Ad image

EXTRA: Testimonies, not for catching cruise

frontpageng
frontpageng
EXTRA: Widows and five months mourning period: My thoughts
Adesola Ayo-Aderele

By ADESOLA AYO-ADERELE

 

At a women’s prayer meeting the other day, a female leader that led one of the sessions gave a testimony before she launched us into the prayer.

It was to jump-start our faith, but the testimony turned out to be an incredible lie — you can only believe it if you don’t know the truth about the circumstances surrounding her claim.

According to her, after she got married and started having kids, she told God that she didn’t want to pay her kids’ tuition from her civil servant salary and that God must always provide extra money with which to do it.

God has been faithful so far, she said, because where extra money failed to come directly to her, her children filled the gap.

Testimonies are meant to glorify God and boost the faith of listeners. It is not for anyone to catch cruise or, as horrendous as it sounds, lie right in God’s presence.

I opened my eyes to take a second look at her, then closed my eyes again.

Many women had submitted prayer requests at the beginning of the meeting and the common refrain that I noticed as the requests were being read out was that they wanted God to provide job for their recently graduated kids and opportunities for those seeking internship.

It was touching. After the about one-hour meeting, I asked to be allowed to quickly address them and the leader agreed.

I told them to encourage their kids to take up online certifications and soft skills as applicable to their job pursuits.

I’ve not finished my small talk when Madam Testifier jumped at me and said that anyone could get the info on Google.

Many of the women, who are obviously literate, replied that you needed to know what to check on Google and then urged me on.

READ ALSO: EXTRA: You can’t do wrong by being courteous

I took a piece of paper and scribbled sites like Udemy, Coursera and Google Africa on it, assuring them that within a few months of hard work, those kids will break even with their job search. I speak from experience.

The women screengrabbed what I had written, thanked me and we all departed on good note.

Back to Madam Testifier whom I’ve only known for less than three weeks at the time and just for two months so far, it turned out that two of her three kids are undergraduates abroad. Beautiful, except that those kids are not likely to be sending money to pay any tuition in Nigeria if they’re not involved in illegality.

If you travel on student visa, you have opportunity to work for 20 hours in a week, otherwise you risk deportation.

READ ALSO: EXTRA: She for He: Amazing women who stood in for me

And before you think that you can move financial mountain doing a 20-hour weekly job, your class work and reading list will teach you to be grateful if you can pull a 10-hour week except if you’re superbly brilliant and don’t need to read or submit continuous assessments to pass your exams.

Plus, as a foreign student, your pay is likely to be close to the minimum wage, and can mostly therefore take care of your basic needs. If you’re not on scholarship, someone somewhere must pay your tuition.

Her testimony equals that of 419 advertisers on radio and WhatsApp groups who tell parents  that their kids could work to pay their tuition overseas. It’s the worst lie anyone could tell or be told.

Her testimony equals that of 419 advertisers on radio and WhatsApp groups who tell parents  that their kids could work to pay their tuition overseas. It’s the worst lie anyone could tell or be told.

I was genuinely disturbed by her attitude and I told a friend who wasn’t at the prayer meeting. Without any description, the friend who has been in the same local church for years easily identified her and said that’s how she embarrasses her husband with questionable testimonies that practically portray the man as a deadbeat.

I don’t know why an adult who claims to be speaking for God and wife of a pastor would behave like that.

Testimonies are meant to glorify God and boost the faith of listeners. It is not for anyone to catch cruise or, as horrendous as it sounds, lie right in God’s presence.

Share this Article