Rushden and Diamonds goalkeeper Dale Roberts has died suddenly at the age of 24.
He was found at his home in Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, on Tuesday.
It is not known how he died, although police have said his death is not being treated as suspicious.
The former Sunderland and Middlesbrough
trainee, who first signed professional terms with Nottingham Forest,
died before Tuesday’s FA Trophy second-round replay against Eastwood,
one of his former clubs.
The game was postponed as a result.
"Our thoughts and prayers at this time go to his parents, family and friends," said Diamonds chairman Gary Calder.
An Eastwood statement added: "He was only with us a short time but made a big impression.
"All at Eastwood Town send their sincere condolences to Dale's family, friends and colleagues."
Durham-born Roberts was an England C international and also spent time on loan at Alfreton.
He joined Diamonds in January 2009 after two loan spells at the club, playing 88 league games for the Conference National side. Eurosport
He got hitched to his fiancée Jennifer McDaniel yesterday (December 14) but Hulk Hogan's wedding wasn’t without some serious drama.
The pro wrestler-turned reality star tied the knot at his Clearwater,
Florida home, though the backyard ceremony was an easy mark for
paparazzi.
And at one point, a member of Hogan’s security entourage got into
a heated altercation with a daring shutterbug who tried to snap
pictures of the occasion.
Hogan tweeted, "Man, when you least expect it, it still gets crazy as
hell. What a day! This time were (sic) really gonna make history!"
She’s kept mum for months regarding her pregnancy, and now Mariah Carey has confirmed what everyone already knows- she’s preggers.
The “Always Be My Baby” songstress shared the good news during her
interview on the “Today” show this morning. “Yes, we are pregnant.
This is true.”
Mariah declined to share her due date, and instead focused on how
blessed she and hubby Nick Cannon are. “It’s still early… expecting is
great. The greatest gift on earth is a child.”
Back in August, Carey was spotted in maternity garb, but refused to
acknowledge the rumors. "When the time is right, everyone will know,”
she stated.
Certainly one of the hottest holiday season celebrities, Mariah Carey was front and center at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC on Sunday (December 12).
Joined onstage by Ellen DeGeneres,
the "Glitter" girl got a pat on her burgeoning baby belly as she taped
material for TNT's Christmas in Washington 2010 special set to air on
TNT December 17 at 8PM.
Also joining Mimi was husband Nick Cannon, while President Barack
Obama, actress Miranda Cosgrove and "Glee" star Matthew Morrison also
partook in the annual showcase.
Meanwhile, Mariah fans can catch the singer/actress in action as
she's the featured guest on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
airing tonight (December 12) at 8PM ET.
Miss Carey joins show regulars Ty Pennington, Michael Moloney, John
Littlefield and Tracy Hutson is lending a much-needed helping hand to a
family in Pensacola, Florida.
Enjoy the pictures of Mariah Carey with Ellen DeGeneres in Washington D.C. (December 12).
She can’t seem to keep the crazies away- Jennifer Lopez is being sued for $10 million by her ex-husband’s girlfriend.
According to Radar, the “Waiting for Tonight” songstress is the
defendant in a lawsuit filed by Ojani Noa’s lady friend of 10 years,
Claudia Vazquez.
Vazquez claims that Lopez messed with a motion picture contract between Noa, Vazquez, and Ed Meyer and she wants revenge.
Meyer told press, "Vazquez has met Jennifer Lopez on many occasions.
They hate each other. Jennifer Lopez called her a 'whore' to a Univision
reporter last year. She met Jennifer Lopez the first time when Jennifer
Lopez walked in on her (Claudia Vazquez) and Ojani Noa having sex in
the Hancock Park mansion that Ojani lives in. Jennifer was dating Ben
Affleck ... at the time."
As we draw closer to Awards Show Season, there’s lots of
excitement in Tinseltown. And this morning (December 14) the Golden
Globe Awards nominations were announced. Katie Holmes, Josh Duhamel,
and Blair Underwood were all in the house at the Beverly Hilton Hotel
to reveal who will be competing for a globe when the ceremony takes
place on January 16, 2011.
Among the leaders this time around are the Facebook film "The
Social Network" and Natalie Portman flick "Black Swan" while "Glee" and
"Mad Men" both captured bids in television.
The list of major category nominees is as follows:
Best Motion Picture - Drama
"Black Swan"
"The Fighter"
"Inception"
"The King's Speech"
"The Social Network"
Jesse Eisenberg, "The Social Network"
Colin Firth, "The King's Speech"
James Franco, "127 Hours"
Ryan Gosling, "Blue Valentine"
Mark Wahlberg, "The Fighter" Best Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical
"Alice in Wonderland"
"Burlesque"
"The Kids Are All Right"
"Red"
"The Tourist"
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical
Annette Bening, "The Kids Are All Right"
Anne Hathaway, "Love and Other Drugs"
Angelina Jolie, "The Tourist"
Julianne Moore, "The Kids Are All Right"
Emma Stone, "Easy A"
Johnny Depp, "Alice in Wonderland"
Johnny Depp, "The Tourist"
Paul Giamatti, "Barney's Version"
Jake Gyllenhaa, "Love And Other Drugs"
Kevin Spacey, "Casino Jack"
Christian Bale, "The Fighter"
Michael Douglas, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps"
Andrew Garfield, "The Social Network"
Jeremy Renner, "The Town"
Geoffrey Rush, "The King's Speech"
Best Director - Motion Picture
Darren Aronofsky, "Black Swan"
David Fincher, "The Social Network"
Tom Hooper, "The King's Speech"
Christopher Nolan, "Inception"
David O. Russell, "The Fighter
"
Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife"
Elisabeth Moss, "Mad Men"
Piper Perabo, "Covert Affairs"
Katey Sagal, "Sons Of Anarchy"
Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer"
It’s touching; it’s honest; it’s real. The life story of Prophet TB Joshua, founder of Emmanuel TV…
UNTOLD STORY OF A MYSTERY PROPHET TB JOSHUA
Prophet T. B. (Temitope Balogun) Joshua needs no introduction. Everybody
has his or her reason for liking or hating the controversial founder of
The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations, a Christian ministry with a
growing fanatical following. T.B. Joshua, the religious leader whom many
evangelical church leaders would not want to be associated with,
because they believe he should not be in the fold of real born again
Christians.
Of recent, Prophet Joshua has been the butt of renunciations and
denunciations by some leading men of God in Nigeria, who questioned his
authority and his authenticity as a man of God. Without any doubt,
Joshua is an enigma wrapped in controversy. And it was our desire to
unwrap this enigma that took us to The Synagogue, tucked away around the
Ejigbo and Egbe axis of Lagos.
There we found a huge, unique Cathedral, the type that has not been
seen anywhere in the world. Even the legendary King Solomon would marvel
at this Temple of God, built by Nigerians, “under the inspiration of
God” as we were told.
TB Joshua - I know what it is to be in want
On our journey of discovery, our family members and even our
colleagues were worried about our going to interview T.B. Joshua. So
much was their worry that they had to fast and support us with prayers
and spiritual “casting and binding.” To them, it was like entering a
spiritual lion’s den. But we were not deterred. After all, journalism is
all about adventure. It is about venturing into the unknown and to
report it.
There to welcome us at The Synagogue on Wednesday last week was a
Briton, who serves as the church’s public relations officer. There were
so many white faces everywhere, giving backing to the claim that it is
an international church. The young man took us on an excursion inside
the church that looked like a huge Roman amphitheatre with pews,
carpets, altar and audio-visual facilities that combine to give a
colourful and mystical ambience to the church. We visited the church’s
Emmanuel TV studio, which broadcasts religious programmes around the
world. There were all kinds of studio – for recording and making CDs,
audio studios and photo studios. In every studio you saw workers behind
computers busy editing films or whatever.
After the tour, we were made to watch a short documentary featuring
the newly elected President of Ghana paying tribute to God and to T.B.
Joshua for helping him to win the election in Ghana. For 30 minutes or
more, we watched the Ghanaian President, Prof. Attah-Mills, worshipping
at The Synagogue and even going to the altar to share his testimony
about how God used T.B. Joshua to make him win the election in Ghana. He
told the congregation about how accurately Joshua prophesied that there
would be a tie in the Ghanaian election that would drag into January,
but eventually he would win. And he won.
Around Joshua’s living room were pictures of Presidents, heads of
state, who either met the prophet or came to worship in The Synagogue.
There is the picture of General Andre Kolingba, former President of the
Central African Republic (who visited in 2003), Frederick Chiluba,
former President of Zambia (who visited in 2001), Prof Pascal Lissouba,
former President of Democratic Republic of Congo (who visited in 2006),
and Sir Orville Turnquest, former Governor General of The Bahamas whom
Joshua visited in 2001. Then there is Omar Bongo, the President of Gabon
who visited The Synagogue in 2008.
After an hour of the preliminaries, T.B. Joshua sauntered in to
welcome us. He was dressed casually in a T-shirt and shorts. He looked
amiable. As we started the interview, he grabbed the tape recorder from
us and spoke into it directly as we fired our questions at him. It was
his own way of ensuring clarity in recording. Our approach was to get
something biographical or autobiographical. This is Prophet T.B.
Joshua’s memoirs, in his own words, with a little editing here and
there. T.B. Joshua, as you have never heard or read anywhere.
Successful people don’t just drift to the top. It takes focus,
personal discipline and perseverance to reach the top. As we know, there
is what we call man’s natural gift and the supernatural gift of God.
This church is the outcome of the supernatural gift of God. Man’s
natural gift is a gift one can begin to boast of, telling you how it all
happened. The work of breakthrough is not our work. It is our faith.
The work of breakthrough is God’s work. All what you are seeing now is
God’s work. If it is to be man’s natural gift, then one can begin to say
this is how I achieved it; this is how I came about it. Up till now, I
look at The Synagogue edifice and ask myself: how did it happen? God
just wanted someone to do all these things and He sent me to do it. It
is not my work, but the work of God. So let no man boast. All boasting
is excluded. The Bible says, there is no room for man boasting of his
own ability or power. So glory be to God. ‘My Father’
Every success story started from somewhere. I was brought up from a
Christian home. My father’s name is Kolawole Balogun. He was a
Christian. He was a farmer who was also the secretary to St. Steven’s
church in our village. When the white people came to our village, he
served as a translator. He was translating English into Yoruba. He was
an educated man. He lived with the white people as well as serving as
church secretary. I cannot say much about my father because he died when
I was a small boy. I know that he loved me a lot. I was his pet. I was
the one who suffered most from the effect of his death. Being the last
born, anywhere he is going, he would take me along. He would carry me to
the church. As a little boy, I would be running inside the church. I
would jump from the choir to the catechist’s table.
Some people used to rumour that my father was a Muslim. I don’t know
where they got that from. My father was a Christian and I am a
Christian. When I was very small, I could recall him taking me to church
regularly. As a kid attending primary school, my dad would make me to
stay after school with a Catholic priest whose house was at the back of
the church. I did all the normal things kids do, like running around and
playing football.
When my father died, my mum’s brother who became the father figure to
me was a Muslim. That does not make me a Muslim. I was brought up in a
Christian home. And right from childhood, I was passionate about the
Bible. Right from primary school, I was well versed in Bible knowledge.
It was my favourite subject and I excelled in it. As a primary six kid, I
read the New Testament twice. In my secondary school days, I finished
reading the Bible on the average of two months.
Every two months, I would have read the Bible from Genesis to
Revelation. It was the only subject that I believed so much in. It was
as if Bible was the only subject that interested me in primary and
secondary schools. In exams, I scored 99 percent consistently whereas I
performed woefully in other subjects. My excelling in Bible knowledge
affected the other subjects where I performed poorly. At school, I was
the leader of the Scripture Union.
Even though I was second in primary school, I didn’t find it easy
getting admitted into secondary school. As luck would have it, I got
late admission into Muslim College. In that Muslim College, we were
restricted from carrying the Bible openly. To read the Bible, we would
have to hide under the mango tree or backyard and the Muslim community
would begin to chase us. We were all 20 in number then. Like the early
Christians, we would read the Bible in secrecy because they never
allowed us to do it openly. I was the leader of the Christian team in
the school, at Ansar-Ud-deen Grammar School, Ikare. And because of the
pressure, I couldn’t finish a year in that school. It was obvious I
couldn’t fit into this dominantly Muslim setting. So I left the school. I
left because my life was in danger. I could sense that since I was
doing this thing secretly, one day something could happen to me. To
avoid that I had to leave. From Ikare, I came to Lagos. ‘I spent 15 months in my mother’s womb’
Back to my early beginnings, I was the last born of the family. When I
was born a lot of strange things happened. Seven days after I was born, I
was told that I was put on a mat and a big stone nearly crushed me but
miraculously I escaped. How did it happen? White people used to come to
do borehole in our village. And in our village, it’s all stone under.
When they are drilling, they would be hitting stone and stones would be
flying out dangerously. Before any drilling, they would publicly
announce that everybody must stay at home to avoid the danger of being
hit by a flying stone. The stone used to fly because of the nature of
the machine they use. It was on the seventh day when they wanted to name
me that they put me on the mat and a big stone flew from where they
were drilling, pierced the roof where people were celebrating and landed
where I was placed. But it missed me, narrowly. The stone is still
being kept till now. Nobody has ever heard this story from me.
The other mysterious story about me is that a normal pregnancy is
nine months. But I spent more than that in my mother’s womb. My mother
was taken to Egbe, which had the best hospital in those days. Egbe is in
Kogi State. It was probably the best hospital in the whole of Nigeria
then. My mother was carried there for operation. After nine months, she
started labouring. She ended up spending three months in the hospital.
My grandmother had money and my mum is the only child. At the level of
the village, granny was a very rich woman. So she could afford the
hospital bills for that lengthy period of time. Each time the doctor
wanted to operate my mummy, the doctor would say: “I am not comfortable
with carrying out this operation.”
My mother told me this story. She remembers that in that Egbe, some
Christians used to come to the hospital to preach to the sick. She said
she was just lying down on the bed and a pastor just walked in and said
she should not be operated. He said to my mum: “God is busy preparing
this child. So, please, they should not operate you. Go back home. If
you attempt the operation, the opposite would happen.”
My mum called the doctor and the doctor met the pastor who repeated
the message to the doctor. My mum left the hospital after three months
back home again to continue the labour. She laboured and laboured.
Instead of nine months, she spent 15 months labouring. But one night,
they delivered me without operation. So this made the villagers and the
whole community to say they must celebrate my birth. And they now
gathered on the seventh day to name me and celebrate. It was that
seventh day they were doing the drilling and the big stone flew like a
missile, heading to my direction, but miraculously missed me. Where the
stone passed is still there. Where they laid me on the floor is still
there. Because I said they should not touch it. The stone that fell is
still with them.
The story began to go round the village about this mysterious child
that was born after 15 months, a child they carried to Egbe Hospital and
they could not do operation, they came back home, they delivered him
safely. Now after delivering him, this stone fell and a mysterious hand
carried this baby from the mat. Nobody saw me being carried. They only
saw me in another direction, crying: Choo, choo, choo.
TB Joshua - You will begin to succeed with your life when the pains and problems of others begins to matter to you.
The stone was supposed to fall on me, but a mysterious force moved me
into safety within the same room. It was a narrow miss. The cloth and
everything burnt into ashes. And my mummy fainted. And she was carried
to hospital. My mummy was in the hospital for good two days. The ram and
everything were all there. The rice, they could not eat it. Because
everybody was rushing to the hospital to revive my mum. Nobody did any
ceremony again. But eventually I got named. I was named Temitope Olutope
Oluwasheun Oluwarotimi Opeyemi; I have plenty names. On the day I was
named, I was given 30 names. But I just chose Tope out of the plenty
names. My mother one day called me and said: “Your names are almost 30
and they are written down.” And I just chose Temitope. I just picked
Temitope.
My mummy woke up after two days in the hospital. My mum’s name is
Adesiji Kolawole Balogun. Her father’s name is Kolawole. My mummy is
late, my father is late. My father died first when I was a kid and my
mother was left with the responsibility of training me and sending me to
school. But she was handicapped financially. She told me: “You this
boy, I cannot finance your education. You would have to wait until your
brothers finish their university education. They would be the one to
sponsor your education.”
Mum was the secretary to the union of daily savings collector – what
it is called in Yoruba: ‘Aya ni lowo fowo pa mo.’ I remember her going
out to collect daily savings from her clients. She used those things to
train her children. Now that she was no longer into that business, and
was hoping my brother, who was attending secondary school in Gbongan
would be the one to send me to college. That was the only hope that I
had to go to school.
Based on the hostility and the religious intolerance at Ansar-Ud-Deen
Grammar School, I decided to leave Ikare for Lagos. I met some people
who used to carry cassava from the village to places like Ibadan and
Lagos. I approached them and explained my predicament to them. They
would spend four days on the road transporting the cassava to Lagos on
the trailer. The trailer would be loaded with stuff like cassava and
cocoa while the owners would sleep on top. I decided to join them. I did
not tell my parent I was going to Lagos. I stayed inside the vehicle
for four days before getting to Ibadan. From Ibadan we landed in Mile 12
in Lagos. They dropped me there and told me: “This is where we can
carry you.”
For five days, I was in Mile 12. It was during the rainy season. The
job I was doing was washing the feet of people coming out of the muddy
market. I would wash feet and be paid little money with which I fed. I
was washing feet until one day I heard two women conversing in my native
dialect. I interrupted their conversation and asked if they were from
Arigidi, my hometown, and they said yes. I told them I was in Lagos to
trace my sister whose whereabouts I don’t know. Luckily, I was able to
trace my sister to Egbe area of Lagos. After 10 days, I traced her and
started to live with her. That is how I started my life. Today, I have
an NGO for motor park boys, because I have also been one myself.
I realized my sister had her own family and I should not be burden to
her. I do not like inconveniencing people. If I visit your house and
you give me a bottle of soft drinks, I would make sure I put something
in the envelope, because I believe we make a living by what we receive
and we make a life by what we give. This is what I believe in. In life,
you don’t just have to collect and collect. It destroys one’s life. You
have to give and give. Because the Bible says, you must see giving as an
assignment from God. ‘I carried shit to make a living’
I left my sister to live with a friend. From there, I got a job as a
poultry farm attendant. The poultry is still there now. Not long ago, I
traced the poultry to somewhere in Ikotun. The job they gave me is to
carry shit. Fowl shit. And fowl shit smell is more terrible than human
faeces. I was doing this job with many Ghanaians. There were so many
Ghanaians in Nigeria then. I was the only Nigerian in that poultry farm.
And I never let people know I was a Nigerian. I declared myself a
Ghanaian too, because nobody would believe a Nigerian would do that kind
of job. I did the job for three days and my body odour changed. When
I’m moving about, people would perceive odour and flies would be
hovering around me because I was smelling very badly. There was no
amount of soap I would bath that would remove this odour from my body.
As you are working in the poultry farm, the fowl shit would be dropping
on your head. I did this for one good year.
At the same time, I enrolled in an evening school. New State High
School is the name of the school. I attended many schools in Lagos. I
would attend one school for two months, only to be sent away because of
school fees. I attended New State High School, Ansar-Ud-Deen Grammar
School, Isolo, and another school called Metropolitan. Because I was
very good in athletics, I was given what looked like scholarship. I won
gold, silver and bronze in athletics. But I needed to work to support
myself at school. That was why I took the poultry job. I was using it to
pay my school fees. In those days, evening schools were like full,
normal schools. You could easily attend evening school to do your WAEC
and GCE. We even received better lessons in the evening than in the day
school in those days. I was sending myself to school and at the same
time teaching children Bible studies.
My athletics took me to Baptist Academy. When I was running they
picked me. Under one year, I attended 15 schools here in Lagos. And I
did not finish one year. I don’t remember the year, because I cannot
keep records. But it’s all in the documentary on my life. I was born
1963. At least, I remember that one. ‘I confronted a mad man at school’
My first attempt at discovering God’s spirit in me was when a mad man
came to my school. In those days, I used to be called Small Pastor. One
morning a madman came to our school with a cutlass and everybody was
running helter-skelter. The teachers all fled and the classroom was
empty. I came and saw this mad person. The spirit of God spoke to my
heart, not to my ear. I hear the voice of God in my heart and not in my
ears. I heard the voice of God telling me: “Go there and collect the
cutlass. Just tell the madman to bring the cutlass.” When I was moving
towards the madman, everybody was concerned for my safety. They were
saying something like: ‘This is boy, he wants to die.’ I just went to
the madman and commanded him: “Give me this cutlass, in the name of
Jesus.” The madman gave me the cutlass. I collected it and gave it to a
teacher. It was from there they started calling me Small Pastor.
TB Joshua Feeding The Poor In Indonesia - We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.
From there, they would call me in the assembly and ask me to pray for
them. Every time I would pray for them. If they want to play football, I
would pray for them. They began to come to me individually for prayers.
It was pray for me, pray for me, pray for me all the way. They asked me
how I was able to overcome the madman and I told them I was surprised
myself to see what happened.
You see, God Almighty is awesome. He can use any medium to express
Himself. He can use sand, water, stone, rod, he can use anything. When
Moses was asking God, what should he do, God asked him: “What is in your
hand?” He said rod. Then God said: “Use it to divide the sea.” Or are
you talking about Paul and Silas in the prison yard? They were there and
they never said: Hey, in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, in
the name of Jesus. They just sang praises to God. The used the medium of
sound. Or are you talking of Joshua. He said to his people to just
shout Alleluia and the walls of Jericho fell. God uses any medium to
express Himself.
The ministry started from St. Stevens Primary School where I
collected the cutlass from the madman and where I started leading the
Scriptures Union, teaching the Bible and everything. This is where the
awareness of God’s presence in me started. It continued. Everything big
starts little. If everything big starts big, it calls for concern.
I was in Bahamas with the President of Bahamas, very close to Florida
when my mother died. This is the picture. I was with him when they
called me. Synagogue had already come into being. I was with him when
they said my mother was a bit down, that they brought her from the
village. They said my mother wanted to see me and have a word with me.
Before I came back home, my mummy was gone. My mummy was late. It was
too late for me. That was how I missed my mum.
She was a wonderful mother. The only little problem I had with my mum
is that she wanted to see everybody succeed in life. I used to tell my
mum: success is a two-sided affair. I have a role to play, God has His
own role. It is not all up to God and certainly it’s all not up to me.
Success is a kind of partnership between man and God. I cannot define
failure, because I don’t believe in failure. There is no failure in my
book. All I see is success, directed by the spirit of God. But as human
beings, we cannot be perfect. Perfection eludes every human being. God
is perfection. By Mike Awoyinfa & Dimgba Igwe
