Covid Encounter!

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 hold service until further notice. I tried calling two of the members but their lines were switched off. Sometimes there won’t be network signal in the village, or sometimes their phones won’t be charged. I had only one option, which was to take a risk and go to the village.

I got into the car and drove to the village. Cars were few on the way to Keti community, and a lot of people saw me drive through to Gbaukuchi. I got to the church and some members were already seated. I chose not to waste time and decided that the gathering would not be a church service. So I asked them if they had heard anything about the Corona virus and they said yes. They had heard of it on BBC Hausa using their transistor radios but they did not have full understanding of it. There is no electricity in the village; hence they don’t have TVs to watch the details. I enlightened them more about the virus and educated them that it was a global problem. I told them about hand washing and how to be hygienic. I warned them to curb their children from roaming about the village or even wandering to the next village. Lastly, I gave them hand sanitizers. We prayed and I told them the church would not be open until Government issued a directive to the contrary. All these I did within 30 minutes and left.

Sanitize!

I was just passing through the Keti community when I got a call from the interpreter that the police had come looking for me in the village to see if we were holding a church service. 😨! I had never seen police in the village before then but now they chose to come in order to make scape goats of people in the midst of a pandemic?

 Apparently, they had seen me at Keti that morning when I was going to Gbaukuchi village. I am the only one with the SUV that passes through Keti to go to Gbaukuchi every Sunday. They probably had followed me to meet us in the middle of the service and catch me red-handed. But thank God for His mercy. I did not spend up to 30 minutes by which time they had entered the village. Luckily, they went to the wrong part of the village in search of the church. I had left for Keti by the time they got to where our church was. Narrow escape!

When I got home, I saw on TV the churches that were closed that same Sunday and their pastors arrested for disobeying the lockdown order. I thanked God for delivering me from the embarrassing situation that would have ensued. Perhaps God saw my heart that I had good and unselfish reasons for going to the village that Sunday. All I wanted to achieve was educate the villagers on how they could keep themselves safe. I later spoke to a friend who is also a Pastor and his response was that I was disobedient going to the village that Sunday. May be I really should not have gone. I was perhaps too zealous but I had a burden and would not have forgiven myself if any of the members had been infected by the virus owing to lack of awareness. Had the Police nabbed me, I probably would have been arrested and be looking for who would bail me out. It was a case of being either rightly wrong or wrongly right.

We learn everyday! Thank God for deliverance.

“Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.” Psalms 124:7

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