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The Train; The Journey of Faith – Mount Zion Movie Review || PROFOUND LESSONS AND FUNNY SCENES.

Last week, the Mount Zion Drama Ministry released another amazing movie which trended as the number 1 Christian movie on YouTube.

The movie is called THE TRAIN: The Journey of Faith.
The train is a biographical epic movie about the life of Nigeria’s Popular pastor and founder of Mount Zion Faith Drama Ministry, Mike Bamiloye.

It played out the seasons of his life from his childhood, through his adulthood, marriage, assignment and all.

The movie was written and produced by Damilola Mike-Bamiloye and stars Seun Adejumobi, Omolara Ayoola, Tolulope Mike-Bamiloye, was directed by Yemi Adepoju and Isaac Femi Akintunde.

My experience watching The Train was amazing. I was thrilled, entertained, blessed, encouraged, and more.

The Train is a story of reckless faith. A faith that looks really foolish.

It started from the life of young Abayomi who lost his mom at the age of 4 and had to be left under the care of different people including his older and only sister.

Young Abayomi went through different seasons in his life before and after God found him and eventually began to walk in his purpose and God’s will for him.

After his tertiary education, he met a beautiful woman who eventually agreed to be his wife and destiny partner in the person of Gloria.

Gloria’s role was a very touching and crucial one. She supported his ministry and accepted to walk with him even though his future looked really bleak. She took on his mandate and ran alongside him with it. She is a very beautiful representation of a help meet who was ready to bear the weight of her husband’s assignment.

Mike Abayomi Bamiloye went through different challenges. From the reservations the church had against his ministry at the early stages, seeing that it wasn’t the conventional or known kind, to the financial hardship he began to encounter at first because he quitted his job and worked for God full time.

The train is a highly recommended movie for every Christian to build their faith and trust in God and be encouraged in His plan and vision for them.

If you haven’t seen the movie, keep scrolling to find it.

Although a movie with powerful lessons, it also had a lot of scenes that brought comic relief. Below are a few of the scenarios that made me laugh.

– The countless shenanigans of young Abayomi before he knew Christ. I found them really funny and relate-able particularly because the scenes were acted in my local dialect, ijesha. They reminded me so much about my hometown and grandparents.

– The conversation Abayomi had with the two brothers who came to check on him when he was backsliding and the rhema and revelation he gave them about “the mirror”.

– The afro that Abayomi kept made me reel in laughter.

– His first day at Oyo state college of Education when the lecturer asked Abayomi to mention the 8 parts of speech when the lecturer himself had only taught them 6.

– When one of the elders began to sing the Taxi driver song and the other elders were shook and looking at him like “How did you know the song fam? ”

– During the magazine dedication. The money scenario between Abayomi and his older sister.

– Mama (Gloria’s mum) that always knew the right time to drink water.

– Their encounter with the pastor who gave them his stage for drama and called them jobless. It was embarrassing but really funny.

_ The fact that Gloria kept calling her husband “Bro Mike”.

Below are a few lessons I culled out of the Movie, The Train

– Background and limitations regardless, God has a plan and purpose for everyone.

– Every child is important to God including the “stubborn” and “terrible” ones. Parents must receive the grace to discern the graces upon their children early and bring them up in the way of God. When young Abayomi was introduced to the church and the Word of God in the house of his second guardian, his life began to receive bearing.

– Our Christian faith is a journey and not a destination. You may fall many times but don’t remain fallen. God is always waiting for you to rise. Abayomi’s introduction to God didn’t automatically make him spotless. He still went back to the ways of the world on some days but he didn’t remain there.

– It is very important not to underestimate the assignment that God has given you.

– We must learn to encourage one another in our various assignments.

– Not all that glitters is gold. Sometimes the seemingly good option on the surface is not what God wants for you. Do you want what God wants for you?

– NEVER despise your days of little beginnings.

Breakthrough (2019) Christian Movie Review + Practical Lessons for Believers

– Never underestimate the power of having godly mentors and older people around you. Their counsel is very important.

– The only validation you need for your assignment is that from God. Many times if you’re used by God to introduce a new dimension of Creativity or ministry to the body of Christ, religion is likely to fight you. Write the vision, make it plain and run with it. Many people will oppose at first but God will send people to support you.

– If the VISION is from God, then there’s definitely a PRO-VISION. Trust Him.

– It is very important to be subject to the leadings of the Holy Spirit.

– You will only live with fulfilled life when you walk in God’s plan for you.

– Who you marry is key. Your spouse must be your burden bearer, prayer intercessor and encourager. And you must be same to them.

Have you seen The Train? What lesson did you learn from it?

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Abejoye (The King Maker) || 13 Lessons for Christians from the Movie

This week, thanks to social distancing, I’ve been doing a number of things, one of which is Seeing the complete series of the Movie Abejoye.

Abejoye is a movie by Mount Zion movies in collaboration with Flaming Swords ministries. I’m not going into the plot of the movie (you can find it on YouTube) but I can say that it was interesting, very humorous and edifying.

It’s not my favorite movie or anything like that. It didn’t meet the standard I had set in my head as a result of the endorsements people around me had given it. So it’s safe to say that it was overrated for me. However, there were many subtle but powerful Christian lessons embedded in this movie.

These are 15 top of my head lessons from the movie. I’m sure there are other lessons apart from these. You can share them with me in the comments below.

1. It is very important to be alert spiritually

The Bible makes it clear that as believers, our warfare is not against physical forces but against spiritual ones. So, many times it is easy to miss the signs. You have to be alert in your spirit and attentive to sense attacks of the enemy even before they begin to manifest physically. We see spiritual sensitivity very well in this movie.

2. Do not be adamant, you can be wrong.

Sometimes, we’re so convinced of certain things due to our previous experiences or prevailing thoughts in our minds that we fail to be open and receptive to other possible explanations. Laide (Gloria Bamiloye) in the movie was convinced that the attacks on her home were as a result of the presence of her father in-law who happened to be an idol worshipper. Her fears were valid and her thoughts made sense but that didn’t mean she was right. Even when everything points at a direction, be humble enough to listen to God and the authorities around you for confirmation.


3. Give people a chance.

Don’t give up on them easily. Some people just need a little extra push to be saved. Don’t write anyone off.

4. A lot of people’s salvation is at stake when you don’t listen to God.

If the Pastor in this movie had not listened to God, the old man would have returned to the village unsaved which would have had a negative ripple effect.

5. Give people a chance to grow in the faith

I was glad when I saw that the movie rightfully depicted the fact that although Baba was converted, he didn’t automatically become a Word giant. He was growing gradually. He misquoted scriptures, wrongfully called some names in the Bible and even added some stories that weren’t in the Bible to his Bible stories. When people convert, especially from an entirely different belief, give them time to grow as you put them through.

6. Distance is not a barrier in the realm of the Spirit

We see this all through the movie; When attacks were sent to Baba from the Village all the way to the United States and when he returned their evil plans back to them. Both positive and negative spiritual forces do not need you to be close for them to reach you. When your village people want to attack, running abroad won’t save you. When God wants to intervene, distance is not a barrier either. That’s why we pray because we know that where we physically can not get to, God can.

7. When you involve yourself in iniquity, you give the enemy access to your life.

A hedge has been placed around your life but you have the ability to take that hedge away.The family lost their peace several times because of the father’s infidelity.

8. God’s power is superior to every other!

Selah.

9.
The name of Jesus is a strong tower.

Selah Selah

10. It is not about longevity in the faith.

It’s about consistent growth in it and applying the Word. Someone who got saved last month may begin to do exploits that are beyond you.

11. There’s no Christianity without forgiveness

12. Obeying God the first time will save you a lot of unnecessary stress.

13. Being a believer doesn’t automatically translate to having an excellent marriage. You must put in the work.


That’s it!


Have you seen the movie Abejoye? If yes, what did you think about it?

Talk to me in the comments.


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A Fall from Grace Movie || Stop Criticizing Tyler Perry!

Incase you haven’t seen the movie, this is not a spoiler. So you can read on.

So, yesterday I saw A fall from grace.

A movie directed, written and produced by Tyler Perry.

Prior to then, I had seen the trailer of this movie on Twitter, last year. To my surprise, Tyler Perry came under fire especially from the black community because of this movie.

Their grudge was that his movies always had to do with sad black women. They were angry because of the stereotype against black women in his movies. Always portraying them as either sad, angry, bitter, depressed, unfulfilled or mad.

Movies like “Diary of the Mad black woman”, “Acrimony”, ” Why did I get married”, and so on.


After the movie was released, it didn’t look any brighter for Tyler. Another dust rose from people who think the movie is a waste of time.

I read reviews online and I was just sad.
The top reviews on this movie on google are bad ones. I understand criticism and I believe it makes people get better but there’s a level it gets to, that you know that it is pure hate.

Many of the reviews online were bad. Really bad.

People complained about a number of things varying from the plot of the story, to the locations used, to certain things that didn’t add up in the story and so on.


These are my thoughts.

A fall from Grace is a great movie. I was entertained, intrigued, and enlightened.

It was not a waste of my time. I may have seen better Tyler Perry movies but A Fall from Grace was not a bad one. I enjoyed it.

About his story line and the stories he says about black women. If we’d be honest with ourselves, that is the reality. It may not be so always, but it is, in many cases.

Tyler says he saw his mum go through repeated abuse around him growing up and this influences the course his movies take. He’s creating awareness of these things and trying to voice out to women in abusive relationships through his movies.

It’d be nice to see Tyler produce movies where black women are happy but for now, can we enjoy his movies and the messages they pass?


Secondly, about the inadequacies of the movie, I think we should cut him some slack. I mean, a fall from Grace has a couple of flaws (like every movie ever created) but to say that the movie was totally thrash is rude, falseful and disrespectful.

They say the movie was shot in 5 days and I may not know why they did that but for a movie to be shot in just 5 days is no joke.

Most of the top reviews on google about this movie are just down right demeaning.

Tyler Perry is an excellent movie maker and has proved himself over the years to be capable. He’s very talented and creative and we do not have a lot of that around.

So, I may not 100% agree with his movies or think they’re perfect but he deserves some credit. A lot of it actually.


Finally, if you haven’t seen the movie, I really think you should. If you have ever enjoyed any Tyler Perry movie, you’ll enjoy this one too. The people finding faults in this movie are either script writers, directors, or generally people who know quite a number of things about movie making or script writing. But if you’re an audience like me, (our job is just to sit, watch, learn and be entertained and not to do an unnecessary analysis) then you’re definitely going to enjoy this movie.
Have you seen “A fall from Grace?” What are your thoughts?

See also: Breakthrough movie review and lessons