Mama Haga chuckled and said, “I also asked the same question when Mara first told me. Jesus paid the price on the cross thousands of years ago. All we need to do is speak it like, ‘I plead the Blood of Jesus,’ when you are praying and it will work for you and as Mara said, there is power in the Blood of Jesus. Also, when you mention that name Jesus, demons and all evil spirits run away and fall down. So fear not!” Mama Haga said this with all confidence.
Murmurings of hope and confidence ensued in the crowd and they were all rearing to go and get started on a prayer regime to save their lives from the evil spirits lurking about with no notice of when they would strike. They needed to prepare and as it seemed, only prayer stood between them and the sudden death.
As they stood to go back to their daily activities, they all seemed weary and exhausted just by hearing about what they were facing. The initial readiness and enthusiasm quickly died out as they realised the immensity of what they had to do to evade the impending danger.
Mara felt a weight had been lifted off her shoulders as the secret was now out. However, she felt a new battle had begun to ensure everyone was praying as they ought to.
She felt some people were not going to take it seriously or after a few days they would start slacking. She realised that prayer was not an easy thing to do, though it being essential for their survival. She said a silent prayer for God to strengthen her for this mammoth task. She also prayed for God to protect the people of Goza and those within the danger zone.
Beko and Mama Mondo left for Huru to visit Mabige and the Hagas. They took off at dawn to make up most of the journey in the earlier hours of the day before the heat of the afternoon picked up pace. Besides they were going to walk leisurely as Mama Mondo was a bit slow in her walking. She seemed to shuffle herself more than walk as she was a bit on the hefty side.
They arrived in Huru in the evening just before the Hagas and Mabige turned in for the night. Mama Haga gave them food to eat as she always prepared extras of everything she cooked, in case of unexpected visitors. Her husband never understood why as they barely had any visitors and he would be the one to be forced to eat the leftovers time and time again. However, this time around it was a blessing that there were leftovers for Beko and her mother were starving hungry and tired.
Beko was particularly pleased to see Mabige again and she was planning to spend quality time with him the following day to discuss their future together. When Papa Haga saw Beko, he opened his mouth wide with amazement as she was a beautiful young woman. He felt proud of his younger brother and told him that he had made a very good choice. The two visitors were given a spare room to sleep in, which Mama Haga had quickly prepared for them as they ate and Mabige went off to his own house to sleep with a smile printed on his face for seeing the love of his life. He could not wait for tomorrow to spend some time with her and talk.
The following day, Beko rose up very early to go and find Mabige before he rose up and found him getting dressed. She said, “Where are you going so early?”
“You know I am used to getting up very early to work on the farm and water the animals and send them out to graze. I should be asking you why you are so early this morning,” added Mabige cheekily.
Beko smiled and said, “I just wanted to see where you live and to familiarise myself with my soon to be home!”
Mabige chuckled and said, “I like the sound of that, sweetheart, this house and everything I own belongs to you. You can do whatever you want with all of them, lock stock and barrel!”
Beko screamed with delight and ran to thrown herself in his arms in a warm embrace and a kiss and said, “I can’t wait to be your beloved wife. I can’t bear us being apart for much longer.”
Mabige held her reassuringly and said, “Don’t you worry, my love, it’s only a matter of weeks, you will surely be my wife. There is nothing stopping us is there?”
When the rest of the household woke up later, the two lovebirds had already gone to the farm to help each other with opening up the barn for the chicken to roam and feed, led the cattle out to their paddock to graze and drink and the goats were let out of their enclosure into another feeding enclosures to ensure they did not escape into the farm or garden. After giving food and drink to the animals, they took a tour hand in hand admiring the hard work that Mabige had put into the farm and the garden overall and Beko was well impressed. She had seen a few strange crops she had never seen before, Mabige found it a pleasure to educate on what crops those were.
After the tour, they found a place to sit down to talk, usually Mabige’s place of reflection on a flat rock on top of the ant hill mound. It was a vantage point to see what was going on around him. They got down to business to discuss what he was going to do in preparation for the bride prize and as
