than me. Whenever anyone complemented me about something, I always saw it as flattery rather than a complement. This went on for a while which made me extremely vulnerable during my teenage years. It affected my academics as well because I never saw the possibility of being top of my class. When I became of age, with the mentorship of the wonderful people in my life I began to develop a stronger self-confidence. I no longer defined myself by other people’s standards. I saw myself the way God sees me, and I began to believe in myself all over again. Seeing the negative impact those wrong mindsets had on me, I felt pulled towards helping ladies who are presently faced with what I faced. The passion to help women rediscover their true worth and value in Christ Jesus became stronger and that’s what led to the start of the Unveiled Woman Network, a ministry that is focused on helping women rediscover their true worth and value. To a large extent I would say my childhood played a major role in what I am about today. The passion to make an impact in lives and mentor ladies who rise up to be bold, confident and courageous is right at the pinnacle of my heart.Meet Me My name is Funmi Daniels. I’m a mass communication graduate. I’m married to my darling, wonderful and amazing husband Ovie Daniels and together we are associate pastors at Covenant light Church. Asides being a pastor, I run my own organisation called the Unveiled Woman Network and through that platform we organise yearly conferences both in the city of Lagos and on campuses. The organisation has been running now for 5yrs. Alongside I organise a mentorship class for women of purpose who want to live significant lives.Inspiration behind the Unveiled Woman Network The Unveiled Woman Network is a ministry with a mandate to help women rediscover their true worth and value in Christ Jesus thereby becoming true kingdom ambassadors.Our Core values Dignity, courage, character, love & spirituality.Our Mission is to build a network of women with a strong Christ consciousness who represent God’s kingdom in various spheres of life and reach out to abused and emotionally broken women with the message of God’s love and gracePassion to see people rise from their lowest to a life of purposeAs earlier stated, my personal experiences fueled most of what I do today. I was a lady who though loved God dearly but was confused about life and an emotional wreck. In my life’s journey I hit rock bottom on several occasions, but God in His love reached out to me and made me into who I am today. So based on how far I have come, I am committed to helping ladies who feel their lives would never amount to anything, to see their true and authentic self. And not just ladies but men as well because I pastor men too. When a person discovers the inherent potentials he/she carries, there is a stronger motivation for such a one to rise and live the life of significance he/she has been called to live.Challenges As a minister of the gospel and a preacher, one major challenge I’ve faced is the gender issue. Due to our culture and tradition, men (though not all men) don’t find it easy receiving from a female minister or be pastored by one. Though I lead men but often times the ‘ego thing’ always shows up. Some men are already coming to terms with the knowledge that when it comes to God working through human vessels, He can choose to work through either the man or woman. There is neither male nor female with God. So basically, this is the major challenge I’ve had to face and like every other challenge, it’s an hurdle you have to learn to jump over if you want to remain relevant and fulfil purpose.Pastoring alongside my Husband Pastoring in Covenant light Church has been an amazing journey. A prayer everyone should pray is to have a pastor who is personally committed to your growth and development. My pastor – Pastor Nuel Manufor is one man of God has used to sharpen me into the person I am today. In my crude form, he saw the treasures in me and constantly empowered me to rise above the limiting beliefs in my mind. He constantly gave me assignments that were way beyond me, so I can stretch and reach for more. He never looked at the fact that I was a lady….he believes a woman can also carry out tasks that men are involved in. Growing under his tutelage has been an adventure and it was his mentorship that made me decide I won’t settle for anything less than God’s best for my life in marriage. When I met my husband, He wasn’t a member of my church. He was a campus pastor in another church when we met so there was the little concern on my part on how I will leave my church to join him as the custom is. I chose to pray about it and I allowed God’s will to be done.Other Project and Activities There are books presently being worked on which will be published soonest. In the month of May, we will be having an online campaign called the #Hergracestory campaign. It’s a campaign where different women will post their grace stories on social media with the #Hergracestory. We had one last year and a lot of lives were positively impacted through it. It’s all about Real Women! Real Stories and Real Victories!Greatest Reward My greatest reward is the testimonies of transformed lives. I’ve seen prostitutes become purposeful and successful business women. I’ve seen abused ladies become mentors to other ladies. I’ve seen single moms pick up the pieces of their lives and make significant progress. I’ve seen bitter women become channels of joy to others. I’ve seen the worst of people become better and that for me makes a whole lot of difference. It’s a privilege God gave me and I’m forever grateful. When someone sends me a text message about how his or her life is better because of my involvement, it touches my heart. That for me is the greatest reward anyone can give me.Unveiled Woman Network in the next five years I see Unveiled Woman Network becoming a household name with global recognition due to its impact in lives both within the country and across the continents. We have plans to engage in projects like helping sex workers have a chance at a better life, community outreaches and global conferences to empower the millennial woman. As for me I see myself with a larger sphere of influence and a wider global coverage for more impact. My joy is to keep touching lives.Giving up Several times! I’ve passed on several opportunities to quit especially times when the going was tough. Times when I had my personal struggles but yet had to stay committed to the set goals. Times when it felt like things weren’t moving as fast as it should. I remember in 2012 when I had my very first unveiled woman meeting. It was supposed to be a gathering of about 50 people but it ended up being a gathering of 8. I felt so discouraged that I wasn’t excited about taking pictures. Some people I shared the vision with back then weren’t excited about it. I literally felt the ministry won’t see the light of day. I was so discouraged that I did nothing about the vision till 2014. God surrounded me with people who fired me on in the pursuit of the vision. I planned another conference with the goal of having about 150people but at the end we were about 60 people in attendance. The discouragement wanted to set in again, but God used the people around me to help me see the brighter side of things. Today the network has reached about two thousand ladies via its online groups and onsite meetings. I look at what God is doing now through the network and I’m elated. If I had quit, I won’t be here having this interview. *smiles*Who Inspire you to be better My MumUnveiled woman Conference The Unveiled Woman is organizing the third edition of its Valued, Treasured and Loved Conference on Good Friday 30th Mar, 2018. We have an amazing line up of speakers like Rev Jumoke Adeyemi, Pastor Mildred Okonkwo, Pastor Folashade Fadeyi, Pastor Lola Tewe and my humble self. It’s a FREE conference and it would be my joy to have everyone there. The theme for the conference is LIMITLESS. The goal is for everyone who will be present at the conference to leave with a better and higher version of themselves. There is much more to us than we know…we just need to reach deeper and not stay within our comfort zones.Being a Woman of Rubies My desire to help women see the gem within them. Every woman is a walking treasure and as many as I come across, I’m committed to helping them see that.Final word for Women all over the world Be your authentic self. Don’t try to be like anyone else. God has made you unique with potentials that when harnessed will be a blessing to lives. Don’t be caught in the competition-game. The only person you should be better than today is the person you were yesterday. Make Christ your anchor and follow every of His leading. As long as you don’t stop or quit, you will get ‘there’.Credit: Guardian Woman

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