My people perish for lack of KNOWLEDGE- Hosea 4:6

I am a proud catholic, I remain one till I die despite the fact that marriage may prompt me to follow my husband to his church because “where he goes, I go”.

I have seen countless people say many things about the catholic church including those born in the catholic church but were ‘Sunday Sunday’ church goers , till they saw “the light”. Those people were never devoted to the church, so they can’t do not know in-depth what happens in the church. No offense meant though.

We do not worship Mary, I repeat  “we do not worship Mary,” we honor her. The use of images remind us of what they stand for, like when you have the picture of a loved one. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit who reveals all truth to give you understanding about this (see 2 Kings 3:20-21,Numbers 21:8-9,Exodus 25:17-22) you can inbox me for clarifications.

Whatever your conscience is against, has become a sin for you ( see Romans 14:22-23), so if your conscience doesn’t permit you to use them, then don’t.

Talking about idols, what greater idolatry is there than idolizing a man. Protestant churches are beginning to get with the program too. People place pictures of a man everywhere calling him papa and falling on his feet. God knows I revere every true man of God. People dress to church every Sunday to watch TV, there’s no point, watch it at home. About 10 years ago, Holy Communion wasn’t widely accepted by Protestants (except Anglicans) but today, everybody is breaking bread. Our sacramentals are frowned at, but these days, the kind of respect being given to mantles fear me (mantles are biblical)

I still ask, what is the war? Aren’t we all supposed to be interested in the work of salvation, isn’t it the same race? Is the enmity not between us and the devil? are we not all for the kingdom of God? Learn from Jesus!!!

“A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand” Mark 3:24

When the disciples complained about the non-members of their group working miracles, what did Jesus say?

“Do not try to stop him, because no one who performs a miracle in my name will say evil things about me later, for whoever is not against us, is for us.(see mark 9:38-40)

In the early church, there was division, some said they were for Paul, others Apollos, others Christ, but Paul rebuked them and made them understand that he (their papa Paul) did not die on the cross for him

Many people say, those are old testament practices, but I hope they search themselves well to see if they still “tithe”, or if they cling to the promises in the book of Isaiah, do they confess that “they shall not die,  but live”. Chai hypocrisy abounds in the church

Stop the criticisms and seek the kingdom of God. If you like preach against the Catholic Church till yesterday, we will still have members, and guess what! We will still tell you when to go for Easter, and you will still observe it. You have no choice.

Lay down your swords, or better still, take it up and fight the devil.

Many people won’t be happy I said this, and guess again? ORJI UCHECHI don talk im own oooooo.

YES YOU CAN: LIMITLESS

The Lord said, “Look! They are one people with the same language for all of them, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. Nothing they have a mind to do will be impossible for them.” Genesis  11:6

Man was made by God in His image and likeness, the Omnipotent God structured man to be just like Him (Genesis 1: 27). I don’t think we truly get the Infinity of God’s attributes and powers, we may not be able to fully comprehend it no matter how hard we tried (Romans 11 : 33) and this is more reason why we shouldn’t try to comprehend the extent of our strengths, we should just believe that “WE CAN”. Our maker has been described as Wise, Infinite, sovereign, Holy, Faithful, Omniscient, Omnipresent and OMNIPOTENT.  If God who is able to do all things had in mind during the creation of man to mould someone who shares the same characteristics as Him, then the apple shouldn’t fall far from the tree. Most times the chains that bind us, the powers that limit us come from within, they live in our heads and speak in our hearts. We set the boundaries of our achievements.

I am a firm believer that whatever you set your heart out on, you will definitely achieve it. It has played out in every experience of my life. God gave man almost a limitless power by making us a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8 : 5)

He also acknowledged this with his own words as played out in the opening scriptures

If God himself believes this much in your abilities then why should you doubt your capabilities

A word of encouragement goes out to everyone who is facing one problem or the other

Struggling with an addiction

Stuck up with a project

Dealing with a loss

Living with a disability

Tired of living etc

“YOU CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS YOU”(Philippians 4: 13) – this very quotation has formed an indispensible part of my boost, it has been my mantra through dealing with my struggles and believe me, they have been many.

No apologies for going so biblical,

Being Christian is my way of life

Living His words is what I do

ORJI UCHECHI

WHO WOULD YOU BE

If you were given a blank slate- What would you write on it?

If you were given a penny for all your thoughts - How rich would you be?

If “WHAT DO YOU DRIVE?” were to be replaced by  “WHAT DRIVES YOU?” - Which course would you be steering?

If you could be all you wanted to be- Who would you be?

What exactly is your MOTIVATION?

What inspires YOU?

What gives you the will to carry on against all odds?

If you had all the money in the world- What would you do with it?

I would write LOVE

I would be the wealthiest person alive

I would preach PEACE

I would be that person remembered by the world, the one who makes God proud

Money doesn’t move me

Faith gives me the will to carry on

If I had all the money in the world, I would be me, remembering HUMANITY, touching LIVES, SPEAKING for the voiceless, HELPING the helpless

If I had all the money in the world, my pockets would be empty, but my heart would be full, full of joy in knowing that souls are being saved, the hungry are being fed, the limbless can walk again.

I would have joy knowing that HUMANITY is RESTORED

MAKE SOMEONE SMILE TODAY

HELP A SOUL TODAY

ORJI UCHECHI

MEMOIRS by Anonymous

I was dripping wet, apparently from the rain falling unending, I hurriedly entered the hall where other participants were seated for the job interview. There he was, my partner of 3 years twice removed- now a stranger. He handed over a paper to me “Mimidoo, here are the questions you should expect when its your turn” I closed my eyes to prevent the tears from flowing, my makeup was already half ruined by the rain. Segun, has always been my knight in shining armour, coming to my rescue whenever I didn’t need it.

Tom, tom tom.. my wide open mouth received droplets of water from the leaking roof, I jolted up from the make shift bed. Oh! So it was all a dream. For the fourth time in one week, images of Segun haunted my dreams, and his thoughts made my waking moments miserable. We met as students, became friends before taking our friendship a little lower than the highest level. Segun was the fantasy of all the female students, but I was privileged to have him to myself, the lady of his manor. As an undergraduate, I was quite a sight to behold, whenever I made an entrance, everyone else faded into oblivion. Was it the beauty? Maybe it was the charisma, I couldn’t tell which but I was aware that the aura that oozed had both males and females wishing and a handful of ladies hating. I and Segun couldn’t have been better matched. Thanks to Blaze who invited me to his departmental freshers’ night.

Sage was the name I made for him. A meaningful derivative of the bivalved form of Segun. He was way beyond my reach now. We broke up in a friendly bitter manner and it was entirely my fault. The cravings couldn’t seem to stop, I wanted more and more. The attention I was getting  from eligible males latched onto my eyes like blinders, I became unable to separate the wheat from the chaff. It continued that way until I couldn’t bear it any more, I stormed out from Sage’s house over a minor resolvable issue and never looked back, and he didn’t bother to draw me back, not that I cared at that moment.

Years later I met  Tunde , Tunde was a native of one of the major tribes in the country, the same as Segun, I was from a lesser tribe, migrants from the present day Congo.  Tunde was a man to be yoked with anytime of the day if you loved them unserious, for some reason , the “good girl- bad boy” phenomenon possessed me and I found myself in his deceitful arms. After series of abortions and 2 years in a drug rehabilitation facility, I needed to break free from my self -imposed bondage, I had to heal from the damages inflicted on me by that disastrous relationship. I was ready to go clean and start afresh, I lost contact with most of my friends and I wasn’t even sure of who will be true to me as a friend. Trust had become priceless. My mind went back to Segun

Segun- the man of my dreams, Segun- my unattainable fantansies,  he was beyond my reach now. Sage had become my Forbidden obsession. Far away, yet so near.

Life’s lessons- PLAN NOT TO FAIL

Yesterday being mothers’ day, I made a huge pot of fried rice using a recipe I had perfected over the years from experience, I looked back and realized how far I had come and most importantly the falls, bruises, ascents and scars that have been significant in my process of accretion.

I recalled one experience that has never left my memory. I was about 6 years younger than I am now and the youth in my parish were organizing a cooking competition, I was selected to represent my group alongside another member of our all- winning group. All necessary preparations were done, armed with money in our pockets, we went to the market and bought the necessities for the big day. I come from a family where purchases especially kitchen supplies are often made in large quantities because of large number of mouths to feed and also because of my economic principle of buying more to save more which not everyone will understand. I bought accordingly.

On the big day, we presented our ingredients and set off cooking, we cooked deliciously of course but we ended up with the second position. The judges did not only buttress our strengths and successes, they also told us where we went wrong. Ours was in buying and presenting more than we needed for the competition at hand, ours was in not applying simple planning strategies, we failed to plan accordingly for the project, we had excesses, it was outright waste.

Knowledge isn’t always enough for success, having the wisdom to apply knowledge appropriately is an indispensable key. In every project and every activity, proper planning, budgeting and allocation of available resources not only ensure success, they leave us with a feeling of satisfaction. Why do it anyhow when you can do it the right way.

I take every failure and loss I encounter very seriously, not because I lack the spirit of sportsmanship but because I usually have a hard time getting over the feeling of inadequacy and unpreparedness. I always beat up myself for not having done better when I clearly could have. It comes with great prices of sleepless nights but at the end of it all, the experience equips me with lessons and a decision to do better next time. When such opportunities present themselves again, knowing where I had failed earlier, I come out better because experience taught me so.

SAPIOSEXUAL

She always walked with her head bowed low and her specs hanging on her nose. I always wondered, could it be that she was looking for something, or was she counting the pebbles that lined the way to her classroom. Thinking about the later option always made me laugh. It reminded me of how the 'seniors' would always ask a junior to 'pick a pin on the lawn', I made up my mind to carry pins around, just incase a senior needed one. It will save me the stress of having to search so long for the right pin to pick.

Hard tiny lumps that took the semblance of 'bon bon' sweets had begun to take shape on our chests, the boys had started making hissing sounds as we passed. Visiting days were no longer the same because it became a taboo to wear black bras, the prints of our pink bras must be made visible against our immaculate white outing shirts- that was the normal for us.

Everyone had dreams, places we hoped to be in the near future. Some doctors, lawyers, engineers, historians, economists etc, but never teachers, there were two other professions- PERPETUAL READERS and PERPETUAL BEAUTY QUEENS. The perpetual beauty queens are the professional instamodels we have today, some never made it to the toplist of ladies who were serial neck- twisters- life took over, and age tarried along, wowo even became a recognized word in the Nigerian dictionary. The perpetual readers became all they ever wanted to be, they became the FUTURE.

The lady from the first paragraph has a name, she was called 'CUNCJBRK', that's like an acronymn for the names of all the bookworms and nerds that existed in those days. As the boys took notice of us, some old he-goats couldn't resist the lure of lusting for their daughters, they bleated too. But these girls sha, the first lady's look alike, they didn't want to flow with the game. Hideous dressings were their style, there's this hairstyle called 'Low cut' which had a longer version called 'all back', they were known for that too. While we were becoming conversant with the names of the boys that were separated from us by a huge wall, those girls were making out with Ababio, they mastered the sequence of names in the periodic table, we no fit hear word for them H, He, Li, Be..... dem over sabi sha!!!. The teachers liked them, as if no be the same school fees we pay. To us- they didn't belong, they struggled too-we didn't know their names, but they secretly wanted to be recognised, so they never hesitated when we asked them to do our assignments for us- that was the only way their names could be remembered. Users sha!!!

I saw her today- yea, the 'First lady'. Remember how I told you that she became the future, the future eventually came, she toushed up. Her make-up was wow, in all my years of experience, I never could maintain that style. Her cloth clung tightly to her skin, the specs were gone, she later told me she traded them for contacts. One fine bobo,the types that ran after us and licked our feet, yes, that type married her. Do you know that she doesn't struggle to leave her name anymore, me sef, I proudly tell people she is my friend. She became a medical doctor, the one who had beauty and brains woven together.
I won't tell you what we became, but I will tell you that we hanker to be like her.

There is truly time for everything. Most times we pursue shadows and forget that that to get to the roof, a foundation has to be laid. Humble beginings should never be forgotten or underestimated, they should never be jumped over. When the chips are down, and what really matters is taken into account, we will know that there is dignity in labour, there is dignity in doing the right things at the right time.

Lest I forget, "that FAST car crashed.........."

HEART PRINTS

“This would have been a vacation like no other” lamented Kunle who was on all expense trip to London city. Kunle’s boss was travelling to see his family members who were resident in the United Kingdom and this was to last for two weeks.

The London trip was Kunle’s 2nd visit abroad, the first one was with his school academic club back in the secondary school. They were conveyed with the school bus just across the Seme border of the republic of Benin. This trip to London afforded him the opportunity to see a new environment, learn new things and if possible make new friends. The all expense trip turned out to be ‘not- so- all’ expense after all, Kunle’s boss Mr. Dimeji  paid for the travel costs, feeding and accommodation, all other frivolities were to bore their hole in Kunle’s pocket.

The boss stayed back at home to spend quality time with his  family while Kunle was left to his own devices to explore the city of London. Everyday Kunle set out, visiting parks, and historical places, but one problem remained- not enough pictures to show for his exploits. Everyone was in groups and packs, Kunle was easily the only one spotted alone, no friends, no family. Even the ‘Selfie stick’ didn’t prove much of a companion. Yea it helped him take amazing ‘Selfies’ but that was nothing compared to the full pictures that someone else would have captured. Wandering around the city, sometimes it was difficult to locate some places as he had no access to internet outside the hotel room, so ‘Google map’ wasn’t much of a friend. How better else to get lost than with a companion. Then it hit him, pangs of loneliness, twists in his tummy and painful homes in his heart. Moments like this, place like this are supposed to be shared with loved ones. Strings of beautiful moments would have been knitted into lasting memories but here he was. Alone and lonely.

In life, one way or the other we need people, we need each other. No matter how accomplished we are, it doesn’t matter the amount of affluence we live in. life is incomplete without people to share it with. Live an amazing life, get close to people, network. Live to leave ‘HEARTPRINTS’.