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MUSTARD IV – Ch. 12 | KT OLLA

NOW with Bamiji married, the old man waited and hoped for everything marriage has got to offer. The love, the peace, the kids. He wanted all of these. So he hoped and prayed. Then soon enough Joshua’s wife took in and the couple felt joy. This seemed to be the end of the waiting. Like Bamiji finally got all he wanted from life. But then all hell broke loose for the coming child. For the old man wasn’t just making a family. He was completing one. He was completing a dream. Now a morning came and some ill winds blew. It blew in the direction of the Morrows... For they lost their baby before it fully formed. And this wrecked the school teacher. Each time that Banji asked what happened, Grace would say she felt some strange presence by her. That when she checked to see who it was, standing by her bedside, she sighted fear. Then suddenly she felt blood, and there, miscarried. Well, the Christian couple could tell from that experience that this was an attack, a spiritual one. So they prayed ...

MUSTARD IV – Ch. 11 | KT OLLA

BACK then in the 1970’s, husband-men wanted sons, not daughters... in Nigeria of that time. And so many homes parted; and women who stayed, struggled “to give their men a son.” It was the season of male children. Now in those times, there lived a young lady separated from her husband for the same cause. For her man only wanted sons. And all she had were daughters. And so, the man left her and married some other woman. Someone he thought would give him a son. With that, the young lady became single and lived her youth in the company of believers, as she was one too. Now in Morrow’s walk as a Christian, he met this lady. And he loved her. She was 30 years of age when he met her in June of ’85. But he wouldn’t mind. She was once married and divorced. Then she’d got two daughters to care for. ‘But who’s got no folk?’ the man would say. He’d got stories, too – by the way. Joshua himself was just a new convert. So, “love and marriage should be like secondary matters.” But the elder felt that...

MUSTARD IV – Ch. 10 | KT OLLA

NOW with his salvation experience, Morrow became introduced to new people... Those little groups of disciples in town, he joined them to learn. He got planted by the edge of an oasis in dry land, a wonder spring in desert. So he sprouted, and flowered. Now the elder wanted to know the living Christ. What he’d learned about Jesus had been like mirage. He’d felt He was just some great Jewish teacher. Quite an upright and selfless rabbi, at best. He thought people were taking things too far with the faith, to follow the Bible as a guide for life. So he called this thing dogma, extremism, and madness. He always thought he knew, but doubted this now. For it seemed those were simply texts. Now he sought understanding. The Full Gospel fellowship was then around. So Joshua joined the group and grew. The people held seminars in hotel conference rooms, where they could easily reach business folks with the gospel. In the days, their teams got guest speakers to hold talks. The talks they shared we...

MUSTARD IV – Ch. 9 | KT OLLA

BAMIJI’s whole life was there responding to God. Everything spoken that evening appeared to be for him. Like they were directed at him. Like the preacher felt he was there. He felt no restrain nor caution. He was just all ready to try Jesus. That is one way he hadn’t gone, since the day he sought means. Yes, he’d found Jesus quite familiar – the Name he heard every Sunday in church. The same he saw in the pages of Bible... to him, a study text on religion. Jesus is the major character of the New Testament —he would say, so who wouldn’t know Jesus? But right there in his humble place, he heard the Name again. He got a whole new sight of everything he’d known. ‘Jesus is the Way!’ he cried. ‘He is the Way I never tried! ‘The way out of my trouble, these burdens and battle! I’m sure He is the One!’ The 59-year-old was touched as he shed a tear. He wished he’d heard the gospel before. But then he’d heard it and hadn’t grasped things those times. Yet this time, he wanted it—and tried. No he ...

MUSTARD IV – Ch. 8 | KT OLLA

THERE had been those non-denominational groups of Christian folks in Morrow’s town those years. They’d held meetings, reading scripture and praying. Among them was the continent-wide bible study group, S.U. Then some others were Christian clubs of career people. Like the global group called ‘Full Gospel’. So, these storms of revival had been quite boisterous that by the 80’s, they’d grazed earth’s circumference... Then in fact touched this inside core called Ede, Nigeria. It was wildfire. Well, it was one of those windstorms. The moon that night wore a bright smile, and the skies too. Everything was bright and the clouds weren’t sad. Only Morrow was, that evening. It was one of his achy days, so he laid weak and sad. There was light rain early that morning, yet it had poured hard in the towns close by. It was October in ’84, but there was no storm. Well, there was this one that blew somewhere close to Banji’s house. A man pitched his tent in a park a little away from Banji, and preache...

MUSTARD IV – Ch. 7 | KT OLLA

WITH Joshua not being able to keep a woman, everything seemed to have reached the limit. Then there came the weight over his whole being. No not the roof pulled over his, or the weight of his brother’s children on him. Well, those were heavy weight enough, but then there was this. He came down with body pain every now and then. This was the story of Bamiji Morrow before he met the Lord Jesus. He visited clinic every time, treating body ache and pain... Yesterday, it was a fever – something the Western world call malaria. Then today it felt different, so they treated fatigue. Over the night, it was something else. Something... anything that brought real pain. Headache, backache... just everything. And this was Morrow before future... before Tomorrow. So now, the man sought help from magic healers those years. He was a church goer, yes; but then like several folks of his time, he asked aid from sorcerers. He hadn’t known Christ nor felt His power before. So, anyone who claimed he could s...

MUSTARD IV – Ch. 6 | KT OLLA

JOSHUA pitied himself and he wished things weren’t this hard for him. He had always boasted with his life. His attainment, money and all. But then in his stillness he thought himself a fool. Someone who only toiled to bear other people’s burden. He wept and wished he could walk out of that cruel fate, or get it sorted somehow. Then the clock struck eleven at that moment. Yes, it seemed quite late to go to bed for a school head who would be heading to work early the next morning. It seemed too late already. Morrow gazed at the wall clock and moaned. ‘It is late. Too late for you! So what will you do?’ No, the middle-aged man wasn’t mourning the hour. But then again he was. The school head was at the eleventh hour of his life, even near the age to retire. He was closing to 60, but hadn’t lived that much. Truly, Joshua had dropped smoking and alcohol. He dropped that life in ’79 after he moved into his house. Yes, he’d ditched things before to live right. But every time he left something,...

MUSTARD IV – Ch. 5 | KT OLLA

BACK in Ede, Nigeria, there was this ruin in Banji’s soul, long after those first rain storms ruined his roof. For it looked like his former place, the rented apartment, came after him. Like he shouldn’t leave. Now it frightened him that this happened not once, but twice. So he’d been pondering why. ‘There are other houses in this place,’ he’d thought then. ‘How come that roof keeps landing on mine? ‘I didn’t owe the house owner his rent when I left there, so what is this? ‘How can a house be following... I mean, following me?!’ Joshua had asked those questions then, yet he found nothing quite suiting. Then today, after those years he stayed up in bed pondering again. Now when he couldn’t sleep anymore, he settled in a seat and drifted in a slumber. So there in the stillness of night, Banji found an answer... in the quietness of soul. It was as though someone came on his sleep to whisper. Like God’s angel brought the answers. Bamiji woke up from the light rest, then went on musing like...

MUSTARD IV – Ch. 4 | KT OLLA

IT was the start of the ’80s and the nation was turning in a different direction. With their independence, a new republic and a civil war behind, Nigerians were turning from man to God. A new wave began like storms erupting in sea, from the southern parts of the country. It had stormed beneath seabed, as it were, for a time. And had rumbled from coast to coast. Well, there’d been some drought since the mid-70’s. Not in the ordinary sense of it; but there’d been dire thirst for wonder, for something beyond ordinary... Like a miracle. The 1970’s saw the most brutal war the nation had ever gone through. The Nigeria-Biafra War. An un-civil conflict. It was painful and sad, but it happened and passed. For Nigerians thought to see hope. People thought to live. So, from the mid-70’s the folks of that time dreamed. They turned their expectant gazes from structures that had failed. From organized systems of men leading folks into ditches. Yes, they turned from people to God. And thirsted for tr...