It started with a prayer. Special prayers to protect Miriam from her enemies who were blocking her progress.
Miriam was just an ordinary member of Job’s Revival Fellowship Church before pastor Mwangi convinced her to join the ushering team.
“Miriam, the Lord told me you have a special calling. I want to guide you as a special daughter because you have a special calling. The devil uses people like you as his vessel. I need to deliver you. Since you’re on your internship and don’t have time for choir practice, the Lord said you should be an usher. You are beautiful, and beautiful women are meant to be ushers.”
Miriam thought she found favor from God and quickly joined the ushering team. From there, the special anointing message from heaven had to be delivered regularly by pastor Mwangi.
“The Lord says you’re blessed among women. You should come for evening fellowship on Wednesday. We’re few and I’ll have special time to pray for you”
“Miriam you’re highly favored. You need to come for special prayers to cover you from the enemies or you’ll never succeed in life.”
The prayer sessions started in public, then the two of them in the church, and later to hotels.
“Pastor, I’m not comfortable meeting you here in Kilimani hotel. What if someone sees us?”
“Call me Mwangi or sweetheart. No one will see us, we’re two towns away, and we’re in the room.”
“You’re married. This is a sin.”
“The bible doesn’t fight polygamy. I can have you as my second wife. We’re not doing anything wrong. I want to have you and guide you. Don’t fight your calling. Even Esther was prepared before meeting the King. I’m preparing you as we fight for your calling.”
One meeting turned to two, then three, then uncountable.
Four months later, Miriam started vomiting. She experienced fever and her mouth tasted of metal. She told Mwangi who told her that it might be malaria and sent her money for the hospital visit.
“Pastor, I’m pregnant.”
“Congratulations, who’s the father?”
“You are!”
“Miriam, I’m a married man of God. Let this word get to no one. Look for the father of that baby.” He hanged up and blocked her.
Miriam broke the news to her mum.
“Who made you pregnant?” Mama asked for the fourth time. “I think my ears have a problem.”
“Pastor Mwangi.”
“Miriam? Pastor Mwangi of Job’s Revival Fellowship Church?” The one church we all attend?” Mama shouted. “Mwangi is married. What were you thinking? Why were you sleeping with a man of God? You’re only 21, what are you planning to do with this baby? Miriam? Why choose Mwangi?”
“He lied to me. I didn’t know whether I was being chosen? Or used? Was it God’s favor, or just my desperation for belonging? I couldn’t tell anymore.”
“You’re 21. You should know better. Priscilla-Mwangi’s wife-is my friend, what am I supposed to tell her? What will people say? The village will blame me yet I knew nothing. You should have come home and told me everything. People will say I failed to raise you right.”
Mama wept.
Miriam and mama stopped going to church. The village found out of the pregnancy when the belly started to grow.
Everyone had an opinion.
“Children of single mothers are mannerless. Every household needs a man.”
“Most of them are immoral. I heard rumors Miriam doesn’t know her baby daddy.”
“What did you expect from a divorcee’s daughter? Have you forgotten her mother is a divorcee? What did you expect from a girl who wears trousers and lipstick like a Nairobi girl?”
“Miriam needed a father. A strict man to impose morals on her.”
When word got round the village after mama told Mwangi to accept his child with Priscilla, a battle in the church ensued.
“Our pastor is anointed, touch not the anointed”
“She’s a devil from the sea trying to confuse men of God”
“Even Jesus was betrayed”
“She carries the spirit of home wrecking”
“Pastor will win this spiritual attack”
“Pastor is being tested like Job”
The following Sunday after the confrontation, Pastor preached 1 Corinthians 10:13-The Lord will not tempt you beyond what you can bear. Priscilla preached on forgiveness, emphasizing that Jesus was also betrayed.
“A praying woman must never give up. God sees every tear. I stand firm because I believe in God’s restoration.” Said Priscilla.
The women clapped.
“Mama Pastor is a true proverbs 31 woman. The pastor got a good wife.”
What the world didn’t know was that Priscilla, Mwangi, had been his backbone for the past eighteen years. A quiet, soft-spoken woman with a strong faith. She handled women’s ministry, organized charity drives, and led marriage seminars — all while pretending not to see the cracks forming in her house. She had long stopped trying to fix them. Instead, she covered them up with long fasts, late-night prayers, and a smile that only reached her lips. They didn’t know that Priscilla was afraid of divorce because the society will judge her as the woman who divorced a pastor instead of praying for her marriage. She feared people doubting her faith.
Pastor Mwangi didn’t address the allegations. Instead, he preached about King David, a man after God’s own heart who had also stumbled. He preached about Jezebel spirits and how women are attacking the anointed men of God.
Miriam and her mother stopped fighting Mwangi as they noticed he would never acknowledge Miriam’s baby.
Every day is a quiet fight. The whispers. The shame. The loneliness. But also… the strength.
The child kicks as Mama serves her supper. She sits beside her and sighs.
“We’ll raise this baby,” she says softly. “This is not a child of sin, this is a child of God.”
The people still clap for pastor. They shout “Amen!” when he preaches.
But heaven… heaven saw everything.
And one day, heaven will speak.