whats in a church?

i love my church. i love real people. esp. i love real christians. my church seems to have a lot of them. i think everyone should go to my church. everyone in sa who wants to know how real reconciliation should be done should go to my church. they're not perfect; in fact, not even close. and its this realisation that allows them to be real and brutally honest. to be broken. sweetly broken. and embrace healing. it allows them (blacks, whites, indians, foreigners, etc) to confess that theyre racist, and at the same time joke and laugh about racism. it allows them to shun divorce and yet actively embrace divorcees. Etc...

Welcome back trevor (church pastor); we've missed you.

independence schm-indepedence. potential my foot.

a long time ago, i swore to slit my throat if i hear another person usher the words potential and nigeria in the same sentence. ok, i didn't really swear to it. and happily, i haven't carried it out. but this past week saw a lot of nigeria and potential talk.

it was nigeria's independence last thursday and the annual parade of articles and op-eds began, lamenting the fact that there's hardly anything to celebrate, while tirade-ing on the vast potential that lies in the future for the country, ready to be tapped. brief tangent: i've been a baseball fan for some time now, and whenever scouts and coaches start talking of potential of a player, you should run away, quickly. for some reason or another, potential seems to underlie something that others think they see in someone/some entity that somehow rarely ever seems to materialise. this counldnt be more true in the case of nigeria.

since i can remember, people have been talking about this ubiquitous potential that will be untapped at any moment now. most people my parents generation will look forward to the days when the current generation dies away and paves the way to newer set of leaders my age (conveniently forgetting that people my age tend to learn from people their age, while perfecting the art of taking as much from the country for themselves and giving back the absolute bare minimum). honestly, i once fell into this trap as well, professing that change was on its way! and even writing an op-ed piece in a local newspaper about how/why nigeria continues to fly when all indicators suggest it should have collapsed a long time ago (like a bumblebee). nowadays, i must admit i'm not so hopeful, but all hope is not yet lost. it cannot be. without hope what is there?

independence day meant little to me this year. besides so good naija cooking and a chance to catch up with some friends, it didnt really mean that much to me. in a sense, i think i didnt want to celebrate the day because it would make me truly assess the situation of the country. and that, my friends, is not pretty. from violence in the niger delta, to militants laying down their arms somehow (also suspicious...why would they do this? whats the government giving them in return? what closed door deals are going on to keep ordinary nigerians begging for food at the end of the day?), to the normalcy of power cuts and blackouts, to the smog generating from generators, to universities striking for the 30975623rd time (ensuring that my age mates are still struggling to finish university), to the stock market devaluing by nearly 60% over the last year and a half...things arent pretty. of course, theres always signs that optimists point to to argue for nigeria's come back, like the brain gain thats continuing with educated and successful people moving back to nigeria to start or run businesses or the laying down of arms by militants (tho with unknown pre-conditions), but i fail to see how these alone will turn a country like nigeria around.

but i love nigerians. as one independence day article that my mom sent me stated: if theres one thing to celebrate, its the achievement and the perseverance of nigerians. this cannot be denied. ex: i got an email from a friend of mine in nigeria, one of those age mates still stuck in the smelly cesspit known as nigerian universities. after going on a tirade about how bad and hopeless things are at the moment, he ends the email saying that we must be happy, hopeful and responsible. 2 things that nigerians cannot be faulted for are being enterprising and hopeful! i don't get it sometimes, but when all is hopeless nigerians keep hoping and actually making the best out of situations. the article my mom sent me listed countless nigerians that have ventured to win several awards and accolades for the work theyre doing in several fields from literature to science research to government and on and on.

so i guess there is something to celebrate afterall as nigeria turns 49. and its not its potential. rather the heights that have been reached by numerous nigerians. now why cant we have a government that reflects our best citizens and our best ambitions (i'll even settle for average), instead of one that fights to reach new lows on a daily basis. in the words of chicago-ans: theres always next year.

post-post: ever had a clogged sink or tub? maybe it wasnt fully clogged, just enough so that when u ran the water, it drained very slowly. not to mention u kept adding to the clog by shaving or bathing. ever bought the wrong solution to clear up the clog? u pour the entire bottle in the sink/tub and run lots of water and nothing happens. more clog. now the water soaks up even slower than before. then u ask someone at the store to give u advice on the right solution/brand to use. u get home, do the drill and it works. water flows like it used to. better than it used to. ever bled? your blood says everything.

of culture and identity

yes, i know, i haven't written on my blog in a very long time. for that i apologise. but not really. u know, a man's gotta put food on the table for...himself. anyway, it has been a long time, but i'm back! unfortunately for my legion of loyal readers, this post will have no pictures, mostly cuz i havent done much travelling lately (hopefully that'll be changing soon)...

as you may have guessed by the title, this post has something to do with culture and identity, although i'm making no apologies in the event that i go off topic and take tangents elsewhere.

during my 3rd or 4th year in high school, my history and chemistry teachers decided that it would be a great exercise to make us students do an inter-disciplinary study/research incorporating some thing/idea/figures from both subjects. we were told that inter-disciplinary studies were the new, up and coming, kid on the block, that most studies were trending towards the inter-disciplinary field, whatever that meant. being high school students, we really couldnt care less, just another research paper to do, using mostly internet sources and a couple token library sources. im reminded of this now, because increasingly it seems like my teachers might have been on to something.

obviously, in the last decade, and perhaps even before that, the world has been obsessed with globalisation. from protests (several at my university) of mcdonalds and nike taking over the world to thomas friedman explaining how google and web 2.0 has led to a flattening of the world, bringing both necessary good and unwanted evil, we've been clobbered with images and examples of just how ever small the world is getting. what does culture have to do with this? well, i might be stretching this analogy, but i think culture -today as well as generations ago- is essentially an inter-disciplinary study. when people speak of globalisation and the world flattening, they are not merely referring to a leveling plane of information or the spread of american junk food, but also of the spread of cultures, customs, and ideas. but this is not a new thing. when islam was conquering and developing trade routes into northern africa, they brought with them the religion, which communities in n africa adopted and adapted into their culture. when british christians came to colonise parts of africa and elsewhere, they brought with them christian attributes that were incorporated into the cultures of these communities. when the british settled in america, they adopted aspects of british, french, native american culture. today, we look at these communities and assume that the culture and practises we see have always been part of the culture. but i dont believe this. and the evidence clearly points to culture being something that can and does change or evolve.

a good question right about now would be why am i ranting about this nonsense? well, lately ive found myself having many discussions with friends on the topic of culture and identity. i think most people go through periods in their life when theyre trying to figure out who they are and where they belong. my parents have a lovely saying that goes: never forget who and whose you are. the saying is fine and all, but it assumes that you know who you are and where you belong. anyway, one of my friends recently got extremely frustrated, realising that he couldnt fit the mold of the culture of his parents. he wrote in his blog:

I hate [my country]! i hate [people from my country] and this completely rude, alien, unloving, intolerant culture that is bent on blaming me for everything! i hate this culture that deifies parents and minimises feelings of others down to the most unimportant thing imaginable! I hate it. I hate being a third culture kid. I hate being raised without a culture or home. I hate being raised as a nothing, a wanderer, a cultural and social mutt...What do you have when you have neither family nor heritage?

you see, this guy has travelled and immerse himself in something like 4 or 5 different cultures. and theyve all shaped his thinking, his perspective, and his world view. he came back to south africa, in a sense, to find a home -an identity- in the culture of his parents. he's finding this difficult.

similarly (although i don't think i've admitted this too many people) i came to south africa, in part, to discover the african in me, if there was one. just like my friend, i had immersed myself in different cultures and in my sub-conscious, i wanted to cling to or re-claim, the culture of my birth or of my parent. then one day someone had the balls to tell me that i was not a typical nigerian. i thought about that statement for a long time - a typical nigerian. what is a typical nigerian? where does that definition come from? is it perceived, based on some stereotypes? or is it an internationally defined term that can easily be found on wikipedia? in any case, would i want to be a typical nigerian? after much thought and chats with friends, i concluded that it was fruitless to try and attempt to be a typical anything. ive met so many people from so many cultures and many agree - to be a typical something, is to be put in a category that contains lots of stereotypes, perceived notions, unrealistic expectations, and maybe even a sprinkle of truth. plus thats just boring.

I have nothing against culture. i love culture. well the good parts of it anyway. good, as defined by me. and i fully believe that within culture, we can find aspects of our identity. however, i also believe that culture is ever-changing. and we should embrace this evolution and not run away from it like we're running away from a pile of cow dung chasing after us. obama (i said id go on tangents) quickly won millions over precisely because he was a mutt and many identified with that. we're currently living in a time when mutts are increasing. this is not new. perhaps the rate has quickened, but mutts have been around for ages. the inter-mingling of cultures and identities is something to be celebrated and not castigated.

most of my friends now grew up identifying with more than 1 culture. is that a bad thing? absolutely not. to be able to immerse ourselves and understand multiple cultures makes us lucky and blessed. it means that we can learn from different cultures, and teach others from what we know. it makes us part of a new reality - one in which different cultures intermingle and clash and learn from one another. is it wrong to long for the culture and identity of your parents, as my friend does? absolutely not. to desire the good traits in one culture is admirable. but we should not let that stop us from admiring and longing for good traits within other cultures. who says i must only belong to one culture. i have my own identity. and its one that (like many others i know) has been influenced by many cultures, many practices and beliefs. its an inter-disciplinary identity.


post-post: i've added a new feature to the blog. as you may have noticed to your left is a section for blogs that i like to read, often (feel free to recommend your blog or a good one that i should start reading and maybe put on my blog roll). anyway, its all part of my attempt to transform myself into a techie. first a blog roll, next sql, java, c#, then take over the world.

Welcome to Heaven!

For those who still question my adventurous ways (tsk tsk), this weekend marked a substantial milestone in my ubuntu adventures: 16months after first stepping on the soil of the motherland, I can now say that I have been to (or at least travelled through) each one of south africa's provinces. The final leg happened this weekend when I took a quick and extremely nice roadtrip to durban/kwazulu natal.

Factoid of the day/week/year: Zululand means Heaven (more or less) in Zulu, so just to make sure that everyone travelling to the region knows this, there is a HUGE sign as you enter the region that reads: Welcome to Heaven. Thats awesome...unfortunately I couldn't get to my camera quick enough to get a snap. I did get a chance to take a few pics. The landscape is simply beautiful (rolling hills, mountains, beaches with the reallly nice beach breeze). More importantly, the people just seemed sooo much friendlier than other places in SA. Definitely, it was more integrated and racist (i felt) than other places. I think i could probably see myself living there, tho what would i do for money :/ ...

some pics:






to see lots more pics, click here

post posts: I STILL can't stand strikes. but to clarify my earlier position, I am totally in favour of workers being paid a living wage and working under acceptable conditions. however, i have to believe that there are other, better, and more innovative ways to achieve this than to simply strike. strikes tend to do no good and only really benefit the union organizers and those at the top. and its these guys at the top that ensure that the lowly workers are as little educated as possible so that they don't understand that a stoppage in work will cost the economy millions, an increase in salaries and bonuses (in the case of construction workers, the dispute was b/w 11 and 13%...wtf??!) will only put more strain on the already depressed economy, which may lead to higher inflation, which may lead to higher taxes, which may lead to those taxes being passed on to the citizens, which may lead to even higher food and essential products prices. nope, all the organizers want the toi-toi-ing workers to know is that their R100/per hr wage could be raise to R111 or R113, and we all know that 113 is light years more than 111. in the case of doctors also striking, i also dont agree, but agree that those in the healthcare industry need to get paid decent wages and work in favourable conditions and with adequate equipment. but lets start using our god given brains to think of better ways to negotiate these things than to allow sick people to die because we want better pay. all this while the head of the unions live comfortably in their mansions, driving their black mercedes. i will now proceed to step down my soap box.

world cup fever

my third year in high school (junior yr) was by far the best/most enjoyable/most successful in terms of my school soccer/futbal team. truthfully, our soccer team throughout high school was not the best; most times we stunk. But junior year was different. starting from the summer camp, we knew we could have an alright year, and an alright year for us was really like winning the super bowl! (to any u city lions out there, im promise im not hating - go lions!) anyway, earlier that summer, i had decided i was sick of riding/warming up the bench and appearing as a substitute and wanted to be a full time player, so i enrolled myself at a soccer camp that was running next to my house using the little cash i had saved up. the camp def helped me more with confidence and a bit of skill and led to me taking over the starting right back position and, by the end of the season, being rewarded the most improved player award.

all that was not really my point. the point i was trying to get at came the very first match (if i remember correctly). this match was against our bitter rivals (tho we liked to think of it as a rivalry, we pretty much got our assess handed to us whenever we played them...but hey, we always played them hard!). so we prepared to play this team at our home turf (which also meant nothing cuz we usually just had a handful of fans (like 2-5), max!). that match turned out to be the most unforgettable match and one of the most unforgettable moments of my high school career. not only were we better prepared than our rivals, we out played them the entire 1st half and then kept up the lead amidst massive amounts of pressure in the second half. I dont really remember what the final score of that match was (2-0??), but we beat them. and convincingly. no one could remember the last time we beat them. the feeling on that field that evening was ridiculous - unlike any emotion i had ever felt to that point. guys were doing flips, hugging, kissing whatever they could find, rolling around, doing anything crazy u could imagine (well almost). another side note: i remember coach made us run laps after the match (usually reserved for when we lost) just so we could calm down. it didn't work tho. none of us wanted to leave the pitch that day. when we eventually left, we gathered again at the parking lot and started honking our horns and playing loud music. i remember when i finally left with some friends, we were still hooting and playing "we will rock you" as loud as we could. that euphoric feeling lasted pretty much the entire season as we kept up the energy and achieved much more than was expected.

about 2 weeks ago, i went to a confederations cup match (brazil vs. italy) and a couple days later i watch on tv as south africa played brazil. the euphoric atmosphere that permeated all of joburg and indeed all of south africa reminded me a bit of how i felt walking off the soccer field that summer night, junior yr. there were people jumping up and down, shouting, blowing the vuvusela (a staple of s. african soccer that will stay and thrive for good...suck it spaniards!!), hugging, celebrating shoulder to shoulder to people of different colours and cultures that they might not otherwise interact with. (another side note: one of the reasons i LOVE the game of futbal is its amazing ability to bring people of different persuasions together; just look at the pictures from the matches). even from the airport, as i was making my way to s africa, you could feel this excitement. on the highways, there were people driving and blowing their vuvusela's and waving whatever flag. on the radio, people could not get enough commentary on anything futbal. this lasted all of the confederation cup! and it was amazing! and, judging by the billboards, radio and tv ads, petrol station remakes, flags, etc..., i get a feeling that this will last until next year's world cup. my friends that went to games also get this feeling. it was truly an awesome showcase of a bit of what we can expect. does it show that im just a bit excited about this??! (oh and i got my wc tickets already!!)

i woke up today to news that workers in sa (esp those doing world cup projects) have decided to go on strike over a 3% difference in pay raise. hmm. i think i'll just hold my tongue a bit on this one, except to say that i really HaTe strikes. anyway, i'm sure this will once again fuel speculation that the stadiums, etc will not be ready for the world cup. but fyi, fears that countries will not be ready to host the competition have been around for almost every world cup that's been held, going back to the very first one in 1930 in Uruguay. during the first world cup, they actually had to move some first week matches to other stadiums because one of the major ones was not ready. i'm pretty sure that will not happen here in sa. there's way too much at stake and too many people with too much invested for everything not to be more than ready. I am confident that sa will shock the world at how awesome the games will be. finally, while doing my extensive research on this topic i learned that out of the 18 world cups held, the host country has won it all 6 times. thats a 33% shot. there's hope south africans!! well, im calling it here: there will be an african team playing in the finals! im not saying who it'll be...tho we all know how formidable the green white and green are...here's so Fut-bal Fee-vah

post post: haven't done one of these for a while, but here's to my friend, steph, as she embarks on an adventure to uganda - a truly amazing country with truly lovely people. good luck steph and hope you enjoy every bit of it and hopefully we'll get a chance to meet up in aa-fri-kerr!

Just in case some of you thought that i was not living up to the title of this blog or shirking on my responsibilities to making this a true adventure, i would like to re-assure u that this is not the case. follow me as we venture into the life of moi, over the last couple of months:

evidence #1: not only am i exploring a brave new world otherwise known as botswana, im also learning some new tricks. for example, i've been forced to learn how to drive a manual/stick shift vehicle. that's right. and if i must say so myself, im a pretty damn fast learner and i'm pretty damn good at it. botswana is mostly flat with few hills, etc, so sure i havent been tested too much, but i've gone thru some rigorous testing and came out alive (more on this later).

evidence #2: while working in botswana, i decided to take up french classes. first logical question: do they speak french in botswana? answer: no, not even close. 2nd logical question: why not take classes on the language spoken in botswana (setswana)? answer: cuz i didnt feel like it. it was an 8 (or so) week course that i kind of started in the middle and went into one of the "high" levels thinking i would struggle...but if i must say so myself, neanmois, je n'ai appris presque rien pendant le cours!..

evidence #3: and this explains the photos u see. this past weekend i went on a mini-holiday/vacation to this tiny town/village somewhere in between gabarone and joburg. it was such an amazing weekend. first, it was the furthest i had driven with my new (rental) manual/stick shift car. plus, i drove it all by myself (my friends were all coming from the joburg side, and i was coming from the gabarone side). this trip included some "major" off-roading, if i must say so myself. and i passed with flying colours. no mishaps, no stalling, no getting stuck. i think i was born to drive a manual...well not really, i still enjoy my automatic when in joburg, especially in traffic. anyway, the rest of the weekedn was excellent. we actually just stayed in a self-catering lodge, saw none of the town (with all its 3 shops), hiked, relaxed, cooked, ate, and drank. there were about a million tangerine (naartjie, in afrikaans) and lemon trees; so we went tangerine- and lemon-picking and sat and ate them and it reminded me of lovely times of long ago...i really don't remember the last time i had such a relaxing and nice weekend. I've been so used to either coming to joburg and trying to fit as many things into 2 days as i can or running errands or seeing people or doing laundry. even while taking vacations, u try to see as many things as u can in the span of a week or 2. this mini-vacation was all about relaxing. i woke up whenever i wanted to, walked where-ever i wanted to whenever i wanted to, ate whenever, read whenever...no tv, no phone. also, not only did i make some amazing fires (i was in charge of the fire and braai-ing the meat for 2 nights), i schooled my friends at scrabble! i sound almost like a hippie, w/o the drugs. anyway, it was super, as the french would say. hope to do it again soon.

galivanting around chi-town and nyc

so my overseas trip is finally over. got back on thursday morning, and still trying to catch up on much needed sleep - today i slept practically the whole day. aside from that tho, i had a blast in the states, got to see my family for a couple hrs and then headed to chicago and new york for good fun with awesome friends. sadly i didnt get a chance to see everyone that i wanted to, but theres always time; i'll try to see more of y'all next time around. i've posted my pics on my picasa page (warning: lots of random pictures). enjoy!

link: http://picasaweb.google.com/okunadef/Chi_NY_0509?authkey=Gv1sRgCOzU0IH9kci7AQ&feat=directlink

in the states

kind of last minute, but i'm in the US for some training and fun. the whole thing came about pretty quickly and i've been too busy to update this blog lately, so i didn't really have a chance to tell a lot of people; so sorry if you didnt hear abuot this. my colleague and i left jo-burg on friday afternoon, got to new york on sat morning, took a taxi from jfk to laguardia to catch the next flight that was leaving in 2 hrs, got on the flight to denver to catch my brother's law school graduation commencement, missed the commencement but got to see my bro, mom, dad, and uncle, enjoyed denver's night life on sat night, got on a plane sun afternoon to chicago, got to chicago and took a car to the training center in st charles. so now im here for the week, until we leave on fri to check out chicago for 2 days and then new york for 2 days, then back to sa. it should be a fun ride, and i'm not sure i'll feel it until a couple days after im back to joburg.

i'm way too tired to write much right now, but if anyone is reading this and is going to be in chicago or new york and i haven't talked to you, please email me or call me (same # as before) and we can chill. the idea is to show my colleague a pretty good time in the states and of course to have a good time myself...i've already introduced him to probly more nigerians than he'll ever meet; he was subjected to watching and listening as the men in my family debated nigerian politics as usual. i wouldve been pretty scared, but he seemed to enjoy it. otherwise, its almost midnight here and im friggin tired. lates.

politics and church

With the south african elections only days away, on wed, this post was supposed to be entirely about politics, sa-stlye. I was supposed to write about how the ruling party, the anc pretty much has this thing wrapped up and only need to make sure that they have a 2/3rds majority to ensure that they can pretty much do whatever it is they wish. Or about how the anc president and soon to be sa president, zuma (or more appropriately 'j-zed') has been on trial for serious charges for the past several years, only to be exonerated of all charges due to some questionable practices performed by the lead investigator/prosecutor. and though there's no pronouncement of guilt or innocence, or even validity of the evidence that led to his exoneration (nor of how it was obtained), we can rest easy cuz - due to proper procedure not being followed in the investigation - the matter has been resolved; justice has been served...Or how the the soon to be president, with his new leash on life, now wants some kind of revenge on the justices that paraded him to court and pronounced these horrible judgements on him. These are the justices that sit on the highest court in the country. he would like to strip them of their powers. according to our soon-to-be prez, the justices are starting to act like god (not like the anc or the prez himself, oh, heavens no! not at all..). therefore they need to be brought down to earth; read: the constitution needs to be changed so that justices sit under and are accountable to the prez. i am NOT making this stuff up. hey 'j-zed', ever heard of separation of powers, checks and balances, or about the independence of the judiciary, which is supposed to be the cornerstone in any democracy? or hey, maybe its me that forgot that its probably much too early to pronounce this country as a true democracy. yes, the vote! wooptie doo!

I was also supposed to write about the 1st lady. who's it going to be? with the soon-to-be president having now 5 wives, the battle of first lady must be well in full swing. wonder who's winning...I was supposed to ponder about how the shower (apparently the #1 cure for hiv, according to j-zed) is working. I was supposed to write about the 'new' party, which is actually a spin off, breakaway faction, of the anc, which actually includes many of the same old leaders from years past who have left the country as is today. this party's slogan is lovely: "choose hope. vote cope". hope for what? change? in what way? its the same people. ok, theres a former minister at the top. but hes a minister, not a politician. as much as i don't like politicians, their's is an art; and no ordinary person or minister can aspire to achieve great things without knowing how to play the game. in my view anyway. i was supposed to write about race politics, still the name of the game in sa politics. I think i was also going to write about all this complaining that I and a lot of my colleagues are doing. how in a way its good because this means that people are engaged and thinking, but also how we must all have a bit of patience, realising that 'change' and evolution does not happen overnight. it took the US 200+ years to have a black president. south african democracy as we know it has been around for 15years. its a new teenager. ever tried to get anything across a teenager's mind? or expected the teenager to act in a rational, forward thinking manner? there is progress in sa; but people, myself included, are so impatiently ready for more; to see this country speed up the process, grab hold of this promise of a rainbow nation, take the baton of beacon on a hill and guide other african nations on the path of true democracy. our liberal idealist tendencies may have to do some waiting.

well, like i said, those were some of the things i was going to write about, but nope, i'm not going to do that. decided to write about something else instead. this blog post will be about church.

yep, church. so, i go to church today, like i often do on sundays, mostly. kinda feeling bleh...the last few ______(fill in the blank, weeks, months, years...) i think i've been generally burnt out. and not necessarily with work. just at best running on fumes. last week, easter sunday was not that different. the preacher preached something. i listened to some of it, tho most times my mind wonders off. then he gets to the last portion and it really grabbed my attention. this was the re-affirmation of peter, where jesus "re-instates" him, 3 times. i learned something new: apparently the first 2 times that jesus asked peter if he loved him, jesus used the greek word, referring to agape love (the highest form of love), and peter replies saying of course u know i love you, using philia (i believe, more of a brotherly type love). so then when jesus asked the 3rd time, what hurt peter was not only that jesus was asking him a 3rd time, but also, now jesus uses the word philia when he asked the question instead of agape, essentially saying, i know that agape love may be too much to ask from you right now, but lets start with something. thought that was interesting. so fast forward to today, we were singing some song that ends with "jesus, i love you, i love you". the guy leading the worship, just kept repeating that line. and i kept singing, until all of a sudden i started listening to myself. and when i did that i realised that if jesus were asking me today what he aked peter a couple thousand years ago - folu, do you love me? - would i really be saying what i was singing? i couldnt answer that. or maybe i was afraid to answer that. so i sat down.

fast forward to the end of service. we had the head of the vineyard churches in south (or southern) africa come speak today. never met the guy. just know that he's preached at our church a couple times. our church believes very much in the practice of the fruits of the spirit. so every once in a while, those that have the gifts of prophecy, will speak up and tell the church what they believe they are hearing from god about a generic situation or sometimes about a specific person. usually they do this after a lot of prayer and thought. and when the preacher does it, its usually pretty powerful. and here i am, just getting used to this kind of thing, usually trying to avoid getting caught up in it, and definitely making sure that i hide myself so that no one will specifically pick on me. i dont like to be embarrassed or to think that someone has a view into my life when i havent specifically given them the appropriate rights and security codes. so the preacher ends his thing by doing a bit of prophecy. he pointed at a guy (first time visitor) and noted that he had been fighting with god and he felt like god wanted to tell him that he's here for a reason and about to show him what he's been asking. turns out true. he points at another lady and says, "please let me know if i'm completely wrong here, but..." (they like to do this!) he could feel a pain on the left side of his back and felt that somehow that related to this lady and god wants to heal her. yep, true. then he points at me! maybe it was the bright blue shirt i was wearing. by now it was surreal; me? really? i thought i was doing such a good job of being inconspicuous. he goes on to say that he's feeling something that telling him that i'm a soldier, and god wants me to take a hold of that and do great things for him, and that, this is what got me, ugly things have been getting in the way, such as guilt, that make me feel inadequate and start doubting. yoh! that was pretty powerful, on a couple fronts. first i was filled with guilt, first for not being able to answer the "peter question" and for a few other reasons. and was definitely starting to doubt and settle more soundly in my blah stage, where i was no longer running on fumes, but perhaps now at best walking, leisurely strolling. the other reason it was powerful was because i had recently asked god to show me what i should do (in terms of everything). but i didnt want him to give me a hint, or to whisper it to me softly while i was in bed, deep in sleep. no, i wanted something loud and clear. i believe my exact words were, "im dense, knock me over the head". so i'm pretty sure that being singled out amongst 200 people counts as a knock-me-over-the-head moment, right? ok, so maybe god does listen to prayers. again i was pretty shocked and stunned, having never personally met or spoken to this guy and him knowing this about me. i had to sit down. while i was sitting, i could hear something telling me to simply "fiyin fun olu wa, iwo okon mi, ma se gba-gbe gbo-gbo ore re..." (psalms 103)

Wedding

I'm finally getting around to posting these! anyway, toyin and fiyin's wedding was lovely. i can say that now that i'm sitting down and looking at the pics and remembering the good times. i'm not so sure how much of that i could have said when we were running around like headless chicken tryin to pick up the right people, grabbing one of the mothers who was left behind at the church, tryin to organise the 2 mercs (thats right, we rode around in style!) while tryin not to clobber the ridiculously stupid agents at the car rental place, etc etc. in the end, the most important thing happened: they got married. the other stuff that led to us getting about 4hrs of sleep in 4 days just kept things interesting! and now theyre living happily ever after. fiyin and toyin are 2 of my best friends here and 2 of my best friends ever, so i wish them nothing but the absolute best of luck and god's grace, speed, joy. i couldnt be happier. follow the link to the pics. enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/okunadef/Fiyin_ToyinWed?feat=directlink