Survivors, Dave Mckay [reading comprehension books .txt] 📗

a row," Martin explained. "That way, they hardly notice we're there."

The next day, Sunday, the Jesans met up with Rayford at Ruislip Country Park, for their official rest day. Rayford joined in with a group run, an informal Bible study, and a barbecue lunch, which Francisco prepared.

"Would I have to quit my job to be a true Christian?" he asked while they were eating at one of the park's few picnic tables.

"Vat you haff to do is to obey Sheesus," said Reinhard.

"But you just told me that he says to give up everything, and spend my time working for him!" Rayford was referring to their study of the fourteenth chapter of Luke's gospel.

"So do vat he said," Reinhard answered. "But don't yust do it because ve said so."

"But what about my family?"

"Vat about dem?" Reinhard asked quietly, raising his eyebrows as he often did to emphasise a point.

"I can't just leave them."

"So bring zem vit you."

"You know I can't do that. Chloe's trapped in Chicago, and I don't even know where Irene and Raymie are. They could be dead for all I know." Reinhard was not ignorant of this, for the Jesans had taken time to hear Rayford's story as well as to tell their own. But he wanted Rayford to see for himself how helpless he really was.

Once again Francisco's enthusiasm raced ahead of Reinhard's slower approach. "See? You're holding onto something you haven't even got!" he said. "Let go! When you do, then God will show you what to do. But you can't even think about that until you forsake them first."

Reinhard secretly signalled for Francisco to back off, leaving the group in an awkward silence for some time. They ate without speaking while Rayford engaged in a far bigger debate within his own mind. His argument was not with these relative strangers. His argument was with his Creator.

If God is real, he reasoned to himself, then God has the right to ask people to leave their families, their jobs, and their possessions to prove their faith in him. It must have been a decision like that which had freed Reinhard, Francisco, and Martin to do what they were doing now. They would never grow in numbers if others like himself did not make a similar decision. Rayford could see that talk of faith in Jesus that ignored his rules for his followers was not faith at all. But what was he going to do about it?

Circumstances had already taken his home and his family. All that remained was his job. Yet the job was his lifeline to his family, and his hope of getting another home one day.

"Please God," he prayed. "I can't just desert Chloe. She's counting on me."

"God knows vat is best for you," Reinhard said finally, as though reading Rayford's mind. "It is safer to take him too seriously zan to treat his vords too lightly."

Rayford was starting to sweat. He was standing at God's eternal crossroads and he knew it. He continued to pray secretly. "Help me, God. I don't want to do something stupid. There's too much at stake. What about Chloe?"

Again Reinhard spoke as though reading his mind. "Ve don't have zee control vat ve sink ve have," he said. "In a minute God can take avay. And in a minute he can give back. If you vant his best, zen you must let go! Let God say vat is best for you, and for zuh people vat you love."

Rayford Strait's analytical mind quickly weighed up the truth in what Reinhard was saying. He had told the Canadian authorities all that he knew about his family's whereabouts. Apart from that, he was powerless anyway. The real issues were the status and respect, the money, and the freedom to travel between England and Canada that his job represented. A lot to forsake, but still nothing if it was really what God wanted. The events of the past few days had moved him profoundly... caused him to see just how fleeting life really is, and how transient are our greatest dreams. If he said "no" to God now, he felt certain that he would be saying no to any hope he ever had of eternal life. Rayford had been shown the truth of his spiritual condition by these men, in a way that he had never seen it before. Now he had to act on it.

Through all that had happened since the bombings, Rayford had not cried once. Perhaps it was denial, or perhaps it was just his total concentration on the matters at hand. But tears began to form in his eyes now, as the truth of God's role in his life came home to him. He searched for the courage to do what his conscience told him he must do.

His thoughts turned to the options he had for quitting his job. Should he give notice? Should he just fail to turn up? He realised then that he had, in fact, made up his mind to do it… to forsake all for God. It was just a question of how... and when.

 

Rayford lifted his head and smiled broadly as the first tear overflowed and ran down one cheek. His companions picked up the meaning of the tear, and especially the smile that went with it. Francisco, who was sitting opposite Rayford, jumped to his feet and reached out to shake his hand. The handshake quickly turned into a hug. Martin and Reinhard waited their turn to welcome him with an embrace and a few quiet tears of their own.

Rayford phoned work on Monday, to give notice. He was told that the British Army would not allow him to leave his job. It would be months before the airlines could return to normal routings, but for now every pilot and every plane was being used to maximum capacity in the evacuation.

The four men discussed the situation and agreed that Rayford's state was that of a slave… at least for the moment. He had resolved to quit his job for God, and yet circumstances had given it right back to him. He would wait until he was allowed to quit, and he would use his position in the meantime to continue to seek help for his family. While in London, he would stay with his spiritual brothers and help them get their literature out on the streets.

Over the next few weeks, in the midst of their concern for American suffering, Pan-Con staff also took note of a change in Rayford Strait. Rayford Strait had got religion, and had joined up with some Jesus freaks. His involvement in volunteer emergency services in Toronto was reasonable enough, but in London, he would be met at the airport by the strange young men in the Daf van and return in it a few days later, in time for his next flight out. His usual social contacts had ceased, and there was word that he was living on the streets and begging from the public.

 

 

Zion Ben-Jonah Writes

G.K. Chesterton once said, "It is not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting. It is just that people knew it would be difficult, and so they never tried it."

The problem in the church world today is that so few people have been willing to try the simple (yet infinitely challenging) rules that Jesus laid down for his followers. We have so many religious leaders prepared to tell us what we want to hear, that we do not take time to listen to the Master himself. If the true definition of a 'Christian' is a follower of Jesus Christ, then it can hardly be said that the church is Christian, despite its generally recognised authority on religious matters.

Take time to study the fourteenth chapter of Luke, verses 25 to 35. It may be that Jesus never meant for us to take those verses literally. But it may also be that he did. So much hangs in the balance that it behooves us to pray deeply and seriously before we dismiss the implications of those verses.

When it comes to belief in a miracle of the magnitude that eternal life represents, you can be sure that we will not be able to cheat on the rules and still be able to actually experience it.

One day soon God will be asking you to lay down your life for him. Is it too much for you to give him your family, your job, and your wealth if he is asking for that now?

 

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7. Refugees

 

Despite overwhelming tiredness, and several stops for nausea, Irene Strait made good time on her drive north from where she had left the other pilgrims in North Dakota. She drove straight through the night, arriving at the border just before noon on Saturday.

Canadian authorities were taking details from refugees as they crossed into the country, and directing them to appropriate holding camps. Tom, Betty, and their grandchildren were deemed to be in greater need of medical attention than were Irene and Raymie, so they were put on a bus and taken to Regina, where they could be given better care.

Cross-country travel was being restricted throughout Canada. Irene was totally broke, and her pleas for official help in getting to Toronto were turned down. Toronto, according to the authorities, had more than it could handle already. Irene and Raymie were, however, taken to a holding camp on the highway between Regina and Winnipeg. (They had to abandon the Lincoln at the border.) The camp was one of many being set up on farmland all over southern Canada.

Irene and Raymie would have to wait there until the situation eased in Toronto, or until they could get airlifted directly out of Saskatchewan. They were both losing hair and suffering from dehydration from so much vomiting, but they were not as sick as some others in the camp.

The refugee camp consisted of thousands of twelve foot by twelve foot tents, housing eight people apiece. Every four tents had one porta-potty and a small portable shower between them. Buckets inside the tents were used when the queues were too long at the toilets, or when the weather was bad. The farmland where the camp had been set up was a quagmire from recent rains and from so much pedestrian traffic.

Refugees were told to stay inside the tents to minimise further contact with fallout. Food, water, and medication for nausea, diarrhoea, and infections were brought around twice a day by untrained volunteers. Only the worst cases were referred to the understaffed medical centre on the perimeter of the camp. Two doctors supervised a small team of nurses there. Life at the camp was rough, but it was rumoured that conditions there were better than they were at many other camps.

Pan-Continental Airlines was notified by the authorities about Irene and Raymie's location and condition, and Pan-Con passed the word on to Rayford. The family had little choice but to wait on official clearance for a reunion.

For the time being, Irene and Raymie took comfort in the fact that they had safe food and water, and a tent with bunks, in which to sleep and rest, and hope. There was no way for Rayford to contact them directly, and only the most urgent outgoing calls were allowed at the camp.

Any other time, Raymie might have been whining about the conditions. They were worse than any jail in North America. But for the first two weeks he was too sick to do much more than groan as he tossed on his bunk. Only when his strength began to return did he start to complain, and even then, it was nothing compared to his old self. Irene sat pretty heavily on his complaints, reminding him again and again of how lucky they were to be alive. But Raymie was genuinely trying to break old habits too. It was like his spirit had simply been waiting for Irene to get the courage to exercise authority over it. Of, course