MONTEÈCLAIRS TRANSFORMATION INITIATIVE

The first time i saw my local church Pastor, go up the pulpit with his ipad (it was in a wake-keep service), i felt so proud of him that i told the person beside me, ‘Yea! That’s my Pastor...’ lol. What is the place of Gadgets in our worship? To enhance worship or has it become a distraction too? I remember when these smartphones just hit the shelves. Chei! Ushers in our church had clashes with members whilst trying to maintain decorum... ‘brother please put away your phone, the sermon is on’   # the culprit gives the usher a look of are-you-just-jealous-or-plainly-ignorant?#   ,then he says,   ‘thank you but i’m reading my bible on my phone’ . Reluctantly the usher would back-down to avoid a scene. I imagined part of what will pass through the usher’s mind...#with eyes rolling# ’what insolence! if not that we’re in church ehn.... hmmm... who does he think he is... Or Father forgive them though they know what they do.... Those around me know I’m a ‘g...

i hear the author is anonymous or perhaps an elementary school teacher, but i never get tired of hearing Ravi Zacharias read it out in his teachings. So inspiring, soul stirring , gently taking us back to the cross, the love of Jesus for me & you. Do read it again and again, then share your thoughts!  A New Leaf He came to my desk with a quivering lip, the lesson was done. “Have you a new sheet for me, dear teacher? I’ve spoiled this one.” I took his sheet, all soiled and blotted and gave him a new one all unspotted. And into his tired heart I cried, “Do better now, my child.” I went came to the throne with a trembling heart; the day was done. “Have you a new day for me, dear Master? I’ve spoiled this one.” He took my day, all soiled and blotted and gave me a new one all unspotted. And into my tired heart he cried, “Do better now, my child.” Author anonymous, “A New Leaf,” James G. Lawson, compiler, The Best Loved Religious Poems

THE GOOD SAMARITAN A country preacher went looking for a job and had this conversation with the interview committee: ‘do you know much about the bible?’ ‘oh yeah i know a lot, through and through’ ‘What’s your favourite book?’ ‘The book of Mark’ 'What’s your favourite part?’ 'The parable of the Good Samaritan’ ‘Can you tell us about it?’ ‘Yea, it goes this way. Once there was this man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among the thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked him. And as he went on he didn’t have any money and then he met the queen of Sheba and she gave him a thousand talents of gold and a thousand changes of raiment. And he got into a chariot and drove furiously, and when he was driving under a big juniper tree, his hair caught under the limb of that tree, and he hung there many days and the ravens brought him food to eat and water to drink, and he ate 5000 loaves of bread and two fishes. One night when he was hanging there, his wif...

“Chimamanda’s children were falling sick so much. She had tried all the home remedies her mother taught her, plus pharmacy prescriptions but they kept switching symptoms. Once her husband returned from Abuja, they went for laboratory tests only to discover their children aged 2 and 4years had HIV/AIDS. They found out much later, that their 16year old housegirl, Angel had HIV and had infected them by consistently using her own tooth to brush the children’s teeth.” “We once heard in the news how a houseboy, when the family head had travelled, killed his boss’s pregnant wife, then raped her.” I’m sure you may have your experience , positive or negative ;I also know young people who were exposed to sex, homosexuality and kinds of bad habits by ‘house-helps’, this then forces me to ask this question, ‘Do we really need househelps ? Can we do without them? How can their excesses be checked?’. Even the popular Proverbs-31 woman had servants, so what’s the brouhaha today?   From m...

...ibadan, Nigeria, 14.20hrs. The sun was shining with a vengeance that could only mean it had a misunderstanding with the clouds or some galaxial sky-mate   that fateful Friday afternoon. I managed to catch a bike eventually, only to get stuck in traffic moments later. Why? The Muslims were praying, their space wasn’t enough and then they blocked the entire market road with their mats. I was livid. Whatever happened to fundamental human rights! Blocking an entire ever-busy thoroughfare in the 21 st Century?...hmmm!        #i reserved my comments, for safety reasons# Minutes later, I was grateful to feel the cool breeze as i entered my bank with one mission, collect my ATM card & escape. The queue was discouraging but envisaged. It got to my turn (after ages on my feet) only to be told by the Customer Service Personnel (most comported i’ve ever met) that my card was being ‘Pouched’ from Lagos ...#my eyes grew bigger# ...after a cash deduction ...

Hello Homo, It shouldn’t be surprising that you’d hear from me on this matter, you’ve been on the news so much these days and your gist is rather interesting,  not strange, but gives me concern. I recently read someone’s life experience. Nneka had an excellent husband, good father, church worker, very meticulous, a gentleman or so she thought. They’d being married for 3 years, one day Kayode told Nneka he was having an affair. She wanted to pounce or do worse to him or the lady, until she heard it was with another man. Oh No! How do you fight with another man over your husband?  I ask you today, do you want to be free? The world in itself has become a mecca of addiction. Addictions have gone beyond alcoholism and substance abuse to addictive lifestyles of corruption, crime, homosexuality, ideological concepts, bestiality, pornography, nudity etc. All of which are dangerous to the health to start with. It’s so intense that very soon people will introduce themsel...

SAKA SAGA I don't know if its just me but i hardly ever took Saka (Hafeez Ayetoro) seriously perhaps because of the househelp roles or mannerisms that came with his body structure and stage character in nollywood , until i heard a rumour that he lectures in the theatre arts department of a higher institution in this 'obodo nigeria' . I bet you have seen the new MTN Port advert? Did you notice that the lead face Saka used to advertise for Etisalat? I Will be sharing with you what likely happened behind the scene to cause what you will call in developed nations "Brand Scandal" and I will relate it to our day to day situations of costly mistakes we make. Today's edition focuses on Relationships. His decision to port to MTN after a better 20million Naira deal gives us a vivid example of what happens between most single men and single ladies who will date each other for years but the guy/lady will refuse to seal the relationship with a marriage contract. My a...

Cute looked at his son,Jason, he was helpless. The doctors didn’t seem to have the answers and whatever they were doing didn’t seem to be working, not to mention the nurse (with the angry look) who had been acting busy. Of course all artiste activities, particularly his on-going tour of the country (which had gotten him an international invitation) had to naturally be rescheduled immediately he got wind of the hospitalization. The +Cute Sagay I know, who would take time to dress up (as if living up to his name 'CUTE') ,he would rub white/brown powder and even lip-gloss, was in no mood to even smile nor alert enough to perceive the ‘scent’ from his body & mouth ,having stayed up without changing for 2 days (even he wouldn’t have believed the sight if I’d videoed it…lol) Talk about the Love of a Father! Sadly though all the love he could offer seemed to do no good as he watch his son gradually slip away from earth. Tears filled his eyes, he couldn’t hide his emotion an...

i suddenly started seeing blackberry posts, broadcasts and display pictures....one phrase was prevalent, 'My Oga at the Top' ....it was almost annoying getting all the broadcasts until i saw the video which had gone viral....i'm sure you've seen it too. Despite how much we've seen and criticized this National show of shame, i bet there are some people who didn't know about NSCDC and still don't know the full meaning of 'NSCDC' , Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps nor the culprits name , Commandant Obafaiye Shem On seeing the video, i laughed, but i suddenly became really sad. Sad because it exposed the deplorable and appalling state of leadership in this country. By the way the Civil Defence is populated with old and retired police men, a few young people who probably couldn't get jobs, go to school or didn't qualify to be in the army (NB: this is purely based on personal observation during a prior stopover at their Alausa office) ...

OMG! Rose wouldn't let me be. Her wedding had barely come passed before she started pestering me to visit their new home. I lost drive when i heard the address, 'Ikorodu, after Mile 12 market! ha! I exclaimed'. It sounded so far to me but i knew i had to brave it one day or be pestered for eternity. This weekend was perfect, no one home at my place, school environs (big village named Ibadan) was boring, not to mention the sun roasting everyone as if in competition of being the Hottest-thing-in-space (dear Sun, you can stop showing off now , we know you're hot, really hot #winks#). So off i went to my friend's place, spent the weekend, had the privilege of worshiping in their church (won't tell the name, but it’s where role models are bred...oya guess na…lol ) and that's where i heard it... "(Paraphrasing) I’m a lover of football; I’m intrigued by the science of 22 people chasing a ball in a field to achieve a goal, intrigued by the mathematics empl...

FORGIVENESS: Lick It Up Doing the dishes days after, i got thinking about the events of the February 24 th , 2013 edition of ‘Worship Unscripted’   by Toyin & Friends especially the last theme, ‘Lover of my Soul’ and my testimony of God’s loving rescue, the Holy Spirit dropped a word in my heart , ‘Forgiveness’.   I searched within asking, ‘Forgiveness ?! Lord, what do you want me to share?’ He reminded me of an incident when i was about 12 years old living with a relative. One day the fridge was leaking, my uncle called my attention and said, ‘ see that water there, lick it up’ . Immediately, i went to get a rag and bowl to clean it up. Then my cousin came out of nowhere and stopped me, ‘What are you doing?, he asked’. ‘I want to clean up the water na ’ ‘No o! Is that what daddy said? He said you should lick it up, what do use for licking, oya lick it...’ Ah ah! I was bewildered, no appalled...