About Aloja
“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes”. Matthew 24:45&46
I was born in the Mid-Western part of Nigeria where I had my early education before moving to the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife, to study Medicine and eventually worked as a physician.
I came to faith in the Lord Jesus in 1978 in the Muslim city of Kano in Northern Nigerian in an Assemblies of God Church. Thereafter, I was taken under the wings of a young pastor in my hometown in a Local Assemblies of God congregation. Pastor Nnadi was instrumental in helping me discover my calling and pushed me to teach in the church, helping to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
While working full time as a physician, the Lord opened doors for me to be involved in the discipleship of believers who were new to the faith first in Nigeria, then in Birmingham and London, UK and finally in the US.
In 1997, my family moved from England to the US to begin a new phase but continue an older journey in the grace and faithfulness of The Lord.
At Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, we opened our home to undergraduate believers and soon had a discipleship relationship established with a number of them. It was here also that the idea of small home group fellowship became cemented in my mind, as a way to help believers engaged in a deeper relationship with The Lord and one another.
In 1999, we moved to Ithaca where we continued to open our home to students from Cornell University and the town. This morphed over time to a study group that has met every Saturday morning for the past decade.
In the last few years, I have been reminded of the words that were impressed on my heart earlier on as I sought to understand the calling I believed came from The Lord. “Who is that faithful servant ….Matthew 24:45-48, a passage I always read with a sense of grave responsibility.
A few years ago (2014) the words of the Lord to Peter struck me with a new sense of urgency “Feed my sheep” (John 20:17).
This had been confirmed many years ago in Hamilton, NY when a young believer from Finland (On a student exchange program), came to our house in 1998 to relay to me the Lord had ordained for me open our home to His children and feed them with His word.
That has continued to be my focus and charge.
My pastoral and teaching involvement have included:
- Sunday school teacher, Assemblies of God Church, Ekpoma and Kano-1978-1984
- Small group leader and Christian education leader- ECU and Deeper Life Campus Fellowship, 1983-1986
- Founding member- Full Gospel Business Men Fellowship, Ife, Nigeria 1987
- Small Group leader-Elim Church, Selly Oak, Birmingham, UK
- Associate pastor, New Covenant Church, Ife 1994-1996
- Lead Pastor –New Covenant Church, Edmonton, London , UK- 1996-1997
- Visiting Pastor-New Covenant Church, Hyattsville Maryland-1987-Present.
- House Church leader, Ithaca 2000-2019
- Elder, Bethel Grove Bible Church, 2017-2018
- Pastor, Cornerstone Ministries and Fellowship, Ithaca NY 2019-Present.
Family
We have lived in Ithaca since 1999.
My wife-Peyi Soyinka-Airewele is a co-laborer with Cornerstone Ministries and Fellowship. She is a Professor of Political Science at Ithaca College in Ithaca.
Our Children are: Ebolutalese (28) lives and works in San Francisco, Oseoba (23) works in Rochester and Yolore (21) is going to her final year at Princeton University.
