I just want to thank God for taking me to Ekklesia: School Of Local Church and all He did during my stay there. The end of 2013 and the first half of 2014 were very challenging for me and I just bottled up everything and pretended nothing ever happened. I went for my annual leave off work with so much burden, shame and pain and while there, all I asked God for was help because there was just so much happening around me at that time. The attacks and pressure seem to be coming from all sides – family, friends and all. My mom did her best to shield me to no avail, so I went to Lagos secretly and stayed there till the end of my leave.

When I returned to work in July 2014, I saw a page from the Ekklesia School brochure lying on the printer in my office. As a rule, I quickly glanced through to know what it was before trashing it. Like they would say in pidgin, “Who send you?” I immediately had a knowing that I needed to be there. From that day, I could find no peace on the matter because my thoughts would regularly drift towards enrolling as a student. I kept quenching the thought but it continued like that for weeks.

On one of such occasions at work, I turned and asked my colleague what the whole thing was all about. She could only supply me answers based on the little she heard from the Open Day event that was done in my absence. “I for like do this thing oh but I really don’t know how it’s going to be.” She advised that I call Pastor Sola and ask him what it would entail but I objected. After I voiced out my interest to be a student, the battle within me got worse because I then realized that I had given life to that dream by proclaiming it with my mouth. At some point I couldn’t keep it any more. I told my two sisters about it and they were supportive howbeit reserved about the time in relation to my job. I told my mom too and she was all out for it because my mom is an addict of anything that concerns education. She made me read through the whole brochure via the phone because she wanted to know what courses would be taught and she specifically said she would have enrolled too if she were resident in Port Harcourt.

So, I took out time every day to just ask God what He expects and why I should attend the school but I got no answers. I later changed the prayer to threatening Him that I would not use my salary to pay my fees, and that if truly it was Him leading me there, He should provide the fees. True to form of an unrelenting merciful Father that He is, I got the money for my fees. Immediately the alert hit my phone, Ekklesia flew out of my heart. I didn’t remember or think Ekklesia until I had spent the money to Seven Thousand Naira. I quickly took out Five Thousand Naira one morning and gave it to my sister to keep as part of the payment and succinctly added “if God wants me to go, He would bring the money.”

So began the burden of guilt I carried each time the announcement was made in church and the deadline for payment and filling of forms drew to a close. I then began to ask for mercy and yet stubbornly refused to use my money to pay. At some point I told myself that there will always be a next year and I could enroll for the course, but whenever I said that, I could hear a voice within vehemently countering that thought. It got to a point that it was like I was drunk because I would read the brochure every day, pray and keep confessing my interest but walking to the bank with my ATM Card was a no-no.

When the deadline was moved forward, I felt a bit of relief but on the Tuesday before the final deadline, I was sitting at the back, in front of the console when it was announced again and as the announcement was going on, I just bowed my head and asked God for mercy once again. The next morning, a friend in church called and said I should send him my account details because he wanted to give me something to chew for my birthday arrears. I sent him my account number expecting to see something small because the birthday in context was long gone. I told my colleague about it and we were thinking of what to eat that afternoon when I got the alert. I was very shocked and remained glued to my seat because it was twenty-five-thousand naira; nothing more nothing less. My colleague just kept smiling because she knew how stubborn I had been about God providing the money (guess she was even tired of hearing me voice my interest without action). I just stood up and called Pastor Sola immediately, asking him questions. He encouraged me to go on with the course and then I went home during my lunch break, got the five thousand naira from my sister and went ahead to process the admission same day.

I still didn’t give God breathing space after that. I practically worried Him or rather worried myself with knowing why I had to do the course and why He had to go through with getting me the fees. We began the classes and the first course we took was on Character Development. By the end of the second class with Pastor Nkechi, I knew why God sent me there. Classes were simple, spiritual and often times prophetic – cutting across every area of life. The tutors were just pouring and pouring out themselves. Many times I would be so carried away and forget to take notes in class because strong meat was being served and it would take me days and sometimes weeks to digest. My life just took a dramatic turn for the better with each class.

As I learnt, so did I research further and reading the Bible or listening to the Word became easy because my ear became very open. Even my job became better because I had a deeper understanding of what was being said or preached and so I could tailor a message to fit its use. The practice of the truth wasn’t easy for me at first and many times I fell, but the result with each practice of the truth learnt was overwhelming as issues in my life were dealt with individually. I also would revisit my notes to clarify things when not clear.

When the first set of results were announced, I came out third best in the class and it really gave my siblings and I a good laugh, because of the way the results were packaged and the grades tallied. It looked like I was still in secondary school and my folks joked that since I know better, they expected something better. I promised to do better by the next assessment but my folks said it was too late to make another impression. For me it was all spirit lifting because the effect of the school was being made flesh right before everyone.

Now I try to pass everything I do through the sieve of God’s Word. Everything in my life that was null and void began to take shape and become reality. My greatest joy was in January this year when God narrowed my purpose down to specifics and I can see His hands in everything I do, especially in the area of my primary assignment. I’m not where He wants me to be yet but I’m very, very far from where I used to be and I’m getting better daily.