Chapter 2 – My Life before the Stroke (Stroke Recovery Story)

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The 2nd chapter of the book and that is “Before the Stroke, What was my Story?” So once again, my name is Ade Sobanjo – that’s pronounced So-ban-jo. Yeah! That’s not how it was pronounced when I was born but I have since changed that. My wife and I, we decided to change our names because the way it was pronounced, it refers to some deity that my ancestors were worshipping. So now as a family, we call ourselves the “Sobanjo Family”… You remember the instrument of the Banjo? Yeah! We are the happy people – Sobanjos. Yeah, Sobanjo. That’s my name, Ade Sobanjo. That is my name.

 

Well, I was born in Benin City in Nigeria, in 1975. So now, you guys know how old I am. I am the first of 5 children. One thing I realized when I was growing up as a child, was that I don’t get tired. I don’t want to sleep. I could work as long as it takes. If I have to watch a TV program or a movie, as long as the movie is on – unless it’s really very boring, I could just go on and on, just watch it all through the night and then sleep in the morning. So there was the energy – I had lots of energy. I loved running and I loved good food. I loved the Lord and I gave my life to Christ quite early – when I was just about 8 years old. I went to church – I went to Sunday School and I was thought that Jesus loves me and He wants me to be His friend and He wants to be my friend. And by His mercies and by the cross, I’m going to be cleansed from my being naughty. For some reason, the Holy Spirit used that to touch my heart and that’s how I became born again. I gave my life to Christ that day and I remember! I remember God changing my heart and one of the big things I noticed after I got saved is that I began to love. I began to love people more. And it’s still very characteristic in my life. I love the people of God so much. My heart just breaks when I see people of God suffering. I love people and I think it is not me. I think it is Christ just growing bigger and bigger in me. I really believe that God loves people. God loves people because He has poured that love in my heart.

 

So, I grew up in Benin City. At the age of 11 in 1986, my mum died. She was shot and that made an impact on my life. She was shot by armed robbers. She was really a rising star – she was a chartered accountant and she was doing very well in the city then with my dad. They both owned their own practice as chartered accountants. One day, they went to work on the 1st of August, and that day, they were supposed to pay the workers and armed robbers came and she was shot. To cut the long story short, that was the last day I ever saw my mum on earth. But I’m really looking forward to seeing her in heaven and I’m sure when she sees me, she’ll say, “Wow how come you are here so quickly?” And I will say “Mom, it’s been a very long time.”

 

[Chuckles]

 

Yeah! So my mum died at the age of 40 when I was 11 and I believe that I’m still here for a while. I won’t be surprised if I’m still here at 95.

 

[Chuckles]

 

So that’s it! That’s my upbringing. I grew up in a loving home while my mum was there. My dad was very heartbroken. He recovered and started doing some great work. God blessed him, God saved him and he really challenged me in Christian walk. I really count some of the things that I do and I enjoy in life now to just seeing my dad pray in the night and really love God and be transformed. I just enjoy imagining and remembering the way my dad just transformed after he got saved. I remember my transformation and my sisters, they got transformed also and I’m so grateful to God for that. My brother is the last born of the family from my step mom. You know, it’s just a beauty to see what God has done with me.

 

So, I grew up and went to the university to study Electronics & Electrical Engineering in Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria. I then went to do my Masters in Electrical Engineering,Concordia University in Montreal. And I was looking forward to working as an Engineer and I felt the Lord say to me, “Start your own business.” So we started a computer company – networking, just helping people set up network for small businesses, set up their websites, maintain their computers and I had a string of customers and clients that I was servicing monthly. The company was growing and then I started a school where I was teaching people the same – do websites, and start their own computer repair company.

 

It was really getting fine when the Lord began to knock on my heart again that He wanted me to plant a church for Him. Before that, I was part of another church and I was gradually becoming one of the pastors there and I was serving. And the Lord said to me, “It’s time to pull out and plant the church that I’ve been talking to you about.” Yes, it’s true I’ve always had that desire to serve God with all my heart and I knew that God was leading me towards planting a church. So, that’s how I was and I gave in and spoke to my pastor. We were prayed for and in July 2005, we launched the Overcomers Assembly in Montreal West in Canada. So that’s as our first church plant. The story of the church plant is another story entirely. How God led us to that particular church building, how it was just the time when another church was moving out and we were coming to share that space with them. They embraced us, gave us space to put our sign and the money was about i think $400 to rent the place then. My tithe and my wife’s tithe was enough to pay the rent and that was how we started. We didn’t even have any children then so it was just 2 of us, the first two members of the church. To cut the long story short, we started the service, the first service and people came and then people left and then people came and then people left and just the story. And after a while, we give glory to God, we went to plant some other churches.

 

Before the stroke, I was doing well, working really hard. I’ve always been a very hard worker. I really don’t understand when people get tired. I think the way I was wired, I was wired to work and run and I love to run. I could do all that and I thought I was really very healthy. So when we planted the first church, planted the 2nd church in Quebec, planted the 3rd Church in Kingston Ontario. We were doing pretty well in Kingston Ontario. We didn’t know anyone in Kingston when we got there but the Lord led us again and said, “I’m sending you to Kingston Ontario and I want you to plant a church.’ We got there, rented a space. God so worked miraculously to give us that space. We were already planning on go somewhere, a hotel and the Lord sent us to this person “Go to another hotel, the peachtree in the center of Kingston.” You know what? That space became our space and we eventually moved the church now, the new leadership team, we moved them to a bigger space. It’s rare for you to rent a hotel and it becomes a permanent place for the church to rent regularly all year round. It’s rare. There’s no way we could have known that. And it’s just a beautiful place, open and very central, easy for people to get to. All these we did not by strength, just by God’s grace. But of course, a lot of hard work went into it.

 

We also have this online business that I do, writing some posts and answering questions – information. I do all that. Prior to the stroke, I will work easily – I’ll just be awake. I didn’t count all these as work. I thought I was just having fun but I would work easily just like 12 hours a day, 20 hours a day. I would do my work in Nigeria. Well, I didn’t say that. After a while, in 2014, we actually moved and we felt the Lord leading us to move to Nigeria in Kuje to plant a church. So, we relocated – family, every one of us, we came to Nigeria to plant the church. Of course, we would go back and forth but we came – the whole family. We came not just one person. We all came to Nigeria and we planted a church by His grace in 2014. We started around November. Before that, we had come earlier. I had come earlier to get a space and begin building – physical building, a structure where we have meetings. So we moved in 2014 to Nigeria and so my work increased in the sense that the church is now 4. After that in 2016, we started another church, the St. Lawrence church in Quebec. So now we have 5 churches that I was overseeing and my wife and I being the pastors – the main pastors in the church plant in Nigeria. It was like from scratch and I would work. I loved this work. I loved the people. I loved to serve. And we will serve them all day long. By 9 o’clock here in Kuje in Nigeria, it’s just 3 o’clock in the afternoon in Montreal. So when we are done with that, 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock, I’m still talking with people on the phone in Canada on and on and I will sleep around 3 o’clock and wake up at 6 o’clock and we are out again the day’s job. That’s how I was. I was having lots of fun. I’d run once in a while; I’d try to eat healthy – Nothing fried and no meat. Just chicken and all that stuff and add some fruits and vegetables but not structured. But to the best of my knowledge, I was doing my best and this was going on and that’s how I was living my life.

 

In 2017, I started with all my heart, ready to even take this to the next level and it’s amazing that somehow my life has gone to the next level but not the way I thought. So I started the year 2017 saying, “You know what? I’m going to do something that I’ve never done before so that I can begin to see more of God in my life.” One of the things that I started to do in 2017 was take 3 days of fasting. I know fasting is good. I’ve been doing fasting before. So in January, the first day of January, I started a fast – 3 days – just water fast, cleansed my system, spent time to pray, studied the Word and I was being loaded with words. God was encouraging me, telling me that He is with us and He is working on us and things are going… February, the same and March the same – at 1st, 2nd & 3rd of March. April the same – 1st, 2nd & 3rd of April, I was fasting, waiting on the Lord in prayer and that’s one thing I don’t think I did, knowing that fasting… Usually I check my blood pressure and see what is going on. In April, I didn’t. Usually when I’m fasting, I don’t check my blood pressure because it usually goes down. It’s lower when you are fasting. But you know what? This time around I didn’t and I still don’t know it was but I didn’t. Anyway, the fast ended I think on Tuesday or Wednesday. Tuesday was the last day I believe or Wednesday. Anyway, the fast was over and I started eating back and things were good. And on Friday, everything was good and I was living the life, I was enjoying myself – really enjoying the word, enjoying prayer. It’s so fun to spend hours and hours just studying the Word and when you are fasting, you are weak so you are not able to run around too much so you are going to sit down and just face the Word and enjoy. I was really – I was having a great time with God. But anyway, I began to… the Friday the 7th of April began very well. I woke up, ready to go to the church to go and start the day. That day, I didn’t go early. I think I just decided to rest at home, be with my wife for a while before we go. She wasn’t feeling well. Anyway, I heard that the storms had taken out the roofs of the church opposite us – taken out the roof completely. In our church, not much affected and I said, “you know what? I’m going to go.” They were building also a baptismal tank in the church and I wanted to go see. And so I got up, ate my breakfast I believe, got into the van and drove down to the church. That’s when I got off the van and I walked to the place where they were doing the work on the baptismal tank behind the church. As I was standing there, I felt that I was about to trip and I noticed that that is not usual. I’m not supposed to be finding it difficult to get my balance and I noted that and that’s the first time I noted that something was wrong. So I really don’t know when the stroke happened or when it started. I have no clue but that was first sign that something had happened. I didn’t take it serious. I just went into my office and relaxed.

 

So well, I’m not going to go into exactly what happened on the day of the stroke. That’s for the next chapter. I just wanted to use this opportunity to give you just a background of who I am and what my life was all about. I also think I didn’t mention that usually I don’t take time to sit down and watch TV. I do. Not that I have anything wrong with watching some good programming but most times, my hobby was that I will get home, sit on my computer and just write some blogs and answer some questions on my information sites and just research on things. I love reading about business and about innovation and things like that… leadership. So I will spend more time. And I won’t be tired! I’ll just worked on the computer once I’m home. That’s my… Once the boys are in bed around 8:30 in the night, I’ll take my computer and I’ll work on it for a while before maybe taking some calls in Montreal. So that was my life. It was really lovely, really enjoyable. I was having fun. I was energetic. You will never expect stroke. Stroke was the last thing that you’d think will happen to me at that age and with that level of energy.

 

So that’s it for chapter 2! Well, that’s the first story about myself. So wait for… stay tuned for the next chapter! I’m going tell you about the day of the stroke, my stay in the hospital and maybe a little bit about my recovery. Thank you and see you soon!