WHEN GOD'S FAVOUR SPEAKS

My name is Tunde Ogunbajo, I am a man of one wife and two children, I am born again and spirit filled, and am a member of the Redeemed christian church of God where I am also a youth pastor. I work with Ibadan Electricity company, I am an accountant by profession.

The journey of life has been great with God but not without its challenges. There has been ups and downs at every phase of my life but God has been faithful. Life outside Jesus is a complex one. Bishop David Oyedepo once said that life is in phases, men are in sizes. The journey of life cannot be interesting without Jesus. Life with Jesus will be guided with the help of the Holy spirit and for me the journey of life has been great with Jesus but like I earlier said it has not being without its own challenges but God has been faithful.

One of my regrets in life is that I did not get born again while I was in the university I got born again in 1995 after I had left the university. When I had  course to go back for my transcript at my Alma Mata , Obafemi Awolowo University, I attended the fellowship and I could not help but shed tears because I realized those things I would have do with my life for God. My four years stay in that school was all a waste but I thank God today am in christ and am doing well. Even though I got born again late today am happy and giving God all the glory because it is better late than never.

I was brought up in a very disciplined home though a polygamous family. My mum was the first wife but my dad got married to another woman because my mum had just two children, myself and my sister and my dad wanted more children. I was about 14 years old then. My dad gave us very good up bringing but you know every man is the architect of his own destiny, he decided to choose his in the way of being a polygamist but for me to the glory of God, Everything I experienced in life built me up, for example I am the first graduate in my family, the first to do a church wedding and I have records of being the first to do a lot of things. I broke some traditions even though I suffered for it but God was there in all.

My salvation experience was great. I got born again at Latter rain assembly where pastor Tunde Bakare preached, I was touch and I responded to the alter call. As a young christian, I did not know what I was doing, I was only struggling as a christian until 1996 when my mum died and I want to believe God prepared me with that salvation so as to handle the situation ahead of me. All hell was let loosed, I became discouraged and depressed. Being in a polygamous family, life became really tough and out of frustration my sister left home.  I was left to face life as it came. My daddy was really caring and because of that I endured most of the hardships I passed through and never reported my step mum so that I will not cause quarrel between him and his wife. There were times I had no food to eat even as a graduate. I was jobless for four years and during the period I was going from one bus to another, Ikeja to somolu in Lagos and other places preaching the Gospel of Jesus and as well moving about with my credentials. I never knew God was building my destiny through that.

As a young christian I had a mentor Lanre Ojo, we attended the same primary and secondary schools but I went to OAU while he went to University of Ibadan, he was my best friend and at the time when I got born again he came into my life once again. Lanre was already born again and he was mentoring me in the way of the Lord and encouraging me. I was looking up to him as a mentor but along the line, Lanre died mysteriously and I became once again frustrated about life. I was just recovering from the mourning of my mother and here was someone trying to help me. I was getting encouraged and enjoying Christianity but once again my life became shattered. I was depressed, it affected me so badly but I had to face life and for two years I was praying and asking God why. In 1997 I saw Lanre in an open vision, he was in heaven, he showed me a mansion like bungalow that the house is for the people I had saved while I was preaching and that I should continue.when bible says there are mansions in heaven, we should believe it. There were 14 souls in that mansion so I try as much as I can to preach the gospel no matter how tight my schedule is because when I was going from bus to bus to preach then I did not know that it has heavenly reward as God was taking note of  it.

The revelation became a turning point in my life and I always refer back to it just like paul who always refer back to his experience on his way to Damascus. I faced life once again and I began to grow and to the glory of God I got my first job with an audit company around June 1997. I latter got employment with the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) of those days. I did not want to join the company because in those days NEPA had a very bad reputation more so I wanted to go in line with my profession but my uncle who got me the job  called a family meeting one day to advise that since my pay at NEPA was higher than that of the audit firm, I should take it, for three years I was shuttling between the two employments, eventually I left the auditing job for NEPA. By the grace of God I entered as a level nine, officer one in 1997 October, today am an Assistant General Manager.

After all I went through, loosing my mum, my best friend who was my mentor and the only one I was looking up to at that time, the only thing that kept me in christ was that I realized that being in christ is a personal relationship and I always remember a statement a friend of mine told me that the reason why we are saved is for God to prepare us for the trouble days and for me, looking back at the challenges I have faced in the past and having overcome them, I can see that it is more rewarding to stay in the lord.

To mention  few of some of those challenges, I remember when I wanted to get married, my wife is from a very strong Muslim background, her father was a very strong Muslim and they even had an imam in their family house. To them it was a taboo to marry a christian. We stood our ground and in fact I was never interested in marriage until I meet my wife, God fought the battle for us with prayers and we got married. We waited for about three years before the first child came and the second child came six years after. Honestly our marriage has been with differs miracles. We tasted real poverty though. We were really poor at a time  but we knew we will not die in that poverty stricken situation. anyone who do not want to endure cannot grow into maturity stage in christian faith. It amazes me when I see Christians falling back because they have challenges. If you go back, where will you go outside Jesus.

I also remember in those days when our car began to give us problem I told my wife that instead of this car taking control of our lives, let us sell it and she agreed. We sold the car at the rate of one hundred and fifty thousand Naira, very cheap and without taking a dime from the money, we enveloped it and took the money to sow at the redemption camp and came back home taking public transportation to work.

We came to Ibadan in 2007 and started life all over again. We paid for a particular house at a street called olomi in Ibadan, it was not where we paid for initially,  the agent changed it so we had no choice but to accept it because our things was already coming to Ibadan from Abuja. We moved in and began to stay but the moment we got there I told my wife that we cannot stay there. One Sunday the community people summoned me and one other man who just moved into the area too, they laid down a gun and said it is the tradition of that community that when you move into that area you must swear to an oath that you are not an armed robber. I tried to convince them that am not an armed robber but they refused. I told them my faith, christianity does not allow me to swear and I was asked to leave the environment. I got to the office and told people,to the glory of God I got another house where the four apartments had been paid for but when the landlady heard my story, she refunded money back to the guy who paid for the fourth flat because he was a bachelor. As God will have it after three years without a car, I and my wife were enjoying our lives and anytime we needed to go out we will chatter a cab. Along the line I was saving money to get a car but God used my boss then to help me get a land even when I was not looking for a Land. We completed the house miraculously in 2010. Our landlady didn't want us to leave she taught it was because of the rent that was increased which I already contested and promised to reduce it but I told her we were moving to our own house. As we were moving into our house, God provided a car miraculously, my first boss who helped me in getting a land then left the office and I had another boss who was also sent to me by God. We did an assignment at work and I was to deliver the assignment to him at home  I didn't have a car. One of my junior staff's husband who came to pick her offered to take me to my his house, after I had delivered the assignment, my boss saw me off and asked me where I packed my car. I told him I do not have a car but told him the person that brought me. He was surprised and said as a senior manager, you should have a car and I told him my story. He said you will have a car this year. The man gave me nine hundred thousand Naira cash to buy a car and promised to give me more and that was how God gave us a car then. On December 31st, 2010, the car was snatched from my wife at gun point, unfortunately the tracker did not work so they took it away.  By the time I was able to track the car after one month It was in my hotel room in Lagos where I had gone to attend the last day of a three day seminar that I had almost missed. I was surprised to discover that the car that was stolen in Ibadan was at Ikorodu in Lagos. The engineer gave us the landmark to the car because immediately the tracker rang I locked the car. By the time I saw my car the colour had been changed to another colour. It was red and the police said  since my car is red and this one is another colour it is not my car but I suddenly  found a mark I could recognize and showed it to the police men that went with me. They compared the chassis number and the engine number with what I have and it was the same. one person was arrested and others ran away but my car was released to me. For security purpose we decided to sell the car because they had changed the colour and the plate number. We sold the car at the rate of eight hundred thousand Naira I gave the person that helped in selling it fifty thousand Naira, fortunately pastor Adebayo was celebrating his 70th birthday so we decided to present him with the remaining Seven hundred and fifty thousand Naira. We enveloped it and took it to the camp and forgot about it. On getting back to the office my boss called me that a new Kia motor has been prepared for me as an official car, even though it has been used for just one year but I should manage it.That was how I became a proud owner of an official car. When my company was to be privatized, by the virtue of the procedure laid down by the federal government,  I was entitled to buy the car so eventually I bought the car for about two hundred and ten thousand Naira. My present car was a miracle too because among people at my level in the office I was the only one they remembered. It was when they had finish processing it that they realized that some others too needed official cars. My name was specially used in applying for the car and it was the first time I will drive a brand new car. It is all God's favour.

When I was a bachelor, I always had it in mind that one day I will travel out of the country with my family and when God was going to do it I did not plan it but a boss made me know that I could travel so I and my family went to Ghana first then I alone with pastor Adeboye to Israel and latter we went to the UK. When our company was going to be privatized, I decided to have a plan B and I decided to go to UK to do an MSC programme at a university there and all was successful.

I can go on and on. There are so many other things that God has done. When I look back over my life I can only say it has been God. I am from an humble background but God has blessed me. I relate with people at the top, represent my company at meetings, I am the treasurer of my company  and an AGM. What we enjoy in my family today is all to the glory of God.


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