"You were 3 mins late. I'm sorry you can't board the flight anymore. Check-in closes 45 min before departure time." I looked at my phone. It was 7: 20 pm and she was right. The next thing I knew, I was referred to another counter and the lady asked me to pay 1030 RMB to join the next flight by 9 am tomorrow morning. I was instantly weak and hot, confused tears ran down my cheeks. Why do my embassy journeys always end in premium tears? Why Lord? If you've followed me for a bit, you will remember my blogging days and the horror story about my journey to the Nigerian Embassy in 2018. Omo! Here we are again.

I tried to explain that I have a heavy 3-month-old baby with me. My flight has not even taken off and I can still get on it if they'll just consider me well. And more importantly, I don't have the money to pay for another flight yet this lady was like, "I'm sorry, if you can't pay, I can't help you." Speechless was an understatement. I couldn't believe these people. As I left the counter, the thought of my baby and I sleeping on the airport floor overwhelmed me and the tears flowed even more. I'm sure you're like "Ugonne, you should have just prayed." My dear, some situations just come and knock out the prayer in you. This is why we need to invest in prayers all the time because it's not on the battlefield that you will come and be learning work. Anyways, I remembered that I kept saying "Father, please help me." I truly cried out to God for his mercy as I didn't even know what to do next.

Lesson 1: Be Relentless

It was 7:40 pm now. I called hubby to update him and trust me, my husband can worry for Africa. Interestingly, the moment I said, "Babe, don't worry. We'll sort it out", a certain peace just rested on my soul and I stopped crying. Then I went back to the guy that was supposed to give me my boarding pass at the first counter and I just started to ask him. "So what do you want me to do? What exactly do you want me to do right now?“ He asked me to kindly go over to the other counter because he can't help me.

I went back to the lady asking me to pay and started to repeat myself all over again. I showed her my previous boarding pass for the flight I used to come to Beijing and explained that the plan was to go and come back the same day. I showed her the passport and explained to her that my delay was from the embassy. (We have to wait for the embassy in Abuja to open up before they can capture us in Beijing, China and we are 7 hours ahead). She said she didn't know what else to do and insisted that I must pay for the flight. She suggested other options that were available. There was another flight to Shenyang by 6:55 pm at half the price of the first. Can you even imagine that? I'll stay at the airport for almost 24 hrs with my baby and then still pay 500 RMB for it. Ha! I quickly asked to speak with the manager or anyone else and she agreed.

Lesson 2: The favour dimension of motherhood

An older-looking man came to the counter and started to speak with me and surprisingly, he could speak English. It turned out he was the supervisor and I explained everything to him once again. He seemed quite understanding of the situation and spoke with the lady in Chinese and then he started making some phone calls. After he dropped the call, he said "okay, that they're going to bump me up to the next flight in the morning by 8: 55 am for free." Gosh, I felt so relieved. If you see how they were laughing at the way that I exclaimed "Thank you, Jesus." Then they begged me to drop a nice written review for them and of course, I said "yes". I was quite appreciative of their kindness because the truth is that I actually missed my flight. The fact that they were able to find a seat for me on the next flight and for free is nothing short of the favor of God at work.

That's the point that I truly want to pass across to you. The favour dimension of motherhood is a tangible reality and I saw it throughout this journey. God, in his infinite mercy, poured out favor and grace toward me all through. When you watch the vlog, you will see what I actually mean. From being pushed to the last-minute passenger stand, to the embassy agents going out of their way to help me out with documents, payments, etc. There was just so much favour and help available and I'm truly thankful to God for it.

I know somebody may be reading this and feeling like "Kini big deal" so let me break it down a bit more. One of the unforgettable moments of the Prophetic Launch Pad meeting I've been attending was the teaching on "understanding your favor assets". That is the ability to recognize the unique favor of God over your life and be grateful to God for it. Dear friend, please don't look down on the supernatural. The favour and grace of God are assets. They are personalized, customized endowments that you can always leverage as a believing, visionary woman. Don't commonize the favor of God operating in your life because it's not everyone that is experiencing it like you are. There is a dimension of grace and favor that you can unlock in this season of motherhood, especially as a new mom and It's your responsibility to uncover and steward your unique favor assets. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to see, leverage, and enjoy your inheritance.

Lesson 3: Prophetic Moves, Moments, and Similitudes

Back home in Nigeria, I loved eating cooked groundnut. When it's in season, you'll typically find young boys and girls hawking it around. Whenever I was buying, I would always ask if it was delicious and then take some of it to taste. This happens a lot too with suya too. Even here in China, sellers of foods like nuts and berries would typically give you some to taste before you buy. Why do you think they do that? To build trust and expectation, giving you a taste of what you are about to experience.

When you look all over the scriptures, especially in the old testament, you would see God using different situations, and different events to create prophetic moments. Think about the moment God cut covenant with Abraham, or Hosea, marrying a prostitute. Those are prophetic moments in time capturing in essence what is to come. As simple as moving from one city to another may look to you, I believe that traveling on a flight for the first time in six years, in the first month of 2023 is not a coincidence at all. Call me crazy but I consider it a prophetic move and a destiny moment, and even the whole shenanigans are just to shake me up and prepare me for what is ahead. I've never been one to dream about traveling the world but I have a feeling that I'll travel more than usual this year so here am I releasing my faith for it. At the moment, I really desire to visit two countries

1. Nigeria for my younger sister's wedding ideally. She's getting married in February so I don't know but either way, I'm trusting God that I'll visit Nigeria and see all my loved ones in 2023. It's been way too long.

2. Seychelles for the visioning 2023 retreat with my coach, DDK. Hey God! The thought of it alone blows my mind. Ha... Holy Spirit!!!!!!!!!

I obviously don't have what it takes at the moment to make these things happen but my dear, the just shall live by faith. I want to believe bigger this year and trust my daddy for his best.

Before I go, I'll encourage you to check out the travel vlog I made about the whole trip below. It's a fun one and I think you're going to enjoy it. If you haven't already, don't forget to like, share and subscribe to my youtube channel. It's free!

A SNEAK PEEK INTO MY MIND

📖📖 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄'𝙢 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜

• The 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey. Still on this goodie and It's just an amazing book. honestly!

📺📺 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄'𝙢 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜

• The Voice Nigeria. I've seen only the first episode and I'm loving it. Last season, I predicted Esther's winning from the moment I saw her blind auditions. Yes o, I'm prophetic like that..lol. Are you watching the show? Who are you rooting for? Hit the reply button.

🎤🎼 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄'𝙢 𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤

• Obinasom by Mercy Chinwo. I don't really listen to Mercy Chinwo but I literally woke up with the lyrics of this song one morning. I quickly searched it on Google and found the song. Ahh! I wish I can explain to you how much I'm enjoying this song right now.

💃❤𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄'𝙢 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩

• The Exponential Mom event by my sister, Coach T. Gosh! It was so beautiful seeing her birth a vision that has been in her heart and also a great privilege being one of the panelists at the event. You can click on the link to check it out and follow this visionary woman on Instagram

🙇🙌 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙛𝙤𝙧

• The Birthing Book. Like I said earlier, the things happening around this book keep leaving me speechless. The powerful message of this book is for the modern-day woman and I'm grateful to God and deeply humbled as well that he would choose to partner with this little Ohodo girl. People are ordering multiple copies so If you are in Nigeria, you can get bulk copies of the Birthing Book at a discounted price. Get the book for the new moms in your church, the young ladies you are mentoring/coaching in a WhatsApp group, your go-getter/visionary circle of friends, your female cousins that you want to see thrive in 2023, the mothers in your fellowship/women's ministry, etc. Send me a message on Instagram or Facebook. Let's talk. Click here to read an amazing review of the book by a reader.

As you step into this new week, don't forget these quotes from the book, "Believe bigger" by Marshawn Evans, "Chaos is often God’s way of inviting us to step into our calling. God loves us too much to leave us or lose us, so instead he splits us so that true significance can flow from within us”

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𝘋𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯? 𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝙃𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙡𝙮 𝙗𝙪𝙩𝙩𝙤𝙣.