Agom Valentine

SOAK BITTER LEAF IN COCONUT WATER OVERNIGHT TO TREAT THESE HEALTH PROBLEMS.

How to Prepare bitter leaf and coconut water combo

(1). Wash the Bitter Leaf thoroughly.

(2). Squeeze the leaf a little inside a cup but not to the extent of the water coming out.

(3). Add one glass of coconut water and cover it.

(4). Leave the mixture overnight for 12 -24 hours.

(5). You can store the mixture in the fridge to be used daily.

Health benefits of bitter leaf and coconut water:

(1). It will the flush out the bacteria that causes gonorrhea, Staphylococcal infections and both oral and ge***al herpes.

(2). It will stop discharge from the organ.

(3). It will treat chlamydia

(4). It will lower your blood pressure

(5). It will cure typhoid and stomach ache

(6). It detoxifies your liver of harmful substances.

(7). It eliminates worms responsible for ache in the stomach.

(8). It removed excess sugar from the body. Good for persons living with diabetes

(9). It treats quick ej*******on and low s***m count

(10). It keeps your kidney in good shape.

(11). Burns excess body fat. Good for weight loss

(12). Reduce blood cholesterol

(13). Coconut water is good for brain health and neuronal degeneration according to a research published in 2012.

(14). Boost ovulation women especially for women trying to conceive

(15). A mixture of bitter leaf soaked in coconut water increases blood flow to the ge***als. It therefore improves sexual libido, pe**le er****on and sexual stamina for both the male and the female.

(16). Regulates menstruation

(17). A mixture of coconut water and bitter leaf has anticancer properties, anti-inflammatory properties, antimicrobial properties, antiviral properties, and antiulcer properties.

(18). Soothes the digestive system and prevents constipation.

Herbal Life Healthy Life.
]

MARY SLESSOR NEVER STOPPED THE KILLING OF TWINS IN CALABAR 2

Mary Slessor: Did she Really Stop the Killing of Twins in Calabar?

By Negroidhaven April 4, 2022

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARY SLESSOR: Did she really stop the killing of twins in Calabar?

By Richard Duke

Synopsis:

In 1849 (when Mary Slessor was 1 yr old) Consul Beecroft in agreement with King Eyo II and King Archibong I banned human sacrifice and the killing of twins in Old Calabar. The Obutong (Old Town) people broke the deal with the Colonial Administration and as a consequence were bombed out of existence by Consul Beecroft in 1855 (with the connivance of the Colonial Army).

On 18 January 1855 (when Mary Slessor was 7 yrs old) King Duke Ephraim and some other Efik Chiefs entered into a further Agreement with the British Consul Hutchinson to abolish the Murder of Twin Children in Old Calabar.

Why is Mary Slessor who came to Calabar in 1876 (21yrs after the aforementioned Agreement) erroneously ascribed to as the person who stopped the killing of twins in Calabar? She never had the Missionary mandate or British colonial infrastructure to enforce the stopping of the killing of twins by herself.

It’s one thing to pick up endangered twin babies and give them sanctuary, and it’s another thing getting to the core of the matter by engaging with the Kings and Chiefs of Old Calabar to bind them to an enforceable Agreement to declare a ban on the abhorrent practice. The people were stubborn and stuck to their superstitious beliefs but it took the military intervention to force them to comply.

Don’t forget that Mary Slessor only came to Calabar in 1876. On arrival she met Rev Edgerley, Rev Hope Waddell and Rev Hugh Goldie who were already involved in Missionary work in Old Calabar 30 years before Mary Slessor touched her foot on Calabar soil.

In fact it was Rev Hugh Goldie who spent nearly 50yrs in Calabar who taught a young Mary Slessor how to speak Efik Language as part of her induction.

In order to consolidate the efforts of the Missionaries in Calabar the British Consuls persuaded the Efik Chiefs to sign an Agreement to stop the killing of Twin children.

Rev Edgerley and his wife were recorded as having carried out the first Twin saving act in Calabar in Old Town (Old Obutong) in 1852. When the Old Town people continued the practice in addition to sacrificial killings, Rev Edgerley got some British Captains to bomb the place. This struck the fear of God into the other Efik chiefs.

To the credit of Mary Slessor she rescued twins and created a sanctuary for them to stay with her; but this was mainly done in Okoyong where she was also the Vice President of the Native Court and used her position to enforce the ban against the murder of twins.

Mary Slessor may have stopped it in Okoyong in 1876 but surely not in Calabar. Please let’s update our History books.

Next time you are asked the question “Who stopped the killing of Twin children in Old Calabar?”; the answer is, “It was stopped through the enforcement of a voluntary agreement signed between Duke Ephraim on behalf of the Chiefs of Old Calabar and the British Consul Hutchinson in January 1855”.



By Richard Duke

MARY SLESSOR NEVER STOPPED THE KILLING OF TWINS 1

We as a people have allowed ourselves to be fed with information that the western world actually want us to learn, we seem to forget about our history, our heritage.

Every current Affairs you see bears a false witness to this that she actually stopped the killing of twins, where in the mean sense, she didn't but offered the abandoned children succour and reasons to staying alive.

Even in her biography below as posted on wikipedia website, credit was accorded HRH King Eyo Honesty II who died when she (Mary Mitchell Slessor) was only 10 years old (December 1858)

(Please take note of paragraph 11 on her missionary work, where Efio-Ita Nyok posted about it in Negroid Haven & Fans of Negroid Haven which i will share unedited)

BIOGRAPHY OF MARY MITCHELL SLESSOR

Mary Mitchell Slessor (2 December 1848 – 13 January 1915) was a Scottish Presbyterian missionary to Nigeria.

Once in Nigeria, Slessor learned Efik, one of the numerous local languages, then began teaching. Because of her understanding of the native language and her bold personality Slessor gained the trust and acceptance of the locals and was able to spread Christianity while promoting women's rights and protecting native children. She is most famous for her role in helping to stop the common practice of infanticide of twins in Okoyong, an area of Cross River State, Nigeria.

Early life:

Mary Slessor was born on 2 December 1848 in Gilcomston, Aberdeen, Scotland, to a poor working-class family who could not afford proper education. She was the second of seven children of Robert and Mary Slessor. Her father, originally from Buchan, was a shoemaker by trade. Her mother was born in Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire, and was a deeply religious woman.

In 1859, the family moved to Dundee in search of work. Robert Slessor was an alcoholic and, unable to keep up shoemaking, took a job as a labourer in a mill. Her mother was a skilled weaver and went to work in the mills.
At the age of eleven, Mary began work as a "half-timer" in the Baxter Brothers' Mill, meaning she spent half of her day at a school provided by the mill owners and the other half working for the company.

The Slessors lived in the slums of Dundee. Mary Slessor's father and both brothers died of pneumonia, leaving behind only Mary, her mother, and two sisters.
By age fourteen, Mary had become a skilled jute worker at the mill, working from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with just an hour for breakfast and lunch.

Her mother was a devout Presbyterian who read each issue of the Missionary Record, a monthly magazine published by the United Presbyterian Church (later the United Free Church of Scotland) to inform members of missionary activities and needs. Slessor developed an interest in religion, and when a mission was instituted in Quarry Pend (close by the Wishart Church), she wanted to teach.

Slessor started her mission at the age of 27, upon hearing that David Livingstone, the famous missionary and explorer, had died. She decided then that she wanted to follow in his footsteps.

Missionary work:

Eventually, Slessor applied to the Foreign Mission Board of the United Presbyterian Church. After training in Edinburgh, she set sail in the SS Ethiopia on 5 August 1876 with her cousin Robert Mitchell Beedie, a missionary from New Deer in Buchan and arrived at her destination in West Africa just over a month later.

Slessor, 28 years of age, red-haired with bright blue eyes,[5] was first assigned to the Calabar region in the land of the Efik people. She was warned that they believed in traditional West African religion and had superstitions about women giving birth to twins.

Slessor lived in the missionary compound for three years, working first in the missions in Old Town and Creek Town. She wanted to go deeper into Calabar, but contracted malaria and was forced to return to Scotland to recover, leaving Calabar for Dundee in 1879.[3] After 16 months in Scotland, Slessor returned to Calabar, this time to a new assignment three miles farther into Calabar, in Old Town. Since Slessor assigned a large portion of her salary to support her mother and sisters in Scotland, she economised by eating the native food.

Issues Slessor confronted as a young missionary included the lack of Western education, as well as widespread human sacrifice at the death of a village elder, who, it was believed, required servants and retainers to accompany him into the next world.

According to biographer W. P. Livingstone, when two deputies went out to inspect the Mission in 1881–82, they were much impressed. They stated, "… she enjoys the unreserved friendship and confidence of the people and has much influence over them". This they attributed partly to the singular ease with which Slessor spoke the language.

After only three more years, Slessor returned to Scotland on yet another health furlough. During the next three years, Slessor looked after her mother and sister (who had also fallen ill), and spoke at many churches, sharing stories from the Calabar area.

Slessor then returned to an area farther away from central Calabar, from the areas which had already eliminated the more heathen practices. She saved hundreds of twins out of the bush, where they had been left either to starve to death or to be eaten by animals. She helped heal the sick and stop the practice of determining guilt by making the suspects drink poison. As a missionary, she went to other tribes, spreading the word of Jesus Christ.

During this third mission to Calabar, Slessor received news that her mother and sister had died. She was overcome with loneliness, writing, "There is no one to write and tell my stories and nonsense to." She had also found a sense of independence, writing, "Heaven is now nearer to me than Britain, and no one will worry about me if I go up country."

Slessor was a driving force behind the establishment of the Hope Waddell Training Institute in Calabar, which provided practical vocational training to Efiks. The superstitious threat against twins was not only in Calabar; but also spread to a town called Arochukwu on the far west of Calabar. The people of Calabar belong to the Efik tribe though the popular Arochukwu town is in the Igbo tribe's region. Both Calabar and Arochukwu share some common cultures and are in southeastern Nigeria, precisely Cross River State and Abia State respectively.
In August 1888, Slessor travelled north to Okoyong, an area where male missionaries had been killed. She thought her teachings, and the fact she was a woman, would be less threatening to unreached tribes.

For 15 years, Slessor lived with the Okoyong and the Efik people. She learned to speak the native Efik language, and made close personal friendships wherever she went, becoming known for her pragmatism and humour. Slessor lived a simple life in a traditional house with Efiks. Her insistence on lone stations often led her into conflict with the authorities and gained her a reputation for eccentricity. However, her exploits were heralded in Britain, and she became known as the "white queen of Okoyong". Slessor continued her focus on evangelism, settling disputes, encouraging trade, establishing social changes and introducing Western education.

It was the belief in the area that the birth of twins was considered a particularly evil curse. Natives feared that the father of one of the infants was a 'devil child', and that the mother had been guilty of a great sin. Unable to determine which twin was fathered by the evil spirit, the natives often abandoned both babies in clay pots to die. “In most of Calabar the practice had been eliminated by the Missionaries and King Eyo Honesty II”.

Slessor left the area of Calabar and moved further in to Okoyong. She adopted every child she found abandoned, and sent out twins' missioners to find, protect and care for them at the Mission House. Some mission compounds were alive with babies. Slessor once saved a pair of twins, a boy and a girl, but the boy did not survive. Mary took the girl as her daughter and called her Janie. She took Janie home to Scotland with her on at least one visit.
In 1892, Slessor became vice-consul in Okoyong, presiding over the native court. In 1905 she was named vice-president of Ikot Obong native court. In 1913, she was awarded the Order of St John. Slessor's health began to suffer in her later years, but she remained in Calabar, where she died in 1915.

Death:

Memorial plaque on Mary Slessor's grave at Calabar, eastern Nigeria, in 1981

For the last four decades of her life, Slessor suffered intermittent fevers from the malaria she contracted during her first station to Calabar. However, she downplayed the personal costs, and never gave up her mission work to return permanently to Scotland. The fevers eventually weakened Slessor to the point she could no longer walk long distances in the rainforest but had to be pushed along in a handcart. In early January 1915, while at her remote station near Use Ikot Oku, she suffered a particularly severe fever. Slessor died on 13 January 1915.

Her body was transported down the Cross River to Duke Town for the colonial equivalent of a state funeral. A Union Jack covered her coffin. Attendees included the provincial commissioner, along with other senior British officials in full uniform. Flags at government buildings were flown at half-mast. Nigeria's Governor-General, Sir Frederick Lugard, telegraphed his "deepest regrets" from Lagos and published a warm eulogy in the government gazette.

A report on her death in The Southern Reporter of 21 January 1915 mentions a time she spent on furlough in Bowden, Roxburghshire, Scottish Borders. It states that "She and her four adopted African children were a centre of great attraction and helped to deepen the interest of the whole community in the Foreign Mission work of the Church." It praises her strong force character, her unostentatious manner, and her zeal for the tribes around Calabar

Honours and legacy:

Slessor's work in Okoyong earned her the Efik nickname of "Obongawan Okoyong" (Queen of Okoyong). This name is still used commonly to refer to her in Calabar.

Several memorials in and around the Efik provinces of Calabar and Okoyong testify to the value placed on her work. Some of these include:

1. A high school named in honour of Slessor in Arochukwu
2. Mary Slessor Road in Calabar
3. Mary Slessor Roundabout
4. Mary Slessor Church
5. Statues of her (usually carrying twins) at various locations in Calabar
6. A female hostel in the University of Nigeria Nsukka is named Mary Slessor Hall in her honour.
7. A girls' house, "Slessor House", was named after her in Achimota School, Ghana.

In Scotland, a bust of Slessor is now in the Hall of Heroes of the National Wallace Monument in Stirling. In Aberdeen a memorial stands in the city's Union Terrace Gardens and in Dundee, a new city centre park is named 'Slessor Gardens' in her honour. There are also streets named after her in Glasgow, Dundee and Oldmeldrum in Scotland, and in Coventry in England.
Slessor was honoured on a 1997 bank note by Clydesdale Bank for the World Heritage Series and Famous Scots Series. She was featured on the back of the bank's £10 note, highlighting her work in Calabar. The note also features a map of Calabar, a lithographic vignette depicting her work with children, and a sailing ship emblem.
Main-belt asteroid 4793 Slessor (1988 RR4) named to mark her centenary celebrations on 13 January 2015.
In 1950, the anthropologist Charles Partridge, a friend of Slessor when both were in Nigeria, donated letters from her, along with a recording of her voice, now The Slessor Collection at Dundee Central Library; he said of her: "She was a very remarkable woman. I look back on her friendship with reverence- one of the greatest honours that have befallen me."
Mary Slessor is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 11 January

© Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Slessor

Welcome to Possibilities

Welcome to June

It's our new month of possibility, even in our darkest moments, our God liveth, he had asked us not to be discouraged in all we do, but keep the good work for he's always with us.
(Haggai 2:4)

Have a blast to God's glory

– RESTORING BROKEN FELLOWSHIP.

2 Corinthians 5:18 (GWT) Relationships are always worth restoring. Because life is all about learning how to love, God wants us to value relationships and make effort to maintain them instead of discarding them whenever there is rift, a hurt, or a conflict. Our ability to get along with others is a mark of spiritual maturity.

Broken fellowship is a disgraceful testimony to unbelievers. If you want God’s blessing on your life and you want to be known as a child of God, you must learn to be a peace maker.

Peacemaking is not avoiding conflicting. Running from a problem, pretending it doesn’t exist, or being afraid to talk about it is actually cowardice.

Sometimes we need to avoid conflict, sometimes we need to create it, and sometimes we need to resolve it. That’s why we must pray for the Holy Spirit’s continual guidance.

There are seven biblical steps to restoring fellowship:

1. TALK TO GOD BEFORE TALKING TO THE PERSON: Discuss the problem with God. If you will pray about the conflict first instead of gossiping to a friend, you will often discover either God changes your heart or He changes the other person without your help.

2. ALWAYS TAKE THE INITIATIVE: When fellowship is strained or broken, plan a peace conference immediately.

Don’t procrastinate, make excuses. Schedule face-to-face meeting as soon as possible.

In conflicts, time heals nothing, it causes hurts to fester. Acting quickly also reduces the spiritual damage to you.

3. SYMPATHIZE WITH THEIR FEELINGS: Use your ears more than your mouth. Before attempting to solve any disagreement you must first listen to people’s feelings. Focus on their feelings, not the facts.

Begin with sympathy, not solutions. Don’t try to talk people out of how they feel first.

Just listen and let them unload emotionally without been defensive. Give a nod that you understand even when you don’t agree.

Feelings are not always true or logical. Patience comes from wisdom, and wisdom comes from hearing the perspective of others.

PEOPLE DON’T CARE WHAT WE KNOW UNTIL THEY KNOW WE CARE.

4. CONFESS YOUR PART OF THE CONFLICT: If you are serious about restoring a relationship, you should begin with admitting your mistakes or sin.

Since we all have blind spots, you may need to ask a third party to help you evaluate your own actions before meeting with the person with whom you have conflict.

Confession is a powerful tool for reconciliation.

5. ATTACK THE PROBLEM NOT THE PERSON: In resolving conflict, how you say it is as important as what you say.

If you say it offensively, it will be received defensively.

6. COOPERATE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

7. EMPHASIZE RECONCILIATION, NOT RESOLUTION POINT TO PONDER: Relationships are always worth restoring verse to remember, “DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE ON YOUR PART TO LIVE IN PEACE WITH EVERYBODY.” Romans 12:18 (TEV)

QUESTION TO CONSIDER: Who do i need to restore broken relationship with today?

Our Victory stays assured in this new Month of October.

I blessed you and your name Lord

Happy New Month

True Talk

I boarded a bus last week to go get a few things from the market, and an interesting conversation broke out on the bus. I overheard a passenger telling another passenger a story of how a dead father recently recommended his son for a job in Lagos state and helped him get the job.

I wondered how a dead man could help his living son to secure a job. It just didn't make sense.

I'm not someone who believes such stories easily, but from the way he sounded, I could tell he meant every word he was saying. The other passenger read my mind (or so I thought at that moment) and asked him to explain further.

The passenger smiled and began telling the full story of how it happened. I had my ears fully open at that point. According to his story, the dead man's son had been jobless for over 6 years after graduation from the university. He had submitted applications in several organizations but was never lucky. The young man fed from hand to mouth and lived in a one-room apartment without even a mattress.

That fateful Monday morning, he showed up at an oil and gas firm where he had been shortlisted for an interview. On arriving there, he met other job seekers who had even better qualifications than him.

He wasn't even sure he would get the job. He met people who had gotten their master's degrees from universities in the UK and the United States. All he had was a second-class lower degree from a federal Nigerian University. He stood no chance.

He went in for the interview. A look at his file and his face, the interviewer was quick to ask him questions to know more about him. He was asked who his father was and the young man told his interviewer all about his late father. "That'll be all for your interview session. We'll get back to you," the interviewer told him.

The young man left feeling so sad and disappointed because he was never asked the relevant questions he thought would land him the job. He thought maybe his qualification had disqualified him. Three days later, he got a mail on his phone.

He opened it and saw that he had been given the job. He couldn't explain it, he wasn't so sure what emotion to express. His six years job hunting journey had come to an end, and he had no idea how that happened. Not only did he get the job, but he also got an official car and an apartment.

He resumed work two weeks later and his employer who had interviewed him called him to his office. "Do you know why you got this job?" he asked the young man. "No sir, I don't know why I got the job," he replied.

His boss smiled and replied "your father recommended you for this job. He made it possible." The young man was confused and went ahead to remind his employer that his father had died 8 years ago while he was still an undergraduate in the university.

With another smile, his boss went on to narrate how years back, the young man's father had saved his life by paying for his hospital bills when he took ill with acute typhoid which almost cost him his life. He went further to tell him how his father had to borrow to support him with half the money he needed for his school fees that session.

"The moment you told me who your father was, you got the job. You didn't get it by your certificates, but by your late father's good deeds." Those were his employer's words to him. "You got this job because your father's good name recommended you. Congratulations and welcome on board." The young man at this moment had tears flowing freely down his cheeks.

Before leaving his employer's office, he was asked a question. "Thirty years from now, will the mention of your name open doors for your children?"

I was speechless on the bus. I asked the driver to stop the vehicle because I had reached my destination. As I paid him and made way to alight from the bus, the man who had done the storytelling said to me, "Bros" live your life well o, so that your name go unlock opportunities for your children tomorrow." I had no reply.

I'm home right now, typing this. I've asked myself over and over again, "If I leave this world tomorrow, will my name open doors for my children or shut doors against them?" Again, I'm asking myself "Will the mention of my name give my children opportunities or deny them opportunities?" I still do not have an answer.

Maybe you could ask yourself the same question and see if you have an answer.

.. What kind of life are you currently living? What deeds are you serving out there? Will the mention of your name be the reason your children get to cry tears of joy tomorrow or the reason they get to regret you had to birth them?

Think about it. 🤜🤛This is a good lesson for all of us. Please think of how your character will affect your children when you are no more. Thanks and remain blessed.

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