Out of sight of that hospital environment never resulted to out of mind. For months, the sight of Mrs. Don sweeping that hospital hunted me day and night. I constantly heard the voice of Peace,“Who knows if that is why God brought you here today.”

In fact, I heard God clearly, instructing me to go and pay that bill but I was reluctant to obey. I tried to remind God of all the evil the woman committed against me as if God was not aware. As far as I was concerned, Mrs. Don deserves any punishment she was going through and even more. I have already forgiven her. I would never plan evil against her, but to bring out my hard earned money and bail Mrs. Don from hospital was a hard pill for me to swallow.

Pastor invited me to his office for an important discussion. When I got there, he told me that God said that I am a disobedient child of God. When I heard it, I kept quiet.

“Judy, did you hear what I said?”

“I heard you sir.”

“So what do you have to say about that?”

“I don’t have anything to say sir,” I responded.

He told me to go home and think about what he told me. He also said that I should pray so that God will show me everything I needed to know.

When I left his office, I was thinking about what pastor said. I thought of Mrs. Don issue but dismissed it because I felt that God will not say I am disobedient because of an evil person like Mrs. Don.

However, one morning, as I was driving to work, I had a strange encounter with a mad man. I stopped at a traffic light. Immediately, the mad man sighted my car, he ran towards it, waving and greeting me in a strange manner.

“Jonah how are you?”

Though he was looking at my direction as he was talking, I ignored him after all, my name is not Jonah. But his next statement drew my attention.

“Judy, Jonah, Judy, Jonah. Let me ask you; is there any difference between Judy and Jonah? Both of them are disobedient, both of them love fish too. One was stealing fish, while the other decided to turn the stomach of fish to his house.”

He matched straight closer to my car and was pointing his finger at me as a sign of warning. He then shouted at the top of his voice, “Go and release that woman, so that you will be released! .” He turned immediately and walked away.

I ignored him and kept moving.
“How can I use almost all my life savings to bail Mrs Don,of all person’s from hospital,”
I thought to myself.

If it was another person, may be it would have been easier for me. Another challenge was that the money was huge. Spending millions of naira for a woman who committed such evil against me was not an easy task.

As my car was moving, I never knew that the mad man was running after it. As I got to my business place and parked. He came again and said,” I am grace and I am running after you now. If you fail to heed, one day I will expire. Listen to the voice of grace now,” Then he raised the tempo of his voice again and shouted,” Go and release that woman so that you will be released. I will not warn you again.”

The last statement he made, kept reverberating and made my whole body to shake even as sudden fear gripped me.

I reversed my car and headed to the hospital. I was weeping bitterly as I was going.When, I got to the hospital, I asked them how much Mrs. Don was owing and they informed me. I collected their account number and transferred the money to the hospital account.

I made sure that Mrs. Don was not aware of what I did. I told them to tell her that a Good Samaritan paid the bill. I was crying as I was doing it. But immediately I left the hospital, I discovered that I had peace.

In the night, I had a dream where an angel delivered a parcel to me and told me that my blessings have been released. I didn’t really understand what that dream meant.

But the next morning, I heard a knock on my door. I was surprised to see Mrs. Jackson.

“Judy my daughter how are you?” I was amazed. This was how she used to address me. Everything changed since Greg declared his intention to marry me.

“I am fine, welcome Mum.” I ushered her into the house, even as I kept wondering what she came for.

“My daughter, I am here to ask for your forgiveness. I don’t know what came over me. My friend, Lois came to me and told me that you were in a relationship with my son Greg. She warned me never to allow you contaminate the pure blood running in my family. In fact, she told me that your grandmother was stoned to death for stealing chicken.”

“What!” I exclaimed.

“At first, I ignored her. But later, she involved me siblings and told them that I wanted to allow my only son to marry a thief”

“Really?

“I followed her advice, and started misbehaving. Though for some months now, I had been regretting my actions. I could not humble myself to ask for your forgiveness; it was a bitter pill for me to swallow. However, yesterday evening, someone came to tell me that my friend has been pressurizing you to marry his son. I thought that it was a lie. I went to her house to confront her on the issue but she insulted me. She asked me if she forced me to take the advice she offered. She practically pushed me out of her house and warned me to steer clear of her path. I cried all the way from there to my house. The reason for my tears was the pain that I have caused my only son because of this issue. I was so gullible that I allowed a stranger into my home in the name of friendship. My daughter, please forgive me and give my son a chance in your life. I am aware that other men are asking after your hand in marriage. But please, consider my son, he loves you so much. He told me that you said you cannot marry him withoutmy consent. Please I am here to give my consent.”

I didn’t know that Greg accompanied his Mum. After a while, there was a knock on the door. Greg’s Mum quickly said come in . Greg rushed in, knelt down and proposed marriage to me.

“My daughter, please say yes. Forgive everything I have said or done in the past,” Mrs. Jackson pleaded.

“Mummy do you really want me to do this?” I asked her.

“Yes please. Do it for me and I will be forever grateful to you.”

I pretended for a maximum of 2 seconds before grabbing the opportunity with both hands. Have I been wishing for a day like this to come? O yes o. In fact, I have prayed, fasted and expected it. After all not too many men will know about your ugly past and still want to spend the rest of their life with you. It was true that men were flocking around me, pestering me for marriage at that point, yet I was not carried away. My glory that they were seeing then, was the attraction point. They wanted to marry Judy the evangelist. But Greg was there for me, even when the stigma of theft had not been washed away.

He was so happy that I agreed to marry him. We all joyfully proceeded to Pastor’s office to give him the good news.

Immediately we entered Pastor’s office, he shouted,” Praise the Lord,”

We echoed,”Hallelujah!”

“Congratulations!,” Pastor told us.

“Daddy what are you congratulating us for?” I asked in pretence.

“Daddy please don’t mind her question. The Congratulation is in order. She has finally accepted me,”Greg informed pastor.

“I told you to be patient and allow God do it his own way. For in his time, he make all things beautiful,”Pastor said joyfully.

Greg’s mum tried to apologize again for the things she did but Pastor didn’t allow her.

“Sister Jackson don’t worry yourself. This is the set time for this miracle. There should be no regrets. Let the marriage preparation start.”

“Daddy please pray for us, so that her parents will accept me. I don’t want to experience the second part of what my mum did,”Greg requested.

“Greg don’t worry yourself. Oluwa is involved in this journey. I declare again, let the marriage preparation start!”

Watch out for the next episode