American gospel singer, Micah Stampley, has been coming to Nigeria
since 2001 and recently in the first weekend of this month in Abuja, he
was part of the House on The Rock Church, The Refuge 15th year
anniversary and the dedication of the church building, the Citadel &
Towers, christened “The Transformation Centre.”
He was also part of the church choir, Tehillah Company special album launch on Sunday evening to round off the three-day event.
The launch, which is Tehillah Company’s third album also featured
another international hit star, Angella Christie from the USA, as well
as Frank Edwards and Kingsley Ike of Nigeria.
Sampley, who has been part of the mega gospel musical show in Lagos, The Experience in this interview with Abuja Metro, admitted that Nigeria had what America is missing, upholding morals and truths.
Experience in Nigeria
My experience in Nigeria started in 2001 in Port Harcourt. Of course,
Nigeria wasn’t as progressive as it is now but I have been privileged
to experience good African culture, worship and it was just as intense
as it is now. And I so enjoyed and loved the worship here, I love the
people and that has not changed. I have travelled to Nigeria many times
since the introduction of Nigeria to me in 2001 about 12 years now. So, I
love coming here; I have very strong relationships here that God
continues to want me to come here and minister and deposit to His people
and I don’t take it for granted.
Collaboration with Tehillah Company
Again, it is always an honour and a privilege to come. Pastor
Goodheart and I are brothers; we both consider Pastor Paul Adefarasin as
a father and we met through Pastor Paul. And my relationship in Nigeria
began to expand through the ministry of Pastor Paul and The House on
The Rock Churches. They are my brothers; they are my sisters and when I
come to Nigeria, there is always an eye opening experience and there is a
revelation that pours from Nigerians that we typically don’t get
traveling to other countries and also the boundaries of the United
States. The album collaboration was incredible. I communicate quite
often what God puts in my heart. Of course I have collaborated with
Frank Edwards in his new CD coming out right now. I was able to convince
my recording company in the US to release me to do that, had they said
no I probably would have disobeyed. But the collaboration here hearing
the lush of different styles of our cultures and hearing the outcome was
just an awesome experience.
Dedication of the Citadel and Towers
I am taking back the single… I mean I don’t know the details of how
they accomplish this feat to build these massive sanctuaries debt free.
It’s mind bungling. Churches in the US are guilty of building
multi-million dollar facilities or sanctuaries and not really having
the resources to pay for it. And so all of our tithes and offerings go
towards paying a mortgage. While here the cultures are different, if you
get the money you buy it and if you don’t then you don’t get it. The
culture system here is totally different and just to see the wisdom in
the inside, the creativity in the infrastructure is absolutely amazing.
So that is one thing that I take back and I talk about it all the time.
That they (House on The Rock Churches) are able to complete this task it
shows if God is on your side He gives you a vision and like I always
say if it is God’s will it is His bill not yours. So I tend to live with
that.
Lesson for Americans
Oh most definitely, we need to pick their brains (Nigerians) and see
how they do it. I tell Pastor Paul and Pastor Goodheart that growing up
we always used to have Americans come and be missionaries in Africa but
the US and the whole government have been so liberal that we have been
desensitized, I mean the whole country has been desensitized to sin and
that culture shift has blown over to the church. The reverence that the
African culture holds in itself here is something we definitely need to
learn. How do we get back the morals of the scripture because we have
lost it, we have tremendously lost it. So we need Nigeria, Ghana and
other countries in the continent of Africa to come and be missionaries
to us.
Remaining a church boy
I am an outcast, which is why I spend so much time outside the US.
Many of my peers love what I do but they hate to see me coming. They are
those who call me holier than thou and self-righteous and many times it
is just because of the songs I sing. I sing that holiness is what I
long for and my thoughts, my conducts and my response portray that as
well. Is holiness not something you long for? Holiness is not something I
have made up; it is not a demand I have put on anybody’s life, God says
in His word “Be holy for I am holy.” And if you have the spirit of God
you will say what you have the spirit of God inside of you is saying.
Then at some point His character should come out of you. It’s been
pretty difficult for me to understand how but then of course we are not
perfect. We all have flaws, sometimes we make wrong decisions but then
there is a difference between making a wrong decision and living a
lifestyle of sin, totally different things. And so the message that I
preach is too radical for a lot of people, a lot of my peers in the
music industry in the US. And they know this, they have seen how God has
blessed all my events, given me longevity and I am very grateful. And I
won’t stop preaching what I am preaching, I won’t stop singing what I
am singing, I will never change my lyrics to make music to accommodate
them and make them feel comfortable.
Parental role in holiness
I feed my children the word of God and I protect the portals or the
gateways of their souls – their ears and their eyes, I protect and I
cover them. As fathers we have a job to protect and to cover. I am very
involved in their lives, all of them can come to me and talk to me about
their personal things, things that they may be struggling with as they
are growing up.
Bodies changing and all that, they are comfortable coming to me to
talk about it, my oldest is 20 now, he is at his second year in college
and it is the same thing. My relationship with my children is very
different from that most parents in the US and that is what I say all
the time, you can’t protect them from the world but what you can do is
give them the word of God and provide for them.
Most times when we were growing up we used to say the atmosphere you
create will always determine the products they are going to produce. At
home the atmosphere is that of worship and the word. I don’t allow
certain music to play in my house because music has the ability to enter
your subconscious without your permission when you hear some music
playing at the store or wherever and you find yourself humming it. So
music has the ability to enter your subconscious without your permission
and so it is my job to ensure that what enters into my children’s ears
or what they see is my responsibility until they are older. You train up
children in the way they should go when they are old they won’t depart
from it.
Message for Nigeria
Nigeria has become a beacon of light and hope for me, so I say keep
doing what you are doing, God has his hand on this country despite the
bombings, kidnapping of the girls by Boko Haram. We see it all, we pray
all the time and we understand that this is a spiritual attack, some are
political, some religious but the hand of God is on this country and
there is no weapon that is formed against Nigeria that shall prosper.
So that will be my message of hope to Nigeria to keep doing what you
are doing, keep pushing, keep God at the center of your life and you
will see the blessings and the favour of God like you have never seen
before.
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