Agent finds a Warrior (15 page)

Elon could quote the Bible forwards and
backwards from cover to cover and yet he still liked to read it
every chance he got. It was only one of the many things that she’d
come to respect about him.

Zora stayed back from entering out onto the
veranda. She leaned back against a warm column not wanting to
interrupt Elon’s quiet time with God.

They’d been on this island located off the
shores of Greece in the Mediterranean for three weeks. It was one
of Elon’s very special retreats and it quite easily had become her
favorite place on Earth mainly because of what had happened
here.

She had been Elon’s lover for a little over
2 ½ weeks now and they had been the best days of her life. Today
was the start of their last week on the island before they had to
leave and do good in the world at large as Elon put it.

Zora watched her husband put the Bible down
and turn in his chair to glance back at her. She smiled engagingly
at him before reaching out two fingers in a beckoning motion. She
left the pillar and headed back into the seaside mansion letting
the lacy shawl flow way with the sea breeze.

She was confident that he would follow. He
could not resist the tempting allure of her beauty anymore than she
could resist the experience of being one with him in perfect
harmony of body and spirit. Truly theirs was a match made in heaven
and she thanked God for every gifted moment of it.

The sun was warm and the rows of corn
seemingly endless. I glanced to the side at Zora, who was smiling
as she watched the butterflies flitting around the weed flowers
growing along the roadside ditches to either side of us.

She was happy. I glanced down at our joined
hands. I was very happy!

She turned her head to me and I gave her a
suggestive look, “Ever have the urge to do it in a cornfield?”

She gave me a look that said ‘keep dreaming
buddy!’ I laughed and continued walking.

I hadn’t really been serious, but then on
the other hand I wouldn’t really turn it down either.

Zora just shook her head with a smile as she
read my thoughts and for a moment she feigned like she was bearing
the weight of the world to put up with me. “Have you ever seen a
corn spider? They are huge and evil looking!” Zora explained, as if
to prove her point, as I quietly begged her with my eyes.

I sighed, “Okay corn fields are out, but
what about hay fields? I think I see one coming up.”

“Snakes not to mention bugs.” Zora stated
with categorical import.

“Oh come on! Why are you being such a
spoilsport? Where’s your love for the great outdoors?” I asked
cajolingly.

“I appreciate the great outdoors as much as
the next person, but the creation of a mattress was an endpoint to
the occurrence of having to romp in the hay and be fed upon by both
vermin and insect alike.”

I shook my head at her in mock reproof. It
was so fun to tease her.

“How do you feel about wheat fields? Your
hair could never look better than it would with little bits of
straw sticking in it.” I said charmingly with my best smile in
place, only to be shot down once again.

“You’re absolutely incorrigible! Couldn’t
you please just store up all your lovemaking energies for tonight
to wear me out on a mattress instead of insisting that we both go
cavort with nature like Adam and Eve?” She said heatedly.

I clutched at my heart melodramatically,
“We’re only a little over a month into our marriage and you’ve
already begun to deny my advances!”

“I don’t deny you anything and you know it!”
She responded back hotly.

There was hurt in her tone and I quickly
realized that my teasing had gone too far. I stopped and so did
she. “I’m sorry Zora. I know you don’t hold anything back from me.
I promise that I will refrain from teasing you about your
germaphobia, bug-phobia, spider-phobia, snake-phobia, and
apparently also your touching nature phobia.”

A small smile crept out at the corners of
her mouth and I relaxed at the knowledge that my caused hurt had
been mended. She took my hand again and we started on.

“Are you going to tell me yet why we’re
walking along this endless corridor of agriculture with no apparent
end in sight? Where are we anyway?” Zora asked in exasperation with
the endless fields that lay around us that offered no hint as to a
probable destination.

“I told you. I have no control over this
transport from one place to the next. We were in Greece and now it
would seem that we’re somewhere in either Nebraska, Kansas or maybe
even Iowa. Your guess is as good as mine.” I said at a lack for
knowing anything past what she did.

“Maybe he can help us.” Zora commented.

“Who?” I asked.

She pointed ahead, “Him.”

I looked ahead and in the distance over the
flat plain I saw a crossroads and parked in the middle of the
intersection was a car with a man standing in front of it leaning
back against the hood in an apparent mood of despondency. The man’s
head was tilted forward as if in deep thought.

The situation seemed promising enough. We
had one more field’s width to pass before we got to the man at the
crossroads.

I sighed. Straw really would’ve looked great
in Zora’s hair.

I felt a tug on my hand and I turned my head
to Zora and her laughing eyes, “If it’s that big of a fantasy Elon
I’ll risk the bugs and snakes some day to indulge you, but not
today.”

I grinned and said, “I could always just buy
a bale of straw and spread it out over top of a mattress.”

She rolled her eyes at me and I said, “Hey
I’m only trying to make it work for you honey.”

“It might not work so well having to clean
it up Elon.”

“Perhaps not, but I bet it would be
fun.”

As we drew closer to the man I had a pretty
good idea as to what the man’s profession was. He was a pastor, if
his Sunday finery was anything to go by. He appeared to be a rather
depressed pastor.

“Can I help you Sir?” I asked cordially as
Zora and I came to a stop before the man, who gave a start and
looked up at us blinking his eyes in surprise. It was apparent that
he had been lost in thought and perhaps prayer.

The man didn’t know what to make of our
sudden appearance in the middle of nowhere at that, but he knew
something was Divinely inspired in the situation. He looked like he
wanted to talk, but didn’t know where to start.

He was an older man in his mid to late 50’s
and it was a humbling thing to see when he began to cry
brokenly.

“You’re a pastor?” I asked softly prompting
the man.

He nodded and wiped at his tears before
responding, “Of the biggest church in town.”

Words seemed to come to him then more easily
once the ice had been broken by me.

“Like I said it’s the biggest church in
town. We have close to 600 in attendance every Sunday morning, even
through the vacation prone summer months. Thirty percent of the
congregation actually pays tithes, which is ten percent higher than
most congregations can boast. I have more money to dispose to
church-based charities and activities then I have demands for. I
have three full-time pastors on staff besides myself. The church
sponsors over 200 missionaries and we have five work-based church
missionary groups that go to third world nations to help every
year. Our vacation Bible school is the most attended in the entire
county and for three counties around. We are, in short, the church
to be.”

The man stopped talking and the tears began
in earnest again.

“It would seem that your church has been
extremely blessed, but what does it lack that causes you to mourn
so?” I asked.

The man’s teary eyes rose to mine and
bitterly he said, “My church members have lost the love of Christ
from their hearts! Everything has become ritual and habit! There is
no depth of meaning to their worship, if they truly worship God at
all! I can’t tell you how many months it’s been in a church of 600
regular attendees that I’ve had a person come forward to experience
the saving knowledge and redemptive power of Jesus Christ over
their lives. I fear that it’s already been over a year since the
last! We have become useless to the Kingdom of God! Fit for nothing
better than to be spit out on the ground and be done with, because
we have failed in the commission that was given to us by not
keeping the love of God within our own hearts!”

The man jabbed his own chest hard, “And I! I
am the worst of all! I have steered this ship to the destination
that it has become mired in! How many years have I been asleep at
the helm only to finally now wake up? What can be done? I ask you,
what can be done with people who have a form of holiness, but have
no need for God in their hearts nor any desire to sacrifice of
themselves to Him?”

The man’s hopeless desperation made my heart
cringe for I felt the anger and guilt this man had levied against
himself as the primary one of blame for the situation that had
befallen his church.

I grasped his shoulders and said, “There are
miracles waiting for the asking. There is favor from heaven ready
to be given if only it is desired. There is nothing impossible for
God to accomplish. Not even this hard thing that you lack the
strength to accomplish on your own is too hard for God. The Holy
Spirit is willing, able, and eager to intercede!”

The man gazed into my eyes straight up as if
looking for clues, “Are you an Angel?”

“No, just a man who seeks the will of God
over his life even as you now do.”

The man swallowed before asking, “What do I
do?”

“Will you relinquish the authority over your
flock as their shepherd and allow me to borrow your pulpit for a
sermon?”

The main studied me intensely, but then
simply said, “The Spirit of God says yes, who am I to say
otherwise.”

I nodded in acceptance, “When does your
service begin?”

“At 10:30. I’m probably not going to be on
time myself as service starts in…”

“You’re not going to be there.” I said
cutting in.

He swallowed, “What do I tell them, when
they ask why I’m not there?”

A shotgun blast punctuated the air suddenly
with its heavy percussion and the car behind the pastor sank down
to one side.

“It would appear that you’ve acquired a flat
tire. Call ahead and let them know you’ve arranged for a fill in to
replace your absence at the sermon today.”

I stepped away from the man and held out my
hand to Zora, who slipped her hand into mine. We started down the
road and just like that we were gone from view.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The pastor stared at the empty space where
the couple had just been and felt himself falling to his knees. God
had answered his prayers and sent help!

The pastor cried out in prayer and praise
all in the same breath. Deliverance was nigh at hand, which would
spark rebirth, if only the people would listen and obey the calling
of the Spirit of God.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We reappeared at the edge of the town and
instinctively I knew which church it was. I had thirty minutes
before the start of Sunday morning services.

“Zora I want you to go on ahead of me to the
church and sit in the back. Sometimes these church transformations
don’t go well.”

“Elon?” Zora asked in concern to my
statement.

“I was tarred and feathered once. It was not
a nice experience let me tell you and it’s definitely one that I
never want to repeat again!”

Zora’s eyes widened a little bigger at the
release of that knowledge and she turned away towards the church
but then stopped after a few steps. I knew what her problem
was.

I came up behind her and grasped her
shoulders lightly, “I know it’s embarrassing for you to go into a
church dressed as you are. If I had time I’d get you nicer and more
appropriate clothes, but I don’t.”

Softly she said, “I look like a biker chick
for Jesus!”

I busted out laughing, “There you go honey!
You’ll scare the hell out of them!”

She gave me a dirty look over her shoulder
and I smacked one side of her bottom resoundingly as I sent her
forward on her way. She rubbed where I’d smacked, but continued on
toward the church. I’d found her birthmark all right.

She looked accusingly back at me still
rubbing and I kissed the air. Her face warmed up in a blush and she
hurried on. Tonight seemed like such a long way off, but it would
come eventually.

I pulled my eyes away from my wife’s
shifting hips and got busy with what I needed to get done before
the service began.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zora made her way into the church past the
doormen standing at attention in their immaculate usher coats. To
their credit they gave her a hearty welcome. She mumbled something
in reply and continued on past them.

She felt their gazes linger on her in a
familiar way as she moved deeper into the foyer. That wasn’t
supposed to happen at church was it?

Women in pretty dresses and pantsuits gave
her eye arching looks of disapproval, as they tried to pull their
interested husband’s gazes away from her, even as they tried to
shield their daughters dressed up in frilly princess outfits of
lace from what they considered an objectionable sight.

The boys just stared, until they were
smacked into movement by their mothers. Yeah she wouldn’t have any
friends in this place.

Conversation hushed for a moment as she
passed by in the hall, but then resumed as people went on
reconnecting with each other. Church was a good place to reconnect
with others, but seemingly it appeared that the connection with God
had been divorced from the conversation that was going on all
around her.