Pastor (Mrs.) Becky Enenche is the wife of the Senior Pastor of Dunamis International Gospel Centre with headquarters in Abuja.  The pastor, medical doctor and administrator spoke with AYOYINKA JEGEDE at the church’s headquarters on her calling and how women can contribute to national development

Who is Pastor (Dr.) Becky Enenche?

I am Becky Enenche, a medical doctor by training and now a minister of the gospel by calling. I graduated from the University of Jos Medical School in 1992. I am married to Dr. Paul Enenche, also a medical doctor and the Senior Pastor of Dunamis International Gospel Centre. We have been married for 20 years and God has been faithful.

  Talking about my background, my biological father is a medical doctor and a professor of Human Physiology but he is retired now. My mother is also a retired university administrator. She was deputy registrar at retirement. My primary school education was at the Ahmadu Bello University Primary School, Samaru, Zaria, and some part of it was in the United Kingdom. My secondary school was at the Federal Government Girls’ College Bakori, then in Kaduna State but now in Katsina Stat

 How did you meet your husband?

 We met in the University of Jos where I studied. I attended a Medical Students Fellowship in 1989; my husband was the president of the school chapter at that time. I didn’t know him; I went for the meeting, and my husband was the one preaching. We have been in the same university but I have never taken note of him. Of course he knew me because my father was a professor in the same medical school, so it’s possible everybody will know the professor’s daughter. I started before my dad came to that university though. At the end of the preaching, he made an altar call and he asked those that wanted to be on more fire for God to come out. A lot of us came out and he prayed for all of us, then I left… He later became the National President of the Christian Medical and Dental Students’ Fellowship and by Divine arrangement then I happened to be the National Financial Secretary. We eventually got married on April 16th, 1994.  

What could have made a trained medical doctor like you drop her certificate to become a full- time pastor?

It was a Divine call. We had a leading by God and we did that in obedience to Divine instructions.

How do you combine your role as mother, pastor’s wife, pastor and medical doctor?

I believe that for me, the way I have handled the various roles that I function in is by prioritising. If you are able to identify and prioritise your roles in life, it will help you to function at a higher capacity. My first responsibility in life is my responsibility to God, so I believe that my number one priority is that, as a born again Christian, I am first and foremost a Christian before I am a wife, a pastor’s wife and so on. 

  My relationship with God is most important to me, ensuring that the day begins with God and adequate time is made available to spend with God during the day. My number two priority is as a wife and the responsibilities cannot be compromised in any way. My role as a pastor’s wife falls in easily because of the understanding that I am first a wife before any other function comes in. My husband is first a man and a child of God before he is a Pastor and my role is to assist him to fulfil his God-given destiny and agenda.   

  My third priority as far as roles are concerned is as a mother to my biological children. I realise that children are a gift from the Lord, they belong to God and he gives you the privilege to partnering with him, in birthing them and then in nurturing them to fulfil their destiny and so that role cannot be delegated to another. As a pastor’s wife, your role in the church is to assist the people. I am not just a pastor because my husband is a pastor but I have a calling as a Minister of Christ, so I take it as an assignment and a responsibility that has been placed on me by God Himself, which is not supposed to be taken lightly or joked with in any way. 

  As a trained medical doctor, I am currently not practising medicine again. I guess that is one of the sacrifices I had to make to serve the Lord, to let God know that I have spent these number of years training to be a doctor but I realise that the spiritual needs of my generation far outweighs the medical practice needs. As far as my life is concerned, my spiritual contribution to the needs of my generation would have a more reaching effect than what I originally trained to be as a medical doctor. 

What role challenges you most as a pastor’s wife?

 I guess that as a pastor’s wife, the most challenging aspect of it is being able to be consistent in upholding the people in prayer. The prayer you pray for them in the closet far out-weighs any outward physical thing that is being done for them. Unfortunately, sometimes, church members might want to have more of your time for each and every one of them in counselling, but I sincerely believe that the time that a pastor or the pastor’s wife spend in the presence of God praying for these church members and studying the word of God to receive light and insight to give them direction, is a far more enriching assignment to them as church members than hours spent listening to what they are passing through, sympathising and empathising with them but without having sufficient word or revelation from the scriptures to give them direction, solution or tell them what to do. 

  The pastor’s wife must also understand that she is a role model and a guide. I realise that anything I do as a pastor’s wife, the congregation would want to reproduce it and sometimes improve on it. So, if I do what is wrong, they would improve on the wrong and do worse and if I do what is right, it means that they have become better people than the person I have displayed to them. Part of the areas of my life that I watch closely includes my speech, my dress and my conduct. 

What is your view on women’s contribution to national development?

 If women can be allowed to take their roles and their places in Nigeria, it would go a long way in the development of the country. Women are already to a large extent, major determinants of the outcome of any nation. The woman is practically in charge of the home, she coordinates feeding, children’s upbringing and a lot of things and so, there is a dexterity that women have in organisation and development and if women can be given more roles and given a free hand, it will go a long way in the development of the nation. 

 Why are you passionate about the less privileged, including widows, downtrodden women and youths?

 If there is no other reason why I am passionate about reaching out to assist the less privileged, the Biblical reasons are enough reasons. God gives us the instructions and the admonition to take care of the less privileged. It carries with it Divine instructions, it carries with it Divine blessings and the joy and fulfilment derived from it is unquantifiable. 

What is your idea of beauty? 

My idea of beauty is that of being as natural as possible. I believe that the best of us comes out in simplicity, being as natural as possible. As an individual, I feel a lot of compassion for people who in the bid to enhance their beauty, at a younger age, have used bleaching creams and chemicals to alter their skin colour and later on down the line encounter lots of challenges with their skin. At that stage, it is irreversible. 

What is your fashion choice?

I like my clothes to be comfortable. I discourage seductive dressing, seductive exposure of body parts and clinging clothes. I am very particular about clothes not being seductive. I believe those kind of dressing should be relegated to your bedroom and the privacy of your home. I try to encourage women in general to ensure that they do not constitute themselves into objects of temptation to lead men astray because, if a man sees you seductively dressed and lusts after you, he might not be able to carry out his lustful intentions with you but may look for someone else to carry it out on. The damnation of his sin will be recorded against your name in eternity as it would if he carried out the lust practically on you. 

Who are your role models?

 I guess my number one role model is my mother in the Lord, Pastor (Mrs.) Faith Oyedepo and also my mother in-law and my mother. These women have raised a very powerful, impactful generation affecting men. These are great women and I am constantly striving to learn from them as much as I could on a daily basis.  

How would you describe your husband?

The most striking things about my husband is that he is a truthful, hardworking man of God; he is a person of vision and purpose. He is passionately sold out to God and to the work of God. He identifies what God wants him to do, and he has committed his life to pursuing that and doing precisely that. He might look very hard on the outside, because he hardly smiles; but he is very compassionate. If you see him crying for somebody that has problems or crying in worship, he would lie down on the ground anywhere to worship God. In the house, he is a loving husband and a caring father, very gentle. If you see him preaching on the pulpit, he is a totally different person from who he is at home or in the office. It is interesting when he comes home, everybody will run to welcome him, he would lift all the children up, including myself and swing us round.