Psalm 91:5 states that “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day.” When this psalm was written, bullets had probably not been invented. So in our modern day, this scripture can aptly read “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the bullet that flies by day.” I testify to God’s protection from a well-orchestrated plan of the enemy to take my life by a stray bullet.
It all started one quiet morning after we had settled down at the office to start the day. Suddenly from our third-floor office located on Aba Road, which I share with a sister in church, Nkiru Iwuala, we heard a loud noise and quickly went to see what the hullabaloo was about. We noticed a crowd of mostly young men approaching and chanting slogans we really couldn’t make out. As we watched curiously, we noticed that the crowd kept approaching, with their numbers increasing and getting larger and larger. Next came a long entourage of military vehicles with loud sirens, and we noticed that Aba road on both sides was completely barricaded because no cars were moving on both sides of the road. The safety personnel in my office then came around to inform us that we were witnessing an earlier announced Republic of Biafra protest. He advised staff to stay away from the windows since the office complex was covered with a lot of glass.
The demonstration appeared to settle right in front of our office building and continued for a while. I found the surprisingly mammoth crowd perplexing, specifically surprised at the large number of demonstrators. I called and sent out messages to my family and friends to stay away from Aba road, while we wondered how the traffic in town would be that day due to the blocked road. We tried to ignore the situation and continued with work. An hour or so into the demonstration, it started raining and we were all glad that the rain would finally disperse the crowd. It didn’t. We heard a few gunshots but it sounded far away and didn’t bother us so much. Finally, just before 11:00 a.m., we heard blaring car horns and were delighted to see that the crowd had almost disappeared and the roads reopened. We praised God for an “uneventful” demonstration.
I have a colleague whom I call my lunch break exercise buddy. We take brisk walks during our lunch break to get out of the cold office and exercise. Due to the events of that morning, my logical mind figured that it was best to cancel the walk and stay back in the office for the day. It is inexplicable, but I somehow just knew I needed to leave the office. I met with the lady at the entrance and we agreed to go. Just then, it started raining again, almost as if a force was trying to prevent us from leaving the office. We got our umbrellas and stepped into the drizzle, which took just a few minutes to stop completely and we ended up enjoying our walk in a really nice weather.
When I got back into the office, I pulled out my seat and noticed a shiny, point edged metal on the floor just next to my seat. There were also some fragments of ceiling board on the floor next to the metal. My mind immediately registered that it was a bullet but I thought to myself, “It can’t be!” I looked up at the ceiling and saw a gaping hole just over my head (where I sit). The position of the hole in relation to the position of my head was very precise. The bullet would have landed on my head. It immediately dawned on me why I felt the urge to stay out of the office that afternoon when it made more ‘sense’ to stay indoors.
Someone may think it was probably a coincidence, but that was God at work. I believe there are no coincidences for a believer. My office is on a floor that is accommodating two other offices, the sister in church, Nkiru, and I were the only occupants around at that time. With all the empty spaces to land, the bullet taking aim at my head with such spine-chilling precision cannot be a coincidence. Instead, I know without a shadow of a doubt that my guardian angels were hard at work that afternoon because “He gives His angels charge (custody and guardianship) over me, to keep me in all my ways!
My colleague, was at her desk when the bullet hit, and she described it as a deafening and startling sound that made her run out of the office in fright. We thank God that she was also unharmed. I bless God constantly for the promises of protection in His Word, and for Pastor Nkechi’s message Unveiling Psalm 91, which is a favourite of mine in this area.
Brethren, safety is not the absence of danger but rather the presence of God in your life. When we stand to make our faith confessions and start by saying “I declare that I dwell in the secret place of the Most High and I abide under the shadow of the Almighty,” our focus turns from the presence or absence of danger to “dwelling” in God’s presence (His shelter or covering). It is not just a routine we carry out at the end of a service, these words we repeat keep us safe time and time again, even in circumstances of danger that are not so obvious.
Praise God!