The Main Duties of God’s Church

⁶ So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:6-8

The question that Jesus’ disciples ask is very interesting, given everything that they have gone through.  Jesus’ answer to the question is even more interesting, since Jesus does not attempt to explain anything in relation to the His disciples’ intention and motivation or even understanding of the meaning of the Kingdom of Israel.  If we look at the disciples’ question, it certainly gives an indication that their understanding about the Kingdom of God that is at the center of Jesus’ ministry has not changed from what is commonly held by the Jews.  They are still stuck with the understanding of the earthly kingdom, just like other kingdoms on the face of the earth.  They are still living in the past.  Their imagination is fixed on the glory of the days of David and Solomon.  They have not grasped the concept of the heavenly Kingdom of God inaugurated by Jesus.  So they ask whether Jesus will at that time restore the kingdom of Israel to its former glory.

And Jesus does not bother to explain about it either.  He, sort of, cuts off their train of thought with the first part of His answer.  His answer is full of authority, and no one dares to debate Him.  With the first part of the answer Jesus is firmly saying: “It is not your business, period.”  Then Jesus proceeds to uncover what it is they are supposed to do, which is their real business.

Now, let us pause there for a moment and imagine that we are Jesus’ disciples at that time.  We have lived with Jesus for about 3 years up until His death on the cross.  We have witnessed all the miraculous acts Jesus did in those 3 years.  And more importantly, we have heard His teaching with our own ears and have been instructed in the true way of God by the Messiah, the Son of God Himself.  Our emotions have been a roller coaster ride, especially the last five weeks or so.  Seeing the death of the great person that they have been following wholeheartedly is devastating.  All hopes are dashed.  But then three days later He rose from the dead, just like what He told them.  And in these 40 days they have been seeing the resurrected Jesus with their own eyes.  Not only seeing, but also touching, talking, and even eating together.  This is not an illusion.  Nothing like this has ever happened before.  And so, right in front of them, this Jesus, the same Jesus they knew was dead on the cross, now standing before them alive and so majestic, glorious and powerful.  All hopes are up again.

Are you with me?  This is what I think they are thinking.  For the disciples, this resurrected Jesus is like a superpower Messiah that can do anything He wants.  So mighty that nothing can win against Him.  Aha, this is it!  This must be the right time for Jesus to do it!  He brings us all here on this mountain in order to witness Him flicking His fingers and the kingdom of Israel is going to be restored right there and then magically.  The Romans will be destroyed and Israel will once more be on top of the world.  Oh what a glorious day it is today!  So, the disciples have this urge to confirm their creative imagination of the magical event of kingdom restoration: “Is now the time?  Is now the time to restore the kingdom of Israel?”  They then ask Jesus: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  Brothers and sisters, they could not be more wrong.  Yes, they fail again.  They do not see things according to God’s perspective, but they insist on their own perspective.  John Calvin commented about the disciples: “how bad scholars they were under so good a Master.^[1]  Therefore, Jesus must put a massive break on that train of thought: “It is none of your business!”

Just like us, we too often fail again and again.  We often fail to see things according to God’s perspective; thus we insist on our own imagination and desire rather than persisting on obeying the Lord.  We too often fail to restrain ourselves from desiring to peek into the unrevealed mysteries, in which God has preserved solely for Himself unless it is revealed according to His own purpose.  With focusing too much on the things we are not authorized to know, we then fail to be effective in the things we ought to know and do.  We often ignore Deuteronomy 29:29 that warns:

²⁹ “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Do you know that from time to time many Christians are always trying to interpret the “prophetic” materials in the book of Revelation according to the events of the world they live in at the time.  For example, many have attempted to interpret who the antichrist or the beast of the Revelation 13 is.  During World War 2, some claimed that the antichrist was Adolf Hitler.  Others said that the beast of Revelation 13 was Josef Stalin of the Soviet.  And many other names were picked up to match the imagination of the antichrist or the beast of Revelation 13.  They picked up Hitler or Stalin because they experienced and heard and saw how horrible their acts were.  Through them tens of millions of people died and the world was in utter chaos.  But, then history proved that they were not the antichrist.  A new era unfolds, a new name is picked up to match the imagination of the beast of Revelation 13.  2000 years ago, Emperor Nero was thought to be the antichrist due to his cruelty toward Christians.  Surely such thought was proven wrong.  Christians have wasted their time trying to figure out things that God has not disclosed.

The other trouble is more devastating because Christians have failed to see things according to God’s perspective.  This trouble is actually more subtle and often goes undetected.  For example: many in the church today are so adamant about getting more people attend worship services, or crusades, or seminars.  They believe so strongly that numbers is the indicator of success.  Thus if ministry’s success is to be measured, the numbers of people attending is the indicator.  Say a worship service is attended by 20,000 people, then the worship service is considered to be more successful than a worship service that is attended by a mere 70 people.  So a church with 50,000 members is considered to be more successful than a church with merely 100 members.  Based on this logic, many churches are racing to gain more members, to increase worship service attendants, or to get more people coming to their church and ministry.  What do churches do in order to increase numbers?  By doing church according to business marketing strategy.  In other words, by giving in to the market demand.  If the market demands prosperity gospel, then the church gives prosperity gospel to the people.  If the market demands LGBT to be approved by church as non-sin, then the church will give LGBT approved as non-sin.  You see where this is going?  The teaching of the church no longer follows the words of God, but instead it follows the market.  Do you remember what Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3-4?

³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

The reason I say this is devastating is that when the modern business strategy is used as standard, then what such church is doing is not wrong.  Rather it is considered smart and wise.  Because such marketing strategy is proven to be “successful” in which those churches successfully attract many people because they are happy to hear the message that they like.  These churches grow from 100 members to tens of thousands of members in such a short time.  Their budget has increased from USD 10,000 to USD 10 million.  Business-wise, such increase in numbers is considered a success.  But unfortunately, that is not always an indicator of success in the eyes of the Lord.

In John 6, Jesus’ followers were reduced super drastically from around 20,000 to a mere twelve.  But Jesus was not worried.  In John 6:67 He said: “⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?””  Jesus is never worried about numbers, about how big His ministry budget is, or about how many people like Him or follow Him.  But today’s church is often worried so much about numbers, money or membership or attendance, that they no longer see things according to God’s perspective, and therefore getting busy on things that God does not approve, to the detriment of the important duties that God has charged His church to do.  The disciples worry about the restoration of the earthly kingdom of Israel that they have lost sight of the teachings and vision of the Lord Jesus that they have experienced for three some years.

            In that critical moment, Jesus puts a stop to their wild imagination and unauthorized push for the earthly glory.  This is God’s marvelous grace for the disciples and for all who would believe in Him after.  People who think that God is like a watchmaker who does not care about the world immediately after the creation are completely ignorant of the fact that God cares even for the tiniest detail.  Here we witness that Jesus cares so much that He has to intervene and redirect the disciples’ minds into the things that are really substantial.  So, what Jesus does to misguided thoughts is twofold: 1) He shuts down the false conception, and 2) He leads the fragile minds into what is true and right.  Jesus shuts down the false conception by saying firmly and authoritatively to the disciples: ““It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”  And He leads them into the truth by telling them: “⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

            With the leadership of Jesus, the disciples are brought back to the right path.  They are like these ignorant sheep who wander around following their simple impulses and super limited vision.  So Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has to bring them back to the right trek.  And so they are.  Their focus ought to be on becoming His witnesses.  This is the main task.  In the world that rejects who Jesus is, what He is doing, and His message, the disciples main duty is to channel this most important information that carries the consequence of life and death into the world.  Not an easy task in any era.  And that is why Jesus prologues His redirection by assuring and promising them that they will receive the heavenly power from the Holy Spirit.  This assurance and promise thus eliminate any excuse that might come up as they face challenges and difficulties.

            Now, I do not have time to retrace the origin of the three main duties of God’s church as elaborated wonderfully in the Book of Acts, but I will plainly tell you of the big three that all theologians of all ages have agreed for God’s church to have:1) Marturia or To Witness, 2) Koinonia or To Have Fellowship, and 3) Diakonia or To Serve/Minister.  Koinonia and Diakonia are part of Marturia.  Suffice to say at this time that you can look at Acts 2-7 in order to find the development of Marturia to include Koinonia and Diakonia.  Thus when Jesus gives the disciples this main duty to become His witnesses (Marturia) in all the world, such duty does not stop at merely proclaiming His message of the Kingdom of God and Its Truth, but it extends into all believers fellowshipping together in the name of Christ Jesus and for God’s church to minister to all who are in need.

            Jesus’ assurance and promise are fulfilled as Jesus sends the Holy Spirit ten days after He ascends to heaven, Acts 2:1-41 tells all about it.  Peter and all the other disciples become so bold in becoming Jesus’ witnesses to the world.  Pay attention here, that the Holy Spirit in their hearts gives them the courage and wisdom they need to witness for Jesus Christ.  They open their mouth even when the possibility of death is very high given the fact that only 50 days ago the citizens of Jerusalem shouted “Crucify Jesus” in unison as they were thirsty for blood.  Peter speaks so boldly that the message pierces the people’s hearts.  And many repent that day as Acts 2:41 testifies:

⁴¹ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Do not focus on the large numbers.  But focus on the repentance.  The fact that they repent by the mere proclamation of the apostles is stunning.  This phenomenon shows that the Holy Spirit is working.  The work of the Holy Spirit is not only in the preaching of the apostles, but also in the hearts of those who hear the words of God.  In John 16:8-11 Jesus says:

⁸ And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; ¹⁰ concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; ¹¹ concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

The Holy Spirit, working in their hearts through the words God has given to the apostles to preach, convicts the audience that day of their sin, which results in their remorse as written in Acts 2:37:

³⁷ Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

And Peter, in vv. 38-39 responds to such remorse saying:

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

And right after their baptism, they gather together every day fellowshipping by devoting “themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (v. 42).

            Now, this fellowship is important that they now are to learn the way of Christ.  And in turn they will also witness for Jesus Christ.  Without this fellowship, in which they can learn the truth and the way of life in Christ, they cannot witness for Jesus Christ.  I hope by now you can catch the importance of having fellowship.  Now, the right Koinonia consists of the true teaching of Jesus Christ.  For Jesus has charged His disciples right before He ascends to heaven: “²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:20a).  Jesus’ command includes also the Baptism and the Lord’s supper.  This is what the church should focus on, not on how to get more members or how to increase attendance.  The church growth in numbers must occur naturally through real repentance just like what happens in Acts 2.  Unnatural increase in numbers just because a church is successful in implementing a business marketing strategy that manipulates people’s desires is a recipe for disaster.  Focus on the true Koinonia, then the new converts will be trained in the way of Christ, so they will live according to God’s will and naturally witness (Marturia) for Christ.  This then will naturally increase the numbers of the believers.

            The third main duty can be found in Acts 6 as the need to minister to those in need begins to surface.  Without going into the details, I shall tell you that the apostles make a decision to appoint deacons in order to handle this duty.  Seven are chosen to be deacons that day.  And the result is written in Acts 6:7:

⁷ And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Again, do not fix your eyes upon the numbers, because you can easily lose the vision of Christ that way.  But it is true that because of the church handles the duty of Diakonia very well, many more people believe.  Rodney Stark did an extensive research into the history and sociology of the explosive growth of Christianity in the first to third century in his book “The Rise of Christianity.”  Stark found a stunning evidence that the Christians act of kindness result in many people persuaded to believe in Christ.  Christians’ Diakonia at that time was expressed by taking care of those who were neglected by even their own families.  It was a historical fact that 2000 years ago, plagues ran rampant because of the terrible living conditions in the cities.  Plus there were many earthquakes happening in that region, which caused many to suffer.  At that time medical technology is not as advanced as today, so a lot died because of diseases, especially of contagious diseases.  So when someone got sick, especially if diagnosed with a contagious disease, the would be abandoned in the street.  To these abandoned people Christians ministered (Diakonia).  And God blessed this Diakonia.  Many were healed through the care of the Christians.  Once they got back on their feet, they became believers for they were truly touched by the Christian witness that was powerfully demonstrated in truly caring for them even when their own family did not want to.  For this reason, we should never abandon Diakonia.  Through Diakonia God blesses the church, so that the proclamation of His message can touch the hearts of those in dire need of physical help, thus witnessing (Marturia) for Christ is augmented many times over.

            Brothers and sisters, Marturia, Koinonia, and Diakonia are the three pillars of the church, in which through them we truly witness for Christ Jesus our Lord.  The Holy Spirit has been given to us all, individually and collectively as God’s church.  There are no excuses.  Do not focus on things that are not for us to know or do.  Do not follow the way of the world.  Today, many churches have fallen into the world’s trap and thus lead many people astray, and worse, they then obscure the image of Christianity.  God will judge those who lead His people astray.  But you, be witnesses of Jesus Christ in all that you do, wherever you are, whenever it is, however the situation is, according to the true teachings of Christ.

This is a huge theme to cover in one sermon.  It is impossible actually to talk comprehensively about this theme in one sitting.  But hopefully this sermon would touch your heart and open your mind of the reality of God’s church and its main duties in this world.  Marturia, Koinonia, Diakonia are our duties to do as God’s church.  Do not neglect it!  Be vigilant!  Be diligent!  Amen!

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^[1] John Calvin and Henry Beveridge, Commentary upon the Acts of the Apostles, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 43.

The Journey Home

 The Journey Home | 

 

            She was already fed up with her family. They all pestered her like pestering her was the only thing that mattered in their lives. Now, you must be wondering who ‘she’ is.

            She was 13, her name was Pamella. She was a middle child. Easily ignored. She had 2 younger sisters who were twins named Lala and Lola, both 8 months old. Her third sister, Jenny, was 19. Her younger brother, Colton, was 5, going to 6 the next month. He was still cranky and acting like a baby. Rudolf, her second brother, was 18 and he tried to boss everyone around, even his older sister. He especially liked bossing around Pamella, just because he wanted to. Truth was, Pamella didn’t do anything wrong. But everyone in the family wronged her. Her best friend always did her best to defend her, but it didn’t work. It never did. Pamella’s siblings always won against her best friend, Niessa. Her parents only came home at night and never knew what happened at night. And when they did come home, before the poor 13 year old Pamella could say anything, her siblings pelted her parents with false information about the event, getting Pamella into trouble.

            Well, that was life, until Pamella really couldn’t take it anymore. 

            “Colton!” she yelled at her 5 year old brother, dropping (note this: not slamming) his toy onto the soft pillow that was on the floor. “I never joined the pillow fight! I told you fifteen minutes ago! FIFTEEN! I told you stop, you kept bugging me, just go and do something e-” There he went. He opened his mouth, screamed out his lungs (and burst her ears, probably) and called Pamella’s oldest sister.

            “JENNYYYYYY! SISSY THREW MY TOY OUT THE WINDOW! SH-” he began, screaming with all his might, throwing his own toy out the window. Pamella turned around with her hand out, trying to grab the toy. Jenny entered. Of course, she didn’t see Pamella’s failed heroic act. All she saw was her sister’s hand reaching out, which looked like she was ‘throwing’ her brother’s toy out the window. Grrreat. She couldn’t argue. She knew it. But she still argued (typical teenager).

            Before Jenny could say anything, Pamella yelled, “I didn’t do anything!” and marched out the door. That was the last straw for her. Then she bumped into the cradle. She nearly cursed aloud, but caught her tongue. 

            It’s almost mommy-and-daddy-come-home time, and I’ve already been blamed for everything 8 times, yelled at 20 billion times and slapped by an annoying brother 80 trillion times and now you are about to actually do something bad. No. I would rather stay innocent rather than actually be wrong, Pamella thought to herself, closing her mouth. She held her breath as the twin baby girls started to cry. She stood frozen, for moving suddenly or scramming would scare the girls. She didn’t even think of rocking the babies to sleep. Then she saw two people at the window, tall and straight, male and female. Great. Pamella’s parents were coming. Or more like her tormentors were coming. Just then, to make matters worse, big brother Rudolf was here. As handsome and slim as he was, he was purely made of mean on the inside. She groaned as he started to yell. 

            Make that yelled at 20 billion and one, she thought to herself. Think about it. Stuck between your cranky, technically baby brother named Colton, a sister named Jenny who doesn’t know anything, and two crybabies (Lala and Lola) and an accusing brother, Rudolf, the worst trouble maker. And parents who believed all the false information they were given. Whoopee.

            The doorknob twisted and the door was opened. Pamella lightly (lightly) pushed Rudolf, only sending him a millimeter (cut that in half) away. She put her index finger to her mouth and went to the door, ready to announce her brief decision.

            Before her parents could even open their mouths to make a sound, Pamella announced, “I’m leaving, period. Goodbye.” Then she sprinted upstairs, brushing past her handsomely rude brother, blasting through her bedroom door and grabbed her bag. She looked around her room. It was so empty. A closet with two sets of clothes in it and one pair of shoes (and slippers). She had a desk with a lamp that flickered every few milliseconds. Useless lamp. She preferred candles. There was a journal on the desk with a few quills there as well. She shut the ink bottle tight and stuffed it in her bag, grabbing her quills and notebook as well. She snatched her boots and stuffed them on, grabbing her two sets of clothes afterwards. Her bag was full of her things in only 2 minutes. Exactly when her older brother came in.

            “P, what are you do-” he began, but before he finished his sentence, Pamella was already out the door, down the stairs, and in front of her parents. She stared at her dumbfounded family for less than a second and then brushed past her parents, leaving the front door.

            “Bye,” she said briefly, marching down the road. She heard the confused shouts from her parents. Her siblings didn’t say anything, except for her brother Rudolf yelling insults at her. For once, he was shushed by his mom. Pamella felt slightly guilty for not thanking her mother for that, but she just couldn’t think of that. She was fed up, hurt, misunderstood, disliked, all the words that you could think of that hurt you. Now she was alone. But that was better than being around an accusing family that loved getting you into trouble.

            As soon as she was out of view and couldn’t see her house at all, she slumped down on a rock. She opened her bag and took out an apple. It was her only store of food. But she had run out of the house enough times to know where to get food. But she’d have to go vegetarian. And caveman. She would probably take breaks in trees, in the forest (scary) in caves (scarier, possibly) and hopefully find some things she could sell, like fruits. Or something. Maybe she’d stop by a friend’s house, even though she didn’t know where any of her friends’ (change that to friend) houses were. But she knew where Niessa usually liked to hang out at. The town fountain. But it was quite far. Wasn’t anywhere near close. So Pamella would still have to take a little nap somewhere in the forest. Perhaps she could run, then sleep early, maybe at 8, since in summer it wasn’t dark at that time, then wake up at 5:45, still kinda dark. Hopefully she remembered how to make a fire. She wanted to travel in more daylight hours, because, to be honest, she was rather scared of the dark. And the animals that lurked in it. Not like there would be any zombies. But she would have to pass through the forest to get to town. That was creepy. Bugs, insects, animals, predators… she’d have to sleep in a place with all those things. But if she didn’t alarm the animals (hopefully), they wouldn’t hurt her.

            After finishing her apple and burying the core in the ground (“Will it grow?” she wondered), Pamella got up, dusted herself off, secured her bag on her back, and went on her way, straight into the forest. 

            Should’ve eaten the apple while going into the forest, she thought to herself grumpily, eyeing the sun nervously, though it was nothing close to setting (yet). She marched into the forest. At first, there weren't that many trees. But as she got deeper, the number of trees quickly grew, covering the sky. There was barely any sunlight visible, and it worried the teenager. Maybe she wasn’t used to being alone. Then again, she never actually said (to herself) that she was brave alone…. Right?

 

            It got really unnerving as the forest got darker. As if it wasn’t dark enough, with all those trees. Pamella peeked at her compass. Then she peeked at her wrist sundial. Of course, there was no sun to show her what time it was. Was it afternoon? If she rested in the afternoon (which was why she wanted to check her clock; she wanted to know whether it was time to sleep or not), she would wake up in the middle of the night, totally not the time she would want to wake up at. But Pamella, despite her uncertainty about the time, decided it was better to set up camp (change that to ‘set up tree’) and take a rest. It was better to be cautious rather than get eaten by a possible bear, or get ‘stinked’ by a skunk. She climbed up a tree. It had a lot of branches, so it gave Pamella more footholds to put her foot on it, making it easier to climb. To make it even better, the branches were low. She scanned the branch, looking for any possible pests that might crawl on her at night. She also made sure there were no other animals that could climb nearby, and strained her brain trying to remember (from history class with her best friend) if there were any animals in the forest that lived up trees. Then again, this forest was in the territory of humans, and wasn’t entirely wild. So some animals, like leopards and other weren’t there; it was too close to human territory. (“Not entirely. Still part wild,” Pamella mumbled, flicking away a fly.)

            Pamella made herself at home, if she could feel at home in a tree, and tried to get comfy (I doubt she was able to, though). Then she closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

 

Probably Not | Ch. 1

            The lone teenager awoke with the sun shining directly in her face. There were holes in some leaves of the trees. Some of them didn’t have holes, but they were shoved to the side so perfectly that it allowed the sun to shine in Pamella’s face. What a wonderful way to wake up!

            Pamella groaned, using her hand to block the light. She almost fell off the tree. She panicked, pulling her hand down on the tree trunk she was sitting on, allowing her to regain balance. Again, a wonderful way to wake up! Her heart beat rapidly until her body knew it was safe, though her mind already knew that.

            “Ugh! Why did they have to pick on me? Why didn’t they just pick on someone else? I never did anything wrong!” Pamella complained to nobody, scaring off some animals, like squirrels and birds. Then she shut her mouth, wondering if any feisty animals had heard her. Thankfully, nothing had heard her (or at least, nothing bad had). She scolded herself silently, trudging on through the forest. 

            The forest got brighter as the sun got higher. A light breeze blew through the forest, causing the branches on the trees to sway back and forth, allowing light to come in. Pamella could hardly even show her delight when the sun showed up because she was still sulking about her family.

            I hope they’re sorry they’d ever accused me. But they’re probably just chillaxing without me. They probably love it without me, because I’m the ‘troublemaker.’ Even if I don’t do anything. But soon they’re gonna be crying like babies, cause nobody is cleaning up the house for them, she thought to herself grumpily, allowing her emotions to bury her in anger and bitterness. For some reason that is understandable, accusing and being mad at her family made her feel better. 

            After what seemed like hours of walking, the young teenager saw the cloud filled sky outside through a gap in the trees. Before she saw that, she was tired, exhausted. But now, she was filled with energy and determination because of the thought of finally escaping the forest (and getting farther from her family).

            Pamella burst out of the forest, leaves clinging to her clothes. She turned off her flashlight and stuffed her flashlight into her pocket.

            Running down the path to the town, the runaway girl scanned the area, trying to find her friend’s house. Niessa told her that she lived in a house a little out of the town, a little speck on the hillside. But Pamella couldn’t spot it. Maybe she was too tired to see anything clearly. It happened sometimes. It happened more when she was mad, blinded by her anger, literally. Or maybe it was behind the town. Or maybe she miss-remembered what her friend, Niessa, had said.

            After a few minutes of running, panting, and a little bit of tripping topped with desperation of escaping from an unjust family, Pamella arrived at the town. But she didn’t stop running until she was in the middle of the small town, at the fountain. She immediately stopped running and plunged her hand into the fountain, scooping water onto her face. She felt much cooler after washing her face in the water of the fountain.

            Then, a girl approached her, glasses glimmering in the sunlight. Pamella looked up at her. She half grinned.

            “Hi,” Pamella said quietly, scooping another handful of water onto her face. Niessa grinned back, patting her dress. Her dress was black, and she was wearing a black cloth on her head. The 13 year old stared at her friend curiously.

            “Why are you dressed so formally?” she asked, looking at Niessa, who was holding the book with the cross. “Did you go to the… thing?” She nodded.

            “It’s church, by the way,” she corrected, pulling the head covering off her head. Then she settled herself on the side of the fountain. Pamella sat next to her.

            “What are you doing, so far away from home?” Niessa asked. “You don’t have any… chores?” Pamella scowled, looking away from her friend.

            “It’s only past the woods, that freaking house,” she grumbled. Her friend seemed stunned.

            “Did you… run away?” Pamella frowned.

            “What else do you think I did? I can’t live there and I won’t!”

            There was a long pause.

            “But… you should… you know…” Niessa hesitated. It was like she didn’t exactly know what to say without hurting Pamella’s feelings. She knew how much Pamella hated her family, and the struggles she went through. She knew that she always got punished for nothing at all, and that she was fed up with her life. But-

            “But what?” demanded Pamella. She looked so tired of her life, mad at everything. She felt betrayed. Why was her friend trying to convince her to return to the very place she had always longed to escape? She thought Niessa understood. Understood that she was sick of her life in that crazy house of misunderstanding family. She thought that Niessa would help her escape from her miserable life on the hill-house, perhaps even invite her into her own, adopt her, and be sisters, and not just best buddies. But no. Apparently not.

            “I am NOT going back, Niessa! I thought you would help me!” Pamella cried, tears welling up in her eyes. She didn’t care if she was hurting her only friend. She was hurt herself anyways, because of her friend. Best friend. Or ex-friend. She knew that she shouldn’t be reacting like this. But she didn’t care. Didn’t care at all.

            “Pamella… I didn’t mean that. It’s just that, without your parents, you wouldn’t be alive, nobody would feed you, you would have no home, no one would even give b-” Niessa didn’t finish her sentence. In fact, as soon as Niessa mentioned ‘parents’, Pamella was running out the town, tears streaming down her face. Of course, her best friend wouldn’t leave her, so she ran up to her.

            “You could stay at my house for a while-” she began, trying to help her best friend. Suddenly she felt guilty for saying anything at all to Pamella. Things would’ve ended better if she had just said, “Come over to my house, Pam!” But no. She had try to convince her to do something she didn’t want to do.

            “A while?!” Pamella shouted, practically screaming. 

            “Rephrase, a long ti-”

            “Probably not,” Pamella responded, walking away fast. She could hardly contain herself from saying something mean. Something that would hurt her friend more. Something that would make her feel even more miserable. But walking away was already making her feel miserable. From her best friend too. Add heart-broken on top of the whole situation.

 

It’s Decided | Ch. 2

            Pamella had been walking for more than an hour, and her legs and feet were starting to ache. She desperately wanted to sit down somewhere, but the next town was still quite far away. Or at least, she thought it was. She had never really gone this far from home before. She wanted the town to be right over the hill ahead of her. But she knew it wouldn’t be.

            But, just her luck, there were a few shops that had been set up on the road that she was following. That’s when she realized she didn’t even know where she was going.

            The 13 year old used the last of her energy to run to the closest stall to her; a fruit stall. Then she opened her bag, yanked out her water bottle, opened it, and chugged down its contents. She was sooo thirsty. And hungry. Did she have any money?

            A boy walked up next to her, holding a small bag of money. He turned his head to the lady selling fruits at the stall Pamella was at.

            “Apple please?” he asked, laying some coins on the table in front of the lady. The lady nodded her old head, pulling open a box of at least thirty ripe, red apples, fresh from the apple tree which was literally right next to her. Then she gave one of the red apples to the boy.

            “Here you go, young lad,” the lady asked, her voice cracking with age. The boy glanced at Pamella.

            “Want one?” he offered, holding the apple in his hand, showing it to the hungry teenager. She couldn’t resist. She nodded guiltily.

            “Make it two, ma’am,” the boy said to the fruit seller, placing more money on the table. She placed another apple on the table, smiling at the two.

            “Young lady, what are you doing so far from home?” she asked Pamella, as the boy handed her the apple. The runaway girl hesitated.

            “Uh…” Pamella didn’t know what to say. Then the boy spoke up.

            “Lost?” he supplied, stepping closer to Pamella. But the girl couldn’t bring herself to lie.

            “No,” she said. “I kinda… I’m kinda taking a break from home. You know, sometimes you can get… rather tired… from home. It’s not that good to stay inside too much.” That was technically the truth. She just wasn’t telling the entire story of why she ran away. The boy nodded.

            “Where is the rest of your family?” he asked, taking a bite out of his apple. “I know you have one.” Pamella’s face darkened.

            “I don’t really wanna talk about it,” she said. The boy and the lady seemed surprised, but they didn’t press her any further.

            Switching topic, Pamella said, “Thanks for the apple, by the way. I really appreciate it.” The boy nodded as Pamella took a bite from her apple. “What’s your name?”

            “Jason,” the boy said, taking another mouthful of apple. “I’m 13. Well, I’m going to turn 13 tomorrow.” Pamella nodded. 

            “My name’s Pamella Quintet,” the teenage girl said. “I turned 13 last month. Where’s your family?” The boy didn’t reply. The shop owner, the old lady, spoke up.

            “He lost his family five years ago,” she explained, totally surprising Pamella. She’d forgotten that the old lady was there. “He’s been lingering around here since.” The 13 year old nodded slowly, staring into the boy’s eyes. She tried to find sadness somewhere in his eyes. But she just couldn’t. She guessed that he was already good at hiding his feelings. Or maybe he wasn’t even sad. So far, he’d been pretty casual. She thought about herself.

            I don’t think I’d ever feel sad, though, she thought.

            “You must like it, not being fussed around by family,” Pamella said, bitterly thinking about her parents. “They just tell you to do this and that, boss you around, and blame everything on you. You’re lucky.” The senior lady seemed shocked.

            “But who takes care of you at home?” the shop owner asked, looking very surprised. “Who feeds you?” Pamella snorted.

            “Myself,” she said loudly. “They don’t even take care of me. They don’t even treat me like their kid. They just think I’m their maid, cleaning up the house and getting punished for everything they did.” The boy seemed stunned.

            “The families I’ve met are all caring and making sure you’re all safe, snug and fed,” he said, putting his hands in his pockets. The teenage girl snorted again, this time quieter.

            “Sounds like my parents,” she said sarcastically. “They really love me and looooove to make sure that I’m cared for.” The boy and the lady grew a little quiet. But then the lady spoke up again.

            “Well, who gave birth to you?” Pamella didn’t stop there. She was nothing close to speechless. 

            Nothing they say will make me change my opinion of my family, she thought confidently.           

            “Oh, just a couple that made the wrong decision giving birth to their shoved-away kid. They probably would be better off without me, the entire lot of them. Or perhaps it’d be better if I was born into Niessa’s family. I would be much better off that way,” she said. The lady didn’t stop talking either, though.

            “But you should be thankful that at least you are alive and well, with existing family-” The old woman didn’t finish her sentence.

            “Existing family that think that they don’t need me!” Pamella burst out. “And I don’t think they DO need me! And most of all, I don’t need THEM.” There was a long, thunderous silence.

            “Sorry, I didn’t know.” Jason was speaking. “I just thought that all families were really nice and took care of you well and all. But I guess that’s not true for everyone.” He said this in a soft, understanding tone. Even though Pamella was still doubtful that parents always took care of you, and that a lot of families were nice, she quieted down, trying her best (not really) to understand.

            “Sorry for the outburst,” Pamella apologized, trying her best to look sorry, though she wasn’t entirely sorry. She still felt offended that nobody understood how she felt. “I just felt like you didn’t understand me. But then again, you will never be able to understand fully; because you don’t have my family. And also, you don’t… uh… have a family. No offense though. I’m just confessing my feelings.” That was probably the most she had ever said in one go all day. Jason nodded. He seemed to understand. Thankfully, he wasn’t offended. Or was he? Pamella didn’t actually know.

            “I’m looking for a place to stay. Do you know a place?” the 13 year old asked the boy, eyeing the mountain in a distance. The boy thought for a moment.

            “If you are looking for a place to stay, you can stay right here, in the marketplace. They always have room in one of their sheds somewhere. It’s where I stay too,” he said. Pamella hesitated.

            “No, I mean…” She didn’t know how to say it. “I’m not going back. I’m looking for a place to live. Preferably forever.” The old lady at the stall was very surprised.

            “But child, you are too young to be out in the world, alone!” she cried, concern creeping into her voice. “You do not even know how to live by yourself!” Pamella did her best to respond respectfully.

            “Ma’am,” she responded, “I’ve been living alone for half my life. I have made my own food, made my own bed, made my own ink and quill, done all my own laundry, sewed my clothes, fixed everything in that stinking house… I think that I’m ready. Ready to live alone and I don’t think I will ever want  to go back to my… family. Or more like my torture.” 

            “I… suppose I understand,” the senior woman said, not looking very understanding. Pamella could see how worried the woman was about her idea of living alone. Pamella knew that she’d have to work and make her own house, but if she could get away from her parents, she would do it. She was pretty sure she wasn’t going back. Besides, what would change her mind?

            “I could stay here for the night though. And perhaps a few more days. Then, perhaps, I could learn more ways to live on my own, since you guys are more experienced than me,” Pamella said, trying to make the old lady more… satisfied… with her choice or leaving home forever.

            “We could do that,” the lady conceded. “You may stay in my shed if you want. But later, where will you go?” Pamella hesitated. She glanced at the mountain nearby.

            “Perhaps I could live around the mountain right over there,” the teenager suggested, pointing towards the mountain that was up the path she was randomly following. “It seems like a nice place. Perhaps a more quiet place compared to the old junkhouse I left behind.” Jason seemed surprised at all the names she thought up for her house.

            What next? Jason thought.

            “Since you might need help making a house, do you want me to come with you?” The thought literally leaped out of the boy’s mouth. He was just thinking about that thought, and suddenly he said it. Immediately he regretted what he had said.

            I don’t even know how to build a house! He fretted. Pamella seemed surprised at his suggestion. Jason hoped he wouldn’t like the idea, but the girl didn’t really see it as a bad idea. It would be nice to bring a strong guy along on the journey. Plus, it’s not that fun being alone. It was just gonna be rather strange being with a guy.

            “Uh… sure,” Pamella said, suddenly thinking about her brother, Rudolf.

            What if he’s actually not kind? What if he’s just pretending? That could be why he’s so good at concealing his emotions. Pamella glanced at Jason’s face. I take that back. Jason looked pretty worried about his decision. He actually didn’t look like he wanted to do what he’d just said.

            Going out with a girl! Jason cried out in his mind, stressing out. Of course, he didn’t mean it in the dating way; it was just that he’d never gone somewhere, for example to the mountain, with a girl. With a boy, yes, once, with a girl? Oh boy, he was nervous. He was afraid that Pamella Quintet might have gotten the wrong idea of HIS idea. Dear, oh dear.

            “You okay?” Pamella asked, looking at Jason. Jason glanced around to see if the old shop owner was there. But it seemed like she’d left. No one else seemed to be listening either. He decided to confess his feelings to her.

            “I’ve never gone on a trip with a girl before,” he whispered into her ear. Pamella didn’t seem to get it.

            “It’s no big deal,” she said simply. Jason was internally screaming. Then he thought about what she said.

            It isn’t a big deal, he thought, Why am I making it such a big deal and why am I freaking out? 

            “I guess,” Jason said. “I don’t know why I reacted like that.” Pamella just laughed. Jason laughed too. 

            “So then, it’s decided.” The boy glanced at Pamella confused. 

            “What’s decided?” he asked.

            “We’re going up the mountain trail to get to the mountain, of course. Together,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But first I want to eat something more than an apple. I’ve been walking and running and tripping for hours without eating, so perhaps we could start the journey with a proper meal and real advice for mountain hiking… and living-on-your-own-advice too.”

            “I agree,” Jason said, not knowing anything of what he was getting himself into. He’d had many an adventure with other people, always with boys, but girls? This was gonna be strange for him. But why it was going to be strange or why he was making such a big deal out of it, he had no clue.

 

We Are All Different | Ch. 3

            “I have no idea how to set up a tent,” Pamella stated, and that was quite true. Anything she tried to make that was supposed to be a tent ended up looking like pudding, jiggling everywhere. She groaned.

            “I can’t do anything,” she whined, “All I can do is make this floppy piece of junk.”  Jason wasn’t too sure that was all she could do.

            “Well, it’s not all that you can do,” he said, trying to encourage his friend, but it obviously wasn’t working. “You can do other stuff too.” Another groan from Pamella, supplemented with exasperation.

            “I didn’t mean literally, you-” She didn’t finish her sentence. She just rolled her eyes, then smiled. “I didn’t mean literally, Jason.” He nodded, grinning.

            “I know,” he said. “I… just often blurt things out.” Pamella giggled.

            “But seriously,” she said, “I can’t build this thing. You need to teach me.” She dragged the ‘pudding tent’ over to Jason, then dropped it. She put her hands on her hips, turning her eyes to Jason. The boy stooped down, looking at the mess of cotton canvas and sticks. He shook his head, chuckling.

            “I have to admit, you really don’t know how to make a tent,” Jason admitted. Then he paused as Pamella nodded slowly, a flat look plastered to her face. Her mouth went in a straight line. “No offense.” She grinned.

            “No offense taken.” They grinned at each other for a second too long, got awkward, and looked away from each other. Then Jason tapped her shoulder, then pulled her down.

            “So this is how you build a tent…”

 

            It took quite a while for Pamella to finally get the hang of making a tent. But she managed to at least set up a tent. Maybe it wasn’t that strong, but it was fine.

            “Well,” she said finally after finishing her tent, “that’s that. All done.” She dusted her hands off. Jason nodded with approval.

            “Looks… decent,” he complimented. “For first timers, at least.” Pamella giggled.

            “With help, of course.”

            “Well,” Jason smiled, “we are ALL different. We aren’t as good at things as each other.” 

            “I guess,” the teenage girl said, shrugging. “It’s rather… true.” She paused. “We’re really different, aren’t we?” she said randomly. The boy seemed surprised at her sudden question.

            “I-I-I guess,” he stammered, not quite sure what to say. “I mean, you have family, and I don’t. You’re a girl, I’m a boy. You have long hair, I have short hair…” Pamella shrugged.

            “How do you imagine parents to be like?” Jason thought for quite a while.  

            “Well, I guess I imagine them as caring, kind, worried for their kids, polite, strict to some extent…” Jason listed, thinking of words that could describe his imagination of parents. “I don’t know, I just imagine them kinda as your guardian.” Pamella processed that information. She realized how different they were. Like, really different.

            “Woah,” she said, “that’s totally different from how I think of parents. I think of them as a pair that just raise you then pester you. Like, once they give birth to you, teach you to walk and eat by yourself, you’re on your own. You don’t need them anymore.” The boy could hear the bitterness in her voice, mixed with long suppressed hatred and anger for her family, never shown until now. He wondered what her parents were like.

            “We are really different,” Jason admitted. “But tell me the truth, what would you think of your family if they were better behaved? Like, they loved you and all?” The word ‘love’ really got Pamella’s mind going.

            “I don’t know,” she said quietly. “I can’t imagine that. They’re just so… rude. I don’t think… I can’t… they’re just not… you know…” Jason nodded, doing his best to understand her. He couldn’t actually understand how she felt of course, because, like she had said, he wasn’t her. He would never know how she felt. Until he felt it himself.

            “Well… Just don’t bury yourself in your misery too much. Just try to think… more positive. Try to think nicely of your parents. Perhaps it might help. Don’t think of hating them so much. I don’t think that would be good for you,” he suggested, patting Pamella on her shoulder. “But in the meantime, let me teach you some more about surviving out there.” The teenage girl simply nodded her head.

 

Ready! | Ch. 4

            After quite a few days of learning and practising survival skills, Pamella was sure she was ready. She knew how to make a fire, build a decent tent, hunt a little (though she would leave that to Jason) and so on. Jason thought she was ready too. More than ready. In fact, he hadn’t even expected her to be that ready at all. He thought girls were kinda weak in a way and didn’t really do camping stuff and knit and sewed all day long. But not this girl. This girl was very different. She didn’t wear dresses like a lot of other girls he’d heard of. Even the shop ladies wore dresses.

            “I think we can start heading to the mountain,” Pamella declared confidently, throwing on her backpack. “I think that we’re ready.” 

            She sounds so confident, Jason thought to himself. Yet she uses the word ‘think’. He didn’t really know what to feel about this journey. He wasn’t sure if they were ready. How could this girl act so confident? Or perhaps he would be more confident if the person he was going to the mountain with was a girl. What was so bad about going to the mountain with a girl anyway? He couldn’t tell why he was so nervous around this brave girl no matter how hard he tried to search himself. Pamella sensed the nervousness radiating from Jason.

            “We are ready, Jason,” she stated. “We will go now. We will be fine. Everything will be okay.” 

            WOAH, Jason thought, She is SOOO confident! How?! Jason didn’t know what to say in response, so he just nodded, put on his backpack, suitcase in hand, ready to go on the journey to the mountain.

            Pamella smiled at him, then turned around, facing the mountain, and started walking. Jason waved goodbye to the shop owners. They waved back. Then he turned to face Pamella. But something about her face, despite the seemingly joyful look she had, made Jason feel like she wasn’t actually happy. Not happy about her decision in going to the mountain and living there. Like something in her was missing. He wondered if he should try talking to her about what he had in mind.

            No, Jason thought, not yet. She isn’t ready yet. Let her recover from her family. Then I can tell her. But would it be good to delay? Well, it wouldn’t be good to start too early either. She’s still… fragile. She doesn’t quite yet understand… things. Yet. I just feel it. Wait till she knows… more.

            “Are you ready?” Jason randomly said to Pamella. She grinned at him with challenge in her eyes.

            “Ready!” she exclaimed, as they made their way up the mountain trail.

 

Forever In Sorrow | Ch. 5

            They’d been walking for quite a while. It felt like the mountain was just as far as before they had left the shops. The sun was beginning to set, the sky becoming a rosy pink. Jason looked up at the sky.

            “We’ll have to set up camp soon,” he said. “It’s probably better if we set up camp before dark.” Pamella shuddered.

            “Obviously,” she muttered. Then she spoke louder. “What if predators find us? Like, a coyote could find us. Or something.” Jason laughed. He definitely noticed that she wasn’t as confident as she was before.

            “You don’t need to be so scared. Animals are more scared of us than we are of them.” Jason had no idea if he even said that right.

            Boy, English is confusing! he thought frustratedly.

            After about 30 minutes, the sky was already getting pretty dark. And the sun was setting behind the mountain which was right in front of them, casting a dark shadow. So Pamella and Jason decided to set up camp and call it a day.

            While the teenage girl handed all the tools and materials that Jason needed, the boy built the tent, holding a flashlight between his teeth so both him and the girl could see what they were doing.

            Once they were done setting up the tent, they took out the sleeping bags and placed them inside the tent. Then they settled themselves inside the tent, a lantern at their side. The night was rather cold, so the two kids snuggled in their sleeping bags close together, so that their body heat would warm the both of them. They put the lantern at their feet so then they could get as close as possible to each other.

            “How many times have you done something like this, Jason?” she asked the boy, whose eyes fluttered open.

            “Uh…” he thought, trying to remember how many times he had camped before. “Too many to count.” Pamella nodded, a smile spreading across her face.

            “Goodnight, Pamella Quintet,” Jason said, closing his eyes again, then drifted off to sleep. The girl stared at him for a while.

            “Goodnight, Jason,” she said quietly, then fell asleep as well.

 

* * *

            “Pameeeellaaaa,” a voice sang, causing the teenage girl to wake up from her sleep. She yawned. She knew the voice.

            “What is it, Jason?” she asked sleepily, eyes still closed, sitting up. Jason grinned broadly.

            “Time to wake up!” he exclaimed cheerily, standing up. “We gotta get going. The quicker the better, right?” In a jiffy, Pamella and Jason were off, up the mountain trail, breathing the fresh, cool air. 

            As they were walking, they heard a sad singing coming from the right side of the road. The song was absolutely heartbreaking. It seemed like a funeral song. Pamella wanted to see what was going on that someone would sing such a sad song.

            Listening close to the sad lament, the duo gently tilted their heads toward the noise...

                        

                        Another year has passed

                        Since the death of a son.

                        A wonderful son, who fought for us

                        In the war long ago

                        He fought, yes he did,

                        But death came his way

                        Bringing him down to the grave.

 

                        Somewhere in Heaven 

                        There’s a new angel singing.

                        His sorrows way behind him,

                        His words full of joy.

                        But down below

                        On the ground, there are tears.

 

                        Sadness! Sadness!

                        Why do you take me?

                        Sorrow! Sorrow!

                        Why d’you overwhelm me?

                        For there is a son

                        Much greater than mine

                        Who died on the cross

                        For all down below.

                        So much more he experienced

                        Such sadness he held

                        With sin laid on him

                        All our pain running through his mind.

 

                        Oh soul! 

                        Why are you so sad?

                        Why not rejoice

                        For your son is now well

                        In Heaven he sings of the LORD?

                        But no,

                        Still on the ground

                        Lays my heart,

                        Despite the joy

                        Given by the LORD,

                        Forever in sorrow.

 

Strong, But Not Strong Enough | Ch. 6

            The teenage girl shuddered.

            “W-what a s-s-sad song,” she stammered. It was mostly the tune that made her so droopy. She wasn’t really listening to the story. But she at least understood that it was about that family’s son who died in a war, and they were lamenting about that. She was amazed at the sadness in their voices. Did they make that song for their child? How could they compose such a heartbreaking tune? Was death really that sad?

            She slapped herself.

            Of course death is that sad! she scolded herself. What were you expecting?! Then another part of her mind spoke.

            Well, nobody that you knew has ever passed away. She thought for a second. But I guess that  you could be more understanding. Ugh. Now she was referring to herself as ‘you’. It proved how her brain was split into two parts.

            Jason glanced at her then looked away hastily. Maaann her face was scary. She looked really mad at herself. 

            “Uh…” he stuttered. “A-are you okayyyy???”  He didn’t know what to feel about Pamella’s expression. Thankfully, her face returned to normal as soon as she heard his voice.

            “I’m fine,” she reassured. “Nothing to be worried about.” Then suddenly she thought about her family. Her parents mostly. Did they feel that way when she left? Is that why her mother shushed Pamella’s older brother, Rudolf? Was it right for her to have left? What if her parents were heartbroken and the house in a mess, family in tatters? 

            Pamella internally slapped herself again.

            That is a severe exaggeration of the situation, she thought. Besides, why do I care? Let them be. They were the ones that made me leave the house anyway. But still she thought about the song and wondered about her family, her parents. She was their child and perhaps they still cared for her. Like, they never actually kicked her out of the house.

            Technically, they did, she thought angrily. Suddenly, she thought about the end of the third verse they sang. Who was this ‘Lord’ they were talking about and what did they mean by ‘with sin laid on him’?

            While he was thinking about this, Jason heard a noise. It was coming from his left. He swerved his head in the direction.

            What was that? he thought to himself, worried. The sound stopped for a while, then went on. Then it stopped again. Like it was hesitant to continue its movement after being noticed by Jason. Then, out of the blue, a big, burly man jumped out from the bushes beside the mountain trail. Jason yelped and Pamella looked up in shock. 

            Before Pamella could say anything, the man took out a pistol. It seemed like the man had a really bad squint, for his eyes were splitting in two different directions, so you couldn’t even tell if he was looking at you or not. 

            He had a beard so long that it looked as if he might trip on it at any moment. The point was, he looked pretty silly, but yet Pamella and Jason knew that this man was a definite threat. 

            “WHO DARES CROSSS MY TERRITORRY?????” the man bellowed, rolling his rs, saying the word ‘cross’ like ‘crochet’. Pamella shuddered. Who was this strange man? She knew he was a threat, but he really didn’t look like a threat. So she really didn’t know what to feel about him. But Jason knew what to feel about him.

            Jason motioned for Pamella to keep going up the trail while walking, as casually as he could, along with her. The big man didn’t seem happy about that.

            “HEY,” he practically screamed, “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?! I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU YEET!!!” He said ‘yeet’ instead of ‘yet’ which alarmed Jason. (Yeet kind of means “throw” by the way, or “whatever” or “toss you”.)

            “S-sir,” the boy stammered, “we-w-we’re just passerbys… we mean not harm-” Then the big, burly man pointed his pistol to the air and shot at nothing, scaring the two kids.

            “DOZEN MATTER, YOU’RE STILL INTRUDING MY TERRITO-” 

            He didn’t finish his sentence, for Jason screamed to Pamella, “RUN!” So the two kids scrammed. They scrambled up the path, tripping, with the man shooting with his pistol madly at them. He wasn’t aiming properly at them, but if his random shots actually hit them, that was bad. Very bad.

            “COME BACK, ME WON TO SHOOT YOU, YOU INTRUDER!” the man screamed after them, stomping up the path like an elephant. He advanced toward them at the rate of a horse at full speed. That was definitely beyond the max speed that the two teenagers could run at. Plus, this guy was huge, and his legs could stretch very far, and stomp very hard, shaking the ground. That made it even harder for the duo to escape.

            Before they knew it, the man was upon Pamella and Jason. His pistol was aimed right at them. His finger was on the trigger, halfway to firing, when Jason pushed Pamella out of the way.

            “Look out!” he yelled, then there was a bang, followed by a cry of pain. The teenage girl fell onto the ground, not knowing what happened behind her. 

            Panicking, she tried to rise, wanting to see what happened. When she got up, Jason was doing his best to avoid the gunshots of the insane man with bad grammar and a terrible squint, shoulder bleeding badly. Pamella attempted to resist a shriek. But she still shrieked.

            “JASON!” she shrieked, rushing to him. Just at that moment, the man had flung the boy back onto a rock, so that he hit his head. Jason was out cold. Now Pamella had to face the man alone.

            The man wanted to finish Jason off, but Pamella prevented him from doing that by throwing a rock at his head.

            “HEY, YOU BIG LUG!” she yelled at the burly man, picking up another rock and hurling it at the guy. She glanced at Jason worriedly.

            I can’t help Jason with a guy trying to kill the both of us! she cried out in her mind, freaking out. Her mind raced.

            The man growled and stomped towards her, shaking the ground. Pamella shook. How would she take care of this man? He was raving mad, shooting bullets with his pistol in all directions. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but you get it. The man wasn’t aiming exactly at Pamella. He was just shooting, which was probably more dangerous than if he aimed, for that would be predictable. But random shots? It could land anywhere. So the girl had to react fast. Like, fast. 

            After throwing lots of rocks at him, and occasionally hitting him, the man was raging. But really, he had really bad aim. It was getting farther and farther from her, until Pamella didn’t even need to break a sweat avoiding him. Then suddenly, the man released a frustrated roar and threw down his pistol, advancing towards her. Alarmed, Pamella took a step back. 

            Pamella had hardly blinked before the ravenous man was right in front of her. The fact that the man was right before her had halfway registered into her brain when suddenly the man swung his fist at her, knocking her out.

 

Keep Him In Mind| Ch. 7

            The teenage girl’s head was pounding when she awoke. She felt an enormous bump on the side of her head. Everything she saw was doubled, like everything around her had a twin. The only things she could remember were that she had run away from home, gone part way up the mountain trail, and gotten chased down by a burly man that could hardly do anything well, besides being angry and knocking people out.

            Pamella sat up with a groan and attempted to make sense of the place around her. She could tell that there were bars in front of her. She was surrounded by grey stone walls. She slowly turned her head to her left. She saw a blob of something over there, but didn’t quite understand what it was. Then she turned her head to the right. She saw another strange blob, but with something red seeping out of it…

            “Jason!” Pamella cried, scrambling over to the bleeding boy, even though it made the pounding in her head worse. “Jason!” He still seemed to be unconscious. Or maybe he was just sleeping. Pamella didn’t know how to help. All their camping things were gone. Then suddenly a voice came from behind her. It sounded like a tired man’s voice. 

            “Finally awake?” Pamella swerved around, then held her head.

            Ouch, she thought to herself. Probably shouldn’t have done that. She winced. Her vision started returning to normal, the twins of things around her slowly blending into the original object. But because of the headache she was having, there was a kaleidoscope pattern that persistently danced across her vision. 

            Behind her, she saw a man with a beard, a mustache connecting to the beard. They were short. The beard and mustache that is. But the man himself was very tall. He had a collared shirt, which was a very dull, navy blue color. He looked sad and tired. And depressed. (Pamella couldn’t stop thinking of those words when she looked at him.) Pamella could tell by the look in his eyes. She wondered why he looked like that. Then the man spoke again.

            “How did you get stuck in here?” he asked absently, as if his mind was thinking about something else while his mouth did the talking. He didn’t really seem to be looking at Pamella either.

            “I, uh… we got chased down by the… guy,” she explained hesitantly, casting a worried look toward Jason. “And he’s hurt… Jason is.” The man nodded slowly. He wasn’t exactly listening to the girl. 

            He’s definitely got his mind on something else, Pamella thought, observing the man.

            “So that’s his name isn’t it?” the man said blandly, mostly to himself. His face was so depressed looking like life had no meaning. Pamella wondered if emotion still existed in him. Well, it probably did. Like, he looked sad and depressed and stuff like that, but his other emotions? Could he even be happy anymore in the state he was in?

            “How do we help Jason? Any ideas?” Pamella inquired of the man, nervously tugging at her shirt. She couldn’t stand staring at Jason with his shoulder like that. What was the guy-with-the- squint’s problem, that he wanted to kidnap them?

            The man didn’t respond. He just stared at Jason like there was nothing else in his life that he could do. Pamella peered at his downcast face, gazing into his eyes.

            His eyes seemed to be drowned in sadness and hopelessness, as if he had lost everything that he considered meaningful, or something like that. Was that look caused by being captive for a long time, or was there something in his past life that made him like that?

            The man abruptly shook his head, scaring Pamella. The teenage girl flinched slightly. The adult male turned his head toward the girl, his expression blank, as if he had no memory of what she had said earlier. She guessed that he’d been buried in his thoughts when she asked him a question.

            “Sorry?” the man said, ears finally tuned to what Pamella was saying. Pamella cleared her throat, glancing at her friend.

            “How do we help Jason?” she said slowly, making her question sound more like a statement. “We can’t leave him like that.” It took a second of two before the girl’s words registered into the man’s brain. He still appeared to be very distracted, despite his effort to stay focused on Pamella.

            “Oh,” he said, finally understanding what Pamella was trying to say. “Uh…” Pamella was getting more agitated seeing Jason lie down on the ground, not being helped. Then, finally, the man actually did something. The first sign of another emotion besides sadness and hopelessness appeared. A look of urgency dominated the depressed, downcast expression he wore. He rushed over to Jason. Pamella followed close behind him.

            Just as the adult was about to make an action to help Jason, a voice thundered, “WHAT ARE YOO DOING, INTRUDER NOMBOR 1??” The man froze. Pamella recognized the voice very well. Jason seemed to have recognized it too, despite him being unconscious earlier. He jerked up.

            “What in the name of t-” the boy began, then held his shoulder, wincing. “Ouch.” Pamella’s heart did a loopty loop of relief, and she crouched down next to Jason, resisting the urge to hug him, for she might make his injury worse that way.

            “Jason!” she exclaimed joyfully. “You’re awake!” But she wasn’t happy for long. No one was happy at the moment. Especially the guy with the squint.

            “STAND OOP IN A LINE, SO I WANT TO SEE YOO,” the burly man ordered. Pamella helped Jason stand. The man also helped Jason. They all understood the man’s bad-grammar- syndrome. And his miss-pronunciation-syndrome.

            “ANSWER ME, DA TREE OF YOO,” the grumbly man scowled. “WHY YOU INTRUDING MY TERRITORY?!” Nobody answered, because nobody had even tried to intrude; they had just passed by, all three of them, apparently intruding into the territory of a man with bad grammar. 

            “I CAN’T HEAR YOO! Whatever,” the burly man growled, then finished his sentence surprisingly quiet. It was the quietest he’d spoken, but still loud. The man who stood next to Jason and Pamella, not the loud one, winced. 

            How loud he is! he thought to himself.

            Jason seemed confused.

            “Uh…” 

            Pamella glanced at her friend.

            “We’ve been kidnapped.” She was very blunt when she said this. There was a surprised look plastered to the boy’s face.

            “Uh, ok,” he nodded, processing the information that Pamella had just given to him. Then Pamella turned her head to the man who was in the cell along with her and Jason.

            “So, um,” the girl began, not quite sure how to say her thoughts. She didn’t want to hurt the man’s feelings. She decided to start with a simple question first. “What’s your name…?”                                “...Mark Til Jo,” he said hesitantly. “And in case you are wondering what my age is, I am 37.” Pamella nodded, then proceeded her ‘investigation’. Jason didn’t say anything; he just listened.

            “How’d you get in here?” she inquired gently, making sure her tone was not too casual or harsh, or anything that might make the man, Mark, feel upset. Mark just stared at the stone floor, not responding for quite a while. 

            “You don’t have to tell me, if you aren’t comfortable with saying it,” she added softly, not wanting to hurt Mark’s feelings. He seemed to be in a very… delicate… state at the moment. Pamella wasn’t sure if he would want to tell.

            “I ran away,” Mark explained suddenly, “quite a long time ago. I…” He didn’t seem ready to continue. Pamella was shocked.

            Why is it that so many, she thought to herself, have run away from homes or died? Whoever I hear and meet that have lost homes or children all seem to be very depressed and sad. Will I be one of them? Pamella thought this over while Mark tried to think of how to explain his experiences.

            “I ran away from home. I wanted to be what I called ‘independent’. But… that didn’t work out. Obviously,” he chuckled softly, remembering his past. Then his face became solemn again.

            “I was mad at my family,” Mark said suddenly. “I felt like they were robbing me of my freedom. I left. My brother tried to bring me back. We got into a fight. But… My brother lost… and I left. I thought it was a good decision at that time.

            “So I went on my way, heading north. I met a few people on the way. I can’t really remember where I was going, but it took a really long time. After I had arrived at my destination, I decided that I liked traveling, and did that for several years. I was 22 when I finally decided to live in a house for once with a friend that I had become really close to. As soon as I had done that, I was already on the move again. Then suddenly my best friend passed away right in the middle of one of our journeys. I was devastated. We, as in me and a few other people I knew, held his funeral shortly after that. Then I stayed at my home for a while. After that, when I had regenerated from my depression, I went on the move again. Again, I did that for a few years until finally, I decided to go home again. I also heard that somebody had settled down somewhere on the road to my home. Turns out that person wasn’t a very nice person. He… um… you probably understand the rest.” Pamella could only nod. There was a long pause.

            “I technically did what you did too,” she began after a while, smiling. Mark looked back at her with curiosity. Her smile became flat.     

            “I ran away from home,” she explained simply, with a tinge of regret in her voice. “Then I met Jason.” She glanced at Jason with a knowing smile when she said this. “I got a stupid idea, and now we’re stuck here.” 

            “It’s not stupid idea, Pam!” Jason complained. “It was a terrific idea! It’s just the darn man with terrible grammar that got in our way!” Pamella shrugged, not really agreeing.

            “I don’t really know what to do anymore,” she said. “I was always mad at my family because… like… there was no justice. I never did anything wrong. I was just always seen in such a way that everything that I did that is supposed to be good was seen as an attempt to do something bad. If you get what I’m trying to say. So I left. And now I’m stuck here. Just like you. And I dragged Jason into it too.” Mark had stopped listening to the young teenager as soon as she said ‘never did anything wrong.’ He thought over that. He wondered if he should say it.

            Well, if we never get out, ‘may as well, Mark thought to himself. She has to know. The man took a deep breath, and began to talk to Pamella.

            “You know,” he began slowly, carefully putting into words his thoughts. “We can never do everything right… not exactly. We can never be… entirely faultless.” Pamella was taken aback by his words.

            “Well, sometimes we can,” she argued. “If we don’t do anything wrong, then we aren’t… shouldn’t be faulted, I mean.”

            “Define wrong, Pamella.” Jason glanced at Mark with a curious look.

            He knows, doesn’t he? he thought. Pamella paused.

            “Like, hitting your brother in the face,” she said suspiciously, wondering what Mark was getting to. “And doing something right is like sharing something that you have and cleaning up the house.”

            “How do you feel when you do those things? Do you do it just so then other people know you didn’t do anything wrong when punished, so that whoever says that you did something wrong will be punished instead? Do you do the right things to benefit yourself or to benefit others?” Pamella understood what he was trying to say. Some people might not understand, but she did. And it was something hard to explain. She felt a twang of guilt sparking in her heart.

            You can’t do anything right, she thought to herself. There will always be something wrong that you do. Mark could tell by Pamella’s expression that she knew what he was talking about, and that you couldn’t do anything right. So he began to talk again.

            “Like, you can do something right. But not completely. There will always be something… imperfect… about what you do,” he said, very slowly. “It is because of sin, that no one on Earth can do things perfectly. Not anymore.” The girl turned her head towards Mark, curiosity bubbling up inside her, like steam rising from a kettle.

            “What do you mean, ‘not anymore’?” she inquired, leaning forward. Jason seemed to be ignored. But he didn’t mind that. Pamella was learning something that would change her life. Make her new. Though his shoulder was complaining.

            “You want to hear the whole of it?” Mark asked of Pamella. The girl nodded slowly, not really knowing what she was in for. The man could only nod. And so he began, but he did not speak by his own words; he took out a book and opened it. Pamella recognized that book as the one that her friend Niessa brought whenever she went to… church. Yeah, that was the name of the building.

            Mark had opened the book he was holding to a page that said, The Old Testament. Then he turned over the page, revealing another page (of course) with the title Genesis. And he began to read from it. He read about the creation, and how everything was perfect when things were first made. He also read about how the first humans were created, Adam and Eve. And he read about how God instructed the first humans not to eat from the tree of Good and Evil, to test them. And lastly, he read about how Adam and Eve disobeyed God, eating from the tree of Good and Evil, angering Him. Then sin entered the world, causing the world to be corrupted and imperfect, and humans no longer had a perfect relationship with God. Then, looking up from the Bible, Mark explained how later on, mankind tried to make the tower of Babel so that they could become as great as God. They were so selfish and prideful that God separated them by making them speak different languages. He also reminded Pamella that they all spoke the same language a long time ago. And so all mankind was split up, and they began to drift away from God. 

            This all sounded very complicated to Pamella. She was overwhelmed with all the information.

            “And God said that anyone that sinned against Him would be condemned in the eternal fire of Hell,” Mark explained. Then he closed his Bible. “That… is probably a lot to take in. But… now you understand why the world is like this.” Pamella gaped.

            “I think we went from the topic of why nobody can do things perfectly to why is this world like this,” the teenage girl laughed, eyes wide. Then she tipped her head to the side. “But what are you? Um, like, what’s your religion?”

            “I’m a Christian,” Mark responded. “It means ‘little Christ’. We are called that because God sent his son to the world to save people from being condemned, and his name was Jesus Christ. Well, just Jesus, but people added the ‘Christ’ to his name to represent his… status. And we follow him and what he does. So… Little Christ.” The girl nodded.

            “My friend Niessa is Christian too, I think,” Pamella recalled, thinking about the Bible she always carried around. “And she looks pretty happy with her life.” Mark nodded. 

            “Tell me more about this ‘Christ’,” Pamella said, smiling at Mark. The adult smiled at her.

            “Let’s start with this; he is the Holy Trinity, which is three persons in one. I will not try to explain that, for it is impossible to explain; but I will have faith that it is true. Now, God made everything. And the human part of this ‘everything’ sinned, causing the world to be contaminated with sin, causing this world to be imperfect. The Holy Spirit is the One that helps people believe and understand God’s Word. Now in order to bring God’s people to Him, God sent his son to die on the cross to sacrifice himself for our sins. Like the Father, he was perfect, so he was a very good example to a lot of people. He had 12 disciples which spread the good news of God through His Word, causing other people to believe in Jesus and God too, like Jesus had talked about while he was alive on Earth. Eventually, people who believed in the good news of God, were called Christians by unbelievers. At first that was really meant as an insult, but now it is what we are, what we believe in.”

            “What is the good news?” Pamella asked.

            “That Jesus saves sinners by dying on the cross,” Mark said. Pamella was mostly confused about all of this, but she decided that it would take longer for her to actually understand that big fat book called the Bible.

            “Why did he die on the cross?” the curious teenage girl asked. Mark chuckled.

            “You sure are a fully loaded bag of questions,” Mark laughed. “Because we fell into sin, God felt pity for us and offered his only Son as a sacrifice for us.”

            “His only Son?? Why would he do that?” Pamella gasped.

            “Well, you can’t redeem something sinful with something sinful,” Mark explained, “And Jesus, God’s son, was the only person who was human but perfect; the perfect, literally, sacrifice for us. And so all the sin of humanity was laid on him, and he was punished for our sins. Our God is such a loving God, isn’t he?” Pamella was at a loss of words.

            “Wow,” was all she could say. Jason decided that he’d had enough of waiting.

            “Can we… uh... like, find a way to… get out? And also, I’m feeling kinda lightheaded.” Pamella grinned at the Christian man, Mark, then walked over to the bars of the cell.

            “Could you take care of Jason, Mark?” the teenager asked of the man, and he nodded. 

            “I think I could find something to help Jason,” Mark said. Pamella, after hearing his answer, turned her head, focusing on the burly man in a distance. Then she banged the bars very hard, making a loud, LOUD, noise, almost as loud as the guy-with-the-squint’s voice.

            “Hey!” she yelled. “Let me tell you something, you big-” She called him something. (The author would prefer not to write it.) This action obviously angered the big man, who stomped like an elephant towards Pamella. The girl, honestly, had no idea if her idea would even work out.

            “Do you know what happens when you do something bad?” Pamella quizzed the guy in a causal tone. It seemed like his brain stopped functioning, as he stood there and stared blankly at her.

            “You get burned in a lake of fire for an eternity,” the girl said loudly. Then she switched to a sly tone, slurring her words in an odd way. “Well, if you don’t want that to happen to you, you better let us go, and do something good." After much chat (not much actually) with the big burly man, Pamella managed to free her friends. She even got the dude to give them some supplies. She knew that it was probably not that nice tricking a guy like that, so she thanked him multiple times. She didn’t dare do anything else with a guy.

            “Welp,” she said, “that’s done.” Mark was surprised that the burly man had reacted to Pamella’s words in that way. It was also a complete shock, being out of the cell. He’d been in there for so long, he’d almost forgotten what the outside world looked like. He took in a deep breath of fresh air, for the first time in years.

            “How did you DO that?” Jason exclaimed in disbelief. Pamella glanced at him. He had a temporary bandage around his shoulder.

            “Better?” she asked Jason, not answering his question.

            “Yeeeaa,” he said slowly in a whiney manner, then slurred his sentence with the next one. “You didn’t answer my question.” The teenage girl laughed.

            “I just keep Him in mind,” Pamella explained. Jason glanced at her confused.

            “Who?” 

            “God.” 

            Mark smiled down at Pamella.

            Another Christian has been born, huh? he thought to himself. He patted Pamella on the shoulder approvingly. Pamella looked up at him, smiling. But somehow she looked different from before. Like she was… new. She’s been born again. Then Mark thought of his family; his mother, his father, his siblings… He sighed.

            The kids sensed the sadness radiating from Mark. Jason was the first to speak up.

            “What’s wrong? Something bothering you?” the teenage boy asked, concerned. “I mean, you had looked pretty… upset for quite a while back there.” The man nodded slowly.

            “I just miss family, you know?” he said, looking at Jason. “I guess I never properly spent time with them. But now they’re… gone. But I’m sure they are in good hands now. They’re probably with God.” Probably. The poor man didn’t even know if his family still had faith in God before they died. Like Jason. The boy nodded with understanding.

            “I feel ya, bud,” he said, and gave the man a small hug. “But it’s okay. It’s better not to dwell in the past. What we focus on is the now. And now, we should be happy, cause we just escaped from this crazy guy with bad grammar.” Mark chuckled.

            “I suppose you’re right,” he said. Pamella looked up at the mountain which they were now beginning to walk up. She remembered her family. Should she go back? She’d gone this far already. Would she really do that, after all the difficulties her friends had gone through to get her here?

            “Jason,” Pamella began, “What happened to your family?” The boy looked up at the sky, thinking of the best way to put it.

            “They died in a war,” he said casually. Mark was surprised that he wasn’t very sad about it.

            He’s put his past behind him, Mark thought to himself. It doesn’t bother him anymore. 

            “You don’t sound that sad about it,” the teenage girl said, mildly surprised. Jason shrugged.

            “Yeah, well… I guess it just doesn’t bother me anymore. It’s been a really long time. Plus, I have a new family now,” he explained.

            “And who are they?” Pamella asked, genuinely curious.

            “The church, the body of Christ.”

            “The church? Isn’t that a building?” the girl said. Jason shook his head.

            “No, not the building; God’s people. Anyone who belongs to God is the body of Christ, aka the church. But not the building kind of church. Eh… it’s kinda hard to explain,” Jason explained the best he could. He wasn’t really that good with words. Pamella nodded slowly, processing the information. Her thoughts drifted to home again.

            “Don’t you ever wanna go home to your family again?” Pamella asked. Jason shrugged.

            “Sometimes,” he said, “but there’s a better home waiting for me; Heaven, God’s kingdom.” The boy could tell why was asking these questions.

            “Do you want to go home?” There was a silence. Pamella didn’t respond immediately. She slowly nodded.

            “I guess this journey made me realize that my decision of leaving home was irrational,” the girl said dramatically. Mark laughed.

            “It wasn’t irrational,” the man said, “it just wasn’t necessarily correct.”

            “Hm,” Pamella grunted. Jason stopped walking. The other stopped too.

            “So,” the boy began. “What’ll it be? Gonna go back?” The girl didn’t know what to say.

            “Are you sure? I mean… we’ve been through a lot to get here,” she said. Jason smiled and touched her hand gently.

            “It’s okay Pam,” he said. “All this was just a lesson for you. No; for us. We all learned a little something; like that we shouldn’t dwell in the past. Or that girls aren’t that scary to travel with.” Pamella laughed. She could see the mischievous glint in his eyes. “Or,” he said again, “that perhaps no matter how bad family is, family is family, and we should enjoy it while we still can. Right?” Pamella nodded slowly. She was smiling now. 

            “So shall we go back to your home then?” Mark asked.

            “Ok,” she grinned. She looked around at Mark and Jason. What good people they were! They were willing to go all the way back to her home, despite all the effort it took to get to the mountain alone. Then she wondered. Where would they go after they brought her home? Well, Mark had a home, but Jason? He never exactly had a home. Then a sudden thought came to Pamella’s mind. What would her family be like once she returned home? Would they be mad? Happy? Dis- approving? In tears? Then she remembered what Jason had just told her. “Family is family, and we should enjoy it while we still can.” He was right. No matter what her family was like when she returned, she would enjoy it while she still had it. Mark disliked his family at first. But now, he regretted his decision and wished he had stayed with his family while he still had them. Now Pamella was being given the chance to go home. To not end up like Jason and Mark. She would not reject it. She would take the chance and go home. 

            All this she thought while the trio were going down the mountain, all the way back to Pamella’s home. The sun was setting, sky blushing pink, stars beginning to pop out in the sky, shadows extending, reaching out as far as they could.The teenage boy gazed up at the sky.

            “It’s beginning to get dark. Let’s set up camp,” he suggested, pointing up at the sky. Agreeing, they all began to set up camp with the supplies that they had been given by the guy that had kidnapped them.

            In no time, the trio were done setting up camp, especially with the help of Jason, who Pamella called the ‘camping expert.’ They all huddled in their sleeping bags, falling fast asleep as night fell above them, stars twinkling in the night sky.

 

I’m New | Ch. 8

            Stretching out her arms, Pamella yawned. She opened her eyes. She remembered all that had happened the day before. Oh, what a day it had been! And now she was heading home, not to the mountain, but to the exact place she had left. The exact reason she’d left too.

            “Wake up guys, sun’s shining, time to wake up!” the girl shouted to her fellow travelers, Mark and Jason. She didn’t hear a reply from any of them. “C’mon, or the sun’ll start setting again!” She heard a groan from Jason’s tent.

            “I’m up,” he moaned. No sound came from his tent for a while. Then there was a loud, “Ow!” 

            “You okay?” Pamella called out to the boy, and was answered with a thumbs up. She smiled up at her friend.

            “Hi, sleepy head,” she grinned mischievously at the half-eyed, sleepy boy. He smiled plainly. 

            “Mornin’,” he said. Then Mark emerged from his tent. He glanced at the two kids.

            “Alrighty. Let’s take down the tents and get a move on,” he said, and immediately they all got to work. In less than 5 minutes, all three tents were down, bags slinged onto their owner’s shoulders. Going down the path, the three began to chat with each other, as if they had known each other for years. When it was evening, they arrived at the marketplace, the place where Pamella had first met Jason. The teenager and almost teenager glanced at each other, grinning. Jason realized how much Pamella had changed. Not physically. But something about her face was different. As if she had grown more confident after her journey. More sure of her decisions. As if she had finally found out where she belonged. But he wondered. What did she feel like, going back to the place she had left? Would she truly be happy there? Well, he knew she wouldn’t truly be happy there, for the only place where she could truly be happy was in heaven. But still. Would she be happy there? He guessed that he would only understand once they, the trio, had arrived at their destination.

            Mark patted his two companions on the shoulders with a smile. Then he pointed out in a distance, beyond the town, past the forest, to a hill, a very high one, with a little dot on it. Pamella was surprised that the hill where her house was so visible, even from the place she was standing at.

            “Is that your house?” the adult asked the girl, and she nodded. Then there was a shout from one of the shop owners.

            “Hey, Jason’s back with the girl!” the person cried, and the other shop owners cheered. Jason sluted at them.

            “Don’t be so happy, we’re about to take off again!” the boy said, and disappointment was visible on all of their faces. Pamella laughed.

            “Don’t worry,” he giggled. “He’ll be back in no time.” They just nodded with little enthusiasm, but still were happy that Jason was back. As soon as that was done, the trio was on the move again. It was beginning to get quite dark when the three travellers reached a town, the town where Pamella’s friend, Niessa, lived in. She remembered how they had gotten in a fight before Pamella  had stormed off towards the shops at the mountain trail. She gave an inaudible sigh. She regretted doing that. Perhaps if she was lucky, she might meet Niessa and apologize.

            “Let’s stop at an inn this time,” Jason said once they had entered the town. They all heartily agreed. The three of them still had a little money left from before, and it turned out to be just enough for all of them to rest at the inn. Mark said that it was through the providence and mercy of God that they had been able to rest in someplace other than a tent that was comfortable, but Jason and Pamella said that they were just lucky, which they all laughed about.

            Entering the inn, Mark gazed around the building. He gave a happy sigh.   

            “It’s been so long,” he began, “since I’ve actually slept in a proper bed.” Pamella smiled.

            “Well, today’s your lucky day,” she said. “We’re gonna be sleeping in a bed. Goodness knows if it will be proper.” Jason snorted.

            “If there’s a proper bed, what’s an improper bed?” the boy wondered. The girl thought for a while.

            “A lopsided one?” she suggested, grinning. 

            “Ha,” Jason laughed. Mark chuckled.

            “Alright. Let’s unload our things,” the man said, and the two kids did as they were told. Soon they were all getting comfy in beds, after eating of course, and readying themselves for bed. In no time, they were all asleep.

 

            * * *

            “C’mon kids,” Mark said, shaking the two children. They both instantly woke up. Like the typical Jason, the boy groaned.

            “I’m up,” he whined. Pamella on the other hand, smiled, stretching out her arms.

            “Aaah, another lovely morning!” she exclaimed cheerily. The trio got dressed, ate breakfast, put on bags, and went outside, ready to start their journey again. But they were interrupted by a loud bell that was ringing.

            Dong, dong, dong went the bell. Mark saw a building’s doors opening. Then he realized what was going on.

            “Church!” he cried, then ushered the children to the church. Pamella then spotted a very familiar girl walking out of her house.

            “Niessa!” the teenage girl exclaimed. Hearing her name, Niessa turned her head in the direction of the voice, surprised to see Pamella, her old friend, running toward her.

            “Pamella!” she cried out in shock, then rushed out to meet her. “I-I-I thought you left!” The two girls embraced each other.

            “I did,” Pamella admitted, “but I’m back now.” She paused. “I’m sorry that I got mad at you. I… overreacted.” Niessa shook her head.

            “That’s okay. That doesn’t matter. But…” Niessa glanced at the pack on her friend’s back. Then she looked behind Pamella, where two people, Mark and Jason, were standing. “Have you been… traveling?” Pamella nodded energetically.

            “Yes, Niessa, I have. I have been on a journey. But not just physically; spiritually too. I am a Christian now, Niessa,” Pamella declared. Niessa was taken aback.

            “You’re a Christian now? Is that why you’re going to church now?” Niessa asked. She was very surprised that her friend was a Christian now. It seemed impossible.

            No, nothing is impossible Niessa, Niessa thought to herself. Not with God. This is God’s work. My best friend is a Christian. A Christian! 

            “But why are you back?” Niessa inquired of her friend with genuine curiosity. Pamella smiled.

            “I’m going home, to my family,” she explained simply. Niessa was definitely confused.

            “I thought you said you disliked your family,” Niessa said. Pamella’s smile grew.

            “I’m new now, Niessa,” the traveler girl said quietly. “I’m new.” Niessa smiled back at her reborn friend.

            “Welcome to the Church, the body of Christ, Pam,” Pamella’s friend greeted, patting her on the back. “Welcome to God’s family.”

 

Second Home | Ch. 9

            “Is that a friend of yours?” Jason asked Pamella, and she nodded.

            “A really good one,” she added. The boy nodded. Mark, Jason and Pamella entered the church. Immediately, they were greeted with the sweet sound of hymns being played on a piano. A guy at the entrance of the church shook the hands of the trio. He seemed really happy to see Jason.

            “Hey, young kiddo!” the man at the church door exclaimed. “Been a while, hasn’t it?” The boy nodded.

            “Been really busy. Sorry that I haven’t really been visiting much, Avery,” Jason apologized. The man, Avery, laughed and patted Jason on the shoulder.

            “Nah, it’s fine, kid. But I’m wondering: who are these fellow friends you’ve brought along?” Avery asked, glancing curiously at Pamella and Mark. Jason turned around to look at them.

            “Oh, they’re really good Christian friends that… um… We go on journeys together,” the boy explained. Pamella peeked behind Avery while he and Jason chatted. Inside the church was an awful lot of people. Almost everyone in the town was there. Or at least, that’s what it seemed like to Pamella. Niessa walked inside the church, smiling at her best friend as she passed by. Pamella smiled back, then turned to her other friends.

            “Let’s go inside, J,” she said, pulling Jason inside. The boy didn’t realize that Pamella was referring to him when she said ‘J’ for he had never been called that before. He quickly waved goodbye to Avery as Mark followed the two children into the church.

            Finding a seat, the trio sat down on one of the benches in the church. Not long after that, a man walked up to the pulpit and began to open up his bible after greeting the congregation and praying. After reading a few lines from the bible, hymns were sung, and Pamella enjoyed the songs greatly.

            Once the hymns had been sung, the pastor prayed, then he read a few verses from the bible then began to explain what those verses he had read meant. Mark explained to Pamella that this was called ‘preaching’ and that she should listen very carefully to what the pastor said. The girl tried to listen, but she wasn’t used to sitting down in a chair quietly, legs uncrossed, listening to a ‘sermon’ as Mark called it. But once the pastor delved deeper into the topic, Pamella grew more and more interested, understanding more and more of that part of the bible. Luckily, that day, the pastor was preaching about Jesus’ death and why he did that, so Pamella understood more about Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit and all.

            Eventually, after about 45 minutes of preaching, the pastor prayed again, then the congregation sang another hymn, said the Lord’s Prayer, Apostles Creed, and sang the Doxology. Finally, they were all excused from the church with a closing prayer. The pastor shook the trio’s hands as they walked out of the church.

            “Welcome to the church, Pamella, Mark,” the pastor greeted them. “We are very glad to have you here.” Pamella grinned broadly.

            “That was a really good, er… sermon, sir,” she complemented the man, who looked very pleased to hear that. “I learned a lot from it.” 

            “Well, that’s great to hear!” the pastor exclaimed happily. “I hope that every day you’ll grow more and more in Christ.” Pamella nodded. Jason gave his friend a pat on the back.

            “Do things make more sense now?” he asked. Pamella shrugged.

            “More than before. It’s still kinda all over the place,” the girl replied as the three travelers exited the town. She paused. “I really look forward to going to the church again.” Mark nodded.

            “It’s like a second home, isn’t it?” the adult said, looking at Pamella. The girl nodded in agreement.

            “Kind of; it’s like a place that I can go to to find peace,” she explained. Jason thought for a moment.

            “Church isn’t the only place that you can go to to find peace,” he said. “You can also pray as well, like what we did several times at the church.” Pamella nodded.

            “Do from what I’ve gathered, praying is like a way of talking to God?” the girl asked. Jason nodded. “But then why don’t you hear God?” Jason didn’t respond, for he didn’t know how to explain it. So Mark spoke up.

            “Oh, but you do,” the man explained, “you just don’t hear it in the same way we hear each other. But sometimes, I guess, if you lose faith, you can suddenly not hear him anymore. And that’s when you need to repent.”

            “Repent?” the girl asked, confused by all the vocabulary being used.

            “Like, um… repenting is like asking for forgiveness from God,” Mark explained. “Usually one wouldn’t hear God because they’re not really trying to listen to him, or are not taking him seriously.” Pamella nodded.

            “I’m pretty sure we have all experienced that,” Jason chimed in, looking around at his friends. They all nodded, agreeing.

            “Definitely,” Pamella confirmed. Then she looked ahead. Her voice grew quiet. “We’re here.” Her friends looked up the hill they were walking up and saw a house.

            “Home,” the girl sighed.

The Journey Home | Ch. 10

            The three travelers gazed up at the house. It was very quiet there, unlike the last time Pamella was there. The girl had mix matched feelings about this. She felt guilty about leaving home, family possibly upset about her leaving. Yet she still was happy at how they were sorry for having done all those things to her before, and she kinda like getting all the sympathy from others. But now, being Christian, she guessed that that wasn’t the right thing to do, wanting her own family to feel guilty forever. From what she had learned, when becoming a Christian, you had to show you were a Christian, meaning you had to change. You had to become new. Start doing the right things that God told you to do through his Word.

            Pamella sighed heavily. She wondered if she was doing the right thing.

            Of course you are! she scolded herself. What else would you do? I’ll tell you: you would be unhappy for the rest of your life! Be glad you made this decision. You’re her already. Don’t turn back. The girl took on a look of determination as she marched towards the house. She turned to her friends.

            “Privacy?” Jason supplied before Pamella could even say anything. “For… family time?” the teenage girl nodded sheepishly, then walked over to the door. She could see some people walking around inside. She recognized them as her parents. She made a brave attempt of knocking on the door of the house that she had been so happy to leave so long ago. There was an immediate answer.

            The door swung open, and a man, Pamella’s father, stared down at his daughter. It didn’t register into his mind that his own daughter was there before him.

            “W-who…?” the girl’s father stuttered. Pamella smiled casually as if she and her dad had just met a few minutes ago.

            “Hi dad,” she said casually. As soon as she finished saying that, her father burst into tears and embraced her. This was a total shock for Pamella, who had never really been hugged, with love, by her parents for as long as she could remember. She hugged him back.

            “It’s okay dad,” the girl said quietly. “I’m back. I’m not mad at you anymore.” Then her mother spotted her. Almost instantly, her mother was hugging her too, tears streaming down her face.

            “I’m sorry, my baby girl,” her mother wept. Pamella had never in her life been called ‘baby girl’ by anyone, especially her parents. She was surprised.

            “It’s fine, mum,” the two crying parents’ child said. “I have some apologizing to do too.” Her father shook his head.

            “You don’t need to apologize for anything, daughter,” he said happily. Pamella smiled, and decided that it would be nice to obey her parents for once, so she didn’t say anything.

            After quite a while of crying, hugging, reconciliation, and reunion with the rest of her family, Pamella decided that her family deserved to know about where she’d been and all that she’d learned. So she told them. And while she did that, she invited her friends in. Her family still seemed really guilty and sniffy even after Pamella had said about a 100 times that she forgave them. She was surprised that they cared for her. Especially her brother Rudolf, who seemed to be constantly asking for forgiveness, so she gave him a big hug. It was so strange, now that everyone in the family was happy and joyful and not blaming Pamella for everything all the time for once.

            Once she was done with her story, she allowed Jason and Mark to ‘preach’ about the gospel so that they could all learn about God and believe. Even Pamella didn’t really understand about God that much yet. So they all listened. Learned. Believed. Repented. Rejoiced. And they did that all the way until nighttime, when they were all to go to sleep. Her friends had gone to their homes already. And now Pamella was home. Like, home. She couldn’t believe that she was calling this place home now. But that was how it was. 

            The next morning, Pamella was still getting over her shock of all that was happening at the moment. She stretched. Her body still ached from her journey. She remembered her fellow travelers, Jason and Mark. She wondered how they were doing. She walked down stairs, looking around the house.

            “This will take some getting used to,” she said to herself as she arrived at the bottom of the stairs. Her mother greeted her warmly.

            “Morning, Pamella,” her mother smiled, setting down some milk, toast and jam on the table for her daughter to eat. The girl sat down. “You’re up early.” Pamella grinned.

            “I guess I’m just used to travelling and waking up early,” she said, and her mother nodded. Then her father wandered into the room.

            “Hello, sweetie,” he greeted, ruffling Pamella’s hair. The girl could sense how awkward her family was around her. She herself felt very awkward.

            It’s so strange, she thought, being with someone you once hated, acting like you had loved and cared for each other for ages. She smiled up at her father, then started eating the breakfast her mother had laid out for her. Just then, her brother Rudolf came down the stairs.

            “Hi… sis,” he nodded awkwardly, smiling. Pamella smiled back. Her mother set more food on the table, until the entire table was full of food. Then she left to get the two baby girls to feed them. That was when Jenny walked out of her room.

            “Morning,” the almost-adult girl said, technically to everyone in the room. She glanced at Pamella, smiling.

            “Good morning, sis,’ Jenny smiled down at her sister.

            Why are they all speaking so formally to me? Pamella wondered. She internally slapped herself. Shut up. They’re just trying to make up for all the times they’ve been mean to you. She smiled back at her sister. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Pamella’s father went to get the door.

            “Hello?” her father said. At the door, there was a mailman, holding a letter.

            “From a boy named Jason Til Jo, addressed to a girl named Pamella Quintet…?” the mailman explained. Then her father thanked him, and the mailman left. 

            Til Jo? Pamella thought to herself. Isn’t that the last name of Mark?

            “For you, hon,” her father said, and handed the letter to his daughter.

            “Thanks dad,” Pamella grinned, then opened the letter…

Mark is my uncle. I’m living on the mountain. Come visit some time. My last name is Til Jo, hehe. Never told you did I? Whups. Like your family? Having a good time? Have a good day.

Jason (Til Jo)

            Shocker. Pamella’s eyes widened.

            Mark is related to Jason and the two didn’t even realize it! Pamella screamed out inside her mind. Oh man, they must be soo happy now. Pamella recalled the journey she had with her fellow travelers, remembering all the things that they had learned together. Then realization hit her.

            I guess this journey wasn’t really the journey to the mountain, she thought to herself. It was, in fact, the journey to a home. Multiple homes, in fact. For all of us. Me, Mark and Jason. I found a spiritual home in the Church, first of all. Mark and Jason have found their home, which is together at the mountain. And finally, my physical home with my family. My home, the place I thought I’d never return to. She thought for a while.

            Indeed, the Journey Home.                                                                       

~THE END~