I continued working as a sales manager in my sister’s shop and I gained lots of experience in business, retail, and marketing.

I loved what I was doing and did the best I could to the admiration of many.

I was a firm believer in Jesus Christ – a born-again Christian, regular in church, and a lover of God. I had few friends that I hung out with occasionally. My family was also very supportive and overprotective.

I would still have flare-ups of sickle crisis here and there; go on admissions here and there. Consequently, I missed out on so many things and felt so sad and left out. I kept asking God, “why me?”
Unbeknownst to me, God was taking me through the process of building my faith in Him and Him alone.

He promised in Isaiah 43:2, to be with us when we go through the waters and the fire. Indeed, God never left my side and He never will.

When your faith is being tested with overwhelming challenges, you either grow or crumble and quit. I chose to grow.

The story of Job in the bible is a typical example. His wife wanted him to curse God and die. Job, however, held on to his faith and in the end, his latter days were more glorious than the former. Glory to God! Job 2:9

I chose to grow in faith. The Bible says, “whose report will you believe, the report of men or what He says about you?” So many things were staring at me in the face (literally), but they were not truths.

I held on to His truth: That I am fearfully and wonderfully made; that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me; and my expectations will not be cut short. These were scriptures I believed in, and they kept me going. To date, they still do.

All this while I was still in Ghana, West Africa, and had never traveled abroad before. My family was of the view that the climate abroad was too cold and would not be good for me. Ghana is in the tropics so it’s warm throughout the year. My overprotective family. Ha-ha

One day, I said to myself, “why don’t you go for a visit abroad and see how you’d like it?” My sister Barbara made it possible for me to visit the UK for the first time. God bless you, sister.

After working for a while, I took time off to visit the UK and it was so refreshing to me. I loved the fact that you could get everything you wanted, as well as jump on a train to take you anywhere. All these notwithstanding, the amount of pressure they go through, was not lost on me.

I loved it, and oh, their healthcare system! I was wowed because we don’t have this in Africa. I came back to Ghana and resolved to visit again.

Christ in you the hope of glory!

To be continued….