One of the foolishness of my
undergraduate years was joining a particular campus fellowship that turned our
lives upside down; but of course we didn’t see it at the time. I am a strong Christian
and will never stop being that; however, I’ll still admit that I was really
foolish then. I wasn’t foolish, then how do you explain a fellowship fixing a
regional meeting during our examination period and we attended? Those days, how
we knew the strong Christians were those who obeyed every word the campus
pastor said, those who gave gifts (some of them outrageous for students) and
those who attended our several prolonged meetings.
I don’t remember the
explanation given but we all went and those of us that were studying education
courses missed two papers. I recall a story they told us. One of our pastors
then wasn’t doing well in school, down to his second year. After obeying a more
senior pastor to go for a meeting during one of his exams and giving some
offering, he returned to school that semester to make straight A’s in his
courses. He later graduated with a first class. My brothers and sisters, in
what world is this possible? How do you fail in 100 and 200 levels and graduate
with a first class or even a second class upper? We were so gullible. We used
to believe everything. Of course I failed and had to carry over those courses.
Many of us were in our teenage
years, it was so easy to influence our minds to believe or do anything. I had a
friend who made fun of those things we did and I saw him as junior anti-christ.
How could he not see we were crazy for Jesus? Some of the smarter ones attended
church in town and believe me, they were better for it. The senior pastors just
left the campus pastors to do things as they liked; I wish they paid more
attention to the campus fellowship.
Several times when we had
chemistry practical, they asked us to go on evangelism or share faith-based
materials on campus. Your guess is right, I failed those courses because
attendance mattered to the lecturer and I didn’t know.
One time, I lost an aunt. She
wasn’t just one of my aunts; she was special to my family. When my mother died,
she was there for us. She would do everything a mother would do and I loved her
dearly. On the day of her burial, the fellowship had a program fixed. I went to
the pastor to ask permission to attend the burial. He told me to allow the dead
to bury the dead and showed me where it was in the scriptures. So, I lost the
opportunity to say goodbye to a mother who loved me; I lost an opportunity to
be with almost all the members of my extended family. My father who had been a
church elder for 25 years at the time was also a dead burying another dead.
When my parents (my dad and stepmom) drove by the hostel that day to pick my
sister and I, I told them I had important things to do in school that weekend.
How could I tell them that they were the dead going to bury another dead? Those
words worried me for days.
During the students’ week, they
told us kings and queens do not participate in rag day. Boy! Was I broke that
week? Thank God for my sister who participated in the rag day. If not, hunger
would have reduced my life span that week. As I ate the food she bought with
the rag day money, I wondered who was fooling who?
And then they would ask us to
give offerings of 10k, 20k, 50k, 100k as students; hold services in a hotel we
paid for through our noses. Some students did unthinkable things to give such
money, feeling awesome that they obeyed instructions. Prayer meetings would
stretch from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Tell me which energy is left for the student
to study with? My sister would talk and talk, sometimes I would feel her hate
me a bit but it didn’t matter then. It was all part of the price.
So you tell me, if I wasn’t
foolish then, who was?
Twitter/Instagram: @club7teen
Facebook: VivianBeulahIgbokwe
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