A bubbly young girl runs into the hairdressing shop I was making my hair at and breathlessly with short laugh breaks she said

"mummy mi ni ki gba arodan wa" (my mom asked me to collect arodan)

Everyone in the shop laughed knowingly, at some point in the lives of everyone there, they had been sent on such errand.

The hairdresser hands her a brush and told her to wait for her since she was busy.

Even while the young child was standing, she was still not calm. She searched for nothing in particular, opened up draws and raised up chairs, you can tell why exactly she got sent to bring the arodan.

Arodan is something Yoruba people always asked children who are too energetic to go and get from neighbours or friends. In reality, there's no material thing that is called arodan. It is an idea to keep the child busy elsewhere or to keep them grounded in the house of a strict neighbour or a feared one.

If you have been sent to collect the arodan, you are either troublesome or too nosy. As a child, I never was sent to collect it- not because I wasn't stubborn but because I knew my place. If my mom needed her privacy, her eyes were communication experts. But many times, unsuspecting children have been sent to our house. You get sent countless times before you realise that it was all a scam, for many young children, that is their first introduction to fraud.

I like how despite the gross assimilation of western culture that we have been experiencing since previous years, some are still fanning the flame of our indigenous traditions. It gladdens my heart.

This is my last publication for this year. Though I have been inconsistent, I didn't want to leave the year without sharing something again on this space.

Adiós my friends!

So long and "see" you again in the next year.

Guysss, I love Rahab!

Is that a confession?

I have always loved Rahab since I was a child, from the first time I saw the picture from "my 100 bible stories" of that hanging red thread from her illustrated window. I loved her story, I loved her person before I even understood what her story symbolised, I just loved her.

I imagine her as dainty with a thick hair that she covers with a floral shawl that is always slightly opened to help curiosity grow.

Rahab's faith left me in awe when I read her story after being saved. All she knew about the Israelites' God were the tales that travelled miles and got to ger covered in dust, with a couple body parts missing. Instead of seeing the incompleteness of this story, she saw the God that was in the story, became moved by his unbridled support to his chosen. I wonder if she thought about how it would be like to be His chosen. She probably did, seeing that she decided to join them.

Rahab's faith is so inspiring, and God blessed her greatly afterward. I love sharing just how far God's blessings went.

Rahab and her family joined the Israelites after the destruction of Jericho. She married a man from the tribe of Judah named Salmon. They had a son named Boaz.

Who could better understand being an 'outsider' and the power of God's redemption? Rahab is the perfect mentor for Ruth, she understood being an outsider who has received love from her new family. The orchestrations of God are wonderful!

She embodies the phrase, "your grace found me just as I am". The odds of her heart being stirred towards the God of the Israelites to having her house by the city wall, recognising the spies and helping them. A vessel useable, a vessel ready, a vessel in obedience. I see Rahab as a woman with wit and intelligence.

I do love Rahab, I don't have any exegesis. I just really love her. She is one of my favourite women from the Bible.

I remember the conversation I and my friends had around the time we signed out last December. While everyone expressed their desire to serve early, I 0said the contrary. I told them that I would love to go home and rest and do some things that I had always wanted to but lacked in time.

I said I wanted to go home, to get used to home again; the four years in university was arduous and it drained my spirit, soul and body. Everybody looked at me weird, laughed at me and even said they would send me money once they get into the corporate world while I do unnecessary things. (laughs "Joker-ly")

One of the things I wanted to do was to taking up a teaching job. It is something that I have wanted to do for a while now because I was inspired by a teacher I had in JSS3. Her name was Miss Abimbola, pretty and eloquent Miss Abimbola, she taught English and she was the first woman who showed and taught me women power. I loved that dear woman, God rest her soul, she died before I graduated secondary school.

Did I try getting a teaching job? Yeahhhh, but it didn't work out as I wanted. I did take up one summer school teaching and I loved it. It was stressful though but I had really amazing time with the students. Those kids were both sweet and mischievous.

How did I get here?

NYSC is showing all of us that it is the one in charge, not us in a way. So there's me who wanted to serve the fatherland later in the year and the others who wanted to go early, we are all begging NYSC to have mercy on us.

I feel like God just heard my wish and stamped it and, yes I am complaining because I have had enough of staying without constant visible output. I wanted to bond with my mother and I think that we are getting too close. I am someone with few friends but by the end of this stay at home, I and my mom go dun turn besties.

Last week, I listened to a very nice sermon on the deity of Jesus, it was so mind blowing and by God's providence, on Saturday evening while trying to do a review for Sunday school the following day the topic was "The Deity of Jesus". I was so humbled, oh! I love God!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0AJXQseuGBYAeh64mTCI26?si=ahAnkD7VQ2aMgGy3CM8gXA%0A

This is the link to the sermon.

I am still praying to God for direction on what to do... Help me God.

Lo and behold, it was a bolt with pointed tip and it was almost fully wedged in my soles and it would have inevitably pricked my foot.

I was grateful to God. Then the Holy Spirit referred me to something he has been bringing my attention to for a while.

Something about we finding the root of our traumas and then thinking that our wisdom can bring us into wholeness.

When we as humans find out the reason why we do certain things or the root cause of our trauma, we think that we are wise enough to solve it, at least, we found the first part ourself.

Unfortunately, it's a lie, we did not create ourselves so how can we bring ourselves to completeness again if we do not communicate with the creator? God is the creator, if we need to return to the initial order of his creation, we must ask him how it's done.

God is the author and finisher. He is the only one who can rewrite us to the path he originally created for us not us nor our intelligence. God is the all-knowing and almighty creator.

I pray that the Lord will heal your wounds and reaffirm His love for you in the way that you need it.

Stay well. Be well.

Adiós!

Faith comes from knowledge, there is no solidity or concreteness that you can claim in faith if you have no knowledge of the thing which you claim to have faith in.

For a believer, your faith stems from the things you have heard which you have come to believe in.

Faith comes by encounter:not necessarily spooky. It might just be a enlightenment knowledge. Faith as described by Hebrews is the evidence of things not seen, faith is the tangible result of knowledge. The unseen knowledge will erupt in faith in that which is known or we have become familiar with through learning about it.

As believers, the Holy Spirit helps us in the strengthening of our faith by sharing with us the knowledge of God.

(John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.)(1 Corinthians 2:11... even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.)

This faith walk needs knowledge. Not just in our living, even in the sharing of our faith. For anyone to share the faith of Jesus, they must themselves have knowledge of the One they are introducing. If we keep complaining of people whose faith are weak and not thoroughly grounded and do nothing with knowledge impartation, then there is no point in complaining.

I believe strongly that the church is a place God must be taught, not a fan fair of activities. We must prioritise teaching about the person of God, about God not just about His blessings. Yes, God loves but God also judges: His love nature will not override His just nature and vice versa. God is balanced in His dealings. (Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?) As believers or rather as shepherds and pastors, as oversights, we have been ladled with the responsibility to teach God to His people, the undiluted and unfiltered Word of God, not our experience or our perspective of God but all that He represents through the help of the Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

You can't be effectively built up outside of God's word.

This stemmed from a simple prayer point that I made when I saw some of them on a Sunday morning and I saw myself at their age. A young girl who had questions, whose thoughts were mostly on rampage and the thought of what I would become in the future kept me awake most nights.

It was at first a simple nudge to pray guidance for them and it gradually turned to "what if you help?". Scared and mostly broke, I trusted God's leading and informed the church pastor, the children coordinator and the whole church.

All of these was within a month.

The week of the hangout, I still didn't have enough money, I had taken out my savings, received donations here and there but there was still a long way to go. And by God, before the day I planned to get some of the gift items, money came in. I remember the morning of the day the largest amount would come in and in my musings, I heard in my spirit a question, "what will you do with the money if there's a leftover?" I just laughed it off, because, money wey never reach wan remain?😂 But God in his way, came through, showed up and showed all.

What a blessing it is to be chosen by God. Pastor Chingtok's "Forever God" has been my song. The first money I put in this was part of the money I was putting together to attend AEO's concert and day after the concert, I was checking clips and I was a bit sad, I won't lie.

However, I will choose obedience to God over anything. Again, I see Galatians 2:20 and I am more resolved in following Jesus, "...yet not I but Christ who lives in me...".

And yes, things tried to go wrong last Saturday but my God and Father is the Ọ̀RÁNMỌNÍSẸ́FÀYÀTÍ. He sends and shows clear evidence that he is involved. I'm grateful to God, to everyone who heard my little rambling about what God had told me and encouraged me, supported me and held me in prayers. Thank youuuu!

To those who will be reading this newsletter, I write this to document the goodness of God so that whenever God tells me a thing and I begin to get cold feet, I would be able to do like the psalmist and say "...O my soul, forget not all His benefits:"

Adiós, my friends. God can be trusted.

I feel like it has been long since I last put out a long form post and it is my fault in a way on the other hand, I have been occupied.

I started the first day of this month doing a part-time job and I met women who were old enough to birth me but they were so cool and so full of wisdom.(Women, God’s design for love!!!!)

While doing life last month and the few days of this month, my heart was strongly leaning into the need for companionship. I thought to myself that I maybe didn't make good use of my university days. That I did not make impacts on people so I did the usual. I spoke to God about it and somehow it felt like he was not replying me. Jokes on me though, before the week ended, I got comforted, people who I met in university just reached out and said things to me that dispelled my initial thought.

This is how God shows me again and yet again, that He sees me, He hears me and that I am loved by Him.

It might look like I was validation for the way I lived my life and you might find it ridiculous but I am not one who really cares that much about people and I can't handle several multiple friendships. However, I kept seeing the several speakers speak on the importance of connection and bonds and all sorts, so I how many people I knew and could run to meet in emergency and they were barely five(5), that was where the doubt began.

One thing that God also communicated to me is that it is not too late to start making more connections, reaching out more to people and being more intentional about friendship. Therefore, this month, I will continue to shamelessly comment and like every thing that piques my curiosity or catches my fancy.

It is not too late to pick that thing up again and it is not too early to start.

By the way, I didn't go out more last month. 😭

Adiós, my friends!

Great grace.

Before I speak to anyone, I reahearse my words over and over again and if I am sending a text, I read it over. This hasn't stopped me from making mistakes though, it has only kept me on edge and made me seem uncordinated.

I have so many people who I would love to speak to, start a conversation with but I find myself being crippled by the fear of not being deemed as important. With this phobia, I have sometimes struggle with putting my written pieces out.

There is something that I heard somewhere that has been giving me courage in small doses, it is, "you need to dig keep pushing out your stuffs, when someone finds it, they need to have something to binge on." So, even if right now, there's no one else apart from myself who likes my post, I am still pushing things out. I am not content creating, I am documenting my thoughts.

This is another thing that I learnt in the previous week, I hope it gives you courage whenever you find this too. Keep showing up, when your audience comes, they will find something that speaks in your voice about your personality.

Adiós, my friends.

This is the end result of a conversation I had on a cold and beautiful Monday morning.

Sexual assault is any sexual action submitted against someone without their assent or against people who cannot give a legitimate assent. Sexual assaults can happen to anybody at whatever age, at any place, whenever. (Medicolegal Examination of Sexual Assault Cases. A Retrospective Study. Amro A. Saleh)

I illustrated Sexual assault to my friend with whom I had this conversation with as being force fed a good food in an uncomfortable position where the only one who enjoys the act is the one feeding and not the one being fed. You might have an issue with my illustration but that is how I see it because I believe that sex is something that is enjoyable when done under the right circumstances and with the appropriate persons.

In one of the points raised, this friend mentioned that women can play a part in rape by expressly being seductive and doing all sorts of provocative acts. In my counter argument, I mentioned a statistics I read sometimes ago about how the majority of rape cases we have around are mostly violence done against children who can not fight for themselves and adolescents whose power can not tip over the heavy bulk of a human that decided to pin their bodies to the ground and ruin their childhood.

As a person, I think we have had enough education for the female child on how to dress and places not to go or people to be suspicious of and how their sixth sense can be cultivated and teach our men to see the thought of wanting to have a woman be "theirs" through any means as detestable.

We need to teach our men that "no" doesn't mean further pursuit and that the body of a young girl appealing to them requires them to be heavily exorcised.

I saw a tweet by a supposed celebrity in Nigeria who was advising young men who are comfortably above 30 to wait for young girls to be 18 and leave the loose women that they have had their time with alone because every day, a young child becomes 18. How did that come to his mind? How is it that when he saw a young woman, all he thought of was how he could sexually own her. This man without mincing words or cutting corners used the word "grooming". (how do we make people popular in Nigeria by the way?!)

We need to teach our young boys to see rape as cannibalistic and evil, an unredeemable act. We need to teach our young boys to see the young girls in their class not as a potential lover but a healthy competitor in the academic space. Don't normalise irrational habits of your sons. If your son thinks it is fine to kiss a random child in class on the cheeks because he sees his mom and dad do it and your reaction is that he is picking good habits from his parents' marriage and you giggle and post it, you are part of the problem. The girl isn't in a marriage with him! She didn't ask for it. Teach your sons ooo, I will have children and I will be armoured whilst raising my children. Gaskia!

We need to teach our boys; as early as age 5, we see mothers trying to make their female child not wear anything "revealing". As a man, what is making you desire a child's body? What level of depravity must you be on to think that the body of a child would give you pleasure? To see a child writhe painfully as your big member invade her excites you?

I actually believe that rape is not just an act of feeling pleasure but a depraved man's way of feeling superior.

The one way that we can try to reduce rape victims is to educate our boys, instill fear in them if possible. We have tried curtailing the girls movement and tried to cover them and it hasn't worked out that much. A good number of rape acts are done by people close to the family.

Let us try teaching the men. Teach your sons, warn your husbands and brothers. Let your sons grow with proper knowledge of courtesy and respect towards people.

Teach your boys! Have men meetings, since the claim is that men are visual and are moved and controlled by the "dangles" in between their laps, teach them what self control is. You are not an alpha whatever, this isn't the jungle, this is the world of humans who have a different kind of brain and if yours functions like that of an animal, please exit the human world.

Adiós, my friends. I trust that you have been well, living for and loving God. I commend you to God's grace.

This publication is a bit late because last week was busy for me. Thank you for reading my rants again. Like and comment, I want to hear you.

It is a new month and last month was...(the ellipses is important because, words fail me abeg!)

Last month, I went through several unlearning and relearning, I got chided and I got embraced.

The last day of June, I had a long talk on my indifference to building important relationships and seeing the need for friends. I have always known this but I always ran away from it. My excuse was simple, "it is not my fault that people don't want to be my friend." This is coming from someone who is closeted, who doesn't trust easily, who built high walls around her and enjoys lonesomensss.

By the way, July started on a good note. Just the first day of the month, I got to go out, I met with an interesting friend of mine. So I'm hoping that the rest of the month carries the same energy.

As I was saying, I have identified a couple of things I am doing wrong and I am hoping for the grit to make efforts of change.

In another news, I have been engrossed with Christian apologetics lately. With the amount of materials available for study, I feel daunted and wonder if I will ever be able to reel off facts like I see popular historian and apologists do but again I am reminded that they started somewhere too.

In this learning journey as well, the Holy Spirit is helping my heart and I continually ask Him for help too. The aim of learning is to know Him better not to get pride or seek knowledge more than intimacy and relationship with Him.

On Music;

I have been listening to SCEPTRE by anendlessocean and I am still awed at the genuity of his lyrics. The man is goooooddd! I decided to download Greatman Takit's 'Holiday', I know I am late to the party but it has been on repeat...I am yet to listen to 'Hagiazo' too.🙃 I am a stickler for routine and things staying the same so sometimes I can't get myself to listen to new songs or watch the sequel to a movie I have seen before.

Enough about me. I hope that you are staying true to yourself and the things you consider your identity.

There is a God and he loves you, call on Him when you feel weary. I pray that you are continually equipped with God's strength. Stay warm, stay wrapped in God's arm.

Adiós, my friend!

Be fruitful and multiply.❤️

However, I am currently reading a book that was published in celebration of Awolowo's birth centennial. At the time of his centennial, I wasn't even ten years old. Hilarious!😆

I am no political expert but I have always loved politics and I tried my best to be immersed in Nigeria's political culture. Lately, I have drawn away because the trend in Nigeria's politics is always sad and depressing.

I have encountered a couple of Awolowo's ideologies and philosophies and maybe, maybe the man deserves to be likened to a spiritual being. He was way ahead of his time in his visions for Nigeria. He had cleared goals, he was stoic about them, it looked like defiance to some and it was this ‘defiant’ side of him that made him loose the presidential election of 1979.

In one of the essays in the book, Awolowo was quoted and he said,

‘...the people are both the object and subject of development. Prepare and motivate the people and the people will develop their country...We must constantly remind ourselves that our people, all our people, have the ability to carry out even the most sophisticated innovations in daily life...and all the government needs to do is to encourage and help them along...'

I don't know why I love this part, it is a bit from a long conversation that I found myself reading over and over again. The first line is my favourite by the way. It tells of the people as not just people who receive but people who participate in economic expansion.

Beyond the prosperity and praise of Awolowo that filled the book, something else stood out to me, the political history of Nigeria. How we started as proud and patriotic nationalist to people who were ready to win post and seats by any means necessary.

The Nigeria of then has moved further only in deterioration. I hope that someday, our story shall be, "finally! This presidential term is better than the last tenure." Amen.

Adiós, my friend.

Thank you for entertaining my not perfect perspective on politics.

ShAdOw

When I was a child,

my mother told the tales of shadow chasing dreams:

where if you stare at your shadow too long before you sleep, you get chased by it in your dreams and despite the beauty

I always restrained myself from looking.

Now, I look at it as much as I can.

My shadow is huge and looks dauntless,

It's faceless so no one can decide it beauty scale- 1-10, what? It's beyond

It has the body that I desire.

I understand why I was told not to stare too long now,

It is so that I don't get lost in the delusions that I am only P when little light illuminates darkness.

I'm beautiful, with a face crafted intentionally

and with a body that has lived a story.

I am beyond my shadow. ©althea

As coping mechanism, humans tend to create a façade or personality to help them go through the results of difficult incidence.

I know that you might have lived a great number of years as a personality you created but it's time to let go and let out. The cracks are there, the imperfections and the the things you wish to change but step out into the sun, it might burn but it won't kill.

Step out of that faceless and empty overwhelming figure that you allow to stand as yourself. Look at the world with your real self. Do not be the one cowering, let the world cower instead.

Be open, be brave, with deep cuts and all. Look the world in the eye say to it 'noli me tangere' (touch me not).

Adiós, fellow voyagers.

I have always hopped on the next train, I prefer to live in my imaginations and revel in what could be instead of being in the present, be glad for the little and big miracles.

The light in my eyes lits up when I think about the next 10 years, 5 years even 2 but when something remarkable happens to me in the present, I am only able to say, oh, good! Smile a bit and quickly get over it.

It happened with leaving secondary school, same with getting admission after multiple try, it did again with graduating from university and it would have have continue if God hadn't pointed it out to me through the people he gave me and his spirit. I would have continued to run after the next thing, never waiting to enjoy just running, running, looking for the next source of adrenaline.

Several days, I have collapsed in my head, my mind has raged several times, fighting my "idleness" but I'm still breathing, I'm still trusting in God's process. How be it, I'm not totally free from the desire to continue this "marathon" but I'm calmer now, I know how to take a breather, look around and take in the present.

1,000 pennies for my long thought.

Adiós.

I have always hopped on the next train, I prefer to live in my imaginations and revel in what could be instead of being in the present, be glad for the little and big miracles.

The light in my eyes lits up when I think about the next 10 years, 5 years even 2 but when something remarkable happens to me in the present, I am only able to say, oh, good! Smile a bit and quickly get over it.

It happened with leaving secondary school, same with getting admission after multiple try, it did again with graduating from university and it would have have continue if God hadn't pointed it out to me through the people he gave me and his spirit. I would have continued to run after the next thing, never waiting to enjoy just running, running, looking for the next source of adrenaline.

Several days, I have collapsed in my head, my mind has raged several times, fighting my "idleness" but I'm still breathing, I'm still trusting in God's process. How be it, I'm not totally free from the desire to continue this "marathon" but I'm calmer now, I know how to take a breather, look around and take in the present.

1,000 pennies for my long thought.

Adiós.

“Will they remember me?”, “I hope they learnt from me as I have.”

These kind of questions plagued my mind constantly so I try to watch my speech, be modest, speak lesser than I listen and try to be observant enough to keep track of little details.

I thought that doing that would help make an impression.

Some days ago, I have been getting to confront this attitude and I think that it has been fear all along not modesty.

I was insecured about my intellectual capacity, about my ability to hold conversations and my beautiful personality as a human.

My resolution? Gradually, I am seeping confidence from God's word. I am challenging myself to speak more because my words are full of intelligence. I will now go into places with my head held high, I will stomp on doubts as I go in and kick it to the curb when I step on platforms.

Can you relate to my revelation?

Adiós, my friends. Be safe.

If you had asked me some years back what my thoughts on love are, I would have answered simply - love is too much of a façade to place your entire existence on.

What did I know then? What have I experienced? I knew the things I had seen, the brokenness I had experienced and the silent sadness that lit familiar faces because they had loved.

Now, I still have my experiences, my perspectives have changed. Maybe not a 360 but I see love now.

Not as the sweet words alone or the lovey dovey eyes. I see love in God, I see love in the people that He has placed about me. Now I know that love isn't just romance, love is what makes strangers into family. Love is the unexplainable feeling of companionship, the comaraderie that convinces you that this friend has your back.

And what greater love than the love of God who for us to become his children, he gave his only begotten as sacrifice of atonement. What great love that God came in sinful flesh and made us "friends".

Oh what great love!

This Easter, I hope you can allow yourself, your heart to see God's love. (Easter is the Father's love expressed through the Son.)

I pray that you see the Father's love and if you see and know it already, I pray that you know it more and more and more.

Enjoy the festive break.

Reviews will be appreciated too.😊

Selah.

Hiii, my name is ILÉRIOLUWANIMI.

This is my first post. I found substack last year and I was intrigued by what it had to offer so I downloaded the app and opened an account.

Shame on lack of courage though, I have finally shoved it aside and I plan on engaging this place actively. I don't know how to get traction here but I hope my little random and boring stories reach a lot of you here.

I love writing. In my free time, when I am not writing, I am reading, when I am not reading, I am listening to music or sermons. I am a Christian girlie.🙂🙂

Footprints with Words, I came up with it this morning and I didn't want to mull over it and get cold feets again. This is just going to be me retelling the things I go through and feel like sharing biweekly.

Join me as a walk on this space with word and stories.

Thank you!❤️