#pastorbiodunsoretire
Concerning athletics, I was an all-rounder. Track or field event, I traversed all like the great Colossus of Rhodes. Not only that, when the events were eight, my own would be sixteen because I would run for both the junior and senior categories. I had one nickname that time – “Ehoro!” (Hare).
It was during 1957’s Empire Day. We were about to start the 400-yard race.
“On your mark!”
We crouched behind our lines.
“Agbeke...”
My name filtered from the crowd behind. There must be something sinister about this.
At the annual inter-school Empire Day, the competition was always intense, both on and outside the field. Teachers from other village schools would often call to the officials to have my favoured height checked, cross-checked and double-checked. And the result was always the same:
“She could run in both categories”.
And pupils of these other schools were not left out of the fierce battle as well; our teachers would have to guide me here and there because of some of them who often came to the field with charms.
“Get set!” the starter bellowed.
Hips were raised spoiling for action. But this fishy name-calling did not abate. Mysteriously, my body started reacting to it. I managed to look back. And there he was at a corner: the culprit was just in time ramming down the head of a padlock. No wonder my heavy body.
“Go!”
All the sprinters headed for the finish line. Not me. That would be a futile effort, I already knew. Instead, I dived for the boy. I held him tightly.
Immediately, the policemen surrounded us with the officials and the teachers. They ordered him to open the lock, collected the key from him and got him locked up in the station till we finished proceedings that day.
The officials cancelled the 400-yard event. We had a fresh race and I came first as usual.
I don't know how the news got to my grandmother at home. In no time she was on the field demanding I run no longer. It took the intervention of the teachers for her to let go. They had to assure her no harm would come my way, using Jesus' name as a surety. They begged her to go home but she insisted on staying on till the end.
Thank God it was our final year in school and invariably the last Empire Day I would partake in. All Saints' School, as usual, came first at the end of the day.
(Extracted from the memoirs of my mother, Mrs. Christianah Agbeke Soretire)
*Like that boy in one corner calling out Agbeke's name, the enemy is calling out our WEIGHTS and our SINS to ram us down, can we first settle these two matters before we settle for the race?*
FIRST...
(NLT) let us strip off every WEIGHT that slows us down, especially the SIN that so easily trips us up... OR
(GNB) let us rid ourselves of EVERYTHING THAT GETS IN THE WAY, and of the SIN which holds on to us so tightly... OR
(MSG) No EXTRA SPIRITUAL FAT, no PARASITIC SINS...
THEN...
...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (NKJV)
FOR...
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the RACE IS NOT TO THE SWIFT... but time and chance happeneth to them all.
THEREFORE,
BE SOBER, BE VIGILANT; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
#pastorbiodunsoretire
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