November 16th, 2005, my husband got a transfer letter to a remote village to spread the gospel. Unknown to us that, that place was where he was going to meet his untimely and trag!c de@th.
I heard the sound of the car when he drove into the compound, but I was in the kitchen trying to do one or two chores before he returned cos I hadn't had dinner, and we usually did so together, and the kids too were fast asleep. I walked into the living room slowly after waiting for his call and he never did, and I stood behind him without him knowing, wondering what could be wrong with him.
"Father, if it is your will, then let your will be done" He said in a very low tone.
"Are you ok?" I quizzed all of a sudden, sc@ring him as I walked and stood before him.
He let out a deep sigh, raised his jacket, and then brought out a brown envelope from the inner pocket of his jacket.
"Take," He said, handing me the envelope.
I stretched forth my hand and took it, staring at it.
"What is this?" I asked with eyes still glued to it.
"Open it" He said.
I opened it and brought out the letter, and what I saw with my eyes surprised me but we are meant to give thanks in whatever situation we find ourselves in.
He had been transferred to Jogbo, a remote village in another state about 5 hours drive from our present location, and we must leave that weekend. The same place one of the pastors was transferred to and resigned after two weeks of his stay there. He didn't even tell anyone till date why he resigned or what happened during his stay.
"Is that why you're this way?" I asked.
"How do you mean?" He quizzed raising his head to look at me.
"You don't know why God has asked us to go there." I said and he nodded.
"But, that place, how are we going to survive there? I'm not sure there's any good school there for the kids. Won't you people just stay back? I'll be coming to visit every two weeks or month ends" He said looking into my eyes.
"No" I said shaking my head.
"I can't stay here all alone with the kids. We'll have to go there together, God will see us through" I said sitting beside him on the couch, and then reached for one of his arms.
"All will be well. The only pr0blem now is where we are going to stay when we get there" I added and he nodded again.
"That isn't a pr0blem. There's a parish house there but I don't know where it is. We'll have to ask someone when we get there but I was given the keys to the house"
That weekend we left packing our things in a van, while we drove in our small car before it. The kids had cr!ed so much not wanting to leave, but we had to go do what God sent us there to do.
After driving for hours, we finally reached the road leading to Jogbo. We drove into the village and the first thing we saw was a black statue holding a sword in its hand while bl00d kept dr!pping from its mouth and nose. My husband stopped all of a sudden, and began to stare at it. I looked away immediately and then covered my head down with my scarf.
"Jesus!" My first daughter screamed in exclamation, grabbing her younger brother's hand as they both held onto each other in a very tight hug.
By Blessing-Enejo Abrahams Elleywrites.
My husband was still staring at it and started to speak in tongues. I was going to tell him to continue driving but I started praying in silence too. All of a sudden, we heard a knock on the car and I froze.
"Oga, is anything wrong with the car?" He quizzed and my husband shook his head.
"If there's nothing wrong then let's leave here now. This is not a sight to behold please" He said walking away.
My husband finally started the car after about a minute, and we decided to ask the first person we saw where we could locate the parish house but he paused as soon as he heard that, and then asked.
"Are you Jesus' people?"
"Yes... Yes..." My husband and I said in chorus.
"Me I don't know o" He said walking away. My husband tried calling him back but he ignored us and walked away, muttering some words to himself.
We asked three more people who claimed they didn't know anything about the parish house but we never gave up. We continued driving and asking more people till we finally met this little girl carrying a small keg of water on her head. As soon as we greeted her and asked her where we could find the parish house, she asked...
"Are you a Pastor?"
My husband and I turned and looked at each other, and my husband replied "Yes".
"Come, I'll show you the parish house" She said with a smile, dropping her keg of water but my husband came down, put the keg in the car while the girl entered, and we continued driving.
"What's your name and how old are you?" I asked.
"Layla ma, I'm 8 years old" She said.
"Have you both come here to preach to my people about Christ?" She added.
"This girl is smart" I said smiling.
"I tell you" My husband replied with a grin.
"Yes, we have" He replied the little girl.
"That will be great. There's no church here, not even a single one. I have been looking for who to worship God with but my people here are id0l worshippers who don't believe in God" She said.
My husband and I became so sh0cked to hear much from such a little girl in that kind of remote village where they didn't even believe in God.
"Who are you?" My husband asked her again.
"Like I said before, I'm Layla. I grew up in the city but was brought back a few months ago when my Aunty lost her husband. That was where I knew about God, Christ, and the religion" She said.
"Wow!" I exclaimed.
"Impressive" My husband said with a broad smile.
We drove to the parish house, It was quite ok but was looking very bushy and dirty.
"You see what I was telling you? You guys should have at least allowed me to come here first to clean this place up before coming over" My husband said.
"So you're the one who's good at taking care of a dirty environment right? Abeg sit somewhere, let the kids and I take care of it" I said.
I turned and told Layla that we needed brooms and she immediately sprinted home and returned with three long brooms. We opened the house, cobwebs had taken over all the rooms. We prayed and started cleaning up but in the middle of it, a middle-aged woman marched into the house with a wrapper tied on her waist. She marched straight to Layla, grabbed her right ear, and started beating and dragging her out and at the same, speaking in a language that we didn't understand. We tried stopping her but she ignored us and went away with her.
After we had finished sweeping, we needed water to clean up the place so my husband and I went to the next house to the parish house and met an old woman and two young men. We greeted and told them to help us with water so we could mop the house with it but one spoke in pidgin English, telling us there was no water.
We left, went to the other house and we asked for water but we were given fresh bl00d in a bucket instead...
"Welcome to Jogbo" The man said...
To be continued.
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