Then he continued. My brothers and sisters, our topic today is;
PARENTS BEWARE
let us turn our Bibles to Exodus chapter 20 verse 4 and 5. It says;
Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image, or any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above or
that is in the earth. Thou shalt not
bow down thyself to them nor serve
them;for I the Lord thy God am a jealous
God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children unto third and fourth generation
of them that hate me.
“From where we have read, the Bible is encouraging us as parents to be careful of our actions because all our wrongdoings are most of the things visited upon our children. These innocent children grow up and begin to suffer for what they know nothing about because the Word of God cannot be broken….”
He went on with the sermon and at the end, he prayed for everybody. Then the offering was collected. After the service has ended, the “Counselling time” began immediately. Echidime was lucky that those that wanted to see the man of God that day were not much. So not long after, it was their turn to see the man of God.
Echidime narrated everything to the man of God and he told Echidime to fast for three days. He told Echidime to bring back his wife to the church after the fasting and prayer programme.
Echidime left and did as was instructed by the man of God. After the fasting programme, they went back to the man of God who organized a prayer session for them. He asked Echidime to go and fast for another two days. He asked him to come back with their parents after the fasting. Echidime went home and did as he was instructed again. The next appointment,he went back to the man of God in the company of Nnenna’s parents-Mr and Mrs. Obinna and Adaobi Obieche and his parents, Chief Sir and Lady. John and Ebere Emenike.
The man of God, Pastor Eric Ala shook his head pitifully when he saw Adaobi that day.
“Madam,”
“Yes, Pastor”
“Are you Nnenna’s mother?”
“Yes,” Adaobi answered surprised at that kind of question.
He turned to Ebere and asked,
“Madam,are you Echidime’s mother?”
“Yes, she answered looking at her husband.”
“Are you sure?” the man of God asked again.
“Actually, Ebere began.”I,we,adopted him but he is our son.”
“What!” Echidime shouted. All his life, nobody has ever told him that his parents were not his real parents. The man of God begged everybody to keep calm as he continued with his questioning;
“Mrs. Obieche,do you have any other child apart from Nnenna?” the man of God asked.
“No.”
“Are you sure? Think very well.”
“Wait.”
“I-do.””I-do”. But- wait. Do not tell me that- O! No!” Adaobi shouted, then she fainted.
Panic-stricken, everybody became confused as they rushed to where Adaobi had slumped. They were all surprised at the unfolding drama. It was the man of God that saved the situation when he said:
“Well, we have to rush her to the hospital and wait for her to recover. She has something to tell us,” the man of God suggested.
Back at their house, Echidime could not decipher what was really happening. He kept asking himself over and over;
“Echidime, an adopted child?”
And to think that nobody had ever mentioned it to him eve when he had become an adult and married his own wife?
“Then his mother-in-law fainted.”
“What was the meaning of all that?”
He prayed fervently that his mother-in-law should come out of coma to explain things to everybody as the pastor had said.
Nnenna too was not left out, she wished and prayed that her mother should just wake up and clarify issues and save all of them from the psychological trauma they were into.
