THIS IS NOT A SERMON!

Yesterday’s mass in church was very interesting.
I’ll like to share some parts of the priest’s homily with you guys.
It’s not boring trust me.

So the priest started by asking the congregation a very popular riddle.

If both your spouse and one of your parents were drowning and you had the opportunity to save one of them, who would you save?

The first person who answered (a woman) said she would save her husband. When asked why, she replied that her father was on his way out of the world and he had completed his life mission while her husband was young and still had a lot to do before departing this world.

The priest commented that most of us only value people when they are useful to us and as soon as we stop benefiting from them, we regard them as unimportant and dispensable in our lives.

According to him, this was a wrong way to think.

The second person to answer, a man this time, said he would rather save his mother because in this life he can only have one mother whereas if he so chooses, he could marry as many wives as he pleases.

When we asked what the answer to the riddle was, the priest said that there was no right or wrong answer. He said that people act in certain ways based on their experiences/outlook to life.
What would I do if I were in a similar situation?
I don’t know o, but really thinking about it now, I think I’ll save my husband for the single reason that as a result of marriage we are supposed to be ‘one’ so letting him die would be like letting a part of me die.

That’s my opinion. What would you do if you were the one?

Then again the priest posed a second question.

If a group of hired assassins approached you to tell you that they’ve been paid to kill your spouse but would spare his/her life if only you agreed to die in place of him/her. Would you agree to lay your life to save his/hers?

This question hard pass Olumo rock o, lol!

So the priest asked those who would be prepared to die in place of their spouse to raise their hands.

In a congregation of more than two thousand people, only two people raised their hands.

Even those two, I doubt if they’d be as willing when the gun is pointing them in the face,lol!

Anyway, as I was saying, two people raised their hands. I wasn’t surprised they were both men. Correct me if am wrong guys, but I am of the opinion that men love more selflessly than women. I am a woman but I admit that we tend to be more selfish than our male counterparts even when we claim to be madly in love.

Sorry, no digressing. That’s not the big issue here.

The priest’s talked about Jesus Christ who gave up his life so ours could be saved even when we were sinners. He commented on how difficult it was for us to give up our life for our spouse, yet we do not appreciate the magnitude of what Christ did for us and we carry on like it is no big deal.

The truth is, IT IS REALLY A BIG DEAL PEOPLE!

I must confess, my heart was opened wider at this revelation. To be honest, I no sure say my love for any husband go reach the point wey I go say, shoot me and leave him cos I sure say my body no go don rotten finish for ground before the man go begin eye another chickito, abi I lie?lol!

A friend of mine whose wife died at childbirth last year is getting married again this year, can you imagine that? This was a couple that was so so in love(that was the impression I had sha). They were like the model couple even though it was very young union. They were barely one year old in marriage before the wife died. Now our guy can’t wait to tie the knot with another opeke. Kai! What happened to all the "No one be like you" and all that love bla bla bla,lol!

Again I digress, sorry peeps.

Back to yesterday’s mass.

The priest also told a story. A very funny story.

At a burial Ceremony, the widow was at the graveside of her husband, wailing and screaming:
“God why my husband…Why? You could have taken me instead and left him…oh God why??”
She kept wailing while other sympathizers consoled her. Suddenly, there were thunder rumbles and lighting strikes in the sky and a voice boomed from above.
“MY DAUGHTER, I HAVE HEARD YOUR CRIES AND I AM READY TO BRING YOUR HUSBAND BACK TO LIFE”
The ecstatic woman started thanking God.
“Oh thank you father…thank you lord…thank you…”
The voiced boomed again.
“ON ONE CONDITION THOUGH, THAT YOU ALLOW YOURSELF BE BURIED IN THAT COFFIN AND YOUR HUSBAND WILL RISE BACK TO LIFE”
Guess what the woman’s response was.
“Oh God…No oooo…In fact, thy will be done o lord, you know why you took him o lord, I do not question your decision father, let thy will be done!”

LMAO!!!
See change of mouth...human beings…ever so dynamic,lol!

Abeg, I’ve got to run now but one thing I want everyone to remember is that Jesus Christ died that we might live, let us appreciate that and decide today that his death shall not be in vain.

This is not a sermon, please!

Wishing you all a lovely blessed week, Mwuahzzzz!!!

My Prison Visit

I got the call on Saturday morning. I was still sleeping. Saturday mornings are sleep in mornings for me. No waking up early to prepare for work, oh what joy!

The caller was Brother K from the Prison Chaplaincy. The Prison Chaplaincy is a society in my church. Their activities include Prison visitations, Evangelization and so on. I joined the Prison chaplaincy sometime last month after I decided I didn’t want to be a nominal christian -Sunday church goer anymore. However since I joined I had only attended meetings once (My bad, I know). At the only meeting I attended there had been discussions on plans to visit the Kiri-Kiri Medium and Maximum Prisons in Lagos and since I didn’t attend after then, I had missed going with them on their visit to The Medium prisons.

Brother K had called to inform me that they were visiting the Maximum Prisons on Sunday 9th September (Yesterday). He also enquired why I haven’t been present at the meetings since the last time I came. I apologized and promised him I was going to come along with them on the Maximum Prisons visitation.

Sunday morning, I dressed up and headed down to the agreed venue from where we would set off. I was excited. I hadn’t visited a prison before but I had watched some prison movies ( I saw Prison break recently, a great watch. If you haven’t seen it…u need to!) and I had an idea what to expect.

We got to the prisons at about 11am. When they learnt I hadn’t been to a prison before, every one went out of their way to show me one or two things, they pointed out the Medium prisons to me, showed me some prisoners returning from their early morning duties, I think they had gone to cut grass cos I saw them with hoes and cutlasses.

Finally, we reached the Maximum Prisons. We were asked by the wardens to leave our bags and phones at the gate. Phones are not allowed inside they tell us. The females were frisked by the female wardens. The male wardens also frisked the guys to make sure we were not sneaking any contraband inside,lol.

Inside the Prisons now, I ask a question about the prisoners. I am quickly corrected that we don’t say prisoners rather they are called inmates. In fact, I am told that as long as we are inside the prison walls, we are also inmates. Hmmm… Princesa the inmate,lol.
We head for the Catholic church inside the Prisons where there is a mass celebration going on. Actually, it was a Feast day. For those who are not catholics…Feast days are certain days set aside in the catholic church to celebrate certain memorable events. Yesterday was the feast of the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary so the idea was to celebrate with the prisoners.

Mass over , the feast proper begins. Some other church groups had also come on their own and they brought food too so there was lots of food and drinks to go round. We had come with about 5 big coolers of rice. Funny enough I always had this impression that prisoners were hungry looking, malnourished people but these prisoners I was looking at were healthy looking and well dressed (I guess they were on their Sunday best). Some even spoke very good English. Some of them weren’t even as thrilled as I thought they would be at the mountain of steaming rice and chicken that was being served. They would eat the chicken and abandon the rice in the plate. I was shocked!

Aha! Some were very enterprising. There were those selling some beautiful hand crafted hand Fans, some were selling wooden Key holders. It was nice to see that they were putting their talents to good use.

I also met a young man, Micheal. He had come to toast me. What was that line he used? Ok ..”Sister, while you were serving , you looked so beautiful I wanted to come help you”lol. Initially I just pretended not to hear and went on walking but he just wouldn’t relent. He just kept on following me. See me see wahala o! Prison love!! I decided to talk to him after all it was part of the evangelizing-showing love to those that need it. He told me how he came to be in prison. According to him, he used to work in a bank in Abuja. There was a fraud in his bank and he was indicted by EFCC. The case hadn’t gone to court yet but he had hopes that in about a month’s time he would be out on bail. Why it has to take that long…I don’t know!

Anyway, Micheal gave me piece of paper on which he had written down a phone number and begged me to call him. Na wa o! I tire for this guy!! I asked him if he had a phone and he told me he did but it was against prison laws so it was always hidden and on vibration. In the spirit if LOVE, una sister collect the paper put for bag o! Now I keep having this image of the poor guy sitting down in his lonely cell waiting for my call and am feeling guilty that I promised to call. Maybe I will call him…just to wish him luck… or what do you think guys?

Oh! I forgot to tell you I saw Pastor King! The pastor that set some members of his congregation ablaze. He was sentenced to death by hanging but the guy I saw yesterday did not look like he would ever be put to death by anyone. He was strolling along the prison grounds and he had this air of arrogance around him. Even the Prison officials-wardens and co. were all hailing him: “His Holiness, His Holiness!!” One of the inmates told us he was untouchable there as he always doled out money to the officials and prisoners.

All in all, it was an experience for me and when we finally left around 4 o’ clock, I was happy that I went after all. I was also thankful to God that I could go where I want, sleep when I want, eat when/what I want. These are things that I take for granted but some people don’t have it.
So am happy, I am FREE!!!