Joan

As soon as I stepped off the plane, I threw myself to the ground, tenderly kissing the asphalt beneath my knees. Sheba looked on with wide eyes.

"Was it that bad, Joan?" she asked.

"Let's just say not every place permits freedom of religion. How have you been?"

"Terrible! This Dave guy who served with Yuri keeps hitting on me!" She shuddered. "I pray every day that Yuri comes home, but each day he doesn't, I know he's still alive. I'd rather hear nothing at all than hear he's coming home in a coffin!"

"Of course."

Sheba and I have been friends for years. We're like sisters.

"Your cousin know you're home yet?"

I smiled. "I thought I'd surprise him in church this Sunday."

Manny's eyes widened when he saw me enter the sanctuary. (His name is actually Emmanuel, but he feels unworthy to share a name with Jesus, so he just goes by Manny. Besides, it sounds more like the word "man," i.e. a normal person.)

"How was the mission field, Joan?" he asked, pulling me into a hug.

"Wonderful!" I replied. "We had a lot of people come to Christ and be baptized in their local churches, and we even had a few miracles. People were healed of diseases that had afflicted them for years. It was well worth those few days when I couldn't find any food, so I had to catch grasshoppers. They weren't too bad when I fried them and dipped them in a little honey for flavoring."

So many people were enthused to help their churches! One widow had given every bit of money she had. A younger woman had left an expensive bottle of perfume at the altar. While we in a blessed country so often prayed to remind God why we deserved blessings because of all we had done, most of the people I had met abroad prayed for their friends and relatives who did not yet know Jesus.

I told Manny how the winner of some national pageant or the other had come with our group. She had been born overseas, and she wanted to journey to her native land and help the local people. She encouraged women to stand up for themselves rather than being treated as property, and she encouraged men to treat their wives as respected partners rather than servants. Furthermore, she had been granted an audience with government officials, and she had used the opportunity to plead humbly that a planned genocide be prevented. God had been with her, for the officials had agreed not to harm innocent people who dwelt in their land.

"What's wrong?" my cousin asked when I finished my story.

I shook my head. "Nothing. I'm just tired from the trip."

How could I tell him that not everything was beautiful? A terrorist group had descended upon one of the churches, and I had seen someone beheaded. Most of the other people were hauled away to some rat hole jail cell.

Sheba called me the following day with the news she had been waiting to hear: Yuri was coming home! Since Dave had defeated the terrorist leader, waves of troops had been returning to their native countries, and now Yuri would be among them.

Unfortunately, it would be for only two weeks before he was sent to another country to keep peace. It didn't seem fair that Dave was stationed locally while Yuri had to remain overseas, but he was still grateful for the time away from the warzone.

The next time I saw Sheba, she was wearing a diamond ring on her left hand. She blushed easily, yet her face had a certain glow.

"Yuri asked me to marry him, and I said yes!" she squealed.

"Really?" I embraced her. "That's wonderful! Congratulations!"

"Do you think you can get Pastor Fulgrace to marry us before Yuri gets sent off again?"

I spoke with Manny, and he was willing. Sheba made a beautiful bride. I felt bad that her time as a wife would be so short before her husband was deployed once more.

Not a full month after Yuri left, I got another call from Sheba. This time she was in tears. She said she wanted to talk in person.

"I'm pregnant!" she sobbed. "It's not Yuri's!"

I frowned. "What makes you think…?"

"Yuri didn't think it would be right to engage in intimacy while he was still on duty, even if it was furlough. I was still a virgin when he left."

I was getting a bad feeling about where this conversation was going.

"Dave said if I would let him have his way, he would donate to solve a few of the financial problems I've been having. I refused, but he said if I wasn't willing, he'd take me by force, so I let him do it." She buried her face in her hands. "And now I'm pregnant! I feel like cheap trash! What will I tell Yuri?"

As it turned out, she didn't have to worry about telling Yuri anything. The dreaded telegram arrived the following week.

Apparently, Dave decided he hadn't caused enough trouble. He approached Sheba after church.

"What do you want now?" she demanded.

"I wanted to apologize," he answered. "I should never have said or done those terrible things to you, and I should never have suggested to Yuri that he…"

"That's what I've been telling you! What finally convinced you to listen to reason?" She crossed her arms. "Wait. What did you tell Yuri?"

"My friend Nate really let me have it, but he's right. I've become a deplorable person, and I came to repent before God. Now I must also ask your forgiveness. I won't bother you anymore, and I'll do anything I can to make it right."

"I'm pregnant, you idiot!"

"I'll help. I'll provide child support and help you raise it and everything."

Sheba turned sharply on her heels and walked away without a word. Dave just kind of nodded, knowing he deserved the cold shoulder.

Dave kept apologizing every time they met. When Sheba finally spoke to him again, she demanded to know what he had suggested to Yuri. I couldn't hear Dave's whispered explanation, but the whole church saw Sheba slap his face.

"Is something the matter?" Manny asked.

"No, Pastor," Dave replied. "I've sinned terribly, and even though God has forgiven me, there are still consequences for my actions. Some wrongs take longer than others to right."

Sheba was still having her financial problems, and she wasn't sure how she was going to raise a child as a single parent. Dave truly seemed penitent, so to avoid living in poverty and disgrace, she eventually consented to matrimony, but only on the condition that Dave would stop visiting his old flames. There was no beautiful wedding, only a form signed in the courthouse.

In time, she came to feel happy about her coming baby, but only a few days after the little one's arrival, SIDS brought the unhappy couple to the brink of divorce. Sheba hated Dave, but she refused to let him off the hook so easily. He would provide for her and her future children whether he liked it or not, and that was final.

I think Manny knew the pair had an unhappy relationship, but unless they specifically asked him for help, he would not involve himself in their problems. As far as he was concerned, it was between them and God. However, Manny would gladly pray for them, as he did for all members of his congregation.

There were plenty who needed prayer. One guy lost his job the day before an accident in the kitchen burned his entire house to ashes. While the house was still ablaze, he got a call that his children, who had been vacationing in another part of the country, were lost in a tornado.

"Not to worry!" he replied. "They can't be too far. I'm sure you'll find them soon."

Then he realized what the caller had been trying to tell him.

That evening, the stock market plummeted, taking the poor man's entire fortune with it. His friends invited him to stay with them until he got back on his feet, but each of them had a sermon for him about how he must surely deserve this ill fortune because he must have angered God in some way. As if things weren't bad enough, the poor guy caught some sort of pox because he wasn't vaccinated as a child. His wife considered leaving him, but she had somehow gotten the idea that she'd get some sort of compensation if he died, so she encouraged him to kill himself.

All in all, it was a complicated mess. I was grateful that I had never fallen in love with anyone.