MY NEIGHBOUR SERIES 1: PRAYER IS THE KEY

 

Meditating so early in the morning means a lot to me. Each day after my quiet time, I make it a duty and my culture to stroll through the backyard of our rented apartment to the little garden we own.

Before going in, I usually pluck some leaves Grandma count useful to the body.

Grandma is the mother of my mum. She came to spend some time with us. I love her being around.

That woman is a shrewd woman. Her words are insightful. God intentionally bestowed her wisdom.

I was about plucking another leaf from it's branch when I saw a shadow crossing the lawn that separates our home to the next home.

The shadow became a walking form. 

It is him. The guy who lives next door. He rarely comes out.

I wonder what had him glued to his home. How does he feed? He must be the indolent type. He has skeletons in his cupboard. Definitely!

Well, how does his matter concerns me.

Do not conclude a matter without knowing the cause.

Put him in your prayers.

'Ehn? Prayers? A person that I know little of?' I entered into the house and went straight to the kitchen. After dropping the bowl I used in collecting the medicinal leaves, I went to my room to dress up for work.

'But I also need prayers'.

*****

'How was work today?' Mum asked as I opened the door to come in.

'Eku Ile Mummy, work today was hectic but we thank God', I'm so tired that I could sleep like the dead.

'Huh' She raised her brows at me.

'What?', I didn't know what happened.

'Oh, I didn't know I said that out', I said resting my tired body on the cushion.

'Mum, a miracle happened today at the hospital' I lift my head from the cushion to see her face clearly.

'Ehen?'

'Yes o, even though miracles do happen everyday but today's own ba, you needed to have been there', I sat well trying to stop my phone from falling.

'I will just brief you because I have to go shower and rest', Mum looked up from her phone then,

'That your brief better let it be brief fha' She said and we laughed together.

'Seriously I've got to be somewhere important', she said.

'Okay, okay! There was this woman that has cancer. It was so bad, nothing could have been done to help her or cure her of the deadly disease. She already had limited time on earth. Her family members loved her so much, they visit almost every minute. What surprised me more was that the dying woman had more faith than the family members. She is a prayerful woman. When I got to work this morning, I was told by a colleague the testimony.The disease had gone. No sign of cancer in her body. I was amazed. Come and see dance. Hei!' I was smiling so much, my cheeks could break.

'This can only be God' Mum stood to dance like I knew she would.

I was just smiling. 

'What are we celebrating here?' Grandma entered smiling and lifting up a questioning eye.

'Bolu will brief you' Mum said as she stopped dancing.

**********

The next evening, I was airing my washed clothes when I saw the guy.

Why is my seeing him these days so frequent?

Go and acquaint him.

How? What if he's a drunk or something?

He's suffering.

He doesn't look to me like he's suffering.

I see and know the heart of man.

But I'm suffering too.

Silence.

I was so deep in thought, I didn't know when Grandma called me.

I just felt a hand and I startled.

'Bolu, I have been calling your name. Kiloshie?'

I looked at her concerned face.

'Grandma...'

'Don't say nothing when there's something'.

I sighed. 'The Lord has been instructing me to acquaint our neighbhour, the guy that rarely comes out, but I don't understand how to go about it and why it should be so'.

'Obey Him first', she said so calmly.

'What steps will I take in obeying Him Grandma?'

'What steps does He want you to take?'

'By Praying for him?' 

'You were the one he told, not me'

'See child, what He sends you, do without hesitation', she patted my right shoulder and was about going when she remembered why she came outside.

'I need you to help dial someone'

'Okay Mama'.

*****

I separated a day to pray for my neighbour. I don't know his name but Grandma insisted I don't need a name to pray for someone. God sees the heart, she said.

After two hours of lifting up my voice in prayers, I felt the push to go knock his door.

 Help me Lord.

I'm with you my daughter.

I quickly picked up my Bible to go to my neighbour's home.

Knocking for about five minutes and receiving no reply, I decided to use my voice.

'Hello? Anyone home? Hello?', I said going round the house, then I saw an opened window which gave the assurance that someone is in.

'Hello sir!', looking through the opened window.

Nothing prepared me for what I saw.

'Jesus!' I was too stunned to talk, but I had to call someone for help.

'Grand maaa! Daddy Femi! Anybody in the compound! Come out ooo'

I ran here and there to get help. 

The guy hanged himself.

********

'Hmm, Kayode would have been dead without your prayers and obedience', Grandma called us together after two weeks of the incident, saying she has to talk to us all: Tope(one of my colleague in the hospital), Kayode, Mum and I.

She says we have to learn from this experience. 'In every experience, there should be a lesson', her words not mine.

After we took Kayode to the hospital where I work, he was revived through medical attention and prayers.

Grandma and I, together with some of my colleagues went to a waiting room to lift our voices on behalf of a neighbhour.

Kayode told us his story. It was not an interesting one. So sad a story.

He knew Jesus while he was young but some of his experiences made him fall out.

His mother, the breadwinner of the home died while he was young and all his education stopped.

His father followed two years after, apparently because he couldn't take the ache and heaviness that comes with losing a wife, the only woman he loved.

Still so young he was taken to an orphanage home where a woman, one of the founders molested him.

Throughout his life he knew bitterness and hatred.

But through it all he struggled to be able to make ends meet. That's a story for another time.

Back to Grandma's inspired words, 'you have just done what Jesus wants, Bolu. He wants us to love our neighbhour as we do ourselves. I like to say it this way love your neighbour as much as you want Christ to love you'.

'Praying for even people you don't know is God's way of living. Your neighbour is not only one who lives next to your home. Go read Luke chapter ten, from verse twenty-five, Jesus used a parable to explain who a neighbour is.'

'Can we join hands together to bless the father and lift up our voice for others who need to see Jesus in their situation?'

We joined hands and began to pray.