And Then the Winner is....

Even though my life has had episodes of trials and regrets, I am no stranger to good deeds. Have such deeds brought me motivation, encouragement and hope? Yes, I believe.

One of such deeds is the achievement of a friend of mine called Lawrence who just completed a Master’s program in Social Works this past Christmas season. I was instrumental in helping him achieve this through the financial support I gave to him.

His journey has been a heroic tale of faith, hope, hard work and determination. Though not born blind, he developed Cataracts in his sight condition which was not treated properly. This led to him becoming physically blind. Did he give up on his dream to gaining a college degree? Not at all! Even without a physical sight for now, he has turned out to become a man with great academic insight.

Also, he lost his father while he was still on his Bachelor’s degree. This came as a big shock to him, and this was the point in his life when I met him newly, while I was pursuing a Master’s degree in the same college with him. This happened some years back in Nigeria, before I relocated to The United States in 2015 via a U.S. green card status.

As of today, I am happy to say that he has not just completed the Bachelor’s degree, he has also completed a Master’s degree in Social Works as earlier mentioned. I am also happy to have given him the much financial support I could which helped him achieve these college dreams.

Okay here’s another one. Just recently, this past Christmas season, I was parked in the car lot of a popular shopping mall where I usually go to in Harrisburg - Pennsylvania, and then coming out of my car, I saw a young man walk up to me from behind. He told me he just got out of jail and needed a ride to get to his destination. At first, I was somewhat afraid to help him out because I didn’t know who he was and that he mentioned ‘jail’ also didn’t help as regards trusting him. He however persisted and I finally decided to drop him off. It was about a 5-minute ride.

Guess what? Few days later, I pulled into a gas station to get some gas and one of the people walking behind me reached out and said, ‘Hello’. When I turned back, it was the same person and in my mind, I was like, “Wow! What a coincidence, we met again”. He thanked me for the ride I gave him the other day and told me he also came in to get some gas for his car. I am really glad to have been of help to him.

As for me? I’ve had good angels come to my rescue too. Here’s one. One night I was really stranded of cash and so decided to do some ridesharing (Uber driving) but had already ran out of gas. I managed to pull into a gas station (you’ll say another gas station experience, I know, hahahaha).

So, I decided to ask someone for help. He appeared to be a middle-aged man who had already gotten gas from the adjacent pump. I walked up to him and explained to him that I ran out of cash and needed some money to get some gas. He told me he didn’t have much but reached into his car and got some coins which he gave to me. I was so happy! I thanked him and went into the store to make a prepaid payment for gas. I was able to get a few litters of gas which helped me to hit the road. After about half an hour, I had already generated enough money from Uber driving to get more gas. This also happened this past Christmas season.

Does love rescue? It does! Does it save? It does! Is it a universal language spoken and understood by many? I believe it is!

And then the winner is….

The winner is love.