Jacob's face appeared at the door, his eyes scanning the room. Quietly, he bent down and began cleaning up the place. His face unperturbed, his expression hidden.
He worked his way to the last piece of furniture and supplies, fixing everything in its place. In minutes, he was done.
His measured footsteps left the room slowly. Minutes later, he was back. A few pair of clean men's clothes hung on his arms.
I couldn't take my eyes off him as he cleaned their wounds and handed them clean clothes. I felt small, really small. My son was a bigger man than me.
Between us, we agreed to keep the events of the room to ourselves. Or well, I demanded that none of them spoke about the matter. Shortly after the men left, I quickly wired some money into their accounts.
"That should take care of that," I mumbled to myself.
From where he sat, he looked up at me, his head shaking in disagreement.
"God will only work on those willing to be worked on. But those who refuse his warnings, he will humble with punishments. His grace is sufficient even unto the stubborn." He turned to walk out of the room and then stopped halfway. "But God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that he shall reap!" He didn't turn to glance at me, instead, he made a full exit out of the room.
I silently wished he could just shut up. I had never seen anyone who always had some kind of message from God every minute.
I stayed in my office ashamed to face the people. This day hadn't gone well at all. Instead, it compounded my problems.
Falling under power was not for the Senior pastors, not for the general overseers. It was for the congregation.
Even though I had never felt anything like that, I wondered if that would become my new normal. 'Was this going to be my experience every church service?' I shuddered at the thought.
"How did I allow myself to be overwhelmed like this?" I yelled into the silence that surrounded me.
"Pastors, especially General overseers don't manifest, we don't just do that! We are the embodiment of the power God, we just don't crawl on the floor and shiver." I continued to wallow in my predicament.
I slapped my head repeatedly until that part of my head felt numb.
My wife Brenda would have my head today, because Simple church 1o1, I flopped it with dangerously low grades!"
The second part of the service came on, as the songs made it to my sound system, I shivered, feeling the chill on my body again.
Quickly, I scrambled to gather my things, my shaky hands making it a lot difficult.
With no one sounding the warning, I knew I couldn't wait to be knocked out again. Maybe this time, I might metamorphose into a werewolf thrashing everything in my path.
Hurriedly, I stuffed my personals into my work bag, changed clothes and disappeared through the back door.
Thank goodness, Emass was waiting for me right by the back entrance, as if he knew we would be sneaking out like Nicodemus.
Grateful for his smart thinking, I jumped halfway into the car on hearing noises coming down the hallway. My foot was dangled out, as my crazy driver drove off speedily, leaving me to pull in my remaining body parts.
I pulled my legs in before church trolls spotted me. Yep,..... you know the loitering crowd, the ones who came to church but never in church?
The ones taking selfies with all the newest car models that are not theirs? Hmm, they are the ones I'm talking about.
We were almost out of their way when one of them caught the sight of my car. I disappeared unto the car floor. Oh my, I have never been so grateful for tinted windows.
As we breezed past them, they waved at me, but then, I was too ashamed to wave back. My Routine stop and greet took the back burner today. The shame I felt was beyond comprehension.
To think that me, Pastor Adrian, the celebrity pastor would be hiding away from people, remained unbelievable, even to me.
I looked back at the little crowd of people that had gathered behind me. The mask of confusion on their faces made me feel really bad.
But they should understand that recent events were threatening to take me off grid.
My thoughts flashed back at Shukura again. I shook my head again in absolute disagreement. Not today.
YOU ARE READING
UNWITTING VESSELS (sequel To Vessels Unknown)
Mystery / ThrillerWhen she was done, she handed our different assignments to us. It was a list of names, people who were yet to be part of us. My colleagues signed their allegiance with their pierced bloody thumb. I turned to leave after getting my list, bit her voi...
