Assuming for God

I learned a tough lesson five years ago. 
I was working as the PA to a Big Pastor 
at the time 
The church had a maternity centre in 
the heart of a local community where 
pregnant women were attended to from 
conception to delivery for a token of 
ten thousand Naira 
The church planted the maternity centre 
as a CSR initiative and paid the salaries 
of all the nurses, midwives and doctors 
from the church purse 
The stipend paid by the pregnant women 
was used mainly for administrative 
purposes 
As the pastor’s PA, I had the duty of 
interfacing with the heads of such
establishments of the church
(The church also has a hospital, a 
sick bay and dispensary, a creche
and a school) and making 
recommendations to the pastor as 
needed 
This lady walked into my office on 
a Wednesday afternoon, she was 
the administrator of the maternity 
centre. 
She looked very puffed up and sickly 
I got alarmed immediately I asked 
her what was wrong 
She said she had appendicitis and 
needed the church to support her 
with money for an operation 
I quickly wrote a letter of recommendation 
and forwarded it to my boss 
My boss signed it immediately 
She got a cheque of two hundred 
and fifty thousand Naira 
I slapped myself on the back for 
a job well done 
A week later, a young man walked 
into my office 
He introduced himself as the fiancée 
of the lady 
He asked me if it was proper that 
the church gave her money to abort 
a four months old pregnancy 
I asked the young man to tell me 
the whole story 
The young man said they had
been together for four years and had 
set plans in motion to get married 
He said the lady’s mother insisted 
she must be pregnant before any 
wedding can take place 
They tried to get pregnant for two 
years after they had done court 
wedding (he had not paid bride price 
and according to their culture that 
was the real wedding) 
He was the one that insisted they 
had to do the registry thing before 
getting pregnant 
Finally she got pregnant 
He told his people the traditional 
marriage will proceed as planned 
Then she came home one day and 
told him the pastor called her and 
asked her why she got pregnant 
outside of wedlock 
She said the pastor gave her money 
to get an abortion or get sacked and 
she had done the abortion because 
she didn’t want to lose her job 
It was a very clumsy story 
The pastor didn’t even really know 
her and neither did i? 
Yea she was a church member and 
a staff of the maternity but I had never 
seen a wedding ring on her and there 
was no reason to pry into her private life 
I explained to her “husband” that the 
money she got was for surgery on 
appendicitis and nothing more 
The young man cried bitterly 
After the young man left, I decided I had 
to write a report and forward it to the 
pastor 
It will help in covering both our backsides 
Only God knows how many ears will hear 
the story and people are very gullible 
They believe anything as long as it paints 
a believer in a bad light 
Just as I finished my report, the lady arrived 
Someone in our office was her friend and 
the person told her she saw her husband 
in my office 
The lady came with a moving story of how 
she never loved this guy but got into a 
relationship with him because they were 
poor as a family and he sponsored her 
through school 
She said she had been working as a slave 
for many years to pay him back everything 
that he invested but he still wouldn’t set 
her free of the yoke of bondage 
She said she was sorry she lied about 
what the money she collected was for
but she had to get rid of the pregnancy 
because it would have tied her to him 
irrevocably 
She said if I escalated the issue, she 
would lose her job and have to go back 
to him on her knees 
The job was her only source of security 
and independence 
She begged and cried and pleaded
I didn’t know what to do at that point 
I told myself I can give it a week or two 
to seek clarity 
There was no harm in waiting 
So I waited 
The following Saturday, this lady got sick 
and had to be rushed to the hospital 
The church was contacted and the 
hospital visitation team went to see her 
The doctor insisted she needed surgery 
The doctor said she had undergone a D&C 
which was not properly done and she 
might die if the surgery was not done 
immediately 
The hospital team reached out to the 
pastor on the phone 
The pastor called me at 5 am 
I had been blindsided 
I started stammering and apologizing 
I told the pastor the full story 
He was very angry 
It was not in my place to play judge 
What I ought to do was send him all 
the details and let him as the pastor 
decide 
I was a PA and I didn’t know my place! 
It was a stinger but it was a good lesson 
to learn! 
The church paid for the lady’s treatment 
As soon as she recovered, she eloped 
with another man 
Her husband came crying I said “Sorry sir” 
and minded my business I know his heart 
was broken but you cannot force someone 
to love you or be with you 
The lady duped all of us and ran off 
with the golden goose 
I almost lost my job and I had to work 
hard to regain the confidence of my 
boss 
Her "husband" was better off without 
her and so was I 
Two years later, I went to Ibadan for 
a Christian conference 
The preacher that was invited to 
speak from Ghana came with eight 
people 
This lady was one of them 
As soon as she saw me, she turned 
her face and started working hard to 
avoid my gaze 
Eventually, during the break period, 
I walked up to her 
She was with a young man I 
introduced myself 
The young man introduced himself as 
a young pastor in the ministry of the 
big preacher from Ghana 
He told me the lady was his fiancé 
He said she made him love Nigeria 
She was a good Christian 
He kept talking about her as if he had 
found something more than gold 
I nodded and smiled throughout
(I was of two minds that day
I could have accused of her wrongs
but I felt she could have changed and
the truth would ruin her life
The young spoke glowingly about her
I also felt i needed to warn the guy
If I didn't and she played a fast one
on him, i would blame myself)
Before the end of the conference, 
I sent the young man a message on 
WhatsApp 
I said “Good morning, please be 
mindful that evil can be sold as good 
and good sold as evil but God 
cannot be sold as anything other 
than God! 
Be close to God at this time and he 
will show you himself!”
The message was a puzzle for him 
He asked if I could explain better but 
I refused to reply his message 
Six months later, the young man sent 
me a message stating that this lady 
cleaned him out and eloped with 
another guy to the UAE 
He said my message kept coming 
to him as he tried
Hard to come to terms with her betrayal 
I told her I learned the hard way that 
evil is not on the surface of all things 
and good is not also on the surface 
of all things 
Many of us are surface Christians 
We judge all things by sight 
We judge all things by our senses 
We don’t know the difference between 
right and wrong 
We serve God but we assume his ways 
Sometimes we support an assumption 
and say it has to be God 
Like Jonah, we didn’t think God should 
be lenient on Nineveh and tough on Israel 
Even when God had clearly stated what 
he wanted We still argue
We all need to do better!