Faith is like an inexhaustible deposit from God given to be spent daily .The more you spend it the higher you go.

Imagine if humanity dominated one another with love, if the first act in a disagreement is patience, if kindness is second nature, if peace is the right hand , if humility is worn as a garb. Imagine just imagine if we gave everybody the benefit of the doubt .Imagine …

Growing up in south eastern Nigeria , one major western phrase was the staple of our adolescence : Love is blind. A poor man can marry a rich woman. An older woman can marry a young man, a priest can disavow his oath for love .At the age where interest in the opposite gender was skyrocketing with each passing day, we loved that phrase. It gave us hope that we could strike luck with some girl.

At the same time, a different view of love dominated the indigenous language and culture. It is called IHUNANYA , which literally means TO SEE. Among the Igbo tribe of south east Nigeria, to love is to see. To see the failings , faults , mess of another and still be kind to them , care for them , accept them , cherish them.

The western culture came with love that is blind , the indigenous culture had the love that sees but both the one that is blind and the one that sees share the same principles. Are we really all that different from one another?

Inquiries have gone no where. No one seems to be sure .It’s all just insinuations and suspicion. Totally baffling and embarrassing. Where does one begin.

For about a year now, some men in the west African region have been robbing women of their belongings. Bad as that is , that is not the problem .The strange thing is what they have been stealing .These people have been stealing used women underwear, the older the better . What the heck is going on? What kind of market exists for this ? The claim is that it’s for some pagan ritual for money. What is it that poverty will not make a person do ? I could upload multiple times these people were caught red handed with their prized possession but its just bizarre.

This is no attempt to make my west Africa look bad but men, I have to let this weird stuff out. It’s happening too often to ignore.

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Over the course of life , one of the things I have learnt , one great lesson hard to forget is HARD WORK TALKS .It can talk you right to the top, right to promotion , right to glory. Make no mistake if you are a hard worker, you can never go out of fashion

Yesterday the spokesman for the Nigerian police issued a warning that all gay people should leave the country for their own good .Already it has been made a crime in Nigeria to be gay. Regardless of how Christians feel about gay people , how is this treatment of gay people good? What purpose will it serve besides making their lives miserable?

The Christian community that knows one or two things about persecution have been silent because many are rooting for it .I am not gay but I recognize evil when I see it. What is happening to gay people in Nigeria and the complicit silence thereof is evil. It is hypocritical to mouth the gospel of grace and love ,to adorn the garb of righteousness while complicit with the instruments of hate.. May God raise good samaritans

It’s cold and white outside. The scenery looks beautiful, like an exclamation by the season saying ” I am here, it’s my time. ” Standing out and watching it , my mind drifts…

I wake up in Umudisi, a small African village, south east Nigeria. It’s chilly this early morning . The winds are howling and everything that can dry up is quickly drying. The harmattan season is at it’s peak and I can almost sense it saying ” I am here, its my time”

It’s fun season and besides the hiccup of waking up early to fetch water from the stream, a good six miles back and forth , this time of year is full of celebrations, homecomings, feasts, and the one that I never forget, my initiation rites . Oh what a day it was . I was barely 12 , but it was my turn to know Masquerade (Mmuonwu). I had to or else I will have no face among my age mates not to talk about the elders. I was too proud , too cocky to let that happen. God forbid!

Few things commanded my attention like these Masquerades . Now when I say masquerades I don’t mean the masks sold in the markets or the Halloween costumes at Walmart. No . My masquerades were different .They are the symbol of the spirits that watched over my people I had been sternly informed . Not something to trifle with . Revered, all you had to do to get a kid to straighten out was the threat of their presence. Following them around – at a safe distance – was my hobby. There was something about the spirit of it all that held me spell bound.
Finally my time to enter into Mmuonwu had come and I was ready.

“Daddy are you ok?” My daughter asked. I snapped back to Missouri. “You have been so quiet for a while”. I am good I answered and looked at the time . 11:53 pm. Seasons, I muttered, there are different seasons in a man’s life and I went to bed

Suya , Nigeria’s most popular barbeque. Originated from the northern part of Nigeria and devoured throughout the country. A mixture of ground peanuts, with the oil pressed out and fried, cayenne pepper, African negro pepper, stock cube, ground ginger and salt to taste are combined to produce a unique flavor that is irresistible. Not always easy to get the mixture right but its worth the effort

Great obstacles provoke great faith

Believing is very foundational to the Christian life. It is so fundamental that Christians are called Believers in the bible. Believing is what they do. Now the main difference I have observed between believing with the mind and believing with the spirit is PRESSURE ( sickness financial problem, marital problem etc). How does a Christian react when faced with pressure , especially a sustained pressure? It’s easy to live a Christian life without pressure

.Now first, what is believing with the mind? It is when a Christian is familiar with the word enough to remember it , quote it but have not spent the time to meditate and think on the word. When pressure comes and you speak that word out of your mind , it generates no power in the spirit . Indeed the likeliest scenario is that under pressure, panic / fear will freeze the mind. Fear can never freeze your spirit.. In my up coming book , I delve deeper into this.

However believing with the mind can easily become believing with the spirit when one takes the time to meditate on the word .