Posted by By JOE EFFIONG, Uyo on
In just 43 years, Mrs. Joy Ese-Abasi's story is enough to publish volumes of books or to form a nice plot for the home video barons.
In just 43 years, Mrs. Joy Ese-Abasi's story is enough to publish volumes of books or to form a nice plot for the home video barons.
She enrolled to study nursing and got struck by a mysterious mental ailment. Still with the mental problem, she wrote her exams in chains, passed as a qualified nurse. A man arrived from America and said if not her, he wouldn't marry anybody else. They started the matrimony and even started bearing children, yet she was still mentally deranged. But just a few years after she had fully been healed of the madness, her husband died leaving her with four children.
Now, she is not only a chief nursing officer, she is practising in the same psychiatry hospital she was a patient some 15 years ago. She is now a pastor, a writer of many books and has had cause to change her previous names from Mrs Eno Ese-Usoro to Pastor Mrs Joy Ese-Abasi. She is still a widow.
'I am Evangelist Joy Ese-Abasi, a nurse by profession and an evangelist by calling. I work as the chief nursing officer in the Psychiatric Hospital, Eket. I come from Mbiatok Itam in Itu Local Government Area but married in Nung Uyo Idoro in Uyo Local Government Area, all in Akwa Ibom State. Currently, I am a pastor in the Conquerors Bible Ministry, Uyo," she said.
The story
I passed through the agony of insanity for 18 years. It started far back in 1981, when I got admission into the School of Nursing, Ogoja in Cross River State where I was posted as a student. As a consistent member of Scripture Union and as a leader, on April 14, 1981, we had our regular meeting. On returning from the meeting and was climbing the steps (staircase) I got struck.
I became unconscious and was carried to the hospital. I remained in that state for nine months and was carried from place to place. When I regained consciousness, I became a psychiatric patient from that 1981 to 1995 in which I was occasionally relieved but was later disoriented and was controlled by drugs. It was precisely in 1996 that God gave me a divine healing and till date my story has changed.
It was while I was still a patient at the psychiatric hospital that I made a vow that if God would heal me of the sickness, even though in medical circle mental problems are not cured, that I would go back to the psychiatric hospital nearest to me to take care of those mentally sick. That is why I'm working at the psychiatric hospital to pay my vow.
Between 1981 and 1996:
Within the period, my parents, being staunch members of Church of Christ, did their best; took me from place to place and observed the necessary traditional rituals since some people said that it was because I was the first daughter that I had the problems. Yet there was no positive result. It was when they had lost hope that God came in and brought my deliverance.
The exam angle
I did not have anything that could expose me to mental problem, but when it happened, as a student nurse, one would have expected that I would be withdrawn from school. But God had a purpose for my life. And due to my determination not to give up, during the prelim exams, I was in the prayer house with chains and I was told that they were going to withdraw me. I told them to bring the papers to the prayer house that I would take the exams.
I wrote the exams and passed with the torment of insanity. God gave me the courage to excel in periodical exams which have led me to being the chief nursing officer now. I was not reading. The few lectures I took were enough because I got to realize later that on the day I was born in Aba on June 13, 1963, a female missionary had prophesied that I would be a nurse. So, my going into nursing was not by chance, maybe, that was why I was able to pass the exams.
Married while still insane
God is so miraculous. Somewhere along the line, He prepared a man for me. My husband was in the United States of America for more than 18 years and in 1985, he decided to come back home. He said while in the plane, he fell into a trance and God gave him my credentials and asked him to find and marry me, since men had run away from me because of my ailment which they felt defied human reasoning.
Immediately he landed, he traced me. He first of all went to the First Bank, Calabar in which my mother worked and talked about proposing to me.
My mother, because she wanted a relief and was tired of carrying the reproach of an insane child, never cared about the bride price and other things, just brought him to me and said: 'Eno-Obong, someone has come to marry you". I was surprised. So, I immediately went to the room and brought the chains that they kept for me each time I had mental attack. I told him: 'You're coming to put yourself in fire. I have a mental problem. This is the chain". He said no problem that in America, mental problem was just like malaria, and relayed his vision in the plane to me. I told him God could not be stupid to bring a liability to him. My mum was not happy with what I said. She slapped me to keep quiet.
So, we got married and my in laws had no choice but to accept what their son chose for himself.
Cure and change of name
When I had a relapse in 1986 and was taken to the Victory Medical Centre, Oron where Dr. Ebiekpe is the Medical Director, a man of God. He told me, 'Evangelist Eno-obong, I don't think you have a problem. Let me give you a room because God wants to have a session with you." I was given a private room and that night I had an encounter with God. He showed me my birth, the source of my mental problem.
He revealed that since I was given that name, everything I did ended with sorrow. As such, He said He was going to give me another name. God said, ‘you were born in the month of June, so your name will be Joy? He also instructed me to change my marital surname from Ese-Usoro to Ese Abasi, and to also change the names of my children to Faith, Favour, Victory and Miracle. From that day, I was cured and things have changed in my life.
Widow
I lost my husband on December 10, 1999 about 4.30pm at Victory Medical Centre, Oron. My relationship with his family is personal. The only thing I will say is that I thank God that you are an Akwa Ibomite. When a husband dies, the family will tell the wife you're the one that killed him; and they will take all the property and leave you stranded. That was the agony I passed through. I have forgiven them. This place that I am staying was bought by my brother after seeing me moving about with my children. I'm relating with them based on God's principles and God's guidance. They have not come back since then.
Madness as a blessing
My 18 years of mental wilderness was a blessing because I've benefited from what I had passed through. I have to testify to the glory of the Almighty God. I have also got the privilege to encourage others. That is how I have benefited. The book of John chapter 11 verse 4 says when Lazarus was sick and was reported to Jesus, he said this sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God. The glory of God has actually been revealed in my life.
I can lay hands on the sick and they will be well. I have been able to get in contact with great men and women. After testimonies, people come to me. People I wouldn't have got the privilege of meeting. I also have the privilege of being the only widow from Akwa Ibom State selected to represent Akwa Ibom widows at an international conference in Lagos. Maybe, if I were not a widow, I wouldn't have had the privilege. I believe the 18 years of agony cannot be compared to the blessings God has given unto me and even to my generation because my testimony has encouraged even those that were ready to commit suicide.
My 18 years as psychiatic patient have also been of benefit to psychiatic patients. Right now I have written a book on psychiatry but I've not published it because of financial constraint. I told God that I will go back to help the mentally changed people, immediately my husband blessed me and gave up the ghost, I told myself I'm going to Eket.
Patient-turned nurse
The first day I went to the psychiatric hospital, Eket in which I was a patient in 1989, they didn't know me. They only said this nurse resembled one patient who was here, but she had died. I just kept quiet. Some in the hospital would say I talked like Eno-Obong. All of them were shocked because those who saw me in 1989 in that hospital didn't believe that I will live.
Two weeks later, the commissioner for health came to the hospital and I was asked to decorate him. The medical director told him about me. He said if God was able to heal me, then I had work to do in the hospital to rehabilitate those medical personnel with such mental problems and that they all would be transferred to that hospital.
I became a counsellor to those nurses who had mental problems. My husband did psychology; that was how I have been able to come out of the stigma. He used to counsel me a lot. God has used me to help others who had passed through such things, even to help students. God has used the 18 years of my reproach to encourage people with similar problem.
Another marriage?
Initially I did not think of that because sometimes I use to think that my husband was an angel. An Akwa Ibom man to have seen fire and he put his hands? It is even better that after you had married the woman the thing happens. Sometimes I hear people say their husbands beat them. When I compare that with my husband and hear what others are passing through, I sometimes feel I was in heaven. I used to be afraid of marriage, but in the past three years I have been feeling the emptiness. I couldn't forcefully talk to my children. That is why I think a man would have been there to enforce my command.
And I realize that I need a covering. I need a man to stand by me, edit my books, encourage me to move, push on in order to get to where God has destined for me. But I'm being careful. Based on where God picked me and the generation I have affected, if I mess up, it's going to affect the people I would have encouraged. I still believe God that at His appointed time, He will bring me my Boaz even as he gave it to Ruth.
Books
By the grace of God, I have been able to put seven books, Born to Overcome, Receiving Your Miracle; Don't Give Up; He Changed My Story; The Millennium Nurse And The Client, The New Day For The Mentally Challenged, among others. I need help. I need sponsors. I need people to motivate me to bring out more materials to encourage people at large.