God Had a Plan

What seemed to be a disaster turned out to be God’s hand leading this woman to salvation.

By Vida Loko

I was born into a church-going family and lived in Accra, Ghana, for most of my life. Even though I attended a religious school while growing up, I never heard the salvation message. When I was young, I loved church, but later on, nothing said there stimulated me. I was no longer interested in the sermons, so I would go to church only if I felt like it.

In 1981, my husband was assigned to the United Nations Ghana Mission, so my children and I went with him to the United States. I wanted to attend church, so I found a neighborhood church, but the service was cold and dull. I decided not to step foot in there again.

One day, a lady whose husband was a colleague of my husband asked my husband and me to be godparents to her granddaughter. We accepted and went with her to the Apostolic Faith Church in Brooklyn, New York, that Sunday. I was so touched by the love of the people. During the song service, my heart was just bubbling in me, and I thought, This is the church that I would like to attend. However, that was not possible because we lived quite a distance away. Once in a while, when I had the money, the children and I would go.

Her marriage dissolved

In 1984, I started having problems in my marriage. My husband decided not to continue with the marriage and said he wanted me to go back to Ghana. One day, he gathered up all my clothing and told me I would have to give him my passport before he would give back my clothing. That morning, I left the house with only what I had on and went to a cousin’s house.

How amazingly God works when He is reaching out to His children! This marriage, which looked so disastrous on the surface, was a perfect plan for me to get salvation. After I found an apartment, I called one of the sisters at the Apostolic Faith Church and told her the situation. She told me which train to take to get to the Brooklyn church and I started going regularly. Just a few months later, I was saved. Then, as I began learning the doctrines of the Bible, I realized that my husband was not truly my husband in the eyes of God, because that was my second marriage and my first husband was still alive.

I consider my salvation a wonderful miracle. I marvel at how God saw a wretched woman like me, with all the burdens I carried, and brought peace to my heart. After I was saved, I was told that I needed to be sanctified. I was willing to make the consecrations, and God sanctified me. Then I was told about the baptism of the Holy Ghost. As I hungered for it and sought that experience with all my heart, God blessed me, and just a short time later, I received my baptism.

Saw God’s hand move

In May of 1986, I went back to Ghana for the divorce proceedings, and again I saw God’s hand move. My husband wanted to prevent my return to the States, and he did everything he could to make that impossible. He was just like a lion, anxious to destroy me, but God had another plan. I came back to the States and continued to worship in Brooklyn.

I was a single parent attempting to care for two children, but God saw me through and helped both of my boys to get a college education. God blessed me with a job at the United Nations and caused me to prosper in the work I did. I was promoted, and when I was nearly ready to retire, they extended my employment beyond the retirement age. In March of 1997, I was asked to help with a peacekeeping mission in Macedonia, and I was there until February 1999. I couldn’t find a church to attend but I had video and cassette tapes, Sunday school books, and literature from the Apostolic Faith Church, and God kept me. After I completed my assignment in Macedonia, I retired and moved back to my home country of Ghana. I started going to the Apostolic Faith Church there, and I just love to fellowship with the saints.

God has been so good. The peace He gives me is unbelievable—it transcends anything that can be imagined. I just want to make Heaven my home and to see Jesus—the One who paid the price for my redemption.

Vida Loko is now a member of the Apostolic
Faith Church in Brooklyn, New York.