Our Story
My name is Anyanime Umoren. I am married to Dr. Uzoma Umoren, an optometrist and fellow Gospel Minister. We have five children: Nsinsi, Ima-mfon, Ekikere, ToroAbasi, and Abasikede. Thank you for listening to our story.
Miraculous Start
I was born in polygamous family in the Niger Delta, the southern region of Nigeria. My mother was my father’s first wife . My father was married to my mother for seven years without any children. In Nigerian culture, most couples get married primarily to raise children. Intimacy and companionship come second to having kids.
My father didn’t want to wait to have children, so he married several other women to have kids. My mother prayed and fasted for many days; yet, she still could not have a child. One day, she tried a dry fast where you do not eat or drink for seven days. After a week, God visited my mother through Bishop Daniel Otong, the founder of Christ Faith Church.
He told her that God heard her prayers, he prayed for her, and he said she would have a child within one year. That same month she became pregnant and I was born during that year. My mother decided to give me back to the Lord and vowed that I would serve the Lord all the days of my life.
Growing Up
As I grew up, I knew the story of my family and where I came from, but I didn’t know what it means to serve the Lord. All my mother knew to do was fulfill her vow and ensure that I was always in a church serving the pastors and cleaning the facility of our local Mennonite Church. She didn’t know what it means to be born again.
I grew up a young religious boy with a passion for the Church, but I didn’t know Christ as my Savior or how to grow in intimacy with him. Living in a polygamous home was tough. I witnessed many conflicts and fights among my father’s wives, even between my father and mother. During this time, I received a calling to help other families in crisis. As a youth, I settled many disputes in my house and extended family.
From a young age, I wanted to see people live in peace and be generous towards one another. I didn’t have any education on how to help foster peace in families, but I wanted to learn how and leader others in peacemaking and generosity.
Born Again & Baptized
I attended university in 1994, and I went to an evangelism crusade organized by our campus fellowship. The evangelist preached on the priesthood of all believers and the ministries of intercession and reconciliation. After the message, they had an altar call for anyone wanting to give their lives to Christ and become priests to and intercessors for their families and communities.
I rushed forward and gave my life to Christ. I began a new walk with God. And, I could see the difference immediately: what it means to walk with the Holy Spirit contrasted to living by an empty religion. My faith began to grow in leaps and bounds. The Lord touched my life again; He baptized me and filled me with the Holy Spirit during the same year.
My perspective about life changed completely. I committed my service to the campus fellowship because of a born again zeal. I planted a new fellowship called “Chosen of God Fellowship” in my village. God used me mightily to draw many youth to Christ, and many of them continue to stand strong and tall in their faith today.
God also used me for evangelism crusades, and with the Holy Spirit moving through our team many sick were healed, deliverances from evil spirits, and many deciding to follow Jesus. From 1994 to 1996, a revival erupted in my village, the Inen Ikot Eteye village, and my local Church. Many people encountered the Holy Spirit and saw God do amazing things in the hearts and lives of youth.
Career Experiences
After my university education, Shell Petroleum of Nigeria hired me as Head of the ICT facility unit. I worked for them for 17 years, 2002 to 2019. I worked offshore, two weeks at the facility, and two weeks off. Throughout this time I also served God as a part-time Gospel Minister with various organizations including the Mennonite Church, House of Favour Fellowship, and the Petroleum Industry Christian Fellowship (PICFI).
God continued to grow my passion for being a peacemaker. I came to a clear understanding of my calling to build godly & generous leaders who will impact their families, churches, and communities. My ultimate vision was to establish a network of these godly & generous leaders who will work together with the Holy Spirit to redeem all of Nigeria from the clutches of sin, poverty, and corruption. God gave me many experiences of the beginning of this vision as a youth pastor, prayer leader, leader trainer, and the intercessory prayer & fellowship leader of my village.
In 2017, the Lord connected me with LeaderSource through my teacher & mentor Bill Frisbie who visited Nigeria to organize trainings for healthy leaders and pastors in the Mennonite Church. Through Bill, I learned of the “Connexion Model,” a simple, biblical model for building Christ-inspired, Christ-dependent healthy leaders. Working with LeaderSource confirmed my calling and passion to personally build healthy leaders, so I resigned from Shell to establish LeaderSource’s Nigeria team.
By God’s grace, and with the help of Bill and the approval of Dr. Malcolm Webber, LeaderSource’s Executive Director, I became the Pioneer Country Director of LeaderSource Nigeria. The Holy Spirit helped me to establish a strong national team that trained over 25,000 leaders in our Christ-centered resources within Nigeria and across the African continent. We facilitated trainings here in Nigeria as well as Ghana, Zambia, and Camdia.
Through my LeaderSource leadership, God connected me with Patrick Johnson and GenerousChurch. God sharpened my vision for generosity, and I’ve learned that generosity is at the heart of every godly & healthy leader. Combining the LeaderSource Christ-centered Model with GenerousChurch’s Whole Life Generosity training gave me a deep understanding of the life, leadership, and generosity of Jesus Christ, and how he brought life-transforming power to each of us through his intimacy with and dependency on his Heavenly Father.
Generous Springs
Generous Springs is born out of the deep passion of my heart to build and unleash generous disciples of Jesus Christ who will provide leadership throughout the various spheres of life: family, community, church, schools, organizations, and nations.
We want to build and unleash generous disciples who will rise above the scarcity mindset of our culture and lead others from a heart of generosity. Whole Life Generosity is the antidote to the false Prosperity Gospel which corrupts and plagues the Nigerian Church and robbing us of the True Gospel of Jesus Christ and prevents the healthy expansion of the Kingdom of God.
Generous Springs is a Nigerian non-governmental organization (NGO) and a ministry dedicated to raising up generous disciples of Jesus Christ who will multiply across Nigeria and throughout all of Africa, reflecting what God has already done in Acts 2 & 4, and 2 Corinthians 8:1-5.
Generous Springs 