My Bus Trip, A Lady Preacher and the Debate

by Deji Yesufu

Two weekends ago I took a trip on a bus to Lagos. My younger cousin was getting married this Saturday morning and the only way to get there early was to leave Ibadan at about 6:30am. I had woken up as early as 3:00am. I had banked on catching a nap in the bus before getting to Lagos, to make for the short sleep I had that night.

The trip started well. I was sitting in the middle passenger seat. Next to me was a young naval officer, with whom I quickly struck up conversation on Nigeria and the military.

The trip began and this woman, right behind me, announced that we should pray. I noticed she didn’t ask. She just assumed everyone will not mind a word of prayer. When she concluded, she began to preach. I had no problem with her preaching. I had hoped that in a few minutes, she will be done and I could begin that nap I had promised myself.

This lady preacher will not stop preaching, even after we had gone a good thirty minutes into the journey. Sincerely I would not have minded at all, except that her preaching took on a new dimension. She had began preaching with the need for her hearers to be repent of their sins and believe in Christ. And that was all well and good.

However, she suddenly switched from preaching to telling her personal stories. It went on from how she encountered Jesus in a vision. How the Lord had instructed her to stop her tailoring job and face ministry. How her family misunderstood her. How her uncle beat her up for this decision, although she was married. How she escaped being bewitched... and on and on it went.

The inability to sleep, her preaching coming straight at my ear drums because she was seated right behind me, and the fact that her preaching had clearly turned fairy tale, got to me at last.

I turned to the lady and told her that she had said enough. I needed some sleep and I think others also needed their privacy. She was aghast. I explained to her that her preaching was fine but that the moment it exceeded ten minutes, she was obviously intruding on the privacy of others.

She said nothing.

But the people, sitting adjacent to her, who might have been Christians, shot back at me saying that I should not have cut the woman short. They said that, since I have said I am a Christian minister too, I should understand the need to preach the gospel.

I explained to them (admittedly my voice was rising now) that there is a time for everything. That this woman had clearly overshot her boundaries.

The discussion became heated. The naval gentleman next to me tapped me on the shoulder and requested that I be calm; that if the lady does not stop, he would stop the bus and call her to order.

The bus that was quiet before now, suddenly burst into a rowdy session. Opinions were divided. Some felt I should not have stopped the woman; others felt that the woman had taken too much time preaching. It went on and on and died out after about 20 minutes.

Then, this gentleman, at the back seat of the bus, noticing that the bus had quietened, called to the woman and explained to her that I had a point. He said it was not wrong for her to preach; but it was wrong for her to go on and on without an end. It was clear to everyone that if someone had not spoken up, this lady would have chatted us all into Lagos. And no one would have spoken, as it is almost tantamount to a religious taboo to do such in a country like Nigeria.

Thankfully, I was to disembark in Berger. I got down, said my goodbyes to the naval gentleman and headed straight to my destination. I knew all eyes were on me, but I cared very little about that.

The naval officer, just before the argument began, I had been telling me that the Nigerian navy got its ships from Germany and India. I work in the hospital and the therapy machines we use are also gotten from those countries. This navy guy was now listing countries and their speciality, as far as machines hardware was concerned.

When the debate got heated, I told the people defending this lady that countries are known for invention and production; Nigeria, unfortunately, is known for exporting a false gospel to the nations of the earth.

Nigerians can do a whole lot more with their time, other than religion. And if we shall practice religion, let it be the truth of the Christian gospel. Not some hocus pocus of how Jesus appeared to you and made you into a modern female apostle.

Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1546968965379308&id=1505609702848568

CC: Seun, Lalasticlala, Mynd44