MIRACLE BABY - Reverend Mother, 60 gives birth

BELOW: BABY PETER-EMMANUEL ERUTEYA

Peter and Gladys Eruteya hail from Edo State. They had met at a Nigerian airport 40 years ago. They got married in England in 1968 having courted for two years. Gladys (nee Emokpae) was 25 while Peter was 25.

The first few years of

marriage was happy until the waiting for a child wore them down. They sought for medical help, home and abroad and Gladys went through series of surgery.
“We started praying, seeking for help, which was a natural thing for any young couple who are anxious for the fruit of the womb. We actually started seeking for medical help a little before our marriage because I was a bit worried as I never once missed my period like some of my friends constantly did. We used to joke about it then. We have at least six passports for different countries of the world. From one country, we would be directed to another and so it continued. During this time we spent so much money but nothing positive happened.”

Despite all these efforts, the doctors told her she could never have a child. As a Minister of God, Gladys went into fasting and prayer most of the time. It was during one of such occasions that she had a vision, in the 17th year of her childless marriage, in which she claimed God told her she was going to have a son.

“ I remember that on October 4, 1985,after I had gone through several operations in Germany, a professor there, whose name I would not want to mention for certain reasons, said I should not come to their hospital again because it was not possible for me to ever have a child. Before then while I was still in Germany in 1977, I was at the back of our housewhen I heard a voice say to me: ‘I will give you a child’ The voice explained what the child would do when it arrived. I then said to myself this is the Holy Spirit speaking to me. I went in and told my husband about it and we wrote it down and accepted what the voice said. So from then on, anytime we prayed, we always reminded God of his promise to us until He brought it to reality after 38 years of childlessness and at my old age of 60.”

An elated reverend couple, the Eruteyas, told their story to MARY EKAH (Guardian reporter) about their longsuffering and the miracle baby, Peter Jr., at the child dedication and 60th birthday anniversary thanksgiving held at the Foremost of Christ Counseling Centre Church.

When did you reach menopause?

Menopause? About nine years ago.

Since you reached menopause years back, how then could you be pregnant?

I would just say the Lord made a way for me. That is all I would say. God made it possible, without the help of God, we can do nothing. God made it possible for me to have the child. That’s all. One thing I want you to know that with God nothing is impossible. God will always make a way whether menopause or no menopause. God is still able to do all things.

What was your reaction upon discovering the pregnancy?

When I found out I was pregnant, I was more than pleased. I don’t even know how to express it. It would be impossible for me to tell my experience of these forty years of childlessness. I cannot tell you everything that happened in these 38 years. But my prayer is that let no one go through what I went through in these 38 years of anguish and shame. Childlessness is like leprosy. I won’t say it was the devil that rendered me childless but it was God that was testing my husband and me.

Did you bear your pregnancy at 60, better than most young women?

At that age to carry a pregnancy is not an easy thing but God was good to me. I thank God that He kept the child. It was God who put the child there in me and He was able to sustain the child for me through the period of the pregnancy. There wasn’t any problem except for the first three months. Aside that, all the normal things that happen to younger women also happened to me. I experienced all the things that happen to younger women.

Was it here in Nigeria that you got to know that you were pregnant or when you were abroad?

(A long pause) That’s a confidential thing to me. I would not want to discuss that. Whether here in Nigeria, London or wherever it was confirmed, I was definitely here in Nigeria by October, when iwas about four months pregnant and there was a very big thanksgiving for me like we had today. Those who knew before then came to see if actually I was pregnant. Some who even did not know me also came when they heard the story. They all saw me when I was here in Nigeria with the pregnancy and later God directed my path and I went back to Europe to have the baby.

When exactly was that?

I left here by December last year and had my baby by February 13, 2003.

AFTER WAITING FOR 13 YEARS...COUPLE NOW HAS BABY BOY

As a spinster and many years back, she had been assured that her first baby would be a boy. The assurance came from the Holy Spirit who ministered to her in a dream. So, when she got married in 1992 she expected the baby to come without delay. But Chief (Mrs) Ngozi Okoro, president of Sisters Fellowship International, Cotonou chapter, had to wait for a stressful 13 years for this dream to be accomplished.

In the long period of childlessness she continually questioned God, asking Him to fulfil His promise. And God replied, asking her not to question Him. Soon rumours started to spread that her husband, a prosperous Nigerian second hand clothes dealer in Cotonou, had used her womb for money rituals, but she dismissed this with a wave of the hand. And on August 16, this year, God fulfilled His promise to Mrs. Okoro by visiting her with a baby boy. Daily Sun was in Cotonou during the dedication ceremony of the baby and spoke with Mrs Okoro who narrated her travails during those 13 years without a child.

Introduction
My name is Chief (Mrs) Ngozi Okoro. I am married to Chief John Okoro from Amaeke Amankalu in Alayi, Abia State.

Actually, it was a surprise to have got married at a tender age, but finding myself unable to conceive. I was actually married to my husband in 1990 and by 1991 we were living together and in 1992 we did our church wedding. But all these 13, 14 years we have been just there looking for the fruit of the womb. But now, I understand it is divine, something that God did so that He will be glorified.

My mind in those 13 years
Yes, I was disturbed from the second year. The fifth year was the worst for me. If you are unable to conceive and still be able to live with your husband for seven years and you are not divorced, you won’t be divorced again. You will get pressure from every nook and cranny of the community, the family and even your own environment will be against you.

Yes, as a woman I felt threatened during the period, but one thing that gave me confidence was that God was always reassuring me that it was well. In 1993, when I came to Cotonou here, I had an experience when I was praying and the Holy Spirit said I should not ask him questions. This was because I was asking God questions, why this? Because I know the kind of life I lived. I was brought up in a very decent Christian home and I grew up in the fear of God. The Holy Spirit said I should not ask him any question, that he was doing that to me for a purpose, so that I would teach other people what I had passed through. And, indeed, the experience I have acquired from all these 13 years I cannot reveal in one day.
BABY JOHN OKORO

My friends
I have no friends. From my childhood, I’m not the type that keeps friends. Everybody is my pal; I don’t have a specific girlfriend. And because they know the kind of person I am, we don’t discuss such things (whether the childlessness then was from my husband).

Tests
I was fortunate enough to have a man that understands what life is all about. He knows what he wants in life. And when this problem came up, he said let’s go and check it out. And quite unlike other men, when their wives tell them, let’s go and see what is going on, they will say, I’m fit. He didn’t say that; instead, we went together to the medical doctors and to my greatest shock, he was doing everything he could, taking any kind of medicine that comes his way. He didn’t say I will not take this. That gave me a lot of encouragement.

After the tests
That was another blow, a very hot one. I only thank God because the grace of God was always there for me. My brother, not even your enemy should go through this. Childlessness is terrible!

The lesson
It taught me to depend on God. God passes you through one thing or the other for a purpose and when that purpose is fulfilled He brings forth what He wants. God has so much equipped me that today I am a blessing to many women in this city.

What kept my husband
I know he loves me and he knows what he wants. We were about adopting a child this year. He was about going home for December and he said, let’s go together and I said I wasn’t going to avoid people asking me, what’s wrong with you. Some will even be looking at me as if I’m a ghost from somewhere. And just like that he left without my knowing I had conceived. And when he came back from the Christmas ceremony, I was confirmed by my doctor that I was pregnant. So, when he came back, I told him, but he wasn’t excited. It shocked me and I was very angry. I was expecting him to be excited that we are about to have a child but he wasn’t excited.

Checking the baby
So, I went to my doctor and said, doctor what am I going to do? He said he would do a scan to see what the baby looks like in the womb. The time the doctor gave me for the scan, I did not allow it to reach because my husband wasn’t excited. When the doctor showed me the fetus on scan and said this is the heartbeat, it was just doing kpu, kpu, kpu like that. I said God and I was shedding tears and the doctor was just looking at me. He was surprised.

I tell women these days, let no situation, let no circumstance intimidate you.

The problem
Tension might be part of the problem just like in any marriage when you find out you have not conceived in the first year.

Advice to other women
I will like to tell them to calm down. You don’t get these babies by fighting, you don’t get these babies by condemning yourself. It is not your fault. Do not allow anybody around you to intimidate you because of your condition. There is nothing I don’t take part in. if they ask me to lead the whole women in Cotonou childless, I will still lead them and talk to them the way I want to talk to them without saying I have not got a child.

Even childless, I was the President of Sisters Fellowship International here in Cotonou. With childlessness, I was praying for other women, I was interceding for other women. Some people will say, she is childless, let her pray out herself first before praying out others. Yet, I didn’t allow these talks to weigh me down. Yes, they said it to my hearing, that I should pray out myself before praying for others. But it was a challenge to God. Any woman that is passing through this problem, if you look into her life, she is a star. God has deposited something into that woman that is looking for a child. Even in the scriptures, all the women that looked for children, God deposited something special in them. And because the devil, the enemy has seen that thing that God deposited in them, he will not leave them alone, but fight those things that they do not come forth.

Knowing I was pregnant
I was so excited. I wanted to jump up, but the doctor said no, calm down, this thing doesn’t like excitement. I was shocked when he said it doesn’t like excitement. He said Lolo, please oh don’t jump up, don’t be excited and I said okay, went back to my seat and sat down. When I came back to the house, I told my sister and we prayed to God. All through that month, I was just praising God. When I didn’t see my menstruation, I didn’t rush to the hospital immediately because I was just tired of checking.

The pregnancy signs
That was one other exciting period I had. The pregnancy was not quick in coming out. I have never been pregnant in my life before and I was looking forward for this thing to start coming out so that I will start doing guy with it. I told people that I will do shakara with this pregnancy and I did so.

But for the first, second and third month, there was no tummy. And I went to my doctor to say the tummy was not coming out but he said there was nothing wrong, I should go back home. And I said before I will go home allow me to hear the heartbeat so that I can sleep that night. That was because I was not feeling anything; I was looking forward to the tummy coming out. And when the tummy eventually came out, I flaunted it. Oh God! I flaunted it. And I started praying to God that I don’t want to be sick, I was so light and thin that some women started discussing in the saloon that I was padding my tummy with clothes and wasn’t pregnant.

My baby boy, John
I was aware from the first day that I will have a baby boy. Before I got married, I knew that my first child will be a baby boy. Don’t ask me because if I tell you prophetically you will not believe me.

Before I got married, I had spiritually entered into this marriage and the spirit of God told me I was going to have a baby boy. So, every year, I will ask God, where is my baby boy? That was why He told me that I shouldn’t ask him questions.

Delivery day
From the day I knew I was pregnant, I browsed the internet and luckily I saw this www.babycentre.com and I said okay, this is where I will be resting. So every week, I will go to see what the baby will look like and how it is developing. I was doing this until it got to nine months. And I said God, this is the 9th month. And a week or so after the 9th month, I went to the doctor and said, I think this pregnancy has reached nine months, and he said yes. I said I want this baby out because I was also telling God that I would want to give birth that week because I was tired.

So that fateful morning, I called my husband that I was going to have this baby today and he looked at me and didn’t say anything, he is not the talking type, anyway. I went to my aunty and said, please drop this bag for me in the car, don’t allow anybody to see you. She did that and I called my doctor and said I’m coming oh, are you ready? He said start coming, you are going to give birth today. I drove myself to the hospital. I did not want to give birth close to my house because if I do so, the whole Cotonou will pull down my house. Because just the mention of my name, even a little kid in Cotonou will tell you I know her. So, I chose a far place. When I got to the clinic, it didn’t take up to 5 hours, 30 minutes and I gave birth to my baby.

Paying God back
There is nothing that will be enough to pay God back in this kind of thing except by submitting your life, everything unto Him and to serve Him and mankind. This is one of the greatest payments one can make to God and also to make sure that the child is brought up according to God’s will.

The day I gave birth
The day I gave birth, it was as if the whole of Cotonou was looking up to it. The moment the news hit the city and entered the market, within two hours, everybody left the market to come to my house and the celebration started immediately and had been like that till today.

We are using this ceremony to tell those that are looking for the fruit of the womb that God is on the throne. Everybody in this Cotonou knows me and nobody thought I would be able to carry a pregnancy because I was so lean.

And there was this rumour in town that my husband used my womb to do juju (ritual). The young man himself did not hear this and the rumour was just spreading. But I heard it before I got pregnant. I said he is the only surviving son of his parents and his father is dead. I said how can he use my womb to do juju while in his lineage he is the only one left. So, I started asking myself what he was doing with my womb and has not given me any child from outside. So, I was not disturbed. I knew it was a mere rumour. In my dictionary there is no fear, so I did not confront my husband on this. But to God be the glory.

Most men will not be able to do what my husband has done, to wait all this 13 years. That is why I see myself privileged to be married to him. I am maybe the most privileged woman in the whole world for the kind of person he is.

A MIRACLE, 30 YEARS AFTER

A miracle, 30 years after

In Africa, the fruit of the womb, to a large extent, determines the blissfulness of a marriage. The inability to procreate has led and still leads to the breakdown and sometimes dissolution of many marriages. On tying the nuptial knot, couples look forward, with high hopes, to childbearing. A few years into the marriage, questions are asked and and eyebrows raised when none is forthcoming.

But Pastor and Deaconess Asuquo Dan Ukoh of the Olodi, Lagos branch of The Apostolic Church, watched the years roll by with expectations, believing in the Lord for offspring of their own. For 30 years, they remained prayerful and steadfast in their faith and confidence in God.

That finally came to fulfillment on April 2, when Deaconess Dora Dan Ukoh put to bed a baby girl. Theirs was a case of unlimited joy as friends, relations, church members and well wishers streamed into their Rasaki Street, Olodi-Apapa, Lagos residence to congratulate them. Indeed, their happiness started right from the early days of her pregnancy. “I was happy the day I got to know I was pregnant, because many men of God had prayed with us and for us. Through the prophetic message, I believe that I was going to have my own baby,” said an elated Mrs. Ukoh.
Dora said that she had gone to so many hospitals to no avail as she was always told that there was no problem with her womb after undergoing a series of tests.

“So my husband and I took it upon ourselves that prayer is the only option left,” said the 46 year old mother.
“We prayed fervently to God for children and in the end, God answered our prayers. We give thanks to God for fulfilling his promise,” added 50-year old Asuquo.

In the compound where they have been living for over 30 years, they have come to be known as a symbol of happy, holy matrimony even though they had no children of their own. Their generosity had seen them train quite a number of direct and extended relations. In fact, some of their neighbours found it difficult to believe that they were childless. Their apartment is filled with children – other people’s children who call them mummy and daddy.

“I never lost hope for I knew my God will bless us with children which he has now done,” said Asuquo.

The road to fruitfulness was not without thorns. Naturally, there were interferences, sundry suggestions and insinuations from members of both families, but the couple stood their ground, supported by their faith in God. Their parents, they revealed, were supportive of whatever actions they decided to take all along, most especially Asuquo’s father who was an elder of the church.

Both lost the goodwill of their friends when they refused to budge or seek a herbal treatment. “We don’t have friends now. They tried to discourage us and our faith, so, we took God as our friend,” Asuquo said. He also ignored all those who advised and encouraged him against his wish, asking him to look elsewhere. Said he: “there were friends who tried to mislead me, all of them left when they couldn’t convince me. I refused to abandon her. According to the Bible, once you are married, you become one. There was nothing anybody could do when I know the words of God and as a pastor, I couldn’t do otherwise.”

Indeed the temptations were high and so were the stakes. But “all through, we kept on praying. We didn’t have to go to any herbalist or another church. Our parents did not teach us to go to herbalist whenever we had problems. We prayed and we are still praying,” he said.

Were they expecting babies immediately after their wedlock? Asuquo smiled, burst into laughter, then said: “I don’t know how to answer that question because what else does one expect when he gets married?”

Asked how he felt waiting for so long, Asuquo queried:”How would it be like when you marry a wife and have to wait for 30 years to have a baby?” He was quick to add: “My wife is a woman of faith and hope. Whenever people mocked her for not being able to bear children, she normally replied in a way that strengthened my own faith by saying, “I know for sure that I will not die childless.” As for Deaconess Asuquo, she said she did not feel too bad about it “because many people had been praying for us and I told God that one day, before I die, I will have a child.”

The Asuquos were married when they were very young. They tied the nuptial knots in 1970 in Lagos at a time both were in secondary school and Dora barely 16 years. She soon joined her husband in their present residence. He met his wife in the church and made further enquiries about her having been seeing her around. Thus, when his mother encouraged him to get married even as a teenager, he quickly “rushed” her before someone else did.

“If you were the one, wouldn’t you have done the same thing?” he asked as husband and wife roared with laughter, almost tearfully, as if they simultaneously remembered that very first day they met formally. Obviously, he had the beauty of his wife in mind and she his desperation then.

How does it feel to be a first-time father at 50 after 30 years of marriage? “I am very happy. In fact, everyone who has gone through an experience for one year, two years or three years should be happy, how much more 30 years. How else can I feel?”

His wife chipped in philosophically that “it is just 30 years, afterall, Sarah waited longer in the Bible.” Just 30 years indeed, for one who prayed and believed it will certainly come to pass. Asuquo chipped in again: “Supposing it was your wife who gave birth after 30 years of marriage, how would you feel? For me, I feel like somebody who got married yesterday and his wife gives birth the following day. I have a child and thank God for that. A father is a father and I feel like I was married yesterday.”

The couple’s hope was raised last year when they encountered Pastor Cornelius Ajayi Ogunyemi, the Apapa Area Superintendent of The Apostolic Church who, according to Asuquo, prophesied “that my wife was going to conceive very soon.” He came to our house and we agreed in prayer.

“That has been our prayer ever since and God has now answered it at his appointed time. If he had allowed me to pass the year 2000, maybe I would have changed my mind and that is why he fulfilled his promise. The Lord is worthy.” In the church, he preached year 2000 as a year of prosperity and blessing and believed same for himself and truly, that has been manifested.

The pregnancy itself was not without pains, especially for a first time mother at her age. Asuquo said: “During the pregnancy, my wife had some pains and went to consult a doctor who asked us to bring N10,000 as cost for examination and treatment. But when we told Pastor Ogunyemi, he told us not to pay a kobo to any doctor or hospital, that God has laid hands on the baby. He said God who placed the baby there will deliver her of the baby safely when the time comes.” To that, they also agreed in prayer.

“Then on Sunday, April 2, I was ministering in the church and when I looked in the direction where my wife normally sits, I couldn’t find her. Later, somebody came to inform me that my wife had put to bed.”

That day’s service turned into a celebration of a sort as people came over to congratulate him, even his friends who had earlier abandoned him when he turned down their advice to divorce his wife. “What a miracle,” he said.

In fact, when he got home after the service, the whole area was filled with people who had come to rejoice with them.

The baby whose arrival has brought joy of inestimable value to the family and marriage, has been bestowed with names such as Ekemini Abasi (meaning the acceptable time of God), Precious, Aduragbemi, Happiness, Utibe and Lucy. “She is precious to me,” said Pastor Asuquo.

Penultimate Sunday, a dedication service was held at the church for which friends, relations and well wishers of the couple came from far and near. It turned out to be a celebration more elaborate than the couple anticipated. There, they poured out their hearts and experiences in encouragement of couples looking for the fruit of the womb. In the words of Asuquo: “In the Bible, Sarah and Abraham were married for so many years without a child, yet, they did not divorce themselves. God has been promising me “I will bless you, I will bless you.” I believed that and kept faith that sooner than later, before I leave this world, God would answer my prayer and as people say, the year 2000 is a year of miracles. I didn’t know that I will be one of the people the miracle will manifest in their lives.”

“We are broad-minded; we took good care of other people’s children while hoping on God to have our own. It is the promise of God which has come to fulfillment,” Dora said. “This has strengthened our faith and commitment to God with whom all things that seemed impossible have become possible,” Asuquo added.

Now that the door has been opened, do they expect more children? The question elicited a long laughter, a sigh and then: “Why not, if that is God’s wish?” answered Asuquo. Asked what advice they have for married couples in dire need of their own children, Asuquo said: “They should hope in God.” And from Dora: “They should trust in God for it is never too late. If He can do it for me, He can do it for anybody else. All we have to do is to wait for God’s appointed time. It will surely come to pass.” At that point, the baby who had been having a quiet time in the inner room cried out from the cot as if to remind her parents that she was listening.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

The issue of infertility is a personal one and many people who are going through it tend to keep their pains and frustrations to themselves. However it helps when you learn about other people who went through the same experience; you will be encouraged by their stories.

There is always light at the end of the tunnel. Even with a complicated medical diagnosis or sometimes ‘unexplained fertility,’ miracles do happen. They can also happen to you!

Infertility is a worldwide problem and even if you are not an African reader you will be able to identify with these couples, the ladies especially, as they tell their stories. You will cry, and ultimately laugh with them.