The Cobbler

As a teenager, he came to the camp meeting 
for the food
The church has a yearly habit of feeding everybody 
who came in for their annual convention
Free food is a good incentive for attendance
Especially for the non-Christians living in the community
For the one week that the convention lasted
Parents and guardians of the community were relieved
Their wards and children flock to the camp meeting 
and besieged the kitchen
There was always more than enough food!
Around the Kitchen, tents were set up to help campers
identify their own distribution points to get food easily
But the gate crashers hang around
Mostly because most of the campers have made alternative 
provisions for their feeding
By 6 pm, the kitchen and distribution points will share the
excess food to the gate crashers
They are not allowed to waste or hoard food
And that is when the gate crashers hit their jackpot
They usually come to the camp with their polythene bags
take away packs or plastic bowls with which
they will collect food!
He had attended the camp since he was nine years old
They were non-Christians and very poor
His Father was a cobbler, his mother was a herbal 
concoction seller
He was the fourth of nine children
His elder sisters used to come to the camp meeting
 with him
But as he grew older his sisters started moving on with life
one after the other
Two got pregnant and moved to their husband's houses
One went to Lagos to live with an aunty
One got pregnant and still lived with his parents
The baker's assistant who got her pregnant had refused 
to take 
responsibility for the pregnancy
Things were pretty rough!
As he grew older, he got involved with some local
 bodybuilders in his neighbourhood
They used tyre-rims and some other scrap metals to 
construct
weights and other bodybuilding equipment
There were about twenty of them
They carry weights, punch sand-filled sacks and spar
Dodge- weave-punch, dodge-dodge-weave-punch
He would watch them day after day
He eventually joined them!
He had a big frame and could do with some training
He would be with his father at the cobbling shop for the 
rush hour from 7 AM -10 AM 
Polishing shoes and mending minor rips
By 10:15 AM he would be at the training center
Lifting stuff, doing push-ups, flexing and doing 
other exercises
He took it very seriously
He didn’t fail to turn up for failing every day
Come rain, come sunshine!
He started getting actively involved in the training at 
the age of 12
By 16, his body was fully conditioned!
One day their coach told him about a boxing tournament 
in the stadium
Nothing elaborate 
Just a junior boxing championship tournament 
Young athletes from all over the country would be there
Scouts will be there
The opportunity to represent schools or states as an 
official athlete is on the table
He loved it
He started joining the others for road jogging
Starting at 5AM till 7AM
Before going off to his cobbling job!
On the D-day they got to the stadium and he saw a 
huge crowd
Athletes from everywhere and of every age
He saw a boxing ring for the first time 
They were given tally numbers in their category
The numbers were put in a pot and picked at random 
A number from the A pot would fight another number 
from the B pot
He was given number 164
His fight was scheduled for 2 PM five days after 
the draw
When he got home he told his parents
His parents shared his excitement
A day after, his mother took him to see a man
A herbalist!
His mother told him training doesn’t guarantee a win 
in a fight
“You don’t know what the other boxers are doing, human 
strength is nothing in the face of supernatural support!
There are powers that could make you punch through a wall
There are powers that would keep you standing even when 
you have lost all stamina
There are powers that would give you Supernatural energy 
and vigor
Let me do the Supernatural for you
While you worry about the natural”
The herbalist took him to a big banana plantation 
They walked for about 20 minutes within the plantation 
before they got to their destination; a particular cluster 
of banana trees almost at the center of the plantation
He saw all sorts of extra-mundane markers on and 
around the cluster
Old calabashes and pots with decayed or decaying 
sacrifices
Trays with coins, chewing gums, chocolate bars, sweets 
and other stuff that children love
There were red and white draperies all around 
the cluster
The cluster was screaming “Warning, keep off”
The herbalist told him to take off his clothes!
He did
The herbalist told him to kneel down in the middle of 
the cluster 
He did
The herbalist told him not to say a word no matter 
what he saw or how her felt
He nodded!
The herbalist started chanting incantation and 
making incisions on his hands and the back of 
his knees
The ritual went on for three hours
When the herbalist was done, the herbalist gave him 
a special concoction to eat
It was made with a pregnant cat
He was told to eat it with his eyes closed
He did so!
While he was eating it, the herbalist left
The herbalist told him to sit and wait there until he 
got a visitation
After the visitation, he must run out of the plantation 
without looking back until he got back home
He waited with his eyes closed wondering what the 
visitation would be like
At about 6 pm, it happened 
His eyes were shut but he felt cats licking the back of 
his hands and then bite his hands 
viciously
He had been told not to scream or fight them off
They must leave by themselves before he could leave 
otherwise, he would go mad!
So he knelt there and bore attack!
It lasted for about five minutes
Once he sensed they had gone
He opened his eyes and ran
He ran as fast as his legs could carry him
He got back home at about 9:30 pm
The herbalist and his parent were seated outside his 
father’s shack of a house
Waiting for him
As soon as he got to them
The herbalist told him to stretch forth his hand and 
poured a black substance on it
The teeth mark of the cats was still on his hands
He was also bleeding a little
The herbalist explained that the powder would heal 
the wounds and congratulated him on his bravery 
saying “O kare, O Kare, Okunrin ni o” meaning
 “Well done, well done, you are indeed a man”
He won all the boxing bouts he was involved in after that
He just couldn’t lose!
He was drafted to fight in local duels and eventually 
he went with the contingent for the All African Games!
He lost for the first time at the age of 22!
The herbalist told him afterwards that the cats 
wanted more than the rooster his mother slaughtered 
for them every month, so he started slaughtering a 
goat every month!
He made some money
Travelled to Cuba, the USA, Egypt and South Korea
But he didn’t become a world heavyweight champion
He didn’t even get the chance to win a belt
All he ever won were a series of fights culminating 
in his gold medal at the All African games
He built a house (A 12 bedroom structure popularly 
called Face me I Face you”)
By the age of 30 he started experiencing some injuries
He had to call it quits at 33 due to some eye injury 
complications 
He bought two buses and started using them for 
commercial transportation business
He had children from several women but he married 
none
He just didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of 
marriage
The day he clocked 35, his hands seized
He didn’t know why but they just won’t work!
His mother carried him everywhere
He spent so much money
They did sacrifices and appeasements
Nothing worked!
Doctors at specialist hospitals were also miffed by 
the development
It seemed almost novel!
Eventually, they took him back home
He sat outside his house watching people live normal lives
 while he had to be spoon-fed bathed and dressed up 
like a baby!
Fellow ex-athletes wade in trying to get him medical 
help from abroad
But the cost was exorbitant and there was no guarantee 
of success 
There was a brief wave of attention but everything petered 
out eventually
One Thursday evening in August 2016, he got very hungry 
and there was nobody around to get him food
He saw a crowd of people thronging towards the camp 
meeting
He remembered those days
He remembered the free food
He got on his feet and joined the crowd!
When he got to the camp, he went directly to the kitchen
He knew there would be food  and he was sure someone 
would be there to assist him
When he got to the kitchen, he found The Brother in 
Jeans and T-shirt and two other young men under a canopy
They were eating cooked groundnut and talking
He approached them
They gave him a chair and asked them to join him
He sat and asked them about the food
They said “The kitchen is running late today! 
So we bought some groundnut while we wait!”
He told them he would love to eat groundnut but he 
had lost the use of his hands!
The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt looked at him and 
said “Your hands look okay to me”
He said “Yes sir, they look normal and healthy but
 they wouldn’t move, I have been everywhere and 
nobody knew what happened to them. 
A Doctor said it is the worst case of Carpal Tunnel 
Syndrome he had ever seen!
Another one came up with another diagnosis! 
The fact is, nobody really knows what happened 
to them!
I have done a series of tests and scans, even 4
radiotherapy 
Everybody says, your hand should be working, 
they are perfectly fine 
But they just don’t!”
The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt looked at him and 
said: “Tell me, were you a boxer?”
He said “Yes”
The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt smiled and said 
“You did some stuff to this hand in order to get 
ahead in the boxing profession”
He said “Yes, how did you know?”
The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt laughed!
He had seen such cases before, especially among 
non-literates and non-Christians who believe in 
using diabolical means to aid their success in life
The chicken often comes home to roost!
Demons don’t play fair!
The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt said 
“Do you want your hands to work?”
He said “Yes sir!”
The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt said 
“Say after me... Father, in the name of Jesus, 
by the power of the Holy Spirit, I speak to my 
body! Body, hear the word of the Lord Jesus, 
obey the word of God in my mouth. You are 
made by the word and the word is your sustenance, 
therefore every nerve, tissues, ligament, blood vessel, 
muscle, bone and cells in my body, be healed now in 
the name of Jesus!
My hand, you are healthy and strong, you will function 
properly from today! From this moment in the name 
of Jesus! If there is any demonic affliction working 
against my health, that yoke is broken now in the 
name of Jesus!
Thank you Jesus!”
The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt placed some 
groundnuts in front of him and laid his hands 
on his shoulders!
He said “Take the groundnut and eat now”
The hands moved immediately
For the first time in three years!
He ate the groundnut quickly, shouting for joy
They served them Eba and Egunsi soup from 
the kitchen
He ate
After eating he said “Sir, please I don’t want this 
affliction to come back, please sir,
Command my hand never to cease again”
The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt said “You have to 
give your life to Jesus and be filled with the Holy 
Spirit! You must pray in the spirit for at least one 
hour every day and preach the gospel!
Demons will tremble at your presence when you do that!
Darkness can never touch the light!
He gave his life to Jesus immediately afterward 
The Brother in jeans and T-shirt drove him home
 and blessed his house and business
He started his transportation business afresh
He got married a year later!

Ps: He that must dine with the devil must eat 
with a long spoon
Beware of the options you are considering
And if at any time you have crossed that line 
and now you are suffering please come to 
Jesus today
You don’t have to suffer even if it is as a 
consequence of your bad decisions of the past!
Jesus is willing, able and ready
Don't let guilt and shame keep you away from
the joy of your salvation!
Jesus offers a whole new life and future
A full package of the God kind of life
Come to Jesus today!

This event happened in August 2016 at a 
popular Christian campground in Ogun
State, Nigeria