Chapter 25 REVEREND

Reverend Saul couldn't remark Sobrina due to the fact that she wasn't yet a regular member of his church.

One Sunday morning, the Reverend took to the stage very angry. It happened that one of the prominent sisters of the church had erred.

"Sister Ruth has been banned from leading in songs, and is officially committed to the back chair as punishment, until further notice", he announced.

Sister Ruth was the only song leader, and only member of the choir, as the church was very newly founded. It had about forty regular members and probably ten visitors present that morning.

"She went to visit a man who is not her husband, and slept over at his place. They didn't fornicate, but he romanced her private parts. The Holy Spirit revealed it to me. I questioned her and she confessed" he continued.

"This is what young girls of nowadays do. How can a girl sleep over at the house of a man who is not yet her husband?", he lamented in disgust.

Sobrina was sitting in the crowd, she had reluctantly decided to attend church at WUCC that morning. She observed what was happening, in total disgust. She felt pity for the lady in question and anger at what the Reverend was doing.

Things suddenly took a different turn, to her greatest amazement.

"You there, you", the Reverend said pointing towards Sobrina's direction. She turned around, searching for who he was referring to, as did others by her side.

The Reverend began walking towards her direction from the stage, he was holding a microphone. When he got to her chair, "If this is not what you do, deny it!" He commanded, he took the microphone from his mouth and pointed it towards hers.

Sobrina turned away in total embarrassment. When she didn't respond, the Reverend went back to the stage and concluded his sanctions with prayers.

As the church arose to sing, Sobrina took off her high heeled shoes and quietly left the church, ashamed. She resolved never to step into that church again.

Pastor Melvin wasn't in church that day, when Sobrina complained about what had happened to him, he quickly took the Reverend's side.

"You know me Pastor Melvin, I would never do a thing like that", she argued.

"No I don't, not anymore and the Holy Spirit must have revealed that to him, the Holy Spirit cannot lie", he argued.

It had been months since the day he had revealed that he was restarting school in the University to Sobrina, and things had cooled between them. But their love had remained.

"That Holy Spirit lied", Sobrina was hurt that he would doubt her integrity.

Her anger against the Reverend - whose fault it was - grew worse, and her resolve never to enter WUCC again became solidified. She also decided to leave Pastor Melvin, deciding that, if he could doubt her integrity towards him, there was no point continuing in the relationship wholeheartedly.

It took Pastor Melvin months of pleading to get their relationship back on track, and many more to get Sobrina back to WUCC.