The Earth Is Shrinking: The Wrath Of The Earth

Part Two

She came to church and sat with us on the wooden benches outside.
I saw a male usher going to commiserate with the bereaved woman. 
I overheard some of our brethren comforting her and my heart throbbed in sympathy.
"You did not follow them to Edo for the burial?"
"No. They have already gone."
"Sorry. Oh, sister. Take heart."
She nodded as she looked at her little daughter nearby.
Her daugher has the same bright eyes. And the same glints in her brown eyes whenever she smiles.
Like mother, like daughter.
I waited until she was alone.
Then I went to her.
"My sister told me of the boat mishap last Monday," I said sympathetically.
I asked her how the tragedy happened.
She said he was the elder brother of her husband.
"My brother-in-law was in one of the boats and they collided near the Dutch Island. Only two of the passengers died. My brother-in-law and another man," she told me plaintively.
"What of his bereaved family?"
"He was married, but the wife was yet to bear a child before this unfortunate accident."
I said comforting words to her.
Only the bereaved could tell the depth of their loss.
I never knew the brother-in-law.
Unfortunate man.
What would the childless widow do now?
Get married again and continue with her life?
Would she be able to forget him?
How would she feel sleeping alone on the same bed they once shared?
I knew the widow would have nightmares of her dead husband.
Death does not have ears
So, cannot hear the pleas for mercy
Death is neither moved by fears nor tears
So, does not have pity.

Then I left her and turned my attention to the children as they were being ushered into the main building of the church. It was the Children's Sunday and some of them were dressed in their Sunday best and really looking happy with their innocent smiles, giggles and laughters. Two older children were playing two unarmed combatants and quite harmless.
I saw the youngest and smallest child clapping cheerfully and looking at me to see if I noticed her. I nodded and clapped to show her that I was elated to see her praising the lord happily. What a blessed child.

A couple was celebrating the birth of their new baby and we rejoiced with them as they sang and danced in thanksgiving to God. But I thought of the bereaved woman mourning the death of her brother-in-law.
"Did God not bless us last week?" The minister asked the congregation.
"God blessed us!" They chorused aloud.
"Hallelujah!"
"Amen!"
I wanted to see how the bereaved woman was reacting to the minister's question.
Would she concur that God blessed us last week whilst she lost her brother-in-law?

The minister said we should pray for peace in Nigeria and reminded us of the dusk to dawn curfew in Port Harcourt since the oil city was turned into a Battleground as the task force of the Nigerian Armed Forces fought with the cultists and terrorists on rampage in the Niger Delta. Innocent civilians have been killed by stray bullets in the bloody mayhem. The Nigerian Armed Forces claimed that they killed scores of the cultists and terrorists, including one of their dreaded gangsters, Soboma George. But the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said Soboma actually escaped and was still alive and at large. I heard that 17 Nigerian soldiers were killed, but it was not reported in the news.
They report only what they want the public to know.
White papers are often filled with white lies.

Life goes on.