Prayer: My Survival Kit in the Journey of Life.
Prayer: My Survival Kit in the Journey of Life. To view it as beautifully written prayer guidelines would be to undersell its 249 pages. From the Acknowledgements, Preface, Foreword and Introduction, through chapters – 14 chapters - Epilogue, References and End notes, what the author, Abisola Gabi-Williams, has produced is an inspired tapestry of doctrine combined with prayer manual and fused with the organizing principle of the book which is memoir: short, compelling life stories highlighting core themes of the Christian faith. She laces all of this with prayer, poetry citations and verses from Christian hymns written by men and women whose outpourings of praise through music have blessed generation after generation of worshippers. These hymns have the power and resonance of the Psalms of Ascension, evoking a progressive elevation of worship. Memoirs you will find in Prayer: My Survival Kit are not only her own; you will find vignettes from life-stories of fellow pilgrims which reinforce the strength of the testimonies she bears. George Muller of Bristol and Russia’s Alexander Solzhenitsyn are just 2 of the heroes of faith she references whose lives exemplify the Christian principles and wisdom that the author has floodlit in her book. Gabi-Williams has brought riches to our table. They provide a setting for analyses of a range of Psalms, those that prescribe actions, attitudes to be adopted by seekers in times of crises and calamities of the kind she and her ancestors in the faith have lived through and survived. She records these in Prayer: My Survival Kit in the Journey of Life.
It is an intensive course of Bible-based Christianity in a surprising and revitalizing format – a mosaic of memoir, poetry, axioms, exhortations to pray ceaselessly and biblical references to support the cases she builds with clarity and unashamed outpouring of emotion. Phebean Ogundipe, the late fiction writer, teacher and renowned author of Brighter Grammer,commended Gabi-Williams for producing this work of literary art and Christian evangelismn with these words:
“This is a book that no reader can finish reading without a feeling of gratitude for coming across a work that does so much to increase the reader’s faith. It strengthens the reader’s conviction that prayer is indeed the tool given to us by God, together with the Bible and the Saviour He sent to die for our sins, for our journey through life”
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Author Profile
Abisola Gabi-Williams worked as a teacher of history, English literature and geography at Lagos Anglican Girls Grammar School, Surulere, Lagos from June 1964 to December 1971. She rose to the position of Vice-Principal in 1968 before leaving in 1971 for new horizons within education management. She joined the Federal Ministry of Education where she took up the post of Education Officer Grade 1, rising quickly through the ranks of the civil service, moving from the professional cadre to the administrative cadre until January 1987, when Abisola Gabi-Williams made history with her appointment as the first woman in Nigerian history to be appointed as Federal Permanent Secretary, Exchange Control, Minister of Finance. She continued to grow in stature and power in the nation and became Secretary for Police Affairs serving under Military Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari. As a result of civil service reform, the nomenclature of Permanent Secretary changed to Director-General which was the position she occupied at the Federal Ministry of Transport, Aviation and Communication until her retirement in 1994
Her dynamism and vision extend beyond the workplace. An accomplished author of Christian books, her first, Prayer: My Survival Kit in the Journey of Life, astonished many and continues to impress people with its passion, wisdom and the fluency of the author’s writing. Abisola Gabi-Williams’s second book, The Power of the Blood, a re-working of her PhD thesis, is a superb analysis of the power of the Blood of Jesus Christ - from various critical perspectives.
