From Darkness to Light

As you can gather my family and myself were not worshipers of the true God, we were in fact idol worshipers, for decades we worshipped what we believed to be our god in darkness. I remember a separate house within our compound that we were forbidden to enter by our father. That was the house in which darkness ruled.

The house consisted of seven rooms. The first room was the waiting room for the male patrons. The second room was the waiting room for the females. In the third room the messenger went between the two waiting rooms and the fourth room, delivering the wants of the people. Room number four was where one of the priests sat with the Ifa which is an instrument that they used to tell the future of the people who came for evil help. All they had to use to find out all about that person was their name. Osanyin, a voodoo spirit, dwelled in the fifth room, here the spirit called out the name of people that it sought. Sacrifices were made in the sixth room, sacrifices for the coming years. The lowlier priests performed the sacrifices. They would sacrifice to find out about such small things as theft, or to have them kill other people. In the last and final room entered the high priests, dressed in special colors. This was the ritual room no one but those permitted by the spirit was allowed to enter; my father was one of those allowed. In this room sacrifices were also done sometimes animals if not they could also be the sacrifice of people. The person did not have to be physically present, the name of that person could be called and the person would die automatically. My father would meet with the keeper of the shrine, as the priests prophesied all that would come to pass One of the ironies of worshipping in darkness is that evil can destroy, yet there is no means of repairing the consequences while still in the dark.

All the members of my family as well as the villagers were required to meet and worship once a week at the shrine. We worshipped the god of Thunder, Oya a female spirit, and Osanyin a very powerful dark force, the likeness of which to look like a human being as described Psalm 115 verses 4-8. They had everything people have yet they can never be as the true living God. We also held festivals to celebrate the gods. During those festivals we were to wear specific colors, such as red black or white. Our home was decorated with graven images of them. My father sacrificed black cows, goats, pigs and antelopes. They then presented the sacrifices to the gods to assure a successful year to come. During these festivals I realized that this was the incorrect way to worship the Lord I always felt just as Jesus had said that I did not belong to this world and the things therein, I was then three years old.

That was then I began to dream about a new and better life. In one of my many dreams, I saw that an angel came from heaven washed me and placed me in a white gown just like those who will walk and be worthy to wear the white in Revelations 3 verse 4. My soul was taken from this world to worship with the angels in front of the throne of the Lord Almighty. Their praising never ceased, day and night bowing and singing the praises of the Most High. When I awoke the very next morning, I wished they had allowed me to stay with, in the peace and glory of the Lord. Unfortunately for me my birth would not be the only attempt on my life. My father’s wives persisted in trying to kill me. They frightened me in my sleep, with phantoms that any 3 or 4 year old would be petrified of. At the age of 5 they inflicted me with a disease that caused my throat to close up and my body to fill with fluid. Then at six I contracted pnuemonia. They even set Akeke, a tiny crab like creature that entered through the penis of the host body, a parasite in its own right. Fortunately, my mother discovered it under my bed before I went to bed that night, a parent had to always remain vigilant.

There was so much pressure on me that I could barely concentrate in school or sleep at night. One day a prophet that had taken residence in my father house overnight told my parents that they should take me and run away from the house immediately, because the danger on my life was great. They were told that if they didn't remove from the house within three months that the evil would succeed. My mother was stricken with sadness; my father was severely angered and swore that nothing would happen to me.

During our yearly festivals the Lord's angels appeared to me to confirm all that the prophet had said but that he would indeed deliver me, I told neither my mother or father I simply waited for the Lord's time. The Lord indeed made a way for me to be removed from the home. During our summer holiday one of my brother came for a visit from Illaro State. He told my father that he needed one of his brothers to help him watch his house while he went to work. My father gave me as his helper. My bags were packed and I left my home never to return again. I'd like to say that I was the only one that suffered at the hand of these evil women. But the fact is that there are just two of the eight boys left in my family, myself and the son of a very wicked woman, which is suffering from an incurable illness.