A KIND OF RAHAB: Part 1 The early memories of my life were characterized by love, attention and the sweet memories

of a blissful family. Being the first child of my parents the experiences of my growing up years cannot but be described as heavenly. I spent the first three years of my life with my grandmother and later came back to live with my parents in Lagos. However, the sweet experiences were rather short lived, when things started to fall out between my young parents- they were both 21 when they got married- when they began to have incessant quarrels between them and before anyone could notice they had hit the rocks in their relationship. Things took a turn for the worse when one day my father came home and took all the property in our house and off to Ile-Ife he went with us to another life entirely. In Ile-Ife my father had started plans to marry another woman and so it was my fathers wifes pleasure to make sure life was unbearable for my siblings and I. On so many occasions we were subjected to hard work and its own kind of slavery with little or no food which made the responsibility of feeding my siblings most of the time one I had to carry, since my father and his new found love spent more of their time having fun and traveling all over without caring a hoot what happened to us in their absence. At the age of 13 thirteen, I had gone through the most harrowing experiences (sexual abuse, fatherly molestation, spiritual attacks, etcetera). About two years of living in hell with my father (I had saved up enough money to transport me back to Lagos), one morning, having made sure that my siblings were fed and my father and his wife were out of town I packed the little belongings I possessed and went back to find my life by starting with finding the mother, who never made an effort to look for us. With uncertainty and hope in my heart, I eventually located my mother, this bold step was what propelled my mother to later go in search of my siblings to bring them back home to live with her, thus began another long chapter of my life. Being saddled with the unusual yet familiar responsibility of taking care of five children, my mother spent her entire time working hard to make sure there was food on the table, clothes on our backs, shelter over our heads and a good education to follow it up- I must say that it was not easy for her to carry the burden of two people all on her own without having to pay the price-. As children we had to sacrifice what most children from single parentage care experience, the lack of parental attention and care. Without any supervision and care at the age of fourteen I started smoking cigarettes and dating boys. At the age of sixteen I became pregnant and had to stop school to have the baby, it was a tough experience for me but my mother helped me through, I had my baby and also sat for my GCE exams at the same time. Things turned around for me after the baby. I was a child with a child, I had dreams that I did not want to give up but I also had to take care of my baby. Although my mother was supportive for a while she

eventually turned around on me. I had to take responsibility for my actions- as my boyfriend was too young to be capable of taking care of me and my child- thus came the reality of feeding my son and I. I took the decision that most teenage mothers in my condition took I used what I had to get what I needed. I had dreams and aspirations, but my dreams had to remain on hold for reality to take control. At age 18 I got admission into Unilag to read a Diploma and so came the chance for me to leave home. I moved into my own small apartment from where I did my own business asides going to school to make ends meet, after all I had a son to take care of. My mother at this time had begun to experience signs of mental disorder as an effect of her single parent state and also the later effects of her husbands rejection and denial. I lived a high rolling life, had strings of boy and men friends, partied, did alcohol, smoked hemp and eventually went into heroine. I must say at this point in time that for me it became inevitable that I lived that way to survive on the street, after all like the saying goes when you are in Rome you

behave like a Roman.

In 1996 I completed my diploma and went out to look for a job and the very first real job I got was in a night club on Victoria Island, I took the job because at the time I had become desperate for something to do as my strings of boyfriends were beginning not to perform as they used to, besides I was no longer enjoying myself anymore. Having a means of empowerment, I stayed with this job for about a year, working hard and saving every penny I made. That same year, after successfully sitting for JAMB, I gained admission back into Unilag to read B.sc Mass Communication. At this time I had to take the chance to further secure my future and move one step closer to the future I had always dreamed of and so I resigned my job in the night club to face my studies. However, prior to this time we had begun to experience problems at home, my mother was no longer working her mental illness had deteriorated and so feeding and paying for rent was a problem. The little we survived on came from me and from the goodwill of neighbours. By the time I was registering for my course in Unilag we had become homeless, with every one scattered all over with nowhere to go, my siblings in different places, and my son at a friends place. (I tried going to my father for help, but he was no longer interested in anything that had to do with my mother and her children as he had started a new family.) Those early days were struggles; I spent my first year back in the university sleeping in classrooms at night, taking lectures in the day. To have my bath every morning I had to make it into the hostel before 6.00am before the hostel occupants woke up to use the bathroom. I was determined to sail through the time, I did not let my situation discourage me and I never wore my situation on my face, I buried myself in my studies and stopped doing hard drugs, I stayed away from the places and people that had negative effects on my life. It was a hard decision I had to take if I was to take charge of what was left of my life.

The turning point for me came in my second year in the university. Starring into space one day I began to tell myself that my life was heading for the rocks if I did not take a turn around I first of all needed to deal with the stress I was faced with. With my mother being a patient at a psychiatric ward (she had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder- PSTD) and me having to care for her and my son at the time was just more than I could take. I decided to take up some sort of physical activity to ease my tension, and so I started out with aerobics, I will go out every morning and night to jog before and after my lectures. One day I discovered a taekwondo club and joined it. Its important to state that at this point that there is always a point in our lives, where we need to channel the negative emotions, which our struggles build up in us through the lies that the Devil suggests to us into more positively driven arenas. I needed to direct all the negative emotions I was faced with daily into something else and my discovery of taekwondo proved a most suitable tool to help me achieve this. As time went by I became very active and it took second place to my studies. I found joining this sport helped me cope with ME and it also helped me fit into what seemed like one big family. It also gave me back some self-confidence in myselfI had begun to consider suicide as a solution to my misfortunes-, after three months of regular consistent training I won a gold medal at the Inter-hall sports, and later won a bronze medal at the National Sports Festival to become the third best female taekwondo player in the country. I became an active competitor, winning medals, becoming better at my schoolwork, learning how to live a positive life without being hooked on drugs and all other immoralities. I learnt to use my past as a motivating factor for the future and see my experiences as a tool to becoming great. I also learnt that self-discipline; humility, modesty, perseverance, self-control and an indomitable spirits are key principles to living a life of success. I also learnt that the failure of other significant people in ones life, such as our parents does not mean failure for one as an individual. I learnt also to become a better version of my parents, carefully taking the stages in life one at a time. Learning most importantly that the greatest love of all is the love of God and that if one has the love of God inside making a turn around becomes easy to do. I not only finished with a Second Class Honors in Mass Communication but also finished as one of the best graduating female in the Journalism Class. Today, I stand tall with a good degree, an accomplished sports woman and taekwondo instructor, married to the amazement of myself. Above all an individual who made a turn around from the road to failure back on to the road of success and greatness, AGAINST ALL THE ODDS. God is still shaping my life and building me for a purpose, and like so many young women out there, my word is for you to hold on, crawl back to Jesus and HE will make something beautiful of your life.

And so I say to all young people out there who are in similar or worse situations that all hope is not lost, now is the time to turn around and make something of the mess circumstances in life have brought your way, its never too late to say no to failure and yes to life.

A KIND OF RAHAB PART 2 - Celebrating the Virtue of the Unusual Woman According to Biblical History, in the book of Joshua (Joshua 2:1-7), the Israelites had spent over 400 years in the wilderness and were on their way to claim the promises of God over their lives. The Hebrews were encamped at Shittim, in the "Arabah" or Jordan valley opposite Jericho, ready to cross the river. Joshua, as a final preparation, sent out two spies to investigate the military strength of Jericho (Joshua 1:1). The spies stayed in Rahab's house (Joshua 1:2), which was built into the city wall. When soldiers of the city guard came to look for them, she hid them under bundles of flax on the roof. The soldiers sent to capture the spies asked Rahab to bring out the spies (Joshua 2:3). This is in strict keeping with Eastern customs, which would not permit any man to enter a woman's house without her permission. Rahab told the spies (Joshua 2:9-13):
I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death.

After escaping, the spies promised to spare Rahab and her family after taking the city, even if there should be a massacre, if she would mark her house by hanging a red cord out the window. The fact of her covering the spies with bundles of flax which lay on her house-roof (Joshua 2:6) is an 'undersigned coincidence' which strictly corroborates the narrative. It was the time of the barley harvest, and flax and barley are ripe at the same time in the Jordan valley, so that the bundles of flax stalks might have been expected to be drying just then". When the city of Jericho fell (Joshua 6:17-25), Rahab and her whole family were preserved according to the promise of the spies, and were incorporated among the Jewish people. (In siege-warfare up to the 19th century: a city that fell after a prolonged siege was commonly subjected to a massacre.)

In our current time and age, there are so many Rahabs, i.e. young women, ladies, older women and even teenagers who have found themselves indulging in compromising professions, forgetting who they really are due to circumstances beyond their control. A lot of these women have been fearfully and wonderfully made by Jehovah El-Elyon. Rahabs who have not only followed professions that have been termed as socially unacceptable and regarded as outcasts professions. I once read in a book titled: The hooker with a heart of gold, where the lead character, was a depiction of our THE MODERN DAY RAHAB in which a "fallen woman", usually a prostitute, is in fact a kindly and internally wholesome person, who is sometimes established in contrast to another female character who is morally perfect but frigid or otherwise unyielding. In early stories these hookers were usually named Amanda, which in Latin means "loveable". Hookers with hearts of gold are typically reluctant prostitutes selling their bodies due to either desperation or coercion from a pimp. Today, some of us have been in similitude or exact positions as the Biblical RAHAB, who in spite of her professions and ways, God has still found in us a willing heart worthy of use to the glory of his name, through the testimonies he has wrought by the examples that abound in our lives. Remember that RAHAB, in spite of her profession earned unique praise for her faith, and a place in the lineage of Christ. This then goes to show that, in all women lays the same faith that was revealed and demonstrated through this one woman of faith. Another contrasting revelation is the same that Jesus demonstrated with Mary Magdalene, who spent her life exemplifying the true spirit of worship and appreciation of Jesus love towards her. These great women of Biblical history, comes to demonstrate to us the potential we all have; while also reminding us not to be prejudiced (how many of us would expect a great act of faith from a hooker? How many of us would not only have walked by her house, but crossed to the other-side of the street so as not to be contaminated) Yet, God blessed this woman by putting her in the lineage of Christ. God's blessings come in surprising packages. RAHAB has been considered as an example of active faith, and despite whatever her past may have been before her turning to the true God, she was later considered among the righteous: I and so many other women out there consider ourselves as RAHABs of our time and God has wrought great and mighty miracles through the FAITH of so many. Rejected by society, RAHAB still trusted that the Lord will not reject her. Abandoned by her friends and society because of a life of prostitution, she trusts that the Lord will not abandon her. One outstanding attribute of RAHAB asides her beauty, was her intellectual prowess, which she kept close to her heart until when she had use of it. However, in the Talmudic literature, RAHAB was recorded to have been ten years old when the Israelites came out of Egypt, and she pursued her immoral calling during the forty years that the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness. There was neither a prince nor a ruler that had not had relations with her; and she was therefore

well informed of what was going on outside Jericho. And she had even become a sincere proselyte of the cult of Yahweh before her salvation. The story of Rahab is an amazing story of faith of a despised member of society from a godless nation. In the New Testament, James gives Rahab as an example in James 2:25 of a person whose faith causes them to do good works. And in Hebrews 11:31 she is listed in the famous roaster of the heroes of the faith along with Moses, Abraham, and Noah. This shows that the mercy of God is available to all RAHABs alike. The same God who could take a despised personality like RAHAB and brought forth through her the lineage of the Saviour of the World and elevated her to a position of honor among the greatest in the history of Israel. RAHAB went from harlot to heroine. God can and will do the same thing for each of us. It doesnt matter how un-worthy we may be. It doesnt matter how despised we may or feel. God loves us as much as he loved RAHAB. He can elevate us from a confused, rejected, discriminated sinner to a person of HONOR and place us in the greatest FAITH HALL OF FAME. All we have to do is believe on him.

I must say, its been a while since I put my heart or thoughts on paper, and somehow I kind of feel some sort of anxiety trying to put into words the different emotions and struggles I have had to go through in the last 6 months of my new life. Figure! I didnt expect that the meal of MARRIAGE that I picked from the MENU of life was going to serve me with so much hurt, anger, bitterness, frustration, disappointment, hope, fear, euphoriaall at the same time. To my nave and expectant soul, all I wanted to have a taste of was the seemingly described bliss, joy, happiness, love, and a never ending feeling of satisfaction. Alas! Was I wrong? What the MASTER CHEF of this great meal failed to describe was that I had to first of all savor the unpleasantness of the meal before I can begin to enjoy the beautiful taste that WE ALL, like me look forward to savoring when we order for the great meal of MARRIAGE. I dont want to be misunderstood here, MARRIAGE is a great necessity in life. Those who crave to experience it, crave a SACRED and BEAUTIFUL experience; those who shy away from the experience, shy away from it because of the great MYSTERIES that lies therein. The mysteries that abound therein is enshrouded in the same mysteries that is hidden since the beginning of the world. The same mystery The Serpent desired to discover when he came into the garden of Eden with the deception game that he used to lure Eve, which gave Adam and the entire human race away for eternity. What does it entail for two people with different personalities, disposition, exposure to socialization process, environmental influence, peer influence, educational background, cultural disposition, etcetera, to leave their immediate family, and claim that the little time they have spent in courtship is enough

for them to survive a lifetime. I ask myself if it is remotely possible for them not to have conflict, chaos, confusion and clashes in the midst of the love they profess to feel for each other. Is love really enough to pull them through? Or t