Eruku is a city in Ekiti Local
Government of Kwara State in Nigeria, it is located between Omu aran and
Isanlu. On the road to Isanlu, there are many other towns, cities and villages.
Close to Eruku is a town called Egbe. Egbe is exactly 12 Kilometre to Eruku, a
fare of N200 is usually charged by transport operators as fare from Eruku to
Egbe and vice versa. What is so interesting about Eruku? So many things, the Dominion
University which seems abandoned at least for now, the number of churches, and
of course, the people there. But for the purpose of this post I’ll like to
relate my experience in Eruku to three men we encountered there and since April
2013, the lessons I learnt from these ones continue to ring in my heart.
Were it not for the breakdown
of our Car (a friend’s car we transited in) we would have had no reason to stop
there but the fact that we stopped has reminded me continually of certain truth
about peoples’ response to the message of the Cross and the Kingdom of our God.
When the Car broke down, many
people greeted us showing us a kind of pity, this shows that the people there are
friendly and had concerns for people in need. A ‘big Pastor’ around also passed by…, you will
see his big church on the right hand side of the road to Odo Eri by the right
hand side.
The first man I will always
remember is Rev. J. A. Asala, the Pastor of one of the ECWA churches in town, a
Servant of Most High God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, he was truly hospitable
in the true sense of it, he identified with us in our need, having discovered
who we were and our need at that moment, he ensured that we were comfortable,
may his family be blessed abundantly with him by the Lord we serve. He is
committed to the Kingdom. Wherever, we are let us be committed to the Kingdom
of God in every way, it could be in doing good to others.
Mr. Opportunity, was the second
man we encountered, he was looking for every opportunity to get something of
every situation. First, He promised us to contact the auto mechanic for a fee,
having done that the following day when we needed to purchase the Gasket for
the vehicle, he did not asked for a considerable amount. Somehow I suspected
that the fees he charged to convey us to Egbe was just too high, so I protested
and bargained for less and eventually he yielded. I then thought that it would
be needless to discuss other things with him but as God would have it, we got
talking again and this time about the new birth and I asked him if he was born
again, he explained how he had gone to a lot of churches but had to opt out. Why?
He considered his obedience to his parents who were unbelievers to be
sacrosanct, and it occurred to me that many would not be saved not because they
do not know who Christ is but for the fact that they feared their parents more
than God, I asked him; when the instruction of our parents contradict that of
God; who should we obey? Our parents have power to deny us the right to inherit
their possessions and their worldly goods but none has the power to cast us to
hell and on this basis our God must be obeyed at all cost.
The third man was the auto
mechanic, he was competent and skilled in his work, money wasn’t his primary
concern and neither was it the Kingdom of God. While I was trying to shared the
good news to Mr. Opportunity and was trying to commit the job to him if Mr.
Opportunity eventually yielded to the gospel, he was really not interested.
Your primary concern might not
be money and you seem competent and comfortable but how about your commitment
to witnessing. He taught me that priority must be set right. Shalom
