The General Overseer of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) Dr. Daniel Kolawole Olukoya, on Sunday gave cash awards to 306 church members who graduated with first class honours from any universities across the world.
Olukoya however did not disclose the amount given to each recipient.
The award ceremony was the highlight at the closing ceremony of the church’s 30th year anniversary celebrations and international convention, held at the Prayer City, Lagos – Ibadan Expressway.
Under the auspices of “Dr. D.K Olukoya’s Academic Award of Excellence”, this year’s award event attracted highest number of beneficiaries since its inception in 2010.
Olukoya, while announcing the numbers, told the congregation that the “Dr. D.K Olukoya’s Academic Award of Excellence”, which is one of his 70-point agenda to reach out to the youth, was focused on presenting car gifts to the beneficiaries, could not be sustained after two editions as the number of bneficiaries grew exponentially.
He said at the first edition, there were only 19 recipients, who also got car gifts.
The second edition, according to him, had 15 recipients and were presented with brand new QQ3 and QQ6 cars and certificates of honour.
Dr. Olukoya told the congregation that by the third edition, the number rose to 77 and because of the number, each recipient was given a cheque of N500,000 and certificates of honour.
He also said that at fourth edition, the number of first class graduates within the membership of the church rose to 106 and each got a cheque of N500,000 and a certificate of honour.
Sunday’s event, which marked the fifth edition, brought in over 300 recipients.
Olukoya’s wife, Pastor Shade, was assisted in the presentation ceremony by Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Udom Emmanuel of Lagos and Akwa-Ibom states respectively.
Olukoya admonished the youths to take advantage of the awards, adding that, “Of all churches I know of, MFM now produces the largest number of first class graduates every year.”
Olukoya had, during the convention, revealed to members how God gave him the vision to start the church in 1977.
He said: “I was sleeping in my one-room apartment in the Boys Quarters of a house located on Herbert Macaulay Way, Yaba, in 1977, when I heard a sharp voice. I then woke up and walked towards the door. But I did not see anybody.
Again, for the second time, the voice came and I asked who it was. The Holy Spirit said: ‘son, remember the call of Samuel’.
“Then he gave me the covenant that led to the establishment of the MFM.”
He also said, though he got the messages and the covenant from God, the MFM was not founded until 12 years later.
The convention, which opened for real spiritual activities, attracted hundreds of thousands of worshippers to the venue while millions of others followed the activities through the various alternative media channels of the church.
Among other programmes of activities during the convention are three Manna Water prayer sessions, 30 prayer sessions and 30 deliverance sessions.
The convention kicked off on Friday evening.
Worshippers, in their thousands from all over the world, who had arrived early for the convention were treated to a highly-anointed and spiritually-packed concert on Friday evening as a prelude to the grand finale.
The closing ceremony of the convention attracted total fathers, politicians and business personalities.