Johannesburg: So Much Around Me To Learn From...

There were some other patients here from Nigeria. One of them was a lady well known to Ulo and her husband, Chidi. She had been in an accident with her son and they were both flown to Milpark Hospital from Nigeria. I understood that her son passed away, and she was in critical condition. I made enquiries and went and introduced myself to her husband. He said he had suspected I was related to Ulo because of our resemblance to each other. I gave him Ulo's message that his wife was in their prayers and offered my condolences for his son.

I also met another lady whose daughter had kidney complications due to lupus. The family had been through so much, but they were trusting in God for a miracle. According to man's knowledge, their child should not even be alive. But because of God's grace, He had kept her to testify of His goodness, and therefore God was going to be glorified through her, even if it was just because of her mother's unshakable faith.

I knew there was a reason that God led me to hear this remarkable woman's story, and I was learning to make use of every opportunity He brought to glimpse into His heart and see what lesson lay there.

This lady and her daughter had been in Milpark for two months and she had not given up for one day. Such faith, even when the girl had no blood pressure at all and her white blood cell count was below zero. Incredible! God would reward such faith, I knew He would...

To be continued...

Johannesburg: Grace Addict...

 I woke up with a bible verse resonating through my being,

“ My grace is sufficient for thee: For my strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9. I had always been very familiar with that verse, but never had it had so much meaning to me. Total dependence, that was what God wanted from me. I would give it to Him and watch as miracle upon miracle overtook me. The arm of man will fail. God cannot, because it is not in His nature to fail. When I am weak, He is strong, and His strength is made perfect when I am completely leaning on Him, completely trusting in Him. I read the rest of that verse and it went,

“Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

I spent some time meditating on these words and resolving to make them a part of my life henceforth.

I discovered that my “quiet times” with God were quite different from what I had been used to before the plane crash. God had always been a very significant part of my life, way before I got born again in 1998, and fellowship with Him, whether in church, with family, or alone, had always brought me joy and peace. But there was something different now. It was as if God was sitting beside me as I prayed or read the bible. Things became clearer to understand. 

I felt more peaceful and fulfilled after meditating on His Word. I felt much closer to Him. And the best thing was, I could not wait to be in His presence...

To be continued...

Johannesburg: God At Work...

I sat waiting for Kechi to come out of surgery. She went in at 6.30pm, and when I peeked in her room at 7.50pm, she was there, and the nurses were re-attaching her to tubes and lines. Kechi was now having surgery every forty eight hours because the doctors were trying very hard to remove all the dead skin as soon as they could to minimize infection.

When I was finally allowed to see her, I could see that her face was now fully bandaged. They had done the debridement of her face and the remaining leg. I wondered what this meant for the future of her face and whether her beautiful face would ever be the same after so much of it had been scraped away. I quickly pulled myself back from those thoughts, reminding myself that surgery can only be performed on the living and that by God's grace, she would be fully restored, as He promised. She seemed peaceful, not agitated as she sometimes was after surgery, so I sat by her, sang and prayed. 

As I was getting ready for bed, a text message came from Chinedu. He had received two messages from the Holy Spirit for me and they went thus:

“I have surrounded her with My presence, and My servants are ever present, encamped around them. They are instruments of My purpose, My purpose, so she must not fear or be discouraged. She needs only to open the eye of her heart to see Me afresh in all this. I have ministered peace to her soul; she only has to receive it. I am her God”.

And then,

“It is My intention for her own strength to fail. I want her to depend entirely on me. The strength she had thus far was of Me. I want it to remain so.”

I bowed my head, full of praise and thanksgiving, awed at the privilege and honor to be a part of this move of God...

To be continued...

Johannesburg: You Know True Encouraging Words When You Hear Them...

After Ulo's call, I received a call from someone who identified himself as the Managing Director of Sosoliso Airlines. He said that they would like to support us in any way they could. I told him that my focus for now was praying for my daughter and that he should speak to my husband on any other matters.

As far as I was concerned, if the company wanted to help us out, they would call and say, “this is how we want to help, how do you feel about it?”, not to call me and say they would like to help. What did he expect me to say? “Okay, send me $1m so I can pay bills?” I did not want any distractions. I was focused on God and Kechi and did not wish to be disturbed.

Many people had been visiting me to find out how Kechi was doing and some of them gave me money to help pay for food and transportation, many of them people I had never met before. None of them called to tell me that they would like to support me in any way they can. They just obeyed the prompting of The Spirit and gave. That was how God worked.

Shortly after this upsetting call, I received a call from one of my brothers in law, Patrick. Apparently he was with the governor of Imo State (my home state), Governor Achike Udenwa, who wanted to speak to me. The Governor spoke words of encouragement and told me to also take care of myself to be strong for Kechi.

Susan, Elsie's friend who had helped Mike get his visa from the South African embassy in Nigeria, paid me a visit all the way from Pretoria. Very pretty and petite, she had the lovely accent most South Africans have. We had a lovely visit and she promised to keep in touch.

Ulo called after Susan left. She was with Chinedu, our brother, and in discussion with him about the things she had said to me, it turned out that Chinedu received that same word for me and had in fact shared it with his friend, William, that morning. He also received word that I should minister to others in the hospital. A bit  scary, but I prayed that God would make a way. I trusted absolutely in Him...

To be continued...