The Devil Wears Okrika

Chapter 4

The Good foundation church Amaife had recorded an increase in members over the past few years and a significant increase within the last few weeks. The recent terrible murders had sent more villagers in search of the God they didn't believe in and previously ignored. But now with the state of things in Amaife, the villagers were discovering their Christian faith. The Devil had driven them to church. And as a matter of fact, plans were being made to move to a bigger location. Pastor Bartholomew started the church few years ago in a small shop. The pastor who had been relatively young at the time had converted his shop and started a six man church service every Sunday. At least six was the maximum amount of people who could sit in the small shop and still breathe easily.
With time, there were more chairs outside the door and window every Sundays. Before long, the wall of the next door shop had come down and the church had extended. With shrewd planning and careful arrangement the extended church could contain 15 people.
The chairs increased once more, and the third wall came down. The church expanded to a 30 man church.
Before long the church had bought off the remaining shops in the complex, renovations had taken place and the church had grown and was still growing.

When the bus parked in front of the Good foundation church building, Osi was beginning to feel the first signs of hunger. He got down, chasing thoughts of food and the young lady out of his mind.
Deacon Oforbuike remained in the bus studying the church. He didn't come down when Osi and the rest did.
"So he's going to remain in the bus now" Gregory said under his breath.
Osi ignored him as he observed the building. He was quite impressed but at the moment he was searching for any sign of life. The place looked deserted.
"That might be a good idea, I'd rather go in and check for the pastor alone...you all wait in the bus"
"I prefer the open breeze...inside the bus is too stuffy if you know what I mean" Ovie said slyly.
Osi knew what he meant perfectly, he also knew he had to caution his team.
"Look, during the course of this crusade it is very important we keep our mind and thoughts right...and our attitude too" he looked towards the bus where the deacon sat with arms folded "don't let anybody push you, because when that happens, you could be easily pushed to sin"
With that he strode towards the church.
He hadn't taken more than two steps when the door opened and the deacon got down. He hurried to cover the ground Osi's long legs had eaten.
He followed Osi silently and Osi smiled because the Deacon had such a petty psychology that he needed to be in the front always (as the leader) however his short legs were no match for Osi's and save for breaking out in a run, his fastest walk could only draw him level with the young pastor.
A young man rushed out before they got to the entrance.
"Good afternoon. You must be pastor Osi" he said to the Deacon. He was certainly dressed like one.
"No...I'm the pastor" Osi spoke up when the deacon remained quiet.
"Oh....sorry about that, I'm Sofiri. Pastor Bartholomew told me you would be coming in today. I'm to set you up in his house-"
"Where is he? Is he not around?" The Deacon interrupted.
"Actually....he had to go to the village square for a meeting but he'd be back"

·.·.·.·.·.
The three wise men as they were called kicked of the meeting at exactly 10 minutes past 1.
Pa Kenneth who was the oldest man in the village invited Pastor Bartholomew to start with the opening prayer.
After the prayer, Dé Nwachukwu addressed the crowd; "My people, people of Amaife over the past four weeks there have been unrest among us, among our daughters. We all know that three of our families have been thrown into grief"
He paused, looking at the crowd. Dé Nwachukwu was an orator and he knew how to use his words to good effect.
"We are gathered here because we can not afford to lose any more of our daughters..."

·.·.·.
In the crowd the villagers all listened to their leaders. All was silent and the only voice to be heard was De Nwachukwu's powerful voice.
Okudili sat at the back where he could keep an eye on Amara. He had been on the lookout and had even come to the meeting early with the hope of seeing her. But they had arrived late, just minutes before the opening prayer. Okudili paid zero attention to the words coming from De' Nwachukwu. He was more interested in the daughter. He frowned as he saw the young man in the leather jacket lean in to whisper something in her ear.
De' Nwachukwu: "I need to appeal to every one of us, we can not allow one demon to come and ruin our happiness and our peace as a community"
"This is the time to stand together, be on the lookout, our youths and young men especially, we boast of some of the best wrestlers in the neighbouring villages. We need to task ourselves with protecting our women, we need to flush out this person and we need to be united to do so, the worst thing is he is one of us, he might even be sitting here listening to me...."
He let that hang in the air as he took his seat.
Pa Kenneth who was still agile for a man in his seventies stood up to address the villagers. "Visitors from another state arrived in our community few hours ago. They would be hosted by our very own Bartholomew and I understand you will come in contact with most of them over the course of the week. I want to implore you to receive them peacefully, people of Amaife have always been known for their hospitality, let us not let that change"
"Our daughters are landing in the mortuary without passing through the hospital and you want us to be hospitable?" Someone shouted from the crowd and immediately there was a chorus as the villagers broke into murmuring and side talks.