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| First in Series |
“God got us here safely,” Rachel told Matt.
“God is—” Matt waved his hands in the air. “Cool it with that religious routine, Rachel. I've told you once and I'm telling you again: I don't believe in your God or your Jesus.” Matt looked at Rachel. “I thought you were really cool, you know? But ever since you let those religious nuts brainwash you...” He shrugged his shoulders. “I don't know...it seems like you've changed into a zombie.”
Rachel looked at the thick white gloves covering her hands. “Jesus saved me, Matt. He can save you, too. I was dead, but now I'm alive.”
“Saved you? From what?” Matt asked in a cynical voice. “Rachel, you're the most honest, kind, noble person I know. What did you need to be saved from?”
“My sins,” Rachel answered in a sincere voice. She raised her eyes to look at Matt. “While I was dead in my sins, Jesus died for me. We have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.”
“There she blows!” yelled a twenty-year-old red-headed guy named Fred Walker. He pretended that streams of water were coming from his mouth. “Rachel is preaching again, ladies and gentlemen! Let's all get down on our knees and listen to her brainwash us!”
“Knock it off, Fred,” Jacob Andrews said, slapping his friend on the back of the head. “Rachel has the right to believe what she wants. Just because we're not Christians, we don’t have the right to discriminate against her.”
~~~
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| Second in Series |
Rachel wasn't sure how to answer Jacob. She was still a new Christian herself and she was struggling in her daily walk with Jesus. How could she explain the mysteries of a loving God who loved justice to a person who had attended church only once? “I guess in time God will reveal to you what I feel He has been whispering to my heart.”
“I think God brought us together,” Jacob told Rachel, smiling into her eyes. “I think God controls our destiny and that we're meant to be together. I...felt that we belonged together the first day I saw you. I remember you were wearing a pink dress...you knocked me for a loop. Your hair was in a ponytail and you were wearing a perfume that smelled like roses...and...fresh rain.”
“You remember all of that?” Rachel asked, amazed.
Jacob nodded. “Yeah, I do. I know...I'm a hopeless romantic, right? I resemble a linebacker and can get a date with any girl I want, but when I'm alone I listen to sappy love songs and think about what love...well...could be, I guess.” Rachel listened to Jacob talk with a heart that was quickly falling more in love. “My parents divorced when I was a kid,” Jacob explained. He shook his head slightly. “My mom passed me off to my dad and disappeared for a while. I didn't mind. I liked our farm. The only thing I did mind was seeing my dad date one woman after another. He never remarried or even got engaged...he just drifted from one short-term relationship to another.”
“And that's what you're afraid of, isn't it?” Rachel asked, squeezing Jacob’s hand.
“Yeah, I guess I am,” Jacob confessed. He stared into Rachel's beautiful, caring eyes. “Rachel, I want more than what my dad gave himself. I want more than what my mom gave herself. I want...everything offered by all those songs I listen to. Man, that sounds sappy.”
Rachel smiled. “No, it doesn't,” she promised. “But Jacob, the love you're searching for must begin with God. God must be your first love. Then and only then can a man love a woman the way he is supposed to. When you make God your first love, that's when you truly fall in love and find real love. I hope that makes sense.”
“Not really,” Jacob confessed. “How can I make God my first love? I mean, that sounds kinda...sissy.”
“Was Jesus a sissy when He died on the cross?”
“No way,” Jacob answered immediately.
“Exactly,” Rachel told Jacob. She squeezed his hand again. Jacob stared at Rachel. His heart slowly began to understand what she was trying to relay to him. “I...think I get it.” “Good...”
~~~
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| Third in Series |
Jacob looked down at his hands and spotted leftover worm goo on his fingers. “The kid with the tangled-up line...he told me that his dad used to beat him with a stick.”
“Henry Bates is his name,” Rachel told Jacob. “Henry's dad is currently serving a very long prison sentence for child abuse, terrorist threats, assault and battery, and attempted murder...all against his son.”
“That's heavy.”
“Yes, it is,” Rachel agreed. “But Henry is a good kid. He's living in a foster home with a family that takes in a lot of kids, which makes the home more of a swinging door than a residence of stability.”
“Yeah.” Jacob sighed, spotting the administrative cabin. Sheriff Lansbury and Mrs. Turner were nowhere in sight. “Poor kid.”
“God will work miracles for these children, Jacob. I'm sure of that. You saw Henry. He wasn't standing around feeling sorry for himself. He was laughing and joking with the other children.”
“True,” Jacob said, walking Rachel up to the cabin. “Still, I wish that kid was mine. I'd spoil him rotten.”
“I know.” Rachel smiled into Jacob's eyes. She saw goodness there. “You're going to make a really great dad someday.”
“Someday,” Jacob emphasized. “Not now. I'm still learning to pray, remember?”
~~~
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| Fourth in Series |
Rachel walked her eyes around the jungle. The sun was beginning to lower in the sky.
“Mr. Chan—”
“Call me Lei,” Lei insisted.
Rachel smiled. “Lei, I have something for you.” Rachel handed her walking stick to Jacob, reached her right hand into her left pocket, and retrieved a white envelope. “This is the check Mr. Davidson sent us to give you.”
Lei stared at the white envelope. “Glory to God,” he said as tears began falling from his eyes. “The people in my village will be so happy. The days of their sorrows are quickly coming to end.”
Jacob shifted from one foot to the other. He didn't know what to say or do. He had never seen a grown man cry out of nowhere before. In his past, most of the guys he hung out with had been tough. “Uh...yeah,” he managed to say in an uneasy voice.
“Jacob is a new Christian, Lei. He's learning to walk...but right now, he and I are both still crawling.”
“When one learns to walk too quickly, he falls,” Lei told Rachel. He took the check from her. “I learned that truth the very hard way when I first became a Christian. I wanted to start preaching and leading people to Jesus. I was on fire for the Lord. The only problem was...I didn't have an understanding of the scriptures and I ended up falling flat on my face.”
“What do you mean?” Jacob asked. “You were just doing what the Bible tells us to do, right?”
“In a way, yes,” Lei explained. “But I failed to be taught by a Christian man who was taking his meat and walking on firm legs. I was sipping from a baby bottle.” Lei shook his head. “I thought I had all the answers and knew everything. And then I got into a debate with an atheist who knew the Bible better than I did. The guy tore me up. A preacher was standing nearby and watched me get kicked into the street. That preacher took me under his wing and began helping me learn the truth. So, let me advise you both to walk when the Lord orders you to walk; otherwise, you will fall.”
“Thank you, Lei,” Rachel said in a grateful voice. “That's wonderful advice.”
Jacob nodded. “Sometimes it's easier to think we can do things on our own. I've always been like that.”
Rachel took back her walking stick from Jacob and smiled into his eyes. “I think you're coming along just fine.”
Lei saw love shining in Rachel's eyes. He looked into Jacob's eyes and saw a special love—one that soaked into Rachel's heart. He smiled.
“The village isn't far. You two must be hungry.” “Starving,” Jacob admitted. “What's for dinner?”
“Snail guts and snake brains,” Lei said. Jacob's face turned pale. He swallowed. “Really?”
“No.” Lei laughed and slapped Jacob on the shoulder. “For dinner, we’re having canned beans and fried bread.”
“Better,” Jacob said. He laughed. “Much better.”
~~~
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| Final in Series |
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