CHAPTER TWO
Monday mornings were always characterized with a lot of hustles and bustles and a lot of people dreaded Mondays. Students were not left out of the Monday morning saga and most students always wished that they could skip Mondays and have double Fridays. From the early morning lectures to the long hours of lectures to the long queue at the bus terminus and the pushing and struggling to get a seat in the bus and the traffic that would make a thirty minutes journey become two hours, all these made Monday an enemy of all. Lecturers were also not helping matters as they would take attendance, give tests and not allow any student join the class once they arrived.
It was another Monday and it was evident that no one was excited about the day because they all wore long faces as they got ready for the struggle of the day. Paulina and her roommates got ready for school and the thought of the stress of the day made them to just do their stuff in silence. Unlike other days when they would gist and giggle happily as they got ready for the day.
Paulina was a very fair and good-looking lady. She was not lousy or extravagant and she always loved to wear something simple and decent. A lot of people called her holy Mary because of the way she dressed and she would just laugh about it and reply that holy Mary was her role model and it would be a privilege to look like her.
That day was not an exception; she wore a long sleeve blue blouse on a black skirt. She parked her hair to the back and took her sandals.
“I’m not going to wait for any of you,” she said and continued buckling her sandals.
“We are almost ready madam, so calm down.” One of them said.
“The lecturer that would be taking the class I have this morning is an early riser, no matter how early you are you will always meet him in the class. At a point I began to wonder if he sleeps at all,” another said.
“Probably he spends the night in the class,” one said and they all laughed.
They got ready and set out. They headed to the bus terminus where they took the next bus down to the academic arena.
Paulina left the hostel as early as 7am for her 9am lecture. She had calculated the time to wait for the bus plus the traffic and knew that she should be able to get to the class before 9am no matter what happened.
But as God would have it, the bus arrived almost immediately they got to the terminus and the traffic was very mild. She got to the class around 7:50am, she went to secure a safe place for herself in the front of the class where she would be able to hear the lecturer well and have a clear access to the board without straining her eyes. She sat beside a lady on the second row in the front and she exchanged pleasantries with her. She said a word of prayer and took out her note book to revise what she had been taught in the course because she didn’t know if the lecturer would welcome them into a new week with an impromptu test. She had not read for up to twenty minutes when she felt led in her spirit to preach to her other colleagues that had arrived for the lecture as well.
She took her bible in her hand and stepped up to climb the podium. “Good morning ladies and gentlemen,” she said to get their attention because some of them were busy pressing their phones, some were reading while others were chatting with their friends.
They all stopped and looked up to see who was greeting them. On seeing Paulina, some of them hissed, others continued with what they were doing while some paid attention to her to hear what she was going to say.
Paulina was known for always preaching and admonishing her course mates and they were already used to her telling them about the love of Jesus, why they need to forsake their sins and turn to Jesus to live a meaningful life and avoid eternity in hell. They were also witnesses to the power of God at work in Paulina’s life.
There was a particular time when they were in 200 level when they did an elective course from Biochemistry department and their results were not released. They did all they could and the class representative was running helter-skelter to rectify it but found no solution and they were all to rewrite the course.
Paulina gathered them together and they prayed, after which they went back to the lecturer and he produced their results stating that it was because their grades were better than those of his students that was why he didn’t upload their results. They wanted to take him up to the student affairs but Paulina encouraged them to forgive him since God had fought for them.
On several occasions she had prayed for her sick, disturbed or tormented classmates and they were healed.
Paulina told them that she would be speaking to them that day on the wages of death.
“I would be reading from the book of Romans 6:23,” she said after saying a word of prayer and introducing her topic to her audience.
The bible says “for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” From where I have read, it is important to know the meaning of certain words. The first one is wages: wages is a form of reward that a man receives for the work he has done. The wages can be money, food, property or any other thing. Sin is the transgression of the law of God. Gift is a present we receive from someone as an act of kindness of the person towards us. Eternal life is life without end in bliss and enjoyment. We all know of a surety that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. One way or the other we have at one point or another done something we shouldn’t do and most times it is not because we wanted to do it but it is just because of the nature of sin that is embedded in mankind which makes him prone to committing sin without having the power on his own to stop. We all know that no one teaches a child to lie or steal before he starts doing it, which is the nature of sin. But the joy we have is that God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us. He paid the price of death by shedding His blood to wash away our sins and now He is calling us to come and receive of the free gift He has made available for us so we can live a meaningful life and also avoid eternal death.
“Keep quiet and stop disturbing our peace,” a guy said from the extreme end of the class. You are used to always disturbing others with your religious ideologies and it seems as if you are just hell-bent on transforming everyone to a religious fanatic like yourself. I don’t know why you like condemning others just because they don’t share the same opinion with you. If I don’t believe what you believe does that make me less than human? I don’t even know why you guys that go to church believe that you will make it to heaven. See let me tell you the obvious, I’ll keep living my life the way I want to and still make heaven.”
The guy kept on ranting and as such disrupted the sermon and Paulina had to go back to her seat. Paulina said a little prayer for the guy and sat down quietly as they await the arrival of the lecturer.
The class lasted for about three hours, after which they waited for the next lecturer who did not show up and that was how Paulina ended her day. She could not eat before she left the hostel in the morning and she really wasn’t a fan of junks and so she was really hungry. She decided to rush down to the hotel to eat and rest before going back to the library to study. She went straight to the bus terminus and luckily for her she was the last person to join the bus and they took off.
After she alighted from the bus, she had to trek for about 5 minutes before entering her hostel. At a corner, she saw about three guys seated. She walked pass them but they beckoned on her and she didn’t answer them because she was in a hurry. They rushed at her and forced her to stop. Then she looked at their faces and could recognize one of them as the guy who interrupted her preaching in the class earlier that day.
“What is the meaning of this?” She said in the calmest way she could to hide her irritation.
“I just wanted to see how strong you are,” the guy replied and then laughed with his guys.
“I thought it would be difficult to harass you since you claimed to be saved so I want to see how secure your salvation is,” he added and chuckled.
“Don’t tempt God,” Paulina tried to walk away from them but one of the guys stood before her and blocked her way so she was not able to go and she was getting really exhausted due to how hungry she was.
“What if I want to?” Another one said.
“Let’s see what will happen.”
“I’m not going to allow you bring tears to the eyes of your innocent parents when they hear of your death. Because I know no one can fight God and live to tell the story. All I just have for you is that Jesus loves you and He died because of sinners like you so you can be saved and delivered from this bondage of sin.”
“Hahahahahaha!” They all laughed loudly.
“I can see that you are not well, so you are still preaching to me?”
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