Strangers

His parents waited fifteen years to have him

His Father was a teacher in the local primary school

His mother was a petty trader

Her mother sold local starch and food items

They lived in a one bedroom apartment

It was all his Father could afford

Since they didn't have many mouths to feed

They had more than enough in terms of food 

and they were also able to save

The house rent was barely ten percent of their annual income

They saved almost fifty percent of their annual income

He was a very frugal man

He lived only on the needs

He had almost no wants

He didnt move into a bigger apartment even 

when his salary had been increased several times

He rarely changed his clothings

He made sure his wife was well catered for

one of their relatives sent one of his children to stay with 

his family as was the practice in their Family compound

and community

Relatives help raise each other's children all the time

it was a symbiotic arrangement

The child helps out with household chores and 

they train the child academically and in every other way

The child slept in the sitting room while they slept in the bedroom

As far as he was concerned having children was a secondary issue

He had an injury  as a young man while riding a bicycle 

His testicles were badly affected

He was told he had a very slim chance of fathering a child

For this reason, he was determined not to get married

Upon completion of his National Certificate in Education programme

He got a job with the State civil service commission

He taught Mathematics

His mother arrived one evening with another woman in tow

His mother told him she had brought him a wife

He panicked immediately

It wasn't as if his mother did not know his condition

Why would she bring him a wife and expose his shame

He called his mother aside

Do you know what you are doing Ma? He asked her

His mother said "What are you afraid of? 

You said the thing gets hard in the morning, you said

it can burrow into the hole and dig quite well,

so what are you afraid of?

Mama, the doctor said it can do all that but it doesn't guarantee

that I will have a child

So what? If you don't try how would you know if you passed or failed

I brought you a good girl from a fertile family

I have made consultations about it and i was told you will have children

Let's trust God!

That was how he got a wife

He loved and cherished her

Especially because of his condition

he wanted her to be so well taken care of that she 

wouldn't be swayed by anybody to leave him

or to sleep with other men outside of their marriage and dump 

bastards on him

That was how they coped for fifteen years

When their marriage was five and they were yet to have a child

The little girl, then seven years old came to live with them

He had just been promoted to the post of the headmaster

in a community primary school when his wife conceived

at the age of forty-five

Many who didn't know them right from the beginning 

didn't even know his wife was not the mother of the 

girl that had been living with them for over ten years

A testament to how well they treated the girl

She called them Daddy and Mummy and they call her "daughter"

The girl was very brilliant and had already gained admission 

into the university

The entire money he had in his savings for over fifteen years 

was two million naira

He started calculating how he would be able to sponsor

his child through school and at the same time sponsor

hi adopted daughter through school

He was already staring at retirement and all he had

was a small bungalow he built in the village for 

his retirement!

It gave him a lot of sleepless nights!

Eventually, he decided to be true to his promise

His wife delivered a baby boy on the 16th of June 1990

It was a glorious day

The naming ceremony was the only party he ever did in his life

He hated parties because of its short term social benefit

and long term negative economic implications

His mother was alive to witness the joyous occasion 

As much as he tried to manage his resources, he ended up

spending quite a lump sum on the occasion

His wife insisted the young boy would attend private schools

While he agreed that the education standard had fallen over the years

The free education thing was not a terrible as many believed it to be

He gave in to her and began shelling money on the child's education 

from the very day his son got enrolled in school at the age of six

His son was ten years old when he retired

His son was Junior secondary school 1 at the time

They had to enrol him in a boarding school as they relocated to the village

His daughter studied medicine, graduated and relocated to Ireland

She got married in Ireland when their son was eight years old

She explained to them that she was dealing with some issues

That was the last they heard from her

The little money he had left in his savings was spent to assist 

his adopted daughter to travel abroad

He knew it was a gamble but it was a case of present need

verses future need!

He didn't say a word to his wife about his decision to 

mortgage their son's future

He knew she would be totally against it

What mother would willingly leave her biological child exposed

He hoped his adopted daughter would assume the care of his son as he

grew older but she fell off the radar in Ireland

She just went dark!

When their son graduated from secondary school, they didn't

have a penny to their name

They could barely pay for his University Matriculation Examinations

His Father told him what was on ground

The only option was for him to get a job and save

He understood

He got a job with a marketing company

The company markets portable electronics from China

Earnings were based on sales

Eight marketers were attached to a supervisor

Whenever they were on a marketing campaign

They would pack their products on a bus, travel to a densely 

populated area and market their products all day

On the evening of December 23, 2017

They arrived in Lagos for marketing

They had an agreement to converge at a particular bus stop for their

marketing bus to pick them up

They go back to the designated bus stop on time and were turning in their

earnings for the day when armed robbers struck

They were robbed of their phones, everything of value and left 

stranded on the road

The robbers also went away with their bus and products

They didn't have any money on them

They didn't know anybody

He started praying, Father, please send help!

Almost at the same moment, his mother told her father

she has a horrible premonition that all was not well with their son

They started praying

She said she felt a sudden disturbance in her spirit

The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt was at home that evening

The time was about 7:30 PM

He felt uneasy and told his wife that he wanted to take a walk

He had barely walked for five minutes when he met them

The eight of them, they were stranded and begging for help

"We need somewhere to sleep tonight, we need to be able to get

home tomorrow but we desperately need help!"

He didn't know why they approached him

But he felt in his spirit they were the reason he took the walk

He took them to his house

As soon as he got them home

He felt he had gone bonkers!

He asked himself many questions

How could you bring strangers home, in these perilous times?

Do you understand the risk?

Did you weigh the consequences?

He knew what the Holy Spirit told him! It was enough!

He silenced the voice of doubt and fear

Later that evening, after they had freshened up and eaten

He engaged them in discussions and witnessed Jesus to them

They all prayed together

The next morning he drove them to the motor park and 

paid for their fare home

2019 June, the Brother in Jeans and T-shirt received a phone call

It was the young man, he was on his way to Ireland

His sister had finally settled down and processed his admission

His Parents felt they needed to meet the man who led him to Christ 

and prayed with him

They met at the office of the Brother in Jeans and T-shirt

They shared wonderful testimonies

God sent a miraculous hand to help his sister in Ireland

The sister, in turn, kept her promise of helping her brother

At almost 70 years of age, his father said

"I have never seen the hand of God move

so quickly in my life, when he got home and told us

you came out of nowhere to rescue them, I told my wife

you were either an angel or a great man of God!

But when I saw you, I was shocked! You are so young!"

The Brother in Jeans and T-shirt prayed with them

And sent them on their way with joy

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some

people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
                                                        - Hebrews 13:2