STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’S SHOE (Part 31&32) – OPEYEMI AKINTUNDE

PART 31
“STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’s SHOE …” S.I.M.S
©️ Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

“God led me to do what you have not been able to do by yourself” I said.

“You are still not answering my question, what did you do?” he said in a fury.

I moved away from him…

“I showed them a video Pastor Maggie had made to destroy you.”

“What video?” He was literally shaking in anger.

“Give me some minutes” I ran up the stairs and brought the flash drive which I inserted into the USB Port of the Television.

Apostle staggered the moment he saw the first scene of him and Mrs. Beecroft. He held his chest and sat down as he watched Pastor Maggie reveal a lot. The video lasted about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Ray watched every bit of it, with tears flowing down his face…

“Why didn’t you take this to the social media?” he asked ridiculously.

“You want me to do that?” I asked.

“No, I mean despite everything I have done to you, this would have been a great opportunity to nail me, just like Maggie was going to do before she died.”

“I am in no shoe to ridicule you in public, apart from the fact that you are my husband, you are a man of God and fighting or disgracing a man of God is like fighting God. When Miriam tried condemning Moses in the Bible as regards his Cushite wife, God struck her with leprosy, showing that whatever a man of God does is between Him and God. God knows how He deals with them. All I can do is advice and pray, but sharing this online can bring down God’s wrath on me” I said.

“You are more righteous than I am, Happy can you pray for me? Can you tell God to take away these crazy feelings from me? Just watching this video shows how dirty and useless I am. What if this had gone out, my ministry would have ended, I would have also brought disrepute to the name of the body of Christ.”

Apostle wept and wept. We sat down on the floor in the living room for hours as I sat down encouraging him, that we all had our shortcomings but we must be ready to drop them at the feet of God.

I told him, we needed a Spiritual Retreat, which he agreed to.

The spiritual retreat was to happen in our home, we wanted to settle it with God together on our knees. I knew it was time to step into the shoes and find a way of filling the big space.

It was a fasting and praying retreat of 7 days without food. We took only water in the evening around 6pm.

For those days, all we did was ask for mercy for our individual greed. We knew greed had led us to the point we were.

Apostle cried more than he prayed telling God he didn’t know how he got to where he was, he told God he had always been passionate and in love with God, but he didn’t know what happened that changed everything…

As he was praying, I just heard a scripture in my heart; Ecclesiastes 7:26. I was not familiar with that part of scripture, so I picked up my Bible and read through…

“I found something more bitter than death, the woman who is like a trap. The love she offered you will catch you like a net, and her arms around you will hold you like a chain. A man who pleases God can get away, but she will catch the sinner.” (Good News Version).

I understood the woman in the scripture referred to the spirit of immorality, but the part that struck me most was “A MAN WHO PLEASES GOD CAN GET AWAY (from sexual seduction and sin), but she will catch the sinner.”

God spoke to my heart that, He was not pleased with my husband and that was why the spirit of seduction and sexual immorality was able to capture him.

Now the next question was “God what did he do that displeased you?”

I shared this scripture with Apostle and our prayer point changed, we started praying enquiry prayers from God to know where he had displeased Him.

We heard nothing even after the seventh day.

Apostle returned back to his church duties. He reduced his counseling with the opposite sex, he referred the women to me. At home, he became a different man, making deliberate efforts to be a good husband and father. He went to the extent of asking my mother to return to our home in order to help with the triplets.

I tried moving close to him with my sexual advances, but he would smile gently and say

“Please just give me some more time, let me get a hold on myself completely.”

Everything was going on smoothly as we kept praying to God to show us what Ray was doing that displeased God.

In the midst of these, Chaba returned, but this time, without Ray bringing her in. The devil brought her to tamper with what God was doing.

“I am going to expose you to Christabel if I don’t get my 300 million” she had said on the phone one afternoon.

This time around she was blackmailing Apostle and I.

I knew this was the best time to silence this blackmailer forever. Instead of giving her what she wanted, I did what she never would have imagined I could do…

PART 32
“STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’s SHOE …” S.I.M.S
©️ Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

On Sunday after service, I walked up to Christabel’s Mum….

“Good afternoon ma” I said smiling.

“Pastor Happy, good afternoon. To what do I owe this special greeting?”

“I am sorry ma if I am disturbing, I just need sister Christabel’s number” I said.

“Why? My daughter is fine, you don’t need to call her” she said defiantly.

“Mum, I just have a little information for her, please ma…”

I pleaded for about 10 minutes before she finally agreed to give me.I went to my office and locked myself in.I dialed the number given to me and in just about 3 rings, she picked up…

“Hello, happy Sunday, who is speaking?” Christabel said with a very beautiful voice.

“Hi… Hi…” I suddenly lost my boldness, but I knew it was then or never…

“Hello… Hello” she said.

“Hi, Christabel, this is Sister Happy from Nigeria, Apostle Ray’s new wife” I introduced myself.

“Wow, Pastor Happy, good afternoon sis. I believe you should be in the afternoon over there in Nigeria…” she said laughing heartily.

“So good to hear your voice after so long and congratulations on being the new Mummy General Overseer, can you imagine Nneka and I fighting over what God had chosen you for?” she said laughing.

“It is well, thank you” I said as I realized Christabel was making this confession a hard one…

“So to what do I owe this call, Sis Happy? Sorry it ought to Pastor Happy now!” she asked with laughter.

I told her about my medical condition as regards bipolar and psychosis. I explained that it drove me to do crazy things, which pouring acid on her face was one of the things I did in the past.

Christabel was quiet but later regained her voice…

“You mean you are the one who did that and not Nneka?”

“Yes…! I am sorry, I did it out of ignorance and most importantly I let my bipolar and psychosis take control of me… I am really sorry… I know sorry doesn’t do justice to what I did, but I feel I should let you know so I can be free of the guilt I carry about… I don’t know if what I am doing is right but…”

There was a brief moment of silence as neither of us had nothing to say…, but Christabel broke the silence…

“It is ok, Pastor Happy, you were just faster than I was. This shows that we all are sinners and it’s only the knowledge of God that can help us and save us from evil. Do you know that I had paid to have Nneka assassinated before the acid incident? The hit man was supposed to eliminate her the day after the acid encounter, but they couldn’t find her because she was in police custody. So you see that we were the same back then. I hold nothing against you, because as we speak I am a better person. The months I spent in the hospital gave me time to dwell in the presence of God. All this while, I had been a fake Christian, going to church to show off my beautiful face, my designer shoe and bag, but now all that is in the past… I cannot even see all those things now… Do you know I am now blind…?” Christabel said.

I felt like something hit me on the chest.

“Blind…? What do you mean blind?” and right there my tears came pouring down.

“Yes!, the acid destroyed my eyesight.”

“Noooooooo” I screamed and the phone dropped from my hands, as I looked at what I had cost Christabel because of the desire to step into Pastor Maggie’s shoe that was not really worth it.

I cried and cried in my office, I didn’t know where to start, my phone kept ringing but I was too overwhelmed to pick up. It was Christabel’s number that was calling back. I deemed it fit to pick up.

“I am sorry, I didn’t know the extent of the damage I caused…”

“It’s ok, God has written a better story out of this disaster of mine, that’s why I called you back, I will be getting married next month. I met my husband at the hospital where I did my face reconstruction, he is a doctor. He helped me regain my confidence and love for God. God has dealt with me better than I deserve. Pastor Happy, nurture the ministry God has placed in your hands, you may have walked your way to that position but one thing I want you to know is God permitted it for His Glory, so don’t disappoint God.”

I spoke to Christabel’s fiancé who was seated beside her. He was a soft spoken person and obviously a child of God, because it was perceivable in his words.

I was free of my guilt. At this point, I didn’t care if Chaba wanted to tell the world about it. I knew the scandal would be too much to bear. People would call me names, but I was ready for it. I was ready to face the consequences of my actions, but I said a short prayer…

“Lord, I know you are the one who has the heart of the kings in your hands, you can turn it in whatever direction it pleases you, please touch Chaba’s heart not to make this public, not for my sake alone but for the sake of the body of Christ. If this goes out, people will say a lot of things against Christianity. People will judge other Christians by my past action and generalize this… Please ABBA Father, Ancient of days who can go in time to wipe out our errors, go back in time and erase this error from Chaba’s memory in Jesus’ name.”

The next morning, Apostle got a phone call from the church that he was urgently needed in the church, that Chaba was around and she was acting strange…