Everything Will be Alright

I always believe that, despite the magnitude of adversity, for those who trust in Jehovah, everything will be alright.

For Prudence

There was nothing extraordinary about Patience. She was just an ordinary girl with an ordinary life. She lived in an ordinary town among ordinary people. However, her rather ordinary life came to an abrupt end one fateful day.

It was a day like any other. Patience was doing her usual household chores. She was almost done cleaning the house. The only thing left was the kitchen and this was no easy task. She sighed with slight dread as she opened the tap. The tap only hissed out some air. She gasped. There was no water! She did not need to ask anyone what she was going to do—she knew. It was now so much of a routine that she did it almost automatically.

She stumbled to the pantry and picked up the big bucket that lay in the corner. She walked to the front door and opened it with a heave. It was a heavy door. It squeaked noisily on its hinges. She was greeted by streaks of sunlight. She shielded her eyes from the blinding rays. She purred with excitement upon realising that the drum that stood next to the water tap a few metres away from the house was full of water. She did not need to fetch water from the neighbour’s well. It was a very deep well and it always frightened her. Whenever she took a peek inside, a dizzy feeling would come over her. Never did she want to fall in there!

There were a lot of things on her mind today. She had completed her school a year ago and was waiting to be accepted at the University. She had been influenced to enroll by her uncle Trevor in the School of Scientific Technology to study Electronics. She laughed to herself. As if they would even accept her! It was a long shot and she knew it. Aside from the fact that she was a girl, she did not perceive herself to be particularly clever. True, she had been one of the best at her school. Yet anyone who knew that school very well was cognizant of the fact that it was just an average school with average pupils. She wanted to be a teacher or something of the sort. She had always imagined herself a teacher, not an Engineer. An Engineer! It was sounding outrageous already! She was too delicate for that! She recalled the time when she told Uncle Trevor her ambitions. He was far from amused.

“A Teacher!” he had yelled. “People don’t respect teachers anymore!”

“I don’t care about what people think,” she replied, a bit hurt, “I just want to do what I like, is there anything wrong with that?”

He put his arm around her shoulder.

“You see my dear,” he began in a soft tone that always appealed to her—as if he were talking straight to her heart. “These days it is not about doing what you want. It is about doing what you must to survive. It is about doing something that will put food on the table. If you want to do what you fancy, you won’t make it.”

She sighed and stared at her uncle with sad naïve eyes. She always believed what he told her; she had tremendous amounts of respect for him. He was among the most respected individuals in her community. He had lots of experience in practically all areas of life. There was also the fact that he had stayed for some ten years in the capital city—locally known as the Great City—before he finally settled in this rural part of the country. Indeed no one could refute that he had seen a lot of things.

“What do I do?” she asked quietly.

“Enroll at the University,” he said in a nearly commanding tone. Patience jumped in shock and amazement.

“You must be joking!” she screamed with her eyes almost popping out of their sockets. He stared at the ground with a slight smile on his face that betrayed the fact that he had anticipated that reaction.

“I can’t do that uncle!” she was now waving her arms frantically in a gesture of refusal.

“Patience my dearest Patience; Patience my clever Patience; Patience the cleverest girl I have ever come across…” he said slowly and deliberately with a teasing glance. He knew how to pacify her. She calmed down upon hearing his exaggerated compliments. Eventually, she came and sat down on the bench beside him.

“I can’t do it uncle, can I?” she asked, though she already knew the answer he was going to give. When Uncle Trevor made up his mind about anything, it was nearly impossible to change it.

“Of course you can!” he roared. “You are a very clever girl.”

“But the University is a tough place. Only intelligent people go there.”

“I have confidence in you. You are the smartest girl in this town.”

“But it is expensive; my parents cannot afford to pay…”

He burst out laughing. He hit his belly as he laughed. She was puzzled by his reaction. Now tears were streaking out of his eyes. He obviously thought it was joke. How could he? Only people with money went to the university—everyone knew that.

“Have you ever heard of a Bursary?” he asked finally. She shook her head.

“It is a provision where the government pays the fees for you. So you will hardly pay anything. In fact, you are given allowances every month.”

“Really?” her eyes glowed with the possibility of having her own money.

“Yes.” He suddenly put on a serious expression and leaned forward. “When I go back to the Great City for business, I will enroll you in the university. What do you want to study?”

She shuddered and a sick feeling developed in her stomach. She knew her uncle was serious. Whenever her put on that serious expression on his face, she knew that he was not joking at all.

“I don’t know uncle,” she replied quietly, “what do you suggest?”

“I think, you can make a good engineer.”

“Iyee!” she squealed. He was obviously bluffing this time! “Bayama! You can’t be serious! I can never be an engineer!”

He maintained his serious look. “You are going to be an engineer.”

Later on, Uncle Trevor went to the Great City. True to his words, he enrolled Patience in the university. Upon returning, he not only informed Patience about what he had done, but he also informed her parents and nearly the whole town. Uncle Trevor was capable of doing that. However, her parents were very apprehensive about the whole thing.

“She is only a little girl,” her mother complained, “she can’t survive in the city. There are a lot of bad boys and girls who can take advantage of her naivety.”

Patience’s father, Mr. Banda, was looking on with a serious expression. After a while of serious contemplation, he said:

“Trevor, I concur with my wife. We have heard a lot and actually seen for ourselves what happens to people who go to the University in the Great City. Most of them never come back sane. Take for instance Little Triny. She was one of the most intelligent girls in town. When she went to the university, she came back pregnant and bore twins. She is now looking finished; her youth has mysteriously vanished and my wife even looks younger than her. She is now a burden to this whole community. And the city boy who made her pregnant is not known up to this day! I don’t want that to happen to my dear Patience!”

Mrs. Banda nodded her head in agreement. There was slight contempt in her eyes.

Trevor coughed nervously. How was he going to convince these people? He took in a deep breath.

“You have all mentioned valid points,” he said. “It is true; most of our young ones get too excited when they go to the Great City, especially when they start getting money. But in as much as many of them do get spoilt, a considerable number make it and become respectable people in our society. I know Patience. She is a very responsible girl. She can manage. Think too of the honour she can bring us when she completes. After all, there are very few educated people in our family. If she gets the Degree, she will be able to represent us.” He narrowed his eyes as he continued:

“Or perhaps you want her to get married to one of these lesser educated people in our community, most of whom we still have to support with money out of our own pockets! You seriously can’t deny our dear Patience a chance to get educated!”

Trevor gave his brother a knowing look. Their eyes met but Mr. Banda quickly looked away. They both knew something that Mrs. Banda hardly did. Mr. Banda had been a brilliant pupil. His hard work at secondary school earned him a Government sponsorship. However, he could not benefit from it because his parents decided that he should not go to the Greater City to advance his education. Instead, they opted for him to go to the Teachers College in the nearby town, not far from home where they could constantly monitor him. It hurt him when he thought of what he could have become.

“Trevor is right,” he said finally, much to the surprise of his wife. “I was denied the chance to further my education because of unfounded fears. I could have been someone great, but I can barely support my family now.”

“What are you talking about, dear?” she asked with a worried expression.

“I am sorry dear,” he said with a trembling voice, “I have never told you how I found my self at the Teacher’s Training College where I met you. I got a sponsorship to further my education at the university in the Great City but my parents refused. I would have had a better job and we would have been living better lives… I never talk about it because it hurts me when I think about it. I would rather just forget about it. But now this issue has come up again. I would not want my daughter to go through the same experience that I have. If her heart is there, why should I deny her the chance to do it? Yes, why should I deny my daughter a chance to get educated?”

Mrs. Banda sighed. She was slightly hurt by the revelation because he was ignorant of the fact the she would not have been with him had he gone to the Great City.

“But what of the bad influence in the Great City?” she said with a chill upon realizing that she was now standing on her own. “It is better to have a normal uneducated child that a crazy educated one.”

The two men stared at each other, their eyes communicating volumes. Mr. Banda, though he wanted his daughter to get educated, was just as concerned of her safety as his wife.

“She is right you know,” he said giving him an apprehensive look.

“If you are that concerned about her safety then we can still get her enrolled at the University in the Lesser City not very far from here. In that way, you can check on her anytime you want. In addition, our cousin Tetezani lives nearby there. He can keep a constant check on her.”

Mrs. Banda’s face softened at the suggestion. Mr. Banda’s face brightened.

“What do you think dear,” he asked, staring pleadingly at his wife. She smiled, a sign that she had finally given in.

“It’s alright, I guess.”

“Good, good,” Trevor rubbed hands with pleasure and as if to remove any remaining vestige of doubt, he said. “And you will hardly pay anything.”

That was how Patience had been enrolled in the University in the lesser City—a city a few hundred kilometers away from her home town which had once been the capital of this country.

Patience was literally laughing her head off as she drugged the bucket, now heavy with water, to the kitchen. She was going to be an engineer. She found the thought preposterous.

She suddenly heard the sound of heavy footsteps behind her. She put down the bucket in haste and quickly turned around. She was not so surprised when she saw that it was her uncle walking towards her with apparent excitement. He was always happy, but today he seemed to be very excited. He was waving a brown envelope in his hand. Upon reaching her, he thrust it into her hand. He was panting heavily and could hardly speak straight.

“Good news,” he breathed. She stared at the envelope and noticed that her name was on it. It was typed and she was addressed very formally as ‘Miss. Patience Banda.’ What could all this mean? She looked at her uncle searchingly.

“Open it,” he insisted almost impatiently. She tore one end of the envelope with a trembling hand. When she removed the white paper inside, her heart missed a beat. It was a letter from the University of the Lesser City!

“What does it say? What does it say?” her uncle was asking.

She read with a trembling hand. “You have been accepted for a Bachelor of Engineering in the School of Scientific Technology.”

Uncle Trevor, beside himself with Joy, threw his arms around her and gave her a tight hug.

“You are going my dear,” he said with a teary face, “You are going to do us proud.” Patience knew from that time that her life was not going to be the same again. Everyone was going to know about it and everyone was going to respect her. She suddenly felt small.

***

There were very few girls at the University. There were only three girls in her class, her inclusive. This was very disproportionate, considering that her class was made up of fifty students. It was very strange for Patience—being around so many boys. She had never been surrounded by so many boys in life before. It made her feel very apprehensive. She was naturally afraid of boys and she would do anything to avoid them. But now it seemed she had very little choice. These were not just any boys. There were her classmates and she had to mingle with them!

Since there were so few, the girls were all very united. They were always ready to help each other. Although school was quite hard, they got quite a lot of help. Most of the boys in her class were very much willing to help.

It was not hard for Patience to find a friend. In fact, it was almost as if her friend had been chosen for her! Her name was Chanda and they just happened to be classmates. They spent most of their time together.

Quite contrary to her parents’ fears, school put Patience in a very tight corner. She had very little time for leisure. For her, it was just books, assignments and tests. She was determined to make all them proud and live up to her parents expectations. Nothing was going to get in her way at all!

As time went on however, Patience’s serious attitude towards school began to get on people’s nerves. Sounds strange right? But it is true, and they would make all sorts of disparaging remarks just to discourage her.

“You are studying all the time,” some would say, “School here is not all about studying. Loosen up!”

“People who usually study like you do never make it.” Others would say.

A few made comments even more terrible than that; comments like.

“Do you know why you do not have a boy friend? You scare them away because you only talk about books.”

Instead of being discouraged, Patience would simply regard these people as the bad girls and boys whom her uncle warned her about and she would continue with her studies, more determined than at the first. She hardly cared what people thought about her. After all, one who takes to heart everything people say can never make progress.

***

Patience had stayed at the University for nearly ten months and the time for her to write her first exams had nearly come. Everyone was busy studying at this time—even those who were prone to discouraging others from studying. Anyone sane would commit herself to studying.

By this time Patience was acquainted with most of her classmates, especially those that were always ready to help her. Others she hardly knew. Now she was less afraid of boys. She had learnt to accept them and live among them. All this though had required quite an amount of courage on her part.

One evening, Chanda came to her room with one of her classmates. His name was Aaron. He was a somewhat shy boy and usually secluded himself from the rest of his classmates. By virtue of this, she hardly knew him. However, she had come to learn a bit about him through Chanda. Apparently, they had been together at Primary school. From the little she had leant about him, he was quite a clever boy.

She looked up from her books when Chanda walked in. Following her, rather timidly, was Aaron. He looked at her nervously.

“You can have a seat, Aaron,” Chanda invited pointing to her bed. Patience was seated on the other one. He sat down rather reluctantly. She put down her books and smiled at him.

“Patience, meet my friend, Aaron,” Chanda said a bit proudly, “and Aaron meet another friend of mine, Patience.”

They exchanged greetings. Patience noticed that Aaron kept looking at her with a very searching gaze. She tried her best to avoid looking at him directly into the eyes.

“Do you guys know each other?” Chanda burst out with a teasing expression.

“Yes,” Patience laughed shyly, “we are classmates. How can we not know each other?”

“You know that is a possibility.” Aaron said. Patience gasped slightly. It was the first time she was hearing his voice. It sounded so much like that of a girl! She winked at Chanda knowingly; they tried hard to smoother their laughter. Thankfully, Aaron did not notice.

“He is very brilliant,” Chanda said, smiling broadly at him.

“That was a long time ago,” Aaron protested, “this is university. It is a different world.”

Patience nodded her head in utter agreement.

“That is true, Aaron,” she said, “that is very true!”

“Things around here are tough!” Chanda added. “Not everyone makes it.”

“It saddens me,” he began slowly, in a somewhat somber tone, “when I think about all those who fail to make it. You know, where they come from, they are respected very much and looked up to. It is very sad when they do not make it, don’t you think?”

Patience felt her stomach tie itself into knots. She nodded her head slowly as she stared at the floor contemplatively. In her mind’s eye, she suddenly saw herself, hanging her head in shame as she approached her parents, telling them that she had failed to go any further. She could imagine the shocked expressions that would appear across their faces. She shook herself out of her thoughts and slowly came back to the present.

“You know, I want to quit school,” she heard Aaron saying. She could not believe her ears.

“Aaron! You are not serous, are you?” It was the most outrageous thing she had ever heard anyone say. She stared at him with a gapping mouth. Was he in his right mind? How could anyone in his right mind contemplate such a thing?

He stared at her with a grim look. “I am serious Patience,” he said with a slight smile. “I have never really liked this place from the beginning.”

“Then why did you come here?” she asked.

“I was persuaded…or rather forced; more or less.”

“Hmm,” She sighed deeply.

“He wants to go to Bethel,” Chanda said, giving him an understanding look.

“Bethel? What’s that?” she asked with great interest.

He smiled. His eyes glowed. “It is in the Great City. That is where the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses in this country is located. At Bethel the work of Jehovah’s Witnesses in this country is organized and coordinated. One can go and work there as a volunteer. It is lovely work, helping your brothers and sisters to serve Jehovah better.”

“Interesting,” Patience said musingly, she was still shocked that one would think of quitting school just to go work somewhere as a volunteer. To her school, was very important, second to God.

“But Aaron,” she began with concern, “even if you have to serve God, you still need an education.”

“True,” he smiled teasingly, “I already have one. I can read and write. That is really all I need to serve God fully aside from physical sustenance.”

Chanda laughed “You can’t serve God on a hungry stomach, can you?” she said, very amused. Patience and Aaron laughed along too. Patience laughed so hard that tears streaked down her face.

“True,” Aaron said, gasping from laughter. “But at Matthew chapter six verse thirty three, Jesus said that if we seek first the Kingdom and its righteousness, then all these other things will be added to us.”

“Does it mean that if we just pray and go to church, then we have to seat back and relax and wait for food to drop from heaven?”

“No…no at all,” he vehemently refused. “The bible says that he who does not want to work should also not eat.”

“That is a good point.” Patience agreed.

“Yet, in as much as hard work is important, it is not the most important thing in life.”

“What then is the most important thing?” Chanda asked.

“To answer that question, I will take you to the Bible.” He took a thorough glance at their bookshelves. “Do you girls have Bibles?”

Patience threw her hand to her mouth. Chanda rushed to her closet and removed her big good news Bible.

“At least I have one!” she smirked at Patience. Patience just shrugged. We are going to read together the parable that Jesus told in Luke chapter twelve. We are going to read verses thirteen to twenty one.”

They did so. He looked up at them expectantly, sure that they had got the point.

“Is there anything wrong with working hard like the man in the parable did?” he asked. Patience just shook her head and said nothing.

“Not at all,” Chanda said, “Rather the problem with this man was he was not rich towards God. In other words, he forgot about God.”

“Exactly!” Aaron said impressed at her beautiful answer.

“See then what happened to him. He died and what really had he achieved?”

“Nothing,” the girls said in unison. They stared at each other with amusement and laughed.

“See, there is something more important in life than working for riches or in our case, putting food on our tables. No wonder then Jesus said that the soul is worth more than food in verse twenty three. Hence, the thing we must work at more than anything else is our relationship with God. Read the words in verse thirty one.”

Chanda handed the bible to Patience. “Read this time. It is your turn.”

Patience smiled after reading the verse.

“You see Patience, “he said staring at her with eyes full of warmth, “the Bible does not say we should not seek these other things like food and clothing. Rather it says that we should seek first the Kingdom and his righteousness. Seeking the Kingdom is what we should do continuously, without stopping.”

“I am impressed,” Patience said. “You know so much about the Bible. How I wish I could be like that.”

“You can!” Aaron said encouragingly, “all you need is to study the Bible, and as Jehovah’s Witnesses, we do offer free home Bible studies to those who are interested, like yourself.”

Patience laughed. “We will be calling you just like this when we have time.”

“No problem. I will do all I can to help!”

As Aaron left her room that day, he left her thinking more seriously about her relationship with God. She was a Christian and she always went to Church on Sunday and prayed everyday. She always made sure that she prayed before eating and before going to bed. Yet, to be honest, school usually came in the way. Sometimes, she forgot to pray. Worse yet, sometimes she would not go to church in order to work on her assignments. She seriously needed to work on being rich towards God. Suppose she got her degree and a high paying job, then she died without a serious relationship with God. Where would she go? Straight to hell, that was for sure!

Gradually as time went on and as everyone became caught up in the exam fever, Patience forgot about all that Aaron had said. She also gradually forgot about Aaron; after all, he was hardly seen around.

***

The exams came and went. Patience along with her friends worked very hard. They wanted to come back and they wanted to make everyone back home very happy and proud.

They say you reap what you sow. Patience’s hard work paid off. She passed her exams and was back to the University of the Lesser City for another academic year. She was very elated to learn that all her classmates had made it back, including Aaron. They had done their parents proud like they wanted. Things were looking good; both for Patience and her classmates.

Things were a bit different now. Patience and her classmates were now second year students or sophomores, as they were commonly known. This meant that they now had juniors to look up to them. In time Patience befriended one of these juniors. Her name was Charity. She was a very clever little girl, Charity. It was unusual for a girl her age to enroll into the university. She was only fifteen, yet she was the best in her class. She beat all the boys along with the few girls that were in her class. No one could refute that Charity was indeed a very special person. Eventually she and Patience became more than friends. They became roommates.

Patience felt very privileged and proud to have Charity as a friend. They often studied together. Of course, as her senior, Patience rendered a lot of help to Charity. She also protected her from unscrupulous boys who wanted to use her to their advantage. What was true was that Charity also helped Patience to understand some of her second year work. Patience was humble enough to admit this.

***

It was a Monday morning and patience woke up with a start. She had been having a nightmare. She looked around the room. It was dark. The curtain was flattering mysteriously in the wind. She learnt with alarm that the window had been left open. She sat up, shivering from fear. She stared at Charity’s bed and saw the vague outline of her blankets.

“Charity,” she called softly, “Charity…why did you not close the window?”

Charity did not respond. She lay still.

“Charity!” she called a bit louder this time. But still she did not stir. She jumped out of bed and ran to close the window. After closing it, she slowly drugged herself to Charity’s bedside.

“Charity,” she whispered as she thrust out her hand to touch her. To her dismay, the blanket went down under the weight of her hand. She grabbed the blanket and yanked it clean off the bed. Charity was not on there!

Her heart began to beat in her ears. She felt cold. She instinctively glanced at the door and to her surprise, it was slightly open. She knew that Charity loved taking walks sometimes at night to meditate, but she usually left the door closed. She ran to the switch and flicked it on. She suspected that Charity had not gone very far as she had not closed the door behind her. But still, she had a feeling that something was wrong. She opened her closet, grabbed her coat and rushed out of the door.

“Where are you my dear little friend?” she asked as she thumped down the corridor.

The night was refreshingly cool. She breathed in deeply. She smiled as she walked towards the balcony where she suspected Charity could be. Being on the second floor, it gave a good view of the car park below. Her heart missed a beat when did not see her there. She was very certain that she would find her there. She ran to the edge and looked down. There was no sign of her anywhere. She looked heavenward and clasped her fingers together.

“Please God, let her be safe,” she petitioned.

Suddenly, something in the car park caught her attention. There was a large group of people standing in a circle in one corner of the car park. There were talking excitedly as if there was something interesting that they were observing.

‘She must be there.’ She thought, her eyes lighting up with excitement. She quickly raced down the stairs. Upon reaching the car park, she briskly walked towards the crowd. It was now when she realized that it was quite a large crowd of people. There all talking excitedly and everyone wanted to push their way to the end of the car park as if there was something of interest to see.

“What is the fuss all about this time of the night?” she said to herself in slight annoyance. She looked around for someone she knew. She noticed a boy who was her junior.

“You boy,” she shouted above the noise, “what is this fuss about?”

The boy looked at her fearfully. “It’s Charity,” he said, observing her reaction. “She has been attacked.”

She felt as if a bullet had hit her. Her knees became weak and she pushed her way through the crowd on wobbly legs. Her heart was now in her mouth, thumping so much hot blood through her veins that they almost burst. All she wanted was her Charity, her dear Charity....

The crowd opened up in front of her and she saw Charity lying on the ground. She was very still. She fell on her knees and bravely crept towards her, all the time her eyes on her. She was hopping that she would twitch her fingers, move her hand or something. She stopped dead when she noticed a pool of blood beside her head. She could not bear it anymore. A strong nauseating dizziness overwhelmed her and she fell to the ground beside Charity. Everything grew black and the noise slowly faded away. At that moment, she thought she heard Chanda’s voice calling her name, but it sounded far away. Everything became very dark and very quiet.

***

Patience awoke with a headache. She blinked continuously to get used to the light. Her hand felt heavy and she was not so amused to find out that a drip was attached to it. She looked around wearily and noticed that Chanda, Tetezani and Aaron were seated by her bed side. They smiled when they noticed that she was awake.

“Charity,” she said in a horse voice, “where is she?”

They looked down with sadness in their eyes. Tetezani held her hand and squeezed it gently.

“I am sorry,” he said in a shaky voice, “she …she died this morning in hospital.” Patience was too weak to burst out crying, but tears flowed endlessly from her eyes. Chanda could not help it any longer. She hurried out of the room and wept bitterly outside. She wept for Charity, the amazing little girl who was no more, and for her friend, Patience.

Patience stared at Aaron with teary eyes.

“Why?” she asked. Aaron stared back at her with round eyes, red with tears. He was speechless. He did not know what to say. He looked down and a tear spattered to the floor.

After an awkward silence, Patience opened her mouth again.

“Aaron,” she called, “is she suffering? Is she burning in hell?”

Aaron shook his head. “No…” he breathed, “she is not. She is not conscious, just like you were before you woke up. She is feeling no pain, no misery… she is like sleeping. When God calls her name in the resurrection, she will wake up, just like you woke up and then we will all be together…”

Patience managed a weak smile. “You know, my uncle says he has seen a lot of things and knows a lot of things; but I doubt if he knows that…”

Tetezani nodded. Aaron smiled slightly.

“Aaron,” patience called again, “thanks for being here.”

“You are welcome.”

“And Aaron…”

“Yes?”

“I think I now need a bible study. I want to be rich towards God.”

Aaron held her hand and gave her a warm smile.

“Everything will be alright.” He said. Patience closed her eyes and drifted away to another world were everything was alright; a world where Charity was going to be. She could hardly believe it. She was going to see Charity again. God has promised to raise the dead and God never lies—Hebrews 6:18; Acts 24:15.

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