Whispers of a New Dawn Read Online Free PDF Page B

did you go to?” added Joshua as he carved up a baked potato, refusing to give his friend any advantage.
    Becky suddenly laughed even though inside she felt tense and unsure of herself. “So many questions! I’ll die of starvation if I try to answer them all.”
    Moses smiled. “Well, eat a bit and talk a bit and then eat some more.”
    Becky finished a piece of her grandmother’s ham and wiped the corners of her mouth with a white napkin. “Okay. Before we visited here the last time we were in Africa.”
    “Africa.” Moses thought about that. “I know about the amazing animals. Did you see any of them?”
    “The animals? Yes. Lions, zebras, elephants, rhinoceroses. You must be careful, but they are beautiful.”
    “But what were you doing there?” Joshua drank from a glass of water. “What was the purpose of your visit?”
    “It was more than a visit, Joshua. We were there five years. In Kenya. We helped start a church—Mother, Father, my brother, and I.”
    “Who is your brother?” asked Joshua.
    “Nate. You didn’t see him last time because he joined a missionary organization and went to China.”
    “China!” Joshua bit into a thick heel of bread. “Was he also helping with a church there?”
    “Yes.”
    “What kind?”
    “A Christian kind.”
    “Not Amish.”
    “Not Amish. But he taught them to follow the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.”
    Joshua shook his head. “We Amish don’t do that. The bishop has told us many times—and my father has also said it—that it’s not for us to go around the world chasing people and asking them to believe in God. There is the Bible. They can pick it up and read it. That’s all that’s needed. We must be about our life here. That’s how we serve God.”
    Becky put down her fork and knife and looked at him. “You read a German Bible.”
    “ Ja , sure, though I don’t read it for myself, I listen to the pastors reading it on the Sundays.”
    “But the Bible was not written in German. Someone had to translate it into German from Hebrew and Greek. What would you do if they hadn’t done that? How could you understand it?”
    Joshua shrugged. “My English is okay.”
    “The Bible had to be translated into English too. Men and women were killed for doing that. Joshua, people are needed who will travel to a country, learn the language, and translate the Bible into that language. Otherwise people can’t know the story of God’s love. That’s what we were doing in Africa and the Caribbean. Finding their words for the story and then using those words to tell them how much God cared for their families and friends. Talking to them about the Cross. Plopping a German Bible down in front of most people won’t help them at all.”
    Joshua stared at her.
    Aware that a touch of fire had come into her voice, Becky dropped her head and went at her cabbage salad. Moses and Joshua watched her for a moment, realized that something had fallen between them and her, and said nothing. Finally Moses tapped her lightly on the sleeve of her dress.
    “Hey. We take nothing away from what you’re doing. You have served the Lord in the manner you felt was most fitting. We’re taught differently, that’s all.”
    Becky didn’t lift her head. “If you respect the Bible so much, what do you do about Paul’s missionary journeys? All over the Roman world. Shipwrecks. Beatings. Mobs. All because he wanted to tell people God was love, not hate—that he was light, not darkness.”
    Moses nodded. “Of course we know those stories of his sailing trips.”
    “What if he had stayed home and said, ‘Well, the world can read the Bible and that is all they need?’ Especially if the world didn’t have a Bible?”
    Moses held up a hand. “All right. Tell us what happened before Africa.”
    “Why?”
    “I’d like to know. We both would.”
    “Why?”
    “Please. We’re interested.”
    Becky kept on eating. “There was a lot of flying. We are a flying family. All of us are