In Conversation with: Sarah Teibo

SARAH TEIBO

Sarah Teibo is a UK based gospel artist, she is also a married woman, married 13 years and blessed with two kids and lives with her beautiful family in London. On a day to day she works in finance and travels to minister in various areas. She has been nominated for various awards and excels in her work. Her music is available on all platforms. She has worked with artist like Fred Hammond, Victoria Tunde and many more. 

We got right into what her journey with God has been like since she got saved. Sarah became Christian at the age of 10 when she was in the secondary phase of her schooling. She would attend fellowship every Friday, at one of the meetings on a Friday afternoon she gave her life to Christ, the journey has been quite interesting since then. She began serving God all the way from children’s choir, grew into youth choir, her musical journey has been truly founded very much in church. She now does a lot of music ministration across the UK and abroad she’s ministered in countries like Nigeria, Australia, and even South Africa in 2018.

It can be a lot of pressure being a woman of her caliber, we then got into how she manages it all, especially with work, travel and family. She is planner, her itinerary is set up well in advance, her schedule is well into the future sometimes a whole year ahead. It pays to plan everything out as without proper planning things can get messy. Planning in advance and delegating were she does not have the bandwidth to handle it and relying on her supportive husband and kids that are amazing, is exactly what helps her. She also mentioned that even though it gets stressful it is manageable.

I am a planner myself, I love detail and clarity in all things. You can plan all you want but sometimes life get in the way. I had to ask Sarah how she handles life’s interruptions and keeps the faith, believing that God’s plan will eventually prevail.

This is what she had to say, “ A classic example of how that has actually happened in my life would be  8 or so years ago when I had successive miscarriages very early into the pregnancy, this is when we were trying out for our second child, at about 6-7 weeks into the first pregnancy I had symptoms of spotting and unfortunately I lost my baby and it happened again. In that season it was very tough for me because things did not go according to plan, as when you plan a family you have this perfect picture and you want everything to go according to plan and that wasn’t happening. It was a really dark period or stage in my life were I was really depressed and inconsolable and I questioned God a lot, I was like “why would you give me a blessing and then take it back?” In that period that actually helped my faith, one of the things that God told me in that season was that, my faith in Him should not be like a remote control that I use to get him to do things, but instead it should be an unshaken resolve trusting Him regardless of how things turn out. That season was a time when God was kind of refocusing my faith and my relationship with Him, so that it is not based on getting things from Him but is based on knowing Him in spite of all the challenges that will inevitably come as part of being Christian. Having gone through that season now when things do not go according to plan I kind of remember that His plan supersedes my own plan, it always trumps my plan and I can trust Him, have joy and peace in Him because I know that ultimately He is working all things together for my good”.

It is truly an undeniable fact that the lockdown has affected a lot of people. Some had made decisions such as returning to God in 2020, attending more church services, serving God more and all of that is somewhat limited as we only have restricted access to each other through social media platforms. I then asked Sarah to share her thoughts around what a person who finds themselves stuck can do to keep on track.

She shared that during this lockdown we have more time than we would normally. She advised that you spend time in the word of God, personally she uses her audio Bible when she goes for a run, before she goes to bed she does her devotionals. It is the case that we cannot meet face to face though the Bible says do not forsake the gathering of the brethren. She advised that you may try identify people, individuals, groups that you can connect with on whatsapp, zoom or other social media platforms, people that will be talking about the word, talking about the truth. It is important to build relationships and build each other up spiritually. We are created to be social creatures and naturally we would want to spend time with people. In summary two things you can do firstly spend time in the word of God as we have more time, secondly find connections with individuals or groups that are connecting spiritually.

We then reflected on her experiences as a worshiper who is a recording artist with much experience. I asked what she would advise someone who wants to become a recording artist. She shared lessons learnt as a worshiper, being consistent in her approach, life lessons in general.

This is what she had to say, “One of the key lessons I’ve learnt as a worship leader is being very sensitive to God’s move and his Spirit, and that is not just on stage that is work done in the background in preparation. Before we even come on stage we need to be seeking God’s face to find out what His plans are for whatever meeting that we are going to be leading worship in. Worship leading is not what happens on stage, that is about 20% and the 80% is what happens before we get on stage and what God is doing in the spirit. It is really up to us to key into what God is doing through the worship we are leading. My advice to worship leaders or one who aspires to be a worship leader is that you need to build a really tight relationship with God, you need to be soaked in the word and you need to seek God’s face to know what His heart is for any meeting and you need to do that consistently. I have gotten the privilege of not only leading worship but also singing in other platforms that are not necessarily church but singing gospel music in those platforms, it’s always about that desire I have that anyone who is listening is always uplifted and transformed and that has to do with my drive but I also ensure that I do everything with excellence, as a matter of fact because we are Christians we should aspire to excellence even what you do in your creativity, your delivery and your ministration, strive for excellence.

We then got into young moms who are building themselves up, discovering their careers, discovering their ministry, maybe even who they really are in Christ. What key things can a young single mom, married mom, or aspiring mom do to ensure that she is able to excel in her career, ministry and continue to serve God and please God, please her husband if she’s married or even take care of her kids properly.

Sarah had this to say, “So it’s all young ladies, single moms, married moms, newly-weds and the like. A couple of things I would advise based on what I’ve seen in my 13 years of marriage now and having two kids a 11year old and a 7 year old and also being in ministry and having a job. I have found that a lot of the time I see people doing stuff and I sometimes compare myself to them and I always fall short. So firstly, do not compare yourself to others, comparison is a killer of joy, a thief of joy. Instead of comparing I now actually try and see the good things in my life, the blessings that God has given me and I rejoice in that instead. Secondly listen to God’s voice with regards to purpose and timing because everyone is working on different sorts of timelines, we were not all born on the same day and are not going to die on the same day, we are not all going to have kids on the same day. Everyone’s time in life and everyone’s purpose in life is different. In as much as we are not comparing ourselves to others we need to be listening in for God’s voice regarding purpose and understanding times and seasons for our lives.

A lot of single ladies are under so much pressure because they are comparing their age to the age of their friends who are married and they are feeling like they are falling short. Listen to God’s voice, what is He saying to you about you and your future. Some people got married and they haven’t had kids yet others marry and immediately had kids, listen to what He is saying about your fruitfulness and your fertility and your purpose as a mother and a parent.

In all aspects of our lives really we need to seek God’s purpose.

I then asked her to share what God put in her heart to share with us all. This is what she had to say, “so we are in a season were there is so much uncertainty about the future, people have lost loved ones, livelihoods, this season is certainly depressing for so many people mostly because we do not know when it’s going to end. One word that keeps coming in my spirit is that ‘Be still and know that I am God’. In the midst of all the chaos and confusion, upheaval, economic crunch, in the midst of all the negativity and all the noise and the depressing headlines, we need to be still and know that He is God, he is our peace and He is our source. In all of this He is being glorified and we can trust Him because we know that He has our best interests in mind.