Joy Ijeoma: SALT OF THE EARTH: A Closer View

My mum brought back the washed bitter-leaf, and as usual, put it on the tray for it to dry up before she packaged it for the journey. But it was wrong timing, and this was not the first time it was happening. It was the rainy season, where it could rain for days without the Sun giving a peek from the clouds. Each time as we turned the vegetable, we felt it getting stickier and stickier, and it was like history was repeating itself all over again.

You see, my mother once brought back washed bitter-leaf to dry before sending it to someone, but it was also during the rainy season, and we watched helplessly as the rain came down each day, making sure the Sun never shone until the vegetable got bad, going to waste. We had to buy another batch, thank God He sent the Sun the next time.

So you understand our fear as the vegetable was sticking together. Then my mother remembered! She had been told by a woman to toss the vegetable with salt, to avoid it sticking and stinking, so she did just that, and voila! The change was almost immediate. The salt preserved the vegetable and soon the Sun came out and dried it properly.

I got thinking about the effect of the salt, and the bible verse came to me “Ye are the salt of the earth…” (Matthew 5:13).

The world is full of ups and downs, today you have a lot to be thankful for with the Sun shining brightly. The next day, you are thankful for the fact that you are alive to look for what to be thankful for, with clouds so thick over your head you are left wondering if the Sun will ever shine again.

That is when we should step in as salt of the earth and preserve each other until the Sun comes out again. We should hold each other’s hands, preserving each other’s faith by the grace of God, until the Sun of Righteousness rises with healing in His wings (Malachi 4:2)

Sometimes preserving the next person may mean crying with them.

Sometimes it may mean praying for them or with them with all the compassion you can muster.

Sometimes it may mean not giving up on them, stomaching the nonsense, no matter how often they ask you to mind your own business.

Sometimes it may mean joining a friend through the journey of fasting and praying, so they don’t give up on themselves.

There are many ways through which we are called to be salt of the earth, to the earth, but in all, let’s retain our saltiness.

Sent in From Lagos by Joy Ijeoma Nwankwo She's also on twitter as @JoyIjeoma

The Borrower's Mentality 1

"If the borrower can reason like the lender, paying of debts would be so easy" - Elekwa O. Elekwa

It's 20th day of the Month, Emeka seriously needs 50,000 naira to complete the 150,000 naira he already has to 200,000 naira so he can make some purchases for his Supper Market this coming weekend. Emeka is not so rich, but he makes some cool cash, as it stands now, he has already committed some money to his suppliers who just called in to inform him to "please bear with them" that they can't supply between Wednesday and Friday, if he can't get this 50,000 naira in two days, he would not have goods for the weekend and that's not good for business.

Emeka has called more than eight of his friends and has been 'entertained' by numerous stories from them, the conclusion was that none of them could lend to him at this time.

Obinna is Emeka's church member, they relate well as well as visit each other too. Obinna is seen as a rich, wealthy and comfortable man. The truth is that he is not as rich as people see him, is just that he plans himself well, saves enough when he can and always lives and spends within his means. He neither makes as much as Emeka does nor as much as Emeka believes he does.

Now the last thought on Emeka's mind is Obinna.

He rings Obinna, narates his ordeal to him and asked him to please lend him N50,000, that he'll pay him immediately he gets the money back. Obinna told him, he's not that bouyant, but let him see what he could do. As the case may be, Obinna actually had just 35,000 naira in his account at that time and was ernastly expecting the Month to end so he can get more money and carry out other financial activities he needed to get into. Since his wife runs an eatery, feeding wasn't a problem at home and Emeka's work place is just few distance from his home, so he usually drives to work with his Legedez Benz. He decides to withdraw 30,000 naira from his account and find a way to complete it 50,000 naira and help his brother since he hopes to get the money the next week and the 30,000 naira wasn't actually doing anything in his account. Obinna was able to raise some 20,000 naira and send the 50,000 to Emeka. And Emeka was so happy and promised to pay back as soon as possible.

Over the weekend, Emeka's Supper Market was bubbling, he made so much money. When it was Monday morning, he thought of paying back to Obinna just as he promised, but so many other thoughts came into his head. He thought within himself, "for Obinna to give me 50,000 naira within that short time, that means he must have more than 200,000 naira in his account, that means withholding this 50,000 naira from him at this time won't kill him, he can wait for sometime, and if I can invest this 50,000 naira in my business this time around instead of giving it back to him, I can make more money". Emeka was making money and also having these same thoughts and stayed for more than two months without paying Obinna the money he borrowed from him.

Say "aye" if you've been in Obinna's shoe before and "wee" if you've ever found yourself in Emeka's shoe.

@Elexharry

Happy Birthday Fab!

orn after him. While he was boasting about that in class, Fab asked him, "when were you born?" and he replied 14th January, Fab then told him, "you see, I was born before you because I was born on 12th!" So since that day, I don't forget 12th and 14h January.

I started knowing my friend Fabian from our days at our Church's Vocational Bible School which normally take place during Long Vacations. Later he disappeared from us and went to ASTEC for his Secondary Education. He later came back from ASTEC and joined us in our school where a big part of our childhood was shaped together. We used to see each other almost everyday of the week (weekdays in school, Saturday in Church and Sunday for Pathfinder Club Meetings) with so much visits to eache other and those memories are always there with me.

Fab was one of the best Football players we had in our set in those days, He and Kedy were among the highest Goal Scorers (I didn't score any Goals because I and my twin brother were the best sort after Goalkeepers then). During Utuaka days (General beating) Fab, Man and Chisom including Chinaka and some other guys were the biggest threats as they could make the entire JSS 3 class descend on you by just shouting and pointing at you. I'm laughing so hard as I write this now, those days, you just have to stay away from these guys after Devotion or during break period to avoid some general beating, my friend that will celebrate his birthday on 14th received a huge part of these beatings and he was so strong to carry it, I mean very strong because after passing through that experience once, I never prayed for such again, it was terrible, but those were some of the things that made our childhood days cool.

Fab was present at my Matriculation on 12th June 2004 and that created a huge impression for me. My Twin brother won't forget his presence during his Swearing-in too.

My friendship with Fab did not end in Church and School, it also got home. Our Mum and his Mum knew us as brothers rather than friends. Fab's Mum doesn't play with us. Whenever we visit, she would always take good care of us, during University days (since we didn't attend the same School), whenever she sees us (my twin brother and I), she'll ask us the last time we communicated with our brother and how he was doing. She never played with us, always took us as her own Children. The last time I saw her last year, while we were talking, she even told me it would be wonderful if we and our brother married the same time. I wept within and without when heard the news of her death last year, it was a painful feeling. While walking down to their place in the village a day before day burial, I was pained because I never visited their village when Fab's mum was alive, she would've been so happy to see me around. I'm sorry if this part will cause some pain to my friend, but I can't mention our friendship without mentioning his wonderful Mum who took me, my twin brother and our other friends as her own Children.

I've been to Babcock University just once (in 2007), and Fab's graduation was one of the things that took me there, I can remember sleeping in his room that Saturday night before the graduation and enjoying some granula served from their canteen the next morning.

For our class mates from Secondary school, don't be surprised when you meet Fab now, he's no more that Fab of Utuaka days, he's now cool, quite and the way he thinks and the things he says, you can only but see the glaring differences hehehe, I told him Babcock changed his life but he told me it was actually the religious books he has been reading and his close relationship with God in recent times.

Today, the Lord has added a year to Fab's life, Glory be to His name! May He continue to bless my friend with testimonies in Jesus name amen.

Happy Birthday Fab Man.

Meet Dr. Obinna Andy Ebere According to @Elexharry

Though we were actually from the same Fellowship, My first meeting with Andie was not in the Fellowship but in my room. He just got admitted then and I was in fourth year (06/07), he came to visit my room mate (Kaycee who was also in 100 level), they had a General Course together (Physics practical) and Andie was rallying from room to room to get guys together so they can confront and correct the lecturer who he believed was not making out time for them. This cause he was rallying for, defines a big part of him, he always wants to see things move in the direction he deemed right, he does anything possible within his powers to control things to his taste.

I've known Andie for close to 7 years now (2007-2014) and all through these years, I've come to admire this young man in so many ways, one of such is his pragmatic stance to issues; though he is a Christian who believes in faith in God, he will work as if it all depends on him and still pray knowing it depends on God. We've worked together at different times and in different positions; I can remember When I was the Fellowship P.R.O. and he was Sabbath School Superindent, I enjoyed working with him because he would always get his programs ready at the time I want it so I can produce the Fellowship bulletin without hitches. Also when I was the Fellowship President and he was the Chairman of the Evangelism Committee, not withstanding that he lost his Dad at that time, he also added his quota to the onward movement of God's work. There were other instances too that would be too much to be contained in this write up.

We also served in the same leadership catergories in the fellowship; I handed over to him as the The Fellowship President and as the Prayer Band Coodinator respectively.

I won't forget to add that He was also a HYPERJACKER! Andie can read for the whole of Africa! Yes! it's that serious! He's always in a hurry to rush back to class and continue with his books, yes he's a lover of knowledge, I can testify to that. From an angle too, if you misunderstand his pragmatic and realistic attitude, and his habit of saying it the way it is, you might see it that he is boasting because he's just plain with issues with no strings attached. Of course, we were once room mates for some weeks before I packed out of the Fellowship Secretariate after handing over to him. SDAH 537 (He Leadeth Me) was the hymn I heard him sing the most, he prefers singing it in Igbo.

I feel it would be incomplete for me to write about Andie without mentioning Armstrong Anonaba. Armstrong is one of his closest friends in school, they share a lot together...

I call him Andie! You can also call him "Andy Baba" as Chybez Ohiara and Armstrong always call him.

He's also an Evangelist and a Preacher. Andie loves working for God with his skills, talent, profession, and anything he could lay hold of. That could be seen from His involvement with Behold He Cometh Evangelistic Team, ALIVE Nigeria and other organisations that propagates the Gospel.

Few Wash Hands Properly, Study FindsHow Well Do You Wash Your Hands?

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Did you wash your hands properly after you used the toilet? Probably not, a new study suggests.

Researchers discreetly watched 3,749 people, 60 percent of them women, after they used public toilets in a Michigan college town. Over all, 10.3 percent did not wash their hands at all, and 22.8 percent used no soap. The remainder did use soap, but only 5.3 percent washed for longer than 15 seconds, soap or no soap. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, proper washing means rubbing vigorously with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

Men did worse than women — almost 15 percent of them did not wash at all, compared with 7.1 percent of women. People were more likely to wash their hands properly if there were motion-detection faucets, a clean sink or a sign encouraging the practice.

The authors acknowledge that the presence of even discreet observers could have affected behavior, probably encouraging more hand washing. The study appeared in The Journal of Environmental Health.

“Forty-eight million people a year get sick from contaminated food,” said the lead author, Carl P. Borchgrevink, an associate professor at Michigan State University, “and the C.D.C. says 50 percent would not have gotten sick if people had washed their hands properly. Do as your mom said: Wash your hands.”

New York Times.

BEHIND THE SCENES-Lessons from the making. Dare to be a Job!

Whatever you do, don't forget that you may just be at the brighter side of an "Almaco" window pane; God could be at d darker side you know!...And you know what, to you inside, it looks like an opaque mirror but from the dark outside, it's a very clear transparent piece of Glass!

5

4

3

2


1

ACTION!

The cameras were set, sound was ok, no editing no director, just as raw as it was!Remember if he fails, you'll loose your championship to the devil (and come to think of it, you've never lost a bet!) God must have thought! But hey, you don't dare touch his life were God's instruction to him!

Little did Job know he was in the raw scenes of a REALITY TV SHOW in a theatre in Heaven watched by God, host of Angels and probablly, the very deviltempting him!

God had a bet on Job's allegiance and faithfulness to Him with the devil! He was sooooo sure He wont loose!

That's the way he comes -Just eat the apple, just bow down a little, just curse God... You'll not surely die(meaning: it's not that you'll die just like He makes it look. ok I just took it, did I die?) Just, just, just, as if it were that negligible and insignificant!

I can imagine the standing ovation the theatre gave after the last scenes of the show! Of course, he left; I mean the devil- sooooo disappointed!

Can God have a bet on me with the devil or will He just say to the devil " Don't just stress yourself, I know he's yours, call out another christain" or "I don't wish to mess up my records; I've never lost before and don't wish to do now" or even "hey satan, I don't play no dice, no probabilities just certainty or nothing"

I hate it when devil says to God "I said it, didn't I? It's just because of the wealth and blessings you gave him/her!"

When I see Job upstairs, I'll kiss him strongly on the Face and I'll say "here is a Golden pen (given to me by God himself) and paper; could you please sign me your Autograph? And He'll say "hey buddy, we're all Celebrities up here! Do you really need this?"

I want to be like the Bible Job he was perfect and upright in the sight of God!

Its no fairy tale, it's real!

I can be like he was through Christ who strengthens me!

I believe in Perfectionism!

Now you've said all these, pray to God to help you Nothing could be more pleasurable for Him!

Dare to be a Job!

Elvis Chidi-Ezeama
@Elvischido

CHILDREN ARE WHAT THEY LIVE WITH

Nneoma Chuku (@duchess153)

As parents and adults who take care of children, we often might not realise how far our actions or inactions affect these little ones and even who they become in future. I hope you find this piece enlightening.

If a child lives with criticism,
He learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility,
He learns to fight.

If a child lives with ridicule,
He learns to be shy.

If a child lives with shame,
He learns to feel guilty.

If a child lives with tolerance,
He learns to be patient.

If a child lives with encouragement,
He learns to have confidence.

If a child lives with praise,
He learns to appreciate.

If a child lives with fairness,
He learns justice

If a child lives with security,
He learns to have faith.

If a child lives with approval,
He learns to like himself

If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
He learns to find love in the world.

You can follow the contributor on twitter - @duchess153