OUR EVER PRESENT HELP.

Growing up as an Anglican, my favourite part of the service was the sermon. The children's teachers would teach about God's kingdom in a song like manner or in a dramatic way.

When we graduated to the teenage session and left the children's session, the teen teachers no longer sang songs or playfully taught about God. There were no more memory verses and the like. I was a little sad.

But there was this teacher I loved so much, he was a barrister. Whenever it was his turn to take the sermon during the teenage session, I was always eager because it was fun.

Though he didn’t sing church songs, he sang hymns and explained each stanza to us. One of the things I loved about his sermons was how he was able to relate his personal experiences to whatever point he was making. He told lots of real life stories, some oddly relatable and others intriguing. He would even repeat some stories so often that I knew them by heart.

One time, I think he was teaching about faith or something that Sunday morning, and he told us a story. I don't remember it in exact detail, but I’ll try my best to narrate it, because it was one of my favourites.

According to the story, an Anglican priest (or venerable) was travelling somewhere to preach. He was driving late at night so he could arrive on time. Along the way, his vehicle broke down in the middle of nowhere. Both sides of the road were covered in thick bush.

He got out of the car, took a jerry can, and started walking. He couldn’t find any petrol station, but he kept going and soon enough, he found one. To his surprise, it was open. He bought fuel and walked back to his car.

He put the fuel in and continued his journey. However, on his way back after the event, he passed the exact spot where he had bought fuel the night before and to his surprise, there was no petrol station there. It was just thick bush.

He was astonished. Even more, he drove that car for weeks and even months, and the petrol didn’t seem to reduce. He was shocked and started worrying that the fuel would run out someday. So he decided to buy more fuel just in case.

When he got to a petrol station, he found out his tank was actually empty. The attendant was surprised he had even managed to drive the car there.

According to my teacher, the moral of the story was this: if the priest had not gone to buy fuel again, he would've been able to drive that car like that for even years because it wasn’t the petrol keeping the car moving, but God. And that fuel station he found that night wasn’t a real one, it was something God had placed there to help His servant.

Now, why am I telling you this story? Two things:

1. I've been able to make long calls for the past week now, and the last time I bought airtime, it was just 100 naira. So while trying to figure out how I’m still able to make calls, I remembered this favourite story and decided to share it because why not?

2. God shows up for us even when we don’t know it. He’s there, our ever present help in times of need. So don’t give up on Him. He knows exactly what you need and He’s more than able to provide it.

P.S.: I still have plenty of airtime, though it's not transferable. So if you ever want to talk to me, just flash me. I’ll call you back( at least up till my magically airtime gets finished)

_me feeling like God’s favourite_

@favvy_Okwans🖤.