ANGELIC VISITATION

It was just a month after my 19th Birthday that I left Oron in Akwa Ibom State for Bible School training at Amasiri, Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Coming from a Jehovah’s Witness background, I was denied the family support and moreover, my pastor was not also in agreement as he and the Church were not ready to be financially committed with my Bible School training.

It was the earlier encounter I had with Jesus and the express direction from Him in relationship with my training that kept me going with a determined faith. Prior to my departure for the training, I had managed to convince my pastor about the calling of God upon my life and the need to be train for the task ahead. He prayed at his office and released me to face my future mandate though he and the Church Board were not going to be financially committed to my welfare.

Hearing from God directly gave me more boldness and assurance that He was not going to disappoint me even when my family disowned me and the Church with my pastor choose not to be in support.

With three of my Christian friends (Joseph, Moses and Ime), I set out on 7th January, 1991 to Amasiri, Ebonyi State in order to begin a new page in my life. We got to the Bible School at around 5pm and however; we were able to submit our forms and through with the registration process.

Ime Antai was to begin his second year while Joseph, Moses and I were the freshmen on Campus and ready for our first year in School. I still remember a question in the form that says: “Who is sponsoring you in the School?” without a blink of thought in my mind, my answer was: “GOD” in capital letters.

For months in the School, I was facing lots of financial and logistic challenges but I have just one song in those days that I sang every morning, afternoon and evening. It says: “The joy of the Lord is my strength”. I can clearly say I was the happiest person on Campus in those days; this was so evidence that other students envied my joy positively and the School authority also recognizes it to the glory of God.

One day, I was very hungry and it was the season for the ripened of mangoes and at the Primary School in the opposite direction to our School Hostel, there were so many stands of mango trees planted within its compound. During our free period, I decided to go to the Primary School compound in search for some mango so I could eat for the day. The Primary School compound was very big that I have to walk almost one kilometer to where these mango trees were planted.

I went there alone and climbed one of the trees searching for ripped mangoes but found none. After about five minutes of searching, there was no one ripped fruit on sight that I could pluck to satisfy my hunger at that moment. Just then, I saw a seemingly old woman coming back from the farm. She had a basin on her head with water bottle and a knife in it. At that moment, that was all I noticed about her. I didn’t pay any attention on her as she was not my reason for being there in the first place.

Then as she reached the mango tree were I was on, I heard a young female’s voice from beneath the tree’s branches, she said to me with a melodic sound: “Please, can I eat with you?” I looked down and it was the woman but this time, she was like a 25 years old young lady a shinning dark complexion. That again did not border at all nor shift my focus from what I was there for. But as I look up again in search for (at least one) ripped mango, I found one well-ripped mango just over my head. Indeed, this was really the miracle I've been searching for but then; there was a request from this woman standing in wait right beneath the three I was on.

Without thinking about the state of my hunger and this fortune of finally finding one ripped mango after a very long and diligence search, I plugged this mango and in response to this woman’s request, throw it down to her and said “Have it.” For the next few seconds, I kept on searching and again, none was found. Then without me concentrating on her presence still at the place, I heard the same voice again saying “Please, can I have more?”

Beloved, at this very moment, I saw another well-ripped mango just in front of me so again; I plugged it and again gave to her. This time I said in my heart, “Let me just give this to the woman so that she can leave me alone.”

At that point, one of my colleagues in School then came around on the same mission and having seen that I had ripped mangoes given to this lady; he quickly climbed up and joined me on the same tree. Joseph, though younger than me, he was very forceful in nature with a go-get character.

As soon he gets on the tree, he started shaking its branches and both ripped and unripe mangoes where forcefully plugged down to the ground. The woman still standing by went and picked one ripped mango from these plugged mangoes. I heard my colleague shouting at her and saying: “Put that mango down!” but she said in responded to him: “Please, just this one.” But he insisted with another command: “No! I said put it down!” This time, the lady’s response was soft as she said: “Okay, let me put them at a saved place for you.” But my colleague reacted angrily: “I said drop it right there!”

The lady then drop the mango at the very spot she picked it from and gently carried up her basin on her head and left. It was at this juncture that my colleague turned to me and said: “I notice something about that woman that concerns me so much.” So I asked him: “What is that?” He softly said to me: “When I came here and was climbing the three, the woman I saw was a very old woman and now the one going is a young lady. Could she be an angel that God have sent to save us from this difficult situation?”

Truly speaking, it was at this moment that it occurred to my consciousness that I had the same experience about her and I responded to him: “It is true, when I myself saw her coming out of the bush, she was an old woman but when she reaches here, she changed to a young lady.” It was then that my colleague said a prayer: “Oh God, if she is an angel that you have sent to deliver us from this difficult situation that we are going through, please sent her back to us.”

God was really out to do something with us as He answered this simple prayer without any delay. It wasn’t up to five second after that brief prayer; we saw her coming back to the same place. I was truly spelled bound and couldn’t say a word but my colleague then said to her: “Please, take everything as much as you can!”

Looking back, I became sad remembering her action then. The woman quietly picked only one unripe mango into her basin and as she turn to go; I summed up courage and asked her: “Sister, please what is your name?” I was shock at the way she responded to my question. She started by laughing for few seconds and then asked: “Do you really want to know my name?” And I said: “Yes.” Then she responded thus to me: “I know that you are hungry. But whenever you are hungry, don’t say that you are hungry. Only say, ‘I am glorious’. My name is GLORIOUS.” Just by saying this, she left without saying good-bye.

It was around 6pm by this time and we were so dumbfounded and spelled bound by the experience to the point that; we didn’t even know what to do next neither did we feel the hunger in us anymore despite not haven’t eaten since morning.

I also noticed that as she was leaving the only mango with her was the unripe one she took at my colleague’s request. The two I gave to her earlier were not seen and I didn’t notice a moment that she ate them when she was there.

About a minute later, another colleague of ours in School joined us, and coming from the direction the lady went; and then we asked him if he has seen any woman going in that direction and he said: “No”. We then narrated our experience to him and he said: “Truly, she was an angel sent from God”.

Where is that my colleague who was with me during this experience today? It is a long story...

KINGDOM

ANGELIC VISITATION

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