THE VILLAGE CHURCH - Journal of a Rural Evangelist

  Growing up, I had sometimes wondered how some of our pastors coped then. Many were called to attend to emergencies after hectic church services. Many would not even see their kids for a couple of days as they had probably left their homes early in the morning before their kids were awake, to return late in the night after the kids were asleep. Members infringed on the personal spaces and times of a lot of Pastors who, in fear of God, could not summon the courage to say no when duty called. I experienced this several times but let me share a funny one. "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister." Hebrews 6:10 It was our 14th Wedding Anniversary, and it was a Wednesday. The day started well, and I had planned a series of activities with Missus and the kids for that evening. I went to work having planned to close early and make it home for the Anniversary...

  Sometimes being in a rural community makes one appreciate some little things we take for granted. A lot of people don’t know the importance of the elements as long as they see foods to buy in the market. Most of us do not even listen to weather forecasts anymore. We switch to other channels once it’s time for that segment knowing the news is coming to an end.   I arrived at church on a Sunday in the second quarter of 2016 and the men were a bit downcast. They wanted to talk to me before the commencement of the service. I gave them an audience and one of them said through the interpreter “Pastor, the heavens are closed. We don’t know if our sins in this village are too many but rains are not falling. How do we feed our families?” At first, it did not sink in; hence, I ignored. The rain will fall when at its own time. We continued with the regular Sunday service and as the women were singing, the thoughts of rain not falling rushed through my head again. I remembered years...

There are two exits to Gbaukuchi village. One is through Gbaupe village and the other through a community called keti. Keti is an advanced community compared to Gbaukuchi. It has electricity, water, primary healthcare centre, a market and of course a Police Station. Since the Gbaupe route had become extremely bad, I had made the Keti route my permanent route. Some members of the Keti community had come to recognize me and my car, and they greet me every time I pass through the community to Gbaukuchi village. I also give rides to some of them on the way to Gbaukuchi. When COVID landed in Nigeria, and there was a sudden lockdown, all markets, schools, religious houses and public gatherings were suddenly shut down in Abuja. On that fateful Sunday, I was at a dilemma whether to go to church or not. The Government had announced that no religious body should gather for any reason. However, I felt it would be wrong to leave the villagers in darkness about the pandemic and why we might not hol...

  Sometimes the problems you have in the cities are the same in the rural communities, especially when it comes to behavioral issues. When I arrived at the village church, I met the treasurer, the interpreter and some aides to the previous pastor. After some interactions with them, I decided to retain them in their positions. I did not know there had been some grumbling among the members about personal recognition and titles in the small church in the community. After a while, I started hearing murmurings leading to quarrels among the men. Sometimes some sets would antagonize the other for no reason. I interrogated a few of them and could not seem to figure it out. I prayed that God should help solve this mystery.   Some weeks after, a group of three men called aside for a meeting. One of them told me he was the first member of the church. They complained they were ignored in the positions in the church. They specifically criticized me for letting the treasurer alone handl...

This is a story of a couple in the village. It is a sad story of love, disappointment and anguish. There is a young lady in the village that’s married, but I noticed I had not been seeing her husband. I kept asking after him until the day he showed up. He wanted to see me and he seemed desperate. I met with him and his wife after the service, and he narrated his story. They had been married for a while but had not been blessed with a child.  He took his wife to a traditional fertility clinic in another village for treatment. After a couple of visits, he left his wife to be going there alone for the treatment, which was to take some weeks. A few weeks after, he noticed the wife was no longer going there, and she had become moody. He asked the wife what was wrong, but she wouldn’t say anything. After much pressure, she opened up that the herbalist had slept with her and she couldn’t bear to go back to him. "This is a taboo! A sacrilege!! How could she do this?" The husband was ...

I had been seeing her come to church once in a while. On that day, I asked Rosemary what she was doing, and she responded, "nothing." "What do you mean nothing?" I asked. She responded she had completed her secondary School in 2016, but her parents did not have money to pay for her WAEC SSCE Exams; hence she came back from School and sat at home in the village while her mates were writing WAEC. After the encounter with Comfort (not her real name), the single mum that got pregnant again, I was skeptical about helping just a random person in the village. I wanted someone who would be serious and could see a glorious future beyond the village. I assessed her and noticed she spoke good English, was confident and level-headed. Her cousin, who finished secondary School but did not write WAEC too, had gotten married and already had a child at the age of 19. I did not want this for her. I asked Rose if she would like to go back to School and she quickly responded, ...