Preacher dies three weeks after speaking about an 'ideal' death

World famous Bahamian preacher Myles Munroe who was in Kenya for a series of talks about three weeks ago has died alongside nine other people including his wife and daughter in the Bahamas.

According to the Bahamas Tribune, his plane crashed while trying to land at the Grand Bahamas International Airport in Freeport on his way to the Global Leadership forum that was scheduled to run from November 10 to 13 at Freeport, Grand Bahama.

Yesterday, the Bahamas Faith Ministries, an organisation that Munroe founded, said the event would go on as “Dr Munroe would have wanted.”

Among his last media interviews was the one he gave to KTN’s Jeff Koinange Live Show on October 24 where he spoke about how we would love to die.

“I want to challenge every Kenyan to go to the cemetery and disappoint the graveyard. Die like the Apostle Paul who said I have finished my course, I have kept the faith and I have been poured out like a drink offering. There is nothing left. I am ready to die. That’s how I wanna die because there is nothing else left for me to die,” he told the show’s host, Jeff Koinange.

“When you die, die like I am planning to die. Empty. It’s finished,” he added.

Dr Munroe, the founder of the Bahamas Faith Ministries, is a writer, preacher, thinker, leader, publisher and motivational speaker.

According to a biography in his website, the 60-year-old has published more than 100 spiritual and inspirational works and is a government and business consultant to Fortune 500 businesses. He has travelled to over 130 countries.

A total of 49 of his books were best sellers. His books Understanding the Purpose and Power of Woman, Understanding the Purpose and Power of Men and The Most Important Person on Earth are some of his popular titles among book readers in Kenya.

He was in Kenya in his tour of Africa where he was visiting nine countries to speak about leadership and change. While in Kenya, Munroe said that Kenya’s education system needed adjustment.
Munroe, who was born in the Bahamas as the sixth born in a family of 11, lived in a wooden house which was held above the ground by four big rocks. He rose from such a poor background to own a private jet. His home was in a poor village at a small island where “people were so poor that they even didn’t know that they were poor.”

“Our mother spread a mat on the floor for us to sleep. Roaches and rats ran over our bodies as we slept,” he said during the interview.

At the age of 13, he started to question his life. “I was born in an island with 96 per cent of the people black. But all the powers and the economy was in the hands of white people who only formed four per cent.”

He confronted his father who was a Baptist preacher why they could not go to the same schools, cinemas and drink from the same place like the white people.

When his father failed to give him a satisfactory reply, he sought answers in the Bible. “I took the Bible and read all the four gospels. By the time I was 14, I had read and memorised all of them. From that time, I told myself that everything was possible,” he said.

“When I went to school, my white teacher told me that I was a half human being, retarded, half monkey, could not learn complicated things, nigger... I sat there weeping as a student. I was an F student in his class. I went home and told my mother who encouraged me,” he added.

Munroe was to later on confront his teacher before he realised that he held his own destiny.

“I went on to college, got three bachelors’ degrees in four years, a masters in 18 months and five PhDs from five different universities,” he said.

Various leaders and individuals from around the world have eulogised him from using his quotes and preaching.
Author Kinyanjui Kombani tweeted his quote: “The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but a life without a purpose” while businessman Caleb Karuga posted: “Without a vision for the future, life loses its meaning.”