“God said you are my wife.”

“Sister Rebecca.” Our choir leader called out to me after 12pm service one Sunday afternoon, “Pastor B is looking for you.”

That was the beginning of the end.

“Me?” I pointed at myself in surprise. Eh me? A whole Pastor Benjamin was looking for me?

It was a miracle. This was one of the biggest Gen Z pastors in Abuja after Pastor Iren of CCI. The Pastor Benjamin with over 600,000 followers on Instagram. Moses Bliss and Nathaniel Bassey’s right hand man. The David Oyedepo of our generation. Was looking for me?

What did I do this time? Did I do something wrong? Did I offend him?

Omo I was scared. I was the most invisible choir member in the church, that shadow singer that hid at the back of the stage. The only person that could spot me in this church was Jesus Himself.

But I just accepted my fate and went straight to Pastor Benjamin’s office.

“Come in.” I heard Pastor Benjamin’s deep musical voice vibrate from inside the office.

I walked into the office to see not just one, but three men in the room. Wahala. Pastor Benjamin and these two other strangers sat on the office couch, rather than his desk. This meant business.

“Sister Rebecca.” Pastor Benjamin smiled, that devious smile of his that made the church girls fall at his feet.

“Good afternoon, Daddy B.” I greeted him.

He gestured for me to sit on the empty space next to this bald, full-bearded black man with glasses.

I obeyed and looked around in confusion. All men smiled at me like I was that 1 million naira cheque dropped inside the offering basket.

“Sister Rebecca, I want to introduce you to somebody very close to my heart.” Pastor Benjamin began, the devious smile never leaving his face as he pointed to the bald man next to me, “This is Isaac, my brother from Kogi.”

Blood brother? Brother in the Lord? I don’t know. All I knew was that he was someone important to the daddy of our church. So I must be on my best behaviour.

I simply nodded and gave him a small smile.

“Welcome, Brother Isaac.”

Brother Isaac laughed at my response and placed his hand on my laps, causing me to shudder for a bit.

“It’s just Isaac.”

My eyes were buried on his palm that rested on my laps, praying for him to notice my discomfort and just shift it away. But it seemed he had made it his number 1 mission to test whatever waters he wanted to.

“Rebby. Shebi I can call you Rebby?” Brother Isaac asked me, licking his lips as his eyes moved from my face down to my chest for a brief second.

There was nothing I could do but nod and give him a small, awkward smile. I glanced at Pastor Benjamin and the other elderly man next to him for answers, or rescue, but they seemed rather satisfied with whatever the hell was happening in front of them.

“Isaac, go on. Tell her what you told me earlier.” Pastor Benjamin said to him, adjusting himself with anticipation.

What the hell was Pastor Benjamin on about? Tell me what? Was I in trouble?

Brother Isaac cleared his throat and his hands finally drifted from my laps and onto the top of my palms, his fingers using style to entwine together with mine.

“Rebby,” Brother Isaac looked me straight in the eyes before he said the words that nobody, not even Jehovah Jireh Himself, could prepare me for, “God said you are my wife.”

My eyes widen in shock.

Come again? Your wife? As per iyawo re?

When I tell you my brain disconnected from my body in that moment, you would not believe me. It was like that statement alone was the screwdriver to removing my brain from my skull and flinging it back to my creator. I lost consciousness for a second.

Who was this man? I didn’t know him from anywhere. This was my first time meeting him and he had made it his mission in this life to change my destiny all in one day?

“I don’t understand.” Were the first words that came out of my mouth.

All three men laughed at my answer, as if I had gotten the wrong maths equation to be solved on the board.

“Sister Rebecca, you’ve been chosen. God has anointed you for a great purpose.” Pastor Benjamin said in excitement, as if he was back on the pulpit preaching one of his aspire to perspire sermons, “Isaac here is the senior pastor of our branch in Kogi state. God led him here to find you. Isn’t that wonderful? You are the chosen one to be his helpmate. The Bible says that he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favour from the Lord. When God created Eve, when He created woman, He made her to be a helper suitable for her husband’s mission. And you, Sister Rebecca, have found favour in the Lord’s sight. You are the one that will rise next to Pastor Isaac and build our Kogi branch…”

My mind zoned off from Pastor Benjamin’s aspire to perspire preaching. Brother Isaac’s hands were still rested on my sweaty palms. The room was beginning to feel stuffy; it was getting hotter and hotter like I was inside one cathedral hell.

God, what had I done to deserve this? I never wanted to be a pastor’s wife. I never thought of life outside Abuja. How could you choose me of all people to marry a man that I barely met seconds ago.

I knew God chose wives for great men of God. It had been replayed a million times in our church and even in the Bible.

But why me?

And I knew that if I disobeyed God’s instructions, I may never get married in this lifetime.

Abeg, I could not die a miserable spinster like aunty Folake who was shamed her whole life for not finding a decent man to marry. She was rich, very generous, very confident and humble, but she was never worthy in our family’s sight.

She was destined to marry one of the deacons at our family church back in Abeokuta, but she turned him down. And she lived the rest of her life being a miserable and shameful unmarried woman.

Ah.

Would that be my destiny too? If I rejected Brother Isaac here?

Hmm. Maybe I should allow God do his work. After all, He had big plans for me.

Maybe there was a purpose in my life after all. Who was I to go against the almighty Yahweh’s wishes? If He said I would marry Brother Isaac, a very important person to Big Daddy B, who was I to say no?

“So, Sister Rebecca, do you accept to answer the call of God on your life? To lay down every other distraction to advance His Kingdom and forsake your soul for the soul of many, including your husband’s?” Pastor Benjamin concluded before he teased, “Or do you want to be a Jonah?”

Jonah who ran away from God’s call for his life and ended up being swallowed by a fish. That Jonah.

I looked at all three men whose eyes were focused on me, waiting to see if I wanted to be swallowed by a fish or if I wanted to stay afloat. It was like I didn’t have a choice. No freewill, just command. After all, God was the author and finisher of our faith.

“I do not want to be a Jonah, sir.” Was my final answer.