Finding Common Ground

They met at a nightclub in Belgium.
He had hustled his way out of Nigeria in secret using all the resources he could gather from his illiterate father.
It was the only way he felt he could go after his WAEC result was released and he discovered that he had failed woefully.
His father had always been a businessman who wanted at least one of his children to become a doctor.
His father was married with over five wives.
His mother was in Ivory Coast, as well as two other wives.
The wives in Nigeria were the younger ones.
His father also had a concubine or two in their small town.
They were Muslims and that was their way.
He used a fake result to gain admission into one of the polytechnics but he was told by the man who did the result runs for him that he had to get his acts together by changing the result into the original one before accreditations began.
He was introduced to another man in the administrative and records department who would help him exchange the fake result for the genuine one once he got the right results.
He resorted to the use of fake results in a bid to keep up with the Jones.
He didn't want to have to tell his father the truth.
He sat for the exams and failed again.
This meant he would not be able to change the results before the accreditation process began and thus his fraud would be discovered.
This was when a friend told him he knew someone who could help him process his journey to Belgium.
He felt his father would see his son being abroad as a step in the right direction as he would be able to use this to save face.
Three of them applied for the visa with the help of their contact.
He was the only one who got the visa.
He found his way to Belgium without knowing what he was going there to do or who he was going there to meet.
When he landed at the airport, he ditched his luggage so that he would not be easily identified as a foreigner.
He said he walked for many miles before finding this nightclub and asking them if he would work there as a cleaner or bouncer.
The owner of the club recognized him as an illegal alien and decided to help him.
This was how he got a job.
He was allowed to sleep in the club by day and work as a bouncer by night, he also cleaned the toilets before sleeping every night.
The job covered lunch and dinner and it paid him 10 Euros per hour.
He was not paying taxes and he had no bills apart from his toiletries and some clothes that he had to buy in order to be able to fit into the weather and blend in like a natural.
His few months in Ivory Coast helped as he had learned some French while he was there and that came in handy while he was in Europe.
After a year of hard work and savings, he got robbed.
He got to the spot where he kept his money and the piggy bank was gone.
He went to check the CCTV camera and he discovered it was one of the ladies that usually frequent the club that did the job.
He couldn't report her to the police, so he took it upon himself to search for her.
He located her apartment somewhere in Brussels.
He waited all day until she returned home.
As soon as she saw him, she knew why he came.
She had used the money to settle her rent and also to buy some groceries.
She was desperately in need of the cash so her things don't end up on the street.
She stumbled upon the piggy bank and felt it was an answered prayer.
He listened to her tale of woe quietly.
When she was done, he said, the money was his life savings and he wanted to know how to get it back.
She said she was looking for a job.
He told her there was an opening at the Night Club for a waitress.
She said such a job was beneath her.
He said nothing could be beneath the dignity of a thief.
He wanted his money back and he needed to keep an eye on her while she earned it.
She nodded.
He got her the job.
She resumed the following day.
Because she took all his savings, he also needed a second job to make some more money so that he could meet his needs.
He got a second job in Brussels which he did during the day.
She gave him a key to her apartment, so that he could rest there sometimes in between jobs or whenever he had some time to burn in town.
The nightclub was not in the capital, it was four hours away from Brussels by train.
Somehow they became lovers.
Neither of them envisaged it.
He was not her kind of man or her dream man
She always wanted better than some manual labour as a life partner.
She was not his kind of woman.
He had always wanted a submissive, Islamic-trained woman who would give him peace of mind.
But they had each other for that season and the journey to nowhere began.
They shared each other's bed for three years.
In those three years, she paid him back his money, they began to split the rent for her apartment in town and she also got a second job.
In that time he also completed some evening school courses and passed his examination in hotel management and tourism.
An opportunity came for them in the United Kingdom.
The cousin of the owner of their club had set up his club and asked them if they would both be willing to be part of his opening crew.
By this time the nightclub had employed more hands and the two of them were already feeling they had overstayed their welcome.
They took the opportunity, especially as it includes visa sponsorship to move to the United Kingdom as skilled workers in Hotel Management.
They were part of the setup of the club from day one and they did excellently well.
After a good year in which they settled down without any hitch, they decided to get married.
She was from Angola and He was a Nigerian.
They went to Angola to meet her parents and there and then he was told he could not marry her because she was a reincarnation of her father's younger sister and that sister never had a good marriage all her life.
Her father told the two of them that they could remain lovers and even have children for each other but marriage was not good for her.
According to her father, his younger sister was married four times and was unable to have children in all the unions.
Spiritual investigations revealed that she was not the marrying kind but a free spirit who would have children with many men but must never be married to any of them.
She had also known about it since her childhood and told him the same but he wouldn't believe her and she felt he should hear it from her parents.
He didn't believe it.
She was not his dream woman but the years they spent together and the length she had gone to be with him and share his life had made him come to love and respect her.
He wanted to marry her and she wanted to marry him but the powers that be said nay.
He took her to Nigeria.
He was meeting his folks for the first time in nine years since he left.
He introduced her to her folks.
Her father said she was not the kind of woman he expected his son to bring home.
She had nail piercings and some strange devilish tattoos.
She was a foreigner and his parents had heard stories of how men would work hard abroad only for women to strip them of everything.
His father didn't understand who she was to him and all that she had done to help him become a man in life.
She also saw his father's harem and developed some cold feet.
She didn't want to end up as one of his women because she would be marrying into a Muslim family.
They returned to the UK on the brink of a breakup.
The things they both saw, heard and learned from each other's backgrounds were galling.
She would have left him immediately but they were joined at the waist economically.
They share an apartment and going solo would have been too tasking for either of them at the time.
A neighbour told them about the GSWMI hangout in London.
They needed a fresh perspective, so they registered and attended.
They met with GSW.
They both told their stories and also expressed their frustrations.
Their backgrounds were so different and almost unbridgeable.
They also love each other and crave the blessing of their folks.
The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt told them there is only one way two people with two different backgrounds can come to share the same background legally and spiritually.
If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away Behold, all things have become new.
Regardless of your background or history in the flesh, accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour saves your life completely.
It erases your background in the flesh and translates you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
Her eyes lit up as she heard the words, she said she was willing.
She was led to Christ and that same instant she began to pray in the Holy Ghost.
It was the most beautiful sight.
Her man just observed from afar while it all went down.
As they left that day, she was born again while he was still contemplating the option.
Two weeks later, at the Hang Out at Leamington Spa, he showed up with his wife.
This time he was eager to give his life to Christ and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
What had changed?
Her "devilish and scary" tattoos faded by themselves within three days of her accepting the Lord Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
He noticed she was always full of joy and had become more gracious towards him.
He said the transformation was too impactful to be ignored.
He gave his life to Jesus and received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit too.
They got married a month later.
In July 2023, they had their first set of twins.
In July 2024, they confirmed they were pregnant with another set of twins.
In the last two years, the two families had met and seen the power of God.
Her family especially had swung from their traditional religious mindset towards Christ by their numbers.
Seven of the eleven members of her nuclear family had given their lives to Jesus.
For him, his father had turned him into a prayer consultant of sorts.
He makes no decisions without consulting with him first and asking him to pray about it.
The news is getting better every day!
Christ is our common ground as believers.

-GSW-