p@rt 5
“GHOST RUN!”
By Opeyemi Ojerinde
I took my leg off the g@s as trying to go past the roadblock would be homicide.
“ Who are they and what do they want?” I said in fear
“ Probably another set of witches… and by the look on their faces, these ones look very mean and unhappy…” AdeYanju said
As we looked on with no intention of stepping out of the car, one of the men who appeared like their spokesman walked towards the vehicle. Every step he took towards us created serious fear in us…
“ I come in peace and so do my people!” The heavily built man who was handsome looking said
I only responded by nodding…
“ I am OluwaSeun, Formally Orisaseun. We are the members of the Mororo Church. We were more than this before, but after the death of the last pastor, some members left. We don’t want to leave, but we nee-d someone to feed us. How can we be saved if we haven’t heard or be preached to?” He said…
I looked towards the group and I felt pity for them. If what this man was saying was true, then it was a pity that the villagers wanted the genuine Word of God, but unfortunately they were starved…
However, I suddenly remembered the Adegbile sisters. They had also deceived us into believing they were members of the Mororo Church…
“ I am not going to fall for this again!” I said as I engaged the reverse gear hoping to deceive them, thereafter pu-ll a very fast one on them..,
“ I think they are genuine!” AdeYanju said to me in a whisper
I rolled my eyes in irritation at AdeYanju.
“ Would he know what was real or fake even if it was stuck into his nose?” I thought silently… I rolled down the glas-s and with a re-lease of air, I spoke to the man…
“ Sir, the thing is… We are the wrong people for Mororo. We are not spiritually matured to lead or preach to you people. We c@m£ here thinking Mororo was a child’s pl@ybut with what we have seen in less than 24 hours, we are taking the report back to the parent church to s£nd a more equipped couple to you!” I said hoping the man would un-derstand my point…
Instead of giving an answer or showing a sign of acceptance or otherwise, he stepped away from the car to return to the “roadblock” group.
There was a distant chatter going on, I tried to re-ad the response from the group….
“ They are not buying it…” AdeYanju said and it was obvious. I felt irritated that he was speaking out the obvious
“ AdeYanju, I nee-d positivity right now and if you are not re-ady to give it me, plea-se just keep your words to yourself!” I said
“ I think we should stay!” AdeYanju said again “The man quoted a s-en-sitive scripture moments ago.. He was quoting from R0m-ns 10:13-14 which says….For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?…. Adenike this people nee-d a preacher!” AdeYanju said and if he was my brother and not my husband, I would have treated him to a nice treat of ha-rd sl@ps on his face….
“ AdeYanju, it amazes me that despite knowing the whole scripture, you speak the wrong one at the wrong time… this same scripture you just quoted, you quoted the wrong verse… The verse that concerns us is verse 15a which says dear Husband…”And how shall they preach, except they be s£nt?”….
I noticed AdeYanju still did not get my point…so I decided to help him
“AdeYanju, we were not s£nt to Mororo, we only c@m£ here to prove a point, I brou-ght you here to make you look like a real man!” I said with the tone that said we were going back home…
The handsome heavily built man was walking back to us, but this time with few of the group members…
“ They want to speak to you” the man said
A teenage girl of not more than 12 years said…
“ plea-se sir and ma’am , don’t go, I want to know more about Jesus. I love Jesus and want someone to tell me more about Jesus, so that I can also tell others about Jesus especially my Sister, Sade.” She said pointing towards the bush.
I followed the direction of her hand. I saw the witch girl that had st©pped our car the day before. She was hiding behind a tree…
“ Your sister?” I said
“ Yes, my elder sister , she is a witch but she tells me she doesn’t want to be anymore! And I know it is only Jesus that can help her… but Aunty I don’t know Jesus enough to be able to help Sade… plea-se stay and teach me about Jesus so I can help my sister..” the girl said and the soft p@rt of my heart felt her pain…
“But….!
p@rt 6
“GHOST RUN”
By Opeyemi Ojerinde
“Two weeks? AdeYanju why did you do this to us!”
I couldn’t believe what AdeYanju did few minutes back…
Although I had felt a bit emotional after the little girl’s talk but I wasn’t moved to the point of wanting to stay back.., however AdeYanju said out of the blues…
“ We will stay with you for two weeks! I am a Bible graduate, so I will see what I can do in two weeks…!” AdeYanju had said to the group that had walked up to the car…
My world st©pped! I looked at AdeYanju with a look that said
“ Are you crazy?”
Then AdeYanju decided to put me on the sp©t by saying…
“ Unless my wife says otherwise!”
And then I had over 8 pair of eyes looking at me for a supportive answer….
“ Sure! Two weeks! He just said it, Two weeks he will teach you all you nee-d to know about Christianity, after all he is the pastor!” I said sarcastically
“ Thank you ma’am, thank you for being a good mother!” The spokesman said…
“ Ma, we can help you clean up the house!” One of the women said
Before I could turn down the offer, they all had marched towards the house…
Tears flowed down from my eyes…
“ AdeYanju why? Why did you do this to us! Two weeks in this God forsaken place… AdeYanju, this town doesn’t nee-d a Bible student who just graduated, it nee-ds a pastor who is grounded in the word and has the fire of God in his bones and you know you don’t even have a nerve in you talk less of Fire!”
I poured out my tears in frustration in the car! I kept hitting the car steering very ha-rd … For that moment, I regretted being the wife of a baby husband…
“ Adenike, I am sorry. I couldn’t just watch us leave them. I promise you, just two weeks…I will do a crash Bible course with them! plea-se at least let me do something for my self…” AdeYanju said and I knew I had to stay back with him.
That day was probably the worse day of my life as I watched how over 20 people kept walking in and out of my new home. I didn’t like people trooping into my house…At night, I would always feel the pres£nce of those people like their Spirits were hanging around…
Therefore, when it was time to sleep, it was very impossible. I decided to sit outside the balcony and with the solar powered lamp I brou-ght, I tried to re-ad the scriptures….
Instead, I sle-pt off
****************
“They are staying back…” A voice said
“ I told you they cannot be easily scared away..” Another voice replied
“ But they carry no fire!”
“ But they know the word, they just don’t know the power in it…”
“ Well, let’s hope they never wake up to the power in the word… they won’t be a problem!”
“What if they teach our people the Word and our people discover the power in the word, then we are finished! What we have been able to achieve all these years is because the people do not know the word, once they know the Word, they will grow to have the Power!”
“ So what do we do to st©p this children from teaching them the word…!”
“ Well, my suggestion is that, Since we have tried s£nding them out and they didn’t listen, let’s uproot them”
“ Uproot them?”
“ Yes!”
*********
I snapped out of that trance… I couldn’t remember the faces of those speaking but the words were clear…
“ What did they mean by uprooting us?” I reasoned as I walked back inside the house…
After a week of staying in Mororo, AdeYanju fell sick and I was beginning to suspect this was what “ Uprooting” meant…
“ AdeYanju, we nee-d to leave… You nee-d to see the Doctor!”
“No, I know this is not a mere sickness, so I won’t be threatened by the devil to st©p my two weeks Bible study with this people… Adenike, if I die, I die!”
His words were exactly what happened…
AdeYanju died exactly 10 days after we stepped into Mororo….
p@rt 7
“ GHOST RUN!”
Opeyemi Ojerinde
Days went by.
I didn’t want to believe AdeYanju was dead, so I told the members of the Mororo Church, he was indisposed.
By the fourth day after his death, he was beginning to stink terribly, despite cleaning his b©dy every three hours and spraying our room with my strong perfume.
Members who c@m£ to the house for evening Bible Study which I had started taking were beginning to complain of the offensive smell… Few of the men asked to see AdeYanju, but I told them, he was fine and didn’t want the members seeing him the way he was.
“ Ma’am, can we at least pray with him?” Seun said
“ We can pray here without disturbing him!” I said and I could tell from Seun’s eyes that he wasn’t satisfied with my answer.
Few hours later as I was taking the Bible Study, Seun c@m£ out suddenly out of our be-droom weeping…
“ How did you get in there?” I said in fury
“ He is dead too!” Seun said to the other church members crying
“ They have killed him!” Seun said..
The church members rushed to the room and saw a swollen AdeYanju…
There was an outbur-st of cries and tears…
“ AdeYanju is not dead, I know he will wake up..,” I said in denial as I moved to AdeYanju’s b©dy, his b©dy had turned darker… Tears flowed on its own… Reality was beginning to dawn on me… I had lost AdeYanju because of Mororo…
************
My parents, My In laws and few elders of our church had come to Mororo in a rush. Some of the Church elders had gone to the city to s£nd an email to our parent church. The church had come with an ambulance to carry AdeYanju’s b©dy…
His mother was a mess, I couldn’t bear to look her in the eye…
“ My son died without a child!” Was all my mother in law was saying…
“ At least , If he had a son, I would have had someone to look at…” AdeYanju’s mother said wailing.
My father had walked up to me as I stood lost …
“ I am sorry Adenike, I should have listened to you! Forgive me!” My father said to me… I felt his pain
“ As soon as we leave here, we will never s£nd any other person to Mororo!” My father said
My father held me by the hand and asked me to get into his vehicle…
“ I am not going!” I said
“ What did you say?”
“ Father , they cannot take my husband and expect me to bow my head in shame … No, I want to confront them..” I said very angry as I looked around hoping the Adegbile sisters would show their faces…
My father succeeded in getting me out of Mororo…
AdeYanju was buried and I returned to my parents’ house….
************
“ plea-se save me!” Said Sade the witch girl
“ We nee-d you in Mororo!” A man said
“ Save us plea-se!” A pregnant woman said crying as she labored to give birth
These were the words that haunted my sleep for weeks… I had disturbing dreams every night.
***********
“ I nee-d to go back to Mororo, Father s£nd me back there!” I said to my father during breakfast one Saturday morning…
“ What?” My father said as his hand which he used in carrying his tea cu-p bec@m£ suspended
“ The people nee-d someone who is re-ady to help them! I am re-ady!”
My Father did not utter a reply, instead he picked up his phone and made a call…
“ Anne, how are you? A very quic-k one… I will be s£nding Adenike to you, she nee-ds a change of environment…” My father said as he continued speaking to his sister who was living in Dubai….
“ I am not going to Dubai, I am going to Mororo!” I said with a loud voice…
My father turned sharply and ended the call with my Aunty…
I saw him pressing another set of digits, I knew whoever he was calling was going to be a strong f0rç£ to contend!
“ I nee-d to find a way out of here!” I concluded in my heart…. “ Mororo, here I come!”
To be continued