Garlands for Matthew Ashimolowo at 70

I don’t normally do this, indeed it is usually a struggle for me to put eulogies on paper particularly when it involves someone who has made an indelible impact on your being as an adult. I first encountered Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo at a friend’s wedding in 1993. Indeed I think that was the first wedding at the Darnley road church in London Hackney. His message that September Saturday challenged so many of my long held beliefs; whilst I can’t remember the exact title, I recollect that I became very uncomfortable with where I was and what I had achieved up to that point.
 
Here was a young guy driving a beautiful car, with a “very good job” thinking he has arrived and then going to a church for a wedding, you were told by the Pastor that you are still operating at the crumbs level and where you are going is far higher than where I was. For another one year, I stuck to my church, Victory Christian Centre at Finchley under Mike Bassett and Kofi Banfour listening to the Word, but that singular message I heard from Pastor Matthew kept ringing in my head and will just not go away.
 

Oyeleye is director general at DAWN Commission.