“No. She didn’t pressure you into faith either. But she was open to talk about it. She … she was just one of the coolest people I ever knew. Always there, you know?”
Megan remembered the aunt from her counseling sessions with Geri. There were a lot of issues Geri had with how things went in the Krauser household. Mrs. Krauser was a closet drinker and Lieutenant Krauser hadn’t been faithful to the marriage. Geri had brought those things up, but neither parent had been in to talk about it or even deal with it in the relationship. Aunt Lil had been Geri’s major confidante.
“A personal relationship with God is what my mom always talked about,” Susan said. “She said she enjoyed church and talking with people about God, and never forgot to thank Him for the blessings He’d given her. But she said the most important thing anyone could ever have was that personal relationship.”
“How do you get a personal relationship with God?” John Reynard asked. He was always quiet, always intense. He was gawky and socially inept to a degree, springing partly from the fact that his father was an artillery specialist and trained at several different posts, moving his family each time. He’d been overseas a number of times. John dressed and acted goth, with painted fingernails and dyed hair that drove his military father crazy and gave his mother more ammunition to argue with his father over. He had his arms crossed over his chest and peered from under a sheep dog’s forelock of dusty blue hair.
“You ask for it,” Geri said. “That’s what Aunt Lil always told me when I asked.”
“Not like you can dial up 1-800-GOD,” John said.
“You pray,” Susan said. “That’s what my mom told me too.”
“You pray and what? God answers?”
“Yes,” Susan said.
John looked troubled and shook his head. “You ever heard Him speak to you?”
“It’s not like that,” Susan said. “My mom said she’d pray about something that she couldn’t handle or needed guidance with; then she’d leave whatever it was with God. Kind of the way Kyle guided us in prayer a few minutes ago.” She shrugged. “You just don’t get an immediate answer.”
“Why not?” John asked.
“Because then it wouldn’t be faith,” Kyle replied. He took a deep breath. “When my dad was in ICU and the doctors told me he might not recover, I knew Dad was in a lot of pain. I could see it in his eyes when he was conscious those few times. I … I got the feeling that he was hanging on for me. That he wouldn’t go because he was trying to stay with me till Mom got there.”
Megan felt Kyle’s pain resonating within her. She hadn’t known that any of the kids she had assembled had ever had to be so strong.
Kyle took another deep breath and tears ran down his cheeks. “The second morning after he had his attack, I prayed to God to give me the strength to let my dad go. A few hours later, when my dad was conscious again, I felt okay about everything. Even though Mom wasn’t there. I’m talking about a real sense of peace, guys, and I haven’t felt anything like that since that morning. I told my dad that I had talked to God and that if he needed to go, it would be all right because I knew God would be with me.” Kyle gulped air. “Less than an hour later, my dad died. Peacefully. Like it was no problem at all.” He wiped his tears away. “It was hard to do it, but I thanked God for His mercy.”
“I couldn’t have done that,” Susan whispered.
Still teary-eyed, Kyle smiled gently at her. He whispered in a hoarse voice, “That’s the whole secret, though. Dad always said that you never knew what you could do until you asked God to help you.”
“Then why are you still here if you believe in God so much?” Marcus asked.
“That’s just it,” Kyle said. “I didn’t believe. Not really. Not even after that morning. I asked God for a favor and He gave it to me. Kind of like asking a stranger for help. Sometimes you get help from that stranger, but sometimes you get ignored. Even if the stranger helps you, you still don’t know him.” He looked around at the group. “I think if you’re going to truly become a Christian, you have to go to God in prayer, ask Him what you can do, and then listen to what He has to say.”
“I thought we just agreed that God doesn’t talk to you.”
“Not directly,” Geri said. “Aunt Lil said sometimes He puts things on your heart. Like me with this seminar. When Juan got up and left, I had every intention of leaving too. Only I couldn’t after Susan said what she did about her mom. It reminded me too much of Aunt Lil. In that instant, things just seemed to get clearer. I’d prayed about that this morning. Which is why I came here in the first place.” She frowned a little as if struggling to make the others understand. “I think that if you listen, you’ll understand what you’re supposed to do.”
“But first,” Susan said, “you have to ask. Like Kyle did at the prayer we had at the beginning of this meeting.” She pursed her lips. “I think it’s made a difference. I know I feel better about everything.”
The others quickly agreed.
“We can’t forget about the Antichrist,” Shawn said. “I think we should keep our eyes open for him.” He flipped through the pages of the book on the desk. “I mean, look at this. War. Famine. Plagues. An earthquake. And that’s just the beginning. One simple fact of the situation is that the farther we are from the Antichrist, the safer we are.”
“The Antichrist!” The voice ripped through the schoolroom, jerking everyone’s attention to the doorway. A Ranger captain stood there, dressed in a crisp uniform
