STRUCK DOWN : EPISODE 11-20
EPISODE SIXTEEN
“Deborah. Debby dear wake up already, it’s time for morning devotion.” Debby heard a faint voice say as sleep slowly left her eyes.
“5am? Isn’t it too early?” Debby asked mummy Grace after greeting her respectfully. Mummy Grace responded to her greetings and smiled at her question.
“Let’s go, the rest are up already and waiting for us in the living room.” Mummy Grace said and left her alone to come by herself.
“Oh God I still feel very sleepy.” Debby said rubbing her eyes as she dragged herself to the restroom to wash her face.
“In Jesus name we worship. Deborah lead us in praise please.” Was what Debby heard as soon as she walked into the living room.
She looked around to see if mummy Grace was referring to her or there was another Debby in the room.
“Deborah please we’re waiting for you. Lead us in praise.” Mummy Grace repeated. Debby nervously went in the middle of the room filled with people of her age bracket and clapped her hands. Soon the songs began flowing and everyone sang along.
When the praise section was over. Everyone sat down to listen to the preaching for the day.
“Know God for yourself.” Mummy Grace announced as the topic of her message.
“Please do you have a pen with you?” Someone whispered to her as the preaching went on.
“No, I didn’t come with anything.” She whispered back.
“Oh okay. Thank you.”
“Now as you’ve all given your lives to Christ, some of you must have some battles you’re struggling with.
It’s even possible you must’ve given your life to Christ because you heard somewhere that He alone can deliver you from such a battle or sickness; but the truth is your salvation cannot last if you have that mentality because once you get your desired miracle or breakthrough, you tend to backslide.
Instead of coming to Jesus with the desire to have your problems solved, it’s best you come with the mind and desire to know Jesus personally and build a lasting relationship with Him. That way you’d find Him so interesting and remain with Him even after you’ve recieved your desired breakthrough.” Mummy Grace preached as Debby listened.
“The way to knowing God personally is so common among Christians but only few, very few, practise it. You remember that song we were all taught as kids? Read your Bible, pray everyday, pray everyday, pray everyday. Read your Bible pray everyday, if you want to grow. Do we all remember it?”
“Yes Ma.” They all chorused.
“Very good. In that simple and short song lies the secret to growing in Christ and having a solid relationship with Him. Reading your Bible just to know more about not just your Saviour and Lord but your brother and friend Jesus Christ and praying daily asking for grace to know Him more and becoming all He wants you to be is the surest way to building a solid relationship with God.
I’m very sure we’re all here to at least lay the foundation of having a very strong relationship with God isn’t it?”
“Yes Ma.” They all chorused.
“Good! So we’re going to be both learning and practising the various ways we can know God which are reading the Bible and praying daily. We’re going to be taking baby steps in attaining this goal so some of you won’t disappear from here.” She said and they all chuckled.
“The first step we’re going to be taking in achieving this goal is setting apart a little amount of time to pray and read our Bibles on a daily basis. Now when I mean little amount, I mean as little as 10mins. The trick here now is just to get your body system used to opening your Bible and praying each day regardless of how short the timing is.
As you get consistent with this, your brain would get used to it that going a day without reading your Bible or saying a word of prayer would become difficult. So that’s it. Who’s in? Raise your hand.” Mummy Grace said with her hands raised as an example for others to follow. There was silence in the room for a while with no hands raised.
“Come on, it’s just 10mins. It wouldn’t hurt at all.” Mummy Grace encouraged.
“But reading the Bible is super boring to me.” A girl said from where she was seated.
“Exactly! Not just that, I go dumb everytime I close my eyes to pray because my mind keeps wondering what I’m to pray about.” A guy beside Debby said.
“Oh that wouldn’t be a problem dearies, just indicate interest first, then we’d have that settled.” Mummy Grace said as she watched them stared at one another before raising their right hand after much hesitation.
“Good. Very good. Any other person? Come on, you can do this. Don’t let the devil deceive you that you can’t because this would change your life for the best.” Mummy Grace said and more hands were raised including Debby’s.
“That’s more like it. Okay I think we’ve made progress for this morning. Henry please give us closing prayer.” Mummy Grace said and a guy seated opposite Debby stood up to pray.
STRUCK DOWN : EPISODE 11-20
Charity was taking an office break with a snack when she heard a smooth quiet voice within her.
“Thank you.” The voice said. She knew instantly it was the Holy Spirit speaking to her.
“Thank you? For what?”
“Letting me use you translate Deborah from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.” The voice replied and Debby smiled lightly.
“Because you focused on seeking first the kingdom and pleasing me even when it was tough for you sometimes, your case is settled.”
“My case? What case?” She asked and just then a call came in.
“Who’s this?” She asked herself as she stared at the unknown number for a while.
“Just pick up.” A thought within her suggested.
“Hello?”
“Hello Miss Charity, good day to you.”
“Yes good day. Please who am I speaking with please?”
“It’s Dr. Vincent. Remember the doctor at…..”
“Oh oh oh Dr. Vincent good afternoon. Sorry I didn’t save your number so I didn’t know it was you calling.”
“Oh that’s not a problem at all. How are you doing today, and how’s work?”
“Work is fine we thank God. What about yours?”
“Same as yours. Uhmmm….. Please when would you be free? I want to uhm….I just want to see you and have a talk with you, if you don’t mind ”
“Oh okay but that would be weekend. My week is very busy because of the nature of my job.”
“Oh alright. That’s fine by me. How’s Debby? I hope she’s doing well ”
“Yes she is, thank you. I’d send your greetings to her and let her know you called.”
“Yes please, do so. Okay let’s talk later then, I have to attend to these documents staring at me in the face.” He said as she chuckled.
“Okay then. Do have a lovely day.” He said
“Yes thank you. Bye.” She responded and with that the call ended.
“What was that?” Charity wondered.
STRUCK DOWN : EPISODE 11-20
It was evening already and Debby was on the bed, reading a book.
“Hello, can I come in?” She heard a female voice ask, followed by a knock.
“Yes come in.” She said and someone her age walked into her room.
“Hi, good evening.” She said as Debby turn around to see who it was.
“Hello. You’re the one asking for pen this morning at the devotion, right?”
“Yes yes I am. How are you?”
“I’m fine, I’m doing very well. What about you?”
“I’m okay too. You’re new here?”
“Yeah. I’m guessing it’s the same with you.” Debby said as she nodded. Just then, someone came to announce to them that it was time for food.
“I want to understand something here: the number of people in this house, are they related to mummy Grace by blood or something?” Debby asked in the middle of their meal as the girl laughed.
“No dummy, how can you say that? We’re too many to be related by blood.”
“Yeah I noticed. Then I don’t know, does she run an orphanage home or something? Because at the devotion today, I was amazed at the number of people present. We were up to 15 if not more , so I was wondering how she was able to gather so much. Probably she’s running an orphanage home or something.” Debby said and the girl laughed for a while.
“You amuse me a lot dear. How can you even think that, that we’re all orphans? Okay you that you’re here, are you an orphan?”
“Nooo, God forbid.”
“Ehe! The same way you have parents is the same way we have parents too.
Mummy Grace is a member of our church that loves intercession and anything evangelism, especially to young souls like you and I. She seems to be interested in grooming people in the way of the Lord and so people from her church bring her younger ones to her to stay for a stipulated period of time especially during the holidays, just to learn more about God.”
“Oh oh I get it now. Probably that’s how my mom got to know her. Okay so everyone here were willingly brought by a parent or guardian, right?” Debby asked as the girl laughed.
“Did you say willingly? Well, from the look of things, some were forced here, while some came with a ready heart. Take a look at that guy adjacent us. Do you think he loves it here?” She asked as Debby looked in the direction to find a guy seated and angrily staring around.
“Hmmm…….this is quite interesting.” Debby thought aloud and just then, mummy Grace walked into the dining room where everyone was eating.
“Good evening wonderful souls, I hope you’ve been enjoying your stay so far.
Please as soon as you’re done eating, I need you all to sit and wait for me in the living room so you could be all distributed to your various hostels. Is that taken, please?” She said and everyone chorused a yes.
“Did she just say hostel?” Debby whispered to the girl beside her.
“Yes, I guess we’re all going to be shared to different rooms where we’d be staying in twos, since were a bit small.”
“And you know that how? I thought you said you were new too.”
“Well, my sister happened to be here last year so I’m not totally new.”
“Oh ……”
As soon as they were done eating, they gathered at the living room as agreed and mummy Grace called out their names, allocating them to various rooms in the house.
“Wait, how’s this house going to contain all of us?”
“They own the whole building, so some of us are going to be staying at the first and second floor when this place is filled up.”
“Oh wow. She owns the whole of this house? Amazing!” Debby thought.
Soon Debby was called and she fell among the set of people to live upstairs at the first floor. Her new found friend too was in the same category with her.
“Okay please those going upstairs, be careful not to fall. Just tread carefully and go there to wait for me, I’m coming.” Mummy Grace said as Debby and the rest went upstairs.
Soon mummy Grace joined them upstairs and allocated them to their various rooms.
“Deborah and Dorothy, room 04.” Mummy Grace called out and Debby followed the people in front of her going to their own rooms.
“You’re in my room?” Debby asked on getting to room 04 and seeing the girl she’s been conversing with walk into the room with her.
“Yes!”
“You must be Dorothy then.”
“Exactly!” She said with a warm smile and with that they settled in their room.
Although the room was fairly furnished, Debby had to put somethings in place and wash their bathroom.
“I hope to have an amazing time here.” Dorothy said dreamingly.
“Yeah, me too.”
STRUCK DOWN : EPISODE 11-20
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