“ Hello… Who is on the line?… Hello … I know you are still on the phone, whoever you are… can you at least say something?” I heard Favour saying over the phone… “ I can hear you breathing… so that tells me this is not the case of bad network… You have been calling me for days without saying a word!” Favour said. I just couldn’t say a word because of the shame I was feeling… I had been calling Favour’s number I had gotten on the Lighthouse website. She was the administrator and her number had been put on the website. “ Chuks?” I heard her say suddenly… “Is that you Chuks?” I ended the call immediately as I realized my cover had been blown. I was at the point in my life that I looked worse than a starved animal… My bones were literally showing … The cancer was seriously dealing with me. Professor has abandoned me… The school authority had given me a compulsory leave to go take care of my health as the school clinic could not manage it… The illness which suddenly appeared after my encounter with Risi and Tina, made the next two months feel like two years. All the money I had gathered in 2 years of lecturing went into taking care of my health. My campus fellowship was no longer functioning. That was when I realized I needed help… Tina had tormented me in my dreams, but I had made up my mind to die rather than return to SCA. I had been calling Favour for 5 days but with no boldness to say how sorry I was for disappointing them… Favour called my number back… “ Hello Chuks… I believe you are the one I am speaking with.. Tell me, if you are in any kind of trouble and I will come get you…” Favour said “ I neeeed…..your help….” I struggled to say with the little strength in me “ Chuks… Oh my God! Thank God you are alive… Mercy said you came around for the Light up LAGOS years back… What is wrong?, where are you?” “ The pit of hell” “ You have been kidnapped?” “ No!… I am sick and my life feels like hell…” “ Ok… where is your place?” ************ When I saw Favour, it was clear that it pays to serve God. Favour looked beautiful and glorious. She came with a young man I didn’t recognize. With the help of the youngman, I was carried into her vehicle. Favour started crying…. I knew why! I was stinking. I had not had my bath in weeks… I looked frail and smelt like trash… As Favour drove, she kept asking in tears… “ Chuks, what happened?, did you go back into sin?” Favour asked “ Yessssss” I said “I warned you about her. I told you that Rejoice was a bad girl, now see how she finished the evil assignment of the SCA…” “ No… it wasn’t Rejoice….” I explained all that had happened to me in the past 8 years to Favour. Favour couldn’t contain her tears, she kept wailing … “ Chuks in eight years, God could have done a lot of great things with you like he did with the children in the Lighthouse… You should see how they have all turned out…” That was the beginning of my tears…On our way home, Favour told me the individual journey of the kids God had helped me to gather years back.., “ Who do I start with?” Favour asked in tears…. “ Anyone!” I replied “ Let me start with your first converts Ajaara and Gloria…. Like you know Gloria got pregnant and after you left, she lied you were responsible for the pregnancy. We doubted her, but she held on to her claims. After delivering her baby, she gave the baby up for adoption. The girl is about 7 years Old now. When Sammy came back and he told us he wasn’t sure if you were still alive, Gloria broke into tears and opened up about the truth of the identity of the man who impregnated her… I started a sexual purity training for the teenagers as I knew they needed the knowledge of why they had to be pure. All you taught them was a very strong foundation for me to build on… Gloria decided to continue her education. She went back to secondary school. Now she is in her 2nd year at the Obafemi Awolowo University studying law… She speaks against child molestation… Through the help of Madam Uyai, in the past two years the government has sponsored her foreign trips to international conferences on Child Sexual Care. “ That’s great!” I said in almost a whisper… “ Her dream is to be a Human right activitist , especially as a lawyer to defend children who may have suffered sexual abuse from adults…” I was silent as I listened on… “ Ajaara is a special case of strength and determination. Your disappearance had a strong effect on her. She recoiled and stopped talking to anyone, but When Mercy came back from Saudi Arabia, Mercy was able to penetrate into her. They became inseparable friends and that had a great influence on her. Ajaara also returned to secondary school and as we speak she is studying MICROBIOLOGY at the University of Lagos…She Is in her fourth year. Ajaara is engaged to one of the sons of the popular men of God in this town.. Pastor Bakare to be precise… They will be getting married next year June. Also Ajaara has been able to get back all her parents’ properties from her Uncle. This was through the help of Gloria’s Senior friend who is a human right activist. The activist also made sure Ajaara’s uncle lost his military job. Kenneth, your boy has continually made us proud… His drawings and paintings made international organizations to know about us.As he goes for exhibitions around the whole, he likes to make reference to the Lighthouse as what brings out the best in him and his base of creativity. He says it loud and clear that his brothers and sisters in the Lighthouse are his sources of inspiration… When these organizations decide to know what Lighthouse is about, they become surprised when they find out it is a private shelter for teenagers who may have run away from home or do not have a home. These international organizations donates hugely to the Lighthouse. This is what has been helping us as regards the smooth running of the Lighthouse…” I felt my heart wanted to jump out of my body… I looked at how sexual immorality had made me absent from my place of Glory. “ That brings me to informing you that we have two wedding ceremonies coming up this Saturday at the Lighthouse “ Favour said smiling proudly “ Mercy and Kenneth will be getting married and the other couple is a funny one though….” Favour said smiling for the first time and honestly before she said it, the names dropped in my heart… “ Mrs Uyai and Baba Agba?” I managed to ask. Favour looked at me very surprised…. “ How did you know?” She said beaming with smiles “ I saw the sparks the very first day …” I said in pain “ Really?… That’s what all the kids at the Lighthouse have been saying…You should see the way Mrs Uyai blushes when she is around Baba Agba… it is simply amazing…” Favour said smiling and she kept on and on… I thought about Mercy and Kenneth at how unconditionally Kenneth had accepted Mercy back and was ready to marry her despite her sexual slavery in Saudi Arabia… “ God!, please can you accept me back and give me a third chance?” I asked silently in my heart… Then the vomiting started… I started vomiting blood… I knew who was at work… Tina must have seen that she was about losing me… She didn’t want me to go to the Lighthouse, but I made a strong resolve in my heart… “ LIGHTHOUSE! Here I come!” I said in my heart… I didn’t care if I was going to spend my last few days there, I just wanted to make sure I returned back to my base. Favour was panicky as she was about to make a turn towards a hospital… “ Where are you taking me to..?” I asked “ To the nearest hospital..You need to see a doctor…” “ No… take me to the Lighthouse… I need to see Jesus, He has been waiting for me there, I Left Him there….Should you take me to any hospital… Tina will always have her agents there… Please Favour ” Favour looked at me with tears pouring out of her eyes… I could understand her pain… I was coughing blood and yet I was saying I didn’t need a hospital…. “ Please Favour ….” I pleaded but Favour couldn’t stand my pain and blood. She turned towards the hospital and I knew without any doubt knowing how the SCA operated, Tina would have a nurse inject me to death…, To be continued
