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Forty-Nine year ago I kissed this world welcome…

I came after a long wait of a dear father, who had moved from one woman to another in search of heirs…

To my mother, I was OLUWAWEMIMO, the one through whom the LORD rolled away her reproach, having lost her very first child /daughter at birth and now she is blessed with twins…

I was an answer to the prayers of father and mother and their well wishers…

Childhood was everything but fun, it was a BOUNTIFUL BASKET of ABUSES and it was not the fault of those who EARNESTLY WISHED for me and invited me from the very safe bossom of my LORD…The real challenge is this and it is still very common to many primary and secondary caregivers today, particularly in Africa: those who WISHED for me obviously did not know WHO they WISHED for and WHY they WISHED for me and therefore did not know HOW to RAISE the ONE they WISHED for. I guess they were PRODUCTS of their own lost CHILDHOOD…

With most profound respect to those divinely and primarily saddled with the sacred responsibility of raising me and their blessed memory, I was not RAISED, I was ERASED, physically, emotional, sexually and by neglect…

From CHILDHOOD through teenage years and early ADULTHOOD, I lived an ERASED life in ways that words are too weak to describe…

Then came that GREAT, STRATEGIC and UNFORGETTABLE DAY, February 16, 1997, I experienced another BIRTH in Christ Jesus…The ERASED me was RAISED BY HIM, IN HIM and FOR HIM and sent on the LIFETIME errand to RAISE others, who were like me ERASED from CHILDHOOD and help ensure that from then on, our precious AFRICAN children are RAISED and not ERASED and their priceless CHILDHOOD preserved…

Then from my LORD and SAVIOUR Jesus Christ, I picked the GAUNTLET with this inscription, ‘NO CHILD shall once AGAIN be ERASED under my WATCH….NO, NOT ONE…’

This how, by HIS GRACE I make this GIFT and RESPONSIBILITY, called LIFE count and THIS IS WHAT THIS LIFE means to me, Today and always, till when I shall see HIM on that day: ERASED Childhood… EMPTY Young Adulthood… CHANGE Pilgrimage…HOPE for the PRECIOUS AFRICAN CHILD…

On Fri. March 29, I will be sharing on LIFE and LESSONS FROM TRENCHES at my weekly LIVE Broadcast at our group S.A.F.E™ School of STANDARDS
https://www.facebook.com/groups/576030869535441 Join the group TODAY and make it a date with me as this is still very well part of my birthday celebration…

Do have an INSPIRED day as you join me to count the BOUNTIFUL BLESSINGS of today, by the SEED that I PLANT and not the HARVEST that I REAP, in the words of Robert Louis Stevenson.

Yours IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE PRECIOUS AFRICAN CHILD ON THE DAY OF MY BIRTH,

Taiwo AKINLAMI

The Preacher