‘life’s challenges forged the path to my purpose’

With two decades of ministry experience, Bidemi Mark-Mordi is a seasoned equipper in the Body of Christ. As the Apostolic Lead of The Well Oasis International in Lagos, Nigeria, she has empowered over a million individuals to embrace Kingdom realities through her impactful daily broadcast, ‘Commanding Your Morning’, airing since 2017. Bidemi is a valued member of the John C. Maxwell Founder’s Circle Coaching team, offering workshops, seminars and coaching that drive personal and professional growth through practical leadership principles. She’s also the visionary behind Verbatim Communications and Dukia Radio, an online station fostering family, purpose and leadership empowerment.
Bidemi has authored 23 books, including The Real Rules of Life and Wisdom of the Seed reflecting her dedication to helping others become who God wants to be.
Married to Mark Mordi (SAN), Bidemi is a proud mother of three adult children. In this exclusive interview with ESTHER IJEWERE, she shares her inspiring story.

Childhood influence
Recently, I coined a saying that “We should never allow what didn’t kill us to bury us.”  Some of my childhood experiences were calculated to kill me.  This will be mostly because I went through a bit of stuff that I didn’t even realise was not good for me; some by my adventurous nature and others just because life can be well cruel.
What I learnt from it all is two-fold. First, the greater the destiny, the harder the life may be.  By this, I stepped into a life where I do not live by regret.  I tell myself that because I went through, I can help others and therefore, darkness did not win.  Secondly, it is for those kinds of experiences that I can stand today and curate a life that is rooted in God and therefore cannot be broken by man.

How she became a Wisdom Coach and Kingmaker? 
I wish I can honestly take credit for the start of this journey. I wish I could say that I sat down and drew up a plan that this is what I wanted to be.  If I did, it would not be the truth. You see, unlike most people, my big dream was to live a life that mattered.  I knew that I wanted to be able, at the end of my life whenever that would be, to say to myself, I lived to the best of my ability.  It was not about the lights or the applause; I wanted a meaningful life, so I started to find meaning, first for myself.  As I worked to discover what that meant in real time, I found out a few things, the first being that I was not a statistic, nor was I like everyone else.  I learnt that God made me unique, and He made me for a purpose.

The moment I came to that realisation, it seemed to me like everything that kept me second-guessing myself was taken out and I stepped into a profoundly impactful journey just for myself. I didn’t begin so that I would be something to someone; I began this journey so that at the end of my life, I would be able to look my God and Father in the eye and say, I gave it my best shot.

Now, those who know me will confirm that I do not do half-measure.  If I said yes to something, I would give it my very best. Again, it’s not to compete but to satisfy the yearning in me to please God.

The inspiration behind the “Commanding Your Morning” broadcast and transformative moment
There are too many to recount. The ones that stay with me the most have to do with how the transformative power of the word of God brings men and women to wholeness over time as they join in daily and listen and do.  I have had many testify of healing from depression and depressive tendencies just because of the power of God’s word.  There are people weekly who share how a certain word during the broadcast opened them to new trajectories and how they have come to a place of intimacy with God and that has impacted their marriages, careers and families.

By far, the most impressive for me was during the pandemic.  The CYM broadcasts started in May of 2017 and ran Mondays through Fridays until February 2020. Long before those of us in Nigeria realised how life-altering the pandemic was going to be, God told me to shut down our in-person meetings and transition fully online.  We obeyed and we started to broadcast exclusively online.  By March, I had gone from one broadcast daily to sometimes four.  The testimonies poured in daily especially of healing of the minds in that time.  Men, women and children showed up to pray and receive daily instruction for their lives. They also were given daily doses of hope that some testimony kept them going at that time. By the time we realised what was happening, we were serving an average of 170,000 people monthly by those broadcasts. What was even more amazing for me is that people logged in from all over the world.

I remember this lady who joined from India and one day she sent in testimony of how her husband was healed of HIV/AIDS just by the power of God’s word.  There have been testimonies of dead things coming back to life, of children who had been given up on because of troubled minds returning home, returning to school and many have graduated consequently. For all these and many more, I return the glory to God, because remember, He led me up this path.

Impact through ministry and J.C Maxwell coaching
I was an avid reader of John C. Maxwell’s books long before the Founder’s Circle began. Joining the team had two reasons: Firstly, Maxwell’s alignment with my beliefs as a believer, and secondly, having read over 25 of his books, I saw the value in learning from him directly. Being on the team greatly impacted my self-leadership and guided our approach at The Well, using Maxwell’s principles to prepare members for marketplace leadership.

Key impactful leadership principles include leadership as influence, self-leadership being vital and the need to process our endowed talents. Embracing personal growth is central, highlighted by ‘Talent Is Not Enough’. The Law of the Lid resonated, emphasising a leader’s effectiveness tied to their development and growth.
Empowering others through Dukia Radio

The family is the smallest unit of society and while what a true family looks like is constantly being challenged and eroded, we must never forget that what family cannot impact, the world will take advantage of.  It is to this end that we do our best at Dukia Radio, not just to bring information and entertainment but wholesome and empowering content so that the family is constantly resourced and built to fulfill her role in society.

Being the author of 23 books
I have written because I had instructions from God to write and my books are geared towards empowering men and women to become who God has ordained for them to be.  But if I had to pick one that was most personally significant to write, it would be my first book “Sista Power (Discovering the Power of Collaborations); a book I wrote in 2011 and released in 2013.  The reason it is one of the most significant is that it is my first and also because it was a book that took me from a place of running with God’s dream in my heart by myself to a place where I could open myself to the contribution of others and allow my heart to enlarge as my circle grew.  It is also my only book published both in French and English languages.

Triumph over challenges
The challenges are many, but the most profound one for me was having to leave what I was doing with my husband to pioneer the work of ministry at The Well Oasis International.  The impact was profound for me because I had no template to model the work after. It was truly pioneering from scratch to finish.  It was significantly profound because there were so many factors and third-party players in the mix and therefore, I needed a ton of wisdom to navigate what could potentially become the biggest disaster of my life.
I deem it significant because I had to lean on God to receive the grace to run with what He had called me to, without breaking other important aspects of my life.  It was hard, it was tasking; and many expected it to blow up in my face going on. Six years later, each day is still a learning curve and yet God has sustained me, my family and the work at the same time.

Work-life balance
First, let me quickly say that I lean on a lot of people – my sisters, my husband and some loving support system that God has provided me over time.  For each one of them, I am grateful beyond words can say.
Something else I learnt early on the journey was to learn to work my seasons. When I started work, my children were all aged five and under.  They were my main consideration in how far I could push on the journey to Become. Whatever didn’t make room for me to be able to play my role effectively as their mother, I put on the ‘something to do in a later season of my life’ folder.  Today my children are between 25 and 21.  Many of those things I put off, I can now do and give my all to.

I must say that living a life where most of what I do is determined between God and myself has helped.  What I do know is that every one of us can work our seasons and excel if we pay attention to what is required and not what is urgent. In my experience, urgent is never necessarily required.
There were some things in that process that were opportunities but that I had to pass on, and I did. I do not regret any one of those because, for me, they were choices and my conviction was that I had to steward the lives of those children and succeed at that before I stepped out to be anything to anyone else.  This may not work for many, but this is my journey and it worked for me.

Women who inspire her
The first woman is undoubtedly my mother, Mrs. Victoria Obarimike Adesunloye. Her sacrifices in raising my siblings and me continue to inspire me. At 53, she still cares for me as she did when I was 13. She’s my hero.
The second woman is my coach and friend, Anna McCoy. She entered my life in 2010 and transformed my path. She consistently supports my highest good. Anna started as my coach and became my sister and friend. I cherish my coach, Anna McCoy!

The third woman is Audrey Joe-Ezigbo. She’s my sister who brought me out of my shell. Audrey recognised my potential and became my encourager and accountability partner.

One thing she wishes to change in the world 
If I could add to how life is lived on every continent, I would insist that our children receive the capacity to discern, discover and deploy what they were endowed with from heaven as early as possible. I would insist that the conversation about purposeful living is not left to when people are adults before it is had.  I will recommend that it be introduced into early years education through to teenage years. I know that if this is done, many lives would be saved from the hassle of learning through pain.
While I may not have this power yet, I am already doing what I can in my corner and soon, would be unveiling a curriculum that schools can adapt for this purpose.