The story behind the consecration…

Brethren! Amen to coming up for air! This, in the midst of a lot of traveling, meetings, and trying to grow a little baby I birthed recently. Story about that coming soon… Very soon!

Today, let me start by apologizing in advance for any names I leave out, not my intention at all; there’s just a lot of people to be grateful to!

So my father was consecrated Bishop on the 8th of August, and I am grateful the day has come and gone, that it was glorious, God honored Himself, church was full to overflowing with guests, worshippers, family, it was just awesome!

This post is not really a chronicle of the events of the day to be honest because my sisters and I were so busy distributing souvenirs, running errands, etc that at a point we wondered why we bothered to dress up at all. Like it’s only Wumi who has a photo of herself on the day, that’s how wound up in work we were!

But Daddy is everything to us though, and it was our privilege to help out, our honor as a family that people came to share in, and we wouldn’t exchange our duties for anything in the world! So this is more of my thank you’s from before, to after.

First off, goes without saying that God is amazing. I have seen God’s hand; His love, mercies, on and on and on! From the horrible news we got in 2012 that we thought would destroy us, to God drying our eyes with the birth of cutest, most brilliant nephew on the planet, God constantly assured (and reassured us) that He hadn’t forgotten us (and didn’t have any plans to).

2012 ended. 2013. 2014. God by His own hand steered my father to the birth of Grace and Progress Family Chapel. Faithful, faithful God; the One who calls, and makes both provision and strength available so there is no stress whatsoever!

And in His own time, the lifting came. The ILCOM college of bishops led by ArchBishop John Praise Daniel, the 8th of August, the consecration was a go.

And so the planning began. And so my thank you’s begin. Remember the place in the Old Testament where Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ hands? I must thank precious sons and daughters who regardless of their schedules held all our hands up throughout the planning. Led by Abel Adeleke, a very big thank you to The Committee for attending meetings upon meetings, strategizing, praying, and all you did to see that the 8th of August was glorious.

To the guests who braved the perilous flight schedules in and out of Asaba (we had guests whose flight returned to where they took off from due to poor weather); we missed you but we’re glad you’re safe. To the ones who made it and travelled back to their homes even in the same day, thank you for sharing our joy! People literally travelled from the furthest parts of Nigeria (and beyond) to worship with us. So overwhelming, the love and support!

To everyone who sent in a goodwill message, whether included in our brochure or not; thank you. For even thinking that it was the thing to do, we’re grateful. You thought of us, prayed with us, rejoiced with us, and we couldn’t be more thankful! May you never lack people to stand with you!

Thank you to Jackie Assenga, who made us ladies look even more beautiful on the day; she’s so good we had to arrange to bring her in from Abuja! She’s such a great make up artiste who truly understands the words, ‘nude/subtle/complementary’ when it comes to touching up a face. She’s on Instagram as just_aces_mua, you should totally check her out! And she takes the most beautiful pictures too!

Thank you to my uncles and aunts for coming through… was so proud seeing all of them standing by him! This thing about blood being thicker (and prettier) than water rings so true! God bless all of you, and keep you!

I also want to thank the best best friend on this planet, Wumi, for coming through, and truly being my sister. From playing with Boo Boo (and fighting with him sometimes, lol), to helping with all the cleaning, sharing, working, everything! Wumi is truly a gift to us from God, and I couldn’t be more thankful for her.

Mwah!

To my brothers and sister, pillars of love, support, encouragement! This is our story, and I’m totally grateful to God we’re in it, telling it together. Thank you, for being you.

To mom, who’s been there from the beginning of this story, who has cushioned us from feeling things as they really were, you’re the best maman, and we love you very much!

And to my father, Bishop Chuka Agwuegbo, welcome to a new era, to a greater connection with God, to joy unspeakable, peace and wisdom without measure; welcome to greater patience, greater understanding, more exploits wrought for the Kingdom of God via this new lifting. We rejoice with you, because what was intended for destruction God turned around beautifully, just like only He can!

About the horn of unforgiveness

How easy is it for you to forgive? Easy/difficult? Or something you don’t even dare? Are you one of those people who say they can forgive but they can never ever, ever forget? Lol… I used to be like that.

I attended a service in Asaba late in 2014 and my father preached on the horn of unforgiveness. As always I made notes you can share in, so welcome to church!

He started by saying, the company you follow/accompany determines what will follow/accompany you. I totally agree.

Zechariah 1:17-21

Unforgiveness is refusing to let go of something or someone who in your opinion hurt you.

Unforgiveness is not holding my peace and letting God fight for me but forcing Him out of my fight because I want to do it all myself. That’s scary, who are we without Him?

Matthew 18:20-21

Genesis 50:17 – ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.”

Who has noticed that forgiving people can be a difficult thing? And the greater the grief they caused, the harder it might be to forgive. But it is a clear instruction from God. We must forgive.

2^nd Chronicles 7:14

Psalm 130:3- 4 “Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies”

Zechariah 1:17-21 (yes, we read it again, for emphasis).

So, how do we defeat the horn of unforgiveness, which is rooted in anger? By the way, anger is some sort of inflammation, deep-rooted resentment or upset. The dictionary defines it as…

Psalm 103:4-5 “If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? ⁴ But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.”

Ephesians 4:26-27

Daddy mentioned something I want to ask about; do you know how your heart skips a beat when you round a corner and see someone you’ve got beef for/with? Lol… Unhealthy stuff.

And the sad/unfortunate thing is that most times the person we’re beefing is not even aware so we’re just stressing our hearts and minds and the person is walking around free!

How do you deal with anger? (Err, don’t worry there’s no magical or high-sounding formula)

1. Keep your cool
2. Don’t say or do anything when you’re angry. This is something we probably already knew but did you know the Bible mentions it too? Proverbs 25:11, 15:1,3.

Ecclesiastes 7:9 – “Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool.”  Verse 17 of the same scripture says, “On the other hand, don’t be too wicked either. Don’t be a fool! Why die before your time?”

Did you learn something? Now to ask God for grace to let that learning shine through the things we do so that the few minutes we spent reading this don’t waste.

Dear Lord, help us to always turn our fights over to you, to remember that living like/for you means we must forgive people who offend us just like we’re forgiven all our sins as well. Help us to live right, amen.

Have a good week!

PS: Did you go to church today? Hope it’s a yes…

Let’s take a trip – welcome to Obosi!

I haven’t been in my village for a good number of years, save the 24 hours I spent in 2010 for my sister’s traditional wedding (there’s got to be a separate chronicle for that someday)!

Anyway, so my cousin was getting married and I told myself that somehow my trip to see Momma would fall within that period. And it did.

The story about the trip to Asaba from Abuja is here; yep it’s the story about the ‘beggi beggi’ woman.

Cue Friday afternoon, and the 25 minutes drive to my village from Asaba; my father believes he’s from a town though, never says he’s from a village. 🙂

Occurred to us that apart from a 24 hour stint in 2010 when my sister had her traditional wedding – got in from London that morning, road trip to the village, met what I could of the traditional wedding and left the next morning – I’d not been in the village in at least five years so Daddy (Lord bless him) gave a running commentary of pretty much everything that had changed. ‘Changed’ here could mean it’d gotten better or completely gone South by the way.

I ended up tweeting some of the things he said… let’s go grab those off Twitter then.

Whoop!

Was awesome seeing my uncles and aunts, and super awesome to just take a nice stroll around. People in the villages lead healthier/simpler lives than all of us town folk o, regardless of what privileges we thing we enjoy. For example, I had roasted corn and pear (oka n’ube) and the corn was harvested from a farm near by. Fresh, succulent, and soft!

Yes Sir!!!

By the way, electricity was also a lot more constant than what we have in Asaba, no jokes. And I hear they are not saddled with bills (fixed or energy charges) that we town folk have to deal with either. Next thing y’all will hear I’ve relocated to my village o!

Before I forget, do you know where bitter kola comes from? So I was strolling with Uncle B (my favorite of all my father’s brothers), and he showed me this tree and told how bitter kola is derived. Plus he has lots of the ‘ugolo’ trees on his land, anyone want to bring us an export proposal?

And you know you’re in the village when your uncle stops a random stranger in the street and introduces you to them because you’re related!!
The evening, the morning, wedding day!

Got up early, did some work and then a bit of reading, and then prepped for my cousin’s wedding. She still didn’t know I was around, he he he.

We got to church and I think the last time I was inside this particular church I was a child. As in child, child. Still looks beautiful though, wonder why we don’t invest in ‘protecting’ all these aged buildings. See potential tourist site o…

Took pictures with my uncles, and a selfie with uncle B!

Went off to the reception, and things stood out for me so I tweeted (me and Twitter sha)…

Na wa!

 

Eating, dancing, and gifting over, it was time to head back to Asaba, and I didn’t want to go.

Pertinent note from Daddy as we crossed the Niger Bridge and I wondered why people were risking life and limb to board buses on the bridge going into Asaba.

Apparently, if they board on the bridge, the trip costs N100 because it is classed as ‘local’ (because some people see the bridge as part of Delta) but if they board anywhere in Onitsha (even if it’s just before said bridge), it becomes an out-of-state trip and it goes up to N150, maybe even N200.

And that my darlings, is the story of my trip to the greatest village/town on earth!

 

 

PS – Written on the 11^th (and completed on the 11^th) of July.

Abuja – Asaba: That really annoying Aero Pilot! And the really sweet-sounding one…

I decided to go visit my folks in Asaba (especially my dear Momma who I haven’t seen in 11 months) and so I packed a bag (or box, since my Royal Majesty doesn’t know how to travel light), and off to the airport I went.

By the way, Abuja folks, there is this new taxi service at the airport called ‘Viko’. If you take them to or from the airport, your next trip is free. All you need to do is text them your desired pick up location, time, and contact details 24 hours before your next flight and someone will come for you. And on time too! I used them so I can tell.

So I got to the airport, and funnily that’s where I met Emem who I’d tried to meet up with the night before. We had a quick discussion/meeting before her flight was called and she pushed off.

I went into the Biobak in the departure lounge and bought a pie and donkwa (Northern snack made of groundnuts and peppery spices). My flight was called, and I went to board. Waiting for my boarding pass to be checked, some lady came and stood before me on the queue. Of course I didn’t stand for it but it made me smile. What was she thinking? I tweeted…

Then I went to board, and because I have the habit of leaving this particular handbag open the person to do the body scan saw my small bottle of water and said I had to drop it. I tried to explain that I needed my water and wasn’t a law against water on the plane but you know how we Nigerians get when we only have an instruction in our heads; no room for discretion – we just keep repeating the instruction over and over again. By the time she she’d said, “ madam you cannot take the water on board – it is not allowed” the 4^th time, I left the water with her. Yes I was fuming. Ok, only maybe just a little bit.

Got to the door of the aircraft and I met two members of the cabin crew and a/the pilot. I turned to the one smiling (a guy) and asked how much water I was allowed, and he said one. I was thinking of the miniature bottles they offer and so I asked if I could get a second one because I’d been asked to drop mine and I’d been feeling pretty dehydrated all day so I was a little upset.

Pilot (who I wasn’t talking to) said, “you are not allowed to take liquids on a plane anywhere in the world”. Fallacy. So many things wrong with that statement (including the fact that I wasn’t speaking to him in the first place) so I said, “it’s not true”. Then he goes, “ don’t teach me my job”. Ticked me off so I very quickly said, “don’t have any plans to teach you your job. More importantly, I wasn’t speaking to you so if you’re not the one who will serve refreshments later please let me conclude this conversation”. Turned back to the guy, confirmed I would get an extra bottle, and then I went to my seat (after warding off some politician who had said hello earlier and now wanted to hold my hand). Why? Cos I’m blind or unable to lead myself to my seat? Arrghh!! Tweeted…

Of course there had to be someone on my seat (because it doesn’t rain but pour). While I tried to gather my composure enough to say so, another hostess came to say it was free seating. I thanked her, and moved to the next row that had a window seat only for the lady sat on the aisle seat to roll her eyes at me when I asked her to let me get in. Made a big show of standing up for me to get through but I was too exhausted (physically and mentally) to even bother. No energy.

I sat down, took a few deep breaths and smiled. Then I brought out what I’m reading at the moment, “The Social Media President”, brought out my donkwa too. Next few tweets capture what happened next.

Beggi beggi, after rolling her eyes at me. Took all of me not to chuckle.

Got to Asaba ok, and ran into the loving arms of my Momma (after helping some lady trying to coordinate her infant, handbag, and a small box), and as soon as we started gisting on the drive home, everything else (pilot, beggi beggi, lady at the foot of the aircraft) paled. Felt super to be home!

xx

PS – I got my water. Two bottles.

PSS – Liquids are allowed on planes, depends on airport, quantity, where you got the liquid (naturally Duty Free Area works rather than before you cross security). I wasn’t just channeling drama. At MM2 in Lagos, normally depending on who it is, they’ll ask you to take a sip of it and then it can go through. Lord knows what (all over the world this ‘international pilot’ was referring to).

PSSS – this post was written on the 10th of July. 🙂

PSSSS – Flew from Abuja to Lagos a few days ago. Flight was hella smooth! Let’s not forget the smooth, soothing voice of the pilot *wink* …Slept right through it, and of course, I tweeted… And learned his surname is actually Norton.

*wink*