VESSELS OF WAR

CHAPTER TWO

Adrian was standing at the corner, his hands were in his pockets when he came out of the shadows.

          "I'm really sorry about how Pastor Abel treated you." He paused and looked into my face. "I, well.......we heard everything. " He pointed to a group of people by the shed. 

My eyes shut immediately, a wave of emotion stormed at the root of my sternum. But I tethered it and glanced at Adrian's comforting hand on my shoulder.

             "It is well. Come lets sit over there." He pointed at the waves of water coming ashore on the beach.

           We sat on the two logs of wood that lay carelessly on the white beach sand. Words were not exchanged, we just sat in silence staring at the sea waves.

Later,  I stole a glimpse at him. He was busy drawing in the sand. Few seconds passed before he spoke up. "About the sightings you were talking about, do you care to share?"

I told him everything about the previous night. He nodded, and advised I seek God's guidance. "If God really spoke to you, he would speak again." he paused and tossed me a quick gaze.

"Although, I doubt God will appear to you as an icicle shaped man, but He is the all knowing, so, I'd say wait." His words were comforting especially from a stranger.

Gently, he slowly took my hands and prayed with me. A little calm sat at the center of my storm.

He recommended I fast. I took his advice and fasted and prayed as much as I knew how to. As I fasted, my visions became foggy, so I added weed to the fast and then viola, it became clearer.

        Iced glazed being appeared  to me again on the seventh day of the fast and repeated same words. Right there and then, I knew God called me to be a voice unto the nations.

Same being physically appeared to me everyday for fourteen days from that first night. It showed me other visions which turned out to be true.

Sixty days from the first encounter with the mighty being, we had our first church service inside my one room apartment. Adrian and I. We kept it quick and short not lasting more than twenty minutes.

Our second Sunday debut had Brenda,  Adrian's wife in attendance. From there, I forced Nara to become part of our growing Church.

            Weeks turned to months, and it was still the four of us. At a point I became discouraged, but Adrian advised we rent a small storefront to attract more members.

Heeding his advice, we found a store two streets away from pastor Abel's church. It didn't go down well with him. He swiftly sent us so many cease and desist letters and even accused us of stealing his church members.

After a while, the church increased it's membership doubling our number from four member congregation people to eight in total, including my then girl friend Nara. 

I knew she only attended because stipends she got from the church. Christianity was never Nara's thing, she preferred her deities and shrines to the church thing. 

        Fast forward, multiple months after our debut, things still looked gloom. Adrian and I sacrificed our lives and resources for the church, yet everything stayed stagnant.

One year into the church opening, it was still eight people, the other two were a drag.
We had to beg them to come to church, gave them monetary gifts to induce them to be consistent,.....well...that didn't yield much dividends. Plus, no other person ventured into the church.

After multiple forms of the evangelism, prayers and even covenant sacrifices to other mega churches, nothing worked. I was so frustrated I began to nourish the thought of a plan B.