Durban - A Durban pastor was supposed to have been at the doomed The Synagogue Church of All Nations, in Lagos, Nigeria this past weekend - but postponed her visit to coincide with the the coming school holidays so that she could take her two children.
President Jacob Zuma announced on Tuesday night that it was thought as many as 67 South Africans had perished when a multi-storey church guest accommodation building collapsed on Friday. There were thought to be at least four church groups visiting when the complex collapsed.
Pastor Val Woolff of the Christ Healing Centre in Glenmore said that in all likelihood she would have been at faith healer TB Joshua’s complex when it collapsed at the weekend.
“We were just not meant to be there,” Woolff said on Wednesday morning .
“I do not want to think about what if I was there when the incident happened as it is the order of the Lord.
“I have been in prayer ever since this happened and my heart goes out to the people who passed away and to the prophet (Joshua), who was the real target,” she said.
She believes that the collapse of the church could have been orchestrated from people who wanted to “bring down” Joshua, who commands a mass following through his website, network of churches and a 24-hour television station.
Joshua has tried to implicate Islamic extremists in the building collapse, publishing a video purporting to show a mysterious aircraft flying low over the building four times before the disaster. He told a televised service on Sunday that his church had been targeted before by Nigeria’s home-grown Boko Haram extremist group.
He told congregants that enemies were trying to keep them from his church, but not to worry because he was the main target.
When it was put to Woolff that the Nigerian authorities have blamed the collapse on shoddy construction work as two extra storeys were added to the existing four-storey building, she said: “It still could have been an attack, you just never know. It is still too early, but the real truth will come out.”
Woolff, who was ordained in 2008, said she was drawn to prophet Joshua’s ministry while researching “healing and deliverance” after she encountered people “manifesting demonically” during her prayer services.
“I needed more insight of what was going and I knew this was all biblical and I needed to take my faith to a new level and God led me to prophet TB Joshua’s ministry.”
She said that after watching YouTube clips of Joshua she became a fervent follower and now subscribes to his TV channel.
Woolff said that hundreds of South Africans visited Joshua’s church in Lagos every year and she had e-mailed Joshua numerous times telling him that she wanted to visit with her family.
On June 30 this year she said she received a personal call from Joshua who invited her to the church.
“When he spoke to me I could just hear the humility and love in his voice. He is a very genuine man of God who is helping people who want to have a deeper relationship with God,” she said.
She said she had initially planned to go this month but wanted to go with her husband and two children.
She said they had booked to go next month but since the tragedy they had not heard from the church.
“I can just imagine they are going through a lot of grief because many people go there. I am not sure we will be able to go now because of the lack of accommodation,” she said.
Daily News
* The figures for dead and injured people in this disaster are still being collated. IOL will use the latest figures available to us, but be aware the numbers will fluctuate as the story is updated.