CHAPTER ONE
It was a bright Monday at Glorious Seeds International School, a private school located in Erija community. It was considered better, when compared to attending a public school kilometers away from the community. Glorious Seeds International school had a big compound though most of her land were used for farming, its buildings were made from old bricks and the areas that were painted was already fading. It had big classrooms that could contain 80 students at a time, anyone that had been to a public school would not see the difference between Glorious Seeds International school and any other local public school. The students were always carrying out farming activities whenever they were not in class, it takes constant going to the staffroom to call a teacher before they showed up in the class. Students were used to skipping classes, while some were still serious despite it all. Amidst those serious students was Jesulademi, she was a girl of ten years and she was in Junior secondary school class2 popularly known as JS2. The students left the assembly ground to their various classrooms, different lectures took place and finally it was the fourth period, the period allocated for Agricultural Science practical ,students were with their hoes, cutlasses and other farm tools.The boys were to cut the grasses while both boys and girls were to make ridges together.They were to plant corns that would be harvested after the planting season and distributed to both students and teachers. This was the hardest part of Agricultural science due to the tedious activity that accompanied it.The students were always sweating and making jest of each other while others were doing nothing.The idle ones never took anything serious until they were flogged.
Erija community was located at the western part of Nigeria, it was known for its peaceful attributes, who would not have expected that when the word 'Erija' meant 'LaughterPrevailed’ in English. It accommodated both the young and the old, the rich and the poor. Neighbors were friendly to each other. It had farms that was mostly owned by the average and poor ones. The rich amidst them worked outside the community and gathered their resources just to make the community great and significant.Though at Erija, there were other expensive schools and parents that could afford such took their children there.The community had churches, hospitals, a police station and a central market known as ‘OjaOba’. Jesulademi lived in Erija community with her parents, they were neither poor nor rich. One could refer to them as the average though they were almost less than that. Jesulademi was the only child of her family and one would expect her to be probably taken care of and pampered but the reverse was the case. Despite it Jesulademi was a good child, she would always take what she was given by her parents in joy. She never complained nor disrespected her parents. She had been farming with five more ridges left to be made. Avalian, her practical mate has been helpful. He asked her to make few while he made the rest. He had said she was so little and that her bones could break if she made more ridges. Jesulademi had laughed it off saying he was not serious. She had always known Avalian to be a quiet boy, some of her classmates referred to him as a snob due to his quiet nature. While they were grouped together, she had decided in her heart not to say a word to him since he rarely spoke in class and they had never crossed each other paths before. But, since they started working together she got to know that he was a good boy, though quiet.
Jesulademi was exhausted by the time the practicals ended, she dragged her legs to the classroom to get the akara balls her mother had given to her which was to serve as her lunch, she blessed it and ate. Though, she didn’t know why she had to bless her meals before eating, her mother had always punished her whenever she erred so, she had no other option than to comply, so much for having a ‘churchy mother’. Soon, break was over and it was time for the next subject which was CRS it was a short form for Christian Religious Studies. Miss Adepoju entered the class in readiness to take CRS the allocated subject for that period. Most of the students were not interested, though her class was never boring.The students just had different reasons for not liking the subject.
“We would be talking on salvation” Miss Adepoju said and she went on telling the children how Christ died for all that they might have eternal life. Jesulademi wondered why someone will die for another who He knew nothing about. She was tired of the same story everyone was telling her particularly her Mum. Her mum had always said "Even when we don’t have anything, we have Jesus and that is all that matters"
Jesulademi wondered why her mum would say "Jesus was all that matters". Was education, money, fame, good health not a necessity? And why was it that everyone associated with Jesus was always poor and could barely feed themselves? Her mind had drifted out of the class so much that she didn’t know when Miss Adepoju left the classroom not until her classmates stood up to acknowledge the presence of the next teacher. Finally, the closing bells rang and she was excited she would be going home to rest a little before going to hawk her mother’s wares around the neighborhood.
Mr. and Mrs. Olatunji were Jesulademi’s parents and they had their first names to beTobi and Sarah respectively. Tobi was a security officer at one of r the public schools in a community not too far from Erija. While Sarah was a trader she sold different items that would be needed by families and passerby. Although the Olatunji’s loved God but, as time proceeded Tobi’s love for God went cold when he lost his job. He just didn’t know why God would watch him lose his job after how committed he was to the kingdom business despite how stressful his circular job was. While he was working at a bank, he and his family had lived big, though it took them many years before they could have Jesulademi, still they loved the Lord. Jesulademi came as a miracle child after years of waiting. But, there after he lost his job and everyother thing he had. The only property he had left was the three bedroom flat he had built at Erija community. Since everything went down the drain, he decided to move his family from the city.
"Atleast, they won’t have to think of paying house rent," he had said the day they moved newly into the community. The house was theirs.Thank God he listened to Sarah, when she insisted they started building, he had argued but, since he didn’t want to offend his wife, he decided to oblige and here they were.
"God gave me a daughter after years of waiting and decided to take away the resources I would have used to take care of her, what kind of a God does that?" he asked his wife.
Losing his job had taken away his love for God, he barely went to church nor attended any meeting. Sarah had decided to let him be and was praying for him instead. It wasn’t easy to start living small after tasting wealth but she had grown so much to know that all that God does was good, and that nothing caught him unaware.
