Counterfeit

Counterfeit

We used to live in a popular slum in the city

The slum was renowned for thuggery, hooliganism, drug addiction and ghetto music

We were Christians like so many other families in the slum

But the slum had a lifestyle of its own

Poverty was entrenched and openly celebrated

No parent expected their child to be a virgin at the age of 15

Teenage pregnancy is normal

Smoking cannabis is normal

Crime is normal

In our ghetto, parents would save so much to buy laptops and internet connection for their children to perpetrate internet fraud

Ladies sleeping with guys with sudden wealth are envied and celebrated

Ladies fight dirty and so do guys

Cultism was rampant

Sometimes the strong men of the ghetto will engage the police in hand to hand combat and gun fire exchange

Those who get killed were celebrated as heroes

Those who kill policemen and go into hiding were protected by the ghetto

There was an unwritten law in the ghetto

Snitches get killed and the ghetto never forgets a traitor

Once you are in the ghetto you are stuck for life

You cannot get out

Even if you get out physically, the spirit of the ghetto will always call you back

There was freedom in the ghetto

You can do whatever you want

You can smoke cannabis in the afternoon regardless your gender

You can have sex on your parent’s matrimonial bed and they will sit outside waiting for you to finish so that they can take over the bed

Mothers would look into keyholes and watch their sons and daughters’ performance during sex

Mothers would coach their daughters on what they were not doing right

Fathers would coach their sons

The life of the ghetto of the ghetto for an outsider was immoral

But for an insider, it was the very best life

Many of those who hit fame and riches in the ghetto never left

Those who left eventually came back

They couldn’t get inspired without the ghetto

The sound of the ghetto is like the sound of life!

You can see a 10 million naira car parked in front of a hut

Or a ghetto guy or lady wearing clothes thousands of dollars

You ask yourself what such a person was still doing in the ghetto

Until you realize the spirit of the ghetto has a strong hold on its adherents

Our own Christianity in the ghetto was different

My Father was a missionary

He was not a primary product of the ghetto

He chose to live in the ghetto as a light bearing servant of God

He met my mother in the ghetto

She was a fourth generation ghetto citizen

My father always told us we were not of the ghetto

That didn’t stop us from mingling with the ghetto culture

I had a boyfriend at the age of 9

I wasn’t sleeping with him but that was not because I was a Christian

It was because we didn’t have where to do it

If I did it on the street like other children did and my father got to know

He would practically kill me

He was a very tough man

He took his Law of Moses like the gavel of a judge

My boyfriend was a member of our church

His parents wouldn’t have minded us using their house

But they didn’t really have a house

Just a shack that I was afraid to go into because I fear it may collapse at any minute

He also has scabies and bedbugs walk out of his clothes once in a while

I didn’t want to catch either

But we were an item

I meet him in obscure places sometimes and we talk and look at each other with longing

When I was fifteen my mother called me and told me the rules

“Don’t date any boy close to this house!

Go far away

I don’t want a scandal!

You are turning out to be a beautiful young woman and I can see you are turning heads already,

As long as you play your game with maturity and didn’t bring a scandal home you are covered

That was what my mother told me when I was your age and I went very far away to carry out all my escapades! I met your father on one of such adventures and he tasted me and married me!

Do you understand!

I did!

Though my father was earning a decent income as a taxi driver and missionary, I know it will kill him if I start sleeping with someone within the ghetto!

I must play my game with some panache!

The guy didn’t come though!

All the guys that kept coming were from the ghetto and I had totally outgrown my first boyfriend!

I gained admission into the polytechnic at the age of 18

I was admitted to study Home Economics and education

It was the happiest day of my Father’s life

I didn’t get pregnant (Actually I was a virgin due to lack of opportunity) and I was going to the university

When I got to the university I found it strange

Everything was too tidy and there were too many dos and don’ts

But I coped

For the first time I was ashamed of the ghetto

I didn’t want anybody to know I came from such a place

University students were so well put together

When I see the pictures in the albums of my friends I wilt inside

They have a normal life that was as crystal clear as purified gold

I didn’t want to be laughed at or pitied

I didn’t get a boyfriend either

Relationships would eventually require that you tell someone where you came from

What would I say?

Our compound in the ghetto had 81 tenants

We don’t flush toilets after use, we mount the stuff and it is flushed once a week so that the soak away wouldn’t be full more than twice a year

A room in our compound had at least seven inhabitants (that was my family) some had as much as sixteen

I couldn’t bring any guy back to the ghetto from the university

Even my friends! I told everybody I was from the North

After my NYSC I got a job in a hotel

The pay was good and I didn’t have to see the customers

I just stayed in the kitchen and cooked!

On Saturdays I go for evangelism with my Father’s church members in the ghetto

I was still living at home

One evening we went for evangelism and I met this tout

He was in the middle of a bottle breaking fight with another tout

Such a sight was very common in the ghetto

Life expectancy in a ghetto was pretty low

I watched the fight and saw the two of them injure each other

But I was especially drawn to one of them

Once the brawl was over I walked over to him

 I gave him a tract and invited him to my father’s church

The next morning I saw him seated with another guy not too far away from my house

As soon as he saw me he walked over to me and apologized for his conduct the previous day

He said he was stoned and didn’t remember meeting with me at all

But one of his friends told him he made a promise to come to my church and I would be disappointed if he didn’t

I confirmed our discussion

He told his friend to excuse us and asked me to tell him about Jesus

I didn’t even know Jesus like that!

I have been to church and heard all sorts from my father and other preachers but I can’t say I know Jesus

I said as little as I could about Jesus and when I saw that he was really interested I went to call my father

They talked and talked

He got born again!

Got filled with the Holy Spirit!

Started attending our church

He really changed!

After a year he went off to Bible College and started studying to be a pastor

During his break time he would return to the ghetto and minister the gospel

I saw the change in him over the years

His language changed, his mannerism changed and he really started behaving like a pastor

How could this be?

Was Jesus really that real?

How come my own life was not drastically transformed as his was?

Was God being partial?

How come he could speak in tongues?

I knew Jesus for many years before he did!

I was still a virgin

If there was anybody that deserved to be full of the Holy Spirit, it was me!

And yet, my life was stagnant!

 I was lonely, unhappy, depressed, unaccomplished and was ashamed of who I was and where I came from

I had inferiority complex, I mask it but that was the main knockout punch of my reality

He graduated from Bible college and came to have a discussion with my Father

They talked for hours

Eventually my father called me and told me to sit down

Then he excused the two of us to have a discussion

It came to me out of the blue

He wanted to marry me!

I didn’t see it coming at all

“Why didn’t you come to me directly?” I challenged him

He said all he did was seek my Father’s consent to speak with me

So I asked him if Jesus is real to him or if he was just pretending

He laughed!

“Are you saying you are not Born Again?” He asked me

I nodded.

He smiled and led me to Christ right there and then

And then he laid hands on me and said “Receive the power of the Holy Spirit”

Everything changed!

I was suddenly overwhelmed by this feeling welling within me

I don’t know how to describe it

Was it regret, joy, gratitude, thanksgiving, a dawning, a realization or a hope?

It was sweet and bitter and sour and tasty

I couldn’t contain it

I started crying

I didn’t know for how long I cried for

I cried joyfully and without restraint

He watched me patiently

When I eventually felt relieved, my eyes were cleared

I could see clearly

I had a crystal clear understanding of who Jesus is and who the Holy Spirit is

I was speaking in tongues

One year later, I married him

We had been all over the world preaching the gospel and living this new life

We currently reside in Canada

We have three children

There is a big difference between being a christian and being a Christian

I have tasted both

If you are yet to have an encounter with the Holy Spirit

Ask for it!

If you are a Christian and you are no different from when you were yet to become a Christian

You need to ask for the Holy Spirit to fill you

That encounter changes everything!

PS: The wheat and the tares are growing together

Many in the church are not of the church

If you are part of the mixed multitude

There is room here for you to become a bonafide son or daughter of the kingdom

If you find living right a challenge

Even though you are born again

You need the full ness of the Holy Ghost and the washing of the word

If you have not read your Bible in a long time

And you don’t feel a big gulf in your heart

You might be drifting away

Call on the Holy Spirit now

Those who call unto Him, he would in no wise cast away

If you will call genuinely

The Holy Spirit is willing to take His place in your life

Call unto him now!

Pray in the Holy Ghost!