Chapter 51 1
"Hello, good evening sir",
"I would like to see you right now Soby, I'll be coming to the hostel close to your area, can you meet me there?" Pastor Melvin said.
It was already 8pm, Sabrina dressed up in the spirit of love. She went happily to see him, he had been absent from WUCC for too long. They communicated, but it was nothing like physical contact and she was deeply worried about him. She didn't know the name of his new church or the way to his new house, he had relocated from the former place she used to know.
"I'm sorry I had to come at night, I had a small boil on my eye this morning", Pastor Melvin began, after they'd exchanged pleasantries.
Sobrina's heart bursted with emotion, she almost grabbed him to check out his affected eye. But controlled herself, seeing that they were in a dark corner.
"What happened to you? You stopped coming to church", she managed to question after some awkward minutes.
"I've changed churches, Soby, but you should stay in WUCC",
"Which church are you attending now?"
"I can only tell you that it is located within the campus"
"It's alright, as long as you're doing well"
They spent a few more minutes, talking. It was a fulfilling evening for both of them.
Pastor Melvin quickly resumed his duty of scaring other men away.
Few weeks later, Sobrina went for the weekly Cell Pastor's meeting in WUCC, and to her amazement, the meeting was almost over.
She'd thought she was on time as usual. She would later understand that Reverend Saul had rescheduled the time of the meeting, and had informed everyone else except her.
The Reverend was hoping to avoid Sobrina attending the meeting, without her knowledge. It was a coincidence that she had decided to go to church twenty minutes before the meeting was supposed to begin.
It was weird, but she waved it aside. She took a sit behind and joined in the meeting.
Reverend Saul ruled his church with an iron fist, His members literally worshipped him. One dared not be late to activities or church service; and a Pastor must not leave church service on a Sunday, not until all the three services he ran in a day were over. Therefore, Sobrina couldn't have been late by any chance.
There was a program coming up, Reverend Saul had printed fliers and posters to be distributed. He was addressing the attendees of the meeting when the people who'd gone to get the fliers arrived.
They began to distribute it - five copies - for each person to share. The posters were for the men to paste on billboards, at strategic points in the city.
The people who had gone to get the fliers from where they were printed had delayed, which had led to Sobrina arriving before the meeting ended, like the Reverend had planned.
"Sobrina, is Sobrina here?", Reverend Saul called, while pretended to be searching for her among the crowd. He was looking at every other area of the church hall, apart from where she was seated.
Of course, he couldn't have missed her arrival, he was standing in front of the crowd rounding up his teaching, when she entered the church hall. Mater of fact, he was still standing there.
Sobrina innocently got up, and with a smile rushed towards the stage.
"Yes sir, sir I'm here", she responded.
"I paid five thousand naira into your account this morning",
"Oh thank you, God bless you sir", she responded, slightly bowing.
Sobrina didn't receive any credit alert, so it was a surprising information, and in front of everyone. But She didn't mind, because church members gave to her from time to time. She was already a charity case.
She went back to her chair, as copies of the fliers got to her.
Few months ago, Reverend Saul had asked Sobrina to forward a summary of her testimony to him through text messaging. Of course, he had counseled her a couple of times. She kept no secrets from him, believing that God could heal her of HIV through miracle working Reverend. And also because she had believed the gospel.
Sobrina knew WUCC printed testimonies behind fliers. She enjoyed reading them. She turned one of the ones she had received around, and there it was.
"I am a student of the University of Science, I was a witch and a Devil worshipper, initiating thousands into the occult. I killed and destroyed many lives. I started disobeying my parents from a tender age and ran away from home often, which made my parents abandon me. I also prostituted for many years, and in different cities, until I got breast lumps and HIV. But I came to WUCC and God used his faithful servant - Reverend Saul - to heal me. He also restored my relationship with my parents. Signed by Sobrina Malcolm". The flier read.
Reverend Saul had edited the summary of the testimony she had sent to him, to suit his purpose.
