DON'T GIVE UP!

[Pastor Bayo Afolaranmi]

Dearly Beloved, DON'T GIVE UP! "God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?" (Numbers 23:19 NIV). "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, `He who is coming will come and will not delay'" (Hebrews 10:36-37 NIV). I was still trying to come out of the trauma of my third consecutive visa denial by the US embassy in my country when an elderly pastor from UK wrote an encouraging mail to me. In the mail, he asked me to tell him the area he could be of help to me in view of the fact that I would not be able to go to the US as I planned before. I did not hesitate to ask for a new laptop because the one I was using then is problematic. Responding, the pastor told me that I should consider the request granted (though he clarified that the promised laptop would be a fairly used one). He told me that he would be coming to Nigeria the following month, and that he would come with the laptop. That was July 2004. I waited for the laptop throughout the month of August and I did not hear from the pastor nor see the promised laptop. I wrote an email to him and he told me that he had actually come to Nigeria but could not bring the laptop because of some problems he had when he was coming. He promised to send it through another person that would come in the month of September. That month also passed without getting the promised laptop. The pastor asked me to wait till the end of November when many would accompany the general overseer of his denomination to the UK for a gospel rally. According to him, he would find somebody out of those people that would bring the laptop to me in Nigeria. The month of November also came without the promise fulfilled. When I contacted the pastor again, he told me that he had found somebody who was ready to bring the laptop but that the person had gone to the US. According to him, the person would bring the laptop when he is coming from the US via the UK. The person did not come till the end of the year. It was early this year that another person in the UK told me that he would visit Nigeria in the month of February. When I told him about the promised laptop, he accepted to contact the elderly pastor and help me bring it. I linked both of them together and arrangement was made how he would collect the laptop when he was coming to Nigeria. However the arrangement could not work out. I was about to give up on the promised laptop when the elderly pastor wrote me again that I should not give up on the issue. He informed me that he would come to Nigeria in the early April and promised to bring the laptop. He did come to Nigeria and sent a mail to me so that I would give him my phone number and contact address. I wanted to go and meet him in his place, but he decided to come to my place. After some unsuccessful attempts to get me, he eventually handed over the promised laptop to me. That was after nine months of waiting, writing of mails, phone calls etc. This is my testimony. I am composing this message with that promised laptop. I want it to be an encouragement to others that are waiting for something either from other people or even from God. If a man could fulfil his promise after nine months in spite of all odds, how much more God will not fulfil His numerous promises for you? Delay is not denial. The promises will soon be fulfilled. Just wait patiently. Don't give up! In His service, Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor). NB This message was first sent out on April 24, 2005.