Sister-in-Campus

J
oyce a begotten child of a pastor joins the university after passing excellently in her secondary education. She has been brought up well according to the best christian standards till she loves participating in church activities without having to be forced by anyone. In the university she is immediately appointed a praise and worship leader in the christian union a position which makes her popular within her first year.

One day she invites some of her notorious admirers to her room in an attempt to evangelise to them hoping she can get to change them from girl admirers to christians. Her christian union collegues she had invited fail to turn up as they had promised a mistake that is utilized against her. What follows is a painful event after event occurrence of Joyce trying to cope up with the tough results. Will she be able to stand up to the faith she has grown up confessing? Will she face the public boldly or not?






P
raise the Lord Sister Joy!” Someone shouted out to Joyce who was passing by the student mess from the classes singing a familiar Christian song “Liseme, liseme.”
“Amen my bother” Joyce replied cheerfully to the greeting. Another “Praise the Lord Sister Joy!” followed from someone a little ahead among a group of men sited along the walk way. Before she could respond another one “Praise the Lord!” followed from someone in the same group. Joyce decided to stop and shake the hands of the group of five.
“Yesterday I was blessed with your song at the ... Sagini Hall!” One of them managed to say.
“No in the CU church” another one corrected him as the other laughed at him for saying something he was not sure of.
“You mean at the Sunday service?” Joyce asked him to which he nodded. “Though today is Wednesday and I never sang last Sunday.”

He looked away shameful as his friends laughed at his poor attempt to lie to a devoted CU member like Joyce. He was saying something he had heard some students in his Hostel saying as they praised the fiery first year lady.
"You didn't have to tell him the truth Joy" Another added as they laughed again.
"No its okay my brothers" Joyce assured them. "My brothers when the spirit of truth enter you, you will lie no more nor will you use lies to extract the truth."
All this time one of the students was lost in examining the long dress which Joyce wore. The dress was big and long enough to sweep through as she walked. When she climbed the staircase she had hold it on one hand to avoid stepping on giving the impression of a bride.
"Would you mind introducing yourselves please since you already know me" Joyce asked them politely.
"I am Jaymo, he is PK, then this quite one is Oti, this one is Joe and the one who greeted you first is Galgalo" One of them who appeared to be elderly introduced them all.

Galgalo was not even a Christian as he was trying to portray himself. He was Muslim who liked the company of spoilt brats like Oti, PK, Jaymo and Joe. He liked to take the advantage of his friends whenever they met at lunch time or even after classes. Whenever a lady passed by them he was the first to attack her with whatever phrase came into his mind. On this particular day he happened to hear someone who was definitely a devoted CU family shout "Praise the Lord" to a first lady whom he didn't know. Fortunately enough the person included the name of this beautiful lady and his mind could not help relate the name with a story he had heard about her. Some two first years had been talking last week about how some 'Sister Immaculate' was making CU serviced lively with her songs. Jaymo who seemed to be like the leader of the group remained quite most the time and often spoke when the rest could not talk on behalf of the group. While Joe became active when money was the subject of a discussion, Oti who had bulging muscles because of the body building exercise he took daily liked talking about fights while PK was a politician and a skimmer.

"It was nice to meet you brothers" Joyce said trying to show them she was in a hurry. "Wait!" PK said quickly. Then he stood up from his seat with one hand in the pocket and another adjusting his untacked shirt faced Joyce. Joyce could not find any clue from his face.
"What is it?" She asked. PK opened his mouth but said nothing.
"PK I know you want her, just take her number and you can Whatsapp her later." Galgalo quickly suggested when PK seemed like he had run out of words. Joe and Jaymo laughed softly.
"Who asked you for your opinion spoilt kid? Am trying to confronting Woman of God and here you are suggesting silly things" PK protested angrily.
"What is it My Brother" Joyce asked tyring to look understanding though she was getting impatient.
"I want to.. to... to..." PK kept Joyce waiting like he could not say the whole sentence.
Jaymo took out his phone and turned to Joyce "Sister Joy your number?"
"What do you want it for?" Joyce asked sharply.
"So that Brother PK can contact you later to tell you what he wanted to tell you" Galgalo chipped in.
"If he can't say what he wants to tell me here let him keep it. Am not giving out my number!" Joyce said firmly. She started to walk away. PK made like to hold her hand but Oti pulled him back.
"Leave sister alone she still has her village boyfriend and CU! She can't be your future" Oti told him sarcastically. Joe laughed at him and spoke for the first time "I can help you. I take you to my friend Kimani to lend you a suit which you can use to attend a CU service where your crush will be impressed."
"I will not buy your idea Joe! I was going to get saved then ..." PK defended himself.
"You got a blackout" Galgalo chipped in as they all laughed.
"For someone like PK to get saved it will need rain in North Eastern Kenya!" Jaymo added and they all laughed again.

Joyce was totally pissed off with this group of five. She was already late for lunch and that meant she had to go back to class for a BCom block lesson in Dr. Sagini Hall. Meeting in Dr. Sagini meant if you got in late you had to sit with the noisy back benchers and even if the lecturer used a public address system it would be a miracle to be attentive. She got into her room and was going to pick her other books for that lesson when she noticed a man's shoes next to her room mate's bed. That bed had a curtain on it which literally meant engaged or user busy. Curiosity would not help here. Of all her three room mates Hazy was notorious with bringing boyfriend into their room whenever time she liked even if it was week day or class time. That meant they had no privacy for them as ladies. If one wanted to dress they had to do in the next room or lock the room from inside supposing Hazy dropped in with her man.

Two months later in the first semester she was not liking Hazy of all her room mates. Abby and Daisy had their boyfriends too but they often came visiting on weekends or some evenings maybe to take them out but not stay around like Hazy's boyfriend. Some days someone like Daisy spent most of her day close to her man who happened to be in the same class as her. Joy could not picture how you can be in a relationship with someone in the same class let alone in the same institution. Even as she took her books from her closet she could not help asking for forgiveness for her room mates in a short silent prayer. She had failed to go for a lunch time prayer at the fish pond like she always does because of some five spoilt brats.

She managed to get a sit somewhere in the middle since she had not got any of a friend to book her sit. She had few close friends since not many ladies and men liked a lady who kept talking about spiritual things. While others had had their friends reserve sits for them she was there struggling on her own to get to a sit in the middle. It was not easy to get there especially with all her long dress and the squeezed spaces between rows. Her real friends were in the CU where she now a praise and worship leader something that was rare for a first year like her. The older members in CU who were mostly in third year and fourth years were looking at her as a promising CU chair or vice chair.

A new text dropped in Joyce's xTigi feature phone and some of her neighbours frown at the unpleasant ringtone they had just heard. Most of them had Android smartphone whit a few with iPhones. Joyce had forgotten to put her phone in silent mode. She quickly turned her mode into silent mode by long pressing the hash key continuously. She was visibly happy with the text from Brother Petro as she had saved him like that on the contact list. She returned the phone to her laps promising herself to read the text after the class. The lecturer didn't not take long as he took almost thirty minutes discussing politics about the Kisii county government and boda boda riders yet he had come in late by twenty minutes.

After the lesson as others were busy taking selfies, Joyce hurried to her room to settle do her assignments. Today being a Wednesday she had to be in praise and worship practice by six o'clock at the same hall where they had just left. The CU service on Wednesday would run from eight till ten o'clock and a meeting for the group leaders would follow up to around half past eleven. No one was in the room when she entered. She remembered to read Petro's text lest she forgets about it. It read "Praise the Lord my precious sister! It's long since I heard from you. About two months ago you left home for Kisii University and we felt like holding onto you more. I hope you are fine in the Lord as I am. We miss you so much in church and look forward to the day you will come for holiday. God bless you and don't be quite like that again!" She was already smiling sheepishly.

As Joy was about to check mpesa and buy airtime her phone which had been warning of low battery finally gave a last warning "low batter shutdown". She had to charge it for at least thirty minutes before she could use it to call. She checked the socket under the table for a charger to plug in her phone and there was none. It was used by everyone in the room since it fitted on all their phones. She checked her closet for her own charger but there was no charger. So someone had taken her charger without her consent. A number of things were not in her place anymore including the beautiful dress she was planning to wear tonight for the Wednesday fellowship! This was sure a receipt for trouble.

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