21 Days of July

We have officially gotten to the halfway mark! Welcome to Day 11, my beloveds. I can’t say thank you enough. I have seen every word of encouragement and the comments you have made about how some of the posts have blessed you. Thank you, and thank you for sharing. I mentioned yesterday that I would share more about the principle of encouragement. I had shared how I was too exhausted to work on Day 9’s post, but I got strength from the encouragement of those who reached out in my DMs, including my mum, to cheer me on.  I knew it was something to write about again. I had shared a revelation that God gave me as I was writing my book, Rebirth. And He used two stories in he Bilbe to explain it. And He summarized the two types of encouragement you will experience on your journey in life, and I’ll share them below The Moses, Aaron, and Hur Analogy: If you’re familiar with the story, you know where I’m heading. And if this is new to you, I encourage you to read Exodus 17. A summary was that God had given Moses the game plan on how to defeat the Amalekites. He was to raise the rod of God, and Joshua, who was down on the battlefield, was to fight the battle. The caveat was that the rod was to remain raised for victory to be assured. But Moses got tired. His hands became weary, and what looked like an assured win suddenly took a turn. Aaron and Hur, who were with him, got him to sit on a stone and held his hands up on both ends. You see, they could not hold the rod for him, but they could hold his hands. Thinking about it now, it was the same thing you did for me; there was no way you could write me, but you encouraged me not to give up. The second analogy is the analogy of David and his men returning from battle, only to find that their family has been kidnapped. In 1 Samuel 30, we found that David encouraged himself in the Lord. He drew strength from within, cried out to God, and recovered what was lost. It’s particularly striking to note that the Amalekites were the ones involved again in David’s situation. In my experiences and also hearing from others’ experiences, I have come to realize that God supplies His encouragement in these two forms. Your Aaron and Hur can be people you know or strangers who He has just in that moment sent to you to keep you from losing whatever battle you might be going through. And sometimes, the supply of encouragement will come from the eternal deposits He has already placed within you. I have also come to realize that both of these supplies of encouragement will be meted out in different circumstances, and you need a measure of both. You don’t want to go through life with an overreliance on other people always encouraging you when the going gets tough, but you also don’t want to go through life only surviving on your dose of encouragement because this is the reason why God has put people in our lives. I’m not sure which you have experienced and how frequently. But I pray that you never lack the supply of encouragement you need at the very time you need it. I’ll leave you with scripture from 2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. I pray that you will always be a recipient of God’s comfort while also being a dispenser of His comfort. See you tomorrow!

Let me start this post by saying thank you for encouraging me to keep my word. Yesterday was a tipping point, showing that I can commit to things, even when it gets hard. I’m hoping I carry this lesson with me even after this challenge is over. With ten days down and eleven more days to go, I’ll soon start counting down to a single journey.  The moment I put that post on my WhatsApp status, saying I was too tired to post, I had several people in my DMs saying, “You can do this,” and cheering me on. I rode on that energy and finished the post. I didn’t take it for granted, and I’m going to share about it tomorrow. Today is for my friend, the angel that God specially sent to me in Germany.  When I knew that I was going to embark on this writing challenge, I already penned down Day 10 for Ines, and even without intentionally planning it, yesterday’s post became a prelude. I used to casually say that if I ever get to write a memoir or an autobiography, Ines would get a chapter, and until I do that, I will dedicate this post to her How did I meet Ines and her family? You remember yesterday’s post of God setting me in my family. Ines is part of the Alpha organizing group, and when I sent that email, she was the one who replied. For some reason, I would seek her out after every Alpha session to hug her or just say hello. This continued, and somehow a connection was formed. She invited me to her home one time, and I can still remember till today how we communicated. She understands English but was not so fluent in speaking it. Occasionally Google Translate became our lifesaver. My miracle apartment, it came through her; she was also the one who sent the email to the church about furnishing my apartment. As if God were not done, she lives just 3 minutes away from me. Her living so close to me meant that I was never going to be stranded. If I need anything, I call Ines. When they sent a letter that I didn’t understand, I just went to her house. Whenever she invites me to lunch at her place, I only need to walk 3 minutes. When I need to go somewhere and I can’t go there by bus, Ines becomes my chauffeur. When I need to go shopping because the place is far, Ines has consistently taken me grocery shopping since 2023. When I didn’t know how to spend my birthday in 2023, and I didn’t want to spend it alone. Ines drove me on a one-day trip to Zurich and back because I had randomly mentioned that I would love to go there, and it was just a one-train, 3-hour ride. When I visited her and needed something that would require me to take the bus to buy, she casualty opens her fridge and gives me to me. While I was looking for a job before I started my master’s, Ines would do her own search and send me links to apply.  Sometimes, I have to be careful in my conversations with her, because even in just our regular conversations and sharing, Ines is like an antenna, extremely tuned to pick what “Abi,” as they call me, might need. Ines became my practice partner for German classes; whatever new word I learned, be sure that I was either going to randomly say it to her or add it in our text message.  Beyond my relationship with Ines, it’s the gift of her family that I’m thankful for. Everyone in Ines’s family knows Abi, from her parents and siblings to even her in-laws 😅. I get invited to events that are strictly for family. 🥹 That’s the one that touches me the most. What’s interesting is that I know for sure that God used that Alpha course to bring me especially to Ines. Because Ines is Catholic, and even if I had eventually found my way to the Evangelical church, I might not have met her in the way I did. She was the one who replied to my email. I have experienced many God-incidences; the evidence is too clear to deny that God organized and delivered them. My dearest Ines. Thank you! Thank you for the many things I’ve shared here and for the countless ones that I can’t even talk about publicly. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Ines. Ich liebe dich. 🥰 My scripture for today is dedicated to Ines:  1 Thessalonians 5:23 NIV May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I’ll send the German translation to her personally  If you read today’s post, please kindly say a prayer for Ines. And to this community that God has blessed me with. Bis morgen. 🥰

Today is day 9, and I really was contemplating whether to write this post. I know I mentioned yesterday that I was tired. But today my tiredness was tired. Today’s post is about God setting the solitary in families, and I already shared yesterday how God brought me from one part of Germany to another. At the beginning, I was very worried. I was actually angry because, of all the places you could send me, you sent me to a remote area where nothing is happening. It was a very, very small village with fewer than a thousand residents. After I got my permit, there were a few registrations I needed to make. This included the bank and some other key places. I had also gone to register for the language school, but they said they would contact me back again because there was already a long queue of people waiting to start their language classes as well.  I had time on my hands, but I was also boxed in. The place was so remote that buses came in every hour; it wasn’t fully operational on weekends. So if you didn’t have a car like me, you were at the mercy of people. Imagine living in such a place after growing up in Lagos and having also lived in the second largest city in Ukraine. And to top it off, you rarely find other migrants, and then you can’t speak the language. 😭😂. It was that bad One day I was going to the pharmacy. That trip to the pharmacy became the trip that forever changed my outcome in this country, and I knew that it was God-ordained. Literally God directing my steps. The village I lived in was so small that it did not have a pharmacy; you had to go to the next larger village, where I currently live, to buy anything you wanted. Because of the bus timing, I normally would have waited for the people I lived with to drive me, but I felt compelled to get the medications myself. It was an excuse to step out of the house.  I went to the pharmacy and was in and out in less than five minutes, but then I had to wait an hour for my bus back home, and the bus station was near an Evangelical church. The people I lived with would always point at the church whenever we passed through the city for grocery shopping or other errands, knowing that I was looking for a place to fellowship. I didn’t know what to do, so as I was waiting, I was like, “Okay, now that I have to wait one hour, I might as well go to the church to see if I could speak to somebody.” You could imagine my disappointment when the church was closed, and I just saw a post, I think it was a flyer, of Alpha. I don’t know if you know anything about Alpha. Alpha is like a Bible beginners’ class by Nicky Gumbel. I didn’t even know what it was, but I could recognize these words in German: “Eat, drink, and speak. “I’m like, if they are posting anything in church that has to do with eating, drinking, and speaking, I would show up. In my mind, I just needed the company. I needed people, and if I could find them at church, that was a safe place I knew I could trust, and that was my intention. So I remember just scanning the QR code and sending an email saying that I want to come for this event, but it’s going to be in the evening; it’s also on a Saturday, but I didn’t have a car, and I was not going to find a bus to get me there and also to go back home. I got a reply a few days later saying, “Yes, we are happy to welcome you; don’t worry, we will arrange for somebody to come pick you up and then drive you back home.” I always laugh when I remember this part, and it has become a running joke because for some reason they assume that I was a man, and so they sent two men to pick me up. I can still remember their startled faces when I opened the door, and they were like, “We’re so sorry; we thought you were male😂😂😂.” I still don’t know how they came to that conclusion based on my name, and they continued to apologize. I’m like, “Don’t worry; it’s not a big problem, but that was the beginning of what God prepared for me. I remember just being there listening to them, not fully understanding what they were saying. While I couldn’t understand what they were saying, the love of God was so palpable. The evening was like an intro to Alpha itself, to explain to people and see if they would be interested in joining the 10-week course. I signed up to join, without understanding an iota of what was being said most times. They tried to find me someone who could speak some English to translate. They would arrange for someone to pick me up and drop me off once we were done. It didn’t even matter; the joy I felt whenever I was with them couldn’t dampen my inability to understand them. They were so warm and so full of love for me. I’m not Evangelical, but God said stay there, and I’m not even going to lie, they’ve been the absolute best. I have stories for days and days of how they have taken care of me. One big story I can share is when I was eventually moving to my own apartment. After ten months of living with people, God provided an apartment with ease. In Ukraine, our apartments come furnished, so you just have to move in with your clothing and personal items, but I realized that in some parts of Europe and in

Welcome to Day 8!. If you have read every blog post, I really salute you, and I say a big thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for being my cheerleader. I know the writing challenge itself was for me, but what if there’s no one to read it? So I say thank you again.  For today’s post, I seriously considered posting an old blog because I was tired, but I pushed through and picked up my laptop, even though my body was exhausted. The goal was to challenge myself to write, and I finally willed myself to do it. Today’s post is going to be a short one, but I hope it still drives home the lesson. And I was sifting through what to write about; I settled on this one. Some of the stories I have shared have centered around my journey since 2019-ish. As I ponder it, I can say it was probably because these were the years I faced the challenges that left a mark. This may also be because they are more recent, and my brain remembers them better. Especially under the pressure of a writing challenge. You have to dig deep to bring something out daily. Back to my title. You remember somewhere in the previous post where God said Germany was my destination after the war. While the destination was clear, the how-to wasn’t clear, and now I get how Abraham must have felt when God said, go to a land I will show you 😂. Faith is something, isn’t it? Anyways, I carried my bag to Germany; I had found a temporary place to stay. My mum had found someone who knew someone, and they were willing to host me. But it’s one thing to have a place to stay; it’s another to be permitted to stay. Unless you’re from a visa-free country, you need a valid visa or permit to enter. But due to the war, the EU had opened its borders and granted Ukraine a protection permit, which you get once you go to your country of choice within the EU. Not all countries were friendly to non-Ukrainians, and one had to choose where to go. Germany was like, “Come in, and then you apply for your permit.” It was supposed to be that simple, but like, you can already tell where this is going. I got to Germany, went to immigration, got an appointment, and voilà, the person who was my case officer said no. Why no? There was no ground to say no. Based on EU and German law, I more than qualified for the permit. I was just unfortunate, or I thought at that point to meet a not-so-kind man who didn’t fancy Africans. I think that’s a kind way of describing who he is.  That “no” threw me into disarray, and I’m like, God, you were the one that said, “Come to Germany o.” I honestly didn’t want to, especially when some of my friends went to Germany as soon as they got out of Ukraine. In my defense, I didn’t know anyone, and I didn’t want to suffer. So why would someone be refusing me? And then I started praying.  But beyond that, I was stressed and burnt out; my family was stressed for me. One moment, I was in Ukraine; the next, I was in Hungary, and now I’m in Germany. Who did I offend? The surprising thing was that while I was waiting for my initial appointment, I had gotten the same permit I was looking for in Germany in another EU country. In fact, it was a very easy application. Everything was done online, and I got it very quickly. But I remembered feeling very guilty when it came. Because if I truly said I trust God, why am I seeking a second option? Is that faith? But a friend encouraged me just to get it and have it as a backup. The backup started looking promising when I received that no, even after the appeal. Germany had given us until the end of August to get our permits, or we would need to leave. It became a case of God: What should I do? Here, on one hand, I could go to another country, but on the other hand, going on my own was not something I wanted to venture into without God’s approval. My journey with God had marked me so much in the conviction that where God sends you is where His provisions are. I had seen it happen in my life that even though I was burnt and beaten down, I was still willing to try. One of those days, I was sharing my woes with a beloved big sis. I was talking about this other country, but I also clearly heard God say, “Germany.” And she goes on to say, Did God say it’s Germany now, or for a different time? And if God is saying it’s Germany, are you sure you’re knocking on the right door? God might be saying “Germany,” but not where you are. I’m not quoting her verbatim, but it was something in this line.  With this new revelation, I went back to God in prayer, asking for His guidance and also just settling it that I would go where He wants me to go. Before I knew it, I was given 2 weeks’ notice to leave where I was staying. Where am I supposed to go 😂? My mum again found someone who knew someone, and off I went again to a different state. I was only there for 2 weeks because the state government said they were only taking new registrations, and because I was already registered in the previous state I was coming from, they couldn’t allow me to stay. At that point, I was completely worn out. I didn’t want to do anything again.  My sister had already connected me to her friend from uni

And just like that, we’re on Day 7. This has been interesting so far; I’ve not had the typical writer’s block I normally would have. My thoughts have flowed smoothly even when I don’t have the faintest idea of what I’m going to write about. It feels like the breath of God is on this challenge, especially because I already have an idea where this is leading. God set me up very well 😅. Since today is day 7, I felt it necessary to write a bit about the first half of the year. Let’s call it a digital catalogue. Beyond the review, it’s the lessons I’m taking with me, and I also hope you do the same. This is more like an excerpt—what I can publicly share  VCAP/ELC Graduation As the program administrator for my firm. One of my core roles is to ensure that we see things through the end of two accelerator programs, which includes their graduation. This was my second rodeo, meaning that I now had experience of how it should go. Planning for an event happening in a different country from my place of residence is interesting, I must say. You have to trust those on the ground to do the work, and I absolutely love the people I work with. What I learned from this project was the power of delegation. You can’t do everything, and you have to be assured that there are people who will do things even better than you can. Visioning 2026 Events This one gobsmacked me right in the middle. Why? Because it was very unexpected. I remember how stunned I was when I heard my name as the deputy project manager for the Project Management Office and that we were going to oversee the execution of 7 unique events that would happen in 4 different countries and span until the end of March. For someone who enjoys working on projects, my first thought was This is the wrong timing. I had exams in school and a project report of 30-40 pages I needed to submit. How was I going to manage this? But I did. I even had an A in my project report.  Working on this taught me two key things. Say yes to the challenging projects; you will never remain the same after you’re done, and the wealth of knowledge and experience you will come away with can’t be taught. My second lesson is that you can actually do more than you think you have capacity for. You really don’t know what your body or your mind can endure until you set yourself up for it. My bonus lesson is that some things will have to give, and the onus is on you to know what to prioritize and what to move to another time.  Launched The Rebirth Tribe. Ironically, launching The Rebirth Tribe was one of the things I knew I needed to move to a later date. While it is a priority assignment, the timing could be moved. I received this assignment after I wrote my book last year. What we planned to do and what the tribe is all about will be written down in more detail for another blog post. But the summary of what we do at the rebirth tribe is to bring healing and wholeness to teenage girls and young adults dealing with sexual addictions.  When the assignment came, it couldn’t be done last year, and I also didn’t want this year to go without obeying. But one of the things I heard from God, which has become a lesson, is that I can pace things out and take away the pressure. So we moved the cohort we planned to start to later in the year while we focus on gradually building the community on social media. The only thing God said was “make sure you put the seed of this vision in the earth realm.” Establish on the earth realm that this vision has come to stay, and pace yourself. So, if there is anything that you have been trying to do and you are overwhelmed, find the seed version of it and start with that. Guest Speaker At Dear Young Professional: Every time I think about how this came to be, it gives me the needed assurance to keep doing the work. During the graduation, I had highlighted my first point. My CEO was thanking the team, and she casually mentioned that I had won an award as the Emerging Leader of the Firm. This was unique because it wasn’t just tied to my firm alone but the group of companies that fall under our Metamorphosis HQ. Someone in the audience was listening and reached out. It was in doing my job that brought this opportunity, and I don’t take it lightly because it’s the same principle that will open up other opportunities.  You see, towards the end of June, I was wondering what I had done for the first 6 months of the year. It felt like the year just breezed by, and it was in the place of reflection that I began to journal all that came to mind. These four are just a few I can share, and it’s more than enough to give myself a pat on the shoulder. I hope that you find some time, if you haven’t already, to think through how the first half of the year was for you. You might just be surprised at what you overlooked but was a strong win.  I’ll leave you with this love scripture: Proverbs 22:29 BSB Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will be stationed in the presence of kings; he will not stand before obscure men. See you in Day 8!

Welcome to Day 6, and Happy Monday to you! I pray that you bask in the love of God this week. Every day of this week will give you a memoir of the fatherhood of God. Today’s post is about the enigma called DDK and how I have been able to follow and honour her well. Someone had filled out my form and asked me to write about it. I’ll share from the lessons I’ve learned and just touch on the how a bit. The way I have followed is very easy; it was instructed by God. And I committed to follow His instruction. I was coming out of the emotional pit I had dug myself into after I had lost my dad. In that season, I was just floating; my dreams were paused, and my life didn’t look like what God had promised, and I needed to get back on track. One thing led to the other, and I discovered DDK in September of 2021. My friend had sent me the Supernatural Marriage course to listen to, and for some reason I kept hearing DDK’s voice in my head. In October, the FFF Mastermind opened up, and I joined. God had said, “You had asked for a teacher, and I have just sent one to you. Before September, I didn’t know who she was and had no idea what she did, and now God was saying, “Follow her.”  I went back to God in the way I had always done; I asked, God, why her and not anyone else?. There has to be a reason. I didn’t get all the answers, but I got enough that I knew I had to follow with intention. I knew enough that God was going to come back periodically to weigh in on how I was following. I knew enough to know that I would give an account of this mighty investment, and I knew enough that I couldn’t joke about it. At the beginning, it was challenging because I wasn’t in the same geographical location, and I hadn’t done virtual following before that. But one time I was listening either to a message or a course, and DDK said, “If you don’t know how to maximize virtual followership, just, you know, listen to resources and books.” You also won’t know how to maximize proximity. There and then I made up my mind to follow, as God will help me. And you know what, He did. I remember the days I would have questions, and I get them from either listening to a message or a course from DDK. The scary thing was that sometimes those messages or courses were from previous years. Imagine you asking a question in 2023 and the answer being what DDK had preached or taught in 2020. That made my decision clear. I knew I was going to be here, giving my all to this precious Matriarch God sent my way. What are the Fortunes of fellowship? You see, God knew, like He always does, what He was doing. I give thanks to God always for sending me to DDK because in following I’m being built: There are so many layers to this, but gosh, I am grateful. I’ve been covered.  I’ve gotten the opportunity to serve. This role is my favorite one because in serving, I have grown in more ways than I could have imagined. And lastly, my vision has been expanded. God sent me to someone whose today is an image of where I want to go, and by seeing and following her, I know that the realities I dream of are achievable. And when you follow in spirit and in truth, honour flows out automatically. We can see it in how the disciples followed Jesus. So here’s me using this blog to publicly thank God for the gift that is DDK. And for anyone reading, if God has shown you a forerunner to follow, follow wholeheartedly. The ROI is massive. And God’s word for you today is in 1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. I see how DDK follows Christ, and I follow her example. What a woman to follow! See you tomorrow. 🥰

Whew, I’m sure you already saw the title and were wondering what this is again. Lol, me too, but I couldn’t ignore the nudge that God wanted me to write about this today, especially with the title. And the unexpected way the inspiration for today’s post came to me told me it needed to be written.  With that said, welcome to Day 5. It’s five days into it, and I still can’t believe it. God really set me up with this challenge because I can already see where it is going. But beyond that, it’s the quiet release I feel in my spirit and in my soul. Writing this has been therapeutic for me. I needed this; I didn’t even know how much.  Back to my title, can you really forgive God? Isn’t that heresy? It’s not really in the phrase itself, but in the action we have to take. Have you ever kept a grudge against God? I have, and I’ll share why shortly. Before I get to that, it’s to explain what I mean by keeping a grudge with God. Many of us do it even if we have never acknowledged it either to ourselves or to God himself.  Let’s back it up with a little bit of definition. According to the dictionary, a grudge is a persistent feeling of resentment, bitterness, or ill will toward someone for a past offense or perceived wrong. Holding a grudge means you continuously harbor these negative feelings or refuse to forgive the person long after the initial event occurred. Does it bring it home now? A long-standing promise that God gave you but hasn’t come to pass, a loss of a loved one that shook you to your core, a life-threatening health situation that has left you thinking: Does God truly heal, or are they just some made-up stories of you losing everything and having to start all over again? These things happen to us, and no one ever tells us how to process it, but then, because we’re Christians and we don’t want to sound like we’ve backslidden, we either share with closed friends or even with God. So we suck up and continue to “worship and serve” God. But do we really suck it up? What I have found is that, if not addressed, our worship and service to God become like a veneer. In everyday language, “veneer” describes a pleasant outer layer that conceals something less desirable underneath. E.g “He maintained a veneer of calm, but he was actually panicking.” You can already see where I’m going with this. On the outside, even to ourselves, it looks like all is well with us and with our relationship with God. We minister to others, we preach the word, we sow our seed, we go to church, and we do our devotion. But underneath, deep down, is a trail of disappointment, of hurt, of thinking I really don’t want to trust God again because He keeps disappointing me, or God’s word is just there; it doesn’t really come to pass.  And for some of us, we continue with this, year or year, silently building resentment that we didn’t even know we were building, because we never got the outlet or permitted ourselves to express it.  What we don’t know is that God can actually take what we dish out to Him. Trust me, He is waiting for you to say, “God, I don’t really think you’re answering my prayers; this hurts,” or to ask the question as I did: “Why did my dad die? Why couldn’t you heal him?”  I didn’t know I was holding a grudge against God until the war broke out. And I discovered that I still had a gripe with God. I had lost my dad in 2020, and before that, he was diagnosed with stage 4 rectal cancer in 2019. You can already imagine the emotional turmoil. But what aggravated that resentment that I didn’t know was that because my dad passed just a day before they announced the lockdown, it meant that I couldn’t go for his burial, and I had to watch him get buried over a WhatsApp video call. To top that up, the last time I physically saw him or any of my family was in July 2015, the only time I went home. You can already paint for yourself the picture of what must have been going on in my mind. I had to mourn my dad alone. While I went back to my regular activities after a few weeks, nothing was the same anymore. And I didn’t even know it, because I didn’t take the time to express this to God; it was silently building up. The COVID year didn’t even help matters. But on the surface I was good—remember the veneer: I was a leader in church, I was going about my business; I was doing my “devotion,” but something was off, and I didn’t know. Fast-forward to February 2022, when I thought, Ok, life can start again, and then a war comes, and I find myself displaced. And I’m God; why are you doing this to me? Have I not gone through enough? How can you watch these things happen? Why didn’t you stop them? On and on, these thoughts would play out in my head. On the outside I was seen as “strong,” but I was drowning.  My biggest blessing in coming to Germany was the time I finally had to properly heal. The reason why God said Germany and not anywhere else I had family was because He knew I needed the come-to-Jesus moment. You remember that in my previous post that I started my German language in Feb 2023. While I moved places a few times until I finally settled, there was a lot of time on my hands. The isolation I was very angry about eventually became my haven. I had time to cry, I had time to rant, I had time to

Hello! How are you doing today? And happy Saturday! 🥳Thank you for walking this journey with me. I received heartwarming feedback on yesterday’s post, which gave me the encouragement I needed to see this through to the end. Even if it’s one person who gets to read it per day, I’m more than grateful. I mentioned that I was going to check in today to see if we answered the questions from Day 2. It’s okay if you haven’t done it yet, because I haven’t either, but I’m definitely going to find time to write down my answers.  Today’s post is about asking. It’s funny because I was mentioning to someone that I had no idea what I was going to write for Day 4, and she said, “The Holy Spirit will bring the inspiration.” And voila, He did bring the inspiration.  We’ve always heard the word ask; it’s even written in the Bible, and my role today is to remind you by sharing just a tadbit of what asking has gotten me. You don’t always get what you ask for, but you might learn the answer if you ask.  Yesterday, I shared about the miracle of my master’s and how God opened that door. One thing I have now realized is that God opens a door, but He expects you to play your part in keeping it open. So my master’s is in Sustainability Studies, and I got in with the intent of focusing on sustainable healthcare, but I also kept an open mind that if, along the course of study, I found something else that piques my interest, I wasn’t going to be rigid about it.  Lo and behold, an assignment that we had to do in school led me to discover climate change and climate adaptation and resilience. I would never have guessed or thought of that. But that’s not really where I’m going today. I woke up one morning, and I heard God say, “A research opportunity is coming.” Well, I thanked Him for it because I had applied for a couple of student assistant roles. And I thought that He was referring to that. A few days later, I heard him say, “I said a research job is coming; go look for it.” I didn’t need to be told twice. I immediately went on LinkedIn and Google and typed student research jobs. Till today, I don’t know what I typed, but I suddenly found an article from a professor in Germany talking about climate change and health effects in Africa. It was like I was dreaming. DDK, my dearest Pro-Coach, and Mum will call it prophetic Googling. It was just a few weeks ago that my brain started tuning toward climate change and its health effects, and now I’m reading from a renowned professor in this field about it. It was a no-brainer to write to him. Looking back, the courage I had to send that email stemmed from being in the community I belong to. You can’t listen to DDK and not have the audacity to do bold things. So I wrote, explaining my interest and asking if I could volunteer in any of the projects. He apparently is the head of a research center. Before I knew it, I was contacted for an interview. The professor had sent my email to the head of the climate change and health division. I can’t forget the interview because we started the conversation in English and we ended in German, and I was like, God, what is this with this language? 😂. They couldn’t offer a student assistant role, but I said I didn’t mind; I was going to volunteer. That single act of asking has opened many opportunities for me. The research center became my external partner for the second semester project I had to do; they provided me with a critical letter of recommendation for something important I was applying for. My first assignment with them was to co-author an article that a respected journal accepted. It will be my first academic paper when it comes out. And I have a strong feeling that I’m just getting started.  All of these were already in God’s plan, but He needed me to make that ask. The door was already opened; He just needed me to knock so that he could confirm that I’m interested. My challenge for you today is “Ask Anyway.” We won’t always get a yes, but we only need that one yes! That one yes that changes your life for good, so take that bold step and ask! You can already guess today’s scripture. Matthew 7:7 NLT Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. Bis morgen🥰

Wow! It’s Day 3, and I’m beginning to ask myself, who sent me? Well, I sent myself. The thing about challenges like this is how you find the pockets of time that you would have wasted doing something unproductive. Look at me waiting for my class to start and using this time to write this blog post. Today’s post is about gratitude. It’s the last day of lecture for what was supposed to be my last semester, and I’m just in awe of what God can do. I’m technically done; I only have my master’s thesis to write. I have until the end of December to submit my thesis. At the moment, I have a love-hate relationship with my thesis. I am writing my thesis with a teaching hospital, helping them update their heat action plans. So while it means real experience converted into scientific writing, it also means that there’s technically no break for me. I have to show up once a week at the teaching hospital until the end of December. Enough about my grumbling, because in the midst of this journey is a trail of God’s faithfulness. When God said Germany was my destination after the war, one reason it was easier, despite not knowing how it would turn out, was the chance to do my master’s. After finishing medical school, I knew I didn’t want to practice clinical medicine. I had always envisioned myself working at WHO, and doing a master’s in public health seemed like the next best plan. It hadn’t worked out the way I had planned, so when God said Germany, I was like, “Even though I don’t know anyone, at least I will get to do my master’s. What no one prepared me for was how incredibly challenging it would be to settle in Germany. For those who have relocated or migrated to a new country, either for work, school, or to be reunited with a family member, you can already imagine what the transition looks like. Nothing prepared me for the sudden transition to a new country because of the war. Add another layer of not knowing a lot of people, but also suddenly finding yourself in a remote area. It was grim; God literally threw me into a wilderness. I got into Germany in May of 2022, and I spent 6 to 8-plus months oscillating between crying my eyes out and wondering if I actually heard God. At that point, obeying God was costing me more than I was ready for. Or so I thought. In February of 2023, I finally got enrolled in the integrative class to learn German. It was a mandatory requirement from the government, and since they were paying, I didn’t want to pass on the opportunity. But I also felt stagnant, and since a master’s was one of the allurements that came with following God to Germany, I decided to get on with it. I started researching, and I finally found a university that I was going to start in September of that year. The only obstacle was that the B1 level German that I had been enrolled in would end in November, and I would have to move to a different state. For me, it was a no-brainer. I made a mental triage of what was more important, and I chose my master’s. Until God said no. What do you mean, no? But I heard him very clearly. In fact, He said, I wasn’t only going to see it through until the end of B1; I was going to do it to the level the government was willing to pay for, and that was either the B2 or C1 level. I would need another 6-12 months of learning German depending on what level the government was willing to sponsor me to. I still remember how devastated I was; in my mind, I was asking myself why God did not want me to pursue what He knew was very important to my career. If I wasn’t going to practice medicine, I needed to have a different qualification that allowed me to do what I wanted. Wasn’t God seeing this?  Oh, but He does; He truly sees beyond what we could have imagined. Obedience to God prunes us. That’s the end goal. Beyond whatever earthly reward may come from it, it’s who we become that matters most to God. Looking at my life’s journey, I’ve learned to say yes even when it’s hard. So I braced myself, finished my B1, applied for a B2 grant, and I got it. I finished my B2 in July of 2024, and the government was like, “That’s where we can sponsor you up to.” You are at the upper intermediate level. I did my part of the bargain that God required. But by the time I was done, I felt like too much time had passed and I needed to get back to work. I didn’t even want to do my master’s again, but I was looking at a distance learning program that would let me work and study at the same time. I spent 6 months trying to apply for jobs, but I didn’t get any. To be honest, God must have been looking down and saying, “What is wrong with this girl?” Was that the plan we had? Anyway, in His mercy, in January 2025, at the very start of a new year, I heard clearly, it’s time to start your master’s. I already had a few universities I was looking at. I ended up applying to 3 of them.  The uni I finally chose had a second-stage process, which was an interview with the dean of the faculty, and what happened in that interview would leave me in awe of God forever. The conversation went smoothly; in fact, he was very impressed until he said, “I would very much like to give you admission, but though the master’s is going to be in English, German is

I checked WhatsApp yesterday morning, and the first thing I saw was “Where’s your post?” and that was the moment I knew that I had to see this challenge through. There are plenty of people who will flog me if I don’t, but I love it. Thank you to my amazing village. Thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll get right into my musing for today. Have you ever looked at your life and wondered, “How did I get here? I’ve had a few of those moments. It’s a moment when you think about the plans you had, but somehow things haven’t turned out the way you imagined in some areas of your life. And this phrase I read in Dr. Cindy Trimm’s 40 Days of Soul Fast book got me into introspection, leading to today’s post. She said. “Where you are now is a direct result of every decision you have made in the past. Your life is a representation of the sum total of your choices.” Ouch, that hurt a little bit, but it’s the truth.  I’ve been thinking about it since I read it, taking a trip down memory lane and using a magnifying glass to highlight some of the major decisions I took or did not take. Here is one I can personally share because it became a domino effect of some sort. When I finished secondary school, I had my dream university in mind; it was the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, but somehow I couldn’t get in that year due to a delay in my result. For that reason, my mum, who didn’t want me to be idle, found a newspaper ad for a university that was just starting. We were going to be the second set. I was mortified; I begged my mum, but she didn’t relent. I wasn’t going to stay home, and that was final. Even after I didn’t get the medicine that I wanted. In her opinion, she wanted me to use that year as a learning experience. It would give me an understanding of what the university system looks like, and I could apply for medicine the following year again.  Sounds like a plan, right? I wasn’t too pleased. Went grudgingly. Imagine having the dream of going to one of the universities in Nigeria at that time, which had a rich history, compared to a university that was just starting. In hindsight, that decision became a turning point for two life-changing events  The first one was in my academics. I was a smart student, but I realized that I never put pressure on that gift. I remembered things easily, so I didn’t spend as much time reading as other students. So I didn’t utilize it in secondary school. I did very well, don’t get me wrong, but I could have been way better. So I carried this same nonchalant attitude into my test-run year. I went to class, studied briefly, and at the end of that year I had a 3.5 GPA literally by doing just over average. I remember seeing my result and saying to myself. “If I can come out with a 3.5 even after not giving it much effort, what happens when I give it the needed attention?” And I made up my mind that I was going to study and give my best to school. Boy, am I glad for the test-run year.  It paid off because, remember, this was my test year? I applied again to my dream school; I didn’t get in. That baffles me till today. But I can see that God had a hand in it. In fact, my current university was angry that even though I was already a student, I still chose another university for medicine as my first choice, and they didn’t want to give me admission. Thank God for his favour and for someone who spoke on my behalf. I finally got my admission into medicine and surgery as the 3rd academic set. I had to suck it up; a bird in hand is worth two in the bush, right? This particular bird, in fact, became a golden bird. I ended up finishing my first year with a 4.6 CGP. Someone says growth. 🥰🥳🥳 Fast forward to my 3rd year of uni: the government decides to close down the medical school due to accreditation reasons, and I find myself on a fully paid grant to finish medical school in Ukraine from that same government (this short phrase deserves its own blog post, to be honest). I’m not sure if I should call it a grant; the government made a decision to send the first to third set of medical students to Ukraine after they didn’t find a university to take us in. I finished medical school in Ukraine and decided to stay back. Before I knew it, I found myself in the crosshairs of the Ukraine-Russia War in 2022, and the next thing I knew, I was in Germany, learning a new language (another blog post). It was one decision that led to a 13-year journey filled with seasons of both very high moments and life-changing, brutal moments.  I’ve often asked myself, how did I get here? But now I know. I probably wouldn’t have pieced it together if I hadn’t started this challenge. What an unexpected gift! But now that I know, I’m more determined to make decisions and life choices so that when I look back in 2030, I’ll be proud of them. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made some decisions that I absolutely regret. But the beauty of life is the hope we have for new beginnings; remember yesterday’s post. At the scent of water. Perhaps God is leading us to that scent, which today is the scent of introspection. I don’t know how your life has panned out. I don’t know if you are proud of every decision or life choice you have made. But we can all collectively decide