This TESTIMONY will INSPIRE STUDENTS WORLDWIDE!!!

God's Heart TV

What do you do when your entire academic future seems on the brink of failure?  In this powerful testimony, Mandela shares his incredible journey from Ghana to Hangzhou, China. After being adjudged one of the best Master's students, he entered his PhD studies thinking that "science was just science" and "one plus one equals two." But when a global pandemic, failed experiments, and dead crops left him with four years of seemingly wasted time and no results, he realised that human intellect has a limit. After involving God and joining the Interactive Prayer Service on God's Heart TV, he experienced a divine turnaround that truly defies human comprehension!  To join the next Interactive Prayer Service with Brother Chris through Zoom, simply submit your prayer request here - https://www.godsheart.tv/zoom - and the God's Heart TV Team will be in touch with you soon via email at info@godsheart.tv   ➡️ Receive Daily Encouragement on WhatsApp - https://godsheart.tv/whatsapp/ ➡️ Become a God's Heart TV Partner - https://godsheart.tv/partnership ➡️ Information about Interactive Prayer - https://godsheart.tv/interactive-prayer/ ➡️ Volunteer as a God's Heart TV Translator - https://godsheart.tv/translate/ ➡️ Share your testimony - https://godsheart.tv/testimony ➡️ Join our Live Prayer Service on the first Saturday of every month - https://www.youtube.com/godshearttv/live

Transcript

00:00My science knowledge was failing at this point. It's more or less, I'm done. So I've wasted four

00:07years doing a PhD. I'm not going to graduate. I'm not going to get any certificates. And that is

00:13why I said, no, it is time for me to hold on to my God will. It's a do or die affair.

00:18Hello, wonderful people of God. My name is Mandela. And then I'm talking from

00:29Hanzhou in China here. I got to China in 2015. I came on a scholarship by God's grace,

00:37did my language studies, and then started my master's education. So with my master's,

00:42I got a university that hadn't had a lot of foreign students coming from Africa. So I was

00:50the first person over there. So I had a lot of pressure, but then I've already committed my

00:55life to God that wherever that he placed me, just as he did for Joseph, he should make me shine the

01:01light of Christ and then also be the head and not the tail. God being so good with me from 2016 to

01:082019, I was able to finish my master's degree with distinction. And I was able to publish some

01:16papers and was a judge, the best graduating foreign students as well. Then I went on, my teacher

01:24convinced me to do my PhD. And so I applied for that. And that was 2020 when I started my PhD,

01:33which is the highest form of academic excellence that we have. So with that one, I was selected.

01:41We had an agreement on a program on a research topic I was supposed to do, which I started in my

01:46master's degree. But I don't know what happened. She changed it and gave me something new altogether,

01:53which was a very daunting task. I was going to work on sunflower seeds. But this time around,

02:00I was going to pollinate the sunflowers by myself. And with the pollination, the pollen grains are

02:08supposed to be those that have diseases on them to see whether diseases can be transferred through

02:16pollination. That's how plants are able to produce their fruits for us. So they wanted to know whether

02:23in that process, the plants also transferred diseases, which nobody has done before. And then

02:29I wanted to give it a try. But unfortunately for me, we had the COVID. And so as we all know,

02:36that was the place that it was hardly hit, one of the countries that was hardly hit. And so

02:42it took a toll on me and my academic work. So almost the whole year, I couldn't go to the lab,

02:49I couldn't go to the greenhouse, I couldn't go to the field. And then with my program,

02:53I need to plant the sunflowers before I can work on them. So for a whole year, not being able to go

03:00out to plant, that means I've wasted one year out of my four years studies. That year gone, 2021,

03:07we were hoping that God will make a way for us. But still my area, we couldn't really move about.

03:12Sometimes we are allowed to go to campus to do the planting, do the harvesting of the seeds and all

03:19that. But then I tried the first time, planted, fine, the plants grew nicely. It got to the time

03:26where I had to manually infect the plants with diseases. When it got to that part, unfortunately

03:34for me, there was another lockdown. So I couldn't do that one. When the lockdown was over, that was two

03:41months. After that two months, the plants were already dead. I've missed my chance because there

03:46is the stage where I need to infect the plants and the window is about two, three days. If I miss those

03:52two, three days, nothing works again. And so I missed that. So that is another year wasted. So I have two

03:59years. I thought, oh, it was enough. I know God is a God of speed. He can do it for me. 2022 started

04:07also the same way. Did the planting by God's grace. I was able to move a step further. I was able to

04:13infect my plants with the disease. I was happy about that. Mind you, through all this, I had left God out

04:22of my decision-making and thought that, okay, this is pure science. And being a best graduating student,

04:31that means, yes, by God's grace, my head works well. Just follow the experiments that you designed,

04:39work on it, and then you'll have the results. That is how it's supposed to work. One plus one equals two.

04:45But unfortunately for me, the plants that are infected with the diseases, after two weeks where I went to

04:52check whether they have symptoms of the disease, where the leaves have turned yellow, they are dying

04:59off. No, I went. They were all green. They were just standing as if nothing has happened to them.

05:06So I was like, how did this happen? And now I've missed the window. I can't replant again because I'm

05:13in the northern part of China where the planting season is only summer. So after summer, there is heavy

05:20snow, very cold. Sometimes it reaches minus 30 degrees. So there is no way you can plant that

05:27the plants will survive. And if you do it in the greenhouse, technically as a PhD thesis,

05:34nobody will respect that in the academic circle because it needs to be on the field, have the natural

05:41conditions to be able to say this work, you know, can speak on authority for itself. But if you do it in

05:47the laboratory where it is artificial conditions, nobody will take that. So that means 2022 is also

05:55gone. Now we came to 2023. It's actually the last year because my PhD program in the beginning was

06:02supposed to be three years. That is what I applied for. I told them I was going to do it in three years

06:07instead of the four years. Now I started 2023 and then I met my wife around that time. So she started

06:15encouraging me with her TV. She used to send me the link and then I'll be like, you know what,

06:21I'm stressed out because I go to the lab throughout the day. I was also working part-time job. So I was

06:29barely sleeping for four hours. And the time God's TV will be running, I will also be in the lab doing my

06:37laboratory works. And I was so stressed out. I was so tensed. I didn't have time to really connect to most

06:43of it. Or even if I connect the earpieces in my ears, but I wasn't following religiously as I was supposed

06:51to. But thanks be to God, God knows what he does. You know, he does it in a way that we never understand as

06:58human beings. God kept on using my wife to push me to listen. She will listen sometimes, push the

07:06messages to me, send me the links. Other times when I tell her I can't connect because my VPN was

07:13failing me, she sometimes connects and say, hey, they are doing the prayer now. So Brother Chris is

07:19praying. So you just listen to me for just two minutes, three minutes while he's praying and then claim

07:26your miracle through it. It was hard, but she kept on persisting. And little by little, I also got

07:33involved with Gorsa TV religiously. Now, what pushed me to wait was that my science knowledge was failing

07:40at this point. The plants that I've planted, they weren't getting sick. The ones that were able to get

07:48sick in 2023, the pollen grains weren't sick. They weren't having the infection. So sending them to

07:57the new plants was zero. So there was a time that I invited my wife. She came and then she went to the

08:04field where I was working. So she was just looking at it. I explained everything to her in a layman's

08:10understanding. And then she just looked at it. I realized that the more she asked me questions,

08:15the more I get frustrated. And she felt like I was really, really stressed out with this experiment.

08:21But she continued to pray for me and encouraged me that the best we can do is we have to pray.

08:27And my mom also encouraged me to pray for my plants. Like before I go to sow, I should pray over the land.

08:34I should pray over the seeds because everything belongs to God. But I thought, hey,

08:39we are taking this religious thing too far. This is science. So let science be science.

08:46And when it comes to the spiritual aspects, we deal with God. But since nothing was working,

08:52one time I was, I think I came back home doing my own quiet time. And it just clicked on me that

08:58God says in everything, we should commit our ways to him. So why am I taking my PhD thesis out of his way

09:06and thinking that is just science? So I started committing my steps, getting to the lab,

09:14I pray over my instruments, I pray over my bench, my chemicals, seeds. When I go to the field,

09:20I pray over the field, the water I'm using for water, the diseases that I'm preparing to infect,

09:27I did that. God being so good, this time around in 2024, I was able to infect the plants one more time.

09:36So all the symptoms carried on, got a few seeds, but the seeds had zero infection on them. And so

09:48that means, I mean, I've already gone past my few years of studies. I mean, my fourth year,

09:52that is an extra year they've given to me. And then with that extra year they've given to me still,

09:57I don't have anything to show for. So it's more or less, I'm done. So I've wasted four years doing a PhD

10:05with no substance. I'm not going to graduate. I'm not going to get any certificates. And seeing

10:11somebody coming all the way from Ghana to China to spend almost nine to 10 years in this land,

10:18I'm going home with just one degree. That is my master's. That is a big disgrace.

10:23That is something that breaks hearts. My mom, my family, people that loved me were all rooting for

10:29me. My wife, everybody was rooting for me. And so it was just unacceptable. And that is when I said,

10:36no, it is time for me to hold on to my God will. It's a do or die affair. So at this time around,

10:43when I get into the lab, it's just, I just blow in my toes. I don't care about who is around me,

10:48whether Chinese or foreigner or whoever. It doesn't really bother me. I'm just blowing my

10:52toes and then putting my chemicals together. One of these days, we submitted our prayer requests.

10:59My wife used to do that on my behalf. And then she was like, Hey, now, you know, brother Chris,

11:04you've been following me. So you submit it by yourself. I did that. And then after watching

11:11one of the interactive prayers, I watched it, it was a pre-recorded one because I couldn't follow

11:18that very day. So the next day I just replayed it and then followed. After that, sleeping and the

11:24waking, I think in the night, I had this sudden idea when I woke up that, Hey, why don't you try

11:32another way altogether to be able to see if those seeds still have diseases on them? Because

11:39they need to have it. That's how it works scientifically. But if you are not finding it,

11:44then there's something wrong. So I was like, God, all these things, the seeds, the disease,

11:50whatever it is, the science, the knowledge, it belongs to you. So I prayed, went to the lab,

11:57got this fantastic idea, spoke to my professor about it, that, Hey, this is the idea that I've got it.

12:04Can we work on that? She was like, yes, why not? Because at this point you're struggling.

12:08There is nothing we can do for you. So if you have this fantastic idea, just give it a try.

12:13Let's see how it's going to be. Because this time around, you are not going to sow anything

12:17in the field, but you're going to work in the lab. So she was like, I believe in you,

12:21just go for it. But at that point, myself, I was doubting myself with everything for the

12:26past four years, losing everything. So I was in doubt for myself. But God being so good,

12:30it was a turn around. That small experiment turned out to be something great and innovative.

12:38There was something that hasn't been done in the field of science, in the field of agriculture.

12:43So it helped me to put together a patent for myself. So somebody struggling for the past four

12:50years coming to put together an experiment that qualifies for a patent, which I submitted to the

12:58Chinese Academy of Sciences. And hopefully next year, it should come out as my patent that bears my

13:04name. Something that's in an engineering sense, we'll say something I have been able to invent

13:11by the grace of God. And this was not because of science, but because of the promptings of the

13:17Holy Spirit. And also the guidance and prayers from Borsa TV. Now, fast forward, that's a miracle on

13:25its own. It's like the Israelites moving through the world and it's going to Egypt. So we'll be able

13:31to cross the Red Sea. Now what's next? I did my thesis. I wrote it nicely, believing that I've done

13:38my best. Because when you come to that university, when you talk about people who can speak Mandarin

13:43fluently, I'm one of them. And when it comes to the foreign students, I'm the one who represents them

13:50in speech, in essays, whatever they may be that deals with Mandarin, I am the one that they call

13:57upon. When it comes to translation, I'm the one they call upon. But here I am, I wrote my thesis

14:02beautifully, brilliant. My professor saw it, she corrected it. It was nice. But then in the Chinese

14:09system for a PhD, you have to submit it online. And you need three reviewers, three professors

14:16to check your thesis and then give the scores. It's a blind review. You don't put your name,

14:22you don't put your university. So we are all classified as one. So they don't know whether

14:27you're a foreigner or you're a Chinese. It came, two of them gave me the go ahead. One person said,

14:35I should rewrite some part of it and then submit. Now when you're resubmitting, you just send it

14:42online. And then the system just gives it to another professor all together. So this other person got

14:50it. And for him, it was the worst of. He was like, the whole thing, in a nutshell, doesn't make sense.

14:58Everything's all over the place. The experiment is not fit for a PhD student. A whole lot of comments,

15:04which was heartbreaking. My professor got mad at it. Myself, I was disappointed. Because at that very

15:11time, my prayer was that, my wife and I, our prayer was that we were going back to South Africa to get

15:18married. So I was just going with a double blessing that in 2024, I was able to finish my PhD. I'm getting

15:26married to this wonderful woman of God. And that's my own small family. But unfortunately, I got the

15:34blessing of the marriage, which was very, very nice and was something that we prayed for that the

15:41marriage itself should minister onto others to know more about Christ. And on the day of the ceremony,

15:48it did just that to restore other people's marriage and then all that. But then here I am,

15:53I don't have my PhD. I was like, Oh, it's nothing. Let me just come back, rewrite it and submit in

15:59December. So the first one was in July. And this one in December, you can graduate again. That is

16:05the second graduation. I did the corrections, resubmitted it. And unfortunately for me, now all

16:13three came and they were like, I need to rewrite and submit again. So I was like, there is no time

16:20for the December one you can't. So now you have to wait for another year again. That is 2025 July.

16:29And 2025 something dramatic happened. So with the work that I've done, I had extra data from other

16:37sources that I had kept. Now my professor said, I should use that extra data and take some of the

16:44old ones out. Cause she feels like the work has been refined too much. It has lost its scientific

16:51bearing because of the changes that we've been doing. And so it doesn't really speak to it

16:56as of this time. But then the novel one, the experiment that I was able to design,

17:01that one is the number one part. And then I'll add the extra data to it.

17:05So 2025, I'll do my best March. I did my best in April, but unfortunately I couldn't submit in July

17:14because my professor also felt like it wasn't their best. We were shattered, my wife and I,

17:20and they were like, this can't be. And around that time, I used to follow GOSA TV religiously,

17:27listening to other people's testimony. Sometimes I'll be in the bedroom working on my thesis and my wife

17:34will be like, oh, there's a testimony about academic breakthrough. Just come and listen to this

17:38guy. It will be your turn soon. Cause there's something I always say that if you hear your

17:44brother testifying, that means Jesus is just around the corner. So that means the next person

17:51probably is your home. So you just have to believe. So I listened to all these academic testimonies,

17:56celebrating, praying into words that it should be my turn, but I couldn't submit in July. Now,

18:03the school wrote to me and told me, since I couldn't submit in July, the one I'm submitting

18:07in September to be able to graduate in December. That is my last chance. If even one reviewer says

18:14I need to resign, they can't give me my PhD. That means five years of work in the land of China

18:22will go down at zero. September, it was very hectic. Like every day you could see stress on my face.

18:29My wife could feel it. We did the work, prayed over it, prayed over it most of the time, wrote to

18:36God's Heart TV to also help us pray. And before I submitted the thesis, there was one interactive

18:44prayer. Pastor Chris was praying for me. And then my wife, I wasn't at home. My wife called me. I was

18:49like, hey, today they mentioned your case. And Pastor Chris, Brother Chris prayed for you. I was like,

18:55okay, then it is settled. That is what I said in my heart. And submitted it to my professor. Then

19:01they submitted it online. On November 4th, 2025, I was in a conference. And then the secretary of the

19:10department called me. I thought it was, it was going to be a bad news. So I didn't pick up.

19:15And then within five minutes, she sent me a message and was like, good news. You've passed.

19:21All of them passed you. And I just saw the thing and my eyes were filled with tears. So I immediately

19:27got out, went to the bathroom, called my wife, screamed and told that this is what has happened.

19:34Sent her the text message. And we were just screaming and thanking God. But something that was

19:40this stressful can be this easy with God. So for me, I just felt like with God, there is nothing

19:45impossible. We just stress because we don't know what he has in store for us. That PhD alone just took

19:52a whole lot of burden out of my way, out of my family's way. And oh, for a spoiler, I'm the first

20:01person to get such a higher academic fit as a PhD in the whole of my lineage. So it's not just a degree

20:10for me, but it's just breaking another barrier for the next generation or even my own generation now

20:17to follow. So it was such a big thing, breaking all those barriers. And that's, it was wonderful.

20:24Now, December 4th, that was when I went to defend my thesis to have the final score. And I sent a message

20:33to God's Heart TV saying that I want to have a distinction. The delay must come with a distinction.

20:39God being so good, after defending it on 4th, that was 6th. 6th is where we had the interactive prayer.

20:46On the Monday, that was on the 8th, they sent me the marks. And God being so good, I had passed with

20:53distinction. And so the delay came with multiple glory. And I want to thank God's Heart TV.

21:01I want to thank brother Chris. I want to thank my wife. And also, all the glory belongs to God.

21:09And all that I want to say is, with God, there is nothing like defeat. It may delay, just like the

21:15pregnancy of Hannah, just like that of Sarah. But when the glory comes, it's a bigger glory. And

21:22everybody sees that. My advice is simple. From the day you start to apply for that university,

21:30or for that academic ladder that you want to climb. From that day, just commit everything to God.

21:38There is nothing like, you know, it's just science, or it's just business, or it's just mathematics,

21:44or it's just language. No. Everything you do from day one, going for your lectures, doing your research

21:52work, doing your survey, everything you are going to do. The Bible says we should commit our ways to

21:58the Lord. He said we should cast our burdens onto Him. That academic ladder you are chasing, it's a

22:04burden on you. And so just cast it onto Him, and see what He will do for you. He's not going to do it for

22:11you without you putting in the effort. But then God is going to make your efforts come out glorious.

22:18But if you take God out, you are just going to labor in vain. And then probably you are just going to

22:24disturb your own system. Because the stress that is going to come out of it, you will not like it.

22:29So all that I'll say is, whatever we do, no matter how little it is, or how big it is, just commit it to

22:37God. Starts with God, and ends with God, in everything academically.

22:44Hang on.

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