An Episode on: The Encounter!

                                                   My Experience 

 

 

Today, 23rd July 2023. Is a Sunday, it started raining very early, it rained heavily i was contemplating on going to church. I slept last night with the intention of waking up late though but the rain gave me more reasons to sleep as the weather became cozy and cold enough to coil inside my duvet.

My alarm rang around 7:00am but then i snoozed it and continued sleeping, I finally woke up around 9:10am and realized I was late for church, but it was still raining.....however, i got up and had my shower and there i was, prepared for service.

Service was for 9:00am but i got to church around some minutes past 10am, late, I know but there's a lot of activities going on today so yeah, I'm still on time..

I sat at the gallery in the auditorium, where I can see all the activities happening, the testimonies from the testifiers was so inspiring, it shook my faith really, stirred me up good and made me feel alive again.

beside me (by my left)was a young guy (in his early 20s), quiet and just observing all without truly participating. On my right was another young guy (in his late 20s), also quite, willing to participate but tries to hold back.

After the last session of talk show with one of our Top Pastors and CEO, it was time to demonstrate our faith to give for the Healing stream live healing service with Pastor Chris and almost everyone got up to give, or make a pledge towards giving, I immediately got the form, filled it, got an envelope and emptied my account according to the leading of God's spirit. However, I noticed that non of the guys sitting beside me made a move.

By the time I got back from dropping my seed on the alter, the guy by my left approached me with a conversation, he asked; Please what's your name? I'm Mandowell', as if my mind was earnestly waiting for him to speak, I openly said; Hello I'm Erika', and this little introduction gave birth to something huge.

We got talking at length, in his conversation, he appeared to be  new and confused about a lot of things so I asked him, 

'Are you new here?'

He replied: Yes I am, this is just my third time of joining you guys here

I asked again: Do you belong to a cell

He replied: Yes I do, Amazing grace cell.

We continued in our discussion and as I listened to him, I realized that he was coming from a place of hurt, pain, neglect, hopelessness, he was really close to becoming depressed. He just lost his elder brother about a year ago, he (the elder brother) was kidnapped and never returned home as they couldn't pay for his ransom. Part of his hurt was that, his late brother really encouraged him to go to church just before he passed. He was at he verge of tears as he spoke emotionally, expressing and explaining how he feels alone without his brother and how that made him run away from his parents home to a different state, I had to console him, help him stay strong and encourage him to never give up.

While our discussion was still on, I asked him where he lived now and it turned out that he lives in a church where he was allowed to only sleep there at night and leave during the day, nothing more than just his small bag of clothes and a pair of shoe.

On hearing that, I felt chills run through my veins, my heart ached for him, at that moment I all I wanted to do was help him but I wasn't even in the best position to help him myself so I took his contact after I made sure he got a bottle of drink and a plate of food to eat, I encouraged him more and told him what to do, good enough he just got a job making paints so, that was a starting point for him. 

By 9:15pm, I called him to check on how he was doing, he seemed fine and okay, so we talked for a bit and I prayed with him. My joy is, He feels stronger, more inspired, had a better reason to go on after our conversation from church, he told me himself and also said he almost didn't want to come for service today but he is really happy he did because meeting me was an orchestration from God, do I feel the same way? of cause I do, I feel really blessed being a blessing to someone God brought my way.

 Sometimes, when you feel really lazy to go to church, it's because the devil knows God has something special for you but then tries to keep you from having it. It is best to always be in the gathering of God's people, and most importantly, listen to God when He speaks. If you ignore God's voice, you just might miss something really very important to you and your future. 

Please follow for more updates.