Meet The Prof, with Shane & Spence

MTP 11: Aba Ebong, his upbringing in Nigeria, divine intervention, personal transformation, power of prayer and fearless faith

• shane hartley • Episode 11

Share episode

Aba is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, aebong1@uncc.edu.  He reveals his deep-rooted love for the Word of God which was shaped by his upbringing. He has witnessed divine interventions in his health and others’. As a professor, Aba ministers to students, sharing his faith and experiencing miraculous moments of healing. He emphasizes the importance of personal spiritual growth and encourages others to initiate spiritual conversations by allowing the Word of God to guide and embolden them.

Watch Meet The Prof on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@MeetTheProfOfficial/videos

Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/meet-the-prof-with-shane-and-spence/id1733311320

Listen on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6kizp6klascdMj1nqaj6LD

Find over 500 Christian Professors on MeetTheProf.com:
https://meettheprof.com/

Get free resources for answering questions about God at:
https://www.everystudent.com/

College students, follow us on Instagram and send us a question(s) for Christian professors by DM here:
https://www.instagram.com/meettheprofofficial/

If you’d like to financially support our Faculty Commons ministry, you can do so online at give.cru.org/0424344.

Shane Hartley (00:00)

I'm really excited to get to interview you, Aba. You may not remember all these details, but I was just doing a campus visit at UNC Charlotte and really last minute requested that I could come by your office and meet you.


And you were so open, yes, come on by.


Amongst many things, what stood out to me the very first time that we talked was how much you love the word of God. I think that you probably mentioned about 20 different Bible verses, while we were talking. And I've seen since then in the last six years that was not a one-time thing.


You are breathing the word of God, breathing it out and in all the time. How did that get started for you? How would you say you began to love God's word? Fortunately, I was blessed to be born in Nigeria and all my life I've been in the church in several different denominations, but it's a church that focussed on the Word.


In elementary school, I was in a missionary school that was run by a Presbyterian church. And as early as nine years, we were all forced to be in the choir. That's something. So, and we had to memorize Psalm 23, Psalm 121, Psalm 91, Psalm 1.


So that became part of us to actually commit the word of God in our hearts.


And on top of that, my dad was a pastor. So that actually made a lot of difference.


Wow. Was there a point when you remember it changing from a requirement to memorize these verses, be in the choir and become more personal of a joy of your own personal, your faith?


Yeah, it became when it became real, real to me was when I started college, that was my undergrad 1981, when a pastor was preaching. And the word that came to me was first Timothy, chapter six, verse six and seven, it says "godliness with contentment"; that hit me godliness with contentment is a great gain.


That's verse six and verse seven says, for we came into the world with nothing and it is certain that will go out with nothing. That was the changing parameter in my life. That word sank into my heart, that godliness, we can exercise, it's for a temporary thing, but godliness is forever. It takes us through every situation and then when that just sank in from the spiritual viewpoint, I was a changed person until today.


Where I was born and bred, if God doesn't do it, no one can do it, because we don't have medical insurance. We don't have medical services.


So in terms of health, you have to completely and solely rely on the healing power of God. And He has come through for me in several cases. In many cases, there has never been a time in my life that I'm in an odd situation that for health reasons, I just pray God. I remember when I was in high school, I used to have a spleen in my stomach. It was very big and I couldn't run. I couldn't do anything.


So, but one night as I was praying, fasting, one night in the dream, in that dream, I touched that spleen and picked it out of my stomach. And that was it, that was it. Never again I had spleen again. Now from at this age, there is never a day I don't run. I run every blessed day and this year.


My total mileage is about 2000 miles. If you imagine that. I mean, and I started running since 2000. So imagine now how many years now, 20 plus years I've been running every day. That tells you how much I've enjoyed the glory and the love of my father. You found some places around Charlotte. I think of that being a big city, but there must be a lot of paths you can run. Yeah.


Another situation where I saw the power of God was, I had scholarship to go to Australia for my PhD. I got there, I saw the advisor that I was to meet and he was very, he did something that was so, so mind boggling to me. I was crying that weekend. That was the longest weekend in my life, but I was praying.


And as I was praying that night, I had a dream and I met him in the office and he said, okay, wait, I'm going to bring another person who is going to be a co advisor. So when in that dream, he brought that person. I saw that he's a tall man. And then the following Monday, when I met him in the office, it was exactly the same man I saw in the dream. And he introduced everything came out so fine. So that's God is good. So that's how God actually


delivers me from every adverse situations and it shows me that he is with me, he is for me and when he is for me, no one can be against me according to Romans 8 verse 31.


So, Aba I know you've had many opportunities over the years to actually talk to students about Jesus and minister to them. Can you tell us about one that's really stood out to you? Any opportunity that God just really opened up for you to minister to a student?


So there was a one instance where a student had a situation that he had a stomach, there was something that they diagnosed in his stomach. So he was to go for surgery.


He came to my office and told me and then I asked him, I was talking to him, I said, you know, I'm a believer and follower of Christ and I believe in supernatural healing. He said, I'm also a believer. I said, really? But I'm not at that level that you are. And I don't go to church. I said, you don't have to go to church because to be a Christian, all what you need to do is to believe because when you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, that's what it . . . that's all what it is about. He said, really, I said yes.


But another thing that you have to, to arm yourself with is the word of God. Do you believe that God is able to heal you? He said yes. Do you believe that he is willing to heal you? He said yes. I said okay.


I take my anointing oil and anointed him and pray. Then, uh, he left.


So I gave it, I mean, so in the class, 24th student in the class, I just call him and say, look, take this prayer cloth, because the following day that he said he was going to have a surgery. In the class, I gave it to say, look, take this prayer cloth, let it be put on that apron that you are going to wear to into the surgery room. Let it be there.


leave it. He was so excited. He said, thank you. Thank you, Professor. He was so excited. And then he took it in the front, in front of the class. Everyone saw it and that was good. So the following day, he went to the hospital. They did a test. Absolutely, there was not no trace of what he had in the stomach. He was completely healed. So that was a very big situation.


And that's how... And the whole class got to witness that.


That's


Everyone was shouting in the class. So that was exciting. I mean, you know, the class of 43 students, I mean, so everyone was accepting it. So it's such a blessing that because of the, because everyone knows that in fact, some of the students usually come to me say, uh, professor, can you pray for us? We pray for this and so pray for this in the class.


So it's just a blessing that I mean, I mean, because it is this is not my doing,


And He's always bringing that divine opportunities for us to witness and then not just talking. Because when you keep on talking without being, students don't trust you. But when you talk and they see it in your life and consistency makes a lot of difference. Because when they come to me, they know that they are


they are safe; they can trust, they know that whatever I tell them, because most of the time I tell them that I say, look, God is sovereign when he doesn't speak. But when he speaks, he must do what he says. So as a child of God, that's what you'll see in me and that's what I normally tell the students.


So will you repeat that phrase that you say whenever someone asks you, how are you? I am blessed, highly favored and deeply loved by him who created me. You are basically initiating spiritual conversations every time someone asks, how are you? Yeah, that's what it is about.


So for those of us who have a harder time initiating spiritual conversations, making any bridge, maybe we don't know what to say, maybe we feel afraid or even we're worried, you know, about how this could affect our jobs, what advice would you give to other


faculty, staff, and grad students, if they're wanting to initiate more spiritual conversations with colleagues, but they struggle to do that. And what I say is that because if you spend time in the Word, believe me, because Christ said, I'm sending you into the midst of wolves. That's what he said. So, but do not be afraid because any time that you are confronted,


the Spirit will speak through you. So the only way that can happen is that when the word of God, because the word of God, you see the Psalm is in Psalm 119 verse 11, thy word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against you.


So when somebody meditates on the word of God, no matter what, there's no fear because there's no fear in love. God is in us. 1 John 4 verse 4, my little children, you have God. They have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one that is in the world. So when we have that willingness, because that's one thing that is going on, we have the willingness, but we have to put in a little bit of time because Christ says,


If you want to follow me, you have to carry your cross every blessed day. So it's not something that, okay, I ate yesterday, today, what, because physical food, you eat three times a day. Do we think about spiritual food that we at least once a day, if not three times? Because we have to take a snack of our spiritual food. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Those are the simple things that you just confess.


it happens. Wow. That reminds me of a friend teaches at Penn State, Dr. Heather Holleman. So she, her method of having conversations that are spiritual is that she talks with everyone just about what she's learning. Whether they're a believer or not, she will share what she read in the Bible that morning and what she's struggling with, what she's praying about. And that just becomes a natural overflow, I think. Amen.


Well, Aba thank you so much. You're welcome. It was great to get to know you some and appreciate you taking this time. Thank you very much.