JOSH JOURNAL ML SPECIAL THE BOOK CLUB

Testimony Time, Tasty Time!

Please, I can’t be the only one guilty of this. Who else used to respond to “Testimony time” with “Tasty Time”?
Someone, please, tell me you did the same. Maybe ten years ago or twenty. Any time in the past.

You need to understand my predicament. I loved Tasty Time. I don’t know if it still exists, or if it has been rebranded or gone extinct.
If Tasty Time no longer exists, then the children of Lagos have no idea what they are missing. Especially the orange-flavored one. When Tasty Time is frozen, there is no better treat for a child.

With this in mind, where did my connection of testimony time and Tasty Time come from?
Firstly, a testimony is supposed to be a testification of the sweetness of God’s deeds in the testifier’s life. Why shouldn’t the testifier then say testimony time, Tasty Time?

I thought everyone loved Tasty Time the way I did. That they appreciated it as I did. And that “we” have all agreed to use it as a metaphor for how sweet testimony time can be.
Before you start arguing with me, kindly understand that this explanation is quite logical to a Tasty Time-loving eight-year-old.

Secondly, there was a time I went to a church with someone. This was when new churches were popping up around Lagos state.
They were having a sort of revival service. Sometimes towards the end, as we were praying, either the pastor, or his wife, or both of them started sprinkling water on everybody.

I was shocked out of my prayers. I was about to look for whoever just drained me with water when I noticed others were getting wet and acted like this is normal.
It took me gazing around in amusement to stop an about nine-year-old me from running after the pastor and his wife.

After prayers, I noticed everyone was filing out of their seat to the front of the church where the pastor was pouring something into their mouth. They were taking holy communion.
Because in my church, children didn’t get holy communion, I stayed back, watching them file out.

As I wondered why they were going out to get communion rather than have it distributed around, I noticed children were also filing out.
Before I could begin thinking about that, an usher grabbed me and pulled me into the line.

Soon enough, it was my turn. As the pastor brought the cup to my mouth, the liquid inside smelled familiar.
As soon as I took my first gulp, I could tell that this is Tasty Time. What? Is Tasty Time holy communion? You can imagine how confused I was.

So when I respond to testimony time with Tasty Time, can you now get where I am coming from?
I still can’t remember if it was someone that told me Tasty Time is the response or if I got to that conclusion myself.

I don’t know if it was said to me as a joke or out of ignorance. All I know is that this was my response until I got to senior secondary school.
It was when I repeatedly heard others say “blessing time” that my brain had a rethink about it.

Honestly, I am still not sure if blessing time is what I’m hearing.
If “blessing time” is the response to “offering time”, then how can “blessing time” also be the response to “testimony time”?

The ten-year-old boy in me wants it to remain “testimony time, Tasty Time”. Maybe I should stick with that. Others may eventually agree with me.
After all, one man can start this revolution. I just might be the Martin Luther for Tasty Time.

Wilson Joshua is a Video Editor, Content Creator, and Creative Writer.
You can follow him on TwitterFacebook, and Instagram. @IJOSWIL