"We can't all fit into the wagon," Wallace said the next morning after they were all dressed in their Sunday best and ready to go. "It ain't a big wagon and most of the back is loaded with seed. It'll take too long to haul it all out."

"Why don't we all just go in mine and Ruth's wagon?" Kid suggested. "It won't be a problem taking the benches out and there'll be plenty of room in the back."

"She's got that advertisement for her services on the cover of the wagon," Jed said.

"What's wrong with those services?" Kid asked. "As church-going people surely you know that folks need revivals."

"Led by a woman?" Wallace said as Jed supported those thoughts with a nod; they were as like-minded as a son and father could be. "It ain't right."

Kid didn't feel like bringing his father's wrath down on their heads again and the man was too stubborn to argue with anyhow. He'd never see any way but his way. "We'll just meet you there then."

Eleanor and Millie looked somewhat sympathetically toward them from their waiting spots in the wagon, but they didn't say anything. Wallace and Jed climbed in and they rode off toward church.

"I'm sorry about that. They would like you if they didn't view you as an extension of me," Kid said. "Their hatred is unfairly spilling over to you."

"They don't hate you. It's their pain speaking."

"What's the difference?" Kid said bitterly.

"Everything. If they work through the pain, you'll find the love is there like it always was."

"But will they work through it?" he said with a doubtful look.

"Lord only knows, but we better get a move on before we're late."

"You want to take the wagon or maybe just take the horses? It's almost 2 miles."

"Nah, let's just walk. It's a pretty day, and to tell you the truth, I'm sick of riding in a wagon after all these months."

"I wouldn't mind stretching my legs some either," he agreed. He took her hand and held it as they walked.

"Is this going to be hard for you?" Ruth asked. "Seeing all those people you know?"

"No harder than facing my family was, I guess," he answered.

"You got fond memories of your church?"

He shrugged. "I reckon. I walked up front when I was 12 to accept Christ. Thought I got saved, but it didn't stick. I feared hell more than I feared God. I guess the truth of the matter is that I pictured Him as being like my father, which is natural for any child when you hear the name Father in Heaven all the time. What else has a child got to go by?"

"So how'd you see Him?" Ruth asked. She'd heard a lot of stories about his mother but not many about his father though she was beginning to fill in the blanks after having met the man.

"I saw Him as angry, uncaring, demanding perfection, and ready to smite and punish for the least little infraction." Ruth cringed at the imagery although she had expected as much. "It was you really that helped show me that He was loving. That there was mercy to be found if I let go of my own anger and let Him have my life."

"Were you close to Jed when you were growing up?"

He felt like he was getting the third degree, but he didn't mind. He didn't want to keep anything from her. "We were too far apart in age and maybe too close in temperament. No, I was always closer to Ben."

Kid's church was a sleepy little church as small and unadorned as hers. They'd made it just in time to see the congregation rising for the hymns. At least, Kid's family had saved them a place on the pew. Ruth noticed there was no feeling behind the words the people were singing. It was business as usual to them. Last year had been a hard year for farmers. No doubt their financial worries were adding to their joylessness. Still, worries had to be handed over to the One who would take care of them.

The preacher looked near 90. He came to the front and his preaching was as lifeless as the congregation's expressions, whether it was due to his health or because he had lost his zeal for the Lord she didn't know. She did know that when folks were falling asleep or thinking about the week ahead as short a sermon as it was, it was a sign of a lukewarm church. Sick souls troubled her more than sick bodies.

"The ladies have been working hard to put together a bazaar for this coming Saturday," the preacher announced as things drew to a close, "to go toward the missionaries we support in India, so I hope you all will be out to buy the lovely things that have been donated."

The announcement received little interest judging by their looks and Ruth had a feeling the bazaar wouldn't be a rousing success. Had they no concern for the lost in India? No eagerness to see souls saved? That settled it. This church needed help. These people needed help, so she stood up and began the hymn about Michael rowing the boat that she had learned at the plantation, clapping out the beat. It took them a little while to join in the clapping due to their surprise and because they hadn't heard the song before. Some joined in on the hallelujahs by the end.

When the song finished, she announced, "I'd like to invite all ya'll to a revival this Tuesday afternoon at 3. We'll have it out in the field behind the church if that suits your preacher?" The elderly man nodded, who looked too stunned to say or do little else. "Spread the word and come be restored to the joy of our salvation. Come feel His Spirit and be revived. Let God inspire you to be the salt, light, and fire He intended us to be in this world as His followers."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Coles watching her. Wallace's opinion was evident in the beet red glow of his face, as Jed's was in his glower. Eleanor was regally rigid and impossible to read, a true poker face. Millie was watching with the same curiosity she had shown earlier maybe even more so. Kid simply looked proud of her.

The service broke up after the preacher led them in a prayer and people began to filter out. Kid quickly found he was a social outcast. Not a friend among them. If anyone felt any sympathy for his situation, they didn't show it. They greeted his family, but he might as well have been invisible. It was a confirmation that he'd made the right decision to leave. He would have grown to resent God even more than he had with this kind of coldness coming from self-professed Christians. But maybe the revival would help them. After all, that's what they were for and people could be revived he'd discovered if the transformation he'd seen in Ruth's church was any indication.

Ruth didn't have to try to get them talking over lunch. Wallace launched into a reprimand right after the prayer.

"What was it Paul said? That women should remain silent? That their speaking in church a disgrace? Well, today was a disgrace," Wallace said.

"Don't take the Bible out of context, sir. Paul only meant that the Corinthian women or any Christian shouldn't interrupt a service with their questions and comments. They should save them for home, so the service can be orderly," Ruth said unabashedly but gently. "The same book in the Bible also says that women can pray and prophesy in church and how can they do that without talking? My announcement of the revival was not disruptive. It's every Christian's responsibility to see that the good news is spread and that's what I'm doing. You wouldn't refute the great commission Jesus gave us from His own lips, would you?"

Kid tried to hide a smile. His father would lose this theological debate. Ruth had a way of hammering a person with so many words and scripture, you didn't know your left from your right. Indeed, his father looked confused now.

"And what do you think about all this, Kenneth?" Jed asked, the smile not being lost on him.

"I think that sounds good and right to me. I ain't as well-versed in scripture yet, but if the Bible says women should pray and prophesy in church who am I to argue with God or my wife for that matter? What do you say about it, Jed?"

The annoyed clacking of silverware was the only answer he received.