Ex-gang member shot at four times now preaching to congregations

An ex-gang member who was shot at four times now mentors young people in his own church.

Pastor Onyeka Power, 27, grew up in a gang in Brixton, and now lives in Hertfordshire, fighting knife crime.

By the age of 15, Mr Power had seen his friend stabbed in the heart. He said: “He died right in front of my eyes.”

At 16, he was shot at four times on his way home one day. 

He said: “I didn’t get scared, it just made me angrier. At that time I didn’t see a life for myself.

“There was a group of us not really doing much. You don’t really know any better.

“But the reality is prison or death when you’re living like that.”

Two years later, when he was 18, Mr Power went to a church service at Mountain Movers Chapel International in Paulet Road, Camberwell.

He said: “From that day everything changed. I found God and gave my life to Jesus. I started praying and trying to live right.

“I realised there’s no point fighting for a postcode because the people you’re fighting for don’t actually care about you like that.”

Soon he was preaching to congregations and by 2020 he was named as the senior pastor at the UK branch of Eternal Life Ministries UK.

Now he preaches to congregations of 150 to 200 young people every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, alongside his wife, Pastor CyyCyy O Power, in their church in Sutherland House, Sutherland Road, Walthamstow.

He said: “A lot of the people I work with feel like they have no purpose, they come from broken homes.

“When they come to the church, I mentor them.

“It’s not about condemnation. I am there to listen to their struggles and their suffering.

“It’s a type of spiritual counseling that you can’t get from a GP or other services.

“Now, some of these young people have said to me they have found hope and are uplifted.”

Mr Power uses his own experience to inform how he teaches others.

He said: “I know people know that I have made mistakes.

“At the church we are encouraging people to set a lifestyle.

“We don’t judge and we forgive and God will forgive but we also teach that actions have consequences in real life and that is how people pay.

“It’s the words that are delivered, I really believe following God can stop knife crime.”

Mr Power has been phoning football clubs to get trials for aspiring players, started a monthly food bank, is working with the Met against knife crime in his borough and is planning on going into schools to teach kids about his experience.

Pictured top: Pastor Onyeka Power (Picture: Pastor Onyeka Power)