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Dear Pastor,

Greetings to you, I am a regular reader of your column and I am in need of some help from you. Please don't turn me down.

I am 30 and my girlfriend is 31. We have two children together and we have been living together for three years. Our younger child is only a year and a half. I do construction work, but my children's mother is a security officer. I borrowed some money from her father to buy a car which I use as a taxi. I have been trying to pay him back the $1 million I borrowed. But this man is very unreasonable. If I miss a month's payment, he calls me and reminds me that he wants his money. He has even cursed me and told me that he has regretted giving me a loan.

I am not a thief, but there are times when I have to do repairs on the car and it is not every day I can go out and work on buildings. I asked my children's mother to call her father and ask him to give me more time. She said she wouldn't call him because when I was doing the business with him, I didn't tell her, and when I got the money from her father, she told me that I should make sure that I put away his money every month. She has been helping me to pay back the loan I got from her father, but it is stressing her out because we have rent and other bills. The car is giving plenty of trouble. Right now it needs three tyres and my girlfriend has refused to help me.

I am writing you because just last night this woman told me that she made a big mistake by having two children for me. She can't deal with the poorness. This woman wants so much from me and she knows that I do not have it. Sometimes when I consider my situation, I get a headache. I cannot deal with pressure. But one thing I know, I will not kill myself.

Her father is in his 70s. I missed the January and February payments. Her father called me and told me some dirty words. These are words that I can never repeat. I told my children's mother what he said to me. She went to her credit union and borrowed some money and gave me to give him. I am in trouble again and I asked her if she could give me some more help and she said she could, but she would have to go to 'Back Road' and sell herself. I did not know that she would say that to me.

C.D.

Dear C.D.,

You might not like what I am about to tell you, however, I hope you will consider my suggestion.

You do construction work and sometimes things are slow, so you might not be able to work every day. Therefore, I understand why you are trying the taxi business. But hear me, my friend, sell the old car and pay back your father-in-law his money. Sell the car and do so as early as possible. By paying up your father-in-law, both of you would get along fine - when he has his money in his pocket. Right now he sees you as a worthless cruff. In his mind, he thinks that you are no good. That is why he was able to curse you and use expletives. Get rid of the car and find something else to do.

A couple of weeks ago, a man who is in his 60s approached me for a loan. I asked him why he wanted a loan and he said that he has a car that he uses as taxi and the transmission needs to be repaired. I know that man should not be harassing himself doing taxi work. Of course, he could not get any money from me and I did not encourage him to borrow money from anybody to repair his old car.

Your children's mother is just as depressed as you are, so please find another way to earn a living. Forgive your woman for asking you if you want her to go to Back Road and sell her body. She did not seriously mean what she said. She said that to you out of frustration.

Pastor