Have you ever doubted yourself? Or wondered how you will carry out a vision you know you are supposed to run with? Welcome to the story behind this video. When there's a will, there's a way

[
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNVccgtPyFY&ab_channel=MannaXPRESS]

I'm May Oyairo, the Founder and Publisher of MannaXPRESS (www.mannaxpress.com) - a platform dedicated to inspiring hearts and empowering minds from different cultures and diverse backgrounds. MannaXPRESS touches lives through positive stories, news, outreach, resources and community interaction.

This vision was started more than a decade ago. Drenched in the rain of doubt and beset by bolts of anxiety, I feared what laid ahead of me. I was under the erroneous impression that it required just my effort. It did not help that I was also struggling to get off a hectic emotional roller coaster at the time. Everything looked rosy on the outside, but it was a war of thorns on the inside. I had to pull myself together even if it meant faking it to make it on some occasions.

Above all, a divine mandate was given to me; I either ran with it or ran from it. I choose the former and the journey of Mannaexpress commenced. The rest is a heart of gratitude and various seasons of ups and downs. To God be the glory!

This video is about yesterday’s genesis to today’s revelation of Mannaexpress. One truth I have come to realize is no man is an island – it takes a village to cause a global impact. Truthfully, it is just not only about me but about as many hands as possible coming together to make this vision a reality. We can take this mandate further to the ends of the earth. Thank you for taking the time to watch this video.

Please share, subscribe, and remain blessed.

Have the old scars in your life completely healed? Still healing, or far from healing? Do you see yourself getting worked up when the thought of a particular incident rears its obnoxious head?

The truth is, unless you take action, there will always be a negative or positive reaction. Many times, it is therapeutic to delve into the archives of your life and excavate one or more torturous experiences for the purpose of re-examination and permanent closure. This is why, after more than 34 years, I am riding back to my high school days to open an incredible can of stinky worms.

In Form 4 (high school), I was the treasurer of my school’s Literary and Debating Society. Our annual party was held on a Saturday, and it was a huge success. I was scheduled to meet with the president, vice president, and secretary of the Literary and Debating Society the following Sunday to go over finances and other matters. It was supposed to be a brief meeting. A popular student, Gabriel E., was the president. Akindele was most likely the vice president, or the third guy, whose name and face I cannot recall. They were all senior male students.

The following Sunday at about 8pm, I climbed the staircase to their Upper Six classroom. I didn’t know I was climbing up to a life-changing event. There were students reading in the classroom, and one particular guy sat behind the teacher’s table with his eyes and ears supposedly buried in his books. In the corner of the classroom, a few feet from the teacher’s desk, was a small storage room called a cubicle. It existed in certain classrooms in the school. This particular one was transformed into a reading oasis with two desks and chairs. It was here that one of the officials ushered me for our meeting so we wouldn’t distract those who were reading. I sat on a chair by the door. The guys sat behind the desks. Our meeting was over in less than 20 minutes. I showed them the financial log, we discussed a thing or two, and it was time for me to go back to my hostel before lights out. I walked out of the cubicle into the classroom and caught the sneaky eyes of that same student behind the teacher’s desk. I dismissed his gaze and went my way.

Five days later, on a beautiful Friday morning, I was greeted by warnings from some students about my name gracing a very damaging headline on the Press Club notice board. (Back then, Press Club was a group of faceless students who wrote about disorderly students. They backed their tales with despicable caricatures and stories of their subject. Sometimes, they used their cowardly pens to fabricate and settle personal vendettas against other students. They didn’t report to a higher authority, hence the occasional abuse of their freedom of written expression.)

I was wondering what they were talking about until I stood face to face with the notice board and saw in bold letters: “Did Esohe Oyairo [my maiden name] taste the Forbidden Fruit? Check for full details on Monday morning.” I was frozen in shock. What? How? Who? Why? Is this a bad dream? What is going on? “Forbidden Fruit?” These questions kept echoing in my mind. I was dizzy with confusion. Unrestrained tears began flowing. I knew my life in school would never be the same again. Throughout that weekend, I begged the ground to open and swallow me. It declined. At the same time, I kept looking for anyone who knew at least one of the faceless members of the Press Club. My efforts proved futile.

- Continue reading at: http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/did-i-really-taste-the-forbidden-fruit-as-alleged-34-years-ago/#sthash.g2GyhQ3B.dpuf

Your dad impacted so many lives around the world. The last time I saw him in person was on a international trip abroad in 2013. I heard footsteps running towards the boarding gate of a flight I was waiting to board. I wondered who it was and received the shock of my life when I realized it was your dad. He had no body guard, no aide, no nothing. Just him, armed with his briefcase and trench coat flying in the air as he rushed to make the flight. What about your dad do you remember on a daily basis?

Myles Jr.: He was a people’s person, very humble, very modest. He always greeted everybody with the same respect regardless of status. He wasn’t judgmental; he was very compassionate. He tried to give everyone his time.

Charisa: To lose one’s parent is almost unbelievable. To have lost both parents is unimaginable What I miss the most is before he was anything else, he was dad. He was dad in my life. People wouldn’t fathom this intellectual icon who they see on stage as otherwise. They probably thought he was serious all the time. But when he was home, he was like any girl’s daddy and every girl needs her daddy. He and my mom were parents first. He knew how to be the serious person and how to switch roles. I think that’s important for a lot of ministers who are not like that in their homes as they do everything ministry while their family gets pushed aside. For my dad, family was first, then ministry and other needs.

See more at: http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/how-dr-myles-munroes-children-are-keeping-his-legacy-alive

By Stephanie Morris-Graves (MannaEXPRESS)

In the early-morning hours of May 27, 2001, Martin and Gracia were awakened from their sleep by loud banging on the door of their hotel cabin. They figured it must be a drunken staff member and yelled for him to go away. But the banging continued, and just as Martin reached the door to shoo the person away, it burst open and three men holding M16s charged into the room yelling at the Burnhams to “Go, go, go!”

Stunned and afraid, they were led to a waiting speed boat, where they watched as a stream of other frightened hotel guests joined them. Martin, dressed only in khaki cargo shorts, had left his eyeglasses behind. Gracia managed to get dressed in shorts and a shirt and was able to grab their flip-flops. Otherwise, they had nothing.

When they sped off in the boats, their captors began to yell, “Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!”--which means “Allah is the greatest” in Arabic—and they knew they’d been kidnapped by the murderous Abu Sayyaf militant group. The centuries-old conflict between Muslims and Christians in the Philippines was right at the Burnhams’ doorstep.

The Abu Sayyaf is a radical terrorist group that formed in the early ‘90s and is responsible for numerous bombings, murders, and extortion plots. They claim their mission is jihad and to establish an independent Islamic province in the Philippines, but according to Gracia, they’re simply a group of thugs who kidnap and kill for ransom. And the Burnhams soon learned that their chances of surviving this ordeal were largely dependent on their ability to have a ransom paid on their behalf.

A total of 20 guests were taken from Dos Palmas that morning. Some were Americans, others Filipinos; all were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It turns out the Abu Sayyaf had never intended to raid Dos Palmas—they’d been looking for another hotel, an exclusive resort known to attract very wealthy guests from around the world, not the nurses and writers and missionaries of modest means they’d found at this fairly inexpensive inn. They couldn’t locate the resort they’d planned to attack, so they settled for Dos Palmas and began a reign of terror that for the Burnhams would last one year and 11 days.

Martin’s parents were notified of the kidnapping and sent word through New Tribes Mission that the children should be sent to them. At that point in their journey, Gracia realized she couldn’t dwell on her children anymore. “As a mom, I knew I couldn’t think about the kids or I’d lose it,” she explains.

Continue reading: http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/component/content/article/89-slideshow/620-gracia-burnham-found-a-different-kind-of-redemption-after-being-kidnapped-by-muslim-terrorists

By May Olusola

You would expect the daughter of H.L. Hunt, the late oil tycoon and one of the wealthiest people in the world at the time of his death in 1974, to act a certain way, to move in expected circles, and to maintain an intimidating aura that can shake even the bravest of hearts. This is not the case with June Hunt, the 12th of 14 Hunt children. Witty, charming, kindhearted, and extremely down to earth, her presence exudes peace--not the kind that comes from the world, but the one from the Word of God that surpasses all understanding.

June Hunt and her three siblings were born out of wedlock to H.L. Hunt, a married man who lived a few blocks away with his first wife Lyda. June’s mother, Ruth Ray Hunt, was Mr. Hunt’s secretary and had an affair with him for a number of years. Ruth and her children lived in a simple house, and her children bore the name Wright; in these early years, June recalls, they were content and happy. June was approaching her teenage years when Lyda, her father’s first wife, died. Two years later, in 1955, Mr. Hunt married Ruth and moved her and their children into his White Rock Lake mansion in Dallas, an elaborate replica of George Washington’s plantation house, Mount Vernon. It was at this point that the children dropped the name Wright and legally bore their father’s last name.

Moving with their mother from a simple to a very sophisticated life was a leap that did not end in a smooth landing. The glory on the outside was a far cry from the inglorious conditions at home. Living with their dad meant walking on eggshells, watching him dominate their loving mother, continue his infidelities, and hardly show affection toward his children. This is what birthed the pain, anger, and hate June Hunt developed for her dad. She loved her mother so much and could not stand to see him mistreating her. “I wanted him to do and say all the things to me instead,” she says. “I analyzed and decided in my heart that ‘God hates sin, Dad is sinning, God hates Dad, I hate Dad.’”

The crisis at home opened the door for a personal relationship with Christ. They started attending First Baptist Church of Dallas under the leadership of legendary pastor and preacher W.A. Criswell, and found much-needed relief there. It was unlike churches they attended in the past—this one was Bible-based. Ruth began slowly peeling away the layers of guilt that had plagued her about her adulterous relationship with Mr. Hunt. In the past, she’d kept to herself; she’d drop her children off at church but not go in because she was ashamed. June Hunt remembers her mother being a devout Christian who read her Bible all the time, opened her home for Bible studies, and gave to many charities.

Continue reading at:
http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/component/content/article/89-slideshow/521-oil-tycoons-daughter-june-hunt-beckons-the-hurting-at-her-ministry-center

By Stephanie Morris-Graves

2011 didn’t leave us in want of any fascinating church news. From touching to inspirational to embarrassing to just plain bizarre, church folks showed up and showed out in 2011. Here are our top seven most fascinating faith-based moments of 2011.

1. Juanita Bynum types in tongues.

No matter your position on whether believers can still possess the gift of speaking in a spiritual language, we likely all agree it probably cannot and should not be communicated in written form. Well, we may not all agree, because televangelist Juanita Bynum appears to do just that in recent Facebook posts. This is probably one you need to see to believe:

Will someone please summon an interpreter?

2. The “Tebowing” of America.

Although he was a Heisman Trophy-winning college quarterback, Tim Tebow wasn’t expected to do great things in the pros, according to most of the experts. But he has done well, and many, including Tebow, give God all the glory for his victories. He’s made no secret that his faith is key to his success, and outward expressions of his faith--dropping to his knee in prayer on the field, a gesture dubbed tebowing, and acknowledging Christ in interviews--have made him a lightning rod--loved and hated by many. Regardless of your opinion of the 24-year-old NFL star, would that we be as fearless in our witness of Jesus Christ.

3. Herman Cain sings “He Looked Beyond My Faults” at a news conference. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/herman-cain-sings-gospel-song-14852057 Sure, former White House hopeful Herman Cain has a nice singing voice, but I don’t care how much of a Washington outsider you are, I’d like to think we still want our president, to be um, well…presidential? And singing a song about God’s grace at a press podium to explain away sexual harassment and allegations of extramarital affairs is just bizarre.

Continue reading at: http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/component/content/article/89-slideshow/497-2011s-seven-most-fascinating-moments-in-faith-

This will be a blessed year for all of us; I pray that we will not see what our hearts cannot bear, in Jesus’ name. I say this because if it had not been for the Lord on my side on December 10, 2011, you might not be reading this column today.
I took my children to a birthday party in a large, popular children’s recreation facility that Saturday. I sat down with four ladies, and we started talking. After eating, the children went to play in different groups. The little ones were in the company of the teenagers. Everyone seemed content.

My 4-year-old son came back to sit with me briefly. A few minutes later, I saw him watching The Magic School Bus on my iPhone. I scolded him for going into my bag without permission and asked him to return my phone immediately. Then I carried on talking with the ladies, and a few minutes later, I looked up and did not see my son. I dug in my bag looking for my cell phone and realized that my son must have taken off with it.

I rose from the table to look for him—and to discipline him when I found him. I called his older brother, who was supposed to be keeping an eye on him.  “I thought he was with you,” my older son responded. Right away I knew I had to find my little boy fast.

I walked around the building twice and didn’t find my son. I alerted security in the recreation facility, which was attached to a large shopping mall, and they began searching in earnest. Thirty minutes went by, and there was no sign of my beloved son. As I walked around, I had been confessing, “Lord, you cannot suffer me to be disgraced; You promised You will never leave or forsake me.” But after 30 minutes, panic had crept in. Butterflies threw a malicious party in my stomach. Then I began to cry uncontrollably.

Continue reading at: http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/featured/columnists/496-lost-and-found-by-may-olusola

Yvester didn’t have much of an opportunity to enjoy his childhood. Robert Johnson, Yvester’s biological dad, fathered 36 children, three with Yvester’s mom Pearl. Yvester was their oldest together. Pearl administered passports for the state of Arizona. She worked hard for her children, but she did it mostly alone. Robert would come and go. He loved women and children. She would say he could look at you and get you pregnant.

He hurt her again and again, but she loved him, and he could always woo her. She quit her good job and followed him to California. When she found out about the other women and they split up again, she was left jobless and on welfare. Like many jilted mothers, she took her anger out not on Robert but on her children. Yvester was the oldest. He got the worst of it “You ain’t nothin’ and you ain’t gon’ never be nothin’, just like your daddy,” she’d tell Yvester.

After a while he started to believe it.

But basketball was his escape. He was good at it, driven, motivated. He was a recognized high-school player in California, Arizona, and Oklahoma, where his family eventually settled, winning awards and even getting looks from UCLA and USC.

“I felt good playing basketball. It was a release for me, a place to let out my frustration. All the emotions I had made me want to win, win, win,” he says.

Continue reading at http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/component/content/article/89-slideshow/473-street-to-straight-after-24-years-of-homelessness-and-addiction-

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I don’t know many pastors who would hold their smartphones up in a mirror and snap pictures of their reflection. I certainly don’t know any that would do this while wearing Spandex biker shorts, a muscle shirt, and a backward Kangol cap and then send it to a young man. Moreover, four men have come forward with eerily similar stories, and some have offered details of their experiences with Long that most young men would be too embarrassed to share with their closest confidants, much less the public. That’s a lot of smoke.
Continue reading: http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/component/content/article/89-slideshow/439-eddie-long-revisited

By May E. Olusola
"You cannot immerse a child in anything without it going into the core of it. If you put a child in a positive environment it will have a positive impact, and if you put a child in a negative environment it will have a negative impact. I was raped at 8 years old by my uncle, but it was too late because they already had me in church. Though the rape caused homosexual desires and activities as my years went on, it was too late because the seed of righteousness was inside and they had trained up a child in the way that he should go.

Through the activities, the falls, sex with more men than I can count, there was always the haunting still small voice reminding me, “This is wrong; this is not God.” Everything that happened negatively happened too late, so it could not cause irreparable damage because the seed of righteousness got there first.

God is so wonderful. He took me on a journey. Life became remarkably significant after I lost all my childhood through 20 years of struggles. I lost a lot of time, but thank God. God told the prophet, “I will restore the years the cankerworm, the locusts, and the caterpillar destroyed; I will give it back.” Those are not idle Scriptures but genuine prophecies from God. And He gave me back all those years, everything that I lost - He gave me a name, time, and a purpose. He redeems my family, gives us our heritage, our lineage, and now at 51, my life is no longer full of pain, struggles, and turmoil. I am on the best journey that He has ever taken me on." Continue reading at: http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/component/content/article/89-slideshow/442-we-fall-down

Well said.

By Stephanie Morris-Graves

Atlanta’s Bishop Eddie Long, senior pastor of the 25,000-member megachurch New Birth Missionary Baptist, made national news last year when three young men he’d mentored came forward with claims of sexual relationships with the revered pastor and community leader. Long categorically denied all of the allegations, even when another young man stepped forward with stories of sexual acts, rides in fast cars, trips on private planes to exotic locations, and even a kind of marriage ceremony between Long and the boys. Four of the men filed suit against Long and New Birth, claiming sexual misconduct. News reports say Long settled out of court earlier this year, but just last week new allegations against Long emerged when church members filed a lawsuit against the pastor accusing him of encouraging them to invest their money in a faith-based Ponzi scheme.

We’ll likely never know what really happened, but as I’ve considered what we do know, there are a few things I can’t help but think about Eddie Long and his scandal.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I don’t know many pastors who would hold their smartphones up in a mirror and snap pictures of their reflection. I certainly don’t know any that would do this while wearing Spandex biker shorts, a muscle shirt, and a backward Kangol cap and then send it to a young man. Moreover, four men have come forward with eerily similar stories, and some have offered details of their experiences with Long that most young men would be too embarrassed to share with their closest confidants, much less the public. That’s a lot of smoke.

Continue reading and leave your feedback: http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/component/content/article/89-slideshow/439-eddie-long-revisited

If a man doesn’t make major-milestone achievements in good time, he is most likely suffering from delayed blessing. This type of spiritual bondage is different from stagnation. While stagnation is consignment to one spot for many years, delayed blessing produces results that are inordinately slow—such as in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Isaac got married at 40 but didn’t father children until he was 60. He had to pray hard to break the backbone of delay: And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. Genesis 25:21.

The root of delay for the family of Abraham came from Terah, his father. Terah literally means delay. It was therefore no wonder that three consecutive generations—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—suffered delay. Even the female generations, from Sarah to (Gen. 11:30) to Rebekah (Gen 25:21) to Leah (Gen. 29:31) to Rachel (Gen. 30:22), were all barren at first. The common phrases among the four are “she conceived,” and “He opened her womb.”

Continue reading at: http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/featured/columnists/416-how-long-by-taiwo-ayeni

The doomsday prophet claims the world will end this month

By Sharifa Stevens

May 21, 2011, came and went. Nothing happened.

I feverishly checked the message boards for post-May 21 updates. All those people who quit their jobs, maxed out their credit cards, drove in RVs that said, “May 21, 2011: Judgment Day”—what would they say now? There were no rolling earthquakes, no bodies released from the graves, no Rapture. Were they despairing? Shame-faced? Repentant?

Why would I even care what a bunch of kooks following the doomsday teachings of controversial cult leader Harold Camping decided to do with their time?

Because this bunch of kooks includes my mom and dad.

I couldn’t believe the outlandish and pathetic claims the “Latter Rain” and “Time and Judgment” Yahoo groups put forth to excuse the fact that they were just dead wrong: May 21st marked the end of salvation, believers were “spiritually” raptured, October 21 would now mark the end of the world, those still in local churches were under the command of Satan and were definitely not followers of God.

Did my parents actually believe this garbage? Would they choose Harold Camping over me, again? I felt desperate—what would it take to tear my mom and dad away from this date-setting drivel and bring them back to Jesus, and to me? I had tried talking with them before, but discussions quickly degenerated into shouting matches.

Continue reading: http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/component/content/article/89-slideshow/421-harold-camping-stole-my-parents

By Julie Lyons

It could have been the heat, and the sweat, and the fact that I was coming down with the flu. I sat there wedged between a husky man and woman, each of us in little plastic folding chairs bound together so there was no chance of wriggling away.

I was getting an uncomfortable feeling, a knot in my stomach that scrunched ever tighter as the evening progressed. Then an assault of questions on the inside:

“Man, if this is true, I must be a real loser.”

“This sounds like a new revelation. Am I just too spiritually dull to receive it?”

A pillar stood between me and Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, the superstar Nigerian preacher and healing evangelist who was pacing across the stage, pulling up Scriptures in four translations on an iPad encased in a stylish alligator-skin cover.

I followed along on one of the giant video screens as Pastor Chris unfolded his teaching in precise, logical steps. He wore an impeccably tailored suit with a baby-blue pocket square and spoke in flawless English, punctuating his erudite delivery with darting hand gestures and the occasional spasm of tongue-speaking.

Many times a roar rose up around me as Pastor Chris shouted one of his trademark exhortations: “I’m blessed! I’m blessed! I’M BLESSED!” People leapt to their feet and waved their hands. The cameras swooped in on cranes and and showed us rocking the rows of chairs we’d been crammed into like pickled ham hocks.

I admit, I wasn’t quite getting it.

I was there for every minute of Pastor Chris’ teaching at the Higher Life Conference U.S.A., seven hours of material spread over three nights in August, viewed in person by some 2,000 people at a hastily refurbished warehouse store in Arlington. I came with an open mind.

Continue reading: http://www.mannaexpressonline.com/component/content/article/89-slideshow/420-miracle-man-nigerian-mega-evangelist-pastor-chris-brings-a-new-revelation-to-america