The Pastor's Letter Poem by Cynthia Buhain-baello

At twenty eight he had a ministry,
They said for him it was a prophecy.
Fired up, schooled, oh so brilliant,
Preached with an eloquence defiant.

After a year with the same congregation,
He met the lady that caught his attention.
Confused he was at the sudden attraction
But her eyes, they held his heart's condition.

The devil knew just where to strike him,
For he cunningly knows each man's whim.
Love filled the pastor's heart to the brim,
No one will ever know, or so it seems.

The lady, she was a delicate being,
At forty, her appeal like a magnet did bring
Unaware and naive at the hidden suffering
She was causing her young pastor, that poor thing.

One day it happened unexpectedly.
He was training her on some ministry,
Their eyes locked in gazed intimacy,
His hand held her hand affectionately.

The moment was brief, but truly revealing.
Realizing the gravity of their falling,
Both turned away, for fear of the sinning
With tortured hearts that were then deceiving.

Because she was married she stayed away,
But he longed to see her every Sunday.
So a letter she wrote of feelings disarrayed
And told him she loved him but she loved God's ways.

The church, they formed a misconception,
Made up stories out of proportion.
They blamed the lady for the fatal attraction,
Demanded she be on disciplinary action.

Angered, rebuked, the pastor had been.
Unable to deal and face his own sin.
He wrote her husband to save his own skin
And gave vent to revenge that had lurked within.

Although there was no real adultery,
The unknowing husband heard another story.
For the pastor wrote with much animosity
It was a wonder he stayed in the ministry.

Eventual divorce came to the couple,
The censured lady ostracized by the people.
To save the young pastor's ministry call,
He married a girl he did not love at all.

The truth in his heart he tried to hide,
But his wife had felt what really was inside,
A masquerade of marriage, she always cried,
And the pastor knew to his wife he lied.

They constantly fell into much bickering,
And stumbled the church, marred the worshiping,
The young pastor stepped down from ministering,
Lost in the web of his own evil-doing.

The lady, she stood by her principles,
Lay her case before God in heaven's walls,
She forgave her accusers for her imagined fall,
And now vindicated, she stands tall.



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Written October 5,2008 Tarlac City Philippines