(BY: Gina M.)

I used to be an orphan and was adopted by Mr. & Mrs. Okoro to be their only child. For a long time, I lived a fortunate life under their care. They showed me love, and loved me with everything they had access to. I was able to receive the best toy in town, and I attended the best primary education. I brought luck into my family. My mother, the woman who adopted me, was barren for fifteen years of marriage, conceived. She gave birth to a twin. Two baby boys were born. The next year, she gave birth to a baby girl. I also brought financial luck to them. Their business which was collapsing revived and prospered when I came into their lives. However, with the birth of their own flesh and bloods, my parents began to withdraw the love which they had given me away from me. My mother had sworn that she would rather die than to see me “who has no background” reaped from where I have not sown. Therefore, she began to make life unbearable and miserable for me. Living on Earth was like living in hell. I was completely deprived of the love and care I have known. It was then that I realized I was not their flesh and blood but an adopted child. My parents hated me. They hated me so much that they even hated the floor that I stepped on in bitterness. They gave me only very basic secondary education. 

However, that was not the most terrible thing they did to me. The most horrible and hurtful thing they did to me was when they took me to a place for ritual sacrifice in exchange for some money. I was chained from my hands to my legs. The leader of the occult said that I seemed to be a child of blessing when they took a knife to slaughter me, I shouted to Jesus for the first time in my life for help. With immediate effect, the leader of the occult commanded his people to let me go. 

I ran away, half naked, to the nearest police station I could find. I narrated my whole story to the police but they could not do anything about what happened to me! One of the inspectors in the station took me home and clothed me. Yet, after I stayed a short period of time with him, he wanted to rape me! I ran away from him. God was faithful to me. A woman who lives alone by herself and owns a car became my provider. She housed me and started to show me care and love. Yet, she was a lesbian and so I ran away from her. I went to a church that same night and stayed there with a security guard. I was introduced to the pastor the next day and given a job as his secretary. God also provided me with accommodation through the pastor. Most importantly, it was there while working in the church that I began to grow in my knowledge of God and his words. Yet, good times never lasted the way I wanted them to.

The devil that is always eager to destroy me, made use of my pastor to hurt me. My pastor began to lust after me. He made advances towards me, and tried to make love to me while we were in his office. I was forced to flee, again, to safeguard my virginity. This time, I ran away from the church with suicide in my mind. Everybody in my life so far has failed and disappointed me. I concluded that God himself has also failed me. I wanted to die since I saw that there was no more reason for me to remain alive in this world. Yet, God loves me. During one such night, he came to me in a dream and made himself known to me.

In my dream, the Lord told me that I am a child of destiny and he is with me. He has allowed me to pass through all the pain and disappointments I faced in my life for a purpose. In my dream, the Lord gave me a handkerchief to wipe off my tears, and told me that he is the father to the fatherless and the mother to the motherless and that is my background. Hence, I dedicated my life to serving him in spirit and in truth. Since then, the Lord has been using me in mighty ways to affect the lives of others positively. Many people have been giving me testimony ever since I had come into contact with them and everything turns up positively. As a matter of fact, I have now nine abandoned children under my care. When I saw the first abandoned child on my doorstep, I wept and could not bring myself to turn my back on the child. I have rented a small apartment in one local village in Nigeria where my children and I reside in. I am now twenty years of age.

Dearest child of God, I have known that God never fails and so he will also not fail in your life and circumstances. German Evangelist Reinhardt Bonke was written off by his father as someone who could never do well in life. In fact, his father had called him Zero (nobody) because he did not show any sign or spark of greatness. He has an elder brother who was quite brilliant, and the father thought that the brother was the one to succeed him. Today, Reinhardt Bonke has risen from zero to hero. He is now a great evangelist. So, never underestimate yourself, your child or anybody. Do not belittle them or yourself. Every man’s destiny lies in the hands of God. In the bible, David is known as the despised child among his family. Yet, God has made this child which his own father never notices into a king over all of Israel. Unlike men, God looks at the heart. Nobody is born to be a zero. What is seen as Zero in the eyes of men can turn up to be a hero in the eyes of the living God. 

Your life, too, lies in the hand of this great God. I have seen all kinds of humiliating images on televisions and in prints. I have seen a confused army general facing a coup tribunal. I have seen late sergeant Samuel Doe the ex-Liberian tyrant being tortured to death in the hands of hardened rebels with his ears chopped off- Doe in pains, pleading profusely for mercy in the hands of the merciless. I have seen ex-American president Richard Nixon in the heat and disgrace of the Watergate scandal, saying I am not a crook. Yet, more than a crook he was. I have seen Ghana's JJ Rawlings lining up and wiping out all heads of state of his country in firing squad. It was shocking. I have seen Iron Mike Tyson in handcuffs going to prison, accused of raping a beauty queen. I have seen king of pop Michael Jackson accused of child molestation. I have seen great orators and legends in their generation: Ronald Reagan of America and Mohamed Ali unable to talk or remember what they have just said because of sickness and disease. It was shocking and humiliating when I saw a fearful looking bearded man being drawn out of a hole by American soldiers. It was Sadam of Baghdad. It was disturbing to see the great Sadam Hussein conquered like a trophy, looking red, unkempt like Nebuchadnezzar in the bible when he was turned into a beast by Jehovah God. Sadam was swallowed by temporary glamour in the past, but now he was reduced to little more than a beast in front of everybody. So, what is life? What is wealth? What is power? What is glamour? 

Determine as a child of God not to be swallowed by what the world could offer you in term of fame, wealth, glory, status, title and every kind of worldly pleasure for that was what led to the fall of Sadam Hussein. Although he has much in this world, he never remembers to use his position and all he has to glorify God. Therefore, he was reduced to a beast like king Nebuchadnezzar and all that he had in the past was now stripped off from him. Do not be full of yourself, dear child of God. Learn from the mistake of great men of both the past and the present. See how neither of their greatness was enough to give them the happiness they really need. Accept God into your life, and acknowledge his greatness. Do not be like Sadam or the many people out there in the world who fail to see God as who he is—the maker of heaven and earth and a God of love and not hate. Dear child of God, never forget to show love to the people that surrounds you. Remember that God’s commandment is that we love God and that we love people. Love others and not self, therefore, is the commandment that God wants us to follow and obey. We have shown much love and care to our pet animals. If we have learn to show the same love and care we show to our pets, to the people, the world will be a much better place to live in.

Love from Gina

PLEASE HELP US HELP YOU SHARE THE BEST NEWS GOD HAS FOR EVERY PERSON BECAUSE...

JESUS DID IT! and...

YOU ARE SO GREATLY NEEDED!

Remember:  All that we do in this life comes back to our God-given purpose which is to serve and glorify God. The money and assets we accumulate, the fame and power we've attained or seek to attain - all of the things of this nature will one day pass away, but those lives of others we impact for Jesus Christ will last for eternity, and we will be rewarded for the part we helped play by impacting those lives ... for eternity. (Matthew 6:19-21 is our assurance)