The Royal Handmaid (2 page)

“I know it is, Dad, but I’m sure now that this is what God wants for me. And Dalton has the same calling.”

Now Loren felt he was being discharged from his daughter’s life completely. He knew she wasn’t trying to hurt him intentionally, but she did have an impulsiveness that worried him. He tried to put his concerns into words, speaking carefully, for beneath her bubbling exterior lay a volatile temper.
And when she was challenged, she could become stubborn. He knew it all too well because she got it from him.

“Well, you know how I feel about missionaries. I’ve always supported them, but Rena, it takes a very special person to be a missionary. The life is hard, and most of the missionaries I’ve known have suffered greatly.”

Rena’s lips grew firmer, and she sat up straighter. “Are you telling me I’m too soft to be a missionary?”

“Now, Rena, don’t get your back up. I just don’t want you to make a mistake.”

Dalton leaned forward to speak. He had an assurance about him born from achieving success in any endeavor he had ever tried. “We’ve talked about this, sir,” he said. His voice was pleasant, and he kept his eyes fixed firmly on Loren. “Naturally it will be a hard life, but God has called us, and we have to obey that call.”

“Don’t you see, Daddy? It’s not as if we have a choice. We’ve seen the heavenly vision the apostle Paul saw. You remember in the book of Acts?”

Loren listened as the two spoke earnestly of their faith in God’s call on their lives. He was wise enough to know that nothing he could say would change their minds, and he felt as if the earth had opened up beneath him.

The young couple grew silent and waited for his response. Sighing heavily, he said “Well, this comes as quite a surprise.”

“You’re disappointed, aren’t you, Dad?”

“Not disappointed. I’m just . . . well, I’m a little apprehensive, I suppose.”

“But you haven’t heard what’s going to happen.” Rena leaned forward, her face glowing as she spoke. She was a self-assured young woman, and everything about her lent itself to this impression. Like Dalton, she had always been the brightest member of any group she’d been a part of, and that had left her idealistic, if not a little spoiled. There was not a trace of doubt in her voice as she said, “Dalton and I have been thinking and praying about this for a long time.
We feel that most missionary work is so hard because it isn’t planned right and it isn’t done right. We’re going at this with new methods, and we’re not leaving anything to chance.”

Dalton spoke up eagerly. “Yes, sir, many missionaries go to the field and come back in a year or two because they didn’t know what they were getting into. But we’ve been studying for well over a year now. Both of us have taken all the courses available on missionary work. We’ve learned from the history of missions that some tragedies should never have happened. When the first missionaries went to Liberia, for example, over half of them died in the first year. That wasn’t necessary. A little proper medical attention would have saved them.”

“That’s right, Dad,” Rena added eagerly, “and we’re going to be sure that nothing like that happens to our group.”

“Your
group?
Have you already joined a missionary society?”

“Not exactly . . .” Rena hesitated, then took a deep breath. “That’s what we want to tell you. We’re not joining any society. There are some very wonderful groups, but we need the freedom to do what we think is right.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Loren said bluntly. “The missionaries I know talk about the importance of being responsible to a board or a denomination. They all seem to feel they needed to be accountable.”

“We’ll be accountable to God, Dad.”

This did not seem right to Loren, but he put that aside for the moment. “If you aren’t joining a missionary society, then what group are you talking about?”

“It’s our own group, Dad. And it’s all planned out already. There are going to be twelve of us, and we’re going to call ourselves ‘The Twelve.’ ”

“And, sir, we definitely feel that our work will be in the South Seas,” Dalton added. “We’re not sure exactly where, but God will reveal that to us. That’s another problem with most missionary societies.
They
decide where the missionaries
will go, but we want to find God’s will for us by ourselves. That way we’ll be sure of exactly where He wants us to go.”

Loren listened with growing apprehension and sadness. He saw that the two had made up their minds, and there was little he could do about it. Finally he found the opportunity to ask an important question. “Missionary work takes money. If you’re not going to be sponsored by a society, how will you be financed?” He saw something pass across Dalton’s face, but the young man remained silent and it was Rena who answered.

“Dad, I’ve heard you say so many times that God has given you riches so that you can share it with others, and I hope you’ll support our group.”

Loren had never refused his daughter anything, but now he felt he had lost control of the situation.

Seeing her father’s hesitation, Rena said, “I know you love missionaries and their work. This is one time, Dad, I’d like to have your approval. You’ve asked me what you could give me for graduation. This is what I want. I want you to be one of us. Naturally you can’t go, but you can support those that do. It’s all I want, Dad.”

Rena’s proposal had blindsided him, for he had put aside her earlier interest in missionary work as a passing phase. She had committed her life to Christ at the age of fifteen and had lived a life of faith ever since. He had been proud to see her take leadership in their church, but now he felt heavy with doubt. He tried to buy time by saying, “I’ll, of course, pray about it.”

“I knew you’d say that, Dad.” Rena smiled with the self-assurance with which he was so familiar, for both father and daughter shared the trait. He had become a successful businessman starting from nothing, and now he had more money than he could ever use. Giving money for the mission work was not a problem, but worrying about what would happen to his daughter was.

“Are you and Dalton planning to get married?”

“No, sir, not right away,” Dalton said quickly. “I’d like to marry her today, but this daughter of yours is headstrong.” He winked and said, “I think I know where she gets it from.”

“I think getting married would take our minds off our work,” Rena explained, “so I’ve asked Dalton to wait for a time, at least a year. That way we can give all of our energy to the mission.”

Rena waited with an expression her father had not seen before. He had always been happy to oblige her requests, always giving her more than she asked for. But she had never before asked for anything so big! Suddenly he had the feeling that things had passed beyond his control.

“I might as well tell you the rest of it, Dad, so you can pray about that too.”

Loren was almost afraid to ask. “What’s that?”

For the first time Rena showed some apprehension, but nonetheless she faced her father squarely. “I want you to help us get to the mission station in the
Mary Anne.
”

Loren Matthews had always loved the sea, and the schooner was the one bit of ostentation that he allowed himself. The
Mary Anne
was a beautiful deep-water sailing yacht. Owning such a ship had been the dream of his life, and from the day he had bought the schooner, he lived for the times he could get away from business and stand at the wheel on the high seas. He had not gone sailing much in the past year, however, for he had developed heart trouble, but the schooner was still his first love after his daughter.

“If I agree,” Loren said quietly, “of course we’ll get you to the South Seas in the
Mary Anne,
but I’ll have to have much time to pray about it.”

“Dad, I knew you’d agree, and I know how much the
Mary Anne
means to you.”

“Well, we’ll leave it at that, then, but if I’m going to be involved in this, I’ll have to have some word from God and a peace about it.”

“Dad, this time I think you’ll have to trust our
vision—Dalton’s and mine and the others’. That’s the way it was in the book of Acts. You remember how Paul had a vision of a man in Macedonia who said, ‘Come over into Macedonia, and help us’? The Bible says they set off straightaway for Macedonia. So it was Paul who had the vision, and the others just had to trust him. Dad, please, I want you to trust me—and Dalton.”

Loren understood that if he wanted to keep a firm place in his daughter’s heart, he would have to go along with this scheme. He had always been able to make quick decisions in business, and most of the time his instincts were right. As much as this decision hurt him, he somehow felt it might be right.

“All right, daughter, unless I get a direct no from God, I’ll stand behind you.”

Rena gasped and tears welled in her eyes. “Didn’t I tell you, Dalton?” she said. “I told you Dad would be with us.” She jumped up, knocking over her glass of water. As Loren got to his feet, she threw herself into his arms. “Thank you, Daddy. I knew you’d understand!”

Loren was not at all sure that he understood, but he knew this was something he had to do. His daughter meant more to him than anything except his loyalty to God, and now he prayed,
Oh, God, I hope I’m doing the right thing. You’ll just have to watch over these young people.

****

“What in the world is this, Rena?” Loren asked less than two weeks later.

Rena, who was working at a desk full of papers, looked up at the newspaper her father held out. “Oh, that’s just a story about our work.”

Loren read the headline aloud, disgust dripping in his tone. “ ‘Socialite Hits the Glory Trail.’ What do you mean by giving out a story like this?”

“I didn’t give it out, Dad. I think Dalton talked to a reporter, and he made all that up—the reporter, I mean.”

“It’s a terrible story! It trivializes everything your mission stands for.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Rena said. “It’ll be good publicity.”

Flinging himself into a chair, Loren skimmed the story again, then shook his head with disgust. “It makes you look like a bunch of playboys and social butterflies.”

“Nobody believes anything they read in the newspaper.”

“I don’t like it, Rena.”

Rena got up and came around the desk to sit on the arm of her father’s chair. She put her arm around his neck and said, “Dad, don’t worry about it. Nobody will even remember what it said a week from now.”

“Well, I still don’t like it.”

“You sit right here. I want to show you something.”

Rena went quickly to the desk and picked up a paper. “Dalton and I have been very busy making the final selection for the group. I want you to look at them.”

Loren took the paper she handed him and glanced at the ten names on it. “Do you know all of these people?”

“Why, of course. Most of them were at college with us. Here, we’ll be having them over to dinner tonight, and I want you to study this list and be sure that we agree.”

“What if we don’t?”

“Oh, Dad, Dalton and I have put in a lot of time on this, but we’d feel better if you’d look at it. Here, let me fill you in on it.” She pointed to the first two names and said, “This is Jimmy Townsend and his wife, Abigail.”

“You’re taking a married couple?”

“Yes—they’re newlyweds. They’ve only been married a month.”

“Who are they?”

“Jimmy’s father is a successful contractor. He owns a construction business.”

“How does he feel about his son becoming a missionary?”

“Well, he’s disappointed. He’s always wanted Jimmy to go into the business with him, but Jimmy couldn’t see it that way. And Jimmy’s wife, Abby, is a dear girl. A bit timid, but she’ll get over that when she gets on the field.”

“I can’t believe a timid woman would be able to face up to some of the things I’ve heard foreign missionaries have to do.”

“She’s not too old to change! Jimmy’s twenty-five, and she’s a year younger. And here’s the good thing about it, Dad. Once Jimmy proves himself, his dad has all the money in the world. We can get him involved in the work too. He’ll be a great supporter once we sell him on the idea.” Rena pointed to the paper again. “There’s Karl Benson. He’s thirty-two and a very interesting man, and one of the most brilliant I’ve ever met. He even went through medical school, although he never received his degree.”

“Why not?”

“He decided God was calling him to serve on the mission field instead of becoming a doctor.”

“It’ll certainly be handy to have somebody along with some medical knowledge.”

“I don’t think Karl does much in the way of medicine.”

“Somebody will have to.”

“I suppose. But look—here’s a real prize. Professor Jan Dekker.”

“A professor of what?”

“Of theology. He was our professor, Dalton’s and mine, for most of our theology and anthropology courses. He’s a brilliant theologian and a great scholar.”

“How old is he?”

“Fifty-one.” Rena hesitated and then said, “He’s a bit liberal. Doesn’t quite see the Scriptures the way we do.”

“How does he see them?”

“He doesn’t believe all of them are inspired.”

“Oh? And just how does he decide which are and which aren’t? I don’t much like that.”

“Never mind that, Dad. He’s anxious to go to the field.
He’s never done anything but stay in the classroom, and now he’s ready to try out some of his theories for real.”

Rena saw that her father was not particularly impressed with Professor Dekker and moved on quickly down the list. “Now, Peter Alford. There’s a man you would like very much.” She bit her lip and shook her head. “He’s a little slow, but he’s a very fine young man. Strong too. And his heart’s as big as he is. Everybody likes Pete.”

Loren fired questions concerning Peter, then finally asked, “What about the women?”

“I’ve told you about Abby. And you know my best friend, Jeanne Vernay. She’s going to be one of The Twelve.”

“You two have been in competition for grades and everything else for as long as I can remember.”

“Yes, and I think that’s good.”

“I’m not sure it is. Competing on a mission field might be troublesome.”