Pastors Glory and Lesley Ohiomah Who Couldn’t Afford Wedding Gown 20 Years Ago, Share Love Story On Anniversary

Port Harcourt-based couple and Church ministers of Hilltop International Christian Centre, Pastors Glory and Lesley Ohiomah have shared their amazing love story as they recently marked their 20 wedding anniversary.

Pastor Glory Ohiomah narrated how he met his wife when he went to work in Port Harcourt and soon proposed marriage to her in year 2000 without “anything like fanfare, fantasy, flowers, candle light dinner for two, roses, engagement ring, hugs, photographs”.

He went on to recount that his wife wore “a long skirt and blouse and wore her veil” because they couldn’t even afford a wedding gown.

He also narrated the challenges their marriage faced at the beginning, including not having a child in their first three years, and experiencing miscarriages.

The couple who now have three sons celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary with the glamour they could not afford when they got married. Pastor Lesley wore a beautiful wedding dress while her husband wore a cute blue and black suit for the special celebration of their 20 years old love.

Read their full story below.

PASTORS GLORY & LESLEY OHIOMAH STORY

I came into the city of Port Harcourt on November 21 1999 as a Medical Representative for a Pharmaceutical company and was just managing the emotional trauma of a huge financial loss and debts as well as a broken courtship. It turned out that relocating to Port Harcourt and walking out of that relationship repositioned me for my marital destiny to find manifestation. I have said it that if the only assignment I have on earth is to marry my wife of 20 years,its a great fulfilment for me.

Lesley and I met formally at the Hilltop International Christian Centre where she has worked as a staff till date. As a matter of fact she has put in 25 years as a ministry staff as at 2021. What first caught my attention about this precious jewel was her heart for service. In the church office she was running errands for all the pastors and in church she will serve them as head of Executive Protocol, a ministry she birthed. Not too long I enrolled for our School of Ministry and she was one of the principal officers. This sparked fondness and a soft spot in my heart for her.

God used my Pastor’s wife Dr Stephanie to locate what was in my heart and two days latter after our midweek service,I proposed to her.

There was never anything like fanfare, fantasy, flowers, candle light dinner for two, roses, engagement ring, hugs, photographs etc on that day. I offered her a ride home in my car a red Toyota starlet and as she was about coming down,I popped the question. She asked me for 2 weeks to pray and seek counsel from her boss, Rev Chris Oarhe. Well I gave the matter the urgency of the Spirit in a vigil that night and behold the next day she said YES.

Let me say this that on that day October 24,2000 in the absence of all the fanfare and beautiful scenes of an engagement was an aura of faith and passionate love. This has driven or relationship through courtship and 20 years of marriage.

On October 25, 2000 we set our visions out. She told me it was ministry and I promised I was not going to pull her out of full-time ministry. She knew I had a strong connection with ministry but I was to stay working as a pharmacist till an appropriate time to come into full time ministry like am doing now.

We had a wedding that to us and our faith talking friends was very glorious. The traditional engagement ( April 27,2001) was done under special favour as the bride price came in during the ceremony. The Lord arranged it in such a way that my wife’s family did not organise themselves on time and we agreed to pay the dowry latter after the wine carrying. The heavens opened and brethren sprayed us heavy with naira notes while we were dancing and yours sincerely had money to pay dowry.

We could not afford a wedding gown, an event Centre ( the Hilltop Headquarters auditorium was under construction),both wedding service and reception held ( April 28,2001) under the tarpaulin outside the construction site. There was no flowing wedding gown ( she built a long skirt and blouse and wore her veil), no ailes to match on red carpet, her bridal train were members of intercessory ministry,my wedding suit came few hours to the wedding. We thank God for the faith teachings of Rev Chris Oarhe. Our wedding was a faith project and we stood on Scriptures. One of our strongest Scripture was Psalm 44:3.

OUR TESTS OF LOVE

● Just a dew week after our wedding, I was transfered by my employers to the head office in Benin City. This was our first test of love. Since I promised to allow her do full-time ministry, I have to be on the road every week travelling from Port Harcourt to Benin and back for the first 3 years of our marriage.

● Recall that I came into Port Harcourt with financial debts,we were paying together. This was another test of love. My wife adjusted her taste and would buy second hand clothes.

● We fought beasts together within the first 2 years in standing with my wife’s younger brother whose health was failing immediately we started our courtship. We had to borrow funds with heavy interest to pay Medical bills. Unfortunately we lost him.

● We waited for the fruit of the womb for over 3 years. Various diagnostic investigations were done until it was found out that I had low sperms count. We have 3 sons today ages 16, 14 & 9. After our first child Christopher was born, my wife took in exactly a year. We lost that pregnancy at 5 months but had our second boy, Joshua almost a year after. The delivery of our second child was very challenging as my wife suffered post-partum bleeding that almost took her life. My Pastor Rev Chris Oarhe had to enter the theatre to superimpose the supernatural on the situation. We suffered another miscarriage in 2010. Our youngest son Stephan was born in 2011.

● In 2004, I resigned my job in Benin City and joined an upcoming Public Health consultancy outfit as General manager where I worked for 7 years. My work in that company was a boom period for our family and we are yet to recover from that boom. We were able to accomplish a lot.

● I left that company as the enemy was out to break our staff of bread. This was another test of love. My wife was firm and encouraging. She pulled out her savings and collaped some of her investments and I was never embarrassed financially one day.

God gave me a wife that is extra supportive and am ever conscious of this anywhere I go to.

Our lives together has been that of believing each other and growing in trust. We value our union so much that a quarel can’t come in between us. There has never been any day that we had issues that extended up to one hour unresolved.

We do a lot of things together. Each of us likes fun when we are together but my wife put so much passion in having fun with me. A big encouragement she has been.