PAULINA... A Life With A Difference
© OLAYEMI GRACE

EPISODE EIGHTEEN
The semester break came to an end and students were expected to resume school as lectures, practicals and all academic activities would commence in full force. Paulina who didn’t travel home for the break had little rushing to do since she didn’t have to be traveling from home back to the school and struggling to settle down.

Lectures began in earnest and due to the shortness of the semester; there were a lot of activities for the students to do which included political rallies, award ceremonies, campaigns and various elections. The final year students also had a lot of activities during that time and in fact everyone was busy.

That was also the time when fellowships look out for able people that would take over the leadership positions of the church from the existing leaders since they would be graduating soon. A lot of unserious workers in the fellowship become serious at such a time in order for them to be appointed as leaders.

It was a Friday again after a long week of strenuous activities and it was time for prayer meeting. As Paulina’s habit was, she had gone early to the church to clean the premises and arrange the chairs in preparation for the program. She had not swept the church to the middle before she had company- two sisters came in and joined her. Paulina was surprised because those sisters were not in the sanitation unit and that would be the first time (since she started going early to the church to clean the premises and the auditorium) someone would be joining her. She exchanged pleasantries with them and registered her surprise. She was more surprised when after about ten minutes three more sisters walked into the church. Those sisters were the type that had been tagged as perpetual latecomers and so seeing them early in the church made Paulina wonder what exactly was going on.

“Did you guys plan to hold a meeting before the actual service starts or what exactly are you here for?” Paulina asked after much hesitation.

The sisters exchanged glances that implied “what is she talking about?” and then one of them spoke.

“We don’t have any meeting before the prayer meeting and we are here for the service,” she said.

“Wow! This is such a wonderful change and you guys should keep it up. You know it is always good to come early into the presence of God and even the bible says that it is those that seek God early that would find Him. This means that God cherishes punctuality,” Paulina said with so much excitement.

“Thank you ma’am,” they chorused and continued with the cleaning.

Other people joined them after sometime and Paulina was very happy with the people’s seemingly change in attitude. She had always been an advocate of punctuality and many of the people in her team had been scolded at one time or the other for attending their meetings late or going late to the church.

The prayer meeting was well attended and that didn’t go unnoticed for the executives and it didn’t come as a surprise since it was the second semester and they were to start looking out for people that would replace them in their various positions.

“I can’t believe Sister Tina was asked to take the worship session today,” a sister said as she walked back to the hostel in the company of two other sisters.

“Maybe she would be the next choir director,” the other replied.

“God forbid!” The third one shouted and her friends looked at her in surprise.

“Why would you say that?” They asked her.

“I don’t like Tina at all; she is so proud and self-centered. I can’t imagine her giving me instructions in the unit,” she said and hissed.

“I would like to be the next choir director but I know that the present director doesn’t like me so there is no way she would choose me to succeed her.”

“You can wish all you want my dear. One thing I know is that they would definitely put their loved ones in those positions. Politics in the house of God,” another said and hissed.

They kept on talking about the various things they observed during the service that day as they walked on.
To be continued...

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