by Damilola Fowowe

As usual Church Crawler duties took us to Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM). It’s a Pentecostal church known popularly for prayers. Since we are still in the youth bracket, the youth Church was where our dove rested.

Praise and worship was very funny. The sister that led would pass as a dramatist. She had all the expression needed. You might just find it hard to determine which is her ‘real face’.  You know all those faces people make while singing. The praise and worship was good in all respects. People danced and were happy but you could tell that her energy and drama made it all better.

Though, I noticed there was no drum. Apparently, MFM does not allow the use of a drum in the church, funny thing is they were playing drums with the keyboard. The ‘instrumentalists’ there are so talented that they can play the drum with a keyboard. But I just want to ask, please what is the difference between keyboard drum and normal drum?

As much as I wore my critic cap to church especially for the choir, I could barely find a fault. The choir sang beautifully. Though the guy that led the song added enough emotions but his delivery was okay. Modulation was perfect and the rhythm was enjoyable.

The preacher preached on knowing God’s will for your life. He majored on what God has in store for those that rely on Him. God’s will is that you get blessed and be a blessing to others. Knowing that God’s thought towards us are good thoughts and are meant to bring us to an expected end, should be our daily confession. So when situation arises, I’m convinced that God’s thoughts are for good and not evil.

Don’t ask me about the prayer session, only that my neighbour prayed more vehemently than I. Obviously, I did not have as much zeal as my neighbour. There were times I thought he would run out of his breath the way he was praying. His straying elbow caught my face twice and it took all the love in me to sing the ‘I need you to survive’ when it was time for family song. The prayer was intense mehn. The pastor now spoilt everything. He said ‘if there’s someone beside you not praying, tap the person’. My zealous neighbour replaced the word ‘tap’ with ‘shake vigorously’.

The prayer points too were somewhat funny. Though too my surprise we used ‘die’ and ‘fire’ sparsely. One prayer point I liked was; “Evil powers that stopped my parents, as I clap my hands, die (sorry I said sparsely)”. I clapped my hands sore till all the evil powers died. Hallelujah!!! There was one that I couldn’t resist. “You witchcraft agents pressing me down at night, ARE YOU MAD? Die by fire(remember sparsely)”.

During prayers, the Pastor burst into a song and said we should sing it militantly. Like my neighbour needed an extra motivation, Baba decided to go all out. My body painfully was at the receiving end.

First timer is always done early in the service and I had cold feet annoyingly. Though, deep down I should not lie I felt it would be more of prayer session than sharing ‘goodies’. But after the service when I saw those that came out, I was very wrong. Maybe till next time.  So, I decree prophetically to the next church I attend, my first timer package would be solid and I would not have cold feet in Jesus name.

Till I attend that church and Church Crawler crawls into your church,

Better be prepared, “for the hour cometh…”

Isime Esene