S.I.M.S
(STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’S SHOE)
PART 36
©? Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde
After my set had left Ikeji-Arakeji, I stayed behind for another 5 years working
passionately for God under Baba Fire.
In no time, Baba Fire’s church had grew from 130 members to close to 2000 members.
We were able to build a small cathedral of about 2500 members. We had started
having Elites in our church, even to the point of having the First Lady (Governor’s Wife)
as a member of our church. All these were possible because of the level of exposure
I brought into the ministry.
Baba Fire started having international ministrations which I had to follow him to,
because I had to interpret in English Language…
He was getting blessed with cars, houses, money and a lot of gifts. At this point, the
Spirit of Greed took over me. I felt I was the one pulling the crowd to his church and
should be in charge of all that he was in charge of.
I felt He was using my glory, and I decided it was time for me to pull out and start my
own ministry. My mum was not happy with the idea, but Maggie who at time was my
fiancée, gave me strong support. She was also of the opinion that I had what it took to be the General overseer of my ministry and not laboring for another person, who
someday will hand over the baton of the ministry to his children.
Maggie and I got married after my fifth year under Baba Fire. We settled in Ikeji-Arakeji
but Maggie and I were not content with the life over there. I would come back home
every Sunday lamenting over how the church members were blessing Baba Fire more
than they were blessing me. Maggie would also add to my misery by telling me it was
obvious I was just been used by my G.O.
We both decided in the second year of our marriage to move to Lagos and start my
ministry there, whenever the opportunity presented itself. Not long after our resolution,
a woman who usually came for prayers all the way from Lagos became our source of
motivation. She was always encouraging me to come over to Lagos…
“Pastor Ray, your anointing is underutilized and not appreciated here as it should be, you should come to Lagos or go to somewhere like Abuja or Port Harcourt, I tell you
sir, under a year, your church will be the talk of the Town.”
“I know, but God asked me to assist Baba Fire here”
” Well you have done a great job so far, maybe God just wanted you to learn under
him, Pastor Ray I think this is the time you should launch out, Bible says we should go
and preach to the uttermost part of the earth, not just in Ikeji-Arakeji town” She said
laughing?.
“Honestly Pastor, if you are interested, my husband and I will be willing to invest in you financially to start up your church”
I was so excited about the opportunity and on getting home to Maggie I discussed the
development with her. She was excited as well, and encouraged me to take up the offer. She even asked me to call her immediately to accept the offer.
On calling her, she was excited as well and she asked me to come over to Lagos to
see her husband over the weekend. She said, she would want it to seem as if I came
over to pray for her family and from there she would take care of the rest.
I travelled to Lagos for a prayer vigil at her home. On getting there, her husband and
children were not at home, she told me they would be home before the vigil. She
lodged me in her visitor’s room and inside the room, everything I needed had been
arranged there including food and drinks.
Around 11:45pm, she called me over the intercom, that she would join me in the Living
room for the vigil.
On getting to the living room, the place was empty. Her supposed husband and
children were nowhere in sight. As I sat wondering, she walked out of her room in a
see- through net gown, and underneath she had nothing on. My heart raced and right
there I lost my strength, I couldn’t resist her. I slept with her and that was the beginning of my woe. I believe that was where I got the strong attraction, for married women.
She kept to her word, and set me up in Lagos. But I hid my affair with her a secret
between us. I didn’t tell anyone, not even Maggie or Baba Fire.
On returning to Ikeji-Arakeji, Baba Fire called for me, asking me what I had done. I
acted in denial, he asked me the question 3 times….
“Raymond, what have you done?” and my answer those three times were “Nothing
Baba”.
Maggie and I moved out of Ikeji-Arakeji around 10pm 4 months later to avoid being
noticed. We didn’t inform Baba Fire, we only dropped a letter at our missionary home
that had been provided for us. I stated in the letter that I was led by God to go start
my ministry. I apologized for leaving without prior notice as I knew he (Baba Fire)
would not want to release me.
We immediately changed our lines to avoid calls from Baba Fire, when we got to
Lagos.
“Are you saying, you have not heard from him since you both left there” I asked Ray
who sat in front of me narrating the issue to me…
“I only heard from him, after about 2 months of starting my ministry. Till date I don’t
know how he got hold of my phone number.?
“Ray, you made me an object of ridicule, you brought me disgrace, may you forever
be caught in the web of shame and disgrace. You will continually see shame in your
ministerial work” Ray recounted the exact words Baba Fire said to him over the
phone.
“Ha! My God! He said all these and you never went back to plead?” I asked Ray.
“No, Maggie told me, it was just an empty threat” At that point I understood why
Pastor Maggie was able to cover and condole Apostle’s sinful lifestyle, they both
rebelled against God.
It all made sense to me, Apostle was never meant to be an Apostle or a founder of a
ministry, he had been called to Assist a founder instead. The Marine powers and the
spirit of immorality was able to swallow him up, because he was not in the perfect
will of God…
The question in my heart as we both became silent were the first words that came
out of Ray’s mouth…
“Is it possible for me to close down my church that I have invested so much in and
return to Ikeji Arakeji to become the Assistant of an illiterate?”
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