The Shift

He cried as he walked into the hospital

How come God had deemed it fit to allow affliction to repeat itself in his life

As he walked through the wards, he saw mothers and their babies

He saw teenagers, girls barely old enough to know their left hand from the right nursing perfectly healthy infants without stress

He looked up and shook his head

He waited until he was very ready before he got married

He married a virgin, a beautiful damsel

He didn’t defile the marital bed

He kept himself with maturity and decorum

His wife was the daughter of a Bishop

The Bishop begged him specially to please exercise patience

The Bishop understood the stirrings of the body

The Bishop could see the body language of his daughter

Love had found a place in his daughter’s heart

He knew telling his daughter to resist her suitor’s overtures was futile

The Bishop invited him for a meeting

Please, honour me and her mother by keeping her a virgin till the wedding

He promised to honour the Bishop and he did

It took his wife six months to get pregnant after the wedding

He had just completed his M.Sc Theology when he got the news

It was a very good time

He immediately applied for his annual leave from the office

The leave allowance was used to purchased baby items

During the leave period he made sure his wife did as little as possible

He cooked, washed, ironed, swept the house and did most of the house chores

He didn’t want his wife to have a miscarriage

The doctors have warned that she needed a lot of rest

Once he concluded the leave, he got his wife a maid

His wife had a 9-5 job as an administrative officer in an organization

He ensured that apart from her office work, she didn’t do anything else in the house

He was at the Post graduate school of the National University when he received a call

His wife was in the hospital

He dropped everything and rushed to the hospital

The doctors gave him the bad news

Your wife couldn’t carry the baby to term

She delivered the baby at 6 months old

He couldn’t believe it

Here he was a tongue talking, Holy Ghost filled minister of God

He would spend his savings and even tuition fee for his Ph.D in the hospital

His wife would practically become a permanent resident of the Hospital while his daughter was placed in the incubator for months!

The news broke him

But he was very grateful

His wife’s parents came to their aid

They helped with the hospital bill

He was able to start his doctorate degree programme

The baby lived, his wife lived, he concluded his Ph.D

Four years later, his wife got pregnant again

And Déjà vu! He was back in the hospital under the same circumstances

He didn’t know why his heart sank so hopelessly

Perhaps it was because he was a pastor and he had preached to many about faith and changing your circumstances

Perhaps it was because he had prayed, fasted and confessed his faith a million times

Perhaps because he was weary of being a victim rather than a victor

He trudged towards his wife’s ward

She had delivered a baby boy this time

The boy was 6 moths and a week old!

He had lost his father in law the previous year

There was nobody to help alleviate the strain of the hospital bill

He braced up and started thinking of what assets he would have to sell off to meet up

God showed up

His church members

The ones that he thought would mock him, laugh at him and lose faith in him came together

They offered support in every way

They were always in the hospital with his wife

They brought all sorts of provisions and fruits

They helped clear the hospital bill

Once the mother and baby were discharged

He drove them home

But unlike their first child

The boy was extremely disabled 

One doctor told them it could be down syndrome or Parkinson’s disease

Another one said it could be cerebral palsy

All sorts of names were thrown at them

One thing he agreed with the doctors on was obvious

The boy was not normal

He didn’t crawl when he ought to, he slithered like a snake

He walked at the age of five

He was always behind all his age mates in everything

If the other children were running right, he would run left

He found it difficult to understand and process simple instructions

Everyday he would lay his hands on the boy’s head and speak into his body

‘You are the inheritance of the Lord, you are the best, you know more than your teachers, you have wisdom, knowledge and understanding, you have full control of all your reflexes, everything in this body responds to the word of God! You are the best in Jesus name!”

He persisted in doing this even though he never saw any result

He did it for many years

His son gained admission into secondary school at the age of 13

One day his son asked him

“Daddy, I am 13, why am I in JSS 1?”

He looked at his son and said, “You are in JSS 1 because you want to be in JSS 1”

“All the people in JSS 1 are 10 or 11 years old, I am the oldest” his son explained

“Do you want to be in the right class for your age?” he asked his son

“Yes Daddy”

“Read your books and pass all your papers with excellent results”

His son nodded

And took it as gospel

He was the overall best student in JSS 1 that year!

He was given double promotion to JSS 3

He was the overall best student also in JSS 3

He had All A’s in his JSCE

He couldn’t explain it

His son had become a genius overnight

By the age of fifteen, his son wrote SSCE and cleared all his papers

By the age of 16 he was studying to become a pilot

He wondered what happened to his son in just three years to transform his son’s life

He had to conclude that the word of God works

Prayer works!

Persistent declaration of the reality we have in Jesus works

Indeed, the three of life is in the mouth of every believer

He was invited to minister in a church one Sunday

He shared his son’s testimony

He didn’t know when he started crying

How could God bring out such sweetness out of bitterness

The pastor of the church that invited him

Heard the testimony and told his own wife to bring out their own daughter

He was also retarded

Pastor, please pray for our daughter! The pastor asked

He told the pastor to lay hands on his own daughter

And bless her before the whole church

And continue to bless her every day of his life

The pastor did it faithfully

Three years later, the seven-year-old girl who was diagnosed of polio

suddenly stood up and started walking by herself

Prayer changes everything!

PS: This series of events happened in Jos, Nigeria (2001-2017)

Do you have any child or ward that is physically challenged?

Please don’t give up

It costs you nothing to pray

It costs you nothing to speak forth the word of life in your mouth

It costs you nothing to lay your hand on such a child daily and change the course of their lives from obscurity into greatness

Rather than give in, please, pray!