15/12/2025
Abuja, 2017.
That was me when I first applied for a Canadian visiting visa.
Back then, you could submit your visa application and do biometrics the same day. I honestly believed I had put everything required. I submitted pof, marriage certificate, family pictures, birth certificates, all of that. My second daughter was barely two years old then. Yet the visa was refused.
They said they were not convinced I would return.
I remember asking myself, why wouldn’t I come back? My children were in Nigeria. My life was there. Why would I not return?
But the truth is, they were right.
At that time, I had no plan of coming back until I figured out a way to sort out my papers and then bring my family over. Looking back now, I thank God for that refusal.
If that visa had been approved, I would have left my children in Nigeria for God knows how long and entered Canada with little or nothing in hand. No strong financial base. No clear structure. Just hope and hustle. The suffering would have been serious, both for me and for my family.
Yesterday, I listened to a minister talking about King Hezekiah, how he begged God for an extra 15 years and God granted it. Many people talk about that passage, but they don’t always mention what happened during those extra years. Some of the decisions made in that period caused real problems.(He fathered Manasseh, one of Judah’s worst kings, He exposed Judah’s wealth and military secrets to Babylon, His focus shifted from dependence on God to pride and legacy)
That message reminded me of my own journey.
Since 2022, after numerous good and bad in my life, my prayer has been simple.
Let God’s will be done. Not my will, but His will.
God’s plan is always perfect. But sometimes we pray so hard for what we want that we forget His timing is better than ours.
As the year comes to an end, let this encourage someone.
That rejection you are upset about might be protection.
That delay might be alignment.
That 'no', might be mercy.
Today, we are all in Canada as a family.
And we did not come as visitors.
We came as Permanent Residents.
My story may not be yours, but remember this.
Sometimes rejection is not denial.
It is God's direction.
