The man whose picture appears above came to worship for the first time in our church on Sunday 23rd January 2022. He fainted while service was going on and created a scene for worshippers to worry. The man was immediately taken out of the auditorium for resuscitation in the church clinic. God so good two medical doctors were in the service and prompt attentions were given. Of course, prayers were going pari-passu with the medical care. It was observed that the feet of the man were getting code and pulse was low. He was given drip and some tests conducted on him. To the glory God the man was resuscitated after some time.

When the man could speak, he was asked his name and he said he is John Samuel. He narrated that he was called on phone to come for a cooking job in Lagos in October 2021 because his job is cooking. On getting to Lagos, his invitee by name Wasiu came to pick him from the park. Somehow, he slept off in the car and by the time he woke up he found himself in a room with three other guys. The four of them were naked and their captors came for them one after the other at different days.

According to him the captors could not use him for their ritual, and he was dropped on a bridge that morning. It was in the process of wondering about that he located our church and decided to come and worship.

Some of the questions asked and responses were:
Are you married? No.
Where are you from? Usieluku, Delta State
Can you give us phone number of any of your family member? I can’t remember any phone number. Contacts I could call are in my phone which the captors took away with my bag.

We decided to assist him to relocate him back to his family in Delta State. According to him there is a transport service that goes to their village in Ojuelegba. After eating two plates of rice with coke and water he had strength to walk. We decided to report his case in the nearby police station. The Policemen on duty after asking various questions from the man advised that relocating him to his family is better because the man could not produce any contact to call. The policemen also advised that we take him to standard transporter in Jibowu.

We proceeded to Jibowu and bought a ticket of a bus going to his area. Contact number of a church member was used for the booking and the cashier was asked to call the number if there is any issue. The booking was done around 3:00pm and the bus was to leave around 7:00pm. We gave John N5,000.00 to eat on the way, pay for any other expenses and have something to still take home. We left him in the park.

At about 4:15pm we received a call from the transport company that John said he did not want to travel again because of his health and demanded for refund of transport fare. The company called to inform us, and we asked the company to hold on that we would come back. Before we got there the man has left after making trouble with the company for not refunding the money to him. Graciously, the company returned the fare to us.

Learning Points
1. Church should take extra caution in dealing with first timers with all sorts of issues and stories. Is our duty to help and God will help us to render help that will not backfire.
2. Churches should not offer accommodation to first timer in the church. Many churches have had their finger burnt in the process.
3. Take good look of the picture in case the man shows up in your church.
4. As we pray for new people to join our churches God will lead genuine ones to us. The Church of God will continue to match on, and the gate of hell will not prevail in Jesus’ name.

Most churches should reduce number of fasting days...na just hunger.nothing else.
How can a church fast for 100days and expect somebody not to faint.

I appreciate ur church for the effort.thanks.

. After eating two plates of rice with coke and water he had strength to walk.

Hunger bad, my people

Hunger don make me trek for over 6km just to eat free roasted yam and zobo. After eating, na so I trek back, another hunger start again