Thread by @GbengaWemimo

In 2008, I was a fresh graduate who found himself living in Lagos after having spent all my life growing up in Ibadan.
My first weekend in Lagos was terrible
There was a church directly opposite my older sister's flat
(She had relocated to the USA with her husband in 2004) and

had kept on paying the rent
That was where I got the effrontery to travel from Bowen University to Lagos after my final examinations
I had some money on me with which I could buy food stuff and I felt I would get a petty job to do before I got called up for NYSC
This church had

this crazy idea that if you dont come to their church or attend any church service on a Sunday, you have no right to rest in your own house
Their megaphone was directed at my window and they turned on the noise mercilessly
I was a believer but I do not support their irritating

tactics
Their prayer was demon guided and fear ruled
It wasn't church birthed in knowledge
It was just an excuse for the ignorant folks living around that environment to gather and give a voice to their superstitious beliefs
I knew all about churches like that from my days in

ibadan
Churches, where fighting battles was the game and the good news, was the exception
I tried to increase the volume of the television set to no effect
The megaphone was dangerously loud
After several minutes, I got out of the house and sat at the steps of the shop underneath

my flat
I was deliberating within myself whether to walk up to the pastor of that church and give him a piece of my mind after their service or to dress up and look for a church that suits my level of exposure the following Sunday when I heard my name
I looked up and saw a lady

She was a graduate of Bowen University too
She greeted me and asked me what I was doing on her street
I told her I lived there now
She laughed and said she was going to church
I asked which church
She told me
I smiled
I had been to her church the previous Tuesday in company of my

younger brother
He had graduated a year before me and settled down a bit in Lagos
He was already attending the church and teaching their teens church
It was a pentecostal church
I wanted to stay in the Baptist church
The church opposite my flat was a pentecostal church
Many of

such churches are no help to the educated
Most of their pastors and founders are illiterate
The illiterate end up corrupting the level of enlightenment of the educated ones
It is in one of those churches that I heard that if you are anointed and you sit on a seat previously used

by a lady who was on her period
The potency of your anointing shall reduce drastically
It was rubbish that came from the days of idolatry and fetish belief system when men kept charms away from ladies because ladies can render charms impotent
As a fellowship leader on campus I

met many believers with all sorts of odd doctrines
I preferred to stay elitist and enlightened
So I had deliberately decided against going to that church
My brother had left home as early as 6:30am that day in order to make worker's meeting
That was another issue I had with the

pentecostal churches
They always tow the extreme path and it felt they would rather cut off members from their family members in the name of church activities
All my excuses flew out of the window because of the persistent noise from that church's megaphone
I went into the flat

and dressed up
I went to the church with the lady
Her father was the pastor and he was a very well educated man but the man leading the prayer when I walked in was a semi-illiterate
The first thing I heard him say was "Father, turn my scarcity to surplusity"
It was embarrassing

I noticed that someone went to correct him but he shook his head and continued saying "Surplusity"
I got turned off
It was as I feared
I didn't even wait till the service was over
I walked out of the church and took a long stroll
The following week I met a lady in Anthony
Bidemi,

I told her about the church issue and she invited me to her church somewhere in Oshodi
I went to the church the following Sunday and my Baptist mind couldn't cope with the type of skirts and trousers I saw the ladies wearing
I was convinced I wouldn't do anything but stare at

arrows and backsides all day if i joined that church
So I returned home and I felt terrible about wasting two Sundays
Staying at home was not an option because of the megaphone manic opposite my house
The closest Baptist church to me was located at Mile 12
The area was too rough

for me
I didnt know what to do
I slept off on the couch in the sitting room weighing my options
As I slept my eyes opened and I saw myself in Brothers Hall
It was the primary hall where Mass Communications students had their lectures while was in the University
As a rule I always

sat the front row
I was the only male student doing this and I was the oldest male student in the class
I always got to class early and I was a very well behaved student but on this occasion, I was everything but that
I was behaving like a tout, disturbing the class and causing

all sorts of ruckus
I was standing with my back against the marker board and making a general fool of myself
I didn't know when the lecturer walked in from the side door right at the entrance of the class
Suddenly the whole class went silent
The lecturer called my name
I turned

around and greeted him with my hands covering my face in shame
He looked at me and called my name three times
"Gbenga, Gbenga, Gbenga If you don't sit down and learn, you will carry this course over and that will be a shame"
I woke up sweating and perspiring
That lecturer was

Pastor E. A. Adeboye
Like Apostle Paul, I did not disobey the heavenly vision
The church that the lecturer i saw was overseeing was the one where I was taken to by my former school mate
The same one attended by my younger brother
It was the Redeemed Christian Church of God

I joined the church the following Sunday and grew
There are many worthy examples of Christ to our generation
Daddy GO is undoubtedly one of them
I celebrate with all of my being the God of Daddy Enoch Adejare Adeboye as he clocked 79 today
Thank you, sir
You're a blessing to me

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