SCOAN: TB Joshua set to unveil five-star prayer resort for pilgrims

The founder of Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) and the biggest tourist attraction to Nigeria, Prophet TB Joshua, is in the process of completing a five-star prayer resort, the SCOAN Prayer Mountain. The resort, located at the old site of SCOAN, when fully completed would be one of the biggest resorts in the country as it could accommodate close to a thousand guests at a time. Currently, it is the only resort of its size in Nigeria located in the heart of a city. The new addition will be a boost to religious tourism and add to the profile of the country as a destination. It will further offer pilgrims a five-star hospitality facility in a fully secured environment.

The SCOAN Prayer Mountain resort would not only complement current accommodation facilities within the church’s vicinity, it will further cement the reputation of the Ikotun, Lagos as Africa’s leading religious tourist destination.

Although designed to accommodate pilgrims in search of divine intervention, the resort boasts of facilities to cater for all categories of visitors from low-budget to premium luxury guests and VIPs.

It is ensconced within a large expanse of land with a natural ambiance of trees and water. It has about a kilometer of prayer and meditation walkway, a meditation garden that has rare and exotic species of peacocks and springboks, a helipad, speed boat to quickly convey pilgrims from one end of the resort to the other. The resort premises, reclaimed from the swamp, are built on an elevated structure surrounded by water filled with catfish. It is an urban oasis that cuts off toxic air and noise pollution, and also less than 10 kilometers from Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA).

Prophet TB Joshua spoke on the soon-to-be-completed SCOAN Prayer Mountain resort: “This is where I started. I must have a library and a place where I can enjoy nature, not the air condition or fan, just nature as God created it. So, having nature around you is very good. God is nature Himself and without nature, you cannot understand the Bible. Because the Bible is not history; when you are reading the Bible, you are reading the Holy Spirit. So, if you don’t allow nature when you are reading, you will be reading history. You need some places like this – where you leave everything outside and come and hear the cocks’ crow. But outside of here, whatever they are doing, you can’t hear because of the noise. So, this place is very important to me – this is where I live, this is where I sleep and do everything.

“If I want to meet people outside of here, I go outside. There is a time for that because the Bible says that there is time to rest and a time to work. Time to rest is time to receive from God and time to work is time to give what you receive from God. When you talk of time to rest, this is the best place to rest, not in the midst of technology or going to New York or travelling about but you rest in the midst of nature.”

Prophet T.B. Joshua also spoke on how the swamp was transformed into a five-star resort: “This swamp is the rejected stone. God spoke to me and brought me here. I have been following God’s vision, God’s mission. When I am out of God’s mission, I am finished. That is why you cannot see me outside of here; you cannot hear me.

God’s time is the best and I always follow God’s time. So, I have been following God’s time; that is why you will not see me preach every Sunday or go on television to preach every day. I must hear from God before saying anything. Every time can be good for you and every time can be the best time for you but for me, I must have a corresponding grace or power because the Holy Spirit must suggest what to do before I do them. If not, I will not be able to have God’s result.

“This is why you are not seeing me out there – at weddings, social occasions, coming to your offices to grant interviews. This is the only church – The SCOAN here in Ikotun. There is no other branch anywhere else in the world but it touches everywhere in the world. I am waiting for God to let me know if there will be branches or not; the important thing is that we should focus on building the people and not the church.”

The SCOAN Prayer Mountain would be open, but according to Prophet Joshua, it will be when God directs: “The people will soon get to know about it. We are just waiting for God’s time. There are many things to be done in this place. We are at about a 70 percent completion rate. So, if people should know about this place now, we would not be able to complete this job because it will cause distraction. When we are at about 95 percent completion level, we will let people know. It is going to be by grace. It is not something you pay money for; you can come and see people moving and praying. So, people will get to know; we are waiting for God’s time.”