MY MOTHER IN-LAW SENT ME TO SLEEP WITH HER PASTOR TO SAVE MY MARRIAGE
I was 26 and my marriage to Tunde was almost collapsing. We had been trying for a child for four years with no success. My mother-in-law, Mama Tunde, kept dragging me from one pastor to another. She finally settled on Pastor Gbenga, a popular deliverance minister in Ikorodu known for “miracle babies.”
One evening she took me to the pastor’s private prayer house. After long prayers and anointing oil, Pastor Gbenga asked my mother-in-law to wait outside. He told me the spirit was leading him to “transfer life” directly. I was confused and scared, but Mama Tunde had warned me not to question anything if I wanted to keep my marriage.
He locked the door, made me lie on the prayer mat, and removed my underwear himself. He rubbed oil all over my thighs and between my legs, stroking me until I was wet and trembling. Then he entered me slowly, praying in tongues the whole time. “Receive fruitfulness,” he groaned as he thrust deeper and faster, his sweaty body moving on top of mine. He finished inside me with a loud shout of “Amen!” and told me it was God’s vessel working.
It happened three more times over two months. Each session was longer. Sometimes he took me from behind while I knelt, sometimes he made me ride him while speaking in tongues. Mama Tunde knew exactly what was happening but kept bringing me back, saying “It is working. Be patient.”
I never got pregnant. Instead, I got infected with an STI. When I confronted my husband, he supported his mother and the pastor. They all turned on me, calling me ungrateful and saying I was lying against a “man of God.” My own family advised me to endure “for the sake of marriage.”
I’m still married on paper, but empty inside. Every time I see my mother-in-law praying or Pastor Gbenga on posters, I feel sick. The man I married and the woman who was supposed to be my second mother handed my body over to another man, all in the name of a miracle that never came.
Sometimes the greatest betrayal doesn’t come from strangers or enemies… it comes from family who use your pain and desperation as an excuse to sacrifice you.