International Magazine Publisher Finds Renewed Purpose at EPA 2024

By Lori Arnold

Vicki Otaruyina’s confidence flatlined, a precarious position for a life coach also living out her calling as founder and publisher of Barbados-based Divine Purpose Magazine. After launching the international magazine seven years ago, she’s expanded its reach, hiring three staff members to help her with content and logistics. But earlier this year, Otaruyina was ready to quit; she had no more air to breathe into it.

“I felt like I had exhausted every part of it,” she said. “It’s almost like there was this blockage.”

It was a moment she likened to throwing your hands up in the air.

“I don’t know what else to do,” she told God, and quickly she sensed His response. 

“I want you to develop some key, strong relationships around this magazine,” Otaruyina felt God saying to her. “I’m going to show you how you can expand the readership and expand the interest, expand the awareness, without feeling like, ‘Oh, it’s over. There’s nothing else now to do.’”

That message instantly put Otaruyina at ease since a similar conversation with Him planted the seed for the magazine about a decade ago. At that point, Otaruyina was trying to heal, first from the loss of a child by stillbirth and later, a debilitating illness. Amid those setbacks, it was difficult for Otaruyina to make sense of the trials.

“I remember saying to God, I can’t just be created for all of this pain,” she said. “On that sick bed is where God began to speak to me about what he had called me for.”

His plan, Otaruyina believed, was for her to use her pain as a catalyst for both the magazine and as a life coach, to “help people discover and live out their purpose.” It was to be called Divine Purpose Magazine.

While the assignment was clear, the path to publishing was not. At the time, her only trade experience was working on a corporate newsletter. It took several years before the online magazine became a reality.

“Because I didn’t know much of what I was doing I started just with sharing my story,” Otaruyina said. “It was a very, small beginning. It just started with four pages of me talking about me, a cover, and that was it.”

Most of her prep time centered on homework.

“Eventually, I started to study various aspects of publications, and publishing magazines and writing and how it’s supposed to be set up, and thinking about the reader,” she said.

What’s inside

Today, the quarterly magazine averages about 50 pages. Articles center on teaching, coaching and testimonials, particularly related to marriage, godly parenting and finances. Personality profiles are also a staple of the publication. The magazine uses the PressReader platform, which has given Divine Purpose exposure to 40,000 readers since its inception and 1,400 subscribers. Additionally, the platform can translate member publications into 25 languages, plus an audio format. A print-on-demand option is available through Peecho. 

“All the materials and content within the magazine are always focused on helping you to live according to the perfect will of God, the purpose that God has for you in every season, in every time,” she said. “The content, based on these pillars, is designed to help you to think about where you are today and (how to) become the greatest version of yourself based on what God has called you to do.” 

Those seasons, she said, include moments of uncertainty.

“Really and truly, I was about to give up on the magazine,” she said.

Transformational experience

That’s when God intervened again—making good on his promise to help her build key relationships and expand her reach—this time through an invitation to attend the Evangelical Press Association’s annual convention in April. Otaruyina was one of two international publishers attending the Lexington, Kentucky, gathering, funded by a grant.

The sessions and networking were like a defibrillator, resurrecting her confidence.

“Having then been there, I saw so many possibilities, and I’ve been able to improve the content in so many different ways,” Otaruyina said. “It just shifted content into a different direction.”

The convention, she said, gave her access to an entire group of people “you would not even have thought about if it wasn’t for the convention.”

One of the ideas she is working to implement from the convention is diversifying her content.

“The convention provided me with numerous ideas and strategies for expanding the magazine’s reach and impact, aligning with the direction I believe God is leading me towards,” Otaruyina said, adding the Lausanne session on “The State of the Great Commission Report” reminded her of the great need to point people to Jesus. “It highlighted the urgent need for the work that I am doing as a publisher and reinforced my commitment to helping more individuals discover and walk in their divine purpose.”

With her passion and urgency renewed, Otaruyina plans to add a Nigerian edition to the fold this year while also working to share marketing tips she learned with her advertisers. As she does so, Otaruyina said she’s grateful for the refreshment from the keynote sessions, workshops and networking opportunities. She is also mindful that although moments of doubt will emerge it’s important to look at the big picture.

“The finished thing is what encourages me, and those words and testimonies of people have been tremendous,” she said of the magazine. “Sometimes, when you look at it, you’re so happy. Yes, but you get more excited when you realize you’re blessing the lives of others. You’re bringing transformation and hope to the lives of others.”

Lori Arnold is a freelance journalist. She is a veteran news reporter covering community journalism with the Daily Californian first as a reporter, community, and features editor and eventually the news editor. For sixteen years she served as managing editor for the Christian Examiner newspaper network and Refreshed magazine. Learn more at storylorimedia.com.

Posted Sept. 3, 2024