Saturday

Orphans


We now have six more mouths to feed. The orphan's have joined us. The youngest is 6 and the oldest is 16. They all have been saved, except the youngest, and we do not see them as a liability but as an asset. The 2 oldest ones are already in training with David and Jonathan. They are being taught how to use and hunt with a sling shot and a bow. They are learning what plants can and can not be eaten. They are fast learners and with God's blessings our food quantities may increase. They certainly have a lot of energy. Because of this I have named the oldest Cushi and the next to oldest Ahimaaz. These were the two young men who were runners that came to David with news about the death of Absalom. The younger four, two girls and two boys, help around the camp and Rebekah and Jael are teaching them in a makeshift school. The kids think school is a waste of time seeing that the Lord will soon be coming. Jael assured them that they need to know how to read and write if they are going to be able to understand the Book that is never going to go away. Cushi's sister is one of the girls and Ahimaaz's sister is the other. The two younger boys are brothers. All three sets of these children's parents died as a result of earthquakes. Cushi took them in and kept them together. He has a good heart and treats the others with great tenderness. It was Ahimaaz who first befriended Jael. These children still have nightmares and often awaken us in the night crying. Some of them lost not only their parents but grandparents, other siblings, and many friends. Some of their parents were “M's” and others were not. We console them as best we can and tell them to keep watching the sky for Jesus is coming soon and will make all things better.
The locust have begun to die out. Their five months is over. They have caused great misery on the earth. The “M's” will be so glad when they realize they are gone. Isaac's “M” detector has died but he has not released it yet. Isaac says, “Moses kept a sample of the manna so I'm gonna keep this one just for a reminder.” Sam and Noah are no longer wearing their “bee suits.” They believe the Bible and are convinced that now that the five months is over they are safe. They just have not yet professed Jesus as Savior. We plead with them gently but they still put it off. “The Seven vials of the wrath of God are just as real and certain as the Six Seals and the Seven Trumpets” Pastor told them, “The only way to escape what's coming is to be saved now.”
All around the world, everywhere that there is a fault line, earthquakes are happening every single day. New cinder cones are popping up almost over night along these fault lines. There have been thousands of these pop up in our State alone. Places where we never dreamed there was a fault line now have a row of cinder cones. There are two of these near us, one to our northeast and one to our south. Looks like the sixth trumpet has sounded and we are praying extra long and hard for those who are lost. The Lord will be coming for us soon!

"M" Detector


The locust, though tormenting the “M's”, continue to bring us peace. This should last another two months or so. No one has been snooping around our area looking for us. Our kids have also had some relief from their persecutions. They have been offline for a while but are back up now. They have suffered much more than we have during this past year so the locust have been a welcomed relief for them. The locust have made the “S's” to really stand out. You can tell an “S” from a mile away. They are the ones who do not fear the locust.
We have not had a lot to eat lately but we are getting by. Noah has taken to cooking for Barzallai. He is enjoying her cooking and Sam, her new husband, tags along. Two or three days a week they eat supper with him and he loves their company. We have enjoyed the spring weather and the fresh vegetables we have both grown and harvested from the wild. David and Jonathan have been used of God to keep us from starving and by adding a lot of water to the pot one small animal can make enough stew to feed thirteen hungry mouths. Sam brings us flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, dried beans and such when he can. The chickens have been laying eggs providing us with just short of a dozen a day. Our days are fairly routine. We eat breakfast, then have Bible study and prayer. We do our morning chores, cleaning, gathering wood, hunting, mending, and then we gather together for lunch. After lunch we read from the Bible and pray together. In the evening we watch the news through the window and then return to sit in a circle in the tee-pee and discuss what is going on in the world and what is about to happen.
The sixth trumpet is about to sound, according to our Pastor. He says this will kill 1/3 of the population of the earth. There will be an army numbering 200 million which will kill men with fire, smoke and brimstone. These sound like volcanoes but there are not 200 million of these on the earth. It causes us to invoke our favorite saying, “We will understand it better by and by.”
Jael usually goes to town by herself but since she has taken such a liking to Noah and Sam she goes with them to the edge of town where they go their separate ways. Trigger carries the ladies while Sam leads the way. Jael has been looking for those who have not become “M's” as yet. She speaks boldly to them almost like Pastor does. She tells them plainly they need to be saved. A few weeks back she befriended a young boy. She would see him every time she went to town. He was eventually saved and with the locust around you can tell quickly if someone has faith or not. As soon as he was saved he started chasing locust. He is an orphan living with a small gang of orphans who have been hiding from the authorities and refusing to take the Mark. They shoplift and break into houses to steal food and clothing. I think it was Jael's stern motherly image that caused this orphan to seek her out every time she came to town coupled with the fact that she too refused the Mark. We are praying that the Lord will help Jael and this young convert influence the rest of the orphans so that they will be saved also. When that happens she will bring Pastor to them and, if he agrees, they will join our number. They range in age from 6 to 16.
Isaac is amazing in his ability to find the humorous side of things. He caught one of the locust and put it in a jar and calls it his “M” detector. “Those that would join us,” he says, “must pass the “M” detector test.” When someone says something out of line or shows any ignorance of the scriptures Isaac reaches for the “M” detector and waves it over them. “Just checking,” he says.
People are amazing in that they have learned to adjust to the bad things that are plaguing the world. It seems that in just a few weeks life with the locust is the norm. They just adapt, do what they must, and keep going. They still carry on with their lives, business as usual. It is as if they say goodbye to their old life and accept the new. There was a backyard wedding that we passed on our way through town. They had spread a huge net over the yard to keep the locust out and it looked like they were having a great time. We see this a lot where humans are trapped indoors like animals in cages at a zoo and the locust are the visitors. People being dressed in bee suits does not seem strange to anyone. They still go shopping and sightseeing but dress as if they were astronauts on a strange new planet. It is quite a sight. If you want to blend in you must dress the same way when you go to town.
Sam and Noah are very close to being saved. They have been a bit distracted lately with the difficulty finding work and the wedding. I am not sure why they put it off. We do not hassle them about being saved though Jael is very vocal with them at times. They are kind of like Agrippa in the Bible, “almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” They were not raised as Christians and all of this is still new to them.