Benson Andrew Idahosa (11 September 1938 – 12 March 1998) affectionately called PAPA or BABA by his followers, was a Charismatic Pentecostal preacher, and founder of the Church of God Mission International with headquarters in Benin City, Nigeria. As the first Pentecostal archbishop in Nigeria, he was renowned for his robust faith. T. L. Osborn remarked on him as the greatest African ambassador of the apostolic Christian faith to the world.

BIOGRAPHY:

Born to non-Christian parents in a predominantly non-Christian community, he was rejected by his father, John, for being frail and sickly. He constantly had fainting spells as a child, and on one of his spells, his mother, Sarah, abandoned him at a rubbish heap presuming him dead. Hours later, he came to, and began wailing and was rescued by his mother. He grew up in a poor household. Like most of the surrounding houses, his family home was a mud house. This reality denied him access to education until he was fourteen years old, when he was able to attend a local government school.

Early Ministry:
As a youth, he got converted to Christianity by a certain Pastor Okpo, and joined his fledgling congregation as one of its first members. He was very active in evangelizing, seeing many come to Christianity. After experiencing a revelation from God calling him into ministry, he be.
Born to non-Christian parents in a predominantly non-Christian community, he was rejected by his father, John, for being frail and sickly. He constantly had fainting spells as a child, and on one of his spells, his mother, Sarah, abandoned him at a rubbish heap presuming him dead. Hours later, he came to, and began wailing and was rescued by his mother. He grew up in a poor household. Like most of the surrounding houses, his family home was a mud house. This reality denied him access to education until he was fourteen years old, when he was able to attend a local government school.

He began to conduct outreaches from village to village, before establishing his church in a store in Benin City. By 1971, he had established churches all over Nigeria and Ghana. Known for his boldness, power and prosperity-based preaching, as well as an enormous faith in the supernatural, he was instrumental to the strong wave of revival in Christianity and marked conversions from animism that occurred between the 1970s and 1990s in Nigeria. He is regarded by Christians folks as the father of Pentecostalism in Nigeria, and was the founding President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN). Many prominent Nigerian pastors like Rev Ayo Oritsejafor David Oyedepo, Felix Omobude, Fred Addo, Bishop Mike Okonkwo and Chris Oyakhilome were his protégés.


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