Three years after the passage to eternity of the founder and Senior Pastor of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), Prophet T. B. Joshua, Ikotun-Lagos,the headquarters of the church is gradually recovering from the loss.
The economy and livelihood of most of the residents of this Lagos suburb is tied to tourist traffic to the SCOAN church, and as such the demise of the SCOAN founder and the COVID 19 pandemic almost brought community life to a standstill.
However, a recent visit to the church shows a steady recovery.
The church, now led by the wife of the late founder, Pastor Evelyn Joshua, is gradually rebuilding itself both as a church and a key destination for religious tourism in Nigeria. This can be seen during the church’s thanksgiving service, with the mammoth turn out of members and visitors to celebrate with the church.
Although in terms of tourist arrival and traffic the church is yet to attain the numbers of arrivals it was making when the founder was alive, but religious tourism is once again flourishing in Ikotun. The earlier sense of gloom many had after the demise of Joshua has given way to hope and excitement.

At the thanksgiving service, there were visitors from South Africa, the United States of America, Uganda, Botswana, Ghana, and other countries.
In her, the leader of the church Pastor Evelyn Joshua told the congregation that they have every reason to be thankful to God. She further said: “This celebration is one of praise for our Lord for his love, faithfulness and grace in our lives as a ministry. This time last year, we equally gathered to observe the first thanks giving, and I cannot thank you well enough for remaining firm and unshakeable also to the ministry. May God Almighty bless you all. We have a role of reminding ourselves the immortal words of our father in the Lord Prophet T.B. Joshua that our spiritual walk with God is essential and should be paramount in our heart, because the word of God in the book of Lamentation 3:22-23 says that the steadfast love of the love of the Lord is new every morning. So, we are new every morning. We are created to change our world.”
She also recounted some of the progress the church had made in the last one year: “Of course our central mission in the SCOAN is to change lives, change nations and to change the world, I must keep expressing gratitude to the partners and members of this commission for our immaculate commitment and dedication to the pursuit of this mission. Let us collectively appreciate God and His touch of grace and love in our lives. ..
“In March 2023, we were inspired by the Holy Spirit to organize a three-day revival service which was held at our Prayer Mountain. It was not only well-attended, the Holy Spirit beautifully proved himself as demonstrated by many testimonies of deliverance and healing. Of course the programme shall be an annual event for our partners and members.
“Between June 5 and 12, 2023, we equally observed our second year anniversary of the passage to glory of our founder, Prophet T.B. Joshua, as well as his 60th post-humous birthday. It was colorfully achieved through a candle-light procession, an people’s visitation to his mausoleum.