Fear – not something one should live with at all!
I’m so grateful to God for my deliverance from a near robbery attack. I went home for the 2 week holiday during the festive period [in December 2019].
Normally, it’s really hard for me to be woken up by an alarm or even by a person. It is with much effort that I stand up to pray or do other things at the allotted time in the morning.
One of the days during my two weeks at home, around 2a.m, I was awoken by my mum’s scream from her room, which is actually quite far from mine, and I stood up immediately.
When I got to her room, I was told that there were thieves around the house. By around the house, I mean close to the windows of the house, not around the compound or at the fence. That close? Yikes. According to my mum, it was a flash of light and a big bang that had alerted her, she said she even saw one of them with a mask on. Hmm, this was 2a.m. in the morning! (You have no idea what that feels like). Luckily, they dispersed when my mum saw them and screamed.
Usually, my parents are deep sleepers, but it was amazing that just a flash of light on the window woke her up. The funny thing is that, I had just slept by 1:54a.m. after some late night reading. My mum said that after she had seen the light, she got up and went to the window, and saw the guys. She thought that they were community youths who had come to get money initially (I don’t know why she thought that since it was 2a.m.). Then, my dad woke up on his own quietly, went to her, and told her that they just came to pick snails and that she shouldn’t worry. I didn’t understand how they’d come to pick snails by that time. My dad’s calmness made my mum overreact the more. This happens a lot; it’s like his calmness triggers her overreacting. She however disregarded his story and started screaming. It was her screams that actually woke me up coupled with the fact that I heard footsteps by my window. She was clapping her and hands and shouting, ‘It is thieves, it is thieves’. It’s like a rule in the community that when you hear a neighbour clapping as a signal of trouble, you must do same, to alert the others. I don’t think they like my family much, because nobody reacted.
At that point, I was scared. I mean, I just woke up, and the stories I’d heard of how the clapping signal never worked came to mind. I was scared they would come in, or I’d be raped or they’ll take our money that we didn’t even have. My mum was just dramatic that night. She was so sure it was thieves. She told me to bring her matchet that was in the kitchen. I was so obedient at that moment. She unsheathed it and used it to increase the alert signal. Still, nobody answered. I was scared and traumatized. We were just awake doing nothing till 6a.m and I noticed that it didn’t get bright until 6a.m. Between that time, I was just complaining, ‘When is it going to be bright? Can’t day come already?’
Dawn finally came, and my dad started boasting, ‘You see, they’re not coming again. They no dey fear face? (Don’t they have respect?)’, and I was like, ‘Of course, how would they come by 6a.m.?’ [Sarcastically]. My mom was the warrior that night. God is indeed great. The fact that just a single flash of light could wake my parents, who were deep sleepers, amazed me. God helped us really. We didn’t have money in the house at all, so it would have been tragic.
I thank God for that experience and I’ve seen it as a means of teaching me to have compassion for people who go through similar situations. It also helped my family to repent of anything that could have been a door for such a thing to happen. We were able to sleep soundly at night in the days following and there was peace.
– Sis E.R
©God’s Lighthouse 2020.