It is the desire of everyone to move up the ladder of life especially in terms of materialism. And there are many such ladders around. Some ladders are made out corruption, armed robbery, money ritual and pen robbery, among others. Then, there are those that key into the prosperity churches in the belief that God would transform their lives. Those ones are asked to bountifully sow all manner of seeds in the vineyard so that they could reap hugely. Unfortunately, the new generation churches have been turned into casinos where attendees are tempted or conned into gambling with their hard earned money and possessions while anticipating bigger returns.
A Jos-based churchman, who had a V-boot Mercedes Benz car, was recently conned into parting with it by his spiritual father that already had two cars and runs a church with onomatopoeic name that sounds like a fortress where animals are held in captivity for public entertainment. He had told the V-boot owner that God desperately desired to bless him with a bigger car but that would not happen if he continued to hang on to the old Benz. The pastor told him to sow his only Benz car as a seed in the church, assuring him that in a matter of days, he would miraculously become a proud owner a tear-leather Mercedes 500 SEL jeep.
The man was able to convince his spouse to obey the pastor’s divine instruction. The wife had reasoned that if it was true that God wanted to promote them to the next level, he would not necessarily deprive them of the V-boot platform on which he could to leap into the jeep ownership.
Driven by the desire to drive a better automobile, the man chose the path of least resistance like most prosperity driven church goers are wont to do, and surrendered the keys to the V-boot to the pastor rather than work hard to earn good money to purchase a better car (of his dream).
Then began the countdown to a jeep! Days gave way to weeks, weeks to months and yet no jeep was in sight, even in the man’s dreams. Meanwhile, the pastor’s driver is often seen cruising around in the V-boot, ferrying his (pastor’s kids) to and from school and the mama, as a pastor’s wife is fondly called, to the market and such less important places.
One Sunday after the service, the frustrated man stormed the pastor’s office and demanded to know what had held back his miracle almost six months after it was foretold. Showing some anger and disappointment, he told his spiritual father: “Where I come from, it is said that if a trap cannot catch a game, it should deliver the bait to the owner.”
In other words if the V-boot could not produce the miracle jeep, the pastor should hand the V-boot back to him. The pastor took a long look at him and shook his head in pity, saying “My dear brother, don’t you have faith in the Almighty God that we serve? He is never too late. Lazarus was dead for four days and was decomposing in the sepulcher. But when Jesus arrived, He raised him from the dead. You see, when the day is about to break, it gets darker. So, don’t give up on your miracle at this point. The Lord that gave me the message that you should surrender the car for a bigger and better one, could just be testing you faith.”
A week after the last encounter, the V-boot man was transferred to Lagos where he is continuing with his Legcedes Benz life… a metaphor for car-less status. His departure from Jos has eased the pressure on the pastor but his wife seethes with anger whenever the chauffer-driven pastor’s wife cruises past them in the V-boot without caring to offer them a ride to wherever they are going.
However, the V-boot man is said to have resolved to give the pastor up to the forthcoming Easter, swearing to repossess his car if the miracle jeep fails to manifest thereafter. It is, by extension, a kind of ultimatum he is handing down to whosoever gave the pastor the message he passed on to him.
