CELEBRATING BABA ABIARA

My mother had her third daughter in 1978. She said as soon as she delivered, there was a meeting. She could sense the tension in the family. Her mother-in-law expected her to have a son; the relationship between the two of them had never been fantastic but somehow, she managed to keep her home and sanity for the first eight years of the marriage.

The greatest season of peace she had was when she and her husband moved to Germany for five years after the birth of their first daughter in Nigeria.  As soon as they returned to the country, all the pending emotional issues resumed with a vengeance.

She was a Muslim who had married a Christian man who didn't care about religion due to his western exposure but her husband's mother, was using everything in her power to make life difficult for the "hen that hatches only hens and no Cockerels."

Her husband did the best he could to calm the tension but the birth of the third child which they had both hoped would be their last threw their plans to the wind.  Her husband was summoned to meetings after meetings and she knew it was all about her inability to deliver a son.

One Friday, while she was picking beans in her apartment at Iyana Church, Ibadan, she heard the voice of an evangelist announcing a three days revival programme organised by C.A.C, Agbala Itura. When this voice got behind her window, it said, "There is a woman here, Mama Opeyemi, the seat you were given is shaking at the moment and you're uncertain of the future, come to this meeting; God said He has given you a son if you will respond to my call.”

Wow! That evening, my mother went to the crusade and met with Prophet Dr. S. K ABIARA (His 39-year-old version) at the time I was born.

Nine months later, my mother gave her life to Christ and started growing in her walk with the Holy Spirit through that encounter but her struggle with her mother-in-law didn't end there.

While she was pregnant with me, she was praying in church one day when she felt a toddler grab her legs.  She didn't open her eyes until she felt the toddler release her and leave.

After the service the Holy Spirit said to her, you have asked me for a son but I have given you two sons. She said she panicked at the thought of having a set of twins but the Holy Spirit said, “FRET NOT, they shall come one after the other."

A few months after I was born, she took in again, but a visit from her mother-in-law led to an unexpected miscarriage followed by an evacuation; she thought the plan of God had failed until she noticed her tummy bulging again to the shock of everyone.

My younger brother was born as spoken by the Holy Spirit. C.A.C, Agbala Itura was the church where my mother learnt how to pray, study the Word, fast and grow from someone checking table of content to someone whose Bible is marked with all sorts of colours!

I have never met Baba Abiara one on one but I celebrate this great gift of God to the church of Jesus Christ. I was told he clocked 80 recently and bless God for his life.

 -GSW-