CWRC Anthology

ECHOING HOPE

©2022 By Praise Godwill 

Brought to you by the christians writers and readers club.

With my bag tightly stuck in my arms, I made my way home, even amidst the stormy rain. It felt as if they still stood somewhere laughing and pointing fingers at me as I walked pass. The thought of this, made me keep increasing my pace, until I looked like an escaping rat. Thanks to the rain, it wasn't so obvious I was crying.

I passed by the long queue of vehicles all waiting for the rain to subside to carryon with their journey. Yes, was I aware walking under the rain wasn't the best thing to do? I was very well aware of that, but what's the worst that could happen? I die?

Well, if that's it, then I guess I'm long dead from the numerous times I've had to walk home under the rain. That's aside the harassments I face in school each given day. I wonder what is wrong with proclaiming my faith.

At first, I thought it was a bed of roses, but shortly after I encountered the One called the Holy Spirit, and allowed Him take my life along with Him, the whole world turned against me. It was then I knew how it felt to be involved in a global war, but this time, between the two forces of life. Light, and darkness.

Firstly, I lost my oldest brother to the cruel hands of death. Jeremiah was my hero, unfortunately, he went the wrong way. I wasn't so sure of who to blame. My parents were role model enough for him to pattern his life rightly, so I guess the educational system of this country Nigeria, and the perpetrators of evil known as the students, had to be the receivers of my wrath.

Jerry became a drug addict during his second year in college, while suffering from depression that arose from my family's low financial status. From then, it moved to being a womanizer, scammer, cultist, and all the have you. No one from my family knew this till he got expelled from school.

A big disgrace to my family, with my dad being a deacon, and my mom, the choir leader. Jerry didn't last long after the expulsion, in less than a year he died during a cult clash. He had only moved out of the family house three weeks before his death when he couldn't bear not being able to freely express what he called life around us. If only I knew that was the last time I would hold or even see my brother's face.

I felt so overwhelmed with his death that even after his burial, I found it hard to believe he was really gone...and gone forever. Worst of it, he didn't leave a legacy to be proud of. A good life, a Godly life, just maybe things would have been different. satan sort to sieve you like a chaff... Jesus had said this to Peter shortly before his death. For Jerry, he did let satan sieve him.

Yet, during this times, I got closer to God while sorting for answers. I desired to know why all my prayers didn't save my brother. But more than anything, I knew that was the life he chose, and unlike some others, he didn't escape death, or encountered God despite all the times God strategically put before him.

When we moved out of town a year after Jerry's death, my new school was nothing close to writing home about. Yes, God had told me it wasn't going to be easy, but he never made mention of how difficult it was going to be. I firstly fell out with the happening girls in school, Jumoke, Amina, and Victoria, when rumours had it that Alvin Markson, the handsome wealthiest kid in school, with his mom being the Nigerian, and his dad Briton, had an eye for me. 

I was barely three months in school, months of hard labour like a prisoner, months of unnecessary stress, mental illness, sleepless nights, long faces, when the saddest news hit me. I had failed the second term exams, meaning the school won't let me write my SSCE with my mates, which means I was going to repeat my senior year in secondary school.