Babies are best gifts from the Lord.The entire household of the Badrus family has not been devoid of happiness since the arrival of a new born in their home.
The popular Redeemed Church’s Pastor, Tunde Badru and his wife, Pastor Shade, had passed through many challenging situation in search of a child, but God has finally blessed them after 23 years of marriage. They narrated how they had been in God’s waiting room for many years.
The wife also recalled the many treatment procedures she has gone through, 8 failed IVFs, fibroid operations and how she had remain strong overtime.
“It’s a testimony of 23 years of waiting for our very first child, our very first son. It’s a story that caught the entire attention of the entire world.
It’s been surprising that in about 24 hours of the birth of first son: Boluwatife Isaac Ogomide Badru, many people have asked many questions, a lot of people have rejoiced with us on the naming day, the 8th of November 2019, took the entire city of Houston particularly in Katy where we reside by storm and we gave God all the glory.
We’ll like to share the story of our waiting period for 23 years, we believe we will give glory to God, we believe we will encourage someone, we believe we will also be a point of contact to as many who are going through the same experience we had to go through.
WAITING PERIOD EXPERIENCE
Pastor Sade: The journey began February 17th, 1996, after we got married. For any woman who just got married, the first thing is that you are expecting to have your child and that journey took 23 years.
Where we are today. We just want to encourage somebody with our testimony, how God gave us the grace to wait on Him. Waiting on God is NOT AN EASY THING, but we thank God for His mercy.
Pastor Tunde: When we got married, just to show that we are expectant, my wife actually made dresses: two for boys, two for girls. We’ve moved from one house to the other, one city to the other: from Lagos to Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt to Houston.
We’ve misplaced a number of things, but we never misplaced these dresses just to show that we were expectant. But then the waiting moved from 1 year to 2 years then 3 years; Pastor Sade: These were the dresses we made – 2 sets for boys.
They were made probably before the marriage.
Pastor Tunde: I remember this dress was the one we wore on the Thanksgiving Sunday at our wedding anniversary. Saturday was 17th of February. We wore this on 18th of February 1996.
This one was traditional wedding (engagement as they call it). She sewed 2 sets for boys
Pastor Sade: My expectation was that after wedding, there should be children to wear this and this. Giggle went by 1st year, 2nd year, 6th year. Here we are, Boluwatife is going to wear this and the sister is going to wear this (Husband smiles saying Amen)
MEDICAL CHALLENGES EXPERIENCED
Pastor Tunde: It began to be a concern, I remember very well at our 5th wedding anniversary. After 5 years, somebody said why don’t you check with the doctor and so we approached the doctors and they told us the challenges. There were medical challenges on sperm count, there were medical challenges on fibroid, it didn’t look very good from purely medical point of view.
Pastor Sade: The early years of my marriage, I had a scripture in Isaiah 54:16-17, I will never forget and the first part of Isaiah 54 “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.”
This scripture encouraged me a lot especially when God said, whatever it is that is happening that He is the one who created them. IT WASN’T REALLY EASY, I CAN TELL YOU.
There were times that you feel “WHY ME, I SERVE GOD. I PRAY BUT WHY WON’T GOD JUST ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN?” Also, I knew there were some spiritual aspects of it. The fibroid didn’t come up until after few years when I got to the US was when I had some fibroids.
That I had to go through 3 fibroid operations. The 4th one, that was about 2 or 3 years ago, I told the doctor “whatever is ‘gonna’ be, is ‘gonna’ be; I am never going to go under any surgical operation.” If God is going to do it, let Him do it.
COUNSEL ON MEDICAL INTERVENTION ON INFERTILITY
Pastor Tunde: I’ve had many people with different attitudes, on IVF for example. My wife, and I went through as she said 8 failed IVFs and we were paying cash – 8 different times.
All of the times, everything looked very well. Each time they did the transfer, they told us “wow! This is very clean, embryo. It is grade A, everything is fine.” Then we waited 14 days, and sometimes before the 14th day, “Awwh” we’ve seen the period.
It was always very discouraging.
But I must tell you, we never sat on any of them saying for 3 days, 4 days, we are not going to Church because of this. In fact, some times, it would happen Sunday morning and then how do you say I am not going to Church because we did IVF.
Pastor Sade: Or the doctor will call you while you are in Church “Oh, I am sorry Mrs Sade. It didn’t work out this time.” Each time they called you, you are like, Okay, You’ll say it ahead – “It didn’t work out this time round.” The Lord is a faithful God.
Pastor Tunde: I remember the 7th one, I believe it was the 7th one. My wife said: “Don’t call me. Call my husband.” Don’t bother because you are calling me…
Pastor Sade: because I was used to failure (you will never be used to failure)
Pastor Tunde: and seriously I had all the reasons to believe, I mean 7 is perfection, I mean you throw all kinds of (you know if you like), theology or faith or scripture into it. I remember that occasion, I was so sure so when they called, I said “tell me, it’s positive, they said No, I am sorry. It is negative again.”
Now, it was to call my wife – I remember that I couldn’t call her on the phone, I was in Church office. I had to go home. Once she saw me, she knew. They’ve called you”, I said yes. What did they say? Okay, allright, we are so used to it.
You can then understand when the pregnancy eventually came.
My counsel and I have been asked many times even in Church “whether a Christian could do IVF or not?
Why not, it’s the wisdom that God has given unto men and the Bible has said that at the end time knowledge shall increase. I have seen many great children who are products of IVF.
There is really nothing wrong in doing IVF but just like any other thing in the Faith – Don’t do something because somebody else did it. Do it because you have prayed to God and you have a release to do it: that will be my counsel but as to whether a Christian should do IVF or not, I say No reason (not to).
I’ve seen wonderful great children, I have seen the name of the Lord glorified with IVF, but I don’t want anyone to do anything just because somebody else did it; it must be done because that’s how you are led. Afterall the Bible says: “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”
HANDLING PRESSURES FROM FAMILY, FRIENDS, STRANGERS?
Pastor Tunde: A different side of the story that I found very challenging in the journey; you know how you meet people, sometimes at the airport, sometimes your neighbours on the flight, then they are showing you their children –
“wow, good boy. He is in college, Year 2” and they will say “Oh, how many children do you have? Sometimes, I spoke in faith, I say “Oh 3” (because we had always had 3 names that God has given us).
Then you would think the fellow will stop, they say “how old are they? What is the first one?”
Then I say “Well, they are still coming” They say “How do you mean?” then you have to explain.
And that happened a number of times.
There are people who come to you, to pray for them for the fruit of the womb, and they didn’t have any idea that we are still waiting. Then you would pray and they would ask “your children are in college, we don’t see them” Then we say, actually they are not in college, they are not here yet! They: “so where are they?”
Response: “They are still in heaven. They are coming”
And that happened many times. But we are surrounded by people who loved us. People who prayed for us all through the time.
THE ONLY MAJOR ITEM OF MOCKERY WILL BE THE WOMAN WHO TOLD MY WIFE “IT’S BECAUSE YOU DON’T HAVE A CHILD THAT YOU THINK IT’S EASY TO RAISE CHILDREN”
But my wife was never discouraged because of that, her focus was to see the children raised in the way of the Lord. So for us, perhaps the woman didn’t know the gravity of what she said, but we didn’t take any offense at all.
Other than that, we had no pressure from our parents. My parents-in-law never called me once to say what is going on, I’m not sure they ever called my wife as well.
My parents didn’t do the same. We are very blessed that our parents didn’t put us under pressure. We’ve heard other people’s stories where families put them under pressure. We didn’t have that. The pressure is always the fact that people ask you because they think you are a Pastor, you should have children. So, until you are able to explain to them that your children are not here yet, sometimes could be very challenging. But we thank God, it’s worth the waiting and Isaac is here and we give God all the glory.
FIRST POSITIVE TEST
Pastor Sade: One thing that I said on the day of the naming was that all the pregnancy tests I had done in my life, 23 times 12 months? How long is that? All those tests, Isaac is number 1 positive and the day we did the test, Pastor broke the garage door.
He didn’t know that the garage was not open. He was going to go out. He didn’t know the garage was not open. I said Pastor, you broke garage. He said He did? I said Yes. We had to fix that garage. To see how joyful he was. It was like a dream.
Pastor Tunde: she asked me to buy the kits. I bought 3 types: I didn’t realise there are 3 in 1 set, so it was 9. I remember, it was around 1a.m. and she said I feel like we should do the test now.
I said: “look, don’t do the test in the middle of the night because if it was negative, I knew I had to manage the entire night, so let’s do it in the morning.”
She said “No. whether it is in the morning or now, I feel like doing it, I am going to do it now.”
I stayed a bit away from her, because we’ve done it severally and it has NEVER, NOT A SINGLE TIME, it was always negative. She did it and saw the line and said: Pastor, it’s positive”
Then I ran there to see it. I said no before you rejoice, let’s do another one. We put another that says “Yes or No”, that one said Yes. I said let’s do another one. So we ran 9.
So it was 9, everything positive, I said okay, we couldn’t sleep. All through the night, from that 1a.m till morning. She was talking about breaking garage door, I said let’s quickly go to where they could take blood, let’s be sure of this thing because it has never happened before.
I didn’t realise that the garage gate had not fully opened up, pulled the car out and then the thing hit it. It was just a joyful day.
Pastor Sade: It’s a day we would never forget. And a day before, I was coming from work “I was telling God that I was going to do the test, the next day. I didn’t care anymore if it was going to be positive or if it was going to be negative”
I just told God “If you do it fine, if you don’t do it I will carry on with my life.”
But we thank God we are here today with Isaac.
And I pray for every woman because it wasn’t an easy journey. For every woman who is believing in God for a child, which ever way God wants to do it, the Lord will meet them. Because sometimes for our culture, it’s a stigma when you are believing God. But I have always been a positive person and I know, you can’t put me under pressure. It doesn’t matter who you are.
But there are some people, they can’t take pressure. They can’t take people’s pressure, so they fall into depression because of what people would say. Our lives should not be guided by what people say. Our lives should be guided by what the Word of God says.
Well, the Word of God says “none shall be barren” because none shall be barren, it doesn’t matter how old you are, once God is going to visit, He will visit. And the Lord will perfect everything that concerns each and everyone who is listening to us. There shall be great testimonies for everyone who needs a miracle in the name of Jesus.
PREGNANCY PERIOD
Pastor Sade: The first 2 weeks was okay, but after the 3rd week, I started doubting that each time I go to the toilet “are you sure this thing is going to stay” because it wasn’t an experience I had been through before. You know coupled with some kinds of dreams.
One day, I think I was about 3 or 4 months, I can’t remember, you know each time I go to the rest room, I hope this baby is not going to come down because despite the fact that I am a Pastor, yes, there is still part of me that’s still thinking about it is this real or not.
I sat on the toilet (seat) and I heard a voice in Yoruba “eniamiororo” (that the child is an Anointed child).
How did we know this was going to be a boy? Before we went for the scan, I saw him playing with someone and I called him, I said “Isaac, we need to go home”. Then I told my husband, it’s going to be a boy and his name is going to be Isaac. He (my husband) had his own name Boluwatife, I said his name is Isaac, I saw him and he’s going to be a boy. When we went to the doctor, the doctor now confirmed it’s a boy.
Pastor Tunde: My wife gave birth at 49 years, the doctor said it was a “high-risk pregnancy but let’s see how it goes.” During the pregnancy, I anointed my wife and baby in the womb every morning and night and a month to delivery we had Holy Communion every night and prayed.
Psalm 113:9, “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord”. The testimony was published in the church gist website tagged: winning Wednesday.
Pastor Tunde and Shade Badru are both pastoring a Redeemed Church Parish, the King Place in Katy Texas. North America.
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