(Part 1/2) About 5 years ago, I gave my life to Christ. I basically grew up on the streets, in the hood of Bariga, so you can understand what I had been exposed to at that age. I lost my dad at a very young age, so I was taken to live with my uncle. 

I had opportunities to do a lot of bad things, but for some reason God kept me. I was exposed to smoking, drinking and all that but I never tried them out. I remember sharing this with someone and the person said, "Your father's prayers worked", because my dad was an evangelist at MFM. 

I started going to church at some point but I never really found anything in the church fun. For me it was a routine. I had the mindset that you can’t serve God when you're young till when you're all grown up, married and you've enjoyed life to the fullest.

After secondary school I was looking for what to do because there was no one to sponsor my education. So, I started working as a bricklayer to survive, earning 800 Naira per day. After that, I started to teach in schools. I had this mindset that there was more to life, but for me, the idea of more to life was going out to hustle and doing something for yourself. I also worked with a welder on a particular project. I was doing whatever came my way so as not to appear lazy.

I was making some money but it just didn't fill my void. I was empty inside.

I was also a dancer, so I would go for dance rehearsals and meet with my guys to sing once in a while. We would meet and freestyle, doing street stuffs. I was good at what I did. Guys had their eyes on me and I had the opportunity to work for some people. I went on like this until someone told me about Solid Foundation Ministry camp meeting. It’s a teens and youth ministry. 

At the camp, there were about a thousand teens present from all over. Just one day into the camp and I was feeling funny. Like I said earlier, my idea of serving God was something to be done when you are mature, married and old but that camp meeting changed my life. I saw young people on fire for God. 

(Part 2/2) At the camp, there was a particular guy, very young, from South Africa. Whenever it was time for bible study, he was the first to get there, always ready. Almost everyone around me was in that world and I felt left out, but something on the inside of me felt peace, and I knew I needed more of this to fill the void in me. 

I started interacting with some of the guys, asking questions about the Bible and the Christian walk. They put me through, made me see reasons why the best time for me to serve God was now. We had series of bible studies and a lot of other activities and then one of the days at camp, there was an altar call and I gave my life to Christ. I still remember the whole experience. I woke up every day at camp eager to see what would happen next. I really can't find the right words to explain my experience, but it was different.

After camp, I got a new sense of direction. God was leading me and things started coming to me easily. I got to know God better, I got to understand why I needed to study the scriptures, the essence of devotions and fellowship with the Spirit.

My whole life changed. Being someone that had a lot of crazy experiences growing up, it was easy for me to relate with people. I bless people with my music. I sing indigenous rap music. Right now, I have a lot of people from the streets who look up to me. I've learnt that in order to win people, you don't need to look or feel different from them, or look down on them. You need to get close to them. I've been where they are so I understand them. That experience has helped me style my music and reach out to people.

God has been faithful. We've been able to win souls daily. Every opportunity I get to minister to someone, even on the road, I use it. I share my testimony. Even if they don't accept Christ at that moment, I believe that for everyone I talk to, I sow a seed and the Holy Spirit does the rest. 

I'm growing by the day and I now understand that serving God is not by age. It's how much you experience him, and every day is a new experience. It's been an amazing journey. 

I was born catholic. I grew up in a catholic home and went to a catholic school and church. I got baptised and was confirmed but I never understood a word in the Bible. Growing up, it was very difficult to understand the things I read.  

When I was 14, I went to church and fell under the power of the Holy Spirit and started speaking in tongues. 

I began to read the Bible. I received a revelation of God's word and started understanding things about Jesus on my own. This happened quickly. 

After my revelation of the kingdom of God, I decided to share my faith with my friends at the office. Everyone I met, I shared with. The funny thing is they all connected to me. They kept telling me to have a YouTube channel where I could share, but I refused and said I was still in the process of learning. 

I remember preaching at a very small church. We (Timothy Bentum, Pascal Amanfo and I) decided to pray for the congregation one by one. As I laid my hands on people, they fell under the power of the spirit. Then the news came out that Majid is a pastor because they were surprised to see me laying hands on people in church. How does an actor pray for people and then the spirit manifests? So, that's how the news came out. But before this, we had been to Uganda, Cameroon and Kenya to preach the word of God.

Since then, the Lord has been sending us to places to do his work and it's been good. We have surrendered completely to the Spirit of God. We don't go to places with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but rather with demonstrations of the power of God.  

(Part 1/4) It all started at the age of 15. I was living with my aunt. On the 31st of December, some years ago, I was heading to church for the watch night service. There was a carnival happening on the street and before I knew it, I was dragged by someone I didn't know. What I remembered was that I opened my eyes and realised I was in a strange place. I knew that something had been done to me and I was raped. I didn't know the person, I didn't know how, I didn't know when. All I knew was that I was raped. 

I went back home. I couldn't go to church. From that point, my life took a new turn. I entered into depression for a very long time because I wanted to remain a virgin till I got married. I then had my first boyfriend even though I never really wanted to have one. I felt like there was nothing to hide anymore. In fact, I was the one who did the toasting. There was no day I came back from school that we would not have sex. I was in SS1 and this continued for so many years. Most of his friends also had their way with me. A lot of people that I can't even remember took their turn with me because I felt like there was nothing to keep anymore. I let people come in and go freely.

In November 2011, my aunt’s house got burnt and on this particular day, a guy that sells clothes in my church said, "I have some clothes for you. Why don't you come to the house and I'll give them to you?" I followed him. His elder brother was in the house. The guy from church said I should wait for him to get the clothes from the store, so he left the house. The elder brother then stylishly locked the door and threw me on the bed. I screamed and screamed till I lost my strength because he overpowered me and raped me. This was another turning point in my life and I was angry.

I started drinking alcohol. I drank to be free from depression but there was no way out. My teachers in school also had their way with me. Truth is, I wasn't feeling bad about anything I did.

(Part 2/4) I have a friend from church who used to sleep in my house during the weekends. I remember one night, I felt a hand all over me. I opened my eyes and saw that she was the one caressing me. I didn't feel bad or feel I needed to stop her from touching me. That was how I got into lesbianism.

She also taught me how to masturbate. Sex was my life. Pornography and masturbation were my culture. I could not do without them. My aunty didn't know all this, not because she didn't care. It's not just something she would have found out easily because I was smart. And don't forget, I was still in secondary school. 

There was a particular lady who was brought to school to teach for a term. She taught CRS (Christian Religious Studies). On this particular day, she taught about forgiveness. I felt very bad for the first time in my life and I became restless. I couldn't do anything in school that day. I had to go to meet her to ask if God would ever forgive me for the things that I'd done. She said yes. She asked me if there was any problem. Because I didn't want to be judged or condemned, I didn't tell her. I eventually told and she asked, "Do you value yourself?" I looked at myself and saw nothing. I had already calculated that I would die before age 20. She laughed and said, "Are you God? Why would you think such?" I said, "Because I know the things that I do everyday and I know I won't last long." 

At this time in my life, I had stopped going to church because I felt God had abandoned me. This teacher took me to church, she bought me a bible and she prayed with me. I promised her I wouldn't go back to the things I used to do, but after a few months I found myself back there. I felt like they were things that I could not do without and I felt abnormal not doing them. Things went on like this for so many years until I had a dream. 

(Part 3/4) I had a dream where I saw a woman who spoke to me in pidgin. She said, "That thing wey you don dey do since, your friend papa say make I tell you say if you know stop that tin wey you dey do, you go die." I looked at her and was shocked. She said, "You dey look me. He say make I tell you say if you no die, you go get belle. If you comot am, you go die." I woke up from sleep and was really afraid. I decided not to go back to my old life. I was like, "God, I don't want to die because if I die, I'll just go to hell."

I stayed away for some months after that experience but I wasn't strong. Each time I tried to leave, the people I was involved with would come after me. I then had another dream and it was terrible.

I was dead in the dream. I remember standing by a staircase where people were going up and down. I tried calling out to them but nobody saw or heard me. Then I saw a particular man who did. He asked what I was doing there. I explained to him that I'd been trying to talk to people but no one seemed to notice me. He said, “Yes, they can't see you because you are a spirit. You are dead.” I said "Wow!" He then said, "Did you commit sins before you died?" I said, "Yes." Immediately the man started crying. I asked him why he was crying. He said, “There’s no second chance. Once you're dead, you're dead, and you go to hell if you've not repented." When I heard hell, I screamed and said, "No, I can't. You have to tell God to give me a second chance. You have to beg him. What will happen to my parents, my friends and my siblings? How will they take the news that I'm dead? How will they accept that I died in a man’s house or on his bed? My parents trust me more than this." In fact, the way I died in the dream was that I was poisoned by someone. The man kept on crying and said, "There's no way out. Once you're dead, you're dead and you're going to hell. I screamed, "second chance!" till I woke up from the dream. 

(Part 4/4) I know that God has a purpose for my life. I know that who I am and where I am today is because of the second chance God has given me. It's not that I didn't fall a couple of times, after 2 to 3 years of staying away. I did. Even when I fell, I knew that God was with me and it wasn't what I wanted. I went back to God and told him to help me because I couldn't do it alone. Before, I thought it was something I could handle on my own but it wasn't like that. I had to cry out to him to say I couldn't continue and he needed to help me. He helped.

I needed to change all my friends and I called every one I had a relationship with, warning them to never call me again. It wasn't an easy thing to do but I had to go through it so that my life could be good again. I also had to forgive myself first and forgive & let go of all the people that had hurt me in the past.

In 2015, I attended a leadership and entrepreneurial training. They talked about action plans and what you want to do for your community. I thought maybe my story is just for someone to learn from and be whole again. I came up with an action plan to start an online campaign for violence and sexual abuse. And that was how I started a teenage empowerment program to let people know that you can be a survivor and not remain a victim for the rest of your life. There is joy in being a survivor.  

(Part 1/3) At the end of my service year, I couldn't sleep. I was claustrophobic. I started getting panic attacks. I studied Theatre Arts and felt like I had wasted my life in university. With acting, you need to look for work yourself. There's no structure in place and I had no idea what to do.

In December 2012, I was to travel home to Delta State to see my folks. My usual practice, due to my anxiety attacks, was to get a seat at the front of the bus, meaning I had to get to the bus park early. That day, my luck ran out. I got to the park late and the front seat was booked. As I discussed with the attendant, a panic attack washed over me, much to his surprise and shock. I tried to explain what claustrophobia was but he had never heard of it. Eventually, he called his boss and got permission to transfer all the passengers to a smaller vehicle so I got a front seat in a Sienna and got to Delta.

When I got back to Lagos, my uncle who I was staying with at the time invited me to a church programme but I declined. A friend of mine had also invited me but I declined that offer as well. At the bus park on my way back home, I ran into the same attendant. He told me he had read up on claustrophobia. He asked if I’d heard of the same church programme. He told me, “Come expecting to meet with God, and bring along your claustrophobia”.

“Come expecting to meet with God” kept ringing in my mind, so I went. I can't explain what happened or how it happened, but it felt as if the old me died and a different me came out after the camp meeting. No panic attacks, no more anxiety, it felt like I could go through anything with God by my side. I had peace and this new hunger for God.

(Part 2/3) I went to the same church programme again in December 2014. I was praying about my career. At the time, I just got the job to star in a TV series, ‘Desperate Housewives Africa’, and it was the biggest salary I had been paid so far from acting. In my conversations with the Holy Spirit, I was asked to sacrifice my salary, to which I said “No”. But then I asked him to give me grace. He then reminded me of my last sacrifice which resulted in several open doors and was really a trickle compared to this salary. He then said, “If I'm asking you to lay down this money you think is a big sacrifice, don't you think I want to do something bigger in your life?" At that moment, a cooling effect, like rain began to fall on me. I took a paper and wrote down the vow.

In January 2015, as I was praying one morning in the Spirit, I heard, "If you will give your first fruit, I will fill your barns with plenty and your presses with new wine." I Googled it and I saw it was in Proverbs 3:9. The problem was, I didn't have anything, because the salary I was meant to get had already been pledged. I wrote a vow that no matter what I got, be it a million or one Naira, I would give it. Two days later someone called me up for a commercial. I did the job, got paid, put the money in an envelope and paid my vow. I also finished the series I was acting in and also paid that. So, I had zilch.

It felt really bad to me. I felt abandoned. I didn't have a dime to even buy bread or for transportation. I was crying and wailing. I began to remind God of his covenant with me and asked what was happening. I began to tell him why I needed him to come through for me, and somewhere in between all of that I heard him speak. 

(Part 3/3) God said to me, ‘’Turn around”. The way he said it was so audible that I shouted back through my tears, “What do you mean turn around?” He then said, “You are facing me and telling me how big your problems are. Turn around, face your problems and tell them how BIG your God is." That stopped me. I started to recall things God had done in the past; acknowledging them and counting my blessings. At some point, I realised I was still crying but it was tears of joy because I knew that I had someone in my corner, and it wasn’t just a regular person but the Creator of the Universe. I realised that the pressure I was feeling was because I was wrapping up my current job the next day and all I had was my transport to take me there and bring me back home.

I went to work and when I finished on set, my director sent me to audition for another project. When I got there, the director that was meant to oversee the audition happened to be a long-time friend of mine who I had worked with before. Long story short, I got the job. And I was one of the four leads.

I never thought I could work with such a cast so early in my career. The salary I got for that job was way over my previous sacrifice and pledge combined. That's how my acting career in Lagos started. And ever since then I've been getting offers. 

So, that's my story. There's no job I do that I do not pray about first, before auditioning or taking. The way I see it, God has a plan for me and has written it out. Why am I struggling to go through a road that he has laid out for me? 

(Part 1/2) My name is David Nkennor. People know me as a worship leader, a songwriter and concert planner. Some know me as a pastor and I teach as well. I have been privileged to write a number of songs that have been a blessing to people around the world.

I'm not as popular as my songs are but I go to places regularly where they sing my songs. I always said to myself that what would give me joy and fulfilment was stepping into a place and hearing people sing a song I wrote. Not just singing it, but being able to touch God with the song. That's what gives me fulfilment.

I used to be an A student in school. I wanted to be a Medical Doctor and an Architect. I wanted to have a quiet career life but God took me through a different path entirely. It was hard for me. When I left secondary school, it took me about 10 years to get into university (although within that 10-year period I did a teaching course at Federal College of Education in Akoka). During that period, God kept pulling me deeper into ministry.

All the while, I was moving around and blessing lives, but I was ashamed of myself. I felt I didn't have a degree and It was almost affecting my self-esteem.

In 2007, I was in my father’s house on the couch crying and reflecting on my life. Everybody thought that by now I would be somewhere or someone. I was one of the most brilliant kids in class and this was me 7 years after, with no degree. How had my life taken this path? Yes, people were getting blessed by me but I didn't care. I just wanted to go to school!

(Part 2/2) God spoke to me on a couch in my father's house. It was very clear. He took me to the book of Jeremiah and the story of the potter and the clay. I opened my Bible and saw it like I'd never seen it before. The Holy Spirit said I should read it again and he started speaking to me. He said, "Two things can cause a clay product to be delayed. The first is the impurities in the clay. The potter wants to take away everything that can cause problems in the future after the work is done. He takes his time to remove every impurity. The second thing is the creativity of the potter.” He then said to me, "David when I'm done moulding you, you will not be priced like the other vessels you see on the shelf." That was the word I got that day and my tears dried up.

He then said specifically, "Everything that you need to be David Nkennor, I placed it in you when you were born. You're not going to get it from school. You have it all in you." He made me understand that all I need to do with education is to give language to what I already have. People who know me and walk closely with me know how creative and gifted I am. I told myself from that point, I'm going to be somebody. That was the beginning for me.

Many years after, I have learnt that there is no relevance or going forward without God. If you want to serve God, serve God. I'm not saying serve church or your pastor. It's God that is calling us. He made us. He understands our lives. He directs our lives in ways that we never thought possible.

God has blessed me beyond my imagination. Yes, I have been to university, but it truly has nothing to do with what I'm doing today. In fact, in my second year at University, I was going to walk out of campus and not come back. I read Mathematics but I was also involved in ministry in school. I've learnt a lot during these chapters of my life; seeing God's plan unfold in my music ministry. It's been a very interesting journey for me.

(Part 1/3) In God’s eye and in my mum’s eye (because she led me to Christ), I gave my life to Christ in 1995.

Growing up in a Pastor’s house, I knew right from wrong very early and good from bad. Regardless, my parents couldn’t stand the chance of having the same reports almost all pastors did, of having bad children. So, we were always locked up and kept indoors. We were disallowed from making friends so we didn’t get influenced negatively.

Maybe this helped but it had a huge dent on my confidence and ability to interact. I was a smart kid but I couldn’t stand for what I knew or believed in at any level. I was very timid. This affected my secondary school education. I never asked any questions even when I didn’t understand. I pulled through until SS2 when I had to repeat a class (owing to my lack of confidence at the time.) That was the beginning of my “good boy turned bad” story.

Repeating a class was the worst thing ever. I picked up vices to combat the shame. I started smoking weed & drinking to avoid thoughts of my reality. I moved into the University of Lagos and then girls joined my list of interests.

At my diploma level in UNILAG, club boys started toasting me. I refused to accept any of their offers. But I indulged in clubbing, drinking and smoking. I lived that life during my 1st, 2nd and 3rd year. I still marvel at how God kept me from having sex. All I remember was that at age 19, I asked God to help me not to ever have sex outside marriage. During my undergraduate days, I had several encounters with women. We did a lot of things but the recollection of that one “vow” to God kept me from somehow going all the way.

One faithful day, I smoked and was high. I stood in front of a mirror and it seemed like my future flashed before my eyes. I saw two paths. One resembled that of those who sold weed to me and the second was the future I always desired. That day, in my high state, I decided never to smoke weed again.

(Part 2/3) My journey back to God started in Campus fellowship when I was chasing a girl. I told her, “For your sake, I go go church oh.” Lol. However, along the line I started getting serious, was baptised with the Holy Spirit and started speaking in tongues. My encounter with the Holy Spirit was phenomenal because I had gotten to a point where I realised I was so weak that self-control felt like a huge task and I needed help.

I wouldn’t say that the journey was rosy from then onwards, as I occasionally found myself falling back into habits that I had left behind. But I knew for a fact that the grace of God was not one I could take for granted. This knowledge and my new found love for God kept me.  

I battled with “girls” till my final year. I was already a pastor in my final year and there were so many good testimonies happening. God was doing things with me but, I was still battling with my attraction to women. It seemed like I just kept rising and falling. Sometimes I would be strong and at other times I’d be terribly weak. But I made sure I maintained a heart tender towards God so I knew when I had crossed the line or was about to.

The changes in my life were more of the Holy Spirit leading me through quality decisions based on thoughts. I am a deeply process person; I know what I am doing. I think about what I say before I say it and you won't catch me off guard easily. All the times that I fell, I planned it and knew I was going to fall. I would beg God to ignore it and forgive me when I'm done. I did that for a while.

(Part 3/3) I think it was the fact that I kept getting higher responsibilities regardless of my frailties that got me to the point where I spoke to myself one day. I said that any renowned minister that fell would have their story blown up in public and I wouldn’t want that to happen to me eventually. I listened to people like Fela Durotoye and Bishop Oyedepo who said to God, "If I ever cheat on my wife, kill me." I felt like these guys had some nerve. How do you tell God to kill you if you ever cheat? How do you know you are not going to cheat? I wasn't married at the time but I felt like that was the hugest thing to say. So, I told God to keep me. I was being very sincere.

I was the only one who knew I was weak. Everybody around me thought I was a great guy.  Everybody just saw God and they never saw Sin. The times when people should have seen sin, it seemed like God would hide it. So, I was wondering, "Why are you hiding me? Why are you making me look good? I should actually look bad." God kept me till I got to the point where I said, “You know what? Since you're not going to expose me, I’ll just follow your will." I think that was where I gave up. Following that phase of my life, I wrote two books - “Not my Will” & “Weakness for Sale”.

Self-control became easy after a while. I kept my covenant of not having sex till marriage with God, despite my weakness with women. I have been married for a year and about 8 months and I have never needed to think twice about the joy & peace I have. I am in a great place with God. I run a business that works. I work with people that I'm happy with and life is beautiful. 

I was born into a polygamous family. I was the only child for my mum and it took 8 years for my little brother to arrive.

I was molested by the Army personnel in the compound. It was an embassy. They would pull down my pants and touch my genitals. They would threaten to beat me if I told my mum. I was only 4. This went on for a while with different people, including my uncle. I learnt to bottle up my emotions. An accident made things worse. I had scars on my forehead, cheeks, hands and legs. I felt unwanted and grew up with fear.

When I got into secondary school, it was just my mum who took care of everything, because my dad was always saying he didn’t have money. He was spending on my step siblings and even borrowing to pay with interest but when it was my turn, he never had. I used to tell my mum that I really wished I could change my father. The pressure was much on my mum and I really didn’t want to disturb her with my problems. So, I didn’t have anyone to talk to about my feelings while growing up.

After my Youth Service, I got a job and became close to my boss because for the first time in my life I felt someone understood me. I fell in love with him and even gave him my virginity. I would console myself that at least he loved and understood me. He talked to me about marriage. I felt at peace, only to realise that it was a ploy to use me and dump me, which he did.

I was broken. I didn’t care anymore. I lost hope and started living anyhow since the only thing that mattered to me that I kept for 22 years was gone (my virginity). I didn't have respect for my body anymore. I hated my life. I just wanted the ground to open up to swallow me. I always cursed my boss even though I still worked with him.

I stumbled upon the UNFILTERED page. As I read different people's stories, my eyes became teary. I then realized I had bottled up more than I could take. I realised that I can live and be trauma-free. It took me 2 weeks to make this bold step to share my story.

I really want to heal and have a normal life again. I'm glad that God is helping me to recover.