Trisha
knocked frantically at Becky’s door. She could even jump in through the
double-glazed window if she had her way; that’s how badly she was hitching to
tell Becky about Rob.
It was
lovely summer day, the lush green grass and occasional wind that blew made it
even better. Trisha lay on the floor in the park reading John Grisham’s- ‘The
Firm’ as she soaked in the sun. If you know anything about England, you would
know that the weather is one of the most unpredictable things. One minute, it’s
raining heavily and the very next minute the sun is shiny as though the word
rain never existed.
“One more chapter and I’ll go
prepare dinner for mum” Trisha
said to herself.
She
had said that for the past three chapters. You can’t blame her though, nothing
captivates her as much as a John Grisham novel. Well, that was until Rob walked
past.
Becky
peeped through the door hole, slightly upset that Trisha’s knock had woken
Samantha ; her two year old niece who was fast asleep on the sofa.
“There you go, you’ll have to rock her back to sleep” Becky said, handing over
Samantha to Trisha.
“Oh I’m sorry, did
I wake her up?” She
asked as she leaned over to carry Sam.
“Anyway, I’m sure
you’ll understand my excitement as soon as I tell you all about Rob” said
Trisha as she grinned.
*
Rob
is a twenty-six year old British-American. His father is from Manchester and
his mum, black American. He moved from the US to the UK when he was 10 years old.
His father had been working as an expatriate in America when he met his mum. After
his contract with the bank expired, they decided to move to the UK.
Rob
grew up in a very strict Christian home. His mother was a chorister in their
local church, which probably explains where he got his beautiful voice from.
His father was a Sunday school teacher. As a young teenager, his daily routine
was school-home-church-home. All his social life started and ended in church
and he was fine with it, until he entered the University.
As
a first year student at Durham University, Rob was exposed to a whole new world
he never knew existed. Living independently, making his own decisions and just
not been able to talk to his dad like he used to were all concepts that were
totally foreign to him.
Going
into Durham, he had no idea what to expect
and the fact he was the only child was a major contribution to this. His
parents had given him no guidance whatsoever. He felt as though he was just
dipped into the middle of the deep blue sea and had had to navigate through the
waters all by himself. That’s exactly what he did. He started hanging out with
a bunch of boys, most of which were in the same residential hall as himself, he became very
self-conscious. Well, to be fair, anyone
receiving that amount of female attention would be.
In
the beginning, he joined a Church nearby, but as days rolled into weeks and
weeks into months, his church attendance dwindled till they became
non-existent. It was really difficult to keep up with the partying,
hanging-out, studying as well as church attendance.
By
the time he got to his third year, he hated the person he had become. The
smoking, drinking , womanizing had taken over him. He detested them, but
couldn’t bring himself to stop them. That had become his way of life.
On
one fateful day, his life changed. In the wee hours of that morning, he
staggered into his room after three days of non-stop partying. He sat on his bed, facing the direction of the
wall that had the mirror on. He stared intently at the man in the mirror and
screamed as though he was about to pass out- “Jesus, have mercy on me!”
Within
a split second, he was rolling on the floor, in tears. He opened his mouth to
pray, but he began speaking in a “strange language”. He tried to pray in his
native English language, but he couldn’t. The more he tried, the more he spoke
in the “strange language”. That was the beginning of his new life in Christ.
Weeks
later, he got to know that the “strange language” was not strange after all
but, that was the heavenly language and it was as a result of the Holyspirit
that now dwelled inside him. His life
changed dramatically for the best and within a short space of time too.
It’s
been three years since that fateful morning and he’s still going strong.
“Hello, enjoying
the sun?” Rob
said to Trisha who was lying in the park.
Trisha,
immediately rose her head, admiring the young gentlemen standing in front of
her well, one of them in particular. Immediately, Trisha turned red as she
blushed. One would almost
he had proposed marriage to her. Even Rob and
Alex were a bit taken aback by her reaction.
Rob
and Alex were best of friends and had been for a long time. They had gone to
the park to evangelise and promote the upcoming youth program when they met
Trisha.
“What can I say, we
have to make the best of this British bipolar weather, right?” she said as she began twisting
some strands of her hair, thinking he was another admirer; the kind of admirer
she wanted.
“Well,
I wouldn’t call it bipolar but hey, never mind. What are you doing this
Sunday?”
“Erm...”
she began blushing again, “why do you ask?”
“We would like to
invite you to our church. We have an amazing program coming up this Sunday and
it would be nice of you to come, I’m sure you’ll like it” he handed are a flyer as he finished.
Trisha
glanced at the flyer quickly and indeed, it seemed like something she would
like. “Okay, I’m not promising, but I’ll
try”.
“Please do, I would
love to see you there and always remember that Jesus loves you!” he said, as they began to walk away.
*
“Becky,
seriously, there’s got to be a law against evangelizing when you look that
‘hawt’. It has to be illegal or something”. They both laughed.
“So
what church would you be attending this Sunday” Becky asked sarcastically.
“Is
that even a question? The programme starts at 10am, but trust me to be there by
9:30am at the latest” replied Trisha.
“Well then, let me
know how it goes with you two on Sunday” Becky said as she walked Trisha to the door.
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