HE KEPT ME

 Hi!

How are you doing this fine day? I hope you’re good and that God continues to be with you.

Welcome to today’s gist.

You know those days when you wake up and have your life completely altered by? I had one of those fairly recently.

My sister woke me up at past 5am on 15th July and I didn’t want to get up; I had pulled several all-nighters in the week before without stopping to rest during the day because I had been trying to beat the deadline for project (I go gist that project gist one day) so I was understandably really tired. We had a picnic that day and I was supposed to join the others to cook for the picnic so I really had to get up to get going.

In the group, only one of us lived with her family so we had decided to meet at hers to cook. 

Here’s the thing, there’s a river that separates where she stays from where the rest of us stay. This river is really small, it looks like little more than a stream actually and there were rocks which people could step on to cross the river. I myself have crossed the river twice; one time during the rainy season to visit the lady whose house we were going to and one time during the dry season to escort her home, the river is so small that when I had passed during the dry season, the place was completely dry and we walked like the Israelites over dry land where water should have been.

As we got ready to leave the house, my sister was telling me how full the river had been when she crossed it the previous day. When I heard that, I asked her if there was a possibility for us to use another way to the house but she said she didn’t know of any other way but that she had been told that the river typically receded if rain didn’t fall and since it hadn’t rained the previous night, the water was sure to have receded so we could cross.

On our way, we met someone who was coming from across the river and he assured us that the water had gone down so we needn’t fear crossing. As we got close to the river, I was telling my sister that I wasn’t comfortable with how the water was sounding and how we could hear the flow from afar but with the assurance from this boy, we decided to continue.

My sister had brought fresh tomatoes and pepper home the previous day for us to blend them, while we were going, I held the bucket containing the blended tomatoes while my sister held the blended pepper. Shortly before we got to the river bank, my sister asked that we switch because she felt I could have better grip if I was holding the pepper, knowing that I typically would ‘act drama’ while crossing the river because I’m aqua-phobic.

To cross the river, you would have to remove your shoes and step on the stones barefoot to reduce chances of slipping; when we got to the river bank, my sister changed her mind and decided that it would be better if she held both pepper and tomatoes while I held both our shoes so we made the switch again.

For some reason, I was in front of my sister. When it was time to start crossing, I stepped on the first stone and had firm footing; I began to look for the next place to step on and noticed that the nearest place to step on had a lot of algae on it so I knew it would definitely be slippery. I looked for another place to step on and found another rock that looked smooth.

You know how they say appearances can be deceiving? They are right! Turns out this other rock was slippery also and as I stepped on it, I slipped and fell into the water!

Like play, like joke, water start to carry me dey go oh! My sister was confused and didn’t even understand what was happening, she says it was when I started shouting “Jesus” that she realized it was serious. Here’s the thing, she sef no fit swim so she was of no help to me, and no one else was around.

Omo! I literally had my life flash before my eyes, I even started drinking water. It was another member of the party who heard my voice from where he was coming that ran to my aid and pulled me out of the water!

As I stood up in the water, I imagined how my friend Stephen would have felt that fateful day in 2021 when he drowned and I wondered if he felt all that I felt, he probably felt worse since in his case, it culminated in his death and some part of me wished he maybe fell unconscious and didn’t have to go through pain.

For a couple of hours after my near-drowning incident, I felt dazed and was operating on some level of shock. It took quite a while for it to sink into my head that I actually almost died, I thought of how the other members of my family would have been called and informed that I had died, how my friends and those I love would have been told -it really was surreal! I remember telling my sister at some point in the day that the only thing wey for pain me when I reach Heaven if I had truly died for be the sleepless nights I had gone through in the days preceding that incident to finish my project, I jokingly said “I for tell God say Him for just let me know make I enjoy my last nights on Earth with correct sleep”.

That experience served as a reminder to me of how fleeting life is and how we really don’t know what the future holds for us; when I left my house that morning, I had no idea that in less than 30 minutes I would be fighting for my life in a river. But here’s the thing, God knew! And that’s why it is important that we have God, He’s our best bet at going through life because He knows those things that our contained in the future and outside our own knowledge and He alone can properly lead us; a couple of days later, I was speaking to my friend Joy and narrating what had happened to her. She then told me of a day she had received instructions to war in the spirit one night through dance and how she had later found out from God that there was a spirit of death hovering over the graduating class of UniJos and that my testimony was the first she had heard since that day. Hearing that just drove the point to me of how intentional God is about His own, making provisions for us even before we get to the point of need.

Anyway, that is how the Lord delivered me from the jaws of death with just a couple of injuries and then aches in my body.  I still go the picnic o! I enjoyed myself thoroughly and the experience was made even more beautiful by the fact that I had just almost lost my life.

Thank you so much for sticking to the end and reading this long piece, may the Lord continue to protect us all.

See you next week.

Love, 

Achenyo.