Funeral and Churches

I finally get to blog again, thank God. I have been very busy in the last few weeks; I’ve hardly had the chance to pause for a moment to gather my thoughts and blog about stuff. Hubby was around for a bit, and I was so happy to see him! I had missed him badly. The first thing he said when I went to pick him up at the airport was: “You’ve now got a tan!” which I though was quite amusing. Apparently I have acquired a tan while sitting in the heavy Lagos traffic. I had lots of fun while he was around and it was a bit strange because both of us had never been in Nigeria together until now. He’s gone back now, but I still have things to do so I’m still in Nigeria.

Then my grandma’s funeral was last week. I went to Ibadan where all the events were taking place. I spent the whole week running around getting things done at the last minute. Thank God in the end, everything went well. We all got a bit emotional during the church service and when we were at the cemetery. And it is hard to think that someone who was alive two months ago, is now gone. But life must go on. It makes me stop to think though. What is the real meaning of this life? If you consult the writer of Ecclesiastes, mostly he says that everything is meaningless. That is, without God, everything is meaningless and fleeting. That is something to reflect on.

I'm back in Lagos now and I’m still absorbing some of the funny things I see in Nigeria on a daily basis. Something that has struck me since I’ve been around is the number of churches there are. On almost every street, there is a church, sometimes even two or three! Churches and fellowships have sprung up in the most unlikely places, including old warehouses, a disused sports field, a Sweet Sensation restaurant, several uncompleted buildings, and the house next door. Then, there are also countless billboards, posters and flyers on the roads advertising this or that prayer meeting, healing service, special programme, revival, seminar, etc. I don’t know what to make of it. Is it that Nigerians are now far more religious than before? If that is true, then why does it not reflect in our mentality, character and attitudes? Or perhaps is it that churches are now big money-making businesses, selling prayers and numbing the minds of people with lots of motivational speaking? I’ll throw that question open to the public.

Now I personally have no grudges against churches. After all, I’m a Christian too. But I had it up to the neck two weeks ago and had to go and have a word with the church next door. This church is right next door to the house I’m staying, and they are quite annoying. Or perhaps I should say they are VERY annoying. Every single day of the week, at all hours of the day, they have a meeting or an event. And they make so much noise! They go on and on for hours with their annoyingly loud PA system, disturbing the neighbourhood. Imagine how much noise they make when we have to shout to hear ourselves in our own house. Everybody in the street complains about them, but nobody had ever done anything about it. I had joined in the grumbling for some time, but one day it was the last straw. Early in the morning, around 5.00 am one Friday, they started singing and clapping, abruptly disturbing my sleep and waking up the whole neighbourhood. I was soooo angry because I had a headache and it was as if their noise was right inside my head. I couldn’t sleep another wink so I had to listen to their noise until 9.00am. Finally the person bellowing into the microphone shut up and I was finally able to have some peace. The rest of my day was going well until 8pm when they started preparing to have a night vigil! Everybody in the house started complaining and hissing. After an hour I couldn’t bear the noise any longer. I could not imagine going to sleep with that racket right beside my window so I decided to pop down to the church to ask them if they could turn down their microphone.

You would not believe what happened next. I stepped into the church and a man sprang up from his seat. While I was still trying to explain why I was there, he said that I had committed an abomination by wearing trousers in the house of God! I had gone there with the intention of making a polite request but when I heard that statement, I became livid. What? I told him he should not tell me such rubbish, and anyway I hadn’t come to join their service, I just wanted some peace and quiet next door. The guy then said I should go and drink Phensic and fall asleep. I was like “What?!” The next thing I knew, I was surrounded by people. Some were saying that I had no respect for the house of God. Somebody asked me if I didn’t know their time table as they had a vigil every month. Another person said that I might end up in an early grave if I was not careful. I talked back to all of them. We stood arguing outside the church for almost 30 minutes because I was not going to take such rubbish talk from anybody- usher or not. Eventually one of the elders came out to find out the cause of the disturbance and I told him all what had happened and he agreed to turn the volume of their PA system down. I’m not proud of what I did, but I thought it was about time the church knew that their neighbours are not made of wood. They can’t just be making so much noise because they are the “house of God”. Besides aren't Christians supposed to love their neighbours?

Well I have some errands to run, so I've got to go off in a minute. I just want to say many thanks to those nice people that sent me an email, you know who you are. God bless you!

Emotional Roller Coaster

It's like I've been on an emotional roller coaster in the last few days. I thought last week was full of highs and lows, until this week began! And it's not even over yet. I've already had good and bad news in the space of three days. Oh dear heavenly Father, help me before I drown! OK, enough with the theatrics, FG, get to the point of this blog.

Hubby and I had a nice time at the Christian Blog Awards last Friday. It was an honour to be invited to the event, as it was the first of its kind. We met so many people: the Bishop of London was there, journalists, other Christian bloggers, people from Premier Radio, and so on. Hubby and I sat on a table with a team from a church in Surrey, they were nominated for the Best Church website award, and it was really nice to chat with them throughout the ceremony. We had a champagne reception and a four-course dinner which was very nice. After the meal, it was time for the awards to be presented. Winners got a trophy and a chance to give a small speech. I was quite nervous when the list of nominees were being called out. I didn't win in my category, but I was the runner-up! I got a certificate with my name on it, which I am proudly looking at now. Here's a list of the awards and the winners:

Best Creative Christian Blog or Website - Dave Walker at http://www.cartoonchurch.com/
Most Inspiring Leadership Blog - Colin Adams with http://www.unashamedworkman.wordpress.org/
Best Christian Newcomer blog - Dr. Krish Kandiah http://krishk.wordpress.com/
Best Young Christian Blog (under 25) - Emily Woods with http://www.unfurlingflower.blogspot.com/
Best Church Website - King’s Church, Manchester http://www.makingjesusfamous.org.uk/
The Most Original Worship Blog - Worship Central- http://www.worshipcentral.org/
Best Provision for Youth Website - Soul Survivor http://www.soulsurvivor.com/
Best Christian News and Reviews Site - http://www.christiantoday.com/
Best Christian Social Action Website - http://www.stopthetraffik.org/
Most Successful Evangelistic Blog - http://www.rejesus.co.uk/
People’s Choice Award - http://www.mindandsoul.info/

After the awards were given out, the presenters thanked the judges, sponsors and everyone that made the event successful and the evening came to a close with a prayer. We got lovely goody-bags to take home filled with worship CDs, DVDs, chocolates, and lots of other treats. I'm glad I attended and got to mingle with lovely people. Many thanks to the good people at Premier Christian Radio for organising the awards and inviting me.

The rest of my weekend went well, I attended a friend's wedding on Saturday and that was lovely. So I was just feeling much better and my mood had only just lifted when I got some more bad news on Monday night! My grandmother had passed away on Monday afternoon. I can't describe all the emotions I'm dealing with right now. It's a mixture of sadness, disappointment and regrets. Mostly because death is so final, at least on this side of eternity. She was 79, and we were already talking of marking her 80th birthday, but that's not going to happen now. Since Monday, the memories of her have been swirling around my mind. The last time I saw my grandma was in 2005 and I've been wishing I saw her more often, I've been wishing I spoke to her more often and so on. I wish I'd I let her know I love her. I wish I had known she was ill. I wish I had seen her one more time. I pray her soul rest in perfect peace. She was a wonderful woman.

So I've been making plans to attend her funeral. If all goes well, I should be in Nigeria by next week. I haven't been home for a while and I do wish I was travelling under different circumstances, but what can I do? We just have to deal with the things life throws at us sometimes.