I Gave My Life to God, Took It Back and Gave It Again – Richard Alaka

I was raised in an orthodox setting, Anglican to be precise, but growing up, we would follow my mum to Christ Apostolic Church for prayers because they are known for prayers more than the Anglican; but on Sunday, it has to be Anglican. However, when I was about eight to nine years old, I stopped following them and started attending a Pentecostal church around Stadium in Ibadan. That was how I detached myself from the orthodox setting and joined the Pentecostals.

I began to attend services and was always punctual and effective, but I knew I had not become born again. However, I had this strong craving of knowing this God better. This continued until 1993 when I finished my senior secondary education. I discovered that I did not make good grades in Physics during my examination, so I started attending a coaching class to prepare for the October/November examination called GCE. Suddenly, I was attacked by this strange ailment that would ache my back and leave me bedridden for a while before it relieved me, strangely too. I went round for spiritual healing to no avail. Many pastors prayed for me but no positive result. Though I still attended the GCE lessons, I was not fit health-wise. One day, as I was being prayed for by some pastors, as the pain was excruciating, I asked God in my mind if He would just be watching me die like this.

This continued until my mother, who is a teacher, was transferred from Ibadan to Ororuwo in Osun state. We discovered an evangelical church around the place, it was a small setting of about 10 to 12 members. I decided to join them and at about the third service I attended, I told the pastor about my ailment. The man of God, Pastor Samson Oyetoro asked me if I believed God could heal me and I said yes. He also asked if I was born again and I discovered that I couldn’t answer that question straight, rather I gave him a recap of my life history, my orthodox background and how I have been going to church. He, therefore, led me to Christ and prayed for my healing.

I felt so joyful and I started attending Bible Study with a difference. The pastor would pray for me and check on me and attend to me medically as he was a trained nurse and just like magic, the aliment miraculously disappeared. Just sitting under the man of God, hearing the word of God, a strange ailment left. That made me stay with him for a while until I wrote my examination and gained admission to study Architecture at Osun State College of Technology, Esa-Oke. I can consciously say that I gave my life to Christ on the 4th of November 1993, after finishing from secondary school.

However, when I was at Esa-Oke, I faced some financial crisis and some other issues that got so bad that I could not cope with the demands of Architecture again. The financial demands were so high that I could not proceed with my Higher National Diploma (HND). So, I wrote UME and crossed over to the University of Ibadan (UI) where I studied Agriculture, which was a bit less demanding financially.

Yet, the difficulty continued in my first semester in UI. I had pressure and more demands as a new student in a university environment, and that was when I backslid and told God to let me be.

But thank God for the life of a brother whom I met towards the end of the first semester in year one, Gilbert by name. He was the one God used to bring me back to Himself. That was in 1995 and that was when I said to God that I was sorry and that He should take me back. And thank God since then, I am still waxing strong in the Lord. I cannot say the journey has been smooth ever since, but I have more understanding of God and deeper relationship with Him. This has kept me strong in Him and will continue to keep me.