Timothy

Photo Source(https://pixabay.com/photos/ancient-bike-central-city-classic-2181889/)

Father Dominic is coming! Father Dominic is coming! The little children in the village were screaming as they ran out of their various compounds towards the main path that runs straight through the village. Every child in Anaku sees it as a point of duty to take up the echo of this phrase and also back it up with running to join other children on the main path and then after the priest's ancient motor bike which he often referred to as Timothy.
Father Dominic was the foreign priest in charge of the churches within this district. It comprises of six other villages and each village has it own church built of poles dug into the ground and roofed with thatch. The members usually come to mass bringing along their stools or in most cases, mats to sit on. Although most of these churches are over fifteen years old, like the one in Anaku, they have not really improved in term of infrastructure.
Since masses are held every six days as father Dominic could not make a round of all the six villages in time for the evening masses, he has dedicated every evening to one particular village so each village get to witness his presence once every six days.
His old motor which was shipped to him about a month after he came into the area was his only means of locomotion around the district and also when he needed to make his quarterly report to the headquarter some 30 miles away. Every child within the six villages knows the sound of father Dominic's motor bike and the exact time to expect it sound once he gets to the gigantic silk cotton tree almost a mile away. The motor bike which looks very ancient in appearance and makes a loud tut-tut sound was a source of delight and fun for every child in the village and even most of the adults. He always enters Anaku through Odoku which lies due west of Anaku and since the church is situated at the other end of the village toward Oriku which lies due east of Anaku, he has to ride through the entire length of the village along the main path. Long before he enters the village, the little children within the first compounds along his line of entrance raise up the chant and warm up their nimble feet in preparation to run after the priest up to the village church. Most times, they turn up already dressed for the mass because once the priest shows up, the adults also crowd out towards the church. During the sermon, the children barely focus on the mass as they will sneak out every other minute to admire the "iron cow" as the villagers call it. After the mass, the children repeat the action of running after the motor bike until he gets to the last compound on the outskirt of the village where the children will halt and watch him riding away with the motor bike spewing smoke from it rusty exhuast until it disappears out of sight. The children then return home gleefully to wait another round of six days to behold the apparition again.
Timothy, for that was the name by which father Dominic christianed his motor bike after the biblical Timothy was the trick behind father Dominic winning the people over to his church. It was shipped to father Dominic after four to five weeks of him being in the district.
When he resumed his work as the district's first priest, he hardly ever got the attention of the villagers. For weeks on end, his efforts were useless and fruitless as he could not even get one convert. After the second week, he got tired of trekking around the villages and wrote to his friend abroad to ship his motor bike to him so as to ease his movement within the area. The first village he rode into on his motor bike was immediately astir. Both the young, old and the children ran out to see the priest riding an iron cow. The priest is riding and iron cow someone from the crowd shouted! And it is blowing smoke from it anus too! Another chipped in. After spending an hour in the village square, the courageous ones among them stepped forward albeit fearfully to touch the motor bike and the rest is history. Today he has a church in each of the six villages. Thanks to Timothy! The evangelical motor!