Sunday, March 23, 2014

The Beginning of a New Thing

In April 2013, I had a life-threatening chest surgery and developed severe complications thereafter. I was in induced coma for the next four weeks. Because of these complications, I suffered insufficient blood flow and oxygen supply to my hands and feet resulting in necrosis of the cells. My husband was told that amputation of both my hands and feet may become necessary but they decided that decisions on this will wait until I came out of coma.

When I came out of coma, I realized that something was very wrong with my hands. They trembled almost nonstop. I could not hold anything without dropping it. My fingers were discoloured with bumps and swellings around them. My nails disfigured with dark bands across them. I wrote about this in the blog post: Blog Post 100: Not Static. Not Stagnant.

It was difficult to feed myself or write. It took almost 30 minutes to type one sentence of text message. It was a frightening and frustrating experience. While all these were going on, my mind was plagued with the thought of not being able to write again. It was simply unimaginable for me not to be able to write. Writing was non-negotiable. I knew I have been called by God to write. He placed the passion to write inside me and for me it is a foregone conclusion that I am God’s warrior of words. At this time, my writing future looked bleak. But I had to hope against hope that God would restore my hands. I refused to accept anything to the contrary.

God gave my husband and I an assurance that He has given me the Feet of Grace and I believed that the grace also extended to my hands and so by extension, I have the Hands of Grace. I realized in 2010 that my hands are a gold mine when God impressed on my heart that I was sitting on a gold mine and led me to start writing actively (see Sitting on a Gold Mine).

Slowly but surely, God restored strength to my hands. Healing and restoration became manifested as I began to hold the cutlery and fed myself. I started writing what looked like chicken scrawl, which became more and more legible as time went on. By July, I was able to type on my laptop and my physiotherapist encouraged me to practice this as often as possible to strengthen the muscles of my fingers. Even though, I had three fingers in bandage at that time, it did not stop me, I started blogging again right there in the hospital.

With the confidence that there will be a complete restoration of the use of my fingers, a desire began to stir up within me to have an income generating activity. I knew it might still be a while for me to go back to my professional career as a Nutrition Specialist and I was not even sure at time if I still wanted to do that fulltime especially within the context of my new definition of normal. I had a strong desire to be able to support my husband with the huge burden my medical expenses had placed on our finances. It was in the process of ruminating on this that the thought of beading and making jewelry with semi-precious gemstones was laid on my heart.

Right there, in the hospital, I started to research the subject. I took online courses and made my first order for the materials and tools required. I drafted my business plan and formulated my vision for my beading business. Within a couple of weeks of returning back home in August, after 4 months hospital stay, my materials, books and tools began to arrive.

I made my first bead necklace set in September and wore it for my thanksgiving on Sunday, September 29th, 2013. It was in October, that God reminded me of the dream He laid upon my heart in 2009. In the search for an article I wrote years ago, which I wanted to include in my book, I stumbled on another document titled: “My Dreams and Vision,” in which I wrote my desire to have a Youth Center that will provide scripture-inspired apparels for our youth. I could not find such apparels with inspired inscriptions in English readily available in my city and I believed that these could provide great opportunities of youths to share their faith in God. It was a much-needed confirmation that I was in the right direction.

My friend and Sista, during her visit to Geneva in November 2013, encouraged me to make my jewelries with a difference; “Let it tell a story.” I pondered for many months after that: “what story can my jewelry tell to make them unique?” In a flash, it came while I was preparing for the launching of the jewelry. They can certainly tell of the grace of God in restoring my hands and indeed, my health. I knew I could not talk about Hands of Grace Creations without sharing the testimony of God’s amazing grace in restoring me to life and full health.


On Saturday, March 8th, 2014, Hands of Grace Creations made its debut as we launched the handmade beads jewelries, made by hands that were once considered for amputation because of the season of lifelessness and loss of functionality that visited them. The God Who restored the dead body of Lazarus to life and wholesomeness, the same God Who caused dry bones to live again is the God Who restored life and functionality to my hands. He caused them to do detailed work of beading, creating beautiful and unique pieces, in addition to writing the words God keeps giving me.

Indeed, I have recovered all. Not only did I recover the capacity to write again, I recovered much more. I was compensated with the skills to bead and do detailed beading work with my hands (Gen 14:16, 1Sam 30:18).

 

Each piece of jewelry I make is assigned a name, which describes the attributes of God and denotes a piece of my testimony of Who God has been to me through my seasons of storm, affliction and trials. They speak of the might and faithfulness of God as He intervened in my situation. Hands of Grace Creations will share a part of my story. Such that each person who buys and wears Hands of Grace Creations is not just wearing a piece of jewelry but is wearing a piece of my testimony and story, and by doing so, also join me in 
acknowledging the goodness of God.

Here are some of the names:
  • Titilailailopemi: I will give thanks to God forever.
  •   Oluwafifehansimi: God puts His love on display in me
  •  Oluwadamilare: God justified me
  •  Oba Awi ma yeun: The Lord that speaks and does not renege on His Word
  •  Oluwasoromidayo: God turned my story into joy
  •  Oluwaferanmi: God loves me
  •  MotilayoninuJesu: I have joy in Jesus
  •  Oluwasegunfunmi: God gave me victory
  •  Oluwamayomikun: God made my joy full
  •  ModupeoreOluwa: I am grateful for God's goodness 

It will be a memorial to the wearers that the same God Who worked on my behalf is not partial. What He did for me, He is faithful to do in their lives too, and what He promised He will do because of His unfailing love.

The “I am” series will serve to remind the wearer of who God says they are according to His Word. They will be a reminder to the wearer to say “I am who God says I am.” These series will use engraved messages and colours to present the truth of God’s Word and promises to the wearer.

A portion of the proceeds from the sales of Hands of Grace Creations will be used to support three charity efforts:
  • Feet of Grace Foundation, which is positioning itself to provide opportunity to those who are compelled to sit down in a stand-up world to walk again, through the provision of prosthetic limbs.
  • Funmi Adewole Foundation: The Education Trust Fund.
  •  Education Fund for a missionary family.

 Behold, the beginning of a new thing, now it springs forth. Join me to give thanks to God.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

The Promise Of A New Thing

It was Monday morning and I found myself musing about some things that used to be a part of my life that I now see no more. The more I thought about these events, the more I found myself outlining them as a chapter for the book I am writing.

I remembered those days when I spent several hours each day coughing and bringing up ugly, dirty looking and horrible tasting secretions from my chest. I suffered from a lung disease called bronchiectasis and as a result had chronic chest infections, which necessitated intravenous antibiotic treatments that lasted for 21 days each time, several times in a year. The cough was so bad that it always left me in respiratory distress, with accompanying pain in my chest.

Countless number of times, I cried out to the Lord to deliver me from the cough and everything it represented. One day, I sat on the floor by my bedside, exhausted from the coughing. Before I knew it, the secretions started coming up, it came so fast and was so profuse that the tissue could not contain it. I had to collect what was coming out in my hands. It was at that moment that something broke inside of me. First, anger welled up in me against the bacteria which the doctors said had colonized my lungs. They told me it was difficult to get rid of it because of the state of my lungs despite the frequent antibiotic treatment.

Then, I looked at the secretions in my hands and started shouting as I struggled to get up to go to the bathroom; “You, Egyptians that I see today, I will see you again no more forever” (Exodus 14:13). I knew the kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent takes it by force. I determined in my heart that I was not going to allow the devil to cheat me out of the promise of life and good health God has given me. So I decided to make the efforts, time and pain of coughing and clearing secretions from my lungs, count for something. Each time I brought up the awful secretions, I looked at it and I spoke the word of God to it, and declared; “It shall come to pass and I will see you no more forever.” The coughing and secretions thus became a reminder for me to speak the word of God to my situation and to remind me of what God has spoken concerning the situation.

To the glory of God, today, I surely see the secretions no more and I hear the rib-cracking cough no more. I outlived the vicious bacteria. My joy overflowed just to realize and to note that God heard my cry and took it all away. He gave me a brand new life free from the incessant harassment of the cough and all it represented. The old conditions and former order of things have passed away, Hallelujah! In accordance to God’s promise, the reproach of the cough was taken away from me.

http://monyawatson.wordpress.com/2013/07/20/
“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” This is the promise of God to His children in Isaiah 43:19. It is also the word of assurance God gave me while I was in the hospital undergoing respiratory rehabilitation in November 2010. This promise is being fulfilled every day in my life. I can testify that I am experiencing a new thing in different spheres of my life, which is beyond what I can share in one blog post.

Based on this experience, I can with full confidence declare that the adverse and challenging situation you may be going through right now will not always be there, because the faithful and unfailing God we serve has promised us that He will do a new thing in your life. God specializes in doing new things in our lives: “I am making everything new” (Rev. 21:5). He causes old things to pass away and make all things new when come to Christ. He gives us a new heart and put a new spirit in us. He turns our captivity and we are like them that dream.

The One Who brings about changes in our lives is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. He wants to do new things in our lives every day. His eyes goes through and fro the earth seeking to show Himself mighty in on our behalf. He promised to call us a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name.

For many years, I was referred to as “the woman with the cough,” even to my hearing. During a hospital stay in 1998, while I was practically coughing my lungs out, one lady shouted from across the ward: “this cough will not kill you.” Well, praise be to God, I am delighted to say that I am still in the land of the living declaring the goodness of God and the cough is no more. God has changed my name from “the one with the cough” to “Kept by the Hands of God” and “Grace in motion.”

The new thing God is doing in my life and in the lives of my loved ones, is just beginning to unfold. Now, it shall spring forth. Indeed, I am persuaded that testimonies will abound in our lives this year as we see the fulfillment of God’s promise and the display of His glory in our lives. I am believing God for new opportunities to do great exploits and fulfill my calling, new level of walk with God, new manifestation of God's glory in my life, new and extraordinary blessings, and newness in all my relationships.

This promise of a new thing is valid for you too. You can appropriate it to your life and to your situation. You can trust in God to bring His promise to pass in you as you depend and rely on Him, and as you speak His Word to your situation.

May God’s grace continue to abound in your life and  bring you to your promised land.