Inside the church where the vigil was being held, Michael stood on the pulpit, leading the church in prayers before his sermon.
"Pray! I can't hear you crying to God! Somebody pray like you are ready for God to do something! Show God you are ready for your miracle," Michael urged them as he broke into tongues.
As he prayed, he suddenly felt a lead in his spirit to step outside the church, but he tried to resist it.
The moment he mounted the pulpit, he had given strict instructions that no one was to step outside until he was done ministering. And that included the ushers, so why was he being led to go outside and disobey his own instruction?
The more he tried to resist it, the more intense the urge became, and after a moment, he signalled to the pastor in charge of the church, who had invited him to minister, and asked him to cover for him while he handled something outside.
He left the pulpit through the minister's side door and had to go outside from the back of the building.
No sooner had he rounded the bend to the front of the church before he saw the girl who was on the floor sobbing and trembling.
His first instinct was that she was a witch on assignment who had been arrested by their prayers, and he stood some steps away from her as he began to speak in tongues.
'She's the one!' he heard God speak to him very clearly, and he paused.
'The one what?' Michael asked aloud, not wanting to believe it was what he was thinking.
For most of the service he had been on the look out for the most calm, most beautiful, most composed ladies, and God had kept saying no, and now this one out here that was looking like a witch that had been caught in daylight was the one?
When did God start doing pranks? He mused with an amused laugh, cause this had to be a prank. This was a big joke, he thought as he looked down at the young lady who was weeping profusely on the floor.
'Help her'
Help her? How? With what, Who was she? What was she doing here dressed that way? He mused as he continued to watch her.
"Hello!" he said cautiously and watched as she sprang up and turned around to face him, her eyes wild with fear and alarm as though she was ready to run off if he posed a threat.
He raised his hands, "Calm down. I'm pastor Michael. Can I help you?" he asked, and she looked at him warily before looking all around them, wondering why he was the only one who was outside.
How was she sure he wasn't one of those guys who were chasing her? Maybe they had seen her run into the church premise and had dressed up this way to come and get her.
"Relax. I mean no harm," he assured her without taking any step towards her.
"Do you want to come inside the church?" he offered since he doubted that, with the fear in her eyes, she would want to go anywhere private with him.
Where was she coming from anyway? He wondered, gazing at her and wondering why she looked sort of familiar.
Still clutching her purse to herself, Amara looked down at herself and shook her head. She couldn't go inside the church this way.
She might not have been inside the walls of a church in a long time, but she had not forgotten how judgemental church people could generally be.
They would all judge and condemn her with their eyes and act like she was the worst sinner on earth. She couldn't bear that now, Amara thought as she shook her head, declining his invitation to go inside.
What was she doing crying outside, in front of the church, if she had no plans of coming into the church? Michael mused in confusion.
Lord, how am I supposed to help her if she won't come inside the church?
If he didn't know God's voice, he would have doubted it was God who had led him out here to meet her.
Michael needed to go back inside the church for his ministrations, and he was wasting time outside here with this girl who he knew nothing about.
"If you won't come inside the church, I'm going back inside," Michael said and he turned to leave.
"Please, help me!" Amara cried, not wanting to be left alone.
She wasn't sure why she was asking him for help, but she didn't want him to leave. He wouldn't have invited her inside the church if he was one of those guys, would he?
Michael stopped and took a deep breath as he turned back to look at her. That was when he noticed that she was barefooted and her feet looked rough and dirty like she had been running, and she was bleeding on one foot.
For a moment, he had thought she couldn't speak, seeing how she had not said a word to him before.
What had she been running from? Who was she? He mused as he watched her silently.
"Come with me," he said as he turned to leave once again, and Amara limped as she followed him, hugging her purse to herself consciously.
In her desperation to survive, she had not realised that she had injured herself while running, and it was only now that she was calm that she could feel the pain under her feet. She had no idea what had cut her.
Michael contemplated taking her to the vestry, but he wasn't sure how the pastor would react to that, so he led her to his car instead.
"I think you should stay in my car and wait for me. Since you don't want to go inside the church, I don't know where else you can stay until I can be free to talk to you. I'm a guest minister here. This isn't my church," he explained, but Amara said nothing as she looked at him.
So, he was really a pastor, she mused, thinking that he looked too young and too handsome to be a pastor.
And for some reason he looked sort of familiar too.
Very familiar.
Where did she know him from? She mused, trying to recall where she must have seen his face.
She never trusted young guys like him who claimed to be Christians. Handsome guys, for that matter.
Well, that wasn't her problem. All she needed was his help for tonight. Once it was morning and she was able to find her way, she would leave.
Michael took out his car key from his pocket and unlocked his car for her to go in. Amara looked around them before getting into the back seat of the car.
"I will be back after my ministration," he said before shutting the door and walking away.
As he walked away, he debated the wisdom of leaving a stranger alone in his car. What if she was a thief?
He shook his head. God had led him to her. God wouldn't lead him to someone that would steal from him. There was no way God would do that to him, he assured himself.
What if someone saw her in his car and misunderstood? He mused as he turned to look at his car and noticed her staring back at him.
He sighed as he turned and kept walking. God would take care of it. He was obeying God's instruction. That was all that mattered.