The winter was brutal with ice and freezing cold hovering all over the
Indianapolis skyline. December 2007 is a month I will never forget in my lifetime. At this time, I owed 3 months of rent and utilities. There was no food in the fridge. Sadly enough, school was out of session and so I could not “sneak” into the cafeteria for a hot meal as I usually did. My daughter Meyaozo was not allowed to see me partly because I didn’t have a dime to my name. The last time she was with me, my good friend
Loba Ogunmola had to drive us to the local Wal-Mart to purchase milk and diapers for her.
Alphonse Kongolo, another friend and colleague said to me:
Uche, it is possible that you are going through trials and the Lord is testing
your faith but what if this situation is of the devil? Doesn’t the bible say
that, “I have been young; and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed begging bread”. – Psalms 37:25.
That scripture resonated within the depths of my soul that night and I prayed violently like I had never prayed before using the scripture saying:
Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm – Psalms 105:15.
I resolved to leave the house I was staying in and pitch tent out in the frigid cold – Surely, if I perish, I perish. But God had other plans for me. He is a God who is in the business of answering prayers.
Tirzah Brown, a Uindy freshman at the time, invited me to join her family for a trip to the
Creation Museum in
Kentucky. She did not know this, but this trip coincided with the day I had chosen to strike out as a homeless man. I took her on the invitation thinking that I will move out as soon as I returned from the trip. God used that trip to change everything. Indeed, my life has never been the same again since that day. Things changed insomuch that in June 2008, I found myself in
Orlando, Florida robbing shoulders with the best in Information Technology. My regret then was that my daughter Meyaozo couldn’t be there to share the moment with me.
Wait! It only gets better. I found myself in
Atlanta,Georgia, March 2010 rubbing shoulders with the Executives and policy makers of Health Information Technology. All touting their advanced degrees and qualifications – and I had one too. But wait, it still gets better – Meyaozo was in Atlanta with me to experience this.This is a testimony of God’s goodness. The timeless hymn by
Louisa M.R. Stead suffices in my soul’s expression of gratitude:
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take Him at His Word; Just to rest upon His promise, And to know, “Thus saith the Lord”. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him! How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er; Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! Oh, for grace to trust Him more.