NO BIBLE NO BREAKFAST DAILY BIBLE REFLECTIONS AND MORE

On one fateful Thursday, we arrived at the church premise and were waiting since others had come ahead of us. As we sat outside the pastor’s office waiting, my mind was still wondering what was going to come out of this consultation. My guess was that the pastor was going to tell mum that I am possessed by an evil spirit who is retarding my progress or ask me to embark on a long period of vigorous prayer and fasting, meanwhile food is one thing I cannot do without immediately I wake up from bed. I could not fathom the thought of missing my favourite wakye in two or three days in a roll. As I was going through the mental picture of the possibilities which may occur during the encounter with the pastor, mum looked at me and realized my state of confusion and assured me in an encouraging voice “my son, pastor Derick is a powerful man of God, have faith ok…”

Finally the time came for us to see the powerful man of God. The air conditioner which was about 16 degrees celsius welcomed us with a cool breeze of refreshing air as we walked in. We greeted with a soothing welcoming voice, “come in please” after mum had gently knocked the door. The office was neatly tiled and its inner aesthetics kept my eyes endlessly scanning left and right, up and down. At the left hand of the desk is a fridge and behind us was a giant flat screen television. It was as if I was a first timer in the city. When I eventually caught a full grip of the stature of the minister I was amazed at who I saw. He looked younger than me, very good looking and has this charisma which made you want to gaze at him forever. In my mind, I was asked, how old was he? Is this the young man who has much influence on my mum? After exchanging greeting with my mum he smiled at me even as he extended his hand towards me with a heart-warming “hello my beloved brother in the Lord!” With a smile of appreciation of his warmth reception, I shook his hand and his palm felt soft like that of a new born baby. I concurred in my mind “this is definitely a sign of good living.” My mum took the opportunity to narrate the story of my miserable life and joblessness. By the time my mum completed her last statement, Pastor Derick released a series of thunderous tongues, he took a bottle of olive oil poured some over my head and as I knelt down he began praying vigorously, I had no choice than to repetitively say “Amen!, Amen!, Amen! !Amen! to virtually every phrase he said.

After the 15 minute of vociferous prayer accompanied with the movement of my head like a pendulum, Pastor Derick began to make some proclamations about my life. Giving my life to Jesus was the first and foremost in his order of utterances, secondly I needed to keep in touch with him to enable the Holy Spirit use me as a vessel, thirdly he has been told by the Spirit to make me attend His church for doors to open for me to progress in life. He assured us that I have been delivered and anointed. Frankly speaking, I did not feel anything celestial happening to me yet I had a smile of hope. Mother was filled with joy that I have been delivered. I got up and sat down, like an innocent child who had been taken to school for the first time. Pastor Derick asked mum to buy one of his anointing oil which was sold for GHC 150 cedis, she was to drop some into my food before I eat. My eyes opened widely at the hearing of the amount, I began to make a rough calculation of how much he could have gotten that day alone if all the people we met before us had each bought the small bottle of anointing oil. I had mixed feelings as I sat in that comfortable office. She took her purse, took out some amount of money and started counting suddenly, she exclaimed, “Awww Pastor Derick, please I only have GHC 120 left in my purse and the rest is our transportation fare”. He replied gently, “Don’t worry elder Emefa, you can bring the rest on Sunday”. She gave him a sigh of relief, took the anointing oil and we left for the house.

On Saturday evening, I began thinking about what the pastor had said about me. I needed to give my life to Jesus Christ and the sure way to do that is to start attending church services at my mother’s church. It called for new changes in my routines. My mum had already started applying the oil which I thought was expensive to my food. Sunday came and I had to get up early to take by bath and iron my attire. My siblings were lost and seem to be amazed at my deeds that morning. My dad asked me if everything was alright with me and I responded in the affirmative. When my mum and I stepped foot out of our house, I felt like a groom coming out from his room to meet his bride for the first time, our neighbours were gazing at me with surprise. My friends who knew me by my pet name, Sparrow, exclaimed teasingly in Ghanaian pigeon English “hey sparrow where you dey go?”, “hurry Sam we are late” Mum exclaimed as she was walking briskly, we were about 15 minutes late, this edged me to follow suit with the same pace whiles ignoring my annoying neighbourhood friends who obviously will not go to church.

At Church, the ushers who were rather young and beautiful ladies welcomed me with an electrifying smile. One of them showed me to the front seat where I really felt uncomfortable but had to comply. Mum being an elder of the church, had a special seat on the stage. I sat beside a pretty lady who often looked at me, why did I know I was been looked at? because I was also a culprit. The praise team had very nice melodious voices and were accompanied by skilful instrumentalists. The youth displayed their various dance moves during the time for songs of praise, it was really eye catching and I felt I needed to experience this again. Pastor Derick’s sermon was 1 hour and sounded like a call and respond sermon. Almost every statement of his had a response from the congregants. I guess it was awkward to me because I was not used to it.

The offering time saw the praise team performed awesomely. People were dancing pass the offering bowl and giving cheerfully. I was introduced in addition to other new members at the latter part of the church service. Of course, it was made clear that I was Elder Emefa’s son and that attracted a round of applause. I felt good, upon closer observation as I stood there, I saw the host of beautiful damsels in the church. For me that was a fine motivation to come to church on Sundays. Interestingly, I was to continue coming to church because I was presumed to be born again and had given my life to Jesus and here was I construing differing reasons for coming to church.