Article of Faith
The Stolen Bible: How Araya Became a Tourist Attraction Since 1914
A delegation was sent to Patani to visit Proctor, who told Ewhoboh to return in two weeks without giving it back. When they returned, he had taken it along with him on a vacation in Britain but died during the voyage.
Month was August 1914. Mrs. Ofuunweike Esievo, an uneducated old woman, hastened to her farm to harvest yams. When she got there, she found a large complete copy of the Holy Bible atop of pile of yams. Due to a downpour earlier that day, her yams were soaked by rain; but surprisingly, the Bible was not wet! She, however, took the book home after all efforts to unravel how it got there or to trace its owner failed.
On reaching home, she gave it to the first Christian convert in Araya, Mr. Isara Ewhoboh who might have believed that since his friend Rev. J. D. Atkins had gone on vacation in Europe, Atkins’ counterpart Rev. H. Proctor (the white man who first brought Christianity to Oleh) was next in line to decipher the writings of the book as well as the accompanying letter.
A delegation was sent to Patani to visit Proctor, who told Ewhoboh to return in two weeks without giving it back. When they returned, he had taken it along with him on a vacation in Britain but died during the voyage.
-By Isaiah Ogedegbe
