Rebuilding your foundation for progress in life
Adenrele Sonariwo has brought her Nigerian sensibility to Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles with a show focusing on women.
WBible reading: Luke 6:46-48 e said previously that there are 12 THINGS THE DEVIL DOES NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW OR HAVE God wants you free. God wants you well, wealthy, fruitful, promoted, holy, strong, big, successful, known, happy and peaceful. We looked at freedom last Sunday. There are 3 things you must target in prayers for complete freedom and progress. They are: Foundation, Altars and Gates.
Learning how to deal with these 3 things can lead to the most astounding experiences of your Christian life ...The Ancestral Altar you are connected to determines the curses or blessing operating in your life. We shall therefore be looking into Altars and Generational curses subsequently.
Psalm 11:3, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
Damaged foundations can seriously impede progress if not stop it completely. Generational curse is a major cause of damaged foundations. Why Study Foundation? It is what carries the house or a life. The strength of your foundation determines the weight you can carry on it. The strength of your substructure determines the size of your superstructure. Some people want to carry a big structure without a strong foundation. How far you go and how high you climb will be determined by the kind of foundation you lay.
A crooked foundation will lead to a crooked life. A sound foundation gives rise to a sound and happy life. A weak foundation will only produce a weak and miserable life.
Your foundation determines the survivability of your structure. It determines how much pressure your building can withstand. Faith will be tested. Your marriage will be tested. Your ministry will be tested. Jesus was tested. The storms will come but you don’t need to worry if your foundation is strong.
Storms prove or test the strength of a foundation. A house without a solid foundation will collapse when a storm hits.
It determines how long your building will last. Many ministries, marriages and businesses don’t last long because they are built on sand.
It determines the strength of a house and therefore how long it will last. Luke 6:48, “He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.” Anything built on a weak foundation will not last. Therefore you are only as strong as your foundation. What Is A Foundation? The Webster Dictionary defines foundation as ‘The basis of an edifice; that part of a building which lies on the ground; usually a wall of stone which supports the edifice.’
Foundations matter. Every single day your life is being built. You are a living entity and growing from the day you were born. We are built physically, mentally, socially and spiritually. Everyone is built or building on a foundation; good or bad, strong or weak. 9 Things To Know About Foundations 1. Foundation refers to roots. The root of anything determines a lot about that thing.
2. Foundations refer to your spiritual background: the altar you are connected to; 3. The spirits behind your life. 4. It could also mean the fundamental principles upon which a life or organization is built. Jesus talks about two kinds of buildings: one built on the rock and another on sand. It also means on the major focus of your pursuit upon which every other thing rests. The foundation of destiny fulfilment is the discovery of divine purpose or assignment. 5. It also means the beginning of a thing. Other Things You Need To Know About Foundations 6. Foundations are hidden. 7. Can be cursed. Joshua 6:26. It is difficult to build on a cursed foundation.
8. Foundations can be rebuilt. Difficult as it may sound, foundations can be rebuilt.
9. Jesus Christ is our eternal foundation. Isaiah 28:16. 1Corinthians 3:11, “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” The righteous are secured in Christ from the storms of life.
Act 16:25-26, “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. [26] And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.”
Apostle Paul and Silas were in prison bound in chains; when they prayed (this is mostly overlooked because we want to make a point about the praise) and sang praises, there was an earthquake; God shook the foundations and the prison doors were flung open. The chains broke! The problem therefore was not the chain or the gates or the doors, it was the foundation!
So, if you want to address a problem, tackle it from the roots.
FAULTY FOUNDATIONS
Some factors or forces that can affect the outcome of a person’s life are:
1. Your birth. The culture and environment into which you are born shape your belief and your behaviour. Those who come from a background of idol worship have a very faulty foundation. Demonic worship is an abomination that attracts curses. When God is rejected bad endings are guaranteed. Any life built on curses will certainly result in frustration unless something is done about it.
2. Wrong belief. Demonic deception, lies. Any opinion contrary to the Word of God is a lie. Jesus said, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” John 17:17.The most damaging foundation is living on principles contrary to the Word of God. Lies sold to Adam and Eve his wife got them and humanity into a very big mess. You may be born again but if your decisions are made or based on ideas that are contrary to the Word of God, you are building on a faulty foundation. Sin is believing and living satanic lies against the Word of God. Anything built on sin will not stand: business, marriage, ministry, etc. Anything built on lies will not stand. Adam believed a lie and his whole world came crashing down. If you are not born again your life is built on sin and it will collapse. Matthew 7:26-27
3. Ignorance. God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). If you don’t know, you will make mistakes and some mistakes can lead to tragic endings. You just have to learn what you need to know if you want to avoid tragedy.
4. Demonic encounters create EVIL FOUNDATIONS THAT PREDISPOSE A PERSON TO SATANIC OPPRESSION AND CAPTIVITY
Everything in your foundation that has held you back breaks right now, in the name of Jesus!
I release an earthquake to rock your foundation now and command prison doors that have held you captive to open now, in the name of Jesus!
Bishop Dr. Charles Olowojoba is the General Overseer of Dayspring Bible Church Worldwide with HQ in Abuja, Nigeria & President, Dayspring Christian Ministries Int’l. Website: www.dayspringcmi.org e-mail: dayspringcm2000@yahoo.com Help line: 08035150515
Folake Majin is a renowned fashion designer, reputed for making unique designs for first ladies, fashion icons and other celebrities. She has been featured in major shows and magazines including Vogue. The top Nigerian fashion designer of renowned Schon Afrique in this interview with Tambari sheds light on her new project, background among others.
Ihave been working on a very important accessory. I have a veil collection out on my social media outlets. I have a website where I am marketing the veils. It’s taken a couple of years of careful planning and a dream come true. They are made to make each wearer special in the unique Folake Majin way! As an accessory, my veils speak style and elegance into the aesthetic mystique of a woman. A veil is a very essential accessory for women either to wrap over their bare shoulders or an evening gown or day-to-day wear of an Ankara top or dress. It is very versatile because you can also cover your hair for worship. It is very essential to the complete look. I was inspired on the job. I’ve done uncountable custom-made veils to match all manner of outfits from bridal to special wears and everyday ones. There are veils for all occasions. I especially love the challenge of designing to match a dress.
You can wear veils for prayers no matter your religious affiliation. It is a very important accessory. Imagine having an accidental zip rip off in public; veil to the rescue!!!
Growing Up
Growing up I have always been interested in looking good and wearing nice clothes. I have always been interested in colours, details of a dress, I also prefer doing my own things. I go to tailors with my own design as a matter of fact that was what led me to start the business because I did that for a friend and she encouraged me to start a fashion business since she saw I had the flair for it. For any special occasion, I relish dressing up as a child. Hear this funny one of when my mum was ill and couldn’t make me the fancy dress I had been dreaming of, the flares, the stays that fluffs out the dress and the gorgeous flowers and just made me a quick “buba”. Buba! As a child, it was a no for me then. It was for a festive occasion in church, I was not happy and made sure I stayed out of sight. It sounds so ridiculous now. Talk about dressing up for the wrong reasons!!
Multilingual
I like learning languages. If I had my way, I’ll speak all languages. One of the ambitions I had was to be able to go round Nigeria to learn to speak major Nigerian languages. I got a teacher to teach me
Igbo but unfortunately, I found it a bit difficult because it was so full of accent. One word accentuated can mean six different things and at this stage in my life, I don’t think I can go through it. I still have the ambition of speaking Igbo. I speak three Nigerian languages - Hausa, Yoruba and Nupe which is my late husband’s language and I learnt it within a year of being married. I speak French and a little bit of German. I hope to be able to speak the basic language of any part of the world I step on.
Inspiration
Inspiration comes from everywhere. We are blessed by God who has afforded every manner of inspirations. It can be an idea that flashes in your mind, it can be a beautiful flower you have seen, it can be a colour that springs in your mind. I love flowers, they are beautiful and I love beautiful things. I am mostly inspired by flowers, especially in embroidery work. I am inspired by the season when it’s hot or cold; inspiration comes from everywhere. I’m inspired by fashion itself. Most especially, I’m inspired by fabrics, the fabrics dictate the inspiration.
I can work with any fabric. When I was in the university a tailor-made an outfit for me with cream baft material made out of heavy cotton which I designed and gave to her. It is usually used for calicos or table cloths, but I used it and it was beautiful.
How I started
Haven been a housewife for a while I had been pondering: what next? A chance outing determined my God-given destiny as a fashion designer! And I’ve never looked back. It’s also good for a woman to have her own money. I went out for a naming ceremony whereby I had made something I was wearing that I designed myself. Many people said they wanted it. This was the occasion, this friend I spoke about earlier desired the style. I insisted on my tailormaking it for her as I didn’t want to go through the process of being unique to have the design all over the place. I ended up making two for her and she loved them.
Hobbies
My hobbies are reading, I love dancing and cooking Favourite Travel Destination Dubai- it’s a beautiful city everything you need seems to be there. I love Paris and the major fashion street Champs-Élysées
Favourite Movie
My favourite movie is undoubtedly The Godfather. I love North and South, the TV series. There is no sugar coating the deep realities of life in those movies.
Favourite Flower
I love flowers but if I have to pick, then it will be the Rose and Lavender
Favourite Accessory
All the accessories that, transform the look of an outfit, but if I had to pick two or three it would be, shoes, bags and sunglasses
Best Gift
The salvation of my soul.
Pricing
When you take your time to make something fearful and wonderful, it’s not something you throw away. It takes a lot of time, therefore the means justifies the price.
Adenrele Sonariwo has succeeded in bringing to the United States a branch of the Rele Gallery that she founded six years ago in Nigeria, making it perhaps Los Angeles’s first contemporary gallery from the world’s secondlargest continent.
“We’re doing the artists a disservice by just being in Lagos,” Sonariwo, 34, said at her compact gallery on a commercial stretch of Melrose Avenue. “It’s one thing to see the artwork on social media or online. But these artists have such amazing techniques that I felt it was really important to have people see them in person.”
At a time that African art is moving into cities like New York and London, Sonariwo is becoming an influential player by trying to give emerging artists a global platform.
“Adenrele Sonariwo is an incredible social entrepreneur,” said Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, a curator at the Museum of Modern Art who specializes in African art. “She is arguably the most important advocate of contemporary Nigerian art. Her passion in promoting emerging artists and particularly women artists is commendable.” He added that the new gallery “is part of her long term goal to draw international attention to a strong pool of emerging talents in Africa.”
The art world at large does not yet seem aware of Rele Gallery’s arrival here. But those who have
learned of welcomed it.
“It’s a gallery from Lagos that wants to show more artists who are working on the continent,” said Marla C. Berns, the director of the Fowler Museum at U.C.L.A. “That in itself is an accomplishment.”
Sitting in her gallery on her first day of business, luminous even behind her mask, Sonariwo said she preferred this quieter version of an opening to the usual crush of people. “We can actually talk and hear each other,” she said.
Her only frustration, Sonariwo said, was that Covid restrictions kept the artists from traveling to the U.S. “to experience how people are experiencing their work.”
Born in Washington, D.C., into a Yoruba noble family, Sonariwo at 4 years old moved with her parents back to their homeland outside Lagos, so that her father could fulfill his duties as a traditional ruler, presiding over 33 towns and villages. Her mother was a distributor of consumer goods and appliances.
Because Nigerians of her background are expected to become doctors or lawyers, art initially did not seem like an option for Sonariwo. So she studied accounting at Howard University, graduating in 2007, and began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, now called PwC.
But Nigeria drew her back (most of her 17 siblings are there), as did the artists she began to discover by visiting their studios and seeing their work on line.
In 2015, she opened her gallery and quickly attracted attention; a its presence have year later, Vogue named her one of “the 5 Coolest Women in Lagos.” And in 2017 Sonariwo was the curator of Nigeria’s first pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale, where she showed works by Peju Alatise,
Victor Ehikhamenor and Qudus Onikeku. She was also a member of the jury for the Dak’Art Biennale in 2018 and was part of the L.A. Art Show last year. The new Rele Gallery is small, located in a 700-square-foot former vitamin shop. But Sonariwo said she wanted it to feel casual and intimate.
“I didn’t want to be where I would have to put pressure on artists to create work,” she said. “I wanted people to come in and just take in the work and not feel intimidated.”
She brought three artists she discovered on her own — asking art teachers to recommend students, doing studio visits — having been moved by their various approaches and backgrounds.
“They were in different phases of their lives,” Sonariwo said. “These stories are not what the international audience is used to.”
Nneji, 28, said Sonariwo had not only raised her profile as an artist but also made her feel it was acceptable to create work that frankly addresses women’s health and reproductive organs. In her work “Portrait of the Listeners,” for example, two women flank a young girl — one in a vibrant print, the other in a dress denoting the Baptist Women’s Missionary Union of Nigeria.
“Coming from a society where women are seen as a commodity, she is trying her best to put female artists in the limelight,” Nneji said in a telephone interview, adding that her dealer tries to “make sure our voices are heard.”
All three artists had gone through Rele’s influential Young Contemporaries program, which provides training and mentorship and a group exhibition. “I realized that they needed an extra level of maturing,” Sonariwo said in explaining why she started the program in 2016, adding that the more than 40 artists who have participated have become their own support network, posting each other’s work on social media
Sonariwo, who plans to divide her time between Los Angeles and Lagos, said she looks forward to bringing more African artists to American audiences. “I really love their stories, their distinctive styles,” she said. “For me, it’s just an honour to be able to present their work.”
Culled from nytimes.com https://www.
What is the business of President Donald Trump of the United States with the ombudsman column and why is he featured here? A double-barrelled question. The answer is that the ombudsman column is about good writing. Good writing is about good and effective communication. This, in turn, is about the correct use of language – right words and phrases in their right places. Poor writing and ineffective communication are products of misused or misspelt words and misplaced phrases. If the writer cannot communicate effectively his job is not done.
I have repeatedly cautioned in this column that the English language is full of slippery slopes. It is as slippery for native speakers as it is for non-native speakers. Here is a good example of how slippery the English language is. Trump’s first language is English. He is not an Agila man to whom it is a second language and who has to frequently contend with the intrusion of Idoma language into English expressions in speaking and writing. You would expect Trump to speak and write perfect English; perhaps not the Queen’s English, because the Americans fought for their independence to be rid of the British royalty.
Trump is the world’s twitterin-chief. He is the only world leader who runs his government on twitter. He uses it to fire his aides; he uses it to make policy pronouncements and, what he enjoys most, he uses it to insult people – Americans and nonAmericans alike. It was this latter use of the twitter that brought him his latest trouble with his fellow Americans.
This was what happened. In May, the president mounted his twitter pulpit and rained insults on former Vice-President Joe Biden, whom he was once wrongly called Bidan in his tweet, the Democratic party and Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia. On Warner, the president wrote: “... their is nothing bipartisan about him.”
The guardian angels of the language and other Americans were horrified. And they rushed to their own twitter and other platforms to let the president know the damage he has done and continues to do to their precious language.
This piece is based largely on a piece on the incident and other Trump howlers by Sarah Lyall of the New York Times. Her interesting piece on the presidential gaffe was published in the New York Times of September 1. One of those who instantly rose to cry foul over Trump’s misuse of the word their was Bryan A. Garner, the author of Garner’s Modern English Usage and thus one of the puritans keeping a permanent vigil over the English language. You do not expect him to stomach such a wilful transgression of the language by a native speaker who should know better.
According to Lyall, the man felt “his blood pressure steadily rising” over the presidential clumsiness with the word, their when he meant to write there. Garner promptly expressed his shock in a twitter addressed to the president. He wrote: “You mean, there is nothing bipartisan about him. Not ‘their,’ which is the possessive form of ‘they.’ Wouldn’t it be worth $75,000 a year to pay for a presidential proof reader so that you will have the semblance of literacy?”
Garner told an interviewer: “If you care about literacy and the correct and accurate use of language, then this president has got to be driving you crazy, regardless of your political point of view.” He was not the only man whose blood pressure rose over Trump’s inability to be a linguistic role model. Several others joined in the fray and dug up a slew of Trump’s problems with the English language.
Jonathan Owen, a linguist and editor said, “...what I think bothers me most about Trump’s sloppiness is that it seems so deliberate.” Many of his critics believe that he is setting himself up as a poor role model for fellow Americans because he relishes his errors of spelling and syntax. Mary Norris, former copy editor of the New Yorker magazine said, “Trump thinks he can get away with stuff simply because he does it. But he is not the king of language. He’s not the king of anything.” Of course, we know that the Americans, like the Igbo, do not have a king.
If it is any consolation, Trump is not a lone linguistic offender in the White House. Former vice-president, Dan Quayle, and former President George W. Bush were also caught on the wrong side of their own language. Quayle had problems with the plural of potato. Bush gave us a new word: “misunderestimate.” Lexicographers promptly rejected it.
Trump is the only man who takes immense personal pride in doing unpresidential things to the embarrassment and the amusement of fellow Americans in equal measure. As Lyall put it, “Indeed, rather than being embarrassed, the president seems to be proud of his mistakes – or even to believe that because he has committed them, they are not mistakes at all.”
Indeed so. Trump’s response to his critics last year was: “After having written many best-selling books, and somewhat priding myself on my ability to write, it should be noted that the Fake News constantly likes to pour over my tweets looking for a mistake.”
Wahala. He wrote pour when he meant to write pore. And this from a best-selling author? The good thing is that the president’s fellow Americans were well aware that despite his stout claims of being a best-selling author, his English is not stellar. But they had hoped, according to Kory Stamper, a lexicographer quoted in the New York Times piece, that “After he won the election and his writing style came under scrutiny, people said that once he took office, he would rise to the occasion. But you can see that some of the things he does have gotten worse, like the rampant capitalisation of weird words. Trump seems to flout everything, so we’d like him at least to have a basic grasp of English composition.”
Do you still wonder how a man who does not appear to have “a basic grasp of English composition” became the author of many best-selling books? This is America.
I had initially thought that the president has problems with his spelling, as indeed, many us do. I had also thought that what led Trump astray was a delicious quirk in the English language in which words spelt differently and with different meanings have the same or similar sound: note his use of pour for pore; principal for principle.
The technical term for this group of words was homonyms. It is now better known as homophones, a term favoured by the Americans. Most of us silently pronounce words in our heads as we read or write. Homophones pop in - and quite often drop on the word processing screen before we catch them.
Here are some homophones that may or may not be that strange to you but which lurk in the corner each time you see your fingers walking on the keyboard: allowed – aloud; stair-stare; scene – seen; role-roll; peak-peek; peace-piece; plain-plane; dear-deer; flea-flee; foul-fowl; hole-whole; bee-be; brake-break; ate-eight; soulsole; tail-tale; whether-weather; no-know; sale-sail; hear-here; teetea; dew-do; heel-heal; weep-whip; flew-flu; right-write; pain-pane; sum-some; male - mail. As I was completing this piece, I came across a tweet by the avuncular Senator Dino Melaye on the correct use of English. Dino is a greater lover of this social medium. In the tweet, he drew attention to what he described as “some popular grammatical blunders everyone has made at least two times.” Here they are (italics mine):
1. You are taking it personal (wrong)
You are taking it (correct) 2. He is matured (wrong) He is mature (correct) He has matured (correct) I am sure Senator Melaye is not adding English language lecture series to his heavy burden of making laws for the good governance of our dear country. I am intrigued that correct English matters to him. Funny. One politician is mangling English; the other wants us, to borrow from Edwin Newman, to keep a civil tongue.
(First published September 29, 2019)
The guardian angels of the language and other Americans were horrified. And they rushed to their own twitter and other platforms to let the president know the damage he has done and continues to do to their precious language.
personally