GRATITUDE

A Yoruba proverb says: "Anyone who knows how to think should know how to give thanks." My gratitude starts with the One, that is the Living God, who knew me before I was in my mother's womb and who pre-ordained that this modest work would be a critical part of His greater ministry. For, if Jesus were to teach a course on Himself today, the "Bible Jesus Used" will be the textbook He would recommend.

Now follows the part that is the chain of standing-on-shoulders. My grandfather died when my father was still a child, however, my father, Stephen Joseph Falade, resolved to go to school, which at that time in Nigeria, meant to be a Christian. And a Christian he was, bringing his entire household up with early morning and evening devotional services. I attended Saint John's, Aroloya, Lagos, Christian Missionary School and Church, where I cut my teeth in Christian ministry by enrolling in the choir at the age of nine. S. J. Falade later became head teacher of some Nigerian leaders.

At the age of twelve, I chose to go to the Anglican/Episcopalian Secondary Institution, Abeokuta Grammar School, L'ori Oke, where we regularly had our morning and afternoon "overdose of religious lessons," as we called it then, ministered to us by very notable ordained and lay teachers under the Principalship of  Reverend J. S. Adeniyi, who later became the Anglican/Episcopalian Bishop of Lagos, Archbishop of Nigeria.  Of particular note was my mentor, Hezekiah Olutade Odedairo, nicknamed "holy father" for his godly life, and, of course, the famed Oyewole twins, Dotun and Femi, Physics and Chemistry teachers extraordinaire.

Through the auspices of the African-American Institute, I earned a BS in Civil Engineering and an MS in Structural Engineering from Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts., where the humility, humanitarianism and the unalloyed dedication to scholarship by both staff and students were further ingrained in my person.

However, it was not until I was thirty-three years old and I had read bible scholar and theologian Dr J. Sidlow Baxter's book, "Does God Still Guide?" that I realized why so much effort had been taken to give us training in the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Dr J. S. Baxter's book  made the doctrine of salvation crystal clear to me. I got saved. Dr J. Sidlow Baxter himself had read a sermon of Charles H. Spurgeon and got saved. See the kind of Christian pedigree I hail from! This explains my specificity for the salvation content as far as the gospel is concerned.

 With the help of Evangelical Churches of West Africa/Sudan Interior Mission (ECWA/SIM)'s Challenge Bookshop, Mushin, Lagos, I started studying more about Christ. In the following years, I enrolled in the Lagos Extension of the ECWA Theological Seminary, Igbaja, an offshoot of Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas, under the tutelage of Pastors Joel Bodunrin, and like me, American College trained Engineer-Missionaries, Art Temmesfeld (Dallas) and Ted Kayser (Multnomah).

I had written "30 Days of Answered Prayers," a booklet that featured the Gospel Message as it really is in a series of thirty daily readings; "A Complete Biography of Jesus the Messiah" " with formatting help from my nephew, Pastor Lanre Adewoye,, which work is also known digitally as "Footprints of Jesus Christ," www.jesusfootprints.net; and my latest work the "Bible Jesus Used" being Jesus'  Note of Lesson , a.k.a. Jesus' Canonicity. This secret global tripartite non-monetized ministry is in obedience to Jesus injunction to his disciples on the very first errand saying: "freely you received, freely give", falls in line with Joseph Arimathean practice, and is corroborated by Paul as he reminds disciples of the Lord's saying that "it's more blessed to give than to receive".

I will be remiss if I do not mention my brother, Engr. Dr Femi Sola Falade, his wife Nicole, their children and grandchildren Ajani Segun and Abiola. Their moral and financial support had been unparalleled and made this work possible and pleasurable.

The above are only some of the many shoulders on which I stand. This specimen shows what a big global sphere the network of successive shoulder propping we have for each and every one who knows how to think and how to give thanks, Children who stood on the shoulders of parents, students on teachers, mentees on mentors, followers on leaders, friends on friends, colleagues on colleagues. I mean really for everyone. With such a cloud of witnesses we cannot do any less. Thank you all.

Christ's LOVE
Yomi Segun Falade