Phone rings at 21:11 hours on the 26th of June…it is my Mum. I reach for the phone eagerly, she is not just my Mum, she is now also my friend and I usually enjoy a Sunday evening gist with her.
“Nke, you are fantastic! You are wonderful! You are too much! Fantastic girl…!!!”.
At this point I am slightly blushing (yes…dark-skinned folks can blush too. Sort of) and I am wondering what this is all about. My mind races around the place trying to figure out if I did anything recently for my Mum that would solicit this kind of greeting. She already thanked me for renewing her comprehensive insurance for her VW Jetta a few days ago so it couldn’t be that…my thoughts are broken by her voice still full of excitement.
“I watched it! I thought it was an Audio CD and I just decided to listen but as I slotted it in, I saw you! I didn’t know it was a DVD. I didn’t know your Church now does DVDs… so I settled down and began to watch your teaching on speaking in tongues…”
Flashback: May 30th, 2011
After my Mum’s seventieth birthday celebration, I went for a meeting with a brother in Enugu, a new believer, and I gave him a copy of a DVD – Eight Reasons Why Every Believer Should Speak In Other Tongues. After leaving his house, I met up with my family and soon after we checked out of the Nike Lake Hotel. On our way out of Enugu, we stopped at Mum’s house to drop off some stuff for her and as I was leaving her house I decided to leave the second copy I had of the same DVD for Mum. I left it on her center table and hurriedly mentioned to her as I rushed out to the car that I left one of my messages for her…I wasn’t even sure she heard me…
“…so Nke, as I started watching you, I didn’t move from my seat for the one hour of the message…I was watching as the people in the Church were watching (chuckles)! I heard all you said – even when you said you and Pastor Charles once prayed for nine hours in tongues – heh! As I saw you running all over the place I was wondering if I am now too old for this oh! You know, I once spoke in tongues over 15 years ago in Lagos, when I went to visit your sister…
She must have forgotten that there was also a time Pastor Charles and Pastor Sunny had prayed for she and Daddy to receive the Holy Spirit.
“…I never knew I had to follow it up! I never knew it was so useful in my life as a Christian. I never knew it like I heard you teach it in this wonderful message. Hmmm…let me not keep saying it was “wonderful” before you act like our Pastor does – and you ask me to recount all I heard in this “wonderful” message (laughs out loud) – at least I know there were four points in part one and I can tell you what they were if you ask me. Nke, do you know I was ready to watch part two immediately…”
She was ready to sit through another hour of the Word?! I am not even sure I can boast of that attention span with the Word on DVD…what on earth happened to this woman? She must have had a thirst hidden somewhere that the water of the Word supernaturally filled. Whatever it is, thank you Holy Spirit and YOU receive ALL the glory!! I am so grateful and overwhelmed with excitement at how excited she sounds.
“…but as I put it on, I don’t know what I pressed on my DVD the first time that made the picture show and this time I couldn’t find it again, so I had to put off watching part two for another day!
Nke! Guess what…I have been BLABBING IN TONGUES since I finished watching it! I am not too old after all. I have been in my kitchen, speaking in tongues and I will keep doing it every day like you said…Nke darling, thank you, you have made my Sunday”
Finally at this point I can get a word in…the tone of my voice is now matching hers as I respond…
“No Mum! You have made my week, my year! I am so happy at all this …You? Speaking in tongues so freely! What more could I ask for? And I only carelessly dropped that CD that day oh…I love you Mum and thanks for calling to tell me this!”
“Okay Nke, Bye! As you drop the phone now, I want to continue blabbing in tongues…Bye!”
Mummy sef! What a word – blabbing!!! Whatever…as I hang up I am so full of gratitude as I swallow a lump that has formed in my throat…at seventy, God is still eager and faithful to take my Mum to another level, a deeper level of her walk with Him. Father, where would we be without You?
