Part 1

INTRODUCTION
The Tenacity To Ask isn’t only the manual for self-confidence for every woman, but also a must-read for every counterpart, as it aims to emancipate mankind from the bondage and shackles of slavery and sin. The principles contained herein apply to both genders.
Like other women who have made it to the pinnacle of their careers, you are full of abilities, gifts and talents. An empowerment of grace, power and presence is with you. You are the image of the Most high. So what are you doing with your life? Are you like the eleven disciples who stayed in the boat, or are you like Peter who, when Jesus passed by, said, “Lord, I want to walk on water with you!” Do you have a vision for your life and want to accomplish something or do something bigger than what you are doing right now? Will you just sit by in the boat, shaking and trembling whilst the rest of the world passes by? Are you carried away by the tide of time, or will you be one of the rare people who jump out of the boat and refuse to wait for the storm to pass? In this book ‘The Tenacity To Ask’ it is up to you to maximally utilize the information presented to the best of your advantage. Fear will always come against you. But remember the words of Jesus. “Take courage. I AM WITH YOU”. Don’t be afraid. It is time to get out of the rut. It is time to be tenacious in your quest for greatness.
You have not been heard because you were not brave enough to command silence. This wisdom of the ages is the key to unlocking your potential and living the life you want.
The Tenacity To Ask, offers readers from around the world the opportunity to live tenaciously and graciously by letting go of self-perceived barriers or obstacles. It begins with being fully conscious, understanding the source of your desire, and then assessing who or what can serve as a bridge to make it a reality, a dream while you are awake.
If you are ready to challenge your thoughts and motives, learn to ask good questions, and succeed - this is the book for you.
Whether you are a founder, executive, parent, student, sales executive, or investor, you will gain the courage to ask for what you need and want. It's time to live intentionally, graciously and tenaciously, to be empowered and to realize the life of your dreams. This is actually based on an actual event, names has been changed with that said, I hope you will find comfort in reading this piece, as at the time I my friend Liz told me her story which you are about to read, I had lost my job at the US Consulate Lagos as a [Security guard, her story brought me comfort and relief in Knowing that there is a God who isn’t faraway from us, and all we had to do is reach out to him and be Tenacious in our request for help from him, please sit back, relax and enjoy.

CHAPTER ONE

SHOW YOURSELF TO ME

As a young woman growing up in a non-Christian home, I was persuaded that Christianity was a kind of stigma and a waste of time. In fact, at one point, my father hired a private Islamic teacher for me and my siblings so that we could read, write, and communicate with more commitment in Arabic. The Bible says, "God is able to do far more than anything we ever dare ask or even dream of, infinitely more than our highest prayers, wishes, thoughts, or hopes."
The plans and hopes my father had for me were quite different from what God and who’s God I should put my trust in. Like many children who grow up at home with their parents, they follow in their parents' footsteps in most cases, especially when it comes to religion and faith. So it is safe to say that my experience was not the norm. One day I fell asleep in my father's small office downstairs, and that's when I had an encounter with a supernatural being that was so unreal. In my first encounter with God, I saw a very tall man. However, I could not see his face. The man was wearing a long white silky robe. This angelic person reached down, took me by the hands and said, "I am with you and everything will be all right."
He continued by quoting a verse from the book of Jeremiah 15:21, "And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible." I was really surprised by this dream, because I have never had such an encounter in my life, although I have always believed that there is a powerful being, and to crown my faith, I have always asked it in prayer to show itself to me, and before you read on, let me say this with all sincerity: everything I asked for, I got and even more. This book is titled because I am a living witness. The other strange thing was that I did not have a Bible at the time. So when I woke up, it was about 4:00 in the morning. Everything was so quiet and I took a notepad and wrote down the exact quote to share with my older sister. The next morning I went to my sister and told her about my dream. She said she wanted to take the information I had shared with her to school and ask one of the Bible school teachers if there was such a quote or if he could at least shed some light on the dream for us. When she came home from school that afternoon, she told me that the quote was from the book of Jeremiah 15:12. At that moment, I knew that my prayers had been answered and that there was much more to come. My sister was a few years older than me, but she is very smart and always wanted to help me.
When she came home and confirmed that such words were in the Bible, and also knew that I could not have made them up because I could hardly read at that time, my sister became really upset. I did not own a Bible; my father had already imposed very strict rules on my siblings and me when it came to which religion we should practice. In short, by the confluence of all these factors, she emphatically believed me. Now for the hard part - I say this because we were just a bunch of kids who lived with our parents and were very loyal and respectful to them no matter what rules and regulations they imposed on us. The thought of going to church or even trying to worship or pray to Jesus Christ would probably have gotten us kicked out of the house; any petitions I made, I did in my closet. Prayers I call petitions because we would be considered rebellious or disobedient to our parents' wishes, so if I got caught, that would be my defense.
In time, my sister made a plan for the two of us to attend a local church one Sunday in 1983. It was the first time I had ever been to a church, and it was very exciting and relaxing. We were only there for half an hour because our parents might be looking for us, as we just had an excuse to visit a family member who had just moved to our area. When we left the church that day, we were very quiet and somehow very reflective, not because we did not like the message or the whole experience, but because we felt like we had finally reached our destination after a very long and complicated journey. Since that day, there are very few Sundays when we do not attend church services to worship and praise God.
A few years later, we were able to convince our mother to join us, and she was "skeptical" at first, but she reluctantly agreed to join us after I made a persistent request. The next morning she said to me, "I am willing to try". Our mother became a good, devoted Christian like us. She kept her newfound faith to herself, just as my sister and I did when we lived with both our parents. Several years had passed since I had moved out as a teenager to continue my education in Paris, France. On a Saturday night, I had called home to say hello to my parents and see how they were doing. During my phone conversation with my mother, we decided to say a short prayer before I asked her to include my father in the conversation so I could greet him as well. While we were praying and calling on the name of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, we thought we heard someone pick up the other phone line in the house. Of course it was my father, he heard our prayers and how we prayed to God in the name of Jesus Christ. That was the first time my father heard about our change, and it was the first time he heard about my mother's new faith.

To be continued……