Hold it, hold it!

A friend put a word up on my Facebook wall. It was to the effect, don't be in such a hurry to get out of 2009 and jump into 2010 because this year has been so hard. Hold it, hold it, these last few days of 2009 may be where your breakthrough is.

Do you know that our God is mighty? Do you realize that He is right here now looking at us? Does it cause you to stop for a minute and contemplate how present He is. He is not absent or away on business or too busy for each and every one of us. He is here. The way you've behaved this morning; have you recognized that He is standing there watching you with love?

I'm telling you, this year for some of us, it has been such that we could have been tempted to believe God had left. That somehow He had got tired and taken Himself off the job. After all, this is His ministry and He should be able to shut it down whenever He wants to. Well, He hasn't. No matter how dragged in the mud we feel. No matter how hurt by family and friends. No matter how humiliated we've been in 2009. He, God the Most High, is still watching. He's intent on everyday of your life. 2009, 2010 it doesn't matter to Him - He's looking at you. He's watching you with His eye. Loving you, protecting you, molding you into the best you you'll allow Him to do.

My friend's words about not being so intent on Jan. 1st 2010 meant so much to me because Holy Spirit had just said something similar weeks before. I was jumping for joy as I thought of this year coming to an end. I was thinking about January 3rd, being the day I started moving from house to house, having no home of my own and now as it's comes around again in 2010, hopefully this year would be OVER! Holy Spirit cautioned me not to look at Jan 3rd, for the breakthrough my be any moment now, and my firm belief in that one date, may push my blessing further along.

Look up folks! Your redemption draweth near.

Storytelling with Seniors

As I move forward as a storyteller I have fond memories of these dear folks at Crescent Ridge Adult Day Care in Oxon Hill, Maryland. It's such a joy to do this with them and they are so receptive.

I Need Help On How to Get Ready for All of God's Blessings

A dear sister Ms. Retha on http://sistahfaith.ning.com/ asked this question on a forum. You’ll have to join and find me, to see this discussion. But she asked this question and it got me to thinking, back in February this year.

Getting ready for all of God’s blessings…oh my! What a thing! She has the presence of mind to think about how to get ready for them? God tells us about these blessings and how overwhelming they will be – more than you can think or imagine; so much that the ears of those that hear it will tingle; poured out from Heaven, so much that you won’t have room enough to contain it (that means, NO MATTER how much room you have now!); even if you shake it, press it down, it will still be running over; “abundant prosperity”!!!! I mean that’s a lot to handle.

Deuteronomy 28 echoes what others said in the discussion. Verse 1 says, “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.”

When I first saw the question, I was flabbergasted because Sis Retha knows she is about to be blessed by God financially and is wondering how to get ready. I’m expecting the same breakthrough any minute.

God wants us to have everything we need and actually the desires of our hearts. “Need” we understand, but “desires of our hearts” takes us to another level and for that our hearts have to be changed, so that we can receive the abundance. I don’t know about all of you, but even though I am from an earthly royal family, we have never been rich. Our Heavenly Father knows what moving into this new realm of having more than enough, until it overflows and to be “made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion”, will mean to me and He knows how I will react in my present state. I’m sure there’s “flesh burning” needed and adjustments to my attitude about others, so that I am fit to still “Go into all the world and preach the gospel” and not be so stuck up or so heaven bound that I’m no earthly good.

Preparation is going on in and around me right now. He is humbling me, breaking me down, burning flesh, pruning, crushing…oh people, it’s something else and very uncomfortable. I’ve been known, over the last few weeks to cry out, “No more!” “This is horrible” “I want out” “I can’t serve you anymore, Lord”. But now, I’m at a quiet, do nothing place. Do nothing except this writing He has asked me to do. And it’s the fun writing you know. The children’s funny, imaginative, make-believe, joyful, soulful writing. The kind that makes you smile as you write and wonder about the creativity He has let loose in you, to even come up with this plot and storyline. Now, today, I see that where I am, though still uncomfortable, humiliating, low…is really wonderful. I see all the wonderfulness of it, the family around me, the loving relationships and closeness I would never have been able to orchestrate, the unbelievable patience and kindness of people. It is a wonderful place, and a great lovely experience, mainly because The Lord God of Heaven and Earth, brought me here. I rejoice.

I wrote this February 11, 2009, but it’s still relevant today, November 13, 2009.

Tunde,-the-Little-Nigerian-Prince

My visit to Durham to tell stories to the children at Omoteko School

And it Nigeria's birthday today. HAPPY 49TH BIRTHDAY!

3 Years Since that Car Accident

SAVED ON THE CLIFF SIDE

As I drove along George Washington Parkway on my way to work in Virginia, I heard SCREEEEECH! The blue taxi cab next to me jammed on his brakes, smoke came up from his tires and the car swerved towards me! BAM. He got me! And…BANG. My car hit the stone wall of the parkway and flipped over the wall. Careening down the wooded cliffs like a rocket, towards the Potomac River, thousands of feet below, I thought, “Well this is it. This must be the way I’m going to die.”

The trees and bushes hit the sides of the car as it crashed through the woods.
“I’m ready for heaven” I thought “if it’s ready for me!”

All of a sudden the car stopped. Looking up through my open sun roof towards the road and seeing a man walking along, I yelled, “HELP!” Half a dozen men spilled over the crest of the hill.

They pulled me out through the sun roof, helped me to the top of the hill where I laid back on the stone wall. The shouting crowds were praising God and I joined them.


© 2006 Carroll Ayo Durodola

I Survived

O.K. I survived the hysteria of my website & princessayo e-mails crashing. As you can see from the side margin my e-mail has changed. I had to do something quickly so if anyone wanted to get in touch with me the e-mail wouldn’t bounce. So I got on Google mail and signed up for a new e-mail. I have uiteIbadan@yahoo.com, and cdurodola@msn.com but I wanted something almost as great as cdurodola@princessayo.com . Something exciting. Something unique to me. When it was time to put in my address of choice this wonderful one came to my mind as I asked God what do you want me to be – children’s writer. Now that one was taken and so I know to add some number and I added 100. There it was childrenswriter100@gmail.com. It seems so right and I love it. No one has to wonder how to spell my name, did I really say princess and why is Ayo (pronounced I-yo not spelt with an “I”). Some words in the SnapVine voice blog have to be changed, so bear with me. No matter when I ask the Lord over these last 8 months of travels, what do you want me to do; His answer always involves "write those children's stories".

These changes go along with the movement of the wind the Father seems to have me on. (John 3:8 "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.") God is moving me from one place in my life to another. I’m not exactly sure where, but I know He’s asking me to be ready to leave my comfort zone. (I thought I had! But there must be more). Be ready for the Glory to fall. Get ready for Him to fulfill His promises made to me over the last few years. All this takes adjustments and just when you think you’ve made all the adjustments you can make for one wilderness experience, He stretches you some more, just like a great coach.

Whew! Well, I’ve survived it. As expected. All is well - you can get information about me from this blog and can e-mail and call! Check out the Snap Vine voice blog and the nifty Book Buzzr to preview the book. This is even better because you can be nosey about what’s going on in my life and then switch over to http://tundethelittlenigerianprince.blogspot.com and see what’s going on with the book.

It looks like I’ll be moving again folks. I’m not sure where, but moving looks like it’s in the works. Stay tuned.

I sit here watching Whitney Houston on Oprah and my greatest shock is that she is older. Funny how we are, when we haven’t seen someone for some years. As if we don’t expect that person to grow up like we have.

I see a beauty in her. Do any of you know what it is?

She was an idol to so many of us around the world. American young people probably don’t know how we admired her all the way over in Nigeria, and how she made my afro I had to have, after a perm went bad, O.K. How validated we felt by having Whitney on the cover of magazines. She was younger than me, but close enough for this model wannabe teenager to live vicariously through her.

As I watched Whitney the thought came: We’re scared of our own light. That light is really part of the Lord God Most High. The light of the Lord in us and just like people could not look directly at Moses’ face when he came down from the mountain, so as we go through horrors and have time with God we are scared to look at ourselves. For that short time we’ve spent with Him and the little cleaning up that has taken place, causes a bright light to shine through the cracks.

Some of us may have noticed that Whitney isn’t finished being cleaned up. I cried like many of us who have prayed for her and are seeing the Hand of God do what we asked. That she might not go the way of other drug addicts. But we hear with the wise ears of 50+ years God has given us, that this chil’ ain’t there yet. And still we see The Light shining through her cracks. The same is shining through all of us.
Praise Him!

On 9/14/09 I met Yoda. Her real name will be kept anonymous because she wants it that way. Yes, Yoda, like in Star Wars. I was sitting in Panera Bread and she came in with her stuff, just like me and plopped it down on a table in front of me. She was like we are when we come into a different space; looking around, fiddling, trying to get her spirit to come into the place with her body.

Finally she settled down and got her lunch, covered it and oddly enough brought out paperwork, pencil cases, highlighters and got to work…Who was this person? Someone just like me, her manner, not her look – protecting herself, careful, watchful. I smiled at her and she smiled back – especially after I noticed two senior citizen Caucasian women starring at her set up. I don’t know what it was about, but they weren’t being friendly. Was it her long graying dreadlocks?

After quite some time I went and got lunch. As I sat down, pushed my laptop away and concentrated on my lunch, Yoda said, “What are you studying over there?” All of a sudden, out-of-the-blue, without a please ma’am or thank you, with no hello (as a Nigerian would say). Used to the blunt manner of Americans and without missing a beat, I answered “I’m a writer”.

And that was the beginning of our intense, amazing, magical, conversation.I got a lot from her and it tickles me what she said she got from me and how she kept pulling out paper to write it down.
• That’s what you need to blog, she would say – a stranger at a party giving me $100; strangers who were pastor and his wife, letting me live with them in Georgia; Gloria feeding and taking care of me and then taking me to Virginia Beach;
• You need to blog! And I know I do. Some guy she read about, sad about his high powered job, quit and started writing and then started blogging, only his mother and wife as readers, but eventually had 7,000 followers. I told her about Stanice Anderson who wrote e-mails to people for 2 years and Walk Worthy gave her a contract to turn that into a book.
• God wants me not to look down on anyone. Everyone is loved by him, whether they are New Age or Buddhist or anything else. And God talks to everyone.
• Why don’t we like our names? Why do we have so many problems with these given names from parents or husbands? She wants to be called Yoda. I don’t know what I should be known as.
• People are acting like her and I and many of the friends I have and opting out of the ‘normal’ 9-5 work, for a salary the regular way, for pension and health insurance. Someone has studied this and put it together in a course about living your life thriving, letting go. What these courses miss is the spirit, the Holy Spirit, the supernatural, the magic… that which cannot be explained. Her and I began to talk and complained about the coldness of the air in the restaurant. As we talked it got warmer. When it was time to go, the cold air blew in again. This, cannot be taught in college. This is the supernatural that can only come from the Father.
• Yoda found a wonderful place in busy New York called Zen, run by a woman who charges $50. Can you believe it? And all she asks is that you leave her property nice and she has plenty of rules so you know what she’s talking about.
• Yoda also found communes of the kind I was thinking would be good for me. She said you write to them and tell them what you can do to contribute to the commune and you need to live there for 3 months or whatever. That’s what I was thinking about and as I was telling her that, I realized and said that God really wanted me to go through this time without relying on anyone but Him. He would put me in the home he had ordained and it would be obvious and other doors would be closed except the ‘door’ to the place He wanted me.

We talked about stepping out on faith and what was the reason that so many of us are doing that and that many of us are over 45, and could be thinking retirement plans. I talked about being in my third widow’s home, after stepping out in faith from my job in March 2008. Yoda asked, looking under the restaurant table, are you walking on the ground or on air. “You really are walking by faith.”

The importance of the walk I’m on is to see that I’m not writing to bring people to me so that I can eat, I am writing because God asked me to do it, so that I could show people Him.

It’s not about me. It’s about Him.

Yoda asked what is happening that we are all choosing this way. I said I thought it was because things are coming to an end. That was disingenuous. I know very well that things are coming to an end. Time is drawing to a close. The Bible has shown us and we can see it. I said things are getting wrapped up and cleaned up. So we have to shed all weights and things that encumber us.

Something New

Today, I have something new to say. Usually, I'm trying to think of what should be on my blog. Today, for sure this should be on - my website and e-mails associated with it are DOWN!!!

WHAT!? Should I not be hysterical? Are you all out there used to this? I'm not. It's got me all in a tizzy. That e-mail was connected to my Outlook. I like my Outlook. Oh well, let's see how I get through this and how it empowers my life:)

Love ya' all.

People Will Call You Crazy!

If you follow God, people will think you’re crazy. I don’t know how many of you out there are listening, but God is talking. All the time. Not only through flowers, trees, a child’s smile, the soft wind, but He is talking to you into your spirit, or with an audible voice you can hear. If you get still enough, you will hear Him talking. He has something to say about everything in your life. From what shoes you have on, to what you’re about to say now, to who you marry.

I heard God tell me to quit my job in March 2008, when jobs were hard to find. People thought I was crazy. That is humans’ greatest fear, I now believe – that people will think they are crazy. God told me not to job hunt but to write children’s stories. I did. People thought I was crazy. No money fell from heaven, God led me to no great money making venture and so I gave up my apartment, as the money dwindled. Then I gave up my car to the bank. I moved in with my younger sister and lived off of her. People thought I was crazy.

Now I am writing. I’m in my fourth friends’ home living off her. People are sure I’m crazy. God has spoken to me and I am obeying. Sometimes I try to run back to my comfort zone of a job and a pay check, longing for my own place and the ability to take care of myself. Even freelance jobs haven’t worked, or I do them and there’s no money to pay me.

Anyone else having this experience? Are you job-hunting frantically when all God has asked you to do is write and trust Him? People will think you’re crazy. Maybe you’re determined that people won’t think you’re stupid or a member of a cult.I’m researching this phenomenon:) – listening to God, following His instructions and people thinking you’re crazy.

My mother married a Nigerian she had only met three times. People thought she was crazy but she was convinced this was God’s will for her. I’ve watched her over the 53 years of their marriage, never waver from that, even through separations & rifts and joys & sickness. Whatever befell her in the marriage she stayed with, “God told me to marry this man”. People probably still think she’s crazy.

Then I looked in the Word. Jesus’ family openly called him crazy, so much so that it was recorded in the gospels. God asked Him to leave His glory in Heaven and come to Earth (imagine one day we’ll understand this). He could have been called crazy by some, especially Lucifer who had lost his glory and knew how horrible it was to be without it.I haven’t read about Jesus having any job or income generating work, once his ministry started. People must have called him crazy. We are told about his disciples’ jobs, (and even Paul being a tent maker) so I’m sure if Jesus had a job he was actively doing during his ministry, we would have been told. His ministry was his job, as is my writing. He had income or provision. We know that because he had a treasurer, Judas Iscariot. So how did He have an income or provision? His Father was providing for Him and for His disciples. It was really when Mary, his mother, heard he wasn’t eating (or that he and his disciples were too busy with the ministry to eat) that she gathered the family to go get Jesus and bring him home.

He was called crazy and even demon-possessed or under the Devil’s instruction. But He went on. The end result didn’t look good, as mine doesn’t. He kept going on to Jerusalem and there he knew he would die. Jesus wasn’t respected, as we can see the response to Him being the Messiah and God was, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” not “Oh, that makes sense, isn’t this the wonderful boy from Nazereth?”

Interesting that one of the Gospels records that it was when Jesus had resolutely set his face to go all the way to the end – to Jerusalem, did his family rise up with “enough-is-enough” indignation and set out to bring him home. You’ve felt it before. You saw what God could do; you resolutely set your face like flint to do what He said and now here comes your best friend with doubts and your family with indignation.

Another Bible "crazy" was young David? What did he do to deserve being called “crazy”? He was sent to give his brother’s lunch and thought he could beat up the great warrior giant, Goliath. He was called nosey by his brother.

Here’s the thing about being called by God to do something and family call you crazy - they also accuse you. If I am listening to the devil or am crazy, shouldn’t you be praying for me about that rather than being angry with me? David’s brother should have been worried about him but they were angry with him.

If they are calling you crazy, but you know God has appointed you to do a job for Him, keep going. You're in good company. Probably when you completely die to self and the flesh and no longer care what they think, they, like Mary, Jesus' mother, they will come to your cross and watch.

What a man!

What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man!

Daddy would say “Everything in mercy given” and that’s how we have to take this.

Dad lived a great full life. From his fathers’ farms around the town of Egbe, Nigeria, West Africa to the Christian Mission School, to having his father crowned king when Dad was a teenager, to finishing high school at Titcombe College, becoming a headmaster, journeying to America…he had already lived a lively life, but then he experienced America with her grandeur, opportunity and racism. He learned to barber his own hair when a barber shop in Greenville, Illinois refused to cut a negro’s hair. But it turned to his good as things do for those who are called by God, as his white classmates who admired him, marched down to the barber shop to protest. The barber changed his views that day when he saw all those white kids coming at him, but by the time Dad’s friends returned to take him back to the barber shop, he had already learned to cut his own hair using a two-mirror system. He often marveled in years to come at how much money he had saved over the years, cutting his own hair, and then his son’s hair, and he even did his grandson’s hair.

His exciting life was destined to continue as he met the enthralling, Lillian Winbush, my mother. (O.K. I’m going to brag on my mother for a minute because looking up this word in the Thesaurus, as she had taught me to do, to make sure it was right, there she was! Beguiling, action-packed, riveting, absorbing, engrossing, enchanting, alluring, gripping, fascinating.) Life would never be the same again and there would never be a dull moment. Their marriage produced us four – excitement all by itself. Then he went back home with all of us, to his beloved Nigeria and received a roaring welcome from his people of the town of Egbe; the journey of being a doctor in Nigeria began. He became a well-known and an often requested surgeon, studied to be an oncologist and used native herbs to research cures for cancer; being noticed internationally and getting a World Health Organization grant, brought him to the US again. (we all got to come and stay two years. And that was fun). Now at the top of his game as a doctor, scholar and researcher, with a PhD in medicine and with his research being studied around the world, all that was left, was for him to be head of something. So he was appointed the Director of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Research and Training (PIMRAT) at the University College Hospital (UCH), University of Ibadan, Nigeria. So badly did dad not want to be on show and the head of anything, that he would write on his letterhead, where it said Director of PIMRAT, Acting Director.

How could someone with this much work to do have time to be a missionary for the Lord, but he and my mother did it. Our home was often like Grand Central Station as university students walked in and out for bible studies, counseling and some of mother’s fresh baked cookies. University staff came for bible studies – one night for ladies, another for men, a third for everybody; bible study, bible study, bible study. Then he was the chairman of the UCH chapel. No real church building, just the nurses assembly hall, but he ran it like the Chairman of the Board he was. Mother, just like a church’s first lady, ran the Sunday School, sometimes 300 kids strong.

Daddy was not the type of Christian to go door to door to tell people about Christ; he instead walked with the Lord very closely and people learned about his Savior by watching his life. Whenever asked he would tell it all and loved leading another person to salvation. I can only imagine the throng that greeted him up there. That gentle man could be pushy at times and I’ve seen him push through a crowd to get something he or his family needed, so when he got to heaven, last week, he probably pushed through the crowd in heaven, because the only person he wanted to see was his Jesus.

It has been our great joy to share our dad & husband with all of you, here and in Nigeria. We hope you enjoyed him, because we did.

God bless you. If we don’t meet you again down here, may we see you in Heaven.

MY REMARKS AT DADDY’S FUNERAL ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILY

Thank you to all those interested in more about my late dad, Dr. James Iyetunde Durodola.

OBITUARY
Dr. James Iyetunde Durodola, was born on November 14th 1922 in Egbe, Kogi State, Nigeria, West Africa, the second son of Oba Owojaiye, king of Egbe. His early education was received in his home state and later at Wesley College, Ibadan, Nigeria. His professional education was culminated at Greenville College, Illinois; Bellevue Medical Center, New York; the University of Saarbrucken, Germany and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

He was the first medical doctor from Egbe. He contributed immensely to the growing body of knowledge in public and community medicine as a senior consultant in oncology at the University of Ibadan. He was research fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Sydney Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.

‘Dr. Jim’ as he was affectionately called, was a Bible study teacher at Lake Anne Fellowship House, Reston, Virginia, for many years.

Dr. James Durodola departed this life on July 2nd 2009 and leaves to gratefully celebrate his long life and his witness for his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, his wife, Minister Lillian I. Durodola, daughters, Carroll Ayo Durodola, Rosemarie Ebun Onwukwe, Lorraine Ireti Durodola-Alston and son, James Iyetunde Durodola II, Esq.; son-in-law John Alston and daughter-in-law Christina Durodola. Another son-in-law Emmanuel Onwukwe is deceased. He is also survived by eight grandchildren, two great grand children; four sisters-in-law, Lorraine Brame, Elvera Williams, Vivian Winbush, Marion Winbush and one brother-in-law, Robert Winbush and many other relatives and friends in Nigeria, West Africa and the United States of America.

My dad passes over!

To say I’ve been on a wild ride would be an understatement. But all gets quiet when someone you love passes over into Heaven. It’s beautiful and sad at the same time. On July 2nd 2009, at about 6 a.m. my dad stepped into Heaven to stay. He was 86 years old. Talk about Independence Day! He loved the Lord Jesus with all his heart and had a wonderful intimate relationship with Him. For a large portion of his life he was a Bible study teacher. And he was a prayer warrior. If you had him on your side praying for you, you had great back up.

My children’s book Tunde, the Little Nigerian Prince is based on his life in Egbe, Nigeria, where he was the son of the king, my granddad. Of course I will go on writing about him. I plan on seven children’s books in the series and the next one Tunde, the Little Nigerian Prince and the Soldier Ants, his favorite, has gone on to the publisher, Sweeties Books. I may even write some adult books about him. His full name and title was Prince (Dr.) James Iyetunde Durodola. He was a surgeon who became an oncologist, studying how native herbs in Nigeria could cure cancer. His writings are extensive and are still being used around the world. He loved his people of Egbe and helped in lots of improvements in the town and fought for their rights when he saw they were being overlooked by the government.

So, I miss my buddy already. He was my father and my pal and that is a very unique and wonderful combination and opportunity. I count myself blessed for having this relationship in my life, causing me to grow enormously over the last several decades.

Well folks, I just didn’t want the days to go by without blogging something about this great man and I will say more in coming blogs. Check out the book’s blog, http://tundethelittlenigerianprince.blogspot.com/ and see how I tell the children about his passing over.

Bless you all!
Princess Ayo

I HAVE ABUNDANCE

I have abundance. Every thing I need is available to me. Lest I've used words against my prosperity and victory, I cancel them now by these new words.

I have plenty and am abundantly provided for.

I believe God has provided for me, abundant prosperity,

for I have obeyed.

Deuteronomy 28:1, 2, 11

1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:

11 The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you.

WRITE IS RIGHT

Well it has been exactly one month since I arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, 4/20/09. It’s a good day to blog. How can I blog what is going on with me? It is so personal and yet the Lord is saying let me use you to tell testimonies to those around you. Four weeks into my stay here in Atlanta and I’m getting more clarity about this new location.

First, if anyone has been listening to the prophecies, God is calling many of us to new locations and new assignments.

Secondly, I had to get clear about what God told me to do. He told me to write for Him. That’s the call write (oops) right now. For today it’s writing. I’ve been writing but He says do more and blog more regularly because people want and need it. (As I type this I see that I really wrote it on 5/11/09. If I had entered it online then, it might have done me good. So this is not just for you, but me the writer). Don’t be ashamed of the call of God on your life.

Thirdly, I had to learn new things about my biological family to understand and see some of the things about me that the Father was trying to correct so that they would no longer be a hindrance. This is a big thing to moving forward. You’ve got to understand what basic youth conflicts you have to resolve so that they don’t trip you up. Often, they are family lies and misconceptions that you can’t keep and have the Belt of Truth on you at the same time.

When you aren’t settled with the call of God on your life, someone – ANYONE, can come in and suggest something else to you and you’ll go for it. Especially if you’re in my shoes, with no money, no income and God keeps saying, “Write”. You see moneymaking jobs & work and apply for them but you haven’t got one of them yet and still no money. Strangely, though God makes sure you have just enough for storage, cell phone, a dollar menu burger. Your main problem is that these suggestions of jobs send you off expending your energy applying and mailing. However, if I stick with God and now that I’m doing that, He reminds me to hunt down writing jobs. There’s money there. If you trust Him, He will raise you up and give you wisdom.

I can be assured that His word is true and this is the Spring of opportunity and the time when He’s going to blow my mind. Because I am obeying, the favor of the Lord is upon me, even with this “famine” in the land. Here it comes. Just stick with writing. You, dear reader, stick with whatever He has told you.

So what do you do when a great deal comes up to be a nanny? You have to really be glued to Jesus. What if a job comes up from a family member to be an office executive? You have to stay with God’s instructions to you. What is He saying about it? Is, He saying Yes, be a nanny and in your off hours or when the baby’s sleeping, write or go ahead with the executive position and I’ll give you time to write? Or is He saying wait, I’ve got something better for you, where you’ll be able to write all day! Or wait, I’ll have you do what I called you to, so it better benefits the Kingdom of Heaven and the Family of God

Remember God wants to do this big thing so NO ONE else gets the glory. Only Him. Not by your hard work or brilliant networking. Better you do what He says, His way and rest your self.

Zechariah 4:6 So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.

March!!! The Breakthrough Month

March was a the Breakthrough month. Many of us following the Lord Jesus have found ourselves in almost impossible situations these past few years and we have wondered when it was coming to an end. Things didn't work out as we expected, but God has seen us through and God has given us the strength we need each step of the way. I am so grateful. How 'bout you?

Has it been rough? Can't see any breakthrough? Look back again, just to March 1st and then follow the days. Sometimes it's hidden in the manusha of our lives and the onslaught from the evil one. But it was there. Breakthrough. Maybe it doesn't look like what we want but it's there.

For me it was an attitude change. The stopping of feeling sorry for myself, because I choose to follow what God told me to do, and yet the harvest hasn't burst out of the windows of Heaven like I expected. And yet there was abundance, because I ate everyday. Everyday I had water to drink and didn't have to hike to a river and carry it back on my head. Yep, I could turn on the tap and take safe, clear, clean, cool water and drink. I am grateful, because some are in the hospital right now and they are not able to drink anything. It's all going in through a tube.

I wanted a change from my position walking on the water and there was a shift. Not out of the water yet, but I think further down the rolling river. I'm still blogging...see, even though the devil wanted me to stop and sent distractions so I wouldn't do what God said. God assures me that even though I may have to expose myself on these blogs, there are some of you out there that need to read that someone else is going through a situation and is still hanging on. Praise His Name!

Our Abba Father is something else. Is anybody else reading The Shack? It's a great analogy of what a character our God is. He isn't the meany, the Bible, church and Christians try to portray Him. Why, He is Love. How do we juxtapose such Love with being mean and judgemental. My Father in heaven loves me. His Son Jesus Christ is going to be married to us the Bride. Warrior brides we are and hence our constant fight on Earth. Really the battle of the mind. Not letting our traditions and family and religious beliefs cut us off from the happy, abundant, glorious lives we are supposed to be living down here until Christ comes again.

O.k. that may be enough for the day. Remember you are not alone and the Spirit has tens of thousands of us who are listening and obeying only Him, who are going through struggles right now. Know that we have the victory every day, claim it and walk around like you've got it!Princess Ayo

Appropriate God's Promises by Rejoicing

This was a word from a prophet of the Lord, MARY ELLEN GILLILAND, on February 24, 2009, and it was very encouraging to me.

Appropriate God's Promises by Rejoicing

Go in peace I have it all in hand. I am calling upon you to rejoice in what I am doing, although it is behind the scenes. You can't see it but it will manifest - if you receive it by faith and rejoice. All I have told you and promised you -

"Heaven on Earth, Here And Now"
the appearing of Christ, The Messiah
filling the temple with glory
the arising and shining, living on a new plane, or level, in the kingdom
the claiming of the victory, and
healing -

all these are to appropriate by faith, and that faith expresses itself at the highest level by rejoicing. Mary appropriated the promise of a Savior coming through her womb by the Magnificat. If you want to know the moment, the instant she conceived, it is the moment of that prayer of praise. So rejoice! I will count it to you as righteousness. I will call it high faith and I will act upon the praises of My people. I will inhabit the praises of My people, for these joy-filled praises are the highest expression of their faith.

Isaiah 60:1-2 Arise ! Shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you! For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and dense darkness the peoples but the Lord shall arise upon you and His glory shall be seen on you.

This reminds me of another prophecy where the Lord was saying He is asking us to praise Him for the promises not yet seen. My dancing has commenced!!!



For an explanation of "Heaven On Earth, Here And Now," go to zoebooks.com

The Need for Plenty of Room

I love my dog Lucky. Well, he’s mine for now, since I moved in with my sister Rose. He’s the best pal, and most loyal. At 94 dog-years he is mostly blind and deaf. Walks and bones are the joy of his life, besides us of course. We are Nigerians and we cook a great spinach & melon soup called ‘egusi soup’. I cooked one the other day, with chicken. You know the fresh, tough ones that you have to boil for awhile before anyone can chew it.
The soup now, two days old, it’s even more delicious. I warmed up some and paired it with pounded yam (that’s another recipe story), sat on the couch and ate. Lucky was sleeping somewhere in the house and I don’t know if it was just naptime-over or he smelled that soup, but after I had finished eating he arrived. Now I was kinda lazy, so I perched the empty plate of chicken bones, on the back of the couch. Lucky came sniffing around. I knew he was allowed to have bones, but I texted my sister to ask her if he could have any bones:
“Can Lucky have any kind of bones’ ‘Cos he’s smellin’ my egusiJ”
She answered: “Ha ha ha. Yes he can. I usually rinse it off, and Manny always gave him bones from his soup. He is a greedy dog!” Manny was her late husband and he cooked a mean egusi soup too.
Well, Lucky may be greedy, but he’s smart. I didn’t rinse it off just picked up a nice clean bone from my plate and put it in front of the dog’s nose. He can hardly see and he can’t hear “over here Lucky”, so you have to help him get to the bone without losing a finger. Finally he got it and chopped down, mumbling to himself as he enjoyed the bone.
Suddenly, he was frantic and I realized he had dropped it and couldn’t see where it was, but I could hear it being shoved up under the couch. As you can see Lucky is a pug/corgi mix and has no snout to fish out a little arrant bone. But, somehow, miraculously, he got the bone back from the brink of no return, without my help. He grabbed that bone and escaped to the dining room where he had plenty of room and no low furniture to contend with.
It was as if he said “Let me get me some room. There is too much going over there by the couch – her shoes, the rug, the couch. I need some room, so I can really enjoy this bone and not lose it.”
As my family would say, “There’s a sermon in there somewhere”, but immediately I thought of the verse that says something to the effect, He is bringing us out into a wide open space. That’s how I feel right about now – “I need some space, Lord! I’m ready for You to bring me out to a clear open space, so I can get the work done that You have commissioned me to do.”
The waiting continues.

Casey - A Children's Story

Skipping along in the sun rays across her granny’s huge backyard, Casey followed the rays all the way to the big oak tree. She slid into a grassy spot as if she was a baseball player coming into home plate, just like her big brother taught her. Sitting back relaxing against the trusty oak’s wide trunk, like she was on granny’s big fancy couch, she pulled out her juicy pear. Grandpa had picked it for her, just before she left the house. “Yipee” her soul seemed to say, as she got ready for the delicious juice of the ripe fruit.

Two squirrels dropped out of a branch close to her and didn’t run away. Maybe because she was so quiet eating her pear. Then one squirrel started chasing the other who was hiding something. Casey named them, Tom & Jerry, as she started on the other side of her pear.

Tom was hiding something and Jerry acted like it was supposed to be his. Jerry was determined to get it and was not going to stop trying. Tom headed up the tree again and Jerry right after him. Casey could see what Tom had – it was a huge piece of an apple. There was no way Tom could keep running and jumping from tree limb to limb and hold on to that big piece of fruit. It was too big for his mouth and he kept adjusting it, so it wouldn’t fall out.

Tom and Jerry’s big bushy tails flicked up and down in anger. Tom was angry that Jerry wouldn’t let him eat in peace. Jerry was angry that Tom wouldn’t let him have a piece. Tom almost fell out of the tree, trying to adjust the fruit in his mouth, but he saved himself and jumped safely to the ground, Jerry ran down the trunk right after him. Both of them on the ground, Tom seemed to come up with a smart idea. He broke the fruit in two and left one half on the ground and moved off with the other. Jerry jumped at that piece and both squirrels were happy.

Casey didn’t know that squirrels could do that or think that way. They taught her a lesson. When her cousins came to play, they always wanted to play with all her toys in her toy chest. She didn’t want them touching her toys and dolls and especially Teddy, but just like Tom, the squirrel, she would have to learn to share. After all she couldn’t play with all her things at once. Tom, the squirrel wouldn’t have been able to eat that piece of apple in peace, unless he shared it.

Sometimes God gives us so much that we really have to share it, or we won’t be able to carry it. That happened to one of Jesus’ disciples - Peter. Out fishing one day, he had caught nothing until Jesus sent him out to fish again and he got so much that he had to call other people to help him bring them in. I’m sure he had to share some of the catch for all his use of their boats. Another person in the Bible who had too much was a little boy in the crowd of the 5,000, who were hungry and tired after listening to Jesus teach for days. He had 5 loaves and 2 fishes. That’s too much for one little boy since 3 loaves was for one grown man to eat a whole meal. The little boy gave his too much to Jesus and 5,000 men with their wives and children (making probably 20,000 people) ate and were full and he got to take 12 baskets home! I wonder how he carried them.

©2009 Princess Carroll Ayo Durodola

Joanie and The Angel of Parliament Ave

Slowly snowflakes slide out of the smooth clouds. 9-year old Joanie watched from her penthouse window, on the 92nd floor of the Roosevelt Towers condos. She was sure she was watching the first snowflakes. She curled up in the window seat and enjoyed seeing the flakes before millions of people below, on Parliament Ave.

Mary was busy whirling cake mix in the mixer, for Joanie’s brother’s 16th birthday.
“I’m cold” Joanie called to the cook.
“Well, put that throw around you” Mary said, “I’m not going to stop this cooking right now to fiddle with that thermometer.”
Joanie pulled the throw around her legs and went on with her snow watching. The sun began to set and it looked like it was going to be in the colors of the pinks. There was purple, some plum, now magenta. It was changing quickly. More clouds were coming in and more snowflakes were falling.

Joanie’s brother, Carl, had a birthday on January 1st. How lucky, to have your birthday be New Year’s Day. He always said it was a pain in the neck, but Joanie couldn’t see how. Every time he was asked when his birthday was, he got a lot of attention because people said “You were born on New Year’s Day!!!”

As Joanie turned back to the window, she thought the sun was in an odd place. It seemed to be higher in the sky, not going down at all, but at her eye level. It should have been so bright that she couldn’t look at it, but she could. As she looked into the light, she realized it wasn’t the sun, but something else, suspended in air and she heard a voice come from it.
“Joanie, you’re going to have to pay attention” it said.
“Why?” Joanie asked.
“Because what I’m going to tell you is very important.”
“O.K.” Joanie said.
The voice from the light went on, “Go and tell Mary that as soon as she finishes mixing the cake, she should call her son. He’s not feeling well. He’s going to be alright if she calls him very soon.”
“O.K.” Joanie said, sitting still, waiting to hear more. She was so excited about the light in front of her.
“Go ahead Joanie and tell Mary” the angel said. For that’s what it was.
Joanie jumped up off the window seat, but turned back to keep her eyes on the bright light.
“Stop that jumping!” Mary shouted from the kitchen.
“I know, but there’s someone here.” Said Mary as the light seemed to shoo her away and the voice repeated, “Go ahead Joanie, go tell Mary.” She tore herself away from the big window and ran into the kitchen.
“Stop that running in the house.” Mary said, as she stopped the cake mixer, “What’s the matter with you today…jumping, running…”
“Mary!” Joanie put both her hands up to stop Mary talking and to give her very important message, “you must call your son, Leroy. He is not well and you must call him.”
“What are you…?” Mary started.
Joanie was ready for her, “An angel. An angel came to me at the window and told me that you have to call your son, that he is not well, but he will be O.K. if you call right away.”
“O.K., O.K. chil’” Mary said.
Mary knew God, Jesus was a friend of hers and she knew He spoke to His children in a lot of ways. She reached into her apron pocket and pulled out her cell phone, flipping it open in one fell swoop. Automatically, she pressed the number for her only child, Leroy, who had just turned 51. As she waited for him to pick up, she thought about how proud she was of him, that he had gone to college and had a great business and didn’t have to work for other people like her and his dad.
“Yes, Momma, how are ya’?” Leroy answered.
“I’m good. Wondering what this little chil’, Joanie is talking about…”
“Oh” Leroy groaned, “Oh my, what was that?”
“What is it son?” Mary asked. Joanie jumped up and down with glee, “the angel said he would be O.K. Don’t worry Mary.”
“A real sharp pain in my chest” Leroy said.
“Oh my God! Are you home?”
“Yes” he moaned.
“I’m calling 911 to send an ambulance over there. Stay on the phone; I’m going to use the house phone.”
“I’m sure it’s O.K. Momma” Leroy groaned.
“No, I have another Word. If you can move, get some of that aspirin out of the medicine cabinet and put it under your tongue.”
“O.K.” he answered. “But I’m still able to stand.”
“Praise God, just do as I said.” “Hello” Mary now switched over to the house phone and told the 911 operator what was happening and Leroy’s address.

Before Joanie knew it, she was in her winter gear, being pulled down the halls of Roosevelt Towers behind Mary towards the elevators.
“Since no one’s home, you’ll have to come with me” Mary, the family cook, said to her.
“Are we going to the hospital?” asked Joanie.
“We’ll go to the apartment first and see how he is and if the ambulance has got there.”
“The angel said he’ll be alright, Mary.”
“I believe you chil’. I believe you.” Mary said even though she had a worried tone in her voice.
By the time they got to Leroy’s apartment, the ambulance had him inside and was starting up their sirens to drive away.
“How exciting” Mary thought.
The policeman standing there knew Mary, “He’s O.K. Miss Mary. They’re taking him to Holy Cross.”
“Thank you Sam. I’ll follow.”

Much later at the hospital, in Leroy’s hospital room, he was snug and safe, tucked in. He had had a mild heart attack, but he was resting well. Mary’s husband and Leroy’s dad, John, had come and everyone was calm. Through the hospital room window looking out to the hallway, Joanie saw her Mom and Dad rushing to the room.
“Mommy, Daddy!”
“Hi darling” Daddy picked her up and they both hugged her. Then they hugged Mary and asked about Leroy.

Joanie tugged at their coats, anxious to tell them all about her adventure and about the angel of Parliament Ave. that came to save Leroy.


Copyright © 2008 Carroll Ayo Durodola