Saved by Love
By Olufunlola Adeola
Episode 1
It was just 04:08p.m. at the Zamanis’ house, a famous well-to-do family.
Akinlolu Coker was seated on the veranda of the main house, opposite him was the gate, to his left there were flowers and sunshade and to his right, the gateman’s house stood erect. The compound landscape design was sumptuous, it was a place for tourism.
Akinlolu is a devout Christian who worked as the Zamanis’ only daughter’s driver whose name is Adaramola Halimah Zamani.
She has a degree in Mas-s Communication from the University of Lagos, UNILAG. She is a young cloth designer with immense talent and she loves Fashion to the core, so when she had worked at her father’s radio station, Sunshine FM as an event manager for a year and some months, she decided to pursue her dream and she went to study fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York.
She c@m£ back a year ago and Akinlolu was appointed as her driver . She started her own Fashion Sto-re with the label ‘Zamani’ and it is advancing.
As Akinlolu sat on the veranda, he was muttering in ton-gues as he surfed the internet on his TECNO android phone, a habit he had inculcated since he accepted Christ into his life two years ago. He looked up from his phone as he saw his boss come out from the side entrance of the house, a beautiful young lady she is, he thought as she moved to the sunshade and made herself comfortable and just then he heard,
“Go preach the gospel to that lady.” He looked around, no one was talking
. Dongo, the gateman was dozing and even the lady in question was busy with her phone, then it occurred to him and he almost laughed out loud, sometimes God’s message could sound hilarious. First, this lady is his boss, a Muslim. Second, her father is a Hausa man who believes in Islam and goes to Mecca every year. Third, this lady herself is not a visitor in Mecca so Akinlolu shook his head in disagreement.
. Some minutes later, he heard again,
“Go preach the gospel to that lady.” Akinlolu thought, how would he go and preach to her, the Holy Spirit sure knows she was born and bred in Islam, what would he say? And what if he loses his job?
It’s still a surprise that Alhaji Danjuma Zamani, the father of the lady in question employed him to be in the circle of his home despite the fact that he is a Christian but nevertheless he decided to go because he would rather be caught dead than not fulfilling his old man’s last wishes which was, ‘But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost p@rt of the earth. Acts 1:8KJV.’
As he approached her, she looked up and Akinlolu suddenly felt a surge of boldness crop up within him and he said,
“Good evening ma.”
“Mr. Akin, good evening, what can I do for you?” She asked, dazzling her white teeth in a welcoming smile,
“I just want to discuss something very crucial with you.”
“Have your seat and I am all ears, oh, let me get you a glas-s cu-p.” She said and she went inside. She c@m£ out almost immediately with a glas-s cu-p and she joined him un-der the sunshade and poured the wine into the glas-s cu-p and served him then she motioned to him to talk.
“I want to talk to you about someone special to me, his name is Jesus Christ.” He paused and she deliberately took her time to set her glas-s of wine on the table and gestured with no trace of her dazzling smile,
“Go on.” He did, they talked, argued and clarified. By the end of the next two hours, Akinlolu was able to answer some questions that has been gnawing at her mind about this p@rticular issue that her co-worker, Meraola had not been able to answer when she had also talked to her about this man with wonder-filled works called Jesus. Then Akinlolu asked,
“Can I pray with you?”
“Okay.”
“Father, I thank you for this day, I thank you for Sister Adara, I thank you because you have counted her worthy of your grace to hear the gospel and you shall endow her with the un-derstanding that surpas-ses human’s thinking and also open her eyes to see that your Son is the way, the truth and the life. Thank you, Lord, for answered prayer in Jesus name I pray.”
“Amin.” Adara replied and Akinlolu walked away smiling.
…..
Akinlolu was still slee-ping around 05:35a.m. the next day when his phone sprang up to life and started vibr@ting, he groggily lift his head and checked the screen, the caller ID re-ad ‘Boss Lady’ and he answered the call and heard Adara’s voice telling him to come to the main house quic-kly. He pu-ll-ed on a shi-t over the jean trou-ser he had on and bolted from the boy’s quarter where he lives and he went to the main house.
As he got there, he couldn’t find her but as he turned towards the stairs to go to her room, he decided to check the kitchen and he saw her standing by the kitchen counter and he went in as she turned and greeted him then carried two cu-ps of tea to the kitchen table and within seconds they were seated sipping h0t tea, he replied,
“Is there any problem ma?”
“I had a dream, I think I might have seen an angel, he talked to me, he told me that Jesus is real, God is real, hell is also real, and that God wants me to be his daughter and I agreed, he said if I can stay with God till I die, HE is going to use me to help a lot of people and he said I should not move away from you that our Destiny are entwined and you will help me grow spiritually,
“Do you know the amazing thing? The angel actually t©uçhed me, he t©uçhed my shoulder and my stomach and I fell to the ground, then before my eyes, he disappeared in flames of fire, that’s supernatural, what do you think? I think you should pray for me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes plea-se.” She said and she knelt down before him and closed her eyes and he did and he began to pray in ton-gues then he told her to confess Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and savior and she did.
…….
The next Sunday, Akinlolu took her to his church, The Triumphant as-sembly, the church he was led to attend for the past two years. After service, he took her to meet his pastor who prayed for her and she received the holy ghost baptism and he later encouraged her to join a unit in church and she joined the sanctuary and decorations team.
All this continued for the next four months and during all this time, her parents had travelled abroad and they had no idea what was going on, Adara’s two brothers, Teju and Lanre were also abroad while Teju was studying at Harvard university doing his Msc. in law, Lanre was heading a foreign company that deal with furniture.
On the fifth month, Adara’s father, Alhaji Danjuma Ibr@him Zamani called her that he would be coming home in a week’s time with his wife, Alhaja Wuraola Suliat Zamani
Saved by Love
By Olufunlola Adeola
Episode 2
A week later, Alhaji Danjuma Zamani arrived with his wife as he had said and when they saw Adara, as she c@m£ to greet them, they were surprised, her hijab or scarf was gone not even a piece of clothing covered her head and Alhaji was cheesed off but he was reticent about it. At dinner that night, Alhaji said,
“Halimah, what’s all these difference about you?”
“I don’t un-derstand you, Dad.”
“Where’s your dignity? Where’s your hijab? I heard you have not been going to the mosque.”
“Dad, let me put all my cards on the table, I converted, i am now a Christian so I can’t be going to the mosque.”
“Will you shut up? No child of mine will practice any other religion ap@rt from Islam, so it’s better you sleep and think it over.” Alhaji said and he pushed back his chair and stormed off to his room. Adara followed suit leaving Alhaja Wuraola at the table befuddled.
Around past nine the next morning, Alhaji Danjuma called Adara out and she answered him . Then he questioned,
“Hope you are now with your s-en-ses?”
“Dad, I never lost my s-en-ses.”
“Are you talking back at me? “
“As I told you yesterday Dad, I am a fully grown adult, I can make my own decisions, I am now a born again.”
“Not un-der my roof. No child of mine will practice anything other than Islam, if you are not re-ady then leave my house.”
“Dad?”
“That is my decision, plea-se get out of my sight.”
“If that is it dad, then you can bear it at the back of your mind that you have only two children.” She replied him heatedly went to her room and she started packing her things.
Within thirty minutes, three suitcases of different sizes contained her belongings and she called for a taxi
. Five minutes after, the taxi arrived she wheeled the suitcases out and saw her mother trying to pacify her dad and she dropped the suitcase and motioned for the gateman to take it to the taxi.
She went in again, took her l@pt©p and all other things and left, her mother calling her but within minutes she was in the taxi. She told the taxi driver to drop her in the next street. As she stood at the back gate of her father’s house, she called Akinlolu to come and open the gate, which he did and before he could question her, she wheeled her suitcase in so he helped her. After they had settled down, Adara explained all what happened then Akinlolu said,
“Adara, you know you can’t stay here, in fact I might have to leave too if Alhaji gets to know that I am responsible for your conversion.”
He had always dre-aded this day; he knew something like this will happen sooner or later.
“So? If you leave is that the end of the world? I have a plan, i will stay here for the meantime till I can get us an ap@rtment far away from here because Alhaji is unpredictable. But first, I nee-d to transfer all my money in both accounts to a new one, probably yours and then I have to get all the clothes in my sto-re because Alhaji might want to close down whatever I have that is bringing money in for me.
. Will you help me?”
Akinlolu said, “Yes, I will do all I can.”
Immediately they went to her sto-re and they packed all the clothes she had designed, her office l@pt©p and they headed back to Akinlolu’s place. When they got there, she contacted an agent for a house and called her two bank managers to transfer the money in her accounts to Akinlolu’s account leaving 3,000 and 5,000 in each account. Within minutes, more than half a million was transferred into Akinlolu’s account and he got a SMS alert. They prayed for a while then Adara went to rest.
……
The next day, Adara got a call from the house agent she contacted the previous day before that there was a two-be-droom flat, a room and living room with kitchen and bath facility at different places at Dugbe and Oluyole, Ibadan. They had decided to move to Ibadan because Ogun State is quite close to Lagos where the Zamanis reside and Ibadan is the largest city in West Africa so they should be able to survive.
She told the agent she will get back to him and they prayed about the places the agent mentioned. On the third day, around 08:00 am, Akinlolu heard a pounding on his door and Adara was in the bathroom so he went to open the door only to see Alhaja Wuraola and he said,
“Good morning, Alhaja.”
“What is good about the morning ko? Tell me what is good about this morning, you this good-for-nothing idiot. You think you can come here, scatter my family and go scot-free ko? That’s a lie, you this poverty-stricken fool.
“Dongo has told me everything that happened in our abs£nce, you were pla-ying the role of Mister Influencer shey? If you don’t leave this compound before I come back, you will spend the rest of your miserable life in jail. I am going out now, let me come back and meet you here then you will enjoy yourself, pathetic fool.” Alhaja Wuraola said and stomped off, all the while Akinlolu was just starting at her, dumbfounded but as soon as she left, he closed the door and rested his back against it, Adara emerged from his room and asked,
“That was my mum, right?”
Akinlolu nodded and stared into space as he said,
“She wants me out before she comes back, where do I go from here?”
“Akinlolu, this is not the time to start ruminating or asking questions, why don’t you start packing your stuffs, while I call the agent at Ibadan and put my things together.
Within two hours, Adara had called the agent and she has agreed to rent the two be-droom ap@rtment and she informed they were moving in today, their bags and boxes were packed alre-ady and then Adara called her special taxi driver that carries her to far distances when she didn’t feel like going in her car and asked if he could take them to Ibadan, he said he would be there before they knew it and that was how they left.
Thank God it was a week day so the traffic was light. Adara called the agent when they got to Ibadan and he gave them directions to the house, it was quite decent, very low and not elite looking for a Zamani though it had a gate but at this time, Adara would take anything because the stress and all the persecutions was starting to get to her.
The man dropped them off and she paid him and told him to wait then the agent helped them move in and after concluding on a price, Akinlolu transferred the rent fee and other fees which was a totality of 100,000 naira to the man’s account and he wrote a receipt for them then Adara and Akinlolu entered the taxi again and headed for the market where they bought food items and household items. Things were a lot cheaper here than Lagos.
By noon on the next day they were settled as if they had been living in the house for a while. They had one neighbour, a bachelor who had his fiancée staying with him and they were always either in or out so they had no worries of someone poke nosing into their lives.
Tbc