‘Heavenly Father prepared a Way’: A Story of Faith and Personal Responsibility

Featured Photo: The Barbara and Bassey Obot family, left to right—Walter, Devin, Bassey, Barbara, Udim Juliana, and Isabella. Photo courtesy of Bassey Obot.

The Church is an anchor: How personal responsibility enabled God to answer a prayer for the Obot family.

Our immigration story [from Nigeria, West Africa, to the United States] will not be complete without the experience we had, which helps shed some light on the importance of having a sound support system, an anchor — belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This experience is one of many that inspire our unshakable faith in people’s goodness and illustrates how God answers prayers and widens our understanding of the role of personal responsibility in creating an opportunity for God’s power to manifest in our lives.

Taking personal responsibility creates opportunities for God to answer prayers.

A major hurdle that new immigrants face when they first arrive in the United States of America  (USA) is housing. In our case, we were blessed to have a loving family who agreed to house us. On a beautiful Thursday morning, April 18, 1997, we arrived in the USA to our host family’s warm welcome. Our plan was to stay with our host family for up to six months, giving us enough time to find our footing in our new environment.

At this point, neither the Church, the bishop of what will be our new ward, nor the members know anything about two young couples who have just arrived in their ward boundary. How will the members or the bishop serve us if they don’t know anything about our existence? But Heavenly Father had prepared a way for what will soon be our fate.

For us, being in the USA and living five minutes from a temple was so surreal. We could not wait to find a congregation of fellow saints. After welcoming pleasantries were over, our mind was caught up with the prospects of worshiping with fellow saints – the people we read so much about in the Ensign. The following day, we asked our host family how we could locate a church building. They gave us an area map and a yellow page and showed us how to use them.  We found the phone number to the ward, where our apartment address was assigned (before google, area maps and yellow pages were a  common feature in every home). We called the number, and to our surprise, the bishop was on the other line. After a few exchanges of information, we expressed our desire to worship with the congregation on Sunday.

Our new-found friends and the bishop were amazed at our motivation to attend Church on Sunday, having just arrived in a new country two days prior. He promised that someone will be at our door on Sunday morning to drive us to church. Our host family was also surprised when we told them we were attending church on Sunday and that someone from our church congregation will be there to drive us to the church in the morning.

After our meeting block on Sunday, we handed over our membership records to the Bishop. It was customary for members to carry membership records when traveling; in our case, we were relocating to a new country altogether.  Our host family was surprised how within three days of our arrival to the totally new country,  we not only found a congregation to worship with but a community that cared. To us, that was the most exciting opportunity for us to experience the Church.

Host family change of plan that provided a faith-building service opportunity.

After three weeks of our arrival, our host family announced that it will not be possible for them to continue to host us as the embassy was moving them to a new house that will not be big enough for them to accommodate my wife and me – Our host family were diplomats. This decision meant that we had to find a new place to live after a total of three weeks in the USA. We had to find an apartment within the deadline, which was just one week.

To say we were confused and shocked is an understatement. However, this challenge allowed us to experience the lord’s hand in our lives in a way that may not have been possible otherwise. Perhaps it was designed to increase our faith and help make our immigration story more fascinating. Whatever the case, we feel blessed to have experienced our church family in a way that inspired an endless dedication.

At this point, there were many unknowns, including where to find an apartment and how apartment leasing works. We were still learning how society operates. We applied for many apartments only to find out that although we had enough money for the first month’s rent, we did not have the credit history or the rental history to qualify for the lease. No apartment was willing to lease to two young couples who just arrived in the USA within a week with only a week of income history and a promise to pay.

We were worried, concerned, and frustrated about this sudden change of plan. We prayed and felt at peace that everything would be okay. We reached out to the bishop, not sure exactly how he would help having only met us three Sundays ago.  Our intention was to find a family that could house us for a few weeks until we sorted things out.

The Bishop said to our amazement, go find an apartment, and I will co-sign the lease. We were surprised, shocked, but relieved—what a great blessing and a lesson of faith that singular event has been to us. We recognize the Bishop’s action must be the hands of the lord and an answer to prayers as there is no other way of explaining it. That challenge allowed us to experience how God works among the children of men.

As the saying goes, “hindsight is twenty-twenty.” Our story succinctly captures that sentiment. What are the odds: if we did not take the time to find a congregation to worship as soon as we arrived, would we have had this experience? Or,  what are the chances that we would have received such help if the bishop knew nothing about us? Our experience illustrates how God answers prayers and opens windows to understanding the role of personal responsibility for creating an opportunity for God’s power to manifest in our lives.

Barbara & Bassey Obot have been members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1994. They relocated to the USA from Nigeria, West Africa, in 1997. They currently reside in the Fort Worth area of Texas, and they have a daughter serving a full-time mission.