THE VILLAGE CHURCH - Journal of a Rural Evangelist

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 ...