The D-day arrived. The technical crew came very early to church and did the final set up for service. The choir sang, the drama group acted ‘Is your name in the book of life?’ and Pastors James and Wisdom led prayers. There was still something wrong. The atmosphere was like the first Scripture Union meeting Chidi had attended in school, no feeling.
Chidi sat with the technical group that handled projection and video recording (Chidi had asked Iheanyi to get televisions at once so that scriptures will be projected and those behind that could not see the pastor clearly would not have to strain). Chidi began to intercede quietly. When Pastor Francis preached, it was as if he struggled. That was the first time Chidi saw Pastor Francis preach but the former remembered when Pastor Francis electrocuted the entire congregation by leading prayers.
“Why is he so dry, ten years later? Aren’t people meant to advance rather than regress? Why are many sleeping as he is preaching?” Chidi thought.
“Lord, please, anoint your servant. Give him grace so that he can bless your people,” he prayed.
As he prayed, the atmosphere began to change and the Holy Spirit began to convict people of sin. The move was not as Chidi expected and even though he spotted some people sick, no healing took place. In fact, the church where people got healed in their numbers, ten years ago, had not experienced Divine healing in a while. Chidi noticed that the follow-up team was a bit sluggish when Pastor Justice made an altar call. Chidi asked Mr Benson to call the follow-up unit leader to go and do his job. He figured out that it was also a while people gave their lives to Christ in the church.
“After church service, I want to see all members of this unit that are present in church, no excuses,” Chidi told the follow-up unit leader after the newly converted were spoken to and their contacts collected.
After the pastors’ post-service prayer, Chidi met the church secretary and asked him for the service statistics. The secretary pointed him to a young usher, Mrs Goodness Prince. Chidi noticed that she was very detailed in giving reports and she was a very good writer.
“Mrs Prince, please, do me a favour and type all this information and also write a summary of the service. It should not take long. I hope that your husband will not mind.”
“He’s presently having a prayer meeting as a prayer unit member. I would have had to wait for him anyway,” Mrs Prince said.
“Okay then, please, follow me,” Chidi said. “Iheanyi, please, give her my laptop to work with. She’ll write a brief report for the fellowship. Please, be fast with what you’re doing. I don’t want to keep you here waiting for long.”
Afterwards, Chidi met the follow-up unit. As at then, some of the unit members had already become restless for being kept waiting.
“Where is he? I have something to do at home,” Chidi heard one say.
“Are these everyone around?” Chidi asked.
“Yes sir, though two people took permission to go home,” he said.
Chidi felt a bit of anger that some people left since he wanted all the unit members to hear what he had to say but he reminded himself that he did not have the authority to do anything about it.
“I thought that you said that it’s a pastor that wants to see us, not a young man,” someone said to the unit leader.
Both Chidi and the unit leader shot a stern look at the speaker.
“I was deeply disappointed about what I saw today. How is it that those in charge of the harvest have gone to sleep? Do you want tares to be sown?”
Chidi spent about fifteen minutes speaking with them and instructing them. Afterwards, he prayed with them and sent them away.
“Iheanyi, are you done?” Chidi asked Iheanyi after the meeting.
“It is remaining a little, sir. I’ll be done in a jiffy,” Iheanyi answered. “Sir, do you know that Mrs Prince knows graphics a lot?”
“Wow, that’s nice. Please, when you are done, bring it to my office and please, before you go, make sure that nothing is missing or damaged.”
“Okay sir,” Iheanyi replied.
Later that day, when Chidi was done putting the reports together, he took his laptop to Pastor Francis’ office.
“Good afternoon sir. Sir, here, the video is ready to be sent. I also added the report you asked of me: the attendance, offering count, the new converts and first-timers and a summary of the service in general,” Chidi said.
“Wow. The video quality is really good. Nice work. Anyway, that reminds me. I’m yet to get a report of how you put all of these together,” Pastor Francis said.
“I’m sorry, sir. Let me get the rough report from my office. By tomorrow, you’ll have the comprehensive report,” Chidi said.
“Where did the money come from, if I may ask?” Pastor Francis asked as he read the report.
“It’s just a seed to the church, sir,” Chidi answered. “Sir, about the names you asked me for, this is a list of those who worked me with to get this done and the specific duties that they carried out. I will still highlight it in the comprehensive report that I’ll give you.”
Pastor Francis looked at the list and asked, “Mrs Prince wrote the report?”
“Yes sir,” Chidi said.
“I hope you know that there is some information about this church that she is not meant to have,” Pastor Francis said.
“Yes sir. I told her what to write and then added up the data that I had gotten from the follow-up unit and the church office myself. I hope that’s okay with you,” Chidi said.
“No problem. I’ve gone through the video. It’s okay. You can send it to Pastor Justice.”
After he sent the message, Chidi called Pastor Justice to find out if he had seen the email sent.
“I’ll call and advise Pastor Francis that the church opens up social media handles to share their services with those that may want to listen or watch,” Pastor Justice said as they discussed.
Their discussion soon led Chidi to describe how he had nothing to eat since Friday as a result of the sacrifice that God had asked him to make.
“I’m sure you are yet to see the total revenue of your church. Pastor Francis confessed to me that the expenses are more than the revenue. That said, if you asked the church to supply the money, you’d have waited for a very long time, yet the project was an emergency. Renting would have been a waste of money and time and all too risky since the ministry will have to procure the items as soon as possible. Also, God is training you. Thank God you responded in obedience. Anyway, you know you could have asked me and I’ll send you some money. I am your father, you know,” Pastor Justice said. “Send me your account number right now.”
The next Wednesday, after the midweek service, Chidi met with the technical unit members.
“First of all, thank you very much for all your hard work and for honouring my instructions to stay back for a brief meeting. I want to especially appreciate all that made the video coverage possible. And for others, if the lighting or sound was not good, the video would have turned bad. So, thank you too. The pastorate has accepted that this unit should be divided into two, with those working with the media as a separate unit. Please, understand that those in the media unit can still help out in technical as much as possible. The separation is for efficiency in our work for God and His Kingdom. That said, leaders have already been appointed for the new unit and will be called up on Sunday for the congregation to pray for them. The unit leader is…” Chidi said and he could hear as some people whispered ‘Iheanyi Arinze’.
“Yes, Iheanyi Arinze. Iheanyi, I can’t say how much I’m grateful for your hard work. May God Almighty bless you. And to be assisting him is…”
The unit members were more assertive as several people said ‘Moses Ikedi’.
“Um, Moses. Don’t think your hard work and skill went unnoticed. I mean, your team members are also bearing witness of your work. So, it’s obvious that you will be part of the team. However, the work does not only entail the technical part of videoing, snapping, video and photo editing, projecting, setting up etc. There is also the part of graphics, content writing, creativity and publicity. Those qualities were seen in another person that isn’t in this unit,” Chidi said.
“Mrs Prince?” said Iheanyi.
“Mrs Goodness Prince,” said Chidi as he beckoned Mrs Prince to join him. “We will pray so that you can all go home. Mr Iheanyi and Mrs Prince, please, I crave your indulgences that you stay a bit longer for a brief meeting. Is that okay with you?”
They both nodded.
