(0:00)Why we fall apart in the storm
the way life works we will face storms in life it's just the way life works I feel the church does not prepare people enough for the storms of life and so when people face those storms yeah they fall apart they fall apart so I say that if you're going to face storms you better have built the storm shelters before the storms M it is difficult near impossible it's impossible I think to build storm shelters whilst the storm is RA raging around you I think that by God's grace I had been fortunate to build strong storm shelters and you know
(0:36)Grading your life's Category 5 crisis
they say storms are graded from category 1 to five category five is the craziest stor I think the loss of a loved one and long-term illness illness are category five storms a divorce might be category four and you can scale it down so but I think what helped me were the storm shelters I remember saying to her that you know I think I should marry you if I had any sense and I laughed and said I probably don't have any sense so I W you
(1:03)The moment I knew I had to marry her
did and I remember her saying to me a you're drunk I said no I'm not drunk I know exactly what I'm saying I should but I I hope I have the sense to something like that and that's when I start getting you know very very interested in the concept of maring her um and it was very very interesting how I did I felt that something in me was saying marry her all this now hindsight I know what was happening to me the Holy Spirit was working but I didn't know anything about any holy Spirit or anything like that I just felt that my conscience let me call it that some part of me was saying if you have any sense that's the and at that time to answer your question directly I was far from God interesting if you could go back to let's say 1985 right and you met agu what would you say to him I would say to him that
(1:52)The 1985 regret: Being more intentional
he should be more intentional about life that's definitely what I would say ago 1985 was just just having a blast as he saw it right and was just leaving for the moment um I think if ago had been more intentional about life and I'm not sure if he could because you know sometimes this is a function of age and all that um I think I would probably have had more impact in life unfilter hey great to be back on PF unfiltered today we don't have the usual um what do you call those people nuisance that are usually on the show with us it's just me yay and uh Pastor aru today um Pastor agu is just uh has been a blessing to us um and I'm going to be asking him questions and he's going to uh talk about some some things hopefully we can get him to be unfiltered um in in because PF unfiltered is about speaking your mind without filters without being politically correct without worrying about you know just the way that you are uncensored Pastor agu uncensored maybe that's what we should call it all right guys um so some of you who don't know Pastor agu uh Pastor agu is the pastor of Jesus house London amongst other hearts that he wears but I'll just let him introduce himself Pastor can you tell us a little bit about you uh thanks um thanks for having me um um I thought about uncensored and unfiltered in in this age it's really hard to be on filtered let's give it a shot my name is
(3:34)Pastor Agu: Who I really am
auku I'm uh I serve um as the senior pastor of Jesus house I um serve as the president of mandate Men's Ministry um I do quite a bit of other things in the um Christian space uh crosses over into um I guess you would call it the government space right um where there's that intersection between faith and and politics and go and the government I have one or two rules some some of them informal um yeah I'm married to schah who's an absolutely amazing woman she's great absolutely she's first class um and I have and we have three wonderful children who yeah are also you know just a blessing to me um that's that's that's me I I love Chelsea Football Club unfortunately I mean you can't be it can't be perfect right there has to be a a ding somewhere and yeah um I I swim a lot I like swimming it's very therapeutic for me and I cook I like I like cooking that's also therapeutic from here okay well I know you're a foodie every time you come into town we want to find a nice steakhouse to um to go to go just to eat steaks yeah I mean I don't eat it regularly um I mean thankfully I don't really eat anything regularly so um probably apart from salads and and and fruits um but yeah just I just I think
(5:23)Why food is a spiritual force
food is more spiritual than people know right um be an interest study to see the number of significant things that happened around food in the back true true and then you realize how there's something spiritual about food right um it helps build community that's what I was about to say when we started um when we first planted this church um New Covenant House when it was used to be Jesus house I remember we used to um every Sunday we would have chicken wings after the service cuz we had service in the hotel and we'd have chicken wings and we'd have lemonade and people would come and stay right we had a lot of Young Folks at the time they would come and stay just for the chicken wings and the lemonade and from that place Community yeah um grew to what it has become today food really is actually um it's an interestingly powerful yeah force in in in human relationships yeah I mean if you look through the Bible there are so many examples when Elijah was tired and just suicidal and just depressed and yeah um it was interesting that he wasn't called into a prayer meeting right and a sermon wasn't preach that was food all he was told to do was eat and rest yeah yeah when Jesus uh I one of the most beautiful stories in the Bible is Jesus um grilling fish on the on on the beach for the discipl disciples who had lost hope completely um and then the most significant thing took place at the table where he instituted the Lord's supper right right and the list can go on and on that's why there are so many feasts and festivals because there's just something about about you know food celebration Community uh encouragement that's that's really powerful I hadn't really thought about it like that i' just seen the power of it you know um particularly communion I think Paul said in at the end of 1 Corinthians 11 how every time we eat um communion we're declaring the Lord's death yeah until until he comes and the convers is the same as well so you know that's why fasting has has
(7:40)The secret power of fasting
power right right because they Converse as well when you abstain from food right it it has the potential to push into Realms F I had I heard I heard let me ask you I I had an interesting theory about fasting you know how the Bible says that present your body is as a Living Sacrifice so the idea is that when we are in the Old Testament um sacrifices were given to God when the fat of the meat was burnt yeah so that when we fast we're burning fat so to speak inter and that the burning of the fat is like the the sacrifice that's that that uh that we make to God I thought that was an interesting take on I never i' never thought yeah but I I I I didn't dig too deeply into it why why do you like cooking particularly what is it about cooking that makes you um that you find therapeutic is it the creativity or the I think I think firstly I'm in my own space yeah when I'm cooking right um I think also uh it allows me to just break boundaries invent things um I'm always adding and you're a creative cook my wife says I just never follow the format and she's very scientific she's step by step the way it was said but I always always thinking now I wonder if you toss the what will if you toss the so you you can't bake you can't bake because if you try baking you you destroy everything baking has to be scientific it's very scientific you have to weigh everything interestingly I don't bake yeah if you're creat you're too creative you can't bake because you can't just wake up and you know like for bread bread has um what they call hydration levels the amount of the ratio of liquid to to solid and if it reaches a certain amount then you can't manage your audience knows you bake because oh yeah yeah I bake I everybody knows I bake I'm always baking you know so I find that if you mess with the hydration levels just out of the desire to be creative you are going to have a mess on your hands and you need to understand that you know can you tell us something about you that people don't know generally I'm not sure what people something that could cause some people to be like really I didn't no uh let me come back to that let me think about okay okay before you go and say something that come back you have everybody in London phoning you and say what did you say yes no I'm just trying to I'll come back to that okay when when when when we're talking about about having you on there was a question that I wanted to ask you um if you could go back to let's say 1985 right and you met auu what would you say to him I would say to him that he should be more intentional about life that's definitely what I would say ago 1985 was just having a blast as he saw it right um and was just leaving for the moment right um I think if ago had been more intentional about life and I'm not sure if he could because you know sometimes this is a function of age and all that um I think yeah I would probably have had more impact in life okay so if if okay so you're a pastor now right you know amongst other things that you do
(11:15)Why I didn't run for political office
but primarily a pastor if you weren't a pastor what else would you be doing what else could you be doing without a doubt a politician you'd be a politician 100% really 101% so what's stopping you now uh because I think I'm I'm I'm on my Lane okay I'm I'm in in the center of God's plan for my life okay because at some point I actually thought you were going to run for office in Nigeria yes a few people thought so but um and fleetingly very fleetingly it was very fleeting it was a thought that crossed my mind but it was fleeting okay um and and and and the reason is because the the way to doing what I'm doing what did I why why have I always wanted to be a politician I've always wanted to be a politician because I thought that was the way to help people right so the driving force
(12:10)The trap of making money to help people
in my life has always been how can I help people right how can I make people better how can I make it a better better world for people so I I didn't know anything about what I'm doing or anything like that I was a nominal Christian so I thought you know what you just got to go and be a politician get some power and do it and then to be a politician I thought you've got to make some money so it was a plan make a lot of money because politics Mone anywhere in the world and in Nigeria at it most Bas Bas based level politics is money you're not going to get there if you don't have so I thought okay make make a bit make a bit of money and then go into politics so that you can have the opportunity right to make people's lives better um I then found out when I became a Christian that that uh this is this is really how you make people's lives better because now you're talking about not just life in a material world you're talking about a person's soul ultimately but you also help in the material world you're talking about a person's soul you know it's interesting our our motivation is similar I wasn't trying to be a politician I was going to join the Army right um I was going to join the Army I was going to get some boys together we're going to plan a crew right and I was going to be one of those I actually had had said to my father that I was going to join the Army in um when I entered University after my first year I was done with with school I I studied philosophy and it was just horrible it wasn't what I thought you know and he he he threatened me and I was like look that's your own business for me I'm joining then he pleaded with me and I decided not to but the motivation for me at the time was change the environment right um change society to help people um have a better life right um and look cool in a uniform while doing it but then I become a Christian and I find myself um pastoring but you know this this leads to one of
(14:13)Should Christians demonize opponents?
the areas where I I personally have struggled with the role of Christians in in politics right is there really cuz politics is is adversarial right and in America right now politics involves demonizing your opponent so to speak you know it is no longer we have different perspectives on how to make the country better it is that my perspective is the only acceptable perspective and you are The Offspring of the devil right how does a Christian function in that kind of environment right where in order to get anything done you literally have to demonize your opponent and your opponent is not one person it's all the people who voted that person in right so I I I I struggle with the idea that a Christian whose primary mission is to change Hearts right as the foundation of change in society how do you reconcile the process of politics with the mission of the church the goal of politics I think that's fine but the real process of it you know how how do you balance the two okay I think um I think is a fantastic opportunity actually it's actually very it's very exciting the potential right you know there are two analogies that uh two metaphors that that Jesus uses to describe us as Christians in Matthew's gospel the fifth chapter one
(15:47)Salt, Light, and a tasteless Church
of them is salt one is light um and there such it's such a powerful graphic picture of what the Christian should be so the nature of salt is that it doesn't have to try to do anything it just has to be in the environment true and it changes the environment so we don't have to worry ourselves with Christians necessarily going to do we have to worry ourselves with Christians just being Christians in that environment just be a Christan chrisan right you know do what Christians do right um and you know that scripture says uh when the salt Los it and this is the Amplified classic version when the salt loses its Savor yeah um and then it describes Savor as two things strength and quality then it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled on the foot by men which unfortunately is where the church is in a lot of parts of the world the church is De rided the church is mocked the church is ridiculed the church is irrelevant is that that's what Jesus was saying now why is the church like that why why are Christians like that because they've lost strength and quality yeah they might in some parts of the world there's quantity of course in the country of where you know our birth there's quantity but there's no quality whatsoever I mean you quality is few and far between so when when the salt has Str strength and strength really is comes out of your relationship with the Holy Spirit you are a Christian you know and when it has uh quality you know it's this is a Christian this this person does what Christians do not just a religious yes no not just an Appalachian you know but a real Christian yeah um then when the person is put there the person brings change just by being right you know when you put salt in in a broth in the broth of the soup soup or the stew depending on what you call it you know everything in the stew know knows that the environment has changed because something has been introduced that changes the environment so really what should happen is that the churches should concentrate on raising disciples right um congregations don't change things disciples change things so you have a lot of people people who are part of the congregation of churches which means they attend on a Sunday they might give their offerings and their ties but but congregation they don't change things you know it's it's disciples right who change things right um so I think politics is a fantasttic is a it's brilliant now because you know against the backdrop of Darkness the light is obvious right it says we're the light of the world so let's go in there and let's be light you know I find that in America the the church's involvement in politics has actually had a dampening effect on evangelism you know there's a generation like my kids dar and D they they're frustrated with the church because of the depth to which it has engaged in politics yeah and seem to have abandoned the the the weightier matters of of of the faith you know um so it's kind of like a challenge how to reconcile our desire to change the environment through legislation and what that involves right you know passing laws that we think will make the nation um a righteous Nation but at the same time doing it in such a way that alienates the nation you know so when you talk about if you go on some website some search engines and you um type in a Christian is everything that follows is unbelievably negative in Toler an um you know um self-righteous conceited is not really Salt and Light you know and and that's a challenge you know and and I struggle with why are we even going to mess with this if at the end of the day we end up getting stained right why don't we just focus on preaching the gospel but like you said just being salt just being the getting in there and just being a Christian you know I think the challenge is is religion and Christianity a of people who claim to be Christians are not really Christians you know and then when they get in there they do what they do which is you know religion and then you've got the problems that we we we s and and me they might they might be Christians they might just not be mature Christians okay because there's a whole Spectrum spectrum of caral Christians right whose behavior is very similar to non-christians right and you know Paul addresses them a lot you know caral Christians right um so what we need is mature we need to mature people right so that people can go in there on a mission mature Christians living by the spirit of God right you know um and then you get the change and we shouldn't worry about people going into politics into uh the creative world into sports into education we want Christians everywhere yeah it's not that uh we're abandoning uh the pulpit but what we're doing is we're training people for the work of the ministry where God has planted them okay um so you didn't end up in politics and you ended up in Ministry you ended up in leadership how how did that happen how do you go from you know I know you you were a lawyer but how do you go from the law to Pastor um I mean you know when we when we tell the stories in hindsight we make it sound also organized and step by step but it's not it's not anything like that I just found myself there um obviously God had a plan yes um and he just basically tricked me into where I found myself what do you me tricked you um I I got asked to I mean I gave my life to Christ I became a serious Christian um because I was tired of the life I was leaving it was empty um it was an interesting life life because I was very I was very spoiled I was young I had I had more money than I needed to to have right cuz I had a good job right in an investment Bank um came from what would be called a wealthy background so I had that as well um life was good in inverted Commerce in terms of the socials the partying the women the the life the fast life the jolof yeah the fast life yes so so but but it's it's interesting that there was an emptiness in all that and the emptiness grew with time right um and um um if he who's your wife ao's late sister um who was my first wife um was very instrumental um in pointing me in the right direction because she'd become a committed Christian right and so she invited me to church coincidentally A lady called aerobo used to work in the bank she was my manager and couple of wrongs above me in the bank invited me to church and I went to church I'd never been to a Pentecostal Church before in my life you know never been it was my first experience of Pentecostals um and I was I was intrigued yeah I was intrigued by the music m it was it it kind of reminded me of what I listened to in the clubs it's just that the words were clean and they were talking about this Jesus right but in terms of the beats and the yeah it was very similar so I was intrigued by the music I was I was fascinated at the number of young people I saw I'd never seen so many young people in church um and then I was totally captivated by the first sermon I heard by Pastor Tony rapu i' never heard a sermon like that MH and he spoke for close to one hour and I was just captivated Y and so I thought I'd go back a few more times I did um and quickly realized that this whole thing centers around this Bible it's interesting I I was a Christian but I never figured that out um so I asked for a Bible I asked if for a Bible and I started reading the Bible um I read it like a lawyer which of course is is what you don't do um because in the sense that you know I was I was trying to look for the evidence before the faith yeah whereas it walks the other way you believe and then it suddenly makes sense right um but I read it you know and and the more I read it the more I was intrigued um obviously something was happening in my heart I didn't know all these things then I just um cut long story short you know about two three months going to church reading the Bible um and then I came to the conclusion that this is the direction I want to go um so mine wasn't one of those dramatic I was knocked off the horse kind of thing it was a gradual process okay where I arrived at a place okay that this is the way to go um and I started the journey okay and thought I was already a Christian until 6 months later I'm sitting in church by this time everybody knows me and by this time I'm dating a fee so I'm kind of part of the club now and I'm sitting in church and past starts to do an altar call and he says where there there's one we're waiting for someone and then I just thought I I just don't know why I knew that it was me they're waiting for you and I was thinking but I can't get up because I've been in this church for 6 months everybody thinks I'm a Christian already um and I I I genuinely can't tell you how I got out there I just realized that I was standing out there and I think that was God saying you've got to make a public Declaration of what you say you're in and yeah yeah that was interesting on the journey and so how did I get how did I get into um Ministry um and as soon as I you know got involved in church I threw myself into work I don't do things in half measures either I'm in or I'm out so I was in so I was everywhere anything that needed doing prayer meetings whatever um and then very quickly I got ordained which I thought was a laugh because I thought you know they obviously can't find people so um as a some sort of lay Minister we call it an an an assistant pastor yeah in redeemed in the redeem Redeemed Christian Church of God then an assistant pastor and then um you know Pastor Tony would always share visions of going to the world and stuff like that Nation you know them yeah you know you know it and then for the Nations yeah he went to start a church in London did all the ground work a lot of work the pray and stuff like that um and then asked they said wanted to come back and just called me and said will you come and keep an eye on this church for a few weeks um a month two months Max let's just find a pastor for it and it's funny because if the first thing I thought about then was fantastic I can watch football cuz then we didn't have satellites yeah so you had to be in England to watch Chelsea so I thought I can watch Chelsea and I can eat hagas not very spiritual things that was very far from spiritual and um off I went to England and you know two weeks 3 weeks four weeks was pastoring a small Church very small Church 30 40 people maybe if that um and yeah after two months I was like you know I want to go back to my practice I'd left the bank now and set up a law practice um you know where's this pastor and it was like look we're trying to find someone just can you stay for another month they need to find looking for anybody well it's been 31 years they haven't found the P they they haven't found anybody I recog yeah so that's how I got myself that's how I got into it okay okay let me ask you a question you mentioned um ify ify is your um was your late wife yeah um my wife's elder sister yeah what role did ify play in this journey Tel really absolutely so at the time you met ify how would you describe yourself would you say you are first or you were just Jes where would you place yourself at the time you and if started dating you know ify and I dated twice okay so the first time we dated she wasn't a Christian wasn't a Christian right and it wasn't a Christian relationship she was a very nice nice girl and then she broke up with me she actually broke up with me um because she she was set and I was cheating on her yeah which I was uh but she had no evidence right she felt it she felt I was yeah um and so she broke up with me right and shortly after she broke up with me she became chran a very serious Christian very serious yeah yeah um she really dived in yeah she had a dramatic encounter with God that but because we were good friends I still kept in touch with her and her family right I you know I would stop to visit and I was intrigued Yeah by her commitment to God I've never seen anything thing like that she was really sold out yeah you know always reading a Bible a little black book she had right you know yeah so that was you know the first thing that caught my attention um and then I guess at the appropriate time she invited me to church right and coincidentally Alero in the office had invited me to church church um so I went and if he became my goto right with questions I had loads of questions just questions um and she she was just there um and it was around just before I started this Quest yeah that I indicated to her that I thought I should marry her in fact I remember saying to her she came for my birthday and she didn't hang out at these parties anymore but she would come drop a gift and leave before the party God right us and I I I remember walking up to her my birthday party was beginning to cross over stting to just jumped yes yes from sanity to insanity and she was getting ready to go because you know the drinks were flowing tongues were being loosened and stuff and I remember saying to her that you know I think I should marry you if I had any sense and I laughed and said I probably don't have any sense so I won't I remember you did and I remember her saying to me a you're drunk I said no I'm not drunk I know exactly what I'm saying I should yeah but I I hope I have the sense to something like that um and that's when I st getting you know very very interested in the concept of marrying her um and it was very very interesting how I did I felt that something in me was saying marry her all this now hindsight I know what was happening to me the Holy Spirit was working but I didn't know anything about any Holy Spirit or anything like that I just felt that my conscience let me call it that some part of me was saying if you have any sense that's the girl to and at that time to answer your question directly I was far from God right interesting right so so but that then ended up the way she comported herself right then ended up kind of drawing you to God in a sense yeah she was she was she she was just a good person yeah and very very good person very good person and very um very wise yeah yes very very wise and she talked slowly yes and and I think whether she knew or not she was if she knew she was reing me if she didn't know she was being used to reel me in right um to God right and and she was just there as I started that Journey asking questions right you know I had loads of questions my God I had questions and and she would answer some and there were times she just get exasperated like I I don't know the answer to all these question you right and yeah God used her used Aero as well and two of them were critical but by far if right when when she when she passed you know we were not we wen't there in England we we're here in at the time we in St Louis I remember how devastating it was for AK and I you know when she passed um I remember when I spoke with you and you told me she had passed and I told AK and I mean it was just it was it was an unbelievable even now we still it still seems soral you know but how did you cope with that considering what the Bible says about the loss of a loved one right I mean it doesn't get closer than that your wife you know in a in a great marriage um great woman how did you how did you deal with that you know relative to Christianity cuz I she was ill for a while you know um did that what did that do to your faith very interesting so um I've been told to write a book about about this in in the sense that um my friends said to me that they marveled at the way I handled it um my friend uh who's now become a king used to be Pastor Gandhi but now Oba Gandhi you know I spoke to him every day and he just said he just marveled um I know it was God's grace right without a doubt right um that Grace helped me to serve the church even in my grief serve the children and hold them because don't forget the children were 10 and 12 yeah and a whole host of people who were very close to eian to me when I look back um I do I do something on Storms and this is one of this is what I've been told um in fact a few days ago my friend Ken Costa said to me I I going to write this book so the way life works we will face storms in life it's just the way life works yeah I feel the church does not prepare people enough for the storms of life and so when people who face those storms yeah they fall apart they fall apart yeah um so I say that if you're going to face storms you better have built the storm shelters before the storms M it is difficult near impossible it's impossible I think to build storm shelters whilst the storm is RA raging around you yeah I think that by God's grace I had been fortunate to build strong storm shelters and you know they say storms are graded from category 1 to five category five is the craziest St I think the loss of a loved one and um long-term illness illness are category five storms yeah a divorce might be category four and you can scale it down yeah so but I think what helped me were the storm shelters and you you you obviously you be asking what are these storm shelters I think number one was not just a general Faith but a a core foundational belief in certain things in our faith so number one I just have an unshakable belief that God loves me h it it it actually makes no sense it makes a lot of sense the way I the way I feel God loves me it makes a lot of sense it makes a lot of sense because that is where I have come to yeah you know that's where I have come to and you know when you talk about storm shelters right I realize that the church not only doesn't prepare you for storm shelters the church actually encourages you right to not expect storms yeah in fact when you have a storm it's seen as an aberration right you've done something wrong you're off somewhere you are living there's some sin in your life you know yeah but that that's crazy because in every Gathering if you ask everybody you'll be amazed the storm that's the that's the thing right so so our leaders act like they have a perfect life no no right like they never fall sick like they never have storms from it you know I remember when I went to um one of the leaders in the church I I I had to go do something in his house and he came out to to meet me and he had a Cod I was I was shocked because hearing you know the the the rhetoric coming from the pulpit yeah that would imply that there's some not living right somewhere yeah and this is somebody who was an exponent of living right you know it created kind of like a contradiction for me mentally you know and and then when I went through storms I didn't have any um resource yeah of what to do with it because I was I'd been raised to think if me and God are good there should be no storms so if I'm having storms that means me and God are not good well that means most of the people in the Bible were not good with God there you go because every single one of them including right the one we follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ deal he dealt with a category six stor if you can find something at that level so I think I think I think that that was Major you know that it it you know I don't think I can put in words how much I feel God loves me I actually think that God's love for me is actually biased I actually genuinely feel that God loves me more than he loves the average person you you can't imagine how happy hearing what you're saying makes me feel feel that but I I might not say it's a lot but I just feel cuz I mean God just somehow he's just being brilliant for me so that's that's the first thing God's love the second thing and that is one of my favorite scriptures um is that all things will will work together for my good right you know I love God I'm called according to his purpose going to work together okay so I might not understand how right but give time yeah it will suddenly make sense why this had to happen right um so that there there those two the third thing is um in terms of ancors for me is that I just know God is absolute control and nothing can happen except he allows it if he allows it then he allowed it I don't believe there's an enemy roaming around doing whatever he wants to do how he wants to do it just like you know a free agents just just running running Mo mad dog biting everybody I don't believe all that stuff I mean I I I'm not stupid enough not to know he's not there I'm not foolish enough to assume he doesn't have certain powers he does but but um you know Satan and God are not opposites at yes and he can't be everywhere at the same time there's no contest he's only can be in one place at and he doesn't know everything no no no there's no context in fact is why am I saying there's no context exist so those things are key um another storm shelter uh was a strong Community yeah you know I I I do relationships as you know yeah I have some great friendships I have a great support system in church this is my family yeah yeah I'm blessed with a strong family yeah um terms of my my siblings and so I have one of the strongest support systems imaginable um that that you know that was there so there were a few things like that that that already existed yeah so you know I have some great great mentors you know people who walked with me through the pain of of a debilitating sickness that led to death they were there with me yeah you know and I mean they were there with me so you you know there's just s such a strong support system around you know yeah so when when that storm came you know I just I just went into the storm shelters right and and I got protected from the worst of the storm right right and I guess also maybe my personality as well I you know I think that also helps you know I'm I'm I'm very um I'm very philosophical in a sense I know you studied philosophical very philosophical about this this thing and very I understand life and death yeah um my wife scha says is something I should really talk about a bit more I understand life and I'm not in any illusion as to the fact that death as we see it is not is not what we think it is there no finality no it's just transition it's just a Continuum Y in another place on another realm so it mitigates the pain of the loss right um having said all this yeah it was difficult yeah yeah was yeah you know when you've planed to live your life with somebody and that plan just suddenly collapses um it rocks things yeah um yeah so I mean that and you know were witness even though from a little bit of a distance for how how difficult it was for you and and and for the children you know um going through that season you know there a couple of things you've said that I find quite profound you know about how you have dealt with how you dealt with that stor because that was a category five I think some people would even labor that the category six or seven I know that for my wife it was a category six and seven you know was but ultimately right that idea of knowing how much God loves you yeah is is um I think is a critical component of our our walk with God and I think the church has done us at the service to not emphasize enough yeah how much God loves us well I I I think a lot of people they you can't emphasize what you don't know true true I I I agree with you because I I passor for how many years and I was not um that was not the basis of anything relationship yes of relationship the last I found out a few months ago that um I I I've always know the meaning of my name right UI is um God wants me God loves me God chose me right but I have another name on my birth certificate so I've got two two I've got three names on my birth certificate there's senuas right and I found out that senu is um is a badag name name and it means the same thing Asia so I found out that God loves me so much he named me God loves me twice yeah right and the idea or the knowledge of that love is transformational yeah yeah it's transformational especially when you go through a storm if God loved you so much he sent his son to die for you right why would he let the devil mess with you randomly there has to be something there has to be some Redemptive value yeah to all the suffering we go through right and and if you can understand that then it will rock you yeah that's what storms do right they rock you but they don't destroy you so when you pass through the waters they don't drown you and you pass through the fire it does not burn you right and I think that that's a component of our walk with God is missing that confidence that come with me you know you know some of the challenges AK and I have have faced and um in in 2019 2018 into 2019 it it created a crisis yeah in in my life yeah and that crisis I think came from the belief that God had rejected me yeah you know and it was a lie it was a lie from the pit of Hell you know and through the people people around me you know through you through ak ak particularly uh lry and a few of the other folks that were around me I knew what was going on I saw the love of God I saw the mercy of God I saw the grace of God in a way that we had not been taught you know and ultimately I have kind of dedicated um my my Ministry to communicating the love of God if that makes any sense yeah it does you know certainly does it's it's it's a phenomenal truth that we have to we have to bring that truth back you know um and it's sad that that is not what we lead with yeah you know unfortunately unfortunately you know P it's been it's been awesome talking with you you know I wish we had a lot more time yeah uh we we can we can just go on and on and on and on but we have to round up now um we've got some work we got to go do yeah um so yeah guys um Pastor aru is as you can see wise and uh and and and fun to chill with all right see you next episode when those clowns come back okay I didn't call them clowns my wonderful dear co-hosts bye bye unfilter [Music]