"Today, I stand before y'all to testify that God fulfilled all his covenants and promises. He took away all the pain and shame that had enveloped me. Instead of older men that always surrounded me, he gave me a young wealthy most handsome man of all times." She paused.
"Pastor, my man is handsome that I sometimes feel like biting him." Anna said so proudly, the camera controllers zoomed Liam in from where he was sitting, showing him on all TV screens.
"You know when God pays, he gives you in abundancy. He makes you forget all that you went through." The pastor said, "Say it again my daughter, your man is what?"
"People of God, my man is handsome. He's so cute that I feel like hiding him far away from evil eyes." Anna said pouting proudly.
"AHHHHH!" The pastor shouted so loudly through the microphone, "How I love God, he gives with one heart."
"Pastor, my man has an identical twin brother but mine is still the most handsome...."
As invested as the projector guy was, he displayed Liam and Lewis's photo on screens.
"Thank you" Anna thanked, "There they are, don't ask me who he is among the two but I know that he's more handsome than the other."
Everyone, including Liam this time laughed out loud in sync.
"Did I hear someone ask the other twin's phone number" The pastor asked to hear the crowd laugh again at once.
"Is there anybody who would dare compete with the president's youngest daughter?" Anna asked amidst giggles.
"Wait, what?" The Pastor asked overwhelmed, "You mean Deborah Garuga is your boyfriend's twin brother girlfriend?"
"Uh huh" Anna answered with much pride and fondness.
"Holy spirit! This is so incredible, how lucky are those who love you my Lord!" The pastor said.
Anna giggled and continued praising Liam. "He's so rich compared to men of his age. He has the height and the body I always prayed for. He is as I wanted but do you what tops everything, pastor?" She asked looking at the middle aged man.
"That's what I'm eagerly waiting to hear." The pastor said.
"I am the first woman he has known all his life..."
"What?" The pastor and the congregation asked in unison. So shocked and doubting.
"As handsome, rich, educated and old as he is, I am the only woman he had first loved and first slept with all his life. Isn't that God?"
"..." The pastor was speechless.
"I and him are free from heartbreaks and unnecessary ex lovers drama. We don't have to heal from past relationships, no, we're each other's first lovers. When I prayed to God to keep my innocence, he sure did. And here I am today bringing my one million shillings thanksgiving offertory I promised God." Anna said and proceeded to give the pastor the envelope she was holding but he told her to wait.
"All my life and history I've heard, no girl has ever done this. Thanking God because he kept you safe? While others give themselves away willingly? This is beyond my understanding." The pastor said getting emotional, "I thought these kinds of mighty men and women were last heard of in biblical generations? But you still exist?"
"It's not being mighty, Pastor! It's only God's grace. I don't remember praying hard, fasting or gathering every Sunday or going for overnights but God saved me with his mercy. I do sin alot in other several ways but Jesus was and still is so compassionate to me. I don't deserve him and his great love."
"What amazes me the most is the fact that you couldn't meddle in God's word that much but you still understood his convenant and remained patient while a lot of church girls you're more beautiful than fornicate day and night when they know God and what he can do for them better." The pastor said furiously, "She said that she was drunk the day before the crusade encounter but if God can do wonders for her, why not you girls and boys who seek him everyday."
"Not only that but even yesterday, I drank alcohol but God still worked for me." Anna said, "I'm not trying to lure you in the sin I do or trying beautify my wrong doings but what I am trying to say is that if God indeed does wonders in my life, how about the great righteous men and women of God that he has called by his names? How about the prayer worries and those who have stayed away from every sin? As much as God loves me and am so grateful for it but I know that he can't love me who hasn't added on his kingdom than you who serve him with all your strength day and night. He is so faithful to fail anybody who trusts and lean on him." She said then took some water.
"Let me share with you this short story as one of the products I've gotten out of waiting onto the Lord." She started, "Several years ago, there was this family of five that got employed at my maternal uncle's home. The man would work as a herds man while the wife and his older children as house maids. As years passed by, this man's wife bore him two more children.
The eldest boy was about twelve when he started falling in love with my uncle's daughter; my favourite cousin and my best friend. Both their parents would discipline them as usual but thought it was just children's play but what they took lightly developed more. Fortunately, the couple had gotten some money and some little cattle to start their own home so they bought one acre of land and shifted to avoid more conflicts between the two families considering their children's affairs.
My uncle, aunty, my parents and all our other relatives were so mad at my cousin for choosing the peasant boy of all presentable boys from richer families. It was a shame to them as our families are considered the wealthiest in our community. But neither of their harsh judgement nor the boy's distance changed Nancy's heart. She still looked for Eric as much as Eric loved and looked for her.
Unfortunately, Nancy got pregnant at fifteen and was ready to birth her baby and maybe she could resume schooling but her parents terminated her baby by force. In much anger and grudge on her parents, she conceived again after a few months but still, they did the same thing. In so much pain, they aborted the second baby. Much discipline took place on both sides and perhaps, someone advised Eric to use protectors or so, to avoid impregnating Nancy again. But it happened again after four years when she was now nineteen and when her parents terminated the baby again, Eric swore to leave her for good because this time, the process was so painful that she reached on death point.
In much pain, they stayed apart for two years till Eric's dad died. Life hardened for him that he had to drop out of school and take care of his mother and four siblings. He would do cheap jobs to earn a living slowly till he decided to immigrate to the city by the help of my brother__Nathaniel for a better life. He joined a mechanic garage to which he started his own a few years later. But in between there, the couple had gotten back together only that it was a long distance relationship this time.
After I and Nancy had winded up studying, Nathaniel brought us here as well and we stayed in the house am in right now for a year till Nancy decided to permanently move in with her boyfriend. It was so victorious for them to have themselves with nobody disturbing them but when all our relatives heard of it, they cursed Nancy terribly and her parents disowned her for stubbornly choosing the poor boy they resented the most.
Luckily, Eric didn't mind all the names they called him. He had after all built his house in the city and bought a car which was a super progress to him and his girlfriend. Life went on real good with the couple until last week." Anna paused to see all eyes curiously staring at her.
"The devil doesn't sleep. One of his friends borrowed a larger some of money on his business, house and car. He didn't know anything until the bank came to take all his properties. His hard earned properties were gone in a blink of an eye. It was 500milion shillings, not in his life had he gotten that much amount at once for him to pay the bank to rescue his properties. Sorrow, misery and agony enveloped Nancy and us all but Eric was nowhere to be found. All was on his mind was suicide. We were so stranded and terrified, already thinking that he had taken his life."
Some of the congregation was crying, others mad at the fraudster while others patiently waiting for the end of the story.
"To make matters worse, I was in bad terms with Liam and the sorrow was double...."
"Is that the reason you said you had cried day and night, drinking nonstop?" The Pastor asked.
"Very good! I had accused him of doing something that he hadn't done and I was so mad that I had broken up with him. He was all the way to USA but he came for me" Her voice cracked, "He looked up and down for me even when I had shown him a red card."
"Ewww!" The congregation exclaimed sadly.
Anna continued, "I don't know how he found him but it took only a few minutes for us to locate Eric. He was walking aimlessly barefooted in the middle of the road but the hand of the mighty God was on him that he wasn't knocked."
She wiped her eyes, "After he gained his consciousness, Liam gave him one million US dollar to settle the debt. To those who doesn't know the worth of a million dollar converted into our shillings, it is equivalent to three billions and seven hundred plus million shillings."
The crowd went berserk, those who where Christians raised their hands up in the air praising the lord while the non believers where so stunned to react.
"All this happened last Thursday, the day y'all saw me first. Guess what, Eric who wanted to kill himself because of his lost properties is now going in Japan on this coming Wednesday to buy cars. From repairing cars to selling them. He bought a large piece of land for his mother and siblings on the same village where our relatives oppressed him in. He bought a brand new car to Nancy, bought a very beautiful and large house to replace the former one and lastly but major one, he proposed to her and the wedding is in three months ahead. Her parents who had disowned her are calling her their favourite. And whoever who had disgraced Eric is yearning to talk to him but he's unfortunately busy at the moment."
🎶 You're too faithful to fail me.
You're too faithful to disappoint me. You've proven yourself in my life, And I've come to realize, You're too faithful to leave me.🎶
"Pastor, you asked why I love God, didn't you? Isn't this enough for me to dance like a mad woman infront of a large crowd, just dancing to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Did you hear me testify about my beauty or good figure? I was instead oppressed and hated for it but the almighty God who dwells in heaven gave me rest." Anna shouted like a mad woman indeed, pacing on the pulpit as the congregation burst of crying, singing and praying.
"What the former first lady told me in the dream came to pass. People of God, Jesus gave me a full packaged man. He's got all a woman would wish for, he's a blessing himself. I sometimes feel like he's for real related to Jesus himself because he does wonders which I can't explain one by one in a few days we've been together....."