Racine
FROM SENEGAL TO PARIS
“Where you are going, you have only God.” On the evening of 13 September 1980 as I passed through the gate of my family house in Dakar, Senegal for the last time, my father, El hadj Djibril Bousso, a devout and well respected Muslim spoke these words to me. Words I would never forget. Those words became prophetic. I left my home country Senegal, at the age of 23, and lived in France for 22 years.
I was then offered a scholarship to pursue my studies in a high-ranking French business school, Sup de Co Rouen. After a successful three years at the academy, I graduated and got another degree in human resources management. At the same time I attended a specialised training in computer programming and projects.
I then decided to start my training programme to become a chartered accountant and worked in a French accounting and auditing firm offering accounting and financial analysis services. In 1999, the CEO of a company in expansion in Paris approached me and asked me to work for them as Chief Financial Officer, the job I occupied till I finally left France for Nigeria.
FROM FRANCE TO NIGERIA LED BY A DREAM
On a Christmas day, Friday, 25 December 1998, I was in a remote town in the South of France and as I walked, I came across a hotel. I entered the room and slept. I had a dream in which I was a baby in front of a big mountain, wearing diapers looking at a black man with a beard; he was looking at me with a smile. I could not speak but wanted him to carry me in his hands and place me at the top of that mountain for he was as tall as the mountain itself. The vision was so real that I began to ask where will I encounter this man?
A week before flying to Nigeria my pastor asked me, “Why can’t you come with us to Nigeria ?” I declined because February was a very busy month for financial and fiscal reports in France. That week, the CEO of the company entered my office for a quick discussion and I told him I wanted to travel to Nigeria. He said, “What?” I said, “Yes, I want to pay a visit to a prophet.” He said you are completely “ouf” (out of your mind)!
When I entered the premises of The SCOAN in February 2002, I saw a picture of Prophet TB Joshua and my heart jumped – it was the man I saw in my dream four years earlier..
Upon my return to Paris, I had a dream showing the map of Africa with Nigeria beating like a heartbeat. I resisted the vision until May when I decided to take leave for one month to go to Lagos again to finally make up my mind.
GROWING IN GOD
At the end of the month of June, the day of my departure back to France, I made the heart decision to follow the direction of God’s calling in my life and the realisation of the dream God gave me in 1998. On 16 July 2002, I left France definitively after 22 years, and arrived in Nigeria the day before my birthday on July 17. A new chapter of my life had opened.
The transformation of my life became radical as I grew in Christ’s deep knowledge and character. I had since childhood been a taciturn man but I began to preach before a congregation.
LOVE OF HEART
I wouldn’t have imagined for a second that in the midst of the greatest challenge of my Christian life, such deep love for a woman could spring and remain. I have read the Bible many times and came across the Book of Ruth each time but never suspected that it would become a reality in my life one day; today that Book of the Bible I so much read has been fulfilled in my life.
For the first time in my life, I experienced what the Bible calls a heart agreement. It was as if a veil was removed and I began to understand why there had always been such a level of deep mutual respect and ease of understanding between us.
Our love for each other started within our heart, became so deep, natural and was sealed by faith in the eternal God of destiny when I married Ruth on 14 February 2022. I learnt a big lesson. God’s kind of love is not reasonable; it springs spontaneously, unpretentiously from the true fountain of love, the human heart. Life never completely closes the door to opportunity. Nothing is too late or impossible as far as God is involved. Love of heart has no colour, no age, no mindset. Earthly love will never bypass reason before decision but love from the heart sees beyond reason. It only follows one path: The peace of heart from Christ.
Our common faith in Jesus Christ and the peace of the Holy Spirit has sealed our union for mutual destiny. With Jesus Christ’s mission first in our mind, we have started the same journey as Abraham and Sarah, Boaz and Ruth and of every godly Christian home.
It is said that we live life forward but understand it backwards. Now as I look back at my life, I can truly say it is a miracle. I continue to follow the powerful vision that God has given me for my life and I can see His hand directing every step as we launch the University of God on 19 June 2022.
