HOW PASTOR CHRIS OYAKHILOME HELPED TESTIMONY JAGA WHO WAS ONCE A PRISONER AND NOW A GOSPEL ARTIST

Testimony, originally born as Saliu Aliyu
Olaiwola had a blossoming career before
he found the church. Long before the
gospel crossover, the artist was a rising
secular star creating music and
collaborating with some of the industry’s
hottest artists. It took some time for the
musician to make it into the world of
gospel, but when Testimony stumbled
into church music, it changed his life
forever.

Testimony fell into the church from an
unfortunate incident. In 2011 the artist
was wrongly accused of stealing a car.
With no support and no evidence to back
him up, the police arrested the rising star
and sent him to prison for 4 months. It
was in there, that Testimony prayed with
all his might to God to see him through.
Fortunately for him, his prayers were
heard, and the musician was released. It
was on that day that Testimony found
himself in Christ Embassy, the church of
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome.
Pastor Chris welcomed the young artist
and saw his potential. He believed in
him, nurtured him and gave him a
platform on which he could create music
and reach millions of people. This gave
Testimony a new sense of hope and
belief, not only in God but also in
himself. With all of this support, this led
the artist to discover new ways to
spread his message, thus the ‘ Street
Gospel Movement ‘ was born.

The energetic artist came up with a movement called New Street Gospel Movement, a movement that uses music to spread the word of God to struggling street youths.

This is a big part of Testimony’s work.
He spends a lot of time finding kids to
reach out to. He approaches these kids
with his music and just simply talks to
them, telling them, with a song, that
there is a better path.
“If truly I am a gospel minister, where am I
supposed to go back to share the good
news? The streets. I am saying, “Hello,
people, come and see what God has done
for me. You too can join me”. That is my
mindset and I promised God that if I can
make it, I will go back from where I come
from to tell everyone there. My songs are
for the people in the streets.”
Testimony live streams about his new
Gospel Street Movement
Countless Nigerian kids love
Testimony’s music, as well as many
around the world. They feel that he
really speaks to them. This has gained
him a massive amount of popularity,
with people even dubbing him as the
gospel version’ of the famous Nigerian
musician, Olamide, ‘The King of the
Streets’.
Christ Embassy has propelled these
many gospel stars into global fame, with
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome himself even
stating at the recent LIMA awards, that
“no music concert in the world makes
sense without talents from here.”
Testimony is without a doubt one of
these major talents. His song ‘Jehovah’
won him the LIMA song of the year in
the Proto-stars category, yet the ‘boy
from the streets’ insists that all of his
success is because of one man, Pastor
Chris Oyakhilome.