Kingdom Come - The Final Victory (19 page)

Chloe Steele Williams pulled a sheet from the file folder and handed it to Ekaterina Risto, watching carefully for a response. The young woman squinted and seemed to be reading quickly. She appeared unable to speak.

“You know we’re fair here,” Chloe said. “I would like your side of this.”

“I . . . I, uh . . . don’t know what to say. Either I’m going crazy or one of us is a liar.”

“Mattie Cleveland is one of our best supervisors, Miss Risto.”

“Oh, I know! I love her! But this says she has talked with me about these problems. Problems I didn’t even know I had. I don’t remember her talking with me about them at all. In fact, we haven’t talked, except for normal chitchat while working, for days.”

“Now, Ekaterina. These are summaries of your discussions. About your being tardy, taking too long of breaks, leaving early, being hard to find when team chores are scheduled, sitting with Kenny at the Noah appearance without permission, disagreeing with her in front of the staff.”

“Is it possible for me to talk with her personally?”

“Face your accuser, you mean?”

“I guess.”

“But it appears you two have talked quite a bit, and your behavior has not changed.”

Ekaterina stood and paced. “I’m not trying to be defensive,” she said. “And the Lord knows I’m not perfect. But I’m telling you, I’m not guilty of any of this. Even the sitting with Kenny.”

“I saw you two sitting together.”

“Yes! With Mattie’s permission. I cleared it with her first, made sure she didn’t need me to watch any children.”

“Hmm.”

“So can I meet with her, with you present?”

“I guess. Sure.” Chloe had Mattie summoned. “She’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“I am to speak on Jesus’ behalf,” Abdullah said. “Say what He would say if He encountered these people.”

“But the Bible foretells how Jesus will deal with His enemies at the end of the Millennium,” Yasmine said. “There will be no mercy, no patience. There will not even be a battle, though the enemy will plan an attack.”

Abdullah opened his hands. “All I know is what He is telling me. I go to them, tell them that I am a chaplain available to them on behalf of the Ruler of this world. I am to tell them not to fear me, that I mean them no harm. I am to speak on behalf of Jesus, and I am to make myself available to them for their spiritual needs—any questions, counseling, teaching, or whatever else they want.”

“They will laugh you out of their headquarters, wherever it is. They might even attack you.”

“Oh, that is another thing. I am free to warn them about that. I am to say that because I come under the authority of the Son of God, woe to those who would oppose me.”

When Yasmine stood to clear the table, Abdullah assisted. “My biggest fear,” she said, “would be their ignoring you.”

“I am hard to ignore.”

“How well I know.”

“I am to ask them for an office.”

“A Christian chaplain’s area within their offices?”

He nodded. “And if they turn me down, I am to set up a table and a chair right outside the entrance.”

“For what purpose?”

“To be available to them when they are coming or going—especially, I suppose, when they are recruiting. Potential recruits will have to get past the chaplain before they can be enlisted.”

“I say this with all due respect, Abdullah, but are you sure you haven’t lost your mind?”

Chloe had long loved Mattie Cleveland. She was tall with short sandy hair and laughing eyes. She had been raptured and returned at the Glorious Appearing, immediately gravitating toward children. She was efficient and thorough, and because of her background in all kinds of sports, she was loved by the kids who engaged in her recreation department activities. She had worked with Cameron and Chloe at
COT
for well over ninety years.

“Hey, Chloe,” she said as she entered. And as soon as she noticed Ekaterina, she said, “Kat! How’s my favorite new aide? Why the long face?”

“Your report,” Ekaterina said as the three sat.

“Report?”

Chloe handed it to her. Mattie read it with a furrowed brow, then glanced up at Chloe. “Where’d you get this?”

“It was in my box at the end of the day yesterday.”

“Forged.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Wholly made up. I’ve never seen it, didn’t write it, never had these conversations with Kat. Don’t know a thing about it. She sat with Kenny with my permission, and as for the rest of it, totally fabricated. I’ve been watching this one from the first day to make sure she’s not too good to be true. I couldn’t ask for a better worker.”

Chloe sat studying both women. “Then why does she want to be transferred out of your area?”

“Oh!” Ekaterina said. “I haven’t mentioned that to Mattie yet.”

“Sorry,” Chloe said, “but I need this to add up and make sense, and right now, it’s doing neither.”

“You’re wanting to leave me, Kat?” Mattie said. “Whatever for?”

Ekaterina told her.

“I wish you’d said something, hon. I think I can make it work right where you are. I need someone to take the ball and run with it, so to speak, on the spiritual side. It bothers me too that the kids come to us only to play and that they’re largely getting their spiritual input elsewhere. What if I put you in charge of that, took you off sports duty, and you were free to roam and talk with kids who look like they have questions or needs?”

“I’d love that, but how does that address the Qasim issue?”

“I noticed he was on your case a lot, but I couldn’t tell whether you found it annoying or charming, so I left it alone. He bothers you, I’ll put him in his place. How’s that?”

Ekaterina shrugged. “Sounds great to me, but don’t you agree we still have a major problem?”

“We sure do,” Chloe said. “Whoever pulled this prank—and there’s no way they thought they could get away with it; I mean, how long did they think it would take me to check with you, Mattie?—either has a very poor sense of humor, or they’re not even a believer. Unless someone gets to me very quickly and admits this was some sort of a joke that didn’t work, I have to take it at face value. It’s a lie, it defames someone, and it evidences someone who is not showing the love of Christ.

“Well, you let me worry about that. Meanwhile, if you like the role Mattie has outlined for you, how about you stay put and do it?”

Rayford and his team were seeing a spiritual harvest in Osaze that had not been seen there in aeons. Everywhere they went, Rayford led the others in planting and building and developing technology. And when Tsion and Chaim and Bruce preached, hundreds of thousands of people turned back to the Lord and young people became believers.

The preachers pulled no punches. They warned that God would again strike their land if they chose to ignore him. But they also thrilled the masses with the promises of the Lord.

Tsion Ben-Judah was holding forth one cool evening, telling a crowd of thousands, “Thus says the Lord of Hosts: ‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me
,
when you search for Me with all your heart.

“ ’For behold, He who forms mountains, and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is
,
who treads the high places of the earth—the Lord God of hosts is His name.

“ ’You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, for He will abundantly pardon.’

“Now hear these words of the Most High God: ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

“ ’For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper.’ ”

That evening had seen a particularly successful meeting, and Rayford noticed that the team was anything but settled enough to sleep. “Shall we camp out tonight? enjoy a meal over an open fire?”

Everyone agreed, and Irene and Bruce’s wife made the assignments. Everyone had something to do, from gathering kindling to erecting a tarpaulin shelter from the blazing moon to helping prepare the meal. They sang and prayed and chatted into the night as they ate.

Finally Tsion said, “Rayford, do you realize where we are?”

“I do, old friend. We’re not far from where you came through on your flight from Israel so many years ago. Tell the story. I don’t believe Mac and Bruce or the ladies have heard it.”

“Okay with you, Chaim?” Tsion said. “You’ve heard it a million times. You could tell it yourself.”

“No, please. It always warms my heart.”

“Well, okay. I had made my position clear on international television from Jerusalem that I, a rabbinical scholar, had come to the conclusion that all the prophecies of the Bible that pertained to the coming Messiah were fulfilled in the man Jesus. You can imagine the outcry. My family was slaughtered, and I was chased from the country.

“Cameron helped me escape by driving me across the Negev, not far from this very point, in an ancient bus. We had many dangerous and close calls, and we were pursued all the way. Once, the Lord allowed me to escape detection because nature called just when the security guards were boarding the bus and would have surely found me. But the most dramatic incident happened at a checkpoint where I had no time to exit the bus before the authorities checked it out. Cameron was inside their post, trying to stall them, but I missed the opportunity to slip out. All I could do when I heard footsteps was crawl under a seat and pray. There was no way they would forget to look under the seats and equally no possibility I would not be seen, unless the Lord blinded their eyes.

“As I huddled there, trembling, wondering if it would be the end for me, I could see a flashlight beam darting here and there through the windows. Then a single pair of footsteps boarding the bus. I knew it was not Cameron, as he would have identified himself.

“When the feet came down the aisle, I could see that the man was wearing uniform pants and shoes. Suddenly he knelt and shined the beam right into my eyes. And God did not blind him. He dropped to his elbows and knees, and keeping the flashlight in my face with one hand, he reached with the other to grab my shirt. He pulled me close to him, and I thought my heart would burst. I imagined myself dragged into the building, a trophy for a young officer.

“He whispered hoarsely to me through clenched teeth in Hebrew, ‘You had better be who I think you are, or you are a dead man.’ What could I do? There was no more hiding, no hope in pretending I wasn’t there. I said to him, ‘Young man, my name is Tsion Ben-Judah.’

“Still holding my shirt in his fist and with his flashlight blinding me, he said, ‘Rabbi Ben-Judah, my name is Anis. Pray as you have never prayed before that my report will be believed. And now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine upon you and give you peace.’ As God is my witness, the young man stood and walked out of the bus. I lay there praising God with my tears until Cameron reboarded and drove away.”

Tsion, wiping away tears, as were the others, added, “He didn’t know what had happened, whether I had been arrested or even killed, until the lights of the border crossing disappeared behind us and he pulled off the road and said, ‘Tsion, are you on this bus? Come out now, wherever you are.’ Why, I could barely find my voice, I was so overcome. I said, ‘I am here. Praise the Lord God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.’

“The strange thing was, I never found out whether the young Anis was an angel or a man, but I know he was sent from God.”

Chaim said, “I suspect that he was otherworldly, because much later I saw him outside the Garden Tomb—the same young man. Could it have been coincidence that he was assigned twice where our paths would intersect?”

“It was no accident,” came a new voice, causing Rayford and the others to jerk around. Standing just outside their shelter, the moon illuminating him and the fire dancing on his cheeks, was a man in silhouette. “I was your rear guard that night,” he said, “just as I am on this mission.”

And with that his image faded, and Rayford and the others fell on their faces, praising and thanking God.

AT
THE
END
of the next day, Chloe asked to see Kenny and Ekaterina in her office.

Bahira, Abdullah’s daughter, was with them. “I’ve just met Kenny’s Kat,” she said. “And I approve.”

Ekaterina looked shocked, and Kenny said, “Bahira! First off, she’s not
mine
. And second, there’s nothing to approve.”

“Thank you, Kenny,” Kat said.

“You’re welcome,” Bahira said, winking at Chloe.

“Sit, everyone, please,” Chloe said. “Ekaterina, how goes your new role?”

“We’re still trying to figure out how it’s going to work, and a certain someone seems very jealous that I seem to have my own agenda, but Mattie is keeping him away from me, as promised.”

“Qasim?” Bahira said, rolling her eyes.

“You know, Bahira,” Chloe said, “it’s actually good that you’re here for this, because this is an awkward meeting. Back before the millennial kingdom, had Kenny’s father and I not gone to heaven, I can imagine having a meeting like this, probably when Kenny reached junior high school or so. I hear all sorts of gossip and talk and who said what about whose boyfriend or girlfriend, and it strikes me that it’s so juvenile for such a time as this. Scripture says that you all are to be considered children until you reach age one hundred, but because you’re twice as old now as my parents were when I died . . . I don’t know; I guess I expect you to be more mature.”