MONTEÈCLAIRS TRANSFORMATION INITIATIVE

PHOBIA TALES OF A NAIJA SPINSTER My neighbor had a visitor and whilst passing-by I heard their greetings {I wasn’t doing amebo o!...but what do you expect from a typical tenement building aka face-me-i-face-you…lol} “ha, long time Papa Calistus , how your wife na?” “My wife dey, she’s under compulsory 9 months imprisonment… ” and they laughed heartily… Arrggh!What!!! Don’t tell me that’s a ribcracker!…#eyes rolling# Sitting at my studio reception with a client, an artiste and a mother of twins (called iyabeji in Yoruba dialect), waiting for her driver just afforded brief moments for some girly chi-chat   #the guys can skip this paragraph…winks# ‘Aaawwh, twins?! That’s so sweet!’ , we echoed & started tapping anointing #touching her#.   Iyabeji laughed. She laughed the kind of laugh that tells you something serious was about coming-forth. “hmmm…twins, they are good o; but its not easy, especially when they are young. They will show you ‘pepper’. You won’t sle...

Charismatic as ever, he moved to and fro the threshold of the porch gesticulating, trying to drive home the point as his master had laid it in his heart … and it seemed he was in want for appropriate words for expression of the magnitude of the rhema divine. The topic of discussion however intrigued me, “ The Bone Collector ” . It was a teaching stemming from the from the trip of brother Ezekiel to the valley of Dry-Bones. He taught that out of the cemetary of life ’ s tragic situations can come a testimony that leaves on-looker believing in the awesome power of God. The Bone Collector convinces you that God ’ s word is strong enough to form an exceeding great army out of what the enemy said would be skeletons in your closet. Stumbling on this teaching and other literature hereafter was orchestrated by the Master as I was in a quagmire of doubts, fear of unknown , panting for grace, divine direction … I needed a word from the Lord … and it came..Josh 1:6, 1 Chron 28:20 He ...

It was a pleasant day for a 'Tea' date with my Kenyan friend, Musula, a former client. He needed to say proper goodbyes to the nice people he'd related with in Nigeria. Well, it turned out to be more than Tea & Goodbye talks, esp as I was accompained to window shop @ MegaPlaza..."Who would resist the company of a beautiful lady on such a nice day", he said. #don't worry, I didn't blush...lol...I was simply saved some expenses...hehehe# After a failed wooing attempt, he expressed his candid opinion of me (church girl) and goes on to tell me about his life, family,his christian background how he backslid, even the woman with him is not his wife... I listened carefully as he spoke whilst intermittently sipping from his glass of Whiskey (which had sparked off the new chat subject).#shh...I silently prayed that no one from church catches me sitting with a man drinking whiskey @ a posh bar. Would they believe its business which led to sharing the Go...

  There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, 'You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger,...

PREACHERS OR   MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKERS Today, you walk into a new generation church and the preacher tantalizes your mind with mesmerizing words and catchy phrases. Lines from philosophers are used more the scriptures. There is no insight or depth   in the scriptures taught; every line is tailored towards exciting the congregation, meeting their emotional needs and boosting the financial status of the church. The question I dare to ask is do we still preachers or they have been replaced by motivational speakers?! Churches now employ preachers not because of the level of anointing they carry, but choose by how well they can convince and carry a congregation. The church is run like it’s a business enterprise, ‘HAPPY CONGREGATION, HAPPY CHURCH’ or better still, ‘HAPPY CONGREGATION & THE CHURCH SMILES TO THE BANK’. For the most part, Christian motivational speakers concentrate on two areas that may overlap. The first is spreading the gospel. This does not mean that t...

mY SuIcIdE nOtE The thoughts had been recurrent through the week. I imagined myself leaving a final note behind, but would I write? Other thoughts crept in… I thought to myself, “is it Normal? Is it Christian? Who can I tell of these strange thoughts? Who would understand that I can’t even a place a finger on what is really gone wrong? Is it my job, family, friends, fiends, my faith, my fate, my fears….what exactly? ” Suicide as described by kenea (a lawyer friend), is cowardice; perhaps he was right! {Thank God he  didn’t possessX-men (mutants) skills of mind reading, else I would have been found out} Some folk may think my life is a fairy tale, but then my nightmares were unending. One of my friends rightly analyzed me as 'managing perception'. If you knew me, have met me, or seen my boisterous self, bewilderment of my recent thoughts will panic you. But why would a seeming ‘perfect’ me be depressed I ask? Well, Google was a little help…depression & suicide t...

THE DISEASE OF ASSUMPTION (Wisdom for singles) It was a bright and beautiful Sunday morning and every one was set for worship. Men were dressed and seated; women were clothed in their best, admiring each other at the same time criticizing others. Young people were exchanging pleasantries and updating themselves with the latest gist in town; church workers were busy organizing their activities for the day. The worship leader interrupted everybody with a loud shout of “praise the Lord” which brought everybody back to their senses that they were in church. It was time for praise and worship and every body was happy except a few whose problems were heavy and seemed blinded from seeing God. People were singing, dancing and jumping. The pastor suddenly came up to the podium signifying the time church for announcements.and end of praise session, and now After exchanging pleasantries with the congregation, he started with wedding announcement. The first was that of a popular brother in...

What comes to mind when you see this question, as it is far from being rhetorical? Strangely enough, it might interest you to know that not everyone wants to be a millionaire. But for some it’s a do or die affair, ‘Get Rich or Die Trying ’. Well, I’m a Zillionaire (…lol..billionaire or trillionaire is limiting, that’s what I believe for me ) & its mainly for common good. However, let’s leave the spiritual gymnastics of claiming the Best or mere aspirations and optimism and attempt to address the matter, “Who Wants to be Millionaire?”. Assuming you’re answering in the affirmative, how, when and why do want to be a millionaire? WHY? ; The ‘Why’ is such an important element, that it goes a long way show your desperation; determine the extent one will go in answering the how. It also informs the goal setting approach ,which is the reality of a future trapped down on the paper with specific steps to achieve it within a time bound. WHEN; Your goals must have a d...

This is not new, but well worth being reminded. One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her. Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn't look safe; he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was that chill which only fear can put in you. He said, "I'm here to help you, ma'am. Why don't you wait in the car where it's warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson." Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change t...

Do you still remember the time when the only TV station was NTA, and the options you had were NTA channel 10, NTA 2 channel 5, and NTA channel 7. That was a time when frank oliseh of “newsline” was more popular than today’s frank edoho of “who wants to be a millionaire” (who doesn’t). That was when Birdman and G - force looked like our modern day avatar, I mean the animation really looked crisp. That was when you would have a lot of friends coming to your house simply because you had cable TV or would be a classy bachelor if you had a video player (with some Indian films) at home. Once upon a time paratroopers was the reigning game, and pacman wasn’t that bad, before mortal combat took over. A computer genius at that time was one who could power on a system, do some few things on a word processor, enter some basic commands and tell you the history of the computer(genius indeed). Indeed if I look at where we are coming from as a country, when street lights was an endangered specie, ...

My personality was crafted so specially, that despite my gender, you won’t catch me crying especially in public (unless I’m sick maybe). Recently however, my experiences indicate that crying unburdens the soul, eases stress, quenches anger, relieves the heart etc. Even you will admit that when you are so burdened & cry about an issue to God, He comforts us and ‘seemingly ‘ answers speedily. I assumed I was a tough kid [like my dad used to call me] until one day, I was about to do a song by Hezekiah Walker- You’re Calling My Name….as I meditated on the song the nite before, I wept sore. I got church the next morning, plugged-in & Oh My God!...not again(on the choir seat)…I began to cry, no weep, inconsolably so…’what was happening to me?’ ….”I thought of how much as humans & indeed individually we had hurt, spited, ignored, undermined & trampled on His {Jesus} feelings for us …yet He keeps calling my name to come….i cried so hard because I couldn’t understand or pro...

No, it's not a water pipe or a window. But it's making lots of noise and spilling a big mess everywhere. "Bang Bang Clang Clang. Do you hear it?" What's broke in many churches today is the Brotherly Love that Jesus said would be the identifier to the world that we are His. At times we can hardly get folks to stand together long enough to sing in the choir on a Sunday evening . Much less come together in prayer for the sake of revival and souls in the community. This was a real issue for the Corinthian church too. We know this because Paul took an entire chapter to deal with it. When a church is bound together with Love, it can do great things for God, but when that same element is missing, strife can rule and reign in a church. "People say they love me, but when it gets down to the heart of the matter they don't really show it". How do we deal with that? How do we deal with the fact that we just have bad people in the church? KICK THEM...

When I was a kid, my mom often like to make breakfast menu for dinner, I remembered one night in particular when she made the dinner after a long hard day at work. On that evening, my mom placed a plate of egg, sausage and extremely burnt biscuits in front of my dad. I remembered waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I can't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and ate every bite!  When I got up from the table that evening I remembered hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burnt biscuits." Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burnt. He wrapped his arms round and said, "Yo...

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a Roadway . Then he hid himself and watched to see if Anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the King's' wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by And simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did Anything about getting the stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of Vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand! Every Obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our conditio...

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see the world, I will marry you.' One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend. He asked her,'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them for the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.. Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine." This is how the human brain often works when our status changes. Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who was always by their side in the most...

The chronicles of a strong black woman; super story, more to life than marriage, pillow talk…ideas poured into my mind as caption for this piece…& quite frankly I’m still contemplating…. Today, I identify with the Single Black Christian Sister & the Pressure of Marriage. Oh yeah, Pressure!...from the family, relatives, friends, friends, church folks, sermons and even you! {ain’t nobody innocent on this one}. Its usually seen as showing concern but it manifests as pressure on the ladies. For instance; “Ah Sis. Jane, when will we chop your rice na"; "when will we sew ur asóebi na?"; "hmm…we are praying for u o! Ha! That day will be wonderful"; What are you waiting for sef, look at your mates…”. On & on we go, and she soaks it all in. Oh my God! How is she supposed to feel?...{please give me a minute, we're going somewhere with this…} Is marriage really worth the trouble? I dare say that at least half of those who ask these...

There are people who can walk away from you. And hear me when I tell you this! When people can walk away from you: let them walk. I don't want you to try to talk another person into staying with you, loving you, calling you, caring about you, coming to see you, staying attached to you. I mean hang up the phone. When people can walk away from you let them walk. Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left. People leave you because they are not joined to you. And if they are not joined to you, you can't make them stay. LET THEM GO! And it doesn't mean that they are a bad person it just means that their part in the story is over. And you've got to know when people's part in your story is over so that you don't keep trying to raise the dead. You've got to know when it's dead. You've got to know when it's over. Let me tell you something. I've got the gift of goodbye. It's the tenth spiritual gift , I believe in goodb...