Late Pastor (Mrs.) Peace Nkoyo Odiongenyi
September 17, 2015
1 Growing Up
Pastor (Mrs.) Peace Nkoyo O. Odiongenyi - nee Nkoyo Asuquo Edem – was born on June 23, 1954 to Mr. Asuquo Ekpo Edem and Mrs. Atim John Edem in Oron, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Peace was the fourth of nine children. Growing up in such a large family was a lot of fun. Peace had her older siblings to look up to for guidance, just as the younger ones enjoyed having her as a mentor. Exposed to a new form of Christianity that she embraced as a secondary school student at Salvation Army Secondary School, Akai, Eket in Akwa Ibom State, around 1972, Nkoyo adopted the name ‘Peace’ as a sign of commitment to her born-again Christian status and became Peace Asuquo Edem.
2 Education/Family
Pastor Peace had her elementary education in Qua Iboe Primary School, Ndon Eyo, Akaw Ibom State, Nigeria and County Council School in Oruko, Oron, AKS. Upon completing her elementary school, she then went to Salvation Army Secondary School, Akai, Eket, AKS, Nigeria obtaining her West African School Certificate in 1973. Marriage to Okon Thomson Odiongenyi (OT) came shortly thereafter, in December 18, 1973 causing Peace to relocate with her husband to the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria, Nigeria. Peace and OT lived in Zaria and Peace studied at ABU and earned a Diploma and then a B.Sc. in Accounting, a Masters in Public Administration and a Certificate in Systems Analysis, all of that while they raised their four children – Sony, Asuquo, Okokon and Joy.
3 Professional Background
Pastor Peace began her professional career as an Executive Officer (Accounts) ABU’s Institute of Administration. After obtaining her B.Sc. Accounting, she lectured at the Institute, while studying for M.A. in Public Administration. In 1996, Peace joined the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Lagos as a Finance Officer and, within the same year, became the first Nigerian and first female to hold the position of Finance Analyst with the UNDP Nigeria. In 2005, an oversea assignment took her to the United Nations Mission in Liberia, from where an early retirement was to bring her back to Nigeria in 2008.
4 Ministry
At the age of 17, in 1971, Nkoyo (as she was then called) encountered the Lord, developed a passion for the things of God and God’s kingdom and adopted “Peace” as her name. She brought that passion into her marriage. The passion translated into involvement with missionary works and was involved in founding meetings of the Calvary Ministries International (CAPRO) in 1975.
As an active member of Kongo Chapel of Salvation, ABU, Zaria, Nigeria she held several positions - teacher and head of children’s church, church treasurer and financial secretary. She also participated actively in women’s fellowship. At this time, her main passion was in children, thus Peace trained as a Child Evangelist. Pastor Peace’s passion to evangelize children at the early led to her staring a Bible Club in her living room for her children and their friends in 1983. Within a short period of time, the gathering of 6 children grew to over 20 kids. Every child was her child, and the children responded by calling her as “Mummy Peace”, a mother they could always run to, no matter what and no matter the time.
As the children graduated from primary school and went into secondary school, the target changed to secondary school children. In 1991, with her husband’s support and the help of a few friends, Peace together with those women founded the Zaria Youth Camp - a summer camp for teenagers, exclusively funded with the their savings. The 5-day annual camp grew quite fast and, within two years, went from welcoming 80 teenagers to housing 180 youths. Her relationship with ‘The Zaria Youth Camp’ as it was called unfortunately ended when she relocated to Lagos. It is worth noting that such a unifying event targeted at the youths has never happened again in Zaria.
Relocating to Lagos for the hectic job at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) was tied to her passion for God’s kingdom. To get her husband’s blessing to let her go UNDP, Peace convinced him that the extra funds would increase their funding to support missionaries. She soon discovered that the job of Chief Finance Officer meant there was very little or no more free time to serve in the Lord`s Vineyard as before. So where she could not go and what she could not do again, she supported with more finance. Her new found wealth and influence went into missions, churches, missionaries, both within and outside the country, and anyone who worked for the Lord was welcome to her home. Pastor Peace did not care even when few turned out to be frauds. This continued through her 12 years at the UNDP. When in November, 2001 she lost her husband- her shield and pillar of support, Peace drew strength from the Lord, picked herself up and forged ahead, keeping her focus resolutely fixed on God.
In 2008 Pastor Peace and Pastor Elijah Samuel founded the Royalway Christian Worship Centre. Pastor Peace used the network she had developed throughout her career to support the church through its first years. By the grace of God, today Royalway Christian Worship Centre has grown from an 8-person group meeting in the living room of one her apartments, to a 150-member strong organization that worships in a building of its own.
Until she got called home, Peace served as the church’s Administrative Pastor, President of the Women’s Fellowship and Leader of the Marriage Committee. With these responsibilities at the Royalway Centre, passion for the Kingdom took on a new dimension as she interacted with everyone from every social class. In fact, she was (and remains) the only person at Royalway who knew every member by name. Even when arthritic pains tried to slow her down towards her last days on earth, Pastor Peace was unrelenting, reaching out to widows and orphans and finding new ways to support the less privileged. She actively drove around the church neighborhood looking for widows and orphans to render help and support. Pastor Peace did until the Saturday July 19th, just two days before she slept in the Lord.
5 Family
It does sound as if Pastor Peace had no other passions, well she did. She and her late husband raised a beautiful family of four children. Two of her children are parents themselves and have given her eight grandsons (eighth one just eight days after her passing) and two granddaughters. In addition to her own biological children, Peace was also mother to some of her own siblings and brothers-in-law, as well as countless number of girls who came to her to be mentored or just to improve their lives.
Even as we mourn Pastor Peace’s departure from our midst, above all, we celebrate her life and thank God Almighty for the privilege of having had her as part of our lives and our families.
SHALOM!