C
Theirs is a journey of faith, a celebration of God’s unfailing love even as they celebrate their 30th Anniversary. In this interview with Pastor and Mrs. David & Ijeoma Asehon, they bare it all to Omolara Akintoye how their journey of faith started, challenges encountered, how they overcame them, tips for a successful marriage, among other issues
OUR STORY: HOW IT ALL STARTED
We were both members of the Youth Fellowship in the Church where we met. As the leader of the fellowship, I was close to almost everybody. I had a relationship with one of the sisters that did not work out which almost the entire Church knew about. Though I had recognized in Sister Ije some good qualities that could make her attractive to any young man, I didn’t look in her direction for myself simply because of her physical stature. Few months after my failed relationship, my late cousin, of blessed memory asked me a very soul searching question “How long are you going to stay waiting since your relationship with Sister X had failed?” It came to me like the voice of God to Prophet Samuel after God has rejected Saul as King of Israel. I decided to go to God in prayers, it soon became clear that god had been waiting for me, and God revealed Himself to me in a dimension I never knew.
And when eventually, He brought the picture of my wife vividly to me that night to me, all my previous misgivings about “height” had melted out and I had great peace.
A few days following that encounter, I decided to send her a non-committal card, simply to test the waters. And the rest is history.
Our journey together by faith has been both thrilling and trying. When we started out, we were socio-economically stable to a large extent, to the glory of God we are blessed with 5 biological children, one is adopted, and all are University graduates.
Our socio-economic wilderness (which we later would later discover to be a divine instrument to steep us into spiritual maturity) truly began when god led us to step out to pioneer an independent ministry with all our children of school age, no significant savings and no regular source of income, another journey of faith at a higher level began for us.
During this period, God literally removed all the socioeconomic props and support leaving us to trust him for everything- from the next meal to the next school fees and the next house rent etc. In all of it, God proved Himself to be more than faithful! Our faith in him grew and our priorities got straightened out as well.
As an intensive learning curve in our family life, nothing could be farther from the truth to claim that any of us understood, adjusted, or managed the circumstance of the period perfectly well but the sure mercies of David saw us through, and we have continued to enjoy his unfailing love till date.
Some succor came to us in2012, when God in his infinite mercies terminated our seven long years of wilderness experience. Since then, it is been from one level of glory to another. All our five biological children [one being adopted] went through tertiary institutions stress-free and today by his grace God has made us channels of his blessings providing support to families in diverse ways.
Our lives have been an unfolding of the goodness, mercy and grace of God and we do not take this for granted at all. Father, we are deeply grateful for this 30 years of love, peace, and bliss in our home.
What has kept us going despite all odds?
I believe God has ordained every marriage to succeed, but for a marriage to succeed, someone has to pay the sacrifice, but I must tell you it has not been easy, but God’s grace has kept us thus far. To be honest with you there are times that I got fed up with this marriage and I wanted to call it quit. But then I would run to one of our Pastors then; Pastor Ben and Pastor (Mrs) Nwaobodo who were both spiritual father and mother to me, so many times I had to run to their office crying, telling them that I’m tired of this whole thing, but their words of encouragement kept me going, making me to understand that it can work, and it worked. One thing is that despite the challenges, we made up our mind that this marriage will work and it worked
Tips for a successful marriage
Study your husband, know his likes and dislikes, there is no perfect person in any marriage, but you must be ready to accommodate one another. As a wife you must be ready to put in all your efforts, you will quarrel, and you’ll settle it. Study the character and the lifestyle of your husband, more importantly; communication is key for a successful marriage.
Causes of so many divorce cases
No matter the age, no matter the generation, man is still man, and God is still God. Technology, social media may come, but the core issues about life remain fundamental. One thing I’ve discovered is that the confession of love for one another also has the power to sustain a marriage because that kind of love is very special, it is motivated by something but people still need to discover the essential values of life. Things that are more permanent in life are the values that we cherish. The generation of today lacks these values, people just fancy things, people now place more importance to things of lesser values, there is no stability at the personal level let alone stability in marriage. For a marriage to be successful you need God, you can’t take God out of your life and find direction in life.
