Ablaze
! s g n i h t e s e h Speak t My Testimony, His Glory
On Wednesday, the 29th of August after HOTR’s midweek service, one of the members of the choir told me that there was a Christian singing competition taking place in London and asked if I was interested in the competition. However, I declined. The reason was that I had quite a bit of schoolwork to do. I also thought it was one of those funny competitions that had come up yet again. On Friday, the 31st of August, I received another call from Aaron (one of the choir members), enquiring if I was interested in the competition and yet again, I replied that I had no interest and I also stated that I did not feel I would measure up to the expected standard at the competition. Aaron encouraged me to go ahead with it nonetheless. I agreed. The day of auditions finally came and I went to the venue, which was at Jesus House. I had my auditions and got through to the second round scheduled for the same day at 6pm that evening. I had my second audition in the presence of Michelle McKinney Hammond, and I was told that I would receive a reply within a couple of days. Before my second audition, I had already heard some other contestants practicing and I thought to myself, “you might as well pack it in and go home comfortably”, “forget about the competition”. Doubts were building up in my mind. After the auditions, I waited for a couple of days as expected but had not heard anything. My thoughts were that I probably was not up to the standard required. I called one of the organisers who told me that deliberations were still going on and there were other contestants to be considered. On Tuesday evening, I got a call from the J Factor crew, informing me of my success in getting through to the finals. I told a family friend of mine of the results and she said with confidence that I was going to win the competition. My response at the time was hmmmmm!!!
Nwando Okeke
A few days to the actual day of the finals, I had a major set back. I had developed a sore throat. I was feeling very weak due to all the practicing, added to that was the pressure of my schoolwork. The thought of backing out came to mind and I called one of the singing coaches to tell him how I felt about the whole situation. He encouraged me not to give up especially as I had come so far and this helped me to carry on.
On the final day of the competition, I sang my heart out and gave it my all. Technically speaking, I know I could have done better. The long and short of it all was that after the final count of the last 2 finalists, Chibundu Onuzo and myself, I emerged the winner of the J Factor competition. Afterwards, I looked at the odds against me and I know without a doubt that it could only have been God that saw me through the competition. The reason for this is that I had no one to tell to vote for me as there was another concert taking place on that same day. However, to my surprise, I saw many House on the Rock members who had come to support me, not forgetting my sister who had come with many other friends. Guess what? The Winner’s prize is a single deal with an American record company with the additional benefits of my own web space. What can I say? The Lord has truly been good to me. When I was in doubt, and was weak, God strengthened me, came through for me, and remains faithful.
Seven days later, after another midweek service, I went to Pastor O, my spiritual father, to inform him of what had happened and I asked for his blessing as well as a prayer for the will of God to be done throughout the competition.
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