Adekunle - Nigeria

Nickname: Kunle

Little did I know that a life without Christ is like a hole in a doughnut. I was born into a family of Anglican background, but my life had nothing to show as being born again or as a believer. I used to go to church occasionally when my parents forced me, also on New Year's Eve. I was one of the people that believed in fate.

My life was characterized with failure. Sometimes God uses problems to draw people closer to Himself, such is my case. In 1994 I wrote an examination, which was the fifth time of writing the same examination. When the result came out, I didn’t pass out rightly; there were out standings in English language and mathematics.

Before the result was released I had a dream where I saw all my results on the screen like a computer. Right from the dream I got disturbed with the outcome but surprisingly saw myself praying. Praying was the least thing I could have ever thought of then.

In a usual habit January 1995, I went to church, Assembly Church of God, a Pentecostal church, for New Year's service. During the service, the pastor hammered on the power in the tongue and the need for positive confession. Based on that point, I looked back and linked my ordeal with the dream I had before the release of my result and asked myself, wouldn’t my result have been better if I had prayed for a change in what I saw?

After the service, I could not stop going to church regularly because of some brothers who took it upon themselves to counsel and encourage me with words of God. I did not put God into a test, but I made a prayer that if God should help me for admission to a higher institution in spite of my deficiencies, I would continue to serve Him. God did as I prayed. Today I have a national diploma in business studies before I moved into the field of photojournalism.

To God be the glory, I am today a born again child of God and doing well in my work.

Photography, beyond the arts, is a good agent of change. This I have seen in different societies. My picture, flood in Lagos city, has forced a government department to take a drastic decision on illegal structures blocking drainage in the city.