'Nilivyosambaza Ukimwi Dar es Salaam, Namibia' - (3)

 

After giving birth, Francis had a bout of guilt and visited a pastor at Christ Embassy Church to confess her sins. 

“After confessing to the pastor, who is also a Nigerian, he met the father of my child and asked if he really knew me. 

He told him, ‘This girl confessed to me that she is HIV/AIDS Positive.’ ” Francis’ Nigerian lover fainted upon hearing the news and was rushed to hospital.

After recovering, he ‘ran away’ from her, moving to Angola. However, their young baby was nearing the age of nine months. Francis was desperate. 

Her finances were stagnant and she was tired of prostitution. After pleading with the Nigerian, a settlement was eventually reached. 

“He said the only thing he would do for me was to give me money to go to Nigeria and drop the child with his parents.”

Some weeks earlier, a friend had introduced Francis to a Christian television station which was gaining increasing popularity in Namibia. It was Emmanuel TV, the station of Nigerian Pastor T.B. Joshua. 

Seizing the opportunity to visit Nigeria, Francis decided to visit the famous church in Lagos after she had dropped off her son. 

“When I arrived in Lagos, they put me in a car and took me straight to a state called Enugu. I only stayed one week there. Then I had to search for The Synagogue.”

On Sunday 27 th April 2014, Miss Francis sat gingerly in the huge auditorium of The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) in Lagos. It was the time of prayer from the ‘wise men’ and she was nervous. 

“Before the wise man came close, I felt like electricity dividing my body and I started shivering. I don’t know what happened when he prayed for me.” Francis received ‘deliverance’ from the ‘demon’ that pushed her to a life of prostitution.

The following week, Sunday 4 th May 2014, Francis publicly gave her confession in the crowded church.

 “I am here to kneel down and ask the whole world, every man I encountered, to forgive me,” she tearfully said, explaining that after her ‘deliverance’ she began regretting her actions for the first time. She went further to send a poignant message to her fellow sex-workers. 

“There is no benefit in prostitution. The end of prostitution is bitterness and sorrow. I advise youth – if you are in the same situation I was in, let me be an example in your eyes. Drop that lifestyle immediately and seek the face of God.”

Francis stayed another week in the Nigerian church after which T.B. Joshua gave her the sum of $1,500 to restart her life in Namibia. 

“I will never return to prostitution. I am so grateful to God,” she concluded.