The Lord watches over you;the Lord is your shade at your right hand Ps. 121:5
When we decided to relocate from Nigeria, I had a lot of concerned relatives ask why I would leave the security of a good job to face the unknown in a country that was at the time going through an economic recession. One of my responses was, I just wanted to go somewhere I could sleep through the night without a scare. I had faced too many security near misses and I didn't know how many more I could afford to face.
Around Sept/Oct 1995 somewhere between end of SS2 to start of SS3, while school was on mid-term break, a few of us that were writing GCE stayed back in school as we had papers that weekend. Very deep into the fateful Friday night, we heard some movement on the door of our room and before we knew what was happening, a masked gunman broke into our room. Six teenage girls face to face with a matured armed man. He hushed us to be quiet, we were already too scared to make any sound anyway. With the gun pointed at each of us, we quickly handed in our pocket monies hoping the situation does not escalate. Then he got to most matured of us, who only had on a skimpy underwear and beckoned her to follow him. We knew what this meant. As she followed towards the door, she pleaded that we shouted, still we couldn't but thank God for the strength she found in that moment. Just outside the door she struggled with the man, we shouted and in a state of panic, he hit her on the forehead with his gun and fled. She passed out bleeding from the forehead but thank God who saved her.
What can beat
God's divine intervention in the face of situations where we know it only takes
one silly move, bad decision or mistake and life could be gone within the
twinkle of an eye.
When we decided to relocate from Nigeria, I had a lot of concerned relatives ask why I would leave the security of a good job to face the unknown in a country that was at the time going through an economic recession. One of my responses was, I just wanted to go somewhere I could sleep through the night without a scare. I had faced too many security near misses and I didn't know how many more I could afford to face.
Around Sept/Oct 1995 somewhere between end of SS2 to start of SS3, while school was on mid-term break, a few of us that were writing GCE stayed back in school as we had papers that weekend. Very deep into the fateful Friday night, we heard some movement on the door of our room and before we knew what was happening, a masked gunman broke into our room. Six teenage girls face to face with a matured armed man. He hushed us to be quiet, we were already too scared to make any sound anyway. With the gun pointed at each of us, we quickly handed in our pocket monies hoping the situation does not escalate. Then he got to most matured of us, who only had on a skimpy underwear and beckoned her to follow him. We knew what this meant. As she followed towards the door, she pleaded that we shouted, still we couldn't but thank God for the strength she found in that moment. Just outside the door she struggled with the man, we shouted and in a state of panic, he hit her on the forehead with his gun and fled. She passed out bleeding from the forehead but thank God who saved her.
Little
did I know I was going to face similar situation four more times over the next
7 years; twice in one night on one of these horrendous occasions. On one
occasion with a machete to my neck, on another hiding up in the ceiling, on
another plastic bag wrapped around my mum's head and on the scariest occasion,
our Dad has to physically tussle for his life when the gun was pointed at him.
On one occasion, we could overhear the robbers’ conversation outside. 'Where is
the money? the boss asked. We didn’t find it, they don't have it. Then go back
and shoot them, he said. To our shock, the robber begins to plead with his boss
not to come back in to shoot. Just then we heard a whistle in the distance and
that brought the nightmare to an end.
I
became so scared to stay at my parents’ home and will be the first to travel
away to spend holidays with my relatives in Ibadan and Lagos. The year after
the last face to face robbery incident, I started losing my sleep. No matter
how deep I slept, I would wake up fully aware and scared at exactly 2.30 am
which was the time the gun shot landed on our door the first time we were
robbed. It seem minor at first, and I’d would be given very small dose of
sleeping pills, then the dose increased slightly, then they stopped working and
I was placed on a stronger one for a short while. It became so bad some
nights, Dad stayed overnight in his shop and Mum too us to sleep in her friend's house. When we slept
at home, families did vigilante on rota during the night. We lived in fear in
our own house.
It
became unbearable and I finally took my fear to God in prayers. I asked
God to show me he was with us and help me sleep. After all he said he
gives his beloved sleep. After days of praying, one night I dreamt of angels hovering over our roof. Soon after on another
night, I dreamt again, this time there were fast moving cars with
siren driving round our house, and when the lead car pulled up in our compound,
a tall man with grey beards came out looking strong and walked majestically to
our door. He met me at the door, looked me in the eyes and said something like
'I am here'. I woke up and it was morning. I had slept all through the night.
That was the end of my sleeplessness, I never had to use sleeping tablets to
sleep again. I had peace knowing God was there with us.
I
look back and imagine all the things that could have gone wrong on each of
those horrible moments; rape, grievous bodily harm, maiming or murder. I needed
to know that God was there and he gave me more than His word, he paid us a
visit to reassure us of his presence.
Thank you Lord for giving your angels
charge over us.
To God be the glory
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