“WHAT makes Multiply unique is friendship," says Matthew Oluwalesin.

"There is a binding love between us." Sitting in one of the lounges at 'Springfield', one of the Jesus Fellowship's houses in Leicester, we are a thousand miles away physically and culturally from Matthew's home in Lagos, Nigeria, but we are one.

"In the past many white people would not even shake hands with a black man, not to talk of sitting down together, eating together, sharing together," comments Matthew. "God has deposited something unique in Jesus Fellowship brethren - He has made them to love, to welcome and to pull down the wall of partition."

This wall can be built from both sides, and Matthew, as the leader of a growing African church, originally had reservations about fellowshipping with an overseas church. Three events changed his mind.

In 1990 while evangelising at Gowon Estate, in Lagos, he met a former Jesus Fellowship member. When this man saw that Matthew's church, Glad Tidings Evangelical Church, was a brotherhood church, he said it resembled Jesus Fellowship and suggested Matthew make contact with them.

Eight months later a visitor from another state told Matthew he saw him walking together with some white people - and it was good.

Lastly, Matthew himself had a vision: "I was on a farm walking with white people. The farm yielded fruit. From there we went to a village that was full of darkness and immediately we entered in, a great light came. The people, who had been frustrated and saddened, started to rejoice and wanted to follow us."

These things convinced him and he wrote to England. Three Jesus Fellowship leaders visited Nigeria in May 1991. At the airport Matthew found reassurance: "As we were praying they were speaking in tongues - and I, too, speak in tongues. So in that Holy Spirit conviction that we were compatible, I said yes, I will maintain relationship with them."

This relationship has carried on for 15 years now, and Matthew rejoices over it: "Before I visited I wouldn't have believed there was a church that can practise what the Fellowship is practising. The Lord has made me to learn tolerance, love, accommodation and giving from them."

Matthew's own journey from idol worshipper to apostolic Christian leader began in a miraculous way in 1973. He was alone in his room when he heard a voice asking his name: "I answered 'Matthew'. The voice asked again, 'Why did I like to be a Matthew?' 'Because he was one of the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.' (I was not born again but I loved His name!) The voice asked again, 'Why did I choose to be a Judas?' I said I wouldn't be a Judas because he was a rebellious man.

"Right on my chair I repented of my sins and gave my life to Christ."

He didn't realise it at the time, and he didn't pray about it, but as he was saved, a hole in his foot was healed. "I'd gone to many diabolic places for healing but I was not healed," he recalls. "This is one of the great things the Lord has done for me. And ever since I've been ministering healing to people."

A year later, asleep in his room, Matthew was filled with the Holy Spirit. The change was dramatic: 'The understanding of the word of God was much more imperative in my life. And I was able to do many things, overcome many temptations and trials.

"Many times people will say, 'This thing is not wrong' or 'It doesn't matter', but I'll say no, because the Holy Spirit will not allow me."

GTEC grew out of a house prayer group Matthew started in 1976. Today it has a full programme, including revivals, annual conventions and youth meetings, plus fellowships for men, women and the elderly. In a country where poverty is usual (GNI per capita US$560), the needy give to the needier. Every second Sunday, they collect food and money and give it to whoever is in need, inside or outside the church.

Multiply Nigeria members meet every last Thursday of the month. "Sometimes we have a meal but most essentially we pray and share the word of God," says Matthew. There are also yearly seminars and gatherings.

In 2004 Matthew "extended the hand of fellowship to Gabon, Togo, Benin and Ghana". Yearly Multiply Conferences are held in Lagos, attended by Jesus Fellowship leaders from the UK. Matthew is planning a pan-African conference in Lagos this year.

To whom much is given, much is expected, and Matthew takes his apostolic calling very seriously. "I see it as a great commitment to the Lord and to our fellow human being," he says. "Many times I have sleepless nights thinking about how to go with this or that. The Lord has always given me a way out."

Matthew has encountered many problems as a leader but counts it all as part of his cross: "Right from my conversion, the Spirit has made me to understand that I will carry the cross and be a servant of God.

"Many times I have met with disappointments, even from Christian brothers and sisters, but because the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, I did not go back to the world or retaliate. Instead I love and pray for them.

"I refuse to be discouraged. Before a person succeeds, he or she must meet with challenges. And it is challenges that make us strong when we overcome them."

"It entails sacrifice to carry on as an apostolic man because you have to deal with many issues. The more your vision is expanded, the more hard-working you become. You have to pray, read, teach - you have to do many things."

Matthew recognises the need of many pastors for fathers to encourage them. And this is what Multiply Nigeria seeks to bring to members, by preaching, encouraging, visiting, phone calls and, occasionally, financial help.

For Matthew, it is God's name that he wishes always to bring glory to: "We live by the grace of God. I pray that I will leave behind me a legacy that is worthy of emulation, that the name of the Lord will not be spoken against through me.

"It is disastrous if after the leader dies, a church dies. That would mean the leader has wasted his energy. I've taken time to train people and I'm still training people."

The vision for Multiply West Africa continues to expand. More workers and more finance are needed. "We do solicit for prayers that vision will be fulfilled," says Matthew, breaking out into a broad smile. I am left with an impression of a man who is measured, prayerful, deliberate, confident in Christ - and who carries a deep-seated cross-centred joy.

This article has been extracted from Streetpaper and Jesus Life publications