The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Oyo State chapter, Dr. Elisha Olukayode Ogundiya, has recounted how a church choir’s rendition of a song about the prodigal son led to his conversion and transformed his life from youthful recklessness to Christian service.
Ogundiya shared his experience while responding to a question on his Christian journey, describing the encounter as both the saddest and happiest day of his life.
According to him, the turning point occurred while he was a student at a teacher training college, where he met an older colleague from Ondo State who later became instrumental to his salvation.
He explained that the man, who was in his 40s and undergoing military training in Gusau, was a devoted Christian and a member of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA). The two shared the same dormitory, but their lifestyles were markedly different.
“At that period of my life, I was very wayward. I moved around with different boys and students, drinking alcohol and engaging in all sorts of youthful excesses,” he said.
Ogundiya noted that despite his background as the son of a church deacon, he had strayed from the Christian values he was raised with.
He said the soldier repeatedly advised him against his lifestyle, but he often dismissed the counsel, insisting that he was already familiar with church activities because of his family background.
The CAN chairman said the soldier eventually invited him to the second ECWA Church in Sokoto, a Yoruba-speaking congregation, where he attended a service that would change the course of his life.
Although he could no longer remember the sermon delivered that day, he said he vividly recalled a choir ministration centred on the biblical story of the prodigal son.
“The choir urged us to remember home. As I listened, I was not only thinking about heaven, but I also remembered that I was the son of a deacon back home,” he said.
He explained that the song stirred deep emotions within him and caused him to reflect on the life he was living.
“I thought to myself that my father must never know the kind of life I was living because he would not be happy about it. Then I asked myself why I should continue living such a life,” he added.
Ogundiya said that after the church service, he returned to the dormitory and later completed his training programme, after which he and the soldier parted ways.
He revealed that he lost contact with the man after 1998 but was unexpectedly reunited with him last year through a woman in his church.
The CAN chairman described the former soldier as a divine instrument used by God to bring him to salvation.
“God used that man as an instrument for my salvation. That was the day I gave my life to Jesus,” he said.
