THY WILL O LORD

A devoutly Christian Nigerian man’s memoir of immigrating to the United States.

Omolaja’s work covers the story of his life in two distinct sections, beginning with his birth in Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1953. The author spent his early adulthood in the early 1970s, after a stint in the army, moving to different cities looking for work and usually finding it as a driver for wealthier residents, whom he came to see as “educated fools” for their materialist obsessions. Omolaja was raised as a Muslim but had a sudden revelation at the age of 21, when, he says, a disembodied voice whispered in his ear, saying, “Jesus is the Son of God, He is the Lord and the Savior of the world.” His family members had him committed to a mental health institution, he says, but he remained determined to witness for Jesus. His spiritual path eventually led him to Selma University, a historically black Baptist Bible college in Alabama. However, Omolaja later experienced financial hardship as he moved around the American South, attempting to fulfill his calling to minister to the mentally ill and others struggling in society. The book’s second half provides readers with chapters on a range of topics, including practical issues for Christians, such as the importance of water baptisms, and wider theological debates about prophecies, angels, and the might of God. Omolaja accompanies his thoughts on these subjects with ample biblical references and “Spiritual Exercises” in the style of a daily devotional. However, his attempts to address Christian and non-Christian readers alike may leave some readers unsure of how a chapter specifically applies to them. The book’s autobiographical portion offers plenty of engaging and positive ideas, especially when dealing with the author’s difficulty adapting to American life and his unflappably good intentions toward everyone he met. At the same time, readers may find some of his accounts of spiritual encounters difficult to believe, as when he claims to have brought a young child back from the dead.

An uplifting but unfocused remembrance and testimonial.