On the 26th of October 2019, New Wine Church (Woolwich) held a youth conference - ’The Illumination’ - to encourage young people in their walk with Christ and the event featured many workshops and activities whereby everyone could engage. Hundreds of youths from across England attended this event and were able to connect with the speakers and learn lessons from their experiences.
There were many amazing guest speakers such as Nia-Cerise Conteh, a YouTube Content Creator, Ruth Afolabi (CEO of the Christian magazine ‘MAGNIFY’). Furthermore, Harry Phinda (Policy Advisor, Co-founder of Youth for Change), Ayo Afolabi, husband of Ruth Afolabi and a RCCG National Youth Pastor, and Minister Kunle Adeniran (Youth Minister, Trinity Baptist Church). All the guest speakers had a lot to share about the gospel and their aims were to make an impact within the area of ministry, media, politics and the arts etc.
I attended Nia-Cerise and Ruth Afolabi’s seminars which were both very inspirational and really hit home for some people.
Nia Cerise is a passionate seeker of the presence of God who loves soul winning. As well as running a Christian youth fellowship ministry at her university, Nia-Cerise has an award nominated YouTube Channel: Crowned In Faith, with over 84,000 subscribers reaching Australia, China, France, St Lucia, Mozambique, Nigeria, New Zealand and 20 other nations. Alongside her blog and other social media platforms such as Twitter which are entirely dedicated to her preaching of the Gospel, she has now reached over 6 million souls.
Nia- Cerise’s life reformed when she gave her life to Christ. However, Nia-Cerise wanted everyone to know that she is “not perfect” and that she has her past, just like everyone has. She went from being the girl in University who would be at the bottom of the class to rising to the top and graduating from her University with a first-class degree and subsequently attending Cambridge University! When speaking in one of the seminars she stated, “I was involved in witchcraft, horoscopes, crystals, palm reading and even inviting in a demonic spirit into my life when I was literally at the age of 11.” and that when preaching, one guy looked at her life and said ‘God! If you delivered her from that, then God, I believe you can do the same thing and more in my life.’
One quote that Nia-Cerise said that has stuck with me is: ‘Never try to fit in if you were born to stand out’. This quote is powerful and could really make a difference in someone’s life. Another impassioned quote by Nia Cerise is: ‘Own the gift, don’t let the gift own you’. By this she means that, whatever your gift is, whether it be prophetic dance, singing etc; you should take control. One of the highlighted bible verses was Galatians 1:10 which reflects that our purpose is not to please man on Earth or seek to please them but to praise God Almighty.
Ruth Afolabi is the founder and CEO of a women’s faith and lifestyle platform and community magazine called MAGNIFY which she started almost 11 years ago at age 19, with only a mere 5 pounds to her name. Hence, MAGNIFY was born. She has been featured in The Huffington Post, BBC, Marie Claire and The Mail. She is motivated by a desire to see people live life to the fullest & discover and pursue their gifts. Celebrities such as Letitia Wright, who starred in the hit film ‘Black Panther’, have been featured as the cover of the magazine and have shared their faith.
Mrs Afolabi was interviewed by the youths and when asked “How did you get the boldness to think you could make it?”, she responded with “I think the first thing is that I’ve never been scared of failure because I think a lot of us think that we might not do well or make it so we don’t even start. My aunt died when she was 33; I am 31 now and she just got married a year before she died and seeing how life literally in an instant disappeared I was like ‘life is very short’ and even when I am 19 I don’t want to be saying, oh, when I’m 35 and life is settled I’m going to pursue my dreams. Life is for living and God has put me on this time to fulfil purpose. Also, I never let the weight of the dream overwhelm me…”
The main message that I obtained from this event was that our generation can be the light of the world, as suggested by the conference name ‘The Illumination’, and that we can CHANGE the world for the better.
By Eve Okubadejo, Dartford Grammar School For Girls
