Yesterday

Yesterday while evangelizing I met a young man, a supermart guard, whose face at first wasn’t welcoming. I had said to myself, if I go to him and he tells me off, I will just pray for him and go my way, he was my third target to channel the word and love of God to… Saying a little prayer, I advanced on him with a big smile and greeting.

Truth was I had followed my sister to get groceries at their mart and she was seriously wasting my time; while I stayed outside to get fresh air, she was just busy chatting inside, that was when I saw him and not only was his body language expressing pain, I just knew I had to talk to him about Christ’s love and encourage him to make him feel better. Here we go….

Trying to hurry my sister to come along, I smiled and said “My name is Anne” what is your name?

He said “Solomon”, from his tonation I knew clearly he was from the north and the tribal marks on his face did the justice to confirming he was a northerner, Are you a Christian? I asked…

“Yes I was born into a Christian home and I have been a Christian all my life, but I have been suffering for a while now”. This was where I got puzzled then decided to ask him why he has been suffering. He tearfully started telling me about his ordeal and I was numb up to a point where I had thank God for my life and the opportunity he gave to me to be able to share a moment with this young man.

His disheartening story started with the loss of their homes during the heated BOKO HARAM insurgency at Adamawa last year, he had begged his parents for them to move away totally from that area but where would they go… Unfortunately another attack happened and this took away his mother, leaving him and his siblings motherless. Seeing as the father was still dogged on staying at their hamlet, he ran away to Abuja with his younger sister, only for them to get a sadder news towards the ending of last year that another attack had taken the life of their father and his other siblings. He can’t return home to bury the dead and he had nowhere else to go, just living from hands to mouth and doing all he can to survive and protect his sister. 

Did God turn away from you? 

Does God want to make you suffer?

Do you believe the Sovereign God has other plans for you?

These and more were the questions I so much wanted to ask Solomon who believes immediately his younger sister is married off, he will have a little peace of mind and more strength to carry on.

It was really sad… Because when you lose a loved one it’s a burning pain that may never heal until the day you die and worse is you losing your immediate family and you are left with only one of your blood line, she’s all he’s got now but yet his hope in God has not deterred. As we both bowed our head in prayer and I held his shoulder, I felt it tremble and how the little prayer we said to God to thank him for his mercies and settlement gave him peace.

So many of us have the luxury of a beautiful family and enjoy the grace of God because we have been caused to live a blessed life while So many Solomon’s  walk around us , say hello to us , tell us to have a great day, smile at us and yet just need a little encouragement, wave back and smile. Some only need to listen to you talk about the reassurance of God’s love that they are not left alone but just a phase to make them stronger. As Christians that enjoy the grace of God we must not enjoy it alone, in fact it’s not too good to only see the light, Let others see the light through you; Evangelize, Talk to them about Christ’s love and encourage them to carry on. The day of the Lord will soon be upon us and we will all be rewarded according to the works of our hands.

I pray with thanksgiving that the Lord will touch our hearts and make us Christ-like in a meaningful way.