I waited for Rita to finish using the bathroom before stepping out to take my turn. In this face-me-I-face-you compound where I stayed, fights over using the bathroom was an everyday event. I could have easily used the toilet when she was in the bathroom,which was separate but beside the toilet, but I knew Rita, she was the chief trouble shooter in the compound and I didn't want to be the headline story today. I knew that although she was whistling while having her bath, she was also paying careful attention to hear if anyone would enter the toilet while her roll of tissue paper hung on the door knob like an unwritten "don't step in" sign post. I had to overcome this today, and thank God I did.

"Rita, good morning" I saluted as I approached the toilet when she was done.
"Babe, how far? Good morning" She replied.
"It's all good"
And we passed by each other.
Of all the young girls who lived in the compound, I and my friend-Bimbo- were the only ones Rita had not had a fight with, not because there had been no opportunities to fight, but because we had decided not to and had always avoided it when the occasion presented itself .

I was barely seated on the toilet bowl when my digestive system gave up the waste it had been holding back for so long. As I sat, easing myself of the weight, it seemed my mind was getting clearer with each waste cleared, and was free to fly, to think wide and I began to think of ways to preach Christ to Rita. Apart from being the trouble shooter of the compound, she led a funny lifestyle. I wouldn't refer to her as a prostitute because she kept three constant sex mates, she was loud about her sex life and dared anyone to say anything disapproving. Because of her violent and arrogant disposition, I avoided speaking with her apart from exchanging pleasantries, but I knew that if I wanted to have a talk with her about Jesus, she would gladly listen to me .

"I like you o babe, you just dey calm"
Those were her words to me on my birthday. I had passively informed her that it was my birthday.
The issue I had now was, how to coin the words , arrange them in a way that will not be judgmental towards her.

The weeks passed and I still hadn't said a word to her. Then one day, Bimbo came into my room and gave me news that seemed too good to be true- Rita was now a changed person!
Due to my exams , I usually left the compound earlier than everyone else. I had not seen her in about two weeks and now I really wanted to! Just then, she came out to use the rest room which was adjacent to my room. She looked like she had just stepped into the compound from wherever she had gone to, because she still had her handbag on her shoulder, but something was off;she wore an ankle-length skirt and a turtleneck top, no earrings and makeup, I was too dumbfounded to say a word. I kept staring at the closed toilet door after she was in, waiting eagerly to confirm that I had not imagined the image in my memory.
In no time, she was out and headed for my room, I stepped out the moment she was at my door.
"Hi Mercy. I know you'll be glad to head this!" She said, looking as excited as she sounded.
"Oh... OK....?" I replied, "gist me"
"I'm a changed person now. I will no longer wear earrings, trousers or opened neck dresses"
"Wow, why?" I asked,sincerely surprised.
"Have you not heard all the revelations? Some people, different persons in different places, went to hell and saw women who did all these things there and warned everyone"
"They died, went to hell and came back?" I asked more amused than surprised.
"Yes na! God sent them to us" She was clearly into this
"So.. Why I stopped by your house is to tell you to stop wearing these earrings and braiding 'attachments' . "She paused and continued.
" I know that you are born again, go to church and love Jesus, but if you keep 'relaxing' your hair and doing all these things, you will go to hell. I just came to pass the warning" And just when I thought she was done, she reached into her bag and gave me a CD
"Take, I brought one of the tapes for you to listen yourself
"Thank You Rita, but..." I tried to speak.
"No o, please don't start arguing like Bimbo did" She protested.
I appreciated her for the gift and went in to a giggling Bimbo.

I never played the tape Rita had given me, but I heard all that was in it from my course mates at school. Even at church, some of my friends had cut their 'relaxed' hair and stopped using cosmetics, it spread everywhere like wild fire.
It was mid-2015 and more people kept going to hell and returning with similar message. Books and audio tapes were produced from it. I heard there were more women in hell than men, but the most ridiculous one I heard was that Vitamin C was produced in the water and should not be taken, if not we're worshipping the Queen of the coast.

Two months later, I was on my way back from school when I saw a crowd gathered in my compound. I hurried my steps so I could reach in time. Thankfully, the moment I stepped into the compound, I sighted Bimbo. Unable to reach her due to the crowd, I called out her name and she squeezed her way out to me.

"Bimbo, what is happening?" I asked the moment she got to me.

"It's Rita".

"What's happening with Rita?" I asked almost immediately
"She..." Bimbo started out speaking when we heard a woman screaming and pushing through the crowd to reach the spot of whatever was happening.

"What is happening?" I asked again, my impatience displayed in how I stamped my foot and hand gestures.

"Rita got into a fight with one of her bedmates and attempted to cut his Manhood off,the man is badly injured" Bimbo explained.

By now, a larger crowd had gathered, making it even more difficult to get to where Rita was, I couldn't even see her from where I stood.
A few minutes later, I heard the approaching sound of the Police syren, faint at first and louder as they approached my compound.
As the police van came into full view, my compound erupted , people began to disperse, running in different directions, the noise of this disarray was almost deafening, amidst this noise, I could hear a man saying

" The police will want to arrest as many people as possible, so that they'll have so much money from bail, we better leave fast!". I turned to see him pulling his teenage son.

I didn't know what to do,where would I run to? This was my compound and the police might search door to door , to pull out fellow tenants of Rita as witnesses. I was still trying to collect my thoughts when two policemen walked pass me,then another.. At this point, there was no need to run, I stood.

With almost everyone gone, I could see Rita now. She sat on the floor, her legs tied with a rope and her weapon of Manhood destruction in her right hand, I could hear the leader of the 'vigilantee' group of my street, telling the police how he was called upon to contain the situation.. The man laid whimpering, bleeding still, the woman that had pushed through the crowd earlier-probably his wife- stood weeping and cursing. One moment she would be weeping and in the next, she would curse.

Rita was dragged to her feet by two police men. As she was being dragged toward the van, she turned towards me and spoke to me. At first, I wanted to pretend she wasn't speaking to me, so as to avoid implications,but then, she had called my name and was looking at me directly, I had no room to pretend..
As the police Van drove away, and an ambulance arrived to pick the injured man, I hurried off to carry out Rita's request.

The next day, I went to visit her in prison. I sat in the visits hall, waiting for her to be brought to me and wondering how I would deliver this news to her. She was led in, handcuffed and still wearing the bomb-short and blood-stained T-shirt from yesterday. As she sat, she smiled a weary smile and asked "how far?"
."I did what you asked me to; I got the number from the newspaper vendor and called your mother"
I paused, trying to find the right words with which to tell her this;
"Rita, your mother said you're on your own" I couldn't find a right way, I just said it as softly as I could.
She hung her head and for the first to time in almost five years of knowing Rita, I saw this tough young lady shed tears.

I reached out,placing my hands on her shoulder, I said " Rita, everyone might desert you and look down on you, but Jesus loves you still, He desires to be close to you and give you true life, peace and j...."

"Abeg,leave that matter! Please just stop. That God thing is too hard, let me be!" She cut in

"Rita, Jesus loves you" I insisted calmly.

"How? With all my roughness? If pastors and mummy G.Os were seen in hell,after all their worship of Christ, then what is the hope for a person like me? It's too hard please"

"Rita.. Those lies..."

"Mercy, thanks for coming. Don't worry about me, just go!"

Just then, the policeman took her away and asked me to leave that the meeting time had elapsed.

As I walked home, I recalled that Rita's statement was strikingly familiar, I remembered hearing it in church.

This was the general attitude that came with those messages;

Firstly, people tried to keep up with the conditions for entering heaven and avoiding hell.

Then:
Few weeks later they go back to their original state, wearing and using the "sinful" things they had forsaken.

Finally,
They lose hope of getting saved, because living for God is hard..

I kept thinking to myself "the devil really hit target with this scheme!! Even popular Men of God fell for it."

I'll keep praying for Rita and trying to reach her.. But I am worried for the church;

The lack of assurance of Salvation and shallow understanding of what Christ did on the cross is the reason people fell for those messages of terror.
It's the reason people today obey laws of men and call it sin.

I am worried that the next scheme might be worse..

Dear Child of God.
Know God for yourself.... Know Him in His Word.
Only Truth will give you stability and freedom.

And NO! Christianity is not behavior modification, it is inward heart transformation.

This Righteousness, peace and Joy � in the transformed heart growing in the Holy Spirit then affects speech and behavior.

Its not outside ⇒ in.
Its inside ⇒ out
#JournalOfaJesusgirl

Whether this narrative is true or false, one thing is clear : the standard to live a righteous life can never be attained by our own efforts and works ; it is only through grace of God ,and the power of the Holy Spirit we can indeed achieve perfection.