Warri is a great city, sitting at the heart of the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria, it is one of the most popular cities in the nation – home and origin of the funniest comedians the most populous black nation in the world has to offer; it was in this city that this writer was born over four decades ago to Maurice Agbon Isuekebhor; a man whose degree of humor was second to none; thus when people call this writer funny, with smiles, the reply is always same: ‘I am a chip off the old block’. Most humans eat three times daily, some eat over three meals on a daily basis and quite a few eat less than three times in one day. For some who eat once or twice daily, it may be because they are on a diet trying to lose weight or perhaps they are on a diet based on health prescriptions from doctors. Also there are those who eat about once a day, who would have loved the privilege of eating more than one meal a day but whose financial situations have boxed them into a corner that they actually eat less than they know they need because they are unsure of where the next meal is going to come from.
As a little boy growing up in Warri, I ate three times daily at the minimum. While I was in high school; I would usually have some slices of bread and tea for breakfast; the more the slices of bread, the happier I was; half way between school hours, I would have a bottle of soft drink and a sausage roll. When I got home, I’d have another meal, then in the evening, dinner will bid my stomach good night; and many times, I had something between lunch and dinner just to keep the little boy going. Now with that rate of food, you would understand that I wouldn’t be the first to register my name in the list whenever my church was having one of their fasting programs – every time there was fasting and prayer, I simply stayed away from the church service. However, a few months after my fourteenth birthday, when I was just a few months old in the faith as a born again follower of Jesus Christ, I had a need that bothered me beyond words,
I had heard my pastor teach about fasting a few times, but I had never taken that route; now heavily weighed down by my need, I decided to have a fast; I knew so little about the Word of God at the time; however, I could quote one of the fasting scriptures verbatim – ‘This kind come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting’; are the golden Words of the Master.
So I decided to find out the reality of that Word, I chose Sunday for my fast: it was the day with least distractions and I would have to spend some 5 hours (3 hours for the morning service and 2 hours for the evening service) in church, which would make it easier for me to stay without food. I told my mother that I was embarking on a fast; I told no one else. So Sunday came and in the morning, I looked away from the kitchen and the dining table; I went to church and attended the morning service. I came back starving but I could not eat. I couldn’t wait for the evening service time to come so I could run away from the house – however, it was four long hours away. Finally, 4.30 pm came and I headed for the evening service. I got back from church at about 8 pm that night, I was hungry, my stomach burned within me, I walked hurriedly from church even though I felt faint with every step. I rushed to the dining table; the other members of my family had yam and peppery soup for breakfast, mine was on the table, in the afternoon, they had beans, mine was smiling beside my breakfast and the evening, rice and stew was for dinner and there was my share in a third bowl – I ate all three meals and I ate them in the order in which other members of my family had enjoyed them. Man cannot do without food, Jesus taught us to pray for God to give us daily bread (food), then he turns around and called Himself the food (bread) of life.
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Thank you.