What We Wanted Versus What We Got ( 2)

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"So when  I mean scales fell off my eyes, I started to see her as more than a friend. It was just not  the normal female friend that you had around you, for me there was more. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her."

Interesting...

Wouldn't you love to know how our guests tonight moved from 'What I wanted to what I got" ? Wouldn't you love to find out, how from seeing men as tree to seeing men as men, I mean a friend to the woman he wanted to spend his entire life with. What did he actually see that was more than than than he had been seeing?

Good day dear readers, welcome to the second interview of 'What we wanted versus what we got'. Guess the guests we have tonight, the renowned Olawale Perfect, first class graduate in Biochemistry turned media guru and  CEO of Wigradio with his beautiful wife, Opestar, outstanding gospel content creator and entrepreneur. 

I won't be doing this alone tonight, with me is Ayomide Ekerin, one of my elders and mentors in the writing industry. 

INTERVIEWER: Good morning Mr and Mrs Perfect. Thank you very much sir and ma for honouring our invitation. We are pleased to have you here 'The Perfect couple’ . My name is Munu Ogheneochuko. I’ll be doing this interview with my elder and mentor in the writing industry, Ayomide Ekerin. Hopsi!!!I forgot to add that you should come with a dictionary because Ay can speak big big Oyinbo sometimes.

MR. AND MRS. OLAWALE:  (Laughs and smiles to Ayomide Ekerin). Yes he’s my teacher. He taught me well. It is a great pleasure to be here with you Munu.  We consider it a great privilege to be able to share our story with you and with people who would be reading this. It is our hope that people would be able to learn one or two things from our life and experiences

INTERVIEWERS: We see all the great works you two do at Wigradio and the testimonies of lives you've impacted  and all, how has it been so far, workwise and ministry wise?

MR. AND MRS. OLAWALE: Awwwn ...We bless God. It has been God. God is the one at work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. We would not be where we are today without his grace. So I would say that God released the grace for us to do the things that we are doing and it has been an interesting journey in the last couple of years

INTERVIEWER: You two wrote a book together, was it a husband and wife kind of goal or was it beyond that?

Mr. Olawale Perfect : Talking about the book, both of us have always loved to impact lives. , we have always wanted to be a blessing to our world, while we were preparing for wedding, we discussed about what survenier we could make use of, we were thinking first of using jotters, but since I and my wife love to write and we were both passionate about the media, so two months to our wedding, we just came up with the suggestion of writing a book and releasing it on our wedding day. It has always been my childhood dream that when I am getting married, I will publish a book with my wife and that is what we will use for wedding souvenir and she has also secretly nurtured that kind of dream.

MRS. OLAWALE:: Before we got married, I had written a book . I had a passion too for it. We felt we had a message to pass across to people. It goes beyond goals. It was passion and purpose. I used to write for him then.

INTERVIEWER: Awwwn..so it’s something you both were pregnant for but birthed on your wedding day. Wonderful couple goals. How was the reaction from your wedding attendees ?

MR. AND MRS. OLAWALE: Their reaction was actually superb. I remember one of our pastor’s friend that said someone  was like  this is the best wedding souvenir he has ever received in his life. It was not something that was common.  It  was not a book that did formal launching, come and pay for so and so, we just gave it out as souvenir. Every single person got a copy . People felt wow. It was not the regular souvenir, I remember that some people came from my village from far  away Ekiti, they couldn’t read but because they saw the book, our pictures on it, they just wanted to take it home because it was something new and it was different And from my husband side, he shared a lot of testimonies with me, they sent him messages, that it blessed them and they wanted the same on their lives. The reactions were amazing

INTERVIEWER:  Please when you’re having your wedding anniversary , co-authoring another book, please invite me sir and ma. Let me too be impacted. Mr. Olawale, at a  point in your life, you confessed that you're a workaholic with little or no time for a relationship and even broke up with a partner you were in a relationship with because you didn’t have time to sustain it, so what changed? When did you decide to settle down?

MR. OLAWALE:: (Expresses shock, very surprise) Where did you get this from? I am very scared of your investigative journalism. 

INTERVIEWER: But it is true, isn't it?  ( smiles) 

MR. OLAWALE PERFECT:  Oookay (laughs).Very funny questions, well at some point in my life, I used to be a workaholic and erm,,.. it was the passion for the work that needed to be done at that time  that really consumed me. I just wanted  to give it all the time and attention. I remember for instance, when I was in campus, I was not involved in any  relationship because I needed to put all my attention to my academics, maybe that was part of the reason I graduated with a first class and of course coupled with the fact that God’s grace was there. I've always been a person that puts all of my time and attention to that one thing that I feel is the most important thing for me to do. So when Wigardio started, one of the thing that I was very concerned about was to see how Wigradio would grow, the assignment God has placed in my hands, I needed to pay attention to it. But overtime, I began to realized that it is not good for a man to be alone meaning it is bad for a man to be alone. I realized that my effectiveness in life would not be at its peak without  having a partner. Yes I used to be in a relationship but a lot of factors were involved that  God made it such that  it  was not  going to work out and  I  know that God orchestrated everything  and we as human being think that things should  go in a particular way but God  knows  better than us and of course  the relationship did not work out. But when I got to the point where I  needed to  move into  the Institution of marriage, , I began to prayerfully ask God ‘What would you have me do?’  and there God led me to my wife  and since then I have not had any regret. God has indeed been faithful, He has kept us, he as helped us to be to  enjoy marriage the way he has orchestrated  it to be .

"But overtime, I began to realized that it is not good for a man to be alone. , meaning it is bad for a man to be alone. I realized that my effectiveness in life would not be at its peak without  having a partner. "

INTERVIEWERS: Hmm.... God led you? How did God lead you? Can you please share?

MR. OLAWALE PERFECT:  Well Fundamentally as a Christian,  It is important to understand the way God leads you and speaks to you. The Bible says for as many that are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God , meaning that if you are a child of God , the Holy Spirit will be able  to lead you in the way and manner you should go. He should be able to give you specific instructions. So for me, the moment I was ready , I went ahead to God in the place of prayers,  I took out a couple of days  to  pray , now as at time,  she was already my friend. Of course in the midst of this, I believe relationship should always begin from the place of friendship. I was already considering her but  there was a particular get-together,  it was as if a scale fell off my eyes and I saw her in a different light.  I just knew that  this woman is my wife.  I do not know how to explain that but I just knew she was my wife not out of lust but out of  a conviction by the spirit of God, when I got back home that day, I spent the entire night praying  to really get what God was saying , I hope I am not imagining things, I do not want to do a trial and error relationship. In my Spirit , God began to give me some much confirmations that God was asking me to go ahead . So I went ahead and popped the question to her and eventually she said yes and today, we are happily married.

INTERVIWERS:  You mentioned some scales fell off your eyes. What were those things you started to see in your wife that you didn’t see when you two were just friends?

MR. OLAWALE PERFECT:  There is this Bible verse that talks about seeing men as trees. So for me , I was just seeing her as just a friend,  very close friend. So when  I mean scales fell off my eyes, I started to see her as more than a friend. It was just not  the normal female friend that you had around you, for me there is more. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.

INTERVIEWERS: Mrs Ope, we assume you're married to the most amazing man on Earth, your DP,  the way you  two smiled, held hands and even your testimonies  about him says it all, but before now, be sincere, what was your ideal kind of man before he came along?

MR. OLAWALE PERFECT: (Rub hands, thinks and anticipate) Confession time. 

MRS. OLAWALE PERFECT:  :My Ideal man before he came along  is actually a perfect description of Mr. Olawale Perfect. Because from the first time I read about him, there was no physical attraction or even crush. I met  him for the first time at Freshers night. He spoke about how he left his degree  in biochemistry to start  his media vision that God has given to him.  Immediately I heard that I was wowed, , I was impressed by his kind of lifestyle . But I started to do more research about him, I went on Facebook ,bought his book,  I saw some of the things he had done  for instance his birthday , he celebrated  it  in school, sometimes prisons, I was like 'wow!' ,this is a sacrificial lifestyle. This was the kind of lifestyle I always envisage when I was much younger, to run an orphanage or  less privilege home because I have passion for young children and this was someone that was someone that  had the same visons. My perfect description was who he is  then, now and what he is doing.   A man that is passionate about the things of God and  passionate for  young people. He was my ideal man and still my ideal man.

INTERVIEWERS: But Mrs Ope, when he came to ask you out, you asked him to wait, why if he was your ideal man as you have said ?

Mrs Olawale Perfect:  (Laughs) This question is very funny and vey political. The truth is that  for every relationship and marriage , there are many factors that play into it. When I say he is my ideal man, He  is my ideal mean in terms of purpose and other factors but you know  as human beings , we also have  physical attributes we look out for a partner. Personally from time immemorial I had a list of the things I wanted to see in my own man. I wanted somebody  that  was fair in complexion, I wanted somebody that was tall, I wanted someone that was an Anglican because I was an Anglican, you know, so in that way, we actually box God. And you know this man in question was actually not tall, based on my expectation, he was not fair, he was not an Anglican and some other factors , so I was like , wait o, this person in terms of purpose , he is the idea person but in terms of physical factors, he is  not my ideal man , he did not meet my expectation then, well, that’s how we box God and we fall short  of what God has in store for us . So at that  beginning , I was like, Okay, and I wanted someone that was all the way romantic like we see in movies but this person was just a marry me kind of person. That was why we just tell the person to just hold on, maybe we will still see the person that will fits the description and still have those purpose parts in it , that is where most times  we flog ourselves, cheat ourselves, God is presenting someone to you  and were saying ‘No lord, this person has not tick off everything’ but the way God works is not the way man works.

INTERVIEWERS: Did you anyway box God too , in terms of physical attributes too?  Like height, background, skin tone etc.

MR. OLAWALE: I used to have some specifications when I was much younger but as I matured, I threw my specification list away. So I was long gone without a spec list. By the time I was meeting my wife, I was more concerned about her than in any spec. My basic spec were that she must be a Christian, must be intelligent and must be willing to marry me and I got all that in my wife. I would just say that God himself was the matchmaker. He knew the best specification for me so I let him do that and I do not have any regret that I allowed God do the choosing for me

INTERVIEWER: Wonderful, God is indeed the perfect matchmaker.  Mr. Olawale didn’t have a 8-5 job when you met him, weren’t there any fears of marrying an entrepreneur? Not just an entrepreneur, a missionary entrepreneur ?

MRS OLAWALE: Before I met him, one of my goals is to run successful businesses too. I had so many business ideas. I still do 🤣🤣. I'm always disturbing him with them. I ran some business ventures before meeting him. I sold hampers. Made chin chin. Made popcorn etc. So him being an entrepreneur held a giddy feeling of running a conglomerate with this person. Yes there were money worries but maybe because I was employed, I didn't bother about that. Also, while we were courting, I admired his faith Relationship with God. If he asked God for something, even if it was just a day to the expiry of that need, God would show up.
I saw that severally, so, I was hopeful that I was journeying with a man of faith that trusted God for all his needs and a man that depends on God for his needs would never be stranded.
I still see that his faith at work and God has been honouring him.

INTERVIEWERS:  Were there any interferences Or objections from either of your parents when you told them who you wanted to marry?

Mr Olawale: Funny enough, my parents did not have any issues with my wife when they saw her. It was so dramatic. I remember that my elder sister asked me one of those days, 'bro how far  with relationship?'.  I said there was this lady I was seeing  and considering . She was like 'Oookay, wait! She is taller than you, she is dark in complexion and I was like yes.  She asked if  I had a picture of her, as at that time, there was a day we had a date at Shoprite so I showed her. Immediately she saw it, she said 'Yeah, this is the lady. I saw her in my dreams'. She was just so excited  and happy . She said she saw me getting married to her. When my my mom saw for the first time she came visiting , my mom fell in love with her and everyone loved her. There is no time they did not ask for her up to till tomorrow . They love and cherish her so much. So we never had issue from my own end. From her parents side, her mom loved me from the first time and  has been very supportive. I remember on the day of our introduction, I think I got there  some few minutes late, the Alaga did the introduction and was trying to make some troubles for me and trying to make me to pay more. While I was there , her mom called me on the  phone, I looked  at my phone, her mom was the one calling. I was wondering 'What is happening here?'.  She told me what I was going to do, she said immediately I prostrate, there was nothing they were going to do. It was like she was giving me an expo. Immediately I just prostrated and the alaga could not do anything again. What I am trying to say is that  her mom has been giving  tips upon tips  about things . She even told me what to do for her dad, she wants her dad to fall in love with me. It was just a favoured experience with her mom

 

MRS OLAWALE: Lol. On my side, my dad was saying because he's from Abeokuta, he probably wasn't good enough. That Abeokuta people were something something. I think there's subtle beef between Ekiti people and Abeokuta people. But he said if that's what I wanted, then it was fine by him. My mum had no issues. She only asked if he wasn't wicked like Ekiti people. The irony of life!

 INTERVIEWERS: What advise do you have for singles trusting God to be married ?

MR OLAWALE: Have a personal relationship with God , the first thing you should be concerned about is not relationship with the opposite gender. The first thing, you should be in a relationship with God, when you get that part right, everything will fall into place overtime. There are three type of people on the earth, those that  look at themselves and say 'it is not good to be alone',  for those people they would have to look for life partners  themselves, There are those the society looks at and tells them 'it is not good to be alone',  they will look for someone to match-make them with, and there are those The Lord look at and say 'It is not good to be alone' and when it is God that is saying it not good to be alone,, It will be God himself that will bring that life partner to you So when you build your personal relationship  with God , it becomes very easy for you to know what God is saying in terms of  a life partner. So I will say get your relationship with God right  and everything will fall into place.

"There are three type of people on the earth, those that  look at themselves and say 'it is not good to be alone',  for those people they would have to look for life partners  themselves, There are those the society looks at and tells them 'it is not good to be alone',  they will look for someone to match-make you with, and there are those The Lord look at and say 'It is not good to be alone' and when it is God that is saying it not good to be alone,, It will be God himself that will bring that life partner to you "

MRS. OLAWALE: Singles should not be under peer pressure when it comes to matters of Relationship and marriage. Stop listening to what the world has to say about relationships. Do the right things. And God will sort the rest out because God knows what's best. Always allow His own list prevail.

INTERVIEWERS:  Awwnnnnnn. Thank you so much sir and ma for this interview. I really appreciate . God bless you all BIG. May Our Heavenly Father’s hand continually be on your union, ministry and everything good you lay your hands upon.

Amen