Arrived (51 page)
Vicki flew to her mother and father and embraced them. Then she hugged her little sister, Jeanni, and twirled her around. “Mom, Dad, I want you to meet Judd Thompson.”
Mrs. Byrne smiled. “Thank you for watching out for our little girl.”
Judd dipped his head. “She's the joy of my life.” He looked at Mr. Byrne. “If I could have, I would have asked your permission before we were married.”
“You have our blessing and our thanks,” Mr. Byrne said. “I couldn't have picked a better son-in-law.”
Vicki quickly introduced her family to Judd's, and it felt like they had known each other all their lives.
Later Vicki found Pete Davidson and Natalie Bishop, and she had a chance to talk more with Ryan Daley. She saw Darrion Stahley walking with her mother and father. Manny Aguilara and his sister, Anita. Josey Fogarty with her sons, Ben and Brad, and people she had known in high school who had disappeared.
Chad Harris, the young man Vicki had met in Iowa, smiled and gave her a hug. Judd and Chad talked for a long time. Vicki spotted Cheryl Tifanne visiting her son, Ryan Victor, and spoke with her about her last months in Wisconsin. Vicki met Tom and Luke Gowin, two believers from South Carolina who had lost their lives. Judd seemed overjoyed to introduce a handsome young man named Pavel Rudja to Vicki. She later learned that Pavel had been in a wheelchair for most of his life.
As families headed toward homes and living quarters, Judd talked about their future. He mentioned Vicki's idea about taking in children with no families.
Vicki stopped, noticing several children standing alone. A light caught her eye and she glanced at Jesus.
“Let the little children come to me,” Jesus said. “Don't stop them. For the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
“Am I supposed toâ?”
“I have already put this desire in your heart, Vicki,” Jesus said.
Vicki walked up to a redheaded girl who was moving a finger through the sand. She couldn't have been older than seven.
“What's your name?” Vicki asked.
“Anne,” the girl said.
“Where's your family?”
“I don't have any. They're gone.”
Vicki looked at Judd and extended a hand to the girl. The three walked toward a boy sitting on a rock, and Vicki smiled at Anne.
“You have a family now,” Vicki said.
In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together;
the leopard and the goat will be at peace.
Calves and yearlings will be safe among lions,
and a little child will lead them all
.
ISAIAH 11:6
Jerry B. Jenkins
(
www.jerryjenkins.com
) is the writer of the Left Behind series. He owns the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild, (
www.ChristianWritersGuild.com
), an organization dedicated to mentoring aspiring authors, as well as Jenkins Entertainment, a filmmaking company (
www.Jenkins-Entertainment.com
). Former vice president of publishing for the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, he also served many years as editor of
Moody
magazine and is now Moody's writer-at-large.
His writing has appeared in publications as varied as
Time
magazine,
Reader's Digest, Parade, Guideposts
, in-flight magazines, and dozens of other periodicals. Jenkins's biographies include books with Billy Graham, Hank Aaron, Bill Gaither, Luis Palau, Walter Payton, Orel Hershiser, and Nolan Ryan, among many others. His books appear regularly on the
New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal
, and
Publishers Weekly
best-seller lists.
He holds two honorary doctorates, one from Bethel College (Indiana) and one from Trinity International University. Jerry and his wife, Dianna, live in Colorado and have three grown sons and three grandchildren.
Dr. Tim LaHaye
(
www.timlahaye.com
), who conceived the idea of fictionalizing an account of the Rapture and the Tribulation, is a noted author, minister, and nationally recognized speaker on Bible prophecy. He is the founder of both Tim LaHaye Ministries and The PreTrib Research Center.
He also recently cofounded the Tim LaHaye School of Prophecy at Liberty University. Dr. LaHaye speaks at many of the major Bible prophecy conferences in the U.S. and Canada, where his prophecy books are very popular.
Dr. LaHaye earned a doctor of ministry degree from Western Theological Seminary and an honorary doctor of literature degree from Liberty University. For twenty-five years he pastored one of the nation's outstanding churches in San Diego, which grew to three locations. During that time he founded two accredited Christian high schools, a Christian school system of ten schools, and Christian Heritage College.
There are almost 13 million copies of Dr. LaHaye's fifty nonfiction books that have been published in over thirty-seven foreign languages. He has written books on a wide variety of subjects, such as family life, temperaments, and Bible prophecy. His current fiction works, the Left Behind series, written with Jerry B. Jenkins, continue to appear on the best-seller lists of the Christian Booksellers Association,
Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal, USA Today
, and the
New York Times
. LaHaye's second fiction series of prophetic novels consists of
Babylon Rising
and
The Secret on Ararat
, both of which hit the
New York Times
bestseller list and will soon be followed by
Europa Challenge
. This series of four action thrillers, unlike
Left Behind
, does not start with the Rapture but could take place today and goes up to the Rapture.
He is the father of four grown children and grandfather of nine. Snow skiing, waterskiing, motorcycling, golfing, vacationing with family, and jogging are among his leisure activities.
