Uncle Adegoke and I have worked together since 1993 - first as members of the Widows Welfare Subcommittee of the Chapel of the Resurrection, University of Ibadan caring for needy widows. Uncle was passionate about this cause until he became too ill to attend meetings.
Uncle was also an ardent supported of the Clothing Very Needy Widows at Christmas (CVNWC) which restored the dignity and respect of widows at the high point of the Christian calendar through allocatign them brand new fabrics with which to make clothes to celebrate the season. Uncle supported the programme for more than ten years and was always first with his contribution to this cause. Even when he was very ill, he arranged for payments of hs pledge to this project. A greater philanthropist than uncle I am yet to see. If I have seen God's saint in this world, it was Uncle Samuel Adegoke.
His children were blessed to have such a father and they were also blessed to have in turn been a blessing to him in his life.
He will be missed by all of us in CVNWC.
God bless.
Joyce Temisan Nuga
Diligence, prudence, persistence, contentment, containment, discipline, enduring, longsuffering, achieving, faith, godliness, honesty, truth, love..... Just to name a few precious pearls he left with us.
He defeated the "Goliath" of hypertension after 29 years of bondage and stirred me up to do the same to asthma of 9 years' bondage. He taught me to meditate on God's Word day and night. I saw him do it faithfully. And when his eyes could do it no more, his ears did. He stayed on the way, the truth and the life.
Indeed "Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed" (excerpt from Psalm 112).
It's a great priviledge to be one in your generation!
Many things are unknown to the outside world about Grandpa. He possessed an unparalleled calmness for every situation – a calmness that was solidly founded on his faith in God!
To make things worse for the rest of us, but better for him, he chose to maintain celibacy by choice despite pressures for him to do the ‘right’ thing – have another companion.
That was a resolute decision he took akin to blind Bartimaeus throwing his hindering garbs behind him, ‘that he may know Him’ first hand. Allow me to attest that Pa Adegoke knew God first hand. He related with God as his (Pa Adegoke’s) modus operandii. He was resolutely committed to the things of God. There was no compromise. I saw and knew a man who lived a life of ‘the world behind me, the cross before me’.
He changed his focus in life – only heaven mattered especially after his retirement from a very rewarding service to humanity at the Obafemi Awolowo University. He engaged himself by becoming an extension of mercy to incarcerated folks in Nigerian jails.
He maintained an unusual vital touch with heaven on a persistent basis. He never lost sight of heaven and its omnipresent and omnipotent God.
He in some cases bore a similitude of Job
With inaudible persistent shouts of ‘Curse God and die’
But his attitude was like ‘Aigbagbo Bila! Temiloluwa…. Jesu ha le jiya K’emi si ma sa
I recall months of untold agonies, pains and sheer trouble of the highest order. When he was in a situation where he could hardly help himself - he needed help for basic daily life routines for months that seemed like years! That for me would be when God allowed Satan to torment Job barring putting a finger on Job’s life. It was living hell in a 2 bed bunker in the home of the Adetunjis for both patient and care-provider – a task that was borne with fortitude and love. Heaven was vindicated! Papa’s battered body was restored and he gained full control of his faculties for years. Heaven was proud of him. He had an unmatched inward strength! Clayey and fragile on the outside but consisting of inward strengths of an alloy. I dare say we failed to fully understand what stuff he was made of!
For many years, he covenanted with God to pay his medical bills as composite part of his tithe! It worked (Warning- Do not try this at home unless you know Him in Whom you have believed in!)
Let me share this eternal truth at this point
Through all the changing scenes of life
In trouble and in joy
The praises of my God and King
Shall my tongue employ
He exemplified the following lines:
O magnify the Lord with me
With me exalt His name
When in distress on Him I call
He to my rescue came
In my view, these lines encapsulated his life – tossed and shaken but NOT broken
Egungun bi ehin s’owon ni agbari (Bones comparable to the teeth are a rare find in the head)
Grandpa was that man who had the presence of mind and the mental tenacity required to stay on course in an ever turbulent world.
Do thou Oh Lord Keep watch within
And save my soul from sin
That was His legacy.
I knew a man who would pray without season all through the night and all by himself!
You died at post like a true soldier – returning home in full accolades!
Soldier on Grandpa, you left us a piece of heaven
We owe you ‘one’ for life
Sun re O Ashola…
Very shortly, I shall be in league with the stones of the field
And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with me
And I know that my tabernacle is now in peace
And I have visited my habitation, and I have not sinned
I also now know that my seed shall be great and my offspring as the grass of the earth
I have come to my grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season
Lo, this I have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know it for your own good – (23rd - 27th verses of Job V)
As you are so was I;
As I am so you will be.
Samuel Adegboye Adegoke (Ad majorem ad gloriam – for His greater glory 1929 -2016)
