GHOST RUN (Part 5&6) – OPEYEMI AKINTUNDE

Part 5
GHOST RUN
Opeyemi Akintunde

I took my leg off the gas 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 need 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 pull 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 glass and with a release 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 came here thinking Mororo was a child’s play but with what we have seen in less than 24 hours, we are taking the report back to the parent church to send a more equipped couple to you!” I said hoping the man would understand 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 read 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 need positivity right now and if you are not ready to give it me, please just keep your words to yourself!” I said

“ I think we should stay!” AdeYanju said again “The man quoted a sensitive scripture moments ago.. He was quoting from Romans 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 need a preacher!” AdeYanju said and if he was my brother and not my husband, I would have treated him to a nice treat of hard slaps 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 sent?”….

I noticed AdeYanju still did not get my point…so I decided to help him

“AdeYanju, we were not sent to Mororo, we only came here to prove a point, I brought 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…

“ Please 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 stopped 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… Please stay and teach me about Jesus so I can help my sister..” the girl said and the soft part of my heart felt her pain…

“But….!”

Part 6
GHOST RUN
Opeyemi Akintunde

“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 stopped! I looked at AdeYanju with a look that said

“ Are you crazy?”

Then AdeYanju decided to put me on the spot 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 need 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 need a Bible student who just graduated, it needs 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 hard… 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! Please 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 presence 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 brought, I tried to read the scriptures….

Instead, I slept 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 stop this children from teaching them the word…!”

“ Well, my suggestion is that, Since we have tried sending 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 need to leave… You need to see the Doctor!”

“No, I know this is not a mere sickness, so I won’t be threatened by the devil to stop 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….