..Encounter with the pastor..
Johnbull was lost in his reverie until he suddenly heard a door shut behind him. The pastor had walked in silently and moved straight to where his mother sat apologizing for taking so long. He explained that he was attending to someone—a woman—who had trouble with her husband. As he did so, Johnbull took a close look at him. The pastor was a smallish looking man of average height. His eyes were sharp and his mouth curved as if in a smile. He was wearing a not too clean white shirt on dark brown trousers. He had a bible in his hands and was calm as he spoke. The man introduced himself as pastor Ayodele and cast a quick look at Johnbull.
Johnbull felt the eyes burrowing into his heart and reading his mind.
‘Is this your son’, he finally asked Johnbull’s mother.
‘Yes, na my son’, she replied and ‘I bring am come for prayers’
‘You are welcome’, pastor Ayodele nodded and greeted Johnbull, who appeared lost
‘You stay in Lagos? he asked.
‘Yes, I stay in Lagos’, Johnbull replied, a little nervous.
At this point, Johnbull’s mother took over and asked pastor Ayodele to commence with prayers, to know exactly what to do. In the days to come, Johnbull would come to know that pastor Ayodele was gifted in prophetic ministrations and he had used that gift to set would be victims free from perceived bondage and oppression. And pastor Ayodele heeded the call and ordered Johnbull to kneel down while he launched into a lengthy praise worship and singing session, extolling the virtues of God and pleading for forgiveness of sins. He prayed in Yoruba dialect and commandeered the Angels to destroy whatever was blocking Johnbull’s blessings and bring down his glory.
As he did so, he danced and repeatedly rang a bell while darting right and left; soon, he went into a spasm twisting himself and muttering…” hm..hm…Jehova…hm.hm..Jehova….” All the while, Johnbull’s mother sat quietly and only uttered “amen…amen…amen”. Johnbull must have knelt down for close to five minutes while the hot prayer session lasted. He felt something move in his body as he tried to steady himself. Well, this is it, he whispered to himself. This was the reason why he rushed down from Lagos in the first place. Anyone who had gone through the kind of suffering he endured would jump at any opportunity to rescue himself. As the man of God increased the tempo of prayers, Johnbull listened to the prayers and the words being used to buttress the points. He heard statements like ‘setbacks…padlock…promise and fail’…statements that correctly reinforced his predicaments! He gritted his teeth and clasped his hands tightly as the prayers rained down. ‘Phew, what a run of bad luck’, he hissed.
Just then pastor Ayodele shouted…’thank you Jesus…thank you Jesus……Yes Lord…Yes Lord…Thank you Jesus…the Lord is good!’ He then grabbed’s Johnbull hands and told him to get up and sit down. Then, facing his mother, he said ‘mama… thank God…God is faithful…. your son get good luck…thank God you brought him; the enemy had planned bad for him’, at which the mother replied ‘Oh thank God…. pastor make you try us…. please’.
‘No problem ma…God has shown me his problems and what to do’, he began.
‘They wanted to finish him off…but God no gree’, he continued
‘They trap am somewhere…make him business no work’, he explained
‘In fact, he is supposed to be a beggar by now…that is the plan of the wicked’, he revealed
‘Na your husband people dey behind his problems’, pastor Ayodele confessed to the mother.
‘Anyway…you are going to bath immediately’, he announced
‘And you are going to use one bag of salt and two bottles of anointing oil right now’ he disclosed.
Pastor Ayodele explained that the purpose of this immediate spiritual exercise was to purge and destroy the spell the enemies had cast upon Johnbull long ago which were responsible for string of business failures!
Dazed, Johnbull would only stare at his mother who sat coolly at the far right corner of the nondescript one room affair. The shabby curtains only managed to shield her a bit from the sun rays permeating the room. An expert in this kind of spiritual matters, she was thankful there was solution. Of course, a mother of nine children and married to a polygamous family, she had now become a veteran to all sorts of enemy tactics. You could say she had developed such a defensive mechanism and the expertise to launch frequent pre-emptive strikes at enemies’ strongholds. In the turbulent marriage she found herself, she was now adept at not only springing surprises at enemies, but prolific in initiating counter attacks to keep them at bay. That’s how she found herself on first name terms with numerous pastors and ministers of God who respect her for that purpose.
It was in that cool manner she again told her son to relax.
‘If na money..I will spend it…I have not sold you to any foolish wizard’, she declared.
With his hopes raised, Johnbull instantly became happy and adjusted himself where he sat
He wondered why it took him so long to get to this solution ground; to have allowed these problems to knock him down was a shame; a rush of wind suddenly made to escape from his throat as he shouted. ‘Damn it…. devil, you are a liar’, with a defiant look on his face.
Then, speaking in a voice that could tame evil spirits, pastor Ayodele announced ‘I think we can start now…. If you have the money, let me go and buy those things for you to bath immediately’, he was addressing Johnbull. But his mother interjected saying ‘Take the money, I will pay for it…here…go and buy those things!’ He stretched out his hands, collected the money and left to procure the items while Johnbull and his mother waited.
