[Faith-talk] Chapter 12 of my novel

[Donna Elliott]

Poppa Bear, another wonderful, faith filled character!  Can't wait for the next chapter!  I'm in love with most of them!  Can Ed be saved?  Prayers, Donna

For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7 



Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 19, 2014, at 1:23 PM, Poppa Bear via Faith-talk <faith-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello to those who are still tuned in to the story of Luke, Ed, Ben, Alli
> and the Good Shepherd community Church of Anchorage Alaska. Here is another
> chapter. I have one more after this and then I will see what the Lord Leeds
> me to do at this point with this work. Enjoy. Chapter 12
> 
> When Luke stepped back into the church his eyes fell upon a slight little
> woman seated in the foyer. She looked to be in her 70's with big brown eyes
> and a warm smile. She wore a loose fitting dark blue dress that went well
> past her knees, with a knitted brown over coat and some brown leather shoes.
> 
>    Luke went over to her and extended his hand and said, "Hello, I am Luke.
> I am the acting pastor here for a while. What can I do for you?" "Well, I
> hope to do something for you Pastor Luke." This was said with a small
> twinkle in her big brown eyes.
> 
>    She looked past him and then to the left and right of him, taking in the
> surroundings of the foyer. Her eyes landed on the windowsills which were
> noticeably caked with dust. She then glanced along a book shelf of hymnals;
> some were lying on their sides some flipped upside down, while others were
> sat on top of the book shelf and not even in the rows on the shelves. Then
> her eyes landed on a forlorn looking desk in a corner with stacks of papers,
> brochures and boxes of various sizes tilting precariously on the rear of the
> desk.
> 
>    The survey she made of the room was not lost on Luke. "Well Pastor, my
> name is Nadine Brown. I am retired, a widow, gave birth to 5 children,
> berried one and the rest are all grown up and moved on to warmer weather."
> Luke was opening his mouth to say something when she piped up again, "I have
> noticed that this place looks like the home of a first year rooky wife and
> it has been giving me the worst kind of rub. I come down here to propose to
> make my services available to you."
> 
>    She reminded Luke of a farmer's wife. He thought that she must be from
> the south, though her accent had been somewhat dulled, probably by living up
> north for so long, never the less she had the gumption that characterized
> many older women from the south. He wouldn't be surprised at this point if
> she pulled out a basket of hush puppies and a pitcher of homemade ice tea.
> 
>    "Well, Mrs. Brown it is wonderful to meet you." He put out his hand and
> she laid her aged and tiny hand in his and gave his hand a squeeze that
> spoke of hard work and sinewy strength. She stood at about 5-2 and couldn't
> be more than a hundred pounds. In spite of her small stature she looked like
> she could expand into a tornado if she got wind of something wrong.
> 
>    Luke tilted his head to the side slightly as he looked at her with a
> thoughtful expression and then spoke, "Mrs. Brown I will try to be as frank
> as I can with you without disclosing any personal church matters. I would
> like to take you up on your offer, but there are some areas in the budget
> that need to be attended to before we could even think about being able to
> obtain your services."
> 
>    At that point, Mrs. Brown who had had an attentive look on her face,
> opened up her eyes even wider than they were and a large grin spread across
> her face. "If you think that I am coming to look for a few extra penny's to
> rub between these old fingers then you must have fell out your bed this
> morning and bumped your head young man. Son I don't recall old Marry and
> Martha charging the master to be a service to him! If I'm here offering my
> services, it is because the good Lord led me here and that is the simple
> Gospel of the matter."
> 
>    Now indeed it would seem that she had been led to the Good Sheppard
> Community Church. About 6 months before this scene took place, little Nadine
> had felt a growing restlessness in her Spirit. She strongly felt that God
> was trying to show her something as she started to have frequent episodes of
> waking up in the middle of the night with a restlessness upon her. During
> those long hours she would go back and forth between trying to figure it out
> and praying in Ernest that she would know if the Lord wanted to show her
> something. She would pray for her family during the sleepless nights, the
> homeless, people in the hospitals, her neighbors and even people she hadn't
> talked to for over 30 years.
> 
>    She had been attending a church on the East side of town for 20 years
> now; she loved the Pastor, the body of believers and hadn't missed more than
> 5 services in all those years. She figured she would attend the church until
> the Lord called her home, but to her surprise, about 2 months before she
> ever set her old brown eyes on Luke, she was at a city event at a park
> across the street from the Good Sheppard Community Church. Her attention
> kept being drawn to the cross that sat atop the church. It seemed like her
> eyes were super naturally being pulled towards the building time and time
> again. She was almost hypnotized once or twice by the building, causing a
> few people to ask if she was feeling ok as she seemed to completely tune out
> conversations that she was part of.
> 
>    Later on that day she kept thinking back to the unnatural feelings that
> she had during the day. She concluded that it had something to do with that
> church. That night when she went to sleep she resolved to go by the church
> during the week and see if she could find out why it kept sticking in her
> mind. That night she slept sound as a baby and gave the Lord thanks for the
> good night sleep, even more sure that that old church had something to do
> with her pot of soup. That is what Nadine would say about her life, it was a
> big pot of soup and the Lord put all kinds of ingredients in it and no
> matter how bitter the herb, or how sweet the berry, it always tasted just
> the way the Lord wanted it to because he was the head cook and she was just
> the pot of soup.
> 
>    That same day she decided to jump into her old tan Buick Regal and go to
> the church. When she got there the parking lot was clean empty and she shook
> her head. "Lord how is a church of the living God going to be sleeping when
> that old Devil never sleeps." She went up to the Dore and sure as a clam it
> was locked up. She cuffed her hands and looked into the window and clucked
> her tongue at the things that many might not notice, but to her keen eye the
> little areas of neglect were sacrileges in the house of God. She said to
> herself as she looked into the window, "Can you imagine, that waist basket
> looks like it aint been emptied since the 6th Sunday of last month." Looking
> at the schedule on the door she decided to come by on Sunday for services.
> She went to bed that night and received her second night of peaceful sleep. 
> 
>    That Sunday when she made her way through the foyer of the Good Sheppard
> two things stood out to her, it wasn't the color of the parishioners or lack
> of color, it wasn't the dress of the women, and it wasn't even the lack of
> inviting smiles. More than anything, she noticed that there weren't more
> than a few children present and as for the elderly, she could have been the
> oldest in the congregation with the exception of two other older looking
> men. 
> 
>    The two older people that she did notice were Ben and Ed. Ed looked to
> her like he had descended from the old crows that pecked away the cake in
> the dream of Faros cook that young Josef interpreted. He wore what looked
> like a painted grin, except for when no one was looking, then he looked like
> he swallowed a lemon and he was trying to get the sour taste out of his
> mouth. The other was Ben, to her he looked like a bleary eyed mess of a man,
> he reminded Nadine of a old St Bernard that had been chained up in the back
> yard his whole life and was about ready to be put out of his misery. It was
> a sore site to her big brown eyes.
> 
>    Once she sat down for the service it didn't take long for her stomach to
> start twisting and turning. The man she had noticed earlier with the crow
> like features stood up and said a few introductions and without even saying
> a prayer or mentioning the name of the good Lord passed the stage onto some
> pretty looking fellow who looked like he could have been an airline pilot. 
> 
>    He grabbed the microphone and started to sing. When the music started
> she about had a heart attack, it sounded like she was at a full blown
> concert. She looked up in the corners of the sealing and saw speakers that
> had to be bigger than her refrigerator. "How much them giant things cost?"
> she thought to herself. "If one of them there music boxes fell I bet they
> would be a lot heavier than the manna that came down from heaven and they
> would probably take out about a dozen people." She resolved that in the
> future to not be caught dead standing under one.
> 
>    Next thing after the musical performance, which didn't resemble anything
> like a worshiping of God to her, a man approached the podium looking like a
> hippy with a goT, thick sideburns, a thin ponytail and started talking. She
> thought she was in a parallel universe. She didn't know if she was in a
> church or listening to a feller in a coffee shop wagging his tongue about
> some utopia that was based on socialism, communism and 10 different other
> hell bound religions. When she left the church she was in a daze.
> 
>    That night when she lay down she vowed not to step foot back into that
> God forsaking building where they didn't bring children, or have room for
> old folks ever again. But that night the restlessness returned. It came for
> the next 3 nights. Finally she said, "God I can't figure out why, but it
> seems like your bent on having that there church be in my pot of soup and
> all a body can do is submit to your will and trust in thy ways even when we
> can't see further than the nose on our face."
> 
>    On her fifth visit to the church she noticed a young man approach the
> podium. At one look she could see that this youngens had a mind to say
> something. His eyes were as clear as her mommas old crystal cups that she
> only set out on special occasions and his face shown bright like them three
> Hebrew boys that came out that old fiery furnace bold as lions an as fresh
> as lilies.
> 
>    After she heard Luke's message on the Good Sheppard, she felt like she
> had just been at a revival. She couldn't have been held back from that
> Church by a 20 foot high fence with bob wire as long as that young preacher
> was there and God was drawing her heart strings. The result was that after
> an evening of prayer and supplication she woke up with the resolve to try to
> serve that body of believers with the gifts that the Lord had provided to
> her, an eye for dirt, hands for cleaning and a Spirit of a mother's mother.
> 
>    Luke couldn't think of a reason that this elderly woman couldn't serve
> in the capacity she was requesting. He didn't want to undermine any
> protocols by having her become a volunteer though, so he, not wanting to
> extinguish her zeal by putting her off for longer than was needed, said, "I
> am going to take a minute and give a call to one of the elders to run it
> past him and I will give you an answer. I will be right back."
> 
>    As Luke left the foyer to make the call Nadine's head started
> mechanically swiveling back and forth taking in the contents of the room
> like she had built in radar that was programmed to detect dirt and clutter.
> Walking over to the book shelf she wiped a bony finger across the edge of
> the top shelf and a thick layer of dust covered her pointer finger. The look
> on her face became one of determination and battle. Next she walked over to
> the cluttered desk in the corner and sat her purse on a chare against the
> wall.
> 
>    When Luke returned to tell her that it would be a go ahead he had to
> clear his throat to get her attention. She was so intent on whipping and
> wiping down the bookshelf, dust a flying, and thunderous denunciations
> spewing from her mouth against every particle of dirt, she didn't even
> notice Luke standing there. As soon as she heard him she popped her head up,
> but her hands kept moving right along, determined to slay the dust.
> 
>    Before Luke even spoke she said, "I told you that the Lord sent me here,
> so you don't even have to tell me that I can stay, I all ready know." Her
> statement was so matter of fact that Luke couldn't help but to chuckle at
> her bold bluntness, faith and character. She didn't even wait for a response
> from him; she just returned back to the battle and by the looks of things,
> the tied was definitely in her favor. Luke almost felt bad for any dirt that
> might happen to cross Nadine's path.
> 
>    Ben had been the one to give the thumbs up to Luke about Nadine. When
> Luke called him and told Ben the situation, Ben was elated. It had been
> years since anyone had asked to volunteer at the church. Even as Ben gave
> his consent there was an almost unspoken understanding that there would be
> disapproval from Ed. Even though his name was not mentioned, to Ben Ed was
> beginning to seem like a gargoyle looming in the shadows when it came to the
> church.
> 
>    Nadine didn't leave until 5:30 that evening. By the end of the day she
> had conquered much of the foyer, made her way through all the bathrooms and
> started in on the Kitchen. She left no waist basket unturned and no scrap of
> paper untouched.
> 
> When she stepped into the kitchen, an Oder smacked her in the face like a
> wet moldy box with a dead dog in it, causing her to stop dead in her tracks.
> Her super natural since of smell came alive as she stood still in the middle
> of the kitchen and then started sniffing back and forth to find the
> disreputable sent that was assaulting her nose. Slowly and methodically
> making a grid pattern around the kitchen to cover the whole room, she
> eventually  stopped in front of the stove. She was like a bird dog on the
> trail, her nose went straight to the oven door, gave an extra sniff or two
> to be sure, and then without a doubt she knew that the stove was the
> culprit. 
> 
>    She squared herself off in front of the stove like a gun fighter in the
> old west. Standing with her little legs wide apart, her hand lunged forward
> with lightning speed and she yanked the oven door open. "Good Lord have
> mercy!" Her large keen owl eyes bulged out of disbelief, and then they
> narrowed and her lips pulled back, showing her coffee stained dentures as
> she took in the site of numerous filthy pans that had been conveniently
> shoved in the oven without being washed, or even rinsed out. She had to slam
> the oven shut as quickly as she had opened it, for one the sight and smell
> were too offensive to her senses and secondly, flies were actually coming
> out of the oven as she stood there.
> 
>    She was completely and thoroughly incensed with the scandalous spectacle
> sitting before her, looking ponderous, rude and all together mocking. Her
> chin jutted out towards the stove, she crossed her arms and set her face
> towards the appliance determent to whip it like a cow sneaking into the corn
> field on her granddaddies old farm.
> 
> 
> 
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