My parents separated when I was about 7 years old. We lived in Nigeria but had to move to Ghana where my mum is from. My mum moved back into her father’s house to live with her mother and half siblings who had children too. There wasn’t any room for us so we had to share a room with my grandmother. My mum, my brothers and I slept on one bed. Things were difficult and there was a lot of family politics in that house. As a result of this my mum sent me and my older brother to boarding school early. I was 11 years old when I went to boarding school. My mum would visit my brother and I at school weekly, during one of these visits she told us we would be moving to our new home soon. She took my brothers and I to a block of new newly built flats and told us we would be moving into one of the flats, we even had the opportunity of choosing which flat we wanted as we were the first to view the property. My brothers and I choose the top flat (fourth floor). My mum then told us we would be moving straight to our new home from school and we would not be returning to our old home. It felt like a dream, we were so excited. The new neighbourhood had streets and street lights, it was beautiful, and my brother and I had never seen anything like it.
We finally vacated from school and went straight to our new home. When we got there we realized we had nothing, no chairs, no beds, no furniture, we literally had nothing, and our flat was empty. We were still very happy regardless and could not believe we had our own home, we were content and excited.
One day we went to church and the pastor’s message was titled ‘tomorrow by this time’ he preached about how God could bless you and you could have all you wanted ‘tomorrow by this time’ (figuratively). For me and my brothers it meant God furnishing our home. I remember my brothers and I would jokingly declare everyday what we wanted from God, we would say things like tomorrow by this time we would have beds or tomorrow by this time we would have chairs etc. And gradually things started happening, we come home from school once and our mother had bought a sofa, another time she had bought a mattress, then beds, then fitted wardrobes etc.
I remember proudly inviting two of my friends to my home, at the time we had the sofa and a little black and white TV. I was proud of my home, but guess what my friends went back to school to tell everyone I was very poor and that we had nothing. My friend gossiped about how I carried myself like I was from a rich home when I was actually very poor and laughed at me behind my back.
I used to dress very well and I spoke well too. So people assumed I was rich, they did not know 99% of my clothes were second-hand clothes from the ‘bend down boutique’ (bed down boutique is where clothes are sold on the floor and you had to literally bend down to sort out what you want and then negotiate the price,this is the cheapest type of second-hand clothes). My mum would take me to the market very early in the morning about 5am so we could get bargains on second hand clothing. I’ve always had an eye for fashion and would usually pick what was trending. I took pride in my appearance in spite of my family’s situation so how I presented was very different from my reality.
Image if those friend had visited when we had no chairs? At least they had chairs to sit on and a TV to watch. Anyway….. What people did not know was that my mother, brothers and I barley had food to eat most times and every day was a struggle but things got better as my mum kept praying and working hard. The surprises kept coming. One of my most memorable surprises then was returning home from boarding school to find we had a house phone (landline) I was over the moon, my friends could actually call me? That was a big deal for me. It was at this moment that my older brother asked me “Aisher do you remember that sermon a few years back?’ Tomorrow by this Time’”. We all laughed about it and praised God.
My mum, my brothers and I still remember ‘Tomorrow by this Time’. When my mum heard the sermon she had no idea she could accomplish what she did, she had a low paid job that could barely pay the bills and put food on the table, each day was a struggle and our ‘Tomorrow by this Time’ looked impossible but we kept prophesying it anyway. God did the impossible for me and my family when we least expected, we did not even see it happening, we only noticed it when it had happened. God was and is faithful. He provided our every need, he gave me and my family a testimony that unites us till today. We all look back and boldly declare that our God is good.
I don’t know what ‘Tomorrow by this Time’ looks like for you but trust God, he is too faithful to fail. I cannot wait to hear your testimonies.
I hope you enjoyed reading, have a blessed week and remember God is up to something new and beautiful for you and your family ‘Tomorrow by this Time’ ☺️.
Please like, comment and share. I would love to hear your stories too xx
www.seasonsandtestimonies.com
