Chapter 1 – Introduction (Stroke Recovery Story)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | RSS | More

Show Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Bivo Podcast – A podcast for pastors, church planters, ministers, anyone who is doing the work of ministry and working at the same time. This is your time of encouragement and I’m your host, Ade Sobanjo.

Welcome!

A stroke will change your life. It has changed the lives of millions of people all over the world and it has ended the lives of many as well. I suffered a stroke on April 7th, 2017 and it has changed my life. Without going into details, let me state that stroke is the leading cause of disability in the USA, Canada and the UK, and it may be the same for most other countries too.

So, this is my story of how God has helped me to recover from stroke and to change my life as a result of that. I want to use this opportunity to share with people who are listening to my podcast, the Bivo Podcast, to know me – to get to know what God has done for me, where I’m from, how I’ve come to become what they hear me. You see, whenever I listen to a speaker, I listen to podcast, I always imagine what’s behind the story of this person that is doing this podcast and what are they? What their story? What has God done in their lives? So I’m giving this out to all my listeners, anyone that is listening to this podcast, you can get to know exactly how I got where I am now especially with regards to this podcast.One of the things that has informed or inspired me to get back on this and really do this very podcast, is the stroke and how I recovered and how I want to live my life as a result of the transformations that have happened to me over the period of about 11 months now. It’s about 11 months since the stroke in April 2017.

So there are a few things that I have learnt and over the next couple of episodes or chapters because this is not… I’m going to release every chapter – all the chapters at once and I’m just going to give it out to everyone to listen. And over this next couple of chapters – I don’t know exactly how many – maybe 8 or 9 chapters, I’m going to sharing what I’ve learnt, the things that have happened to me and what kind of a person I am as a result. I’m going to list them and as I go on, I am going to give you details on how I came to really realize some of these truths – things that I have been talking about that they’ve been become stronger. I’ve known them more, I’ve understood them more and I’ve embraced them some more.

So here’s a list that I have. It’s not exhaustive. It’s just something that we can start with. Before I go on to mention those, I want you to know that I’m doing this because I’ve not yet taken out the time or maybe I’ve not taken enough time to write out. I know that our experiences as we go through things, can bless others and the best way to do it now, is to put it out there in audio format and when I have some more time, I can put together a book which other people can read and help them. I remember when I was going through the stroke and wondering about my recovery. I really wanted to know what has happened to other people. I wanted to know also from a Christian background, a believer going through stroke, what is it like? What were the things that they had to do? So it’s good to put that out. I’m putting it out for everyone to really listen. I pray it blesses you and blesses everybody that gets to download this audio series.

So here are a few things that I’ve learnt.

1. Life is a gift from God and we should all make the most of it.
2. We should live our best life always – I should live my best life always.
3. The Word of God to us – what God says to you in your heart, is your biggest asset. There’s nothing bigger than that.
4. There is healing in the name of Jesus and you should speak that name with confidence, knowing that there is really healing in that name.
5. Another point is that it is wise to know how your body works. It’s important to know that.
6. Using your medication is not a sin.
7. All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Things really work out for the good of the children of God.
8. It is a big and important task to strengthen the weak members of the church. The weak members need to be strengthened and it’s very important.
9. There are some simple but vibrant members of the body and we need to encourage them. So there are people in the church who are just simple, maybe young, maybe they don’t do some complicated things but they are important. They need to be encouraged.
10. We need to work more on coaching and strengthening our team. It’s a better plan on the long term.
11. Also, it is impossible to serve God and lose. You don’t lose when you serve God. Every service we give to God is a blessing.
12. The last one I have here is that pride is a limitation. We should always seek humility. Pride is a limitation. We should always seek humility.

So the way I hope to present my story is to break it down into chapters so that if someone wants to listen to just my recovery story then they can just listen to that episode or that chapter on the recovery. And if someone wants you listen to the different lessons that I’ve learnt, then they will just listen to the lessons. Someone wants to know the background – where were you before the stroke and how did you get to this point before the stroke, then they will just listen to that episode. So, I will share them into those chapters and discuss. I’m just going to discuss as if I’m doing an interview so that I can get this out. I don’t want it to stay too long. It has taken long already and there are some things that I should have put down that I didn’t. So if I put them down now, it’s better than another 2 months when I’ve forgotten some more things.

So, I’m going to go ahead and just begin by saying right now, I’m still recovering from the stroke. It’s not yet 100% but if you see me and you didn’t know that I had a stroke, you wouldn’t think that I had a stroke. In other words, I look as if I’m back but when you watch me walk, you’d notice that there is a limp and when you listen to my speech and compare it very closely with my speech before the stroke, you may notice also that there is a little difference. I do. Maybe no other person does and I think my wife would also notice that but otherwise, you wouldn’t notice. I’m very grateful to God for that and I believe that all that I’ve learnt, is because of God’s mercy.

The chapters that I have written down here is

1. Number 1 is Introduction, which is what I’m doing. I’m just sharing with you what the whole book is going to be like or the series or the story is going to be like.
2. And then the first chapter, chapter 1 is about before the stroke. Who was I? Who is Ade? Where was I born? And all that story. My whole background until the stroke.
3. Chapter 2, I’m going to talk about the stroke.
4. In chapter 3, there are 3 questions that kept on coming to mind during the stroke and during my recovery in the hospital and the first few months. I’m going to answer those and tell you those questions. Those questions and their answers are the ones that are propelling the rest of my life.
5. I’m going to talk about living your best life always, loving truly and fully and giving it all away. Those are 3 chapters that really capture those lessons – The major lessons.
6. Chapter 7 talks about humility. It’s a big one.
7. Chapter 8 is going to be what I learnt about the brain and my stroke recovery plan – what I trust God to help me to do.
8. And the last chapter is about the actions that I need to take and encourage you to take.

So that’s the outline of this story and I’m just going to do that as freely… Like I said, I’m going to assume that you are sitting with me at a coffee shop and you want to know, “Tell me about yourself. What happened to you…” I’m just going to answer it that way. It’s not academic. I’m not going to be able to give you very clear references to things or books that I read. I’ll just mention the ones that I have and anyone that I can recall, I will recall them so that other people will get blessed by it. So, each of these recordings, I don’t know how long it will be. I’m just going to talk for as long as it takes to cover each topic and I pray that it blesses you.

So, that’s it for the first chapter. Thank you for staying with me till the end. And see you in chapter 2!

God bless you.