JESUS IS the Bridge Ministries

Chapter Sixteen

I knew Charlie and Robbie; I assumed the young woman was Robbie’s wife, Libby. Miriam immediately ran to Charlie, and they embraced. Robbie came to me, hand outstretched. His other hand held firmly to the young woman, who followed behind. After we shook hands, he stepped to the side and urged the woman forward.

“This is my wife, Libby, Brother Henry, the only sweetheart I’ve ever had.”

She reached a shy hand toward me, with a hesitant smile. I took it in my own, and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

“Welcome, Sister. We have all heard so much about you from Robbie. He’s a special young man, and I know he wouldn’t care for you so much unless you were special, too.”

Robbie smiled at this, along with his wife, but his face turned serious at once.

“Things have gotten pretty bad for us, Brother Henry. Someone found out we were Christians, and reported us to the Security Police. They were actually on their way to the camp to arrest us when my mother warned us. She told me to get out of her face, said she never wanted to see any of us again. She did save our lives, though, and I don’t think God has given up on her yet. I know I haven’t, and neither have Charlie or Libby.

“We came to you because we have no other place to go, and I don’t think there could be a better one. Do you have room for three more? We’ll sleep on the ground if we have to.”

I reached out and gripped his hand again. “We couldn’t turn you away, and I think we can find a better place for you to rest your head. Let’s all go back inside for a few minutes.”

We had an impromptu family council. There was no opposition to the idea of bringing three more people into the fold. We talked about moving some of the young people out to the barn, but Robbie and Charlie wouldn’t hear of it. They insisted that they would sleep there until something else could be arranged.

The Lord’s hedge of protection around us still held, they assured us. Neither the outlaws nor the Security Police dared come close to the home place or to the church. They said the places were haunted, and many of them described a paralyzing fear that came over them whenever they approached either. Not even helicopters or planes would fly over.

They told us that the rest of the world around us was getting steadily worse. People were huddled together in towns or in tent cities like the one near Beckley. The countryside was all but deserted except for outlaw bands; they were running short on victims. In order to assure some sort of food supply, the local governments had started garden areas watched over by armed guards. Meat was hard to come by unless you wanted to hunt; the countryside was overrun with deer and rabbits.

Our own food supply was a source of concern. While there was plenty of game, there was always the chance of running into police or outlaws when we were looking for deer. Our original stock of corn and beans, the staples, was dwindling. The canned goods were all but gone. Now that we had three more mouths to feed, we would find ourselves going hungry even sooner.

We had a special prayer meeting about the situation at the house that evening. The Lord gave a word to Homer, who would have been the last one I would have expected. He spoke up right in the middle of the prayer meeting, while we were sitting in a prayer circle, heads bowed.

“The Lord says to remember Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. The food supplies he has given us will never be depleted as long as we continue to live in this place. When our time here is at an end, the food supply will cease as well.”

That was all it took. For a while, the supplies continued to shrink. When they reached the point of only a few day’s rations, though, they remained the same every day after that. Every day when the children went out to bring corn and beans for the day’s meals, they reported that we still had the same amount left as the day before. It became a ritual for them, and for the rest of us. When more people joined us later, we still had just enough food for a few days.

There are only a limited number of ways you can prepare corn and beans. We had cornbread, corn pone, corn pudding, corn casserole, and roasted corn. We had boiled beans, baked beans, fried beans, and refried beans. There was a store of sugar and spices in the house, and these had the same longevity as the corn and beans. That made for more variety than we could have otherwise expected, and the addition of meat from time to time made it bearable.

We didn’t eat meat every day, but we weren’t starved for it either. It wasn’t unusual for deer or rabbits to come wandering onto the property; Lady always let us know they were there. Not many of them made it out alive. We only sent hunting parties out after prayer, and they were well-armed. With the addition of Charlie and Robbie to our group, our young men felt a lot more confident in dealing with whatever they encountered. They actually spotted Security Police a few times, but the patrols went on by without being the wiser.

Life settled into a new routine for a few weeks after that eventful Sunday. I grew more confident in leading services. They weren’t as emotional as the first one, but we still felt strengthened and blessed when we left the church. We had a daily devotional time, too, and a weekly Bible study.

I was more than a little concerned for our children and teenagers. They were growing up in a world full of dangers but lacking in opportunities. The teenagers, particularly, must feel isolated. At just the point when they were aware of their sexuality, the only members of the opposite sex they saw were siblings and cousins. I remembered too well my own experiences with a cousin, and I kept a close eye on them to see if there were signs of trouble. Miriam dismissed my concerns, and assured me that all of them were Christians.

I wasn’t so sure, though. Randy, in particular, concerned me. He was seventeen, and had known girls at school before he had been forced to stop attending. I caught him staring at his cousin Missy on more than one occasion. She knew he was watching her, and didn’t seem to mind. I had thought her experience with Hector would have been enough to teach her the dangers of lust, but I couldn’t see it had helped.

One afternoon, they both disappeared for a few hours. I had no doubt what had happened. Miriam told me not to jump to conclusions, but I could tell she was concerned, too. Betty and Missy’s parents agreed with me, and we convinced my sister something would have to be done when they returned. Missy came back first, trying very hard to look innocent. Randy followed fifteen minutes later, a sheepish grin on his face. Betty, Miriam and I took them out to the barn.

For the first few minutes, they vehemently protested their innocence. When they saw we weren’t buying their story, they turned defiant. Missy took the lead.

“What did you expect? We’re here cooped up, all day every day. We have no friends, and no life. All of you have had your chance at sex, and you all have someone to share your lives with. We have no one. Anyway, we didn’t actually have sex. There’s no way I’m going to get pregnant.”

I had been through all of that before. More than the other two, I understood what it was like to want the company of the opposite sex, even if the company was a relative.

“Listen, you two, “I said. “I’ve been through this. When I was twelve years old, my cousin Sara, Homer’s older sister, seduced me. We had sex together for months, and I saw nothing wrong with it. The whole experience makes me feel sick inside now; it ruined my life for the next forty years and more. Sara introduced me to Ellen, and I never forgave her for that.

“Look, forget that part of it. You won’t realize any of that until it’s too late to do anything about it. Right now, you just don’t care. Let me ask both of you one question: Are you born-again Christians?”

They both nodded, but Missy protested, “God will forgive us. He always forgives our sins.”

Miriam answered this time. “Presumptuous sin is very dangerous, Missy. There may come a point when God removes his hand from your life, and gives you over to lust. Didn’t your experience with Hector show you just how ugly lust can be? And it isn’t just yourself you’re putting at risk; it’s all of us. We continue to live here in peace and safety only because God has placed a hedge around us. Remember what happened to the people of Israel after the battle of Jericho? Just one man sinned by taking things he wasn’t supposed to have, and that one act of disobedience almost destroyed Israel. There was sin in the camp; do you want to be the source of some disaster for this family as well?”

Missy shook her head numbly, and put her face in her hands, weeping. Randy squirmed, looking around for a place to hide and finding none. Miriam went to comfort Missy, as she had done for a different reason a few weeks before. I sat with Randy, saying nothing.

In the end, both of them promised to restrain their lust. They prayed together for forgiveness, then all five us had a time of prayer. Homer and Lydia took Missy in hand after we left the barn. We never had problems with either of them again, and none of the others tried to follow in their footsteps.

Betty and I continued to grow in our relationship, and in mutual love and respect. We continued to clean the church together, and spent as much time alone as we possibly could. At the same time, Miriam and Charlie were inseparable. They slept in different places, and there was never any question of consummating their relationship outside of marriage. Beyond that, though, you rarely saw one of them without seeing the other. Charlie did have guard duty, though, and he went out with Randy every evening to patrol the borders of the property.

Robbie became the son I never had. When I wasn’t with Betty, I was with him. We worked together around the farm, cutting brush and mending fences. We went hunting together, and even rigged up some fish poles that we took to the pond. We didn’t catch a lot of fish, but we did enjoy just sitting together on the bank, talking.

He had never known anything else but his life as an outlaw until the time George found him. “My father left Mama before I was even born. She started out as a cook for a band of outlaws, and fought her way up to the top. She’s as tough as any two of our men. Things got tough for her down river, where she started. Our group moved into this area, and chased out the outlaws that were already here. I was born after we moved here, and I grew up in our camp. As tough as my mother is, she was always sweet and loving with me. I knew all about the Camps; we fought with you all for years. I never dreamed I would be joining up with one day.”

“I’m glad you did, Robbie. Since you never had a father, I’ll fill in, if that’s okay with you.”

He grinned, and threw a mock punch at me. “I can’t think of a better one, even if we do come in different flavors.”

He was referring to the color of his skin. I was something I never even thought about; I lived and worked and partied with Blacks in Beckley for forty years.

I wondered often what had happened to my brother and sister. Clint and I lost touch with each other after he got married, and I had never even met my sister Missy. Miriam and I talked about going to Beckley to check on our family, including cousin Carol, but it was just too dangerous. We needed to find a preacher, too, but there was surely one closer to us. If there was one in Fayette County, he was well-hidden; most pastors had long since given up, or had been imprisoned and killed. We didn’t know of any in Beckley, either, but Carol might.

All of that changed one damp evening. Charlie and Randy were on guard duty, according to our usual schedule. We were sitting on the front porch talking, again following our routine. As darkness fell, we saw a flashlight come bobbing down the hill toward us. That could only mean trouble of some kind; neither of the guards was due back for hours yet.

As the light approached, we could make out Charlie’s figure. There were two people with him, one of them a child. Miriam and I both got up at the same time, and went to meet them. Betty followed right behind.

It didn’t take along to recognize our visitors, one of them anyway.

“Carol? Is that you? What on earth—what happened?”

She ran to her cousin, and the two of them embraced like long-lost sisters. That’s about what they were; when they were younger, they were best buddies.

I could see Carol was crying when I stepped forward to greet her as well. She reached for the child before I had a chance, and said, “This is Jenny, my bundle of joy. This is your Aunt Miriam I’ve always talked about, and this is—Henry, is that you? Praise God! George told me about you.”

She brushed the tears away from her eyes, and gave me a tight hug, too. When we broke away, she said a quick hello to Betty, and immediately began weeping once more.

“It’s Stan. They’ve arrested him.”

“Arrested him?” Miriam asked. “For what?”

“That’s right—you don’t know. How could you. Stan’s a Christian now, thanks to George. He can walk again, too. We both started attending a church George helped before he left Beckley. We lost our pastor, and our church just ordained Stan as a pastor last week. The Security Police have been doing sweeps looking for Christians for months, and they picked Stan up last night. He wasn’t the only one, either; your brother Clint just started attending our church after he rededicated his life to Christ. They got him, too. Jenny and I were out on soul-winning visitation when they got him, or we would have been arrested to. It was only God’s grace that we made it out of Beckley, and all the way up here. Jenny was the brave one; I was frightened, and what we saw in the countryside only made things worse.

“Prisoners don’t stay prisoners very long in Beckley. We don’t have much time. Will you help?”

Chapter 17