My father was a king in Nigeria, so I was born and raised in a royal household. That left me with the feeling that I had everything I could need. My father, a disciplinarian, was a nominal Christian and made us attend church on Sundays, but that did not make me a good boy. In fact, I was notorious for trying dangerous activities. I tried cigarettes for the first time at the age of ten, and in high school I experimented with drugs. Looking back at the path I was heading down, I sometimes wonder: If not for the salvation of God, would I have become a drug addict, or would I even still be alive today?

In August of 1982, I graduated from high school at the age of seventeen and went to live with two of my older brothers in Lagos, Nigeria. They attended the Apostolic Faith Church and required me to go with them. I arrived during the camp meeting in Lagos, and that led to a turnaround in my life.

My heart was full of pride, but God had mercy on me and humbled me. At the camp meeting, I heard someone testify that from the day he was saved, God had supplied all his needs. I felt I did not need salvation because I was raised in a palace and had everything provided already. Someone else testified of healing, and I said to myself, Since I am never sick, why would I need God for healing? Another gave a testimony that he had been a dullard in school until he was saved and God opened his intelligence. This also did not appeal to me because I was always one of the best students in any class I had attended.

At that moment, it was as if I was given a telescope to view into the future, and I saw that the end of the road was Hell fire. That made me afraid, so I went to the altar to pray.

Finally, I heard a testimony of one delivered from the fear of Hell fire, and how God had given him peace. The Spirit of God spoke to my heart, “Do you have that too?” I was speechless because I had no peace within. At that moment, it was as if I was given a telescope to view into the future, and I saw that the end of the road was Hell fire. That made me afraid, so I went to the altar to pray. There, God brought to my remembrance all the wrongful deeds of my past. I confessed my sins and promised not to go back into them, and the Lord saved me! The joy of God filled my soul. In that moment, all my sinful habits disappeared. I never smoked a cigarette again, and what my disciplinarian father could not achieve in the previous seventeen years, the Blood of Jesus accomplished in an instant!

There were many restitutions that I needed to make, in particular to my father, and also to my former school where I had stolen books from the library and the store. The Lord helped me with each one. When I went to the school principal and confessed what I had done, he said, “If the Lord has forgiven you, why would I not forgive you?” My father also forgave me, and I became a free man.

A couple months after I was saved, the Lord sanctified me. I did not seek for the baptism of Holy Ghost right away because I had the impression that it was an experience only for older people. However, at a service for children and teens, a young girl testified how she had been baptized. That stunned me because I was about six years older than her. I began to seek for that experience too, and in April of 1983, the Lord baptized me with the Holy Ghost and fire.

Concerning my education, I went on to earn a degree in Mathematics and later returned to study music. Through both a postgraduate course and a master’s program, God gave me the best scores in my classes and I left as a Christian.

God also led me to my wife. At a time when I was not even praying about a spouse, God brought us together and made it clear that it was His will for us to be married. After more than twenty-five years of marriage, we know we made the right choice.

We believed that God could give us a child, but we also resolved, like the three Hebrew children, that even if God chose not to grant our desire, we would still serve Him.

There have been challenges along the way, but God has kept us. We lost two babies in the early years of our marriage, and for the next eighteen years we had no children. We believed that God could give us a child, but we also resolved, like the three Hebrew children, that even if God chose not to grant our desire, we would still serve Him. I thank God that He kept us in His service for all those years, and at His own time and in His own supreme way, He gave us a baby girl in 2014.

God has also kept me during my frequent travels. On one occasion, I was driving to camp meeting in Faith City, Nigeria, and unbeknownst to me, one of my tires was not securely mounted. I was driving at a high speed when suddenly I heard a noise from under the car. I stopped and checked the car over, but saw nothing wrong, so I resumed driving. Only after I got off the highway and had slowed down did I see another driver waving me over. He had noticed the problem—three lug nuts from one of the front tires had fallen off, leaving just one to hold the tire to the car, and that one was about to fall off too! God spared me from a terrible accident that day. The most amazing part was that as I stood by my car pondering what to do, a man came over and gave me the three lug nuts that had been lost. It did not occur to me to ask how he got them until I arrived at camp meeting and the thought came to me, “Who was the man that gave you the lug nuts and where did he get them?” It was then that I realized an angel had ministered to me.

God has done so much for me that I cannot tell it all. He has been my Healer and Provider, and helped with my academics many times over. It has been exciting to go through this life with Him. He has given me the privilege to sing in His service around the world, and the words of the songs I sing have ministered to me in times of trouble. Some of them have preached the best sermons to me when I was down. I thank God for a beautiful wife who loves and supports me as I serve God, and for Christian friends who also love me, and encourage me to move forward in the Gospel. God has surrounded me with favors everywhere I go. I love to be in the midst of His people and to be serving Him.

God is still working on me to make me what I ought to be, and I know He will perfect His work in me. My prayer is that I will continue to live faithful to God so that one day when I leave this terrestrial plain, I will see Him face to face.