Raising A Family

A continuation on the Series of The Story Behind the Glory.

The pictures below are that of our only daughter and our second child.

The 6th of December, 2017, marks 32 years of marriage to my wife and raising a family.

My experience with raising a family has not been an easy one, but it has been a victorious one.

LESSONS OF LIFE

• The devil will challenge you were you think you are strongest until you learn to depend on God and His grace.

My wife is a staff nurse/midwife and I became the medical director of a forty-bed private hospital when I was 27 years old.

However, my daughter nearly died of typhoid enteritis when she was less than a year old. In fact, she stopped breathing and I drove to call my pastor. In all the anxiety, an old man from Ukanafun in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, whose foot I had cut part off because of gangrene, in an operation, limped to where she was and prayed in vernacular and cried unto Jesus and my daughter sneezed and passed loose stools and started breathing again.

I was not there and my pastor had not arrived.

GOD USED MY PATIENT TO BRING MY DAUGHTER BACK TO LIFE.

He said he could not watch the child of his very kind doctor die in his presence. I will never forget that old man and his wife. I used to call him Papa Mbakala, “Papa European” because he and his wife loved each other like old white lovers.

• The devil will want to hit you where it will hurt you most.

That’s why you see firstborns and only sons or daughters become targets of the devil.

My daughter was the only girl in 2 generations in my family and she was very attached to me. At about 2 years old, her legs became crossed in an x-shape with both knees knocking each other—bilateral genu valgum.

My second son was born at that same time and he had cleft lips and palate. The upper lip and roof of the mouth were open to the nose.

Two of them had to be operated upon at Enugu, eastern Nigeria, at the same time.

One was on bed 6 and the other on bed 9; my wife was 26 years old, then, but was as strong as steel.

None of my brothers had visited me for 3 years; I was all alone in Aba, Abia State, with no family members.

• The devil will challenge you in your ministry.

My last child was born in normal circumstances, but at a point he started having unexplained convulsions.

The embarrassing aspect is that it usually happens when I have left home to one village or the other to do mission work.

The plan was to make my wife angry so that the ministry would be affected. I was just a Sunday School teacher, then, but I loved missions.

The next thing was that one of my children started having academic challenges and character flaws, quite unlike what we were teaching them. I had to take that child from year 3 in a private University to write JAMB again.

You have to imagine the pain and the money I had spent. The irony was that I was motivating youths all over the country but my child was having crisis.

In all these challenges, I never doubted God.

When I asked, “Why me?“

I heard in my spirit, “Why not you? Someone had to pass through it to encourage others.”

I never went for any special prayers anywhere. I held on to my God and He answered me.

Today that child has a M.Sc and is happily married. and I have a grandchild now.

The second boy became an author and businessman while in University. He became a millionaire while still in University. He is doing postgraduate studies in Europe and has been to the USA twice to work.

We were told he would not speak well because of the operation and the challenge he had when he was young, but he speaks well, preaches, and sings.

The convulsions did not affect the brain of the last child. He has also traveled around and studies in Europe. He is very smart and will soon start his postgraduate studies too.

THE REALITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RACE IS NOT AS EASY AS IT IS PREACHED ON TV TODAY. IT IS A BATTLE BUT WE ARE VICTORS NOT VICTIMS.

Despite your daily challenges, this God is faithful.

You are more than conqueror, you are an overcomer.

You are not alone in your trials; I have passed that road before.

At the end, your testimonies will be greater than mine.

God bless you.