Checkmate Episode 11 (By Adeyoola Ojemola)

Bisi Ojo just finished a meal and decided to take a brief nap before heading out to join her husband in the village square where he was having a meeting with some men in the village. But as she laid on the make-shit wooden bed, she kept having this uneasy feeling about Theresa.

 

Bisi’s husband, Gideon, is fully committed to mission work which is not sponsored by any church organisation. They receive donations from time to time but they never send letters out requesting for help for any of the mission fields they visited. 

 

Actually, God has blessed their family with wealth. Before her husband got the call to missions some 20 years ago while their marriage was about seven years old at the time, they were just given to spending one month in some field and then back home to their business.

 

The one month away was the annual leave they gave themselves in their business. They chose to spend it for the Lord. Over the other 11 months, they save up heavily so that what they can’t make up for with time, there are enough supplies to aid their mission commitments.

 

It was a personal calling and they are usually very keen on whom the Lord allows them to partner with. 

 

They had that structure for 10 years and in those ten years, the Lord had been nudging Gideon that He wanted him to do it full time. Gideon would not budge because he was worried how the family and the business would fend since the direction the Lord had instructed that they were not to partner with anybody neither were they to solicit for help.

 

Sometimes when people offered some kind of donations even when they had been praying for that thing, they would always check with God if He okayed it. 

 

Their ministry was also different from other kinds of ministry to rural areas. Theirs was a calling to establish Biblical marriages in places where they take the Gospel of Christ to. Their focus was to preach Christ and the kind of marriage that pleased Him. 

 

Over the last ten years that Gideon had gone full time, they were usually only 6 months apart in the year. At first, it seemed hard in the first 2 years but they have come to work out a structure by God’s wisdom. The ministry went to different regions each year. 

 

Gideon would spend 3 months there first without Bisi, she joins him and stays there three months before she returns home, leaving him there for three more months. After that 3 months, he comes back home for personal retreats, catching up with the family, the business, and other personal commitments for the next three months.

 

Then off to another location to repeat that cycle. 

 

That has been the cycle and God has been faithful. Since he and Bisi founded the business together, she had no problem over seeing things in his continuously long absence. God always provided exactly what they need for their calling and sometimes He spoils them with great benefits like their luxurious but humble house where their matrimonial home is based.

 

Often they would have difficulties in communicating with each other when they were apart. Sometimes, Bisi would feel frustrated about having to wait for a letter that would take weeks before it is delivered to communicate days of the week they could talk on the phone and the specific time.

 

Sometimes the journey to where there are phone facilities could be so much a hassle that she would eventually tell Gideon not to bother, a letter would be just fine. But she has come to appreciate even those letters as it has made their commitment to each other and the ministry deeper.

 

Bisi would always tell herself that God did choose Gideon for her. She remembered the first time she officially met him, it was during the youth week in her maiden home church. He was a serving youth corper who attended that church and he was told to be in charge of the choir for that week.

 

Since she played the keyboard, she had to work closely with him as he specifically composed a song to fit the theme for that year. She noticed how he was always taking things so seriously and she appreciated that in him. The song he composed was so uplifting and soul breaking, capturing the essence of the Gospel of Christ.

 

From then, they became friends but nothing was particularly special in their friendship. One day, towards the end of his service year, she came early to church to enjoy some quite for about 2 hours before the evening service.

 

She met him in church and found him reading some book. Exchanging pleasantries, she asked him what the book was about and his response was that it was about some missionaries. 

 

She did not know what came over her that day as she blurted that ‘I know my future husband is a missionary’. If she were a fair lady, she would have turned pink. Regardless, her ears were burning from embarrassment.

 

As if sensing her embarrassment, Gideon did not ask further, he only said, ‘that is nice’.

 

She excused herself to another part of the church and out of embarrassment, she did not really strike any particular conversations with Gideon till he finished his service and travelled back to where he came from.

 

All the while he was in their church she was yet to gain a university admission.

 

Three years later she had gained admissions into a university and on her internship. There, she met him again and she found herself working with him as her unit head. They flowed pretty well but nothing particularly special and after her internship they did not keep in touch.

 

Two years later, they met again when he came for her graduation. She thought it was a coincidence that he was at her tent to celebrate with her considering they had not been in touch after her internship. Probably he knew someone else convoking and saw her tent and chose to congratulate her.

 

Asking him how he knew, his response was that a friend from the church invited him to come say hello, her own brother. He had always been in touch with her older brother!

 

How come she never knew that even when she was interning with him. Then she began to add up how she got the placement.

Her brother got it for her!

 

See her thinking then that the world was a small one!

 

And that was how they began to keep in touch. After her service year, she got a parcel from the post office. It was from Gideon. In it was a letter and an old journal. She wondered what was in the letter. It was not strange to get a letter from Gideon.

He had sent her about three during her service year and it was about job openings in their field that she could apply for even as a corp member. He would always attach newspaper cutting for those jobs.

 

Each time she wrote a reply thanking him and that was it.

 

What felt strange was the journal but she did not want to be hasty. She finished her chores and settled in with the mail in her bedroom. The letter seemed longer this time around.

 

There he confessed his love for her and the convictions he had that God was leading him to her.

 

One of his very fundamental convictions was that she confirmed one of his prayer points and answered one of his questions to God.

 

He had been sensing that God wanted him to be a missionary. He just needed that confirmation from God that he has heard God correctly.

 

His question to God was that what woman will be willing to marry a missionary. He even jokingly told God that the woman herself should come and confirm it to him. He actually was not expecting God to do that.

 

But God did!!!

 

He asked her to read the journal he had enclosed in the mail and that when she was done with it, she should return it to him. Gideon encouraged her not to take his word for it but to seek God’s face prayerfully and ask Him to confirm what he is saying to her.

 

Dropping the letter on the bed and remembering the nonsense she had blurted out that day, Bisi felt embarrassed all over again in her room.

 

She actually dreaded picking up the journal.

 

She has never seen Gideon in this light, a husband?

 

And then, is he saying he will be a missionary?

 

—————–

Wheeeeew! 

Who loves a God-orchestrated love story? lol.  Your comments are absolutely welcome. 

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Checkmate Episode 12