The Secret of the Desert Stone (16 page)

As the plane taxied to a stop not far from the village, Brent Anderson, the once-exiled missionary, gazed out the window, drinking in the scene. “This is it, Jake! This is the village I wanted to reach! I know the Lord has called me here!”

Jacob Cooper shut down the engine and smiled at his friend. “I think they know it too. They've been expecting you for a long time.”

Dr. Cooper, Brent Anderson, Jay, and Lila all stepped out of the plane while throngs of Motosas came running from the village, cheering and waving. It was a day the Motosas had been promised for years, and now it had finally arrived. Just as they had done for Dr. Henderson weeks ago, the warriors made chairs of their arms and bore all four of the visitors aloft, carrying them through the newly thriving grasslands, into the village, and into the big meeting hall where the rest of the villagers had already assembled.

The chief was standing on the large, square stone in front, ready to welcome them. Brent Anderson was brought right to the front, introduced to the chief, and then embraced by the powerful, jovial man dressed like a big bush. The Coopers took a bench over to the side where Bengati was waiting to interpret the proceedings for them.

The chief raised his big arms, and the crowd fell silent. Then he began to speak.

Bengati leaned close and interpreted for the Coopers. “You all know the dream our God gave me: That someday a man with blond hair would come down out of the sky and open the leaves he held in his hand,” the chief made the gesture with his hands that symbolized the opening of a book, “and that the leaves would speak and tell us the name of our God. I never understood how leaves could speak, until my son . . .” The chief had to stop a moment to choke back tears as he looked down at Ontolo, who sat in the front row with paper and pencils he'd received from the Coopers, ready to write. “Until my son found a way with his little marks. Now, the leaves can speak. Now, the man from the sky with light hair has come!”

The crowd cheered. The Coopers cheered.

The chief continued, “You know that Jacob Cooper came to us from the sky with light hair and much wisdom, but he was not the man in my dream.” Then the chief added with a twinkle in his eye, “But we were not wrong about Jacob Cooper and his children—they were just early!”

The people laughed.

The chief guided Brent Anderson onto the large speaking rock and said to the crowd, “Here is the man our God has promised!”

Brent Anderson, moved to the point of tears, took his big, black Bible, opened it, and began to read to them from the Gospel of John, interpreting the Scriptures directly into Motosan, a language he had already learned.

All over the building, people's faces glowed as they listened, looked at one another, and then made the opening book gesture with their hands. The leaves, they agreed, were now speaking.

“For years your God has spoken to you of Himself and His Son who came to earth to save you,” Brent said in Motosan as Bengati interpreted for the Coopers. “He showed you through your stories how sin can bite like a snake and destroy you. He showed you through the Man in the Tree how He would provide someone who would take away the bite of the snake by taking sin's punishment upon Himself. According to your own story, He sent Ontolo to save Mobutu.”

Dr. Cooper smiled quietly as he looked across the room and saw D. M. Mobutu, the new presidentelect of Togwana, sitting next to Chief Gotono, his cousin. The new government and the Motosas had already established a friendly, working relationship.

Brent continued, “Finally, He showed you how this Man in the Tree would not remain a man in a tree, dying from the arrows and spears of sin, but would someday come to earth as a mighty mountain that would sweep evil from the earth, give us rest from our enemies, and water our lands.”

Lila folded her arms as if she were cold. “Wow, this is giving me goosebumps!”

Jay pointed across the room. “Look at Ontolo.”

Lila looked to see the chief's son writing down what Brent Anderson was saying, using his own alphabet.

“He wants to start writing out the Bible in Motosan,” said Jay. “Looks like God thought of everything.”

Brent turned a page in his Bible. The leaves continued to speak. “Because God so loved all people, He sent His Son to save not only Motosas, but all people. If we believe in His Son, we will not die, but will live forever with Him.”

That got a cheer from the crowd. It was what they'd been waiting to hear for years.

“Even now, even today, the Man in the Tree, the one you call Ontolo, will save us and take us back into His arms. I have come to tell you about Him and to tell you His name.”

There was a gasp from the crowd and even from the chief.

“The name of our God!” said Bengati in a hushed, excited voice. “We have waited so long. . . .”

“His name is Jesus,” said Brent, “the Man in the Tree, who takes away the sins of the whole world.”

Dr. Cooper wiped a tear from his eye. Jesus. The Man in the Tree. The Savior. The Stone the builders rejected. The Chief Cornerstone. The Stone that would someday destroy all wicked kings and fill the whole earth with His glory.

He had come at last to the Motosas.