The Esthitude Place

Corban is a Hebrew word adopted into the Greek of the New Testament and left untranslated. It occurs only once in the Bible and it means a gift or offering consecrated to God.

This story is a series weaved around the story in Mark 7:11 in the Bible, enjoy!!!

Read the first episode of the Corban series here

Click here to read the second episode of the Corban series.

Corban – Episode 3

Jide, seeing only advantages in such a relationship, gladly accepted. Years later, when Jide reflected on his life and when things had gone wrong, he wished he hadn’t met Bode.

Their friendship soon grew to become a strong one that one visited the other as much as free time allowed. At this time, Bode had introduced Jide to his church and would have made him an elder even, but for the fact that Jide was not based in Sagamu.

Nevertheless, he always found a duty or another to involve Jide in whenever the latter came around to spend the weekend. Jide being a religious man himself saw nothing wrong in this involvement and believed it was for a greater good.

It was around this period that he began to consider leaving his workplace to establish his own. He had seen Bode’s business as it seemed to grow daily and he wanted the same for himself.

Bode was enthusiastic about this development and encouraged him to rent an empty factory a few miles from his. At first, Jide did not think this a wise decision because of the complications and rivalry that might arise later as a result of factory closeness but Bode soon prevailed upon him and he agreed.

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It should be mentioned here that Bode had become an integral part of Jide’s life, he admired his business and religious life and secretly wished to attain such heights as well.

At this time, Jide’s parents were already asking the ultimate question from him – a wife, but he didn’t think that was a necessary decision he had to make soon and he always told them to be patient. It wasn’t as though beautiful willing ladies didn’t cross his path on a regular basis, he simply never took them seriously.

He convinced himself that if Bode could still be single despite his success, then there was no rush for him either; when asked why he hadn’t tied the knot yet, Bode had simply said he wasn’t ready for women problem yet, and this was the example Jide gladly followed.

True to the plan, Jide resigned from his workplace after serving for four and a half years, part and full time, and set up his company in Sagamu. It hadn’t been easy getting the capital needed but after friends, family and the bank pitched in a little, he was able to begin.

His business grew and he was able to repay his debts within two years. His business bloomed more, even more than Bode’s and he soon had to relocate to Ikeja, Lagos where he bought a large factory that suited his production demand.

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Before then, he’d been convinced by Bode to become a full member of his church. He was soon appointed the Church Project Leader because of his constant contribution to church work. He didn’t grudge God the tithes and proceeds from his profit and as business bloomed often, he was always coming to church with fat envelopes.

Bode saw this as a great opportunity to further his cause and soon began to dream up more projects. It wasn’t that he wasn’t making equally good sales, but when he saw a willing man ready to surrender all he had, he slacked and began to rely on that more.

Jide never suspected a thing; business was booming and he was just being faithful to God. He believed, as was being propounded by the pastors and elders, that his wealth was solely a result of God’s blessings in his life and God was to come first. His order of priority became – his church, his church ministers, his projects, even before himself and his family.

What he didn’t open his eyes to see was the fact that only few people obeyed this church injunction. Of course, church population increased when people began to see the wonders of God in the church but few knew it was mainly as a result of one man’s work.

Sundays were days of vows and pledges to God. Hardly one Sunday came that there wasn’t a call for vows for this project or that. By now, church project had included another gigantic building on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway for people who had begun to come from there.

So widely spread had the fame of the church become because of the project leader, Jide was to oversee this construction.

Watch out for episode 4.