This Part is mainly dedicated to the flip side; the life of Sylvia. It describes her birth, early childhood and development. The contribution of her parents to her upbringing is emphasized. Furthermore, the striking semblance of her mother and mine, physiologically and occupationally among others is captured in this part of the book. Later, as you will learn, it was no accident that our childhood bore some core spiritual semblance. God's plan for us had began long before we were even born. You will read how her childhood idealism gave way to self-realization along the line. She did not have as much challenge as I did having separated from my parents by choice earlier. Yet she had her own childhood and adolescent challenges as life zoomed in. Her love for God and her penchant for the spread of the Gospel is also described in this portion of the book. Her love of athletics in High School and her participation in athletic competitions is briefly hinted on. This Part concludes with her completion of High School and the alternative decision to enroll in a teacher's college as opposed to a university. Still in her late teens though, her entry into college virtually marked the beginning of her transition into adulthood.   Close

The penultimate Part begins with the relative positions of my successful academic colleagues and I at a point in time. It relates their promising future prospects as against my prevailing stagnant and bleak future. My faith was in deep trial. Unknown to me, God had designed it that way. The only way out for me was a choice tantamount to the proverbial dog "going back to its vomit." It was the last thing I ever wanted to do but there was no avenue open to me other than to take that path. So I bit the bullet, this time the hard way. The result was that I found myself on college campus. I struggled to get accustomed to the campus because college was against my desired options. I wanted to abandon the course altogether but once again, by God's design, I was prevented by circumstances. I largely isolated myself from other students especially the opposite sex. My only motivation was the academic prowess I displayed which attracted the attention of both my peers and tutors. Still in the early stages of campus life, my attention was first drawn to a lady on stage in a drama staged by the French Club. About four days later, I encountered this lady and realized she was in the same classroom as mine. Her name was Sylvia. Very pleasant and welcoming as she was, I largely ignored her as I would anybody else in keeping with my solitary principles and to protect myself from violating my covenant. As later events would have it, I happened to encounter this lady again but the result drew me further into my coil. As the trimesters rolled on I realized that Sylvia, who had become my class representative, took a particular interest in observing my movement and behavior. Due to my solitary and non-communicative demeanor, she had taken an indirect approach to make an anecdote of me. My academic brilliance, love for God but strange behavior was an intriguing mix which drew her curiosity to research into who I really was. As difficult a person as I was she never gave up until she warmed herself up to me. It is amazing how curiosity could embolden some ladies to undertake the impossible. Now she had the hope of understanding what belay my brilliance and my strange behavior. She may also tap from my academic ability for her course. Later, I lowered my antagonistic stance and entered into a unique and successful academic partnership with her. As we became more and more familiar with each other, friendship was inevitable but we vowed to keep it platonic or bust. We adopted very godly standards to guide our friendship through college. By virtue of Sylvia's instrumentality, I gradually warmed up to other people as well. One of such people was a study group nicknamed 'Tseinoo'. Six in number, we virtually became a family on campus. Down the trimesters, other students, even some tutors became suspicious of Sylvia and I and misconstrued our friendship for a love relationship. They could not fathom how we could partner so harmoniously and telepathically if we were merely friends, and the allegations began to pour in. At a point in time, I was summoned to explain and defend the nature of our friendship and the principles underlying our partnership to officialdom. It nearly rocked our healthy partnership but knowing we had no guilt before God, we strolled on. A very outstanding feature of this portion of the book is what I term the 'Golden Question'. Throughout the period of our friendship, we believed we were highly, maritally incompatible given our highly contrasting backgrounds. Therefore, we never got involved emotionally. All we wanted was to partner each other in academics, pass our exam and part ways in pursuit of our individual ambitions. However, a subsequent occurrence during our final year on campus stunned me and changed my perspective. It so happened that despite our negative beliefs and assessment toward a relationship, I had been talking to my future wife after all. However, I adopted a "wait-and-see" approach thus preventing her from getting to know the secret of my covenant and how she fulfilled it until 8 years later.   Close

  The last Part of the book begins with my attempt to conquer what had become my   nemesis. I sought God's help and guidance and He heard me. He gave me not just an ordinary victory but an outstanding one after a year of preparation. All of a sudden my fortunes had changed to my astonishment. The grim future I thought I faced gave way to a promising and prosperous one. Many academic opportunities and options came at my beck and call. My long cherished ambition to make it to the university had finally become more than a possibility. I went back memory lane to chew on why it took me such a long time to arrive at this level when I could have gone ahead earlier. What was keeping me at bay all this while? It was with the same level of intelligence and academic ability I had tackled every exam, but why was it that none helped me until this time? There was something more to it than met the eye. Was God deliberately slowing me down for a good reason? In this part, you will also read of my entry into the university and the efforts to re-establish close contact with Sylvia. A couple of years after and for the first time, I paid her a visit in another university where she was also pursuing her bachelor's. Within this visit we finally concluded that our friendship was heading toward marriage regardless of whatever negative assessment we gave it. She was still in school but we kept reaching out to each other until she went abroad in an exchange program. While she was away, I secretly initiated marriage plans with her parents. Few months after her arrival, she graduated. From hence, the pressure was on me to complete what I had initiated. It was particularly difficult for me to move at the desired pace as I intentionally decided to short circuit customary procedures. As a result, I bypassed many people, traditional procedures and cultural demands. Surprisingly, God helped me pull through. This portion ends with our marriage and wedding ceremonies. You will also read of how I first broke my secret covenant with God to her and how she fulfilled every bit of the 3 signs I put before God without actually knowing it. She then understood the secret behind my strange behavior in college and why she was so unsuccessful in finding out who I really was. Her gratitude to God knew no bounds. The very thing we were most grateful to God for and proud of was the fact that we struck acquaintance about ten years prior, yet we navigated through the curves of relationship without succumbing to a single sexual temptation. I had gone through 35 years of my life while she was 28 and a half. Both of us were still virgins, something for which we are grateful to God, even to this day.   Close