Oluranti Valdez

Oluranti Alvita Oyekan Valdez was the firstborn of four children to the late Soni O. Oyekan and Priscilla Parker Oyekan. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and moved with her parents and family to several locations while growing up, including Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Piscataway, New Jersey, and Orange, Texas.

She attended elementary and high school in Piscataway, New Jersey and moved for her senior year to Orange, Texas. There she attended West Orange-Stark High School. While in high school, Ranti’s many talents and gifts began to blossom. At Piscataway High School, she became an outstanding athlete excelling in soccer and indoor and outdoor track. She continued her athletic pursuits at West Orange Stark High School and in 1992 she was awarded a scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin based on her academic and athletic achievements. Ranti was also musically gifted. She possessed a beautiful, strong singing voice and sang in concert choirs in Piscataway. She also played viola in the high school orchestra. She studied and enjoyed playing piano from a young age and won several awards in piano competitions.

After graduating from high school in 1992, Ranti attended the University of Texas at Austin where she earned a B.A. degree in Biology.

While studying at the University of Texas, Ranti was drawn to the church life, and developed a great love for the Lord, whom she pursued for the rest of her life. While continuing her studies, she participated in the gospel on campus and shepherding young believers. After graduation, she gave herself for two years to be trained in Bible truth and service in a training center in California. Following those two years, she returned to Austin to serve on the University of Texas campus for several years. During these years she ministered Christ to many young people through the gospel, small group fellowship on campus, inviting them over for meals, taking trips to visit them, and meeting in the homes.

After her time on the campus Ranti began to work as a middle school teacher. She always had a heart for children and wanted to reach them through education. She pursued and completed a teaching degree at Huston-Tillotson College in Austin and taught middle school math and science for 12 years, mainly serving at Strickland Christian School in South Austin. During these years at different times, she tirelessly worked in the summers with the young people of the Church by helping with Truth School sessions for junior high and high schoolers and Bible Camps for young children. In addition, for two summers, she hosted a day care program for young children in her home where she gave the children daily lessons and participated in many activities with them.

Ranti considered serving the Lord and working in his vineyard to be not only a way of life, but essential to life’s meaning and purpose. She believed that pursing after Him and living unto His purpose is the most blessed and joyful life.

She married her life partner and husband Aaron Valdez in August 1996. They were married for twenty-five years and had two sons: Isaiah Elijah Valdez and Timothy Mark Valdez. She was a devoted wife and mother, spending many years giving her children her best efforts in teaching not only school work, but also training them to love the Lord and the Church.

Ranti shone a bright light in the world. She always had a ready smile, a cheerful attitude, and a spirit of praise and thanksgiving towards the Lord no matter what obstacles she faced. She was a born leader, with the ability to organize events and visualize plans and see them through. She was extremely creative in all types of arts, and was able to draw, sing, write songs, and learned multiple instruments. Although we know she is with the Lord, she will truly be missed by all.

She is survived by her husband Aaron Valdez; two sons Isaiah Valdez and Timothy Valdez; Mother Priscilla Oyekan; brother Femi Oyekan; sisters Ima and Arit Oyekan; Mother-in-Law Mary Tijerina and Father-in-Law Leonard Valdez. She also left behind a host of loving uncles, aunts, and cousins, and other in-law family.

“Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory. Because we do not regard the things which are seen but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Cor 4: 16-18