Dear First Lady Ayo, Emmanuel, Joshua, Zoe, The Elders and Deacons, and The New Wine Family:
As we honour the life of a great man of God, Michael Olawore, a husband, a father, a pastor, and a great leader in the Kingdom, and a precious brother and friend, I want to first and foremost offer my profound condolences and prayers to the family and the church at this season. While we do not mourn as the world mourns, we are ever mindful that death is an enemy, and while Christ has overcome death, it is yet the last enemy to be defeated at the consummation of the Kingdom.
Until it is defeated, when our loved ones die, we do indeed feel the sense of absence and we deeply miss them. The depth of our sense of missing them in their absence reveals the depth of the love they shared with us and the depth of the love we shared with them. It is for this reason that the Psalmist said, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15). The depth of that love is ever with us because however strong death may seem to be, Solomon reminds us that it is no match for love (Song of Solomon 8:6).
John the Beloved pens these words in Revelation 14:13
“Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write: The dead who die in the Lord from now on are blessed.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “let them rest from their labours, for their works follow them!”
Heaven declares that Pastor Michael is a blessed man. So too, we declare that he is indeed a blessed man. He has been a faithful husband, a faithful father, a faithful pastor, a faithful leader, and a faithful friend.
There is no question that Pastor Michael’s works will follow him. His legacy lies in what he has left behind for all of us to grow on. Pastor Michael is someone I cherish as a co-labourer in Christ who loved God with passionate fervency, loved the people of God with caring intimacy, and loved the work and mission of Christ with relentless intentionality.
A choice servant of Christ, Pastor Michael was a man of great resolve and resilience. He was a stalwart in his walk with the Lord, a man of integrity and righteousness. He continually added value to the lives of all that he touched. We could simply say, “He loved well!”
All of us carry a holy restlessness for that day when death will be no more while we live in the “now and not yet” reality of the Kingdom of Heaven. There now is another great servant of Christ, who faithfully served his generation that has entered the cloud of witnesses, there to participate in Heaven’s intercession for the perfecting of the saints until that great Marriage Supper of the Lamb where we will all be reunited, never to be separated again.
May the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus be on the entire Olawore Family and on the New Wine Family as you hold on to every precious memory you shared with and every bit of wisdom and insight into truth you were given through Pastor Michael and the way he lived his life. May you be given the grace to let go of those things that are no longer possible because of the separation that has occurred. May you by God’s Spirit hold on to every rich and fertile gift Pastor Michael gave you in his life, his words, and his deeds, and may you have the courage to take on his legacy, and carry it forward in the days that lie ahead, and be sure that his vision for what could be will become what shall be.
May the Shalom of Christ be your portion, nothing missing, nothing broken.
In His Strength and Grace.
