APOSTLE PSALM OKPE, THE PRESIDING PASTOR OF FRESH OIL MINISTRIES INT’L CHURCH, LOCATED IN EGBEDA, POPULARLY KNOWN AS THE FLYING BISHOP, AN ITINERANT PREACHER, A WELL KNOWN INTERNATIONAL HUMBLED TRAVELED PREACHER, AN AUTHOR OF 30 BOOKS TO HIS CREDIT. JUST DEDICATED HIS NEWLY BOOK “THE TRESURE” IN A CHAT WITH EMMANUEL CLEMENT.
HOW DID YOU VENTURE INTO BOOK WRITING?
I started writing when I was a child. As a result of the normal children writing on the floor, I started picking interest trying to get information. I love reading too, novels to be precise, Christian novels because I grew up meeting my father as a pastor, I was not privileged like every other child to just go outside the church work so I have been in the church system from birth. When I grew up as a teenager I love story books and as Art student it gives me passion to literature. When I became a pastor, every pastor who ministers must have a writing note, from your note you develop your comprehensive sermon to present. With that, people began to buy the tapes because the teaching were classical and mind blowing, it started given me the inspiration to translate it into writing. The climax part of it is, as busy as I am, I noticed that when I am in the plane I just can’t sleep, not because I can’t, I just felt I should be doing something in that spare time while I am in the sky, so 90 percent of my books are written in the sky, I wrote this book ” The Treasure” on my way to Australia, that long flight. Sleeping and waking up in the plane doing nothing, if I cannot pray, I write, if I cannot write I pray, so this is how I started writing.
HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE WHEN YOU FIRST WRITE?
My first experience was beautiful because it came with so much excitement. My first book was titled “God stops where your Faith stop” I started writing professionally at the age of 17 and it was published in 1998. It’s a small book of about 28 pages, it sold all during my dedication, I had a thousand copies and the whole one thousand copies got exhausted that we had no one left. I wouldn’t say it’s a challenges rather my experience was exciting, It was excited because I brought a thousand books for them to help me dedicate and the whole books got finished and over one thousand two hundred people were waiting to get more books, so we were behind production.
SIR, IS THERE ANY CHALLENGES WHILE WRITING?
There are few challenges for me as a person. The atmosphere you are can cluster your inspiration, it can make you not flow. I am always out of the country and am always in the environment where am inspired to write, like in the hotel, in the plane, in the gardens, etc. Few books I wrote here in Nigeria like ‘Help my Emotions is failing me’ and other ones, of course you can’t be when Nepa or electricity is off, the heat and the fan are making noise to your ear. Another challenges that can be striking for me is Translation of my books, because the demands when traveling to Europe zones, the demands to have my books translated into foreign countries is very aching, I don’t have those contact with direct interpretation or interpreter who interpret them. I used to have someone in France but he is not so eloquent, he doesn’t know much of English. To transcribe what you don’t know is quite challenging. I had a ministration in Mexico when I took my books to introduce to them, nobody could buy it because they were not even understanding English. I have those challenges when I traveled to nations where they don’t speak English or transcribed.
HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO MANAGE BOOK PIRACY? AND WHAT SHOULD GOVERNMENT DO TO CURB THIS MENACE?
Piracy for me was a bit controlled until a month ago. A month ago while i was in New York in my hotel room, I just type my name on goggle on my books on Amazon, I saw some group of Authors distributors selling my books in Australia, I remembered I left Australia in 2008 since then I have not been there but surprisingly people selling my books online without my consent. 99 percent of my books are sold and manage by ourselves apart from the ones sold by Amazon, people buy from us.
I will say it is wrong for somebody to put in so much effort to bring out something and the person is not benefiting rather it’s been infringed by somebody else, it is crime and should be handled. Government should really look into it and provide a way to curb this menace.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK, THE TREASURE?
The book today ‘The Treasure’ was inspired by my daughter. I got the inspiration to write the book from my daughter. My daughter’s name is Havilah and the name came to me before I got married. When God gave me the name Havilah, I had to make a study of the name, I still remembered in my hotel room in Port Harcourt where I was studying on the name, God gave me the revelation to write the book. The original titled was Havilah, the place called Gold, I felt I rather preferred The Treasure, the Land of Gold, the place called Gold. So, it was changed from Havilah to The Treasure. This book The Tresure will make you Discover your purpose, Discover the reason for your existence, Discover why you can’t fail, and so on, and the striking chapter is the chapter that talks about the intention of God, anything God does is intentionally, you can’t just wake up and things start happening, you have to pray for it, plan for it, speak it and it gives you the ability to be focus on what you are doing. I don’t believe in laziness and I am a very busy preacher with a very tight itinerary. I have traveled over 80 countries of the world and am still traveling.
WHO ARE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE WHEN YOU WRITE?
If you limit me to that question, I might be having too much challenges. When I write my books I write books for Generations. I don’t just write book with a target in my heart. I read a book years ago by Andrew Murray, my prayer mentor. I have never met him, I don’t know how old he was but he is late, he is an old Apostle Father of faith. Andrew Murray wrote a book with “Christ is the school of Prayer”, I read the book in 1999 and my life has never been the same. Andrew Murray is long gone but his books is here, his book is selling and champion rational.
My message are not clone to a group of limited audience. It is generational. The book The Treasure was dedicated recently with Prophetess Doris, Busayo reviewing the book, some Nollywood Actors and Actresses and other influential dignitaries across the globe.
Let Zebra News help your business/brand reach a wider audience. Advertise with us today! Contact Our Marketing Team; Tel: 08062622328, 07083662767. Email: zebranewsng@gmail.com
