“He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD” — Psalm 113:9.
“PRAISE the Lord! My name is Michael Nwankwo from the Watchman Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement, Angola. Brethren, I am privileged to stand in the midst of the people of God today to testify of the goodness of the Lord in my life, my family and the church. I want to say that God is faithful. In 2007 during the Empowerment Programme held at the Watchman Fellowship Centre, Aguda, Lagos, I was privileged to have received the blessing of the man of God (the Watchman General Superintendent). It happened that during the programme, some brethren had come up to recite some passages of the Bible. I was particularly challenged by the efforts of a sister who blazed the trail. Though I could recite some chapters as well, I went home after the programme and did some home work. The following Sunday, I signified my intention and was given the opportunity. I recited seven chapters of the Bible. When I was through, the man of God called me along with some others who had also recited some chapters and laid his hands on us and blessed us.
Now, sometime in 2007, I travelled out of the country to seek greener pastures. Having the promises of God pronounced by the man of God at the back of my mind, I went to Angola and told myself that the worst thing that could happen to me in that country was for me to lose my salvation. But I held on to it and I thank God for His enablement and His manifestations of Himself in diverse ways in that place.
I now want to also testify to the glory of God how ten years of childlessness was broken in my family. I was joined in marriage with my wife in 2003 in the Watchman. I remember very well the topic of the message that was preached that day. It was titled, “You Have Need Of Patience After You Have Done The Will Of God”. After the marriage, our expectations were high but months passed and stretched into years, yet there was no conception. My wife became restless and she started to visit some hospitals. She was examined and was given a clean bill of health. I was also invited for examination, but according to the doctor, it would take a miracle for me to be able to father a child. I told myself that that was a human point of view and kept my fingers crossed. At a point, however, I started to receive treatment but nothing came out of it.
Like I said earlier, I relocated to Angola in 2007 and in 2009 my wife joined me. In 2010, the prayer warriors had a programme that was slated for those waiting for the visitation of the Lord in the area of conception. In the course of it, a brother prophesied that God had answered our prayers and that we should go and start buying baby clothes. We went to the market to purchase some items for babies, believing in the power of God to do all things. Meanwhile, a pastor came on a visit and in the course of his ministration, word of prophecies came on my behalf. He shouted my name severally and proclaimed that God was saying that His blessings had come upon me. Later in 2011, my wife said somebody had recommended a gynecologist to her that the man had helped some people with similar challenges that we had. I said to her that my hope was not in any gynecologist. However, after much persuasion I concurred, since there was nothing wrong in seeing a gynecologist; so we drove to the address she provided. We couldn’t trace the place so we decided to call his number but for whatever reason, he did not pick our call. At the end of the day, we went to see the person who did the connection and he promised to connect us to his secretary. We booked an appointment with the secretary for November 16, 2012, but before that date, my wife discovered that she had taken in. I told my wife that God didn’t want to share His glory with any person and that was the reason all our efforts to meet with the doctor failed.
In July 2012, she was delivered of a bouncing baby girl and brethren from my zone visited me after one of our Sunday Light meetings and we rejoiced and praised God together.
But some days later, something happened. As I was preparing to go out for business, my wife called my attention to our baby, saying that she sensed that she was weak. I touched her, prayed for her and later decided to take her to the hospital. Unfortunately, she died that same day. I had a very strong feeling within me and in fact the brethren that came to sympathize with us were confused and couldn’t understand what was going on. I sensed that the enemy wanted to put my faith to test. I encouraged the brethren and said that the devil had not succeeded in doing anything. I had already answered a father while my wife had also answered a mother, so what has he achieved? Also, we have registered a soul in heaven so we didn’t lose anything. That was how it was in my heart.
The late baby was delivered by cesarean section and my wife was told not to have any conception again until after a year to allow her to recuperate very well. But after about two months of the incident, she took in and all the medical examinations she underwent proved that there was no problem. The pregnancy progressed positively and when she was due for delivery, it was without operation. I told myself that God has shown us a miracle but this was a greater one. The baby was named Miracle and she is growing rapidly. Praise the Lord!”
