Pastor Oladeji Isaac, a marketing graduate whose passion and divine calling have changed the lives of teenagers in Nigeria, discusses the struggles and successes of the purity foundation with Diademng’s writer, JULIANA AJAYI.
Pastor Oladeji Isaac, the founder of the Purity Foundation, recognised, like Jonah, that no matter where a man runs, he cannot escape God, and so he heeded God’s call to ministry in order to change lives. He eventually had to concur with the psalmist who asked, “Where shall I go from thy spirit? Or where should I run away from your presence?
Isaac identifies as a child of God, a marketing professional, and a worker in the hospitality sector.
The purity foundation, under the leadership of Isaac, has seen many teenagers and youth commit to abstaining from sexual immorality and clinging to a holy lifestyle, despite the difficulty in getting them to understand the importance of sexual purity.
Vision Behind Purity Foundation
The vision of the Purity Foundation, according to Pastor Oladeji Isaac, is to make Purity a way of life.
“Our Lord Jesus Christ commissions us to gather teenagers and youths unto Him and purify them into peculiar people that are willing to live a life of purity, holiness, righteous life with good character and behaviour to stand out in this generation,” he says.
According to the World Health Organisation, adolescent pregnancy is a global phenomenon with well-known causes and serious health, social, and economic consequences. Adolescent birth rates have decreased globally, but the rates of change have been uneven across regions. There are also huge differences in levels between and within countries.
WHO says that adolescent pregnancy is more common among those with less education or lower socioeconomic status. Furthermore, progress in reducing adolescent first births among these and other vulnerable groups is slow, leading to increased inequity.
Additionally, child marriage and child sexual abuse put girls at a higher risk of unintended pregnancy.
Every year, an estimated 21 million girls aged 15 to 19 in developing countries become pregnant, with approximately 12 million giving birth.
Globally, the adolescent birth rate has decreased from 64.5 births per 1000 women in 2000 to 42.5 births per 1000 women in 2021. However, rates of change have been uneven across the globe, with Southern Asia experiencing the sharpest decline and Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa experiencing slower declines. Although declines have occurred in all regions, SSA and LAC continue to have the highest rates globally at 101 and 53.2 births per 1000 women, respectively, in 2021.
In ABR, there are also significant regional differences. Nicaragua, for example, had the highest estimated ABR in LAC, at 85.6 per 1000 adolescent girls in 2021, compared to Chile’s 24.1 per 1000 adolescent girls. Even within countries, there are huge differences; for example, in Zambia, the percentage of adolescent girls aged 15-19 who have started childbearing (women who have either given birth or are pregnant at the time of WHO’s research) ranged from 14.9 per cent in Lusaka to 42.5 per cent in the Southern Province in 2018. In 2017, this ranged from 3.5 per cent in the Cordillera Administrative Region to 17.9 per cent in the Davao Peninsula Region in the Philippines.
The global health regulating body discovered several factors responsible for adolescent pregnancies, including a child bride, in an effort to understand the rampant increase in pregnancies among young girls. The estimated global number of child brides in 2021 is 650 million.
With a vision to help the world accept purity as a way of life, Isaac, who is also an ordained minister at the Shepherd Ministry, has taught and counselled through his books and seminars, in collaboration with his wife Mrs Titilayo Oladeji.
He recounts how difficulties are part of every task and how the ministry has endured through the years. According to him, the foundation has received divine assistance and support over the years from the LORD through the foundation’s partners and associates.
“With the help of God, we have been ministering to teenagers in schools and churches through seminars and retreats, and there have been significant positive reports from parents, teachers, and pastors, testimonies of significant moral and spiritual changes.”
Trials And Oppositions
Since the foundation’s inception in 2014, the visioner of the purity foundation stated that there has been opposition and trials, but God’s grace has kept the ministry going. He asserts that it is crucial to follow through on the assignment despite these obstacles, noting that God’s grace is always sufficient.
“Every good thing comes with opposition but when you are given a task by God, you have to overlook all discouragement and move forward to obey Him that gave you the assignment. As a result, God’s wisdom and Grace have always sufficed for us. We have been sustained through various programs organised by the foundation including school Seminars, Singles and Youth seminars (SAYS), school competitions, film production training, music training, outreach and many more.
“Getting out of our comfort zone, parting with what little we have, and going the extra mile to see God’s work progress. We frequently trek to schools to give seminars using our equipment.”
Testimonies
The Purity Foundation has faced its share of difficulties in its mission to draw attention to the path of holiness and purity, but over time, testimonies have followed its presence. The topic of virginity is one of the less discussed moral issues that is eroding from society. According to research, early sex exposure led to the motherhood of many teenagers all over the world. In an effort to stop the rot in the world, especially in Nigeria, the purity foundation has not only helped many people find Christ but also assisted some of these young people in maintaining their sexual purity through marriage.
“Within our few years of operation, we have a lot of teenagers and youth who have dedicated themselves to purity and holy living, with some who got married as virgins,” Isaac says.
While noting that he believes the Purity Foundation is having an impact on teenagers and young people that will make purity and holy living a way of life around the world, Isaac exhorts the youth to stand out as light in the darkness of this generation.
