MY FATHERS FARMLAND Episode 13 – 17 by Opeyemi.O. Akintunde

MY FATHERS FARMLAND Episode 13

©️Opeyemi.O. Akintunde

Oba and Ola saw as different people raised their voices on their behalf, especially Sukki. Ola wept putting the blame on herself for her selfishness and lack of forgiveness…

FATHER was moved by the voices, but HIS mind was made up, He wanted to transfer Ola’s wealth to someone else.

He wanted to give the wealth to someone who could use the money to bless lives… FATHER gave wealth to people he trusted to use it for the less privileged, widows, orphans and most importantly for His House and all that had to do with Evangelism.

Ola realized what FATHER was about to do, by virtue of her selfishness, she had acted wickedly to people. She didn’t give people money, She believed anyone who didn’t have money was lazy. FATHER was about to take her wealth and give it to a righteous person, no wonder the Bible made it clear that…

“ Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren, but the sinner’s wealth passes to the godly.” Proverbs 13:24

As Ola watched, she remembered a message one of her pastors had preached in a church service which she felt the pastor was trying to push them to drop their money…

“ We must have deep passion for the things of God, please note that God has blessed you, for the good of the house of God…God made Joseph a Vice President In Egypt, to go ahead of the Israelites so that he will be able to help the children of God during the famine. It was through Joseph’s presence in Egypt that the Children of God were given the best place in the land…

You have been blessed to be a blessing to the body of Christ, Your talent, your money and position is for the good of the body of Christ…”

Ola remembered turning her deaf ear to the rest of the sermon… But at that moment she realized the man was right, despite Joseph suffering as she did, he still forgave his brothers and blessed people.

FATHER must have read her thoughts as he said…
“ If there is anyone I am going to show Mercy to, it will be to Oba, for the sake of His wife who has done a lot of good to the body of Christ with Her prosperity…”

Oba knelt down thankfully as He knew the political evil he had done did not make Him qualify for Mercy, but Pelumi’s influence in his life was about to earn him another chance in life…

“But what about Ola?” He reasoned quietly as he could not bear to look FATHER in the eye…

He had lost one sister, couldn’t God have mercy on Ola, though she was the one who landed them in this mess because of her unforgiveness…Oba reasoned in tears as he heard…

“ This is my judgement…..” FATHER said with a tone of finality in His voice

PART 14
“MY FATHER’S FARMLAND”
©️Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

Ola found her way back to her apartment with the money she intended to use as her offering in the church…

She felt afraid, her mind kept telling her, Sukki was following her.

She wrote her experience in summary and gave it to her Landlady.

She wrote to the Landlady to take her to her friend’s place immediately. She also begged the Landlady not to disclose her new apartment to anyone including her siblings…

The Landlady obliged her and immediately took Ola to her friend’s place.

When Ola got to the new room, all she did was cry. She didn’t understand why she was this unfortunate.

“ Was it possible Sukki had suddenly become a Christian? No… Never, God Could never forgive him?” Ola cried

Her phone rang…It was Ope…

“ Where are you?”

Ola was just crying, she wished she could pour out her mind but she couldn’t speak. If only she had not seen Sukki, maybe she would have recovered her voice that night.

She sent a text message to Ope…explaining all that happened….

Ope replied her…

“ Mrs Banke has explained all that happened, it’s best you ran… Where are you now? I am at your place and your former Landlady said she doesn’t know your whereabouts. We should go make a report at the police station so they can make an arrest…” Ope had texted

“.i am not interested in arresting him, I just want to be far from him. About where I am staying, I am closer to you than you know, but right now I just want to be alone…I will be fine. Give me time alone to be with God. You can still check up on me via chats and video calls…I love you and Oba.” Ola had texted back.

Ope knew Ola too well not to try to argue with her. She knew Ola’s tone of finality even through text.

“ Ok, fine.. I understand how you feel, I will always text and chat you up everyday… You will overcome.” Ope texted though she did in tears. This Sukki guy was going to pay for what he had done…

“ Born again my foot!” Ope hissed

Mrs Banke was heartbroken when Sukki had explained to them he was the one who raped Ola and hit her with a charm.

“ We may need him to leave the church…” Banke had said with sentimentality in her voice

“ No, we can’t lose him, he is a new babe in Christ..!”Pastor Ayo said to his wife

“ Then do we lose the poor orphan who is the victim here..”Mrs Banke had retorted

“ We can accommodate both of them in the church, Our God is the God of Peter and the God of Paul, Ola is of the Peter generation, the ones who have always known Christ, while Sukki is of the Paul generation, those who despite their terrible past, God is willing to accommodate in the body of Christ!” Pastor Ayo had said to his wife in a heated conversation while returning back home.

Mrs Banke had been calling Ola’s number , Which Ola had given her on their way to church earlier that evening but she had refused picking up. She and her husband had traced her to her house but met her absence. She had called her sister, Ope to inform her of the situation.

“ I can’t afford to lose this lady..” she muttered silently as her Husband was not getting her point.

She felt they could send Sukki to another branch where he could be mentored by another pastor, while they accommodate Ola…

“ God, am I wrong?” Mrs Banke said to God in her heart….

PART 15
“MY FATHER’S FARMLAND”
©️Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

“ We should be mindful of our actions, because when we become born again or claim to be born again as a way of escaping the consequences of our past actions, we should know that some of our victims who we have hurt in time past still nurse their pains…This is just a gentle reminder…” Mrs Banke was saying at the Wednesday mid week service during her short exaltation.

Sukki knew the message was directed at him. The pastor’s wife was no longer warming up to him like before. She literally would give a malicious look that told Sukki, he was not wanted in the church.

Pastor Ayo was not happy with the way his wife was handling the matter, but there was little to nothing he could do about it.

This was a week after the incident of Ola seeing Sukki in the church, his wife had not been the same. She was highly irritable over little things in the house. She kept insinuating Sukki’s repentance was not genuine.

“ I better leave this church so I don’t cause marital problems between the pastor and his wife.” Sukki thought as he saw the exchange of looks between the pastor and his wife.

When Pastor Ayo stepped on the podium, his first Bible verse of the day was…

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.. Romans 8:1. I totally agree with my wife that we should be careful of our actions like the case of Brother Sunkanmi as most times in our ignorance we hurt a lot of people, but the good news for people like Brother Sunkanmi who have found their way to Calvary…

there is no more condemnation for them, because they are now in Christ Jesus.. Old things have passed away….”

“ And all things have become new” the members chorused , but Mrs Banke stood up instead and walked to the pastor’s office.

Meanwhile, Kikiolaoluwa had done a lot of soul searching. She stayed indoors for a week after moving into the apartment. She cried several times after she had read a text Pastor Ayo had sent to her…

“ We Sometimes can’t determine our background but we can determine our future. Brother Sunkanmi is a son of a herbalist, he was raised up in that way, so he never knew a better life than that, should we blame him for his parental upbringing??? He is just a victim like you…

You on the other hand had the privilege of being raised by Godly parents, which is a red carpet placed on the ground for you. Bro Sunkanmi has decided to join the Christian Folk, I know he has hurt you, but we do worse things to God, and He forgives us over and again… Please Sister Ola. We want you back in the church as we believe God has great plans for you…Think about it”

Ola did not like the fact that Sukki had repented but she knew God was happy on the contrary. She remembered the verse of the scripture where the Sherpherd went in search of one lost sheep and left the 99 others.

“ One soul really means a lot to God, and Sukki could be this one soul that God went all out for and I, Ola am one of the 99 that are already saved…” Ola had concluded.

She had searched her heart to see if she could return to Mrs Banke but she felt she couldn’t.

She decided to send a text to her…

“ Good Day Ma, I am sorry for not replying your text all the while, I needed to do a lot of soul searching. Ma’am, I know you have good plans for me, and possibly in the future I may return to you, but I don’t think I can deal with the psychological trauma of seeing my rapist in church every sunday experiencing God’s Joy when my hurt isn’t completely healed… Please tell your husband, I have forgiven Sukki wholeheartedly since God has forgiven him, but I need time away from him.. Please nurture him into full maturity in Christ Jesus, so he doesn’t go back to his vomit. God bless you ma’am “

Mrs Banke had received the message while nursing her hurt in her husband’s office. She read the message in a rush and replied…

“ What about his baby? will you still keep it?”

“ I don’t see the baby as his baby, I see the Baby as a different being, so I intend keeping the baby”

“ How will you cope financially?”

“ Before we met, I had a plan to start a business, I am going back to my plan.” Ola had texted back

“ Ok… God be with you, Don’t hesitate to ask for my help anytime you need it and have me in your prayers as well”

Mrs Banke sat back after she dropped her phone…

“ If God Could forgive Sukki, who am I to still have grievances against him and more importantly, If the victim Ola, can forgive him, who am I then?” Mrs Banke reasoned and immediately realized her wrong. She stood up and walked out of the office with the intention of going to Sukki and giving him a hug…

She looked around for him in the service, but he was no where in sight. She went to the store where he had been sleeping, the room was empty. His few clothes they had purchased for him was no where in sight, likewise every other thing that church members had given him had disappeared, instead there was a small note…

“ I had to leave so as not to cause problems between pastor and his wife. I will always cherish the gift of the few weeks I spent with you. I believe I am spiritually mature enough to walk on my own now. Thanks for the care…” Brother Sunkanmi

Mrs Banke’s hands started shaking on it’s own volition. What had she done?

“ God I am in soup?”….

PART 16
“MY FATHER’S FARMLAND”
©️Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

Ola decided to step out for some fresh air. Her new Landlady was a distributor of eggs. As she got outside, she realized the Landlady was short of staff as she had quite a number of buyers queuing up to buy eggs from her.

Some were impatient and had started leaving the queue, while some were showing signs of exiting the queue any moment. Ola took her time to quickly study the landlady’s way of attending to the buyers…

Ola noticed she would ask…

“ What is your order?” and the buyer will say his/her order and her sales girl will bring the order, then the landlady will act as the cashier at the same time. Ola noticed the Landlady was tired as she kept shifting her weight from one leg to the other. She was on the big side.

Ola saw some empty cartons at a corner, she picked two of it and returned to her room and wrote very boldly “ GOOR DAY, WHAT IS YOUR ORDER?”.. As she was about stepping out, the Spirit of God ministered to her that some of them may not be able to read English, so Ola wrote in Pidgin, in Yoruba, in Igbo and in Hausa. She had used a translating App online to translate into those languages….

Ola stepped out and walked towards the Landlady, she had written a small note as well.

“Ma’am you look tired, Let me help you stand to take orders, while you sit to collect your money. I have made placards to ask them what they want”

Ola showed her the placards, and the Landlady was happy. She gave Ola an appreciative smile. She hugged her and limped towards a chair.

The landlady spoke loudly…

“ Please customers, my legs are no more as strong as they use to be, please my daughter will be taking your orders. Though she can not speak, she can hear you perfectly. Her name is Kikiolaoluwa.

Ola did a great job as she had a great smile plastered on her face. In no time, there was no more queuing up as the selling became fast.

Sukki had been walking around aimlessly that day after he left Pastor Ayo and his wife. He was contemplating going back home, but he did not want to lose the new life he had in Christ. As he stood at a T-junction not knowing which way to go, he saw a group of young Christians walking from the left direction towards him. They were carrying different banners, which read…

“ ONCE SAVED, FOREVER SAVED”

“ GRACE COVERS ALL”

“ THERE IS A HIGHER LEVEL OF GRACE”

“ NO CONDEMNATION ONCE YOU ARE SAVED”

“ ONCE YOU ARE SAVED, YOU CAN NEVER LOSE YOUR SALVATION”

A young lady walked up to Sukki trying to evangelize…

“ I am saved already” Sukki quickly said as he didn’t like the Lady’s dressing. He was still trying to put his sexual issues under subjection, he didn’t want this lady tempting him…

“ Great!, then you should join us to evangelize, we all are meant to go into the world and evangelize” Grace pulls Sukki along before he had the opportunity to refuse.

Sukki liked the opportunity to evangelize, and since he had nothing doing and no where to go, he followed the troop. He looked at the members of this church, they were quite different from Pastor Ayo’s church. They were not modestly dressed, they dressed like the average unbelievers.

“Where exactly are you headed?” Grace asked

“ Nowhere in particular…Just left my former church… “

“ Why?”

“ Personal issues…”

“Like?”

“I was been judged by my past”

“ Welcome home!”Grace

“ Home?”

“Yes… Our Church is the place of Acceptance, Grace…” Grace said.

Sukki felt relieved but he saw something that made him raise his eyebrow. As they were evangelizing, Sukki saw one of the evangelist, stopping by a cigar shop. He bought a cigarette which he lit immediately.

“ Is a believer meant to smoke and drink?” Sukki silently questioned in his heart, but Grace answered like she was reading his mind…

“ I know what you are thinking about, but don’t sweat it, because that’s why our church is different, Grace covers it all…”

Sukki didn’t understand this but it felt good…..

Mrs Banke refused showing the note to her husband, but kept praying through out the day. She asked God to restore this soul to her…

What made it worse was when she heard in her heart…

“ So if God gives you children, and one offends the other, is this how you will chase one away to make the other happy…?

Mrs Banke cried her eyes out through out the drive home, her husband had not checked for Sukki after service. He didn’t know he had disappeared, he thought his wife was still sulking and that was why she was crying, so he didn’t bother asking why she was crying…

If only he knew, Sukki was gone…

PART 17
“MY FATHER’S FARMLAND”
©️Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

Eight months had passed and Ola was drawing close to her Expected Day Of Delivery. She had successfully hidden the pregnancy from her siblings. For those eight months, she did not give them the address of her new place. She tried to do video calls with them occasionally where all she did was smile back.

Ope had complimented her on several occasions that she was becoming fat and fresh.

Sukki on the other hand had been indoctrinated into the new lifestyle of the Church he joined after leaving Pastor Ayo. He had been taught that “All his sins in the past, the present one he was committing and the ones he was going to commit in the future had been taken care of”. Sukki therefore was able to continue in the sin of fornication once in a while.

However, the church made dissecting the Word very important. In 8 months, Sukki had read the New Testament 2 times. He was told the Old Testament wasn’t important.

The Senior Pastor of the Church particularly liked Sukki and in no time, he had made Sukki the youth leader. He had given Sukki a three bedroom flat and a car. The Senior pastor encouraged Sukki to go back to school, and with his connections, Sukki gained admission to do a part time course in one of the State Universities. Sukki was so happy he had found a place where he could serve God and his sin; past and present was not a big deal.

His pastor advised him to go home to see his father.

Sukki travelled back to his father’s place but met a bad news. His father had been hospitalized for about two weeks…

Ola had been having serious contractions for days. She had been in and out of labor for two days. At that point she had sent a message to her siblings as she noticed she was losing strength. Oba and Ope were shocked to see Ola pregnant. Ope kept proclaiming curses on Sukki. She wished she knew his identity.

Ola gave birth after 26 hours of painful labor. She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, but suddenly she started bleeding uncontrollably…She passed out.

Meanwhile, Sukki was in the same hospital visiting his father. His father was happy to see him after 8 months…

“ Father, I am sorry for my absence. I met Jesus and I was scared you would disown me …”

“ Hmmm… Jesus… Destiny can not be averted!” Sukki’s father had said

“ What do you mean Father? Sukki asked

“ Hmmm Ifasunkanmi, Even as a herbalist, your mother and I had delay in childbearing for 15 years. Your mother got tired of the concoctions I was giving her and without my permission started attending a Pentecostal church far away from us. In 1 year of attending the church, she got Pregnant and by prophecy the pastor had told her the baby in her womb would become a pastor and own a big church. So if you have started following Jesus, I am not surprised…” Sukki’s father had said…

“ Me, a pastor?” Sukki reasoned quietly.

He spent a short time with his father and paid the necessary bills.

As he stepped out and saw Ope. He froze on the spot, he thought Ope was Ola. He didn’t realize Ola was a twin. He was surprised she didn’t recognize him, but he thought it was possible she was rushing out to get something… She looked worried…

Sukki stepped back to the reception to find out what her problem was..

“Her twin sister was bleeding after giving birth and she just passed out. The bleeding has stopped but she is yet to gain consciousness.” A nurse said

“ Can I see her please, I am a Christian.. I would love to pray for her.”

The nurse initially refused but on a second thought, she took him there. Sukki saw Ola lying unconsciously with oxygen plugged into her nose. Sukki sat beside her and knew this was strawberry.

“ How come she gave birth? Was she pregnant after my intercourse with her?” Sukki reasoned silently

Sukki knelt beside her praying for her. He prayed with tears flowing from his eyes. He begged God to please restore the life of the innocent girl…

After about 15 minutes of groaning in prayers, Ope and Oba came in. They didn’t know who the stranger was, but they joined him in the prayer.

Sukki decided to end the prayer. As he stood up, he introduced himself as Pastor Sunkanmi. He said he had heard about her from the nurses at the reception and out of compassion he had come to pray for her.

Oba and Ope expressed their appreciation. Sukki asked for Oba’s phone number as a way of checking up on Strawberry later. They both exchanged numbers.

Sukki stepped out and when he got into the car, he wept sore.

“ If only his parents had trained him up in the way of the Lord, if only someone had taught him about God, maybe His life would have turned out better…”

At that point, he felt he knew what he had to do…

He was going to start up his own church to train and teach people the right way. He had learnt enough from his pastor in eight months…

To be continued

MY FATHERS FARMLAND
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