UNBELIEVING BELIEVERS 7

-Dedicated to the People of Southern  Kaduna, Nigeria.

EPISODE 7.

With suppressed amazement, Kanbul  kept ignoring Ewaloju's calls as each ring reminded him of the stabbing memory of her indignations. After the fifth missed call, he finally picked up.

"Aghrr! Thank God you picked," she was the first to speak, "I was afraid something bad happened to you."

"Oh! It's you!" Kanbul answered coyly.


"I-I errm, learnt that Rann IDP camp was mistakenly bombed," she stuttered, "so, I called to know you and errm-mum were not hurt."

"We're fine," He answered rather confusedly at her concern.

"Thank God," she continued ruefully, "when are you coming to KayDee?"

"Tomorrow," he shabbily answered but noticed that the erstwhile arrogance in her voice had cleared out into politeness.

"So sorry about your Dad, I just saw the obituary," she said guilty.

"Thank you," Kanbul mentioned impatiently and before she could add a word, he ended the call.

A week after, at Papa Doya's burial in Kaduna, Yersinar accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior and that was the only joy in Kanbul's heart. Perhaps, with an overwrought emotions that Ewaloju also attended the burial. He greeted her pensively, leaving her with some doubts that they were through and through indeed.

Afterwards, Kanbul's mind wouldn't stop to seesaw in-between chasing the green light that Ewaloju with her neck-breaking beauty seemed to be showing of late and the figment of the nameless nurse who was an embodiment of character.

Though, his nurse crush had ghosted away, he wished they would meet again and sooner. Yet Ewaloju seems to be giving him a soft landing. So, precisely on Valentine's day, inside his lorry on his way from work, Kanbul decided he would discuss his doubts with Apostle Jafari once he gets to his Farm Castle in Nissi where they were also hosted.

On getting to Kafanchan, in the front lawn of Apostle's Assistant's house, Kanbul saw him seated in his double-axle tractor talking persuasively with his Assistant who with some baggages on a truck appeared to be packing out of Southern Kaduna.

As he approached both huge vehicles parked antiparallel with driver seats closed up side by side, their conversation grew louder:

"...For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways," the words of the Apostle quoted from James 1:7 hit Kanbul like the victim of their crossfires.

"So, I might just lose both ladies! But Ewaloju is a bird in hand," he told himself as his heart skipped a beat.

"Apostle, with all due respect, it hasn't rained here in eight months," his assistant reacted. "The land is parched. See the sky, it's always as white as glass ceiling. Have you been listening to you the weather forecast lately?"

"He that observeth the wind shall not sow;" Apostle replied quoting Ecclesiastes 11:4 "he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap."

"My surviving farm workers are gone, imagine you employed people to work during the day, only for them to get killed overnight, how whack the security in this place is!"

"Affliction shall not rise the second time, Pastor Thomas. Besides this my tractor, you know I have an extra single-axle, a crawler; anyone you want, I will support you for labor."

"Just last week Apostle, unknown drove of cows or whoever still rummaged through my wire guarded farm. I can't keep laboring in vain; I will not sow for another man to reap."

"Remember, 'Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him.' "

"Apostle, you know I'm not leaving this church per se, I'm just going to... another branch."

"Or a greener pasture? Tell the truth my dear Thomas."

"Okay, my Apostle," he answered with his voice subdued. "I agree. I'm so sorry, I have to go at least for my annual leave, I covet your faith Sir!"

Then, Kanbul joined in, bade off the assistant pastor and turned around to park just antiparallel to Apostle occupying the very spot the assistant left from.

"Welcome Brother," Apostle was the first to greet, "see you at home soon, I need to evangelize two more villages today," He excused himself as he ignited his tractor, engaged the long gear and was ready to move.

"Apostle wait, wait a bit," Kanbul left his lorry and came up to the drivers inset by Apostle's cabin. "Whenever you have doubts, how do you handle it?"

"By believing." Apostle answered flatly. I thought you and Pastor Thomas taught 'Faith and Believing' to our theological graduates just four months ago?"

"Apostle, it looks like I'm missing something practically. Please, I think I direly need to understand what the difference is exactly," he asked genially.

Apostle Jarafi took a deep breath at his desperation and went speechless for some moments. Then, he killed his gunning engine and Kanbul's voice came out clearer:

"All I can recall now is that 'Faith' is a noun and can also means 'belief' as in one's religion, while 'Believe' is a verb, Believing is just a persuasion that something is true without proofs."

"What are dictionaries all about?"

"Words and definitions, Sir."

"Now forget about your dictionary, let's  talk about how the Word personified defined those words long before dictionary came," Apostle opined gently. "You know I'm a lay man, a farmer at least and a gospel tractor preacher at most."

"You are more than all that Sir!"

"Well, give me a scripture where Jesus used 'Faith', 'Believe' and 'Doubt' altogether," Apostle would ask him of any bible verse offhand, knowing he was a scripture lore.

"Matthew 17:20 or Mark 11:22-23?"

"Pick anyone."

"Okay, Mark," Kanbul made his choice and went on, "Jesus answered unto them, have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith."

"Faith is something you have, that's why Jesus said have faith in God. One can have faith like a seed; same way there can be different measures of faith such that one can be faithless, be of little faith and one can be full of faith. Faith is something you have, that why it's a substance. It's a substance of things hoped for..." Then a wife hoped for came to Kanbul's mind as Apostle continued, "...And the evidence of things not seen." Then Kanbul thought of a nurse or another lady not seen.

"Faith is so important that whatever not done in it is sin." Apostle emphasized. "And without it, it's just impossible to please God, for the just shall live by faith."

"What then is believe?" Kanbul cut in  eagerly, making a tight fist around the tractor's hand throttle.

"Believe is work. Yes, work!" Apostle threw the bombshell that made Kanbul coughed doubtfully.

"That's Jesus definition, and we both don't have to like it. What did the bible say in John 6:28-29?"

"Then said they unto him," Kanbul recited offhandedly with the speed of light. "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent."

"Believing alone has faith and work, you see? Right from our salvation, it's first our faith in the work Christ had done and not our own works of righteousness. Our own part of the work basically is that of 'saying' or 'confessing' him. 'He that believes, the work I do he would do..."

" 'And greater works than these, shall he do.' " Kanbul completed another verse.

"You see 'believe' alone and 'work' again? That's not the same with having faith alone. For 'Faith' can be without work and 'Faith' left alone is as good as dead. James 2: 17 says, 'Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.' Faith, left alone is a lot like unbelief or doubt!"

"But Apostle," Kanbul called out sternly sitting up straight in the cabin. "Verse 19 of that same James 2 said, 'Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble'. So do we say demons also believes God?

"Good! Demons believe - they have a fake believing, it looked like believing but it's a make-belief, it's just a form of godliness. It's the same as religious faith that many have that there's one God that demons have, same as 'belief'.

"Good evening Tractor preacher," some Muslims passing by interrupted him with their greetings.

"Oh! Thanks, with Jesus' love," he waved and turned back to Kanbul."

"See, their focus is the oneness of God," he stressed keenly "God of course is one and that makes anyone belaboring God's oneness not to have done any more than those trembling demons."

"I kind of get it, so that kind of believing is incomplete, "Kanbul added as he cleared his throat. "It's sure not backed up by the work to confess Jesus as their lord and savior,"

"Yes! What the religious have is an helpless faith. They say they believe but deep down its 'unbelief' they have, just like the father of that epileptic child in Mark 9 also started by saying "I believe...". But he realized on time that his 'believe' needed help. That's why he called for help knowing that this pirated type of his own 'believe' is actually unbelief. So he owned up, 'help my unbelief."

"I guess so Sir," Kanbul uttered from the cabin where he was glumly seated. "That's why the Holy Spirit would convict the world of unbelief, and not of faithlessness, that's why John 3:16 is all about 'Believe'."

In the book of Hebrews, bible says 'By faith we know that the world was framed by faith," Apostle continued, "God had the substance of things not seen, and did the work of saying, 'let there be light' to call things seen from things not seen."

"Yes, He worked that's why he rested on the seventh day." Kanbul hummed.

"Enoch had faith but didn't sit down, he walked with God. Abel had faith but offered sacrifice."

"Work in the direction of Faith."

"Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?" Apostle won't just stop.

"And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness." Kanbul answered admittedly finishing Apostle's quotes.

"Yes! That's why believing alone was counted for him as righteousness," Apostle expounded.

"So, Believing Counts!" someone screamed from the back of Apostle's tractor. Just then, Kanbul realized they weren't alone, seven people had joined them, all sitting on the covering steels of the tyres.

"Because believing is impregnated with both faith and action, to believe is putting faith into action. Virgin Mary had faith and moved her mouth to say, 'be it unto me according to your words'. The woman with the issue of blood had faith that if she touched the helm of Jesus' garment, she would be healed and did the work of actually touching, believing is faith in practice!"

Kanbul eventually became speechless with his arms folded across his chest. Then, he realized that about fifteen more people have joined them, most sitting on either the tractor's dirty chisel harrow or the fertilizer tank, while the rest leaned on his lorry, listening.

Apostle then rolled down his rollover protection structure, stood up and raised his voice: "The ten lepers not only had faith they would be healed but also did the work of obedience by going in faith to show themselves to the priests. That's believing! Peter had faith he could walk on water but had to do the work of walking when Jesus said, 'come'. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God -Faith is therefore from ear to heart. Whereas 'believing' is by saying, 'We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;' -Believing is heart to mouth." Then about twenty more people joined and Apostle's voice became hoarse.

"I hope I won't lose my voice like Zechariah!" Everyone laughed. "He was an unbelieving believer, he doubted and was still not speaking in direction of faith, so he got dumb. Thomas was an unbelieving believer,"

"Pastor Thomas?" Kanbul didn't know he whispered out so loud.

"Em, I don't mean him." Apostle clarified. "Thomas, he had to see the holes in Jesus' hand before he..."

"Excuse me Apostle," Kanbul said and went out to turn on his lorry's floodlight for what was fast becoming a street crusade at dusk and extending to the parking lot of the nearby Kanfanchan Village Rehab Center, set up by WHO as relief for the Southern Kaduna attacks.


"My people, don't just have faith, do the work of saying to the mountains, -that's believing, a working faith. So that it doesn't turn to doubt. I'm preaching from this tractor today because I have faith that if I sow in this same land of kaduna, I would reap hundred fold. So, I would work in the direction of faith by sowing. If you need seeds, come to my farm castle from Tomorrow on."

Just then, through the beam of his floodlight, Kanbul saw a passing figure that caught the exact image of the nurse that attended to him in Rann, IDP camp.

"Apostle, erm, thank you." Kanbul said as he let out a gasp. "Please, I'd be back in a jiffy or erm, get my own seeds at home." He left the crusade bizarrely seeing that his target was walking towards the massive Kafanchan Village Rehab Centre.

The more the approached her, the more she looked like his would-be Val. He could see her frail built in her smug top, tousled hair culturally maned with a clip and nothing else to show she was a nurse than her demeanor.

"There's no going away this time around!" he told himself, adjusted his neck collar, breathed to his wrist and smelled it to know he wasn't having mouth odor.

"Hi, can I meet you again?" He faced the surprised lady. "This time around, I mean, can I meet you with that your wonderful name I don't know?"

"Helerina Nwosu", she answered with puzzles and chuckles.

"I'm Kanbul."

"O yes, I remember. Kanbul Doya," she smiled indulgently, "how's that little girl?"

"Fine, very fine. She's here with me in KayDee."

"Good, you have a very kind and rare heart!"

"So pleased to meet you again Helerina, you're welcomed to my own village, where are you from?"

"Southeast" she said blushing.

"Yes, I should know, from your ..." Kanbul said, staring at her endlessly.

I must put this faith into action, I have Faith that I will marry this babe I hoped for, now-now, I must do the work of speaking out. He started thinking. But hey! Not so fast, but why not? Adam even wooed the same day he saw Eve.

                           ***

To be continued next week Friday 5pm.

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