Gloria's conversion 1.9
= = = Christ Church, Jerusalem, Israel
Gloria took the bus North from Ramat Rachel into the old city via the Zion Gate. Sunrise, thin high clouds painted with orange light, great morning to be walking, to be alive. As she was walking by the Saint James Cathedral, she always wondered if they have an infirmary; she could feel that blues song is playing right in her head, ever hear that rendition of with Mike Poor?
Smartwatch log, stardate 1908.34 Walking by, well it was a church, which is not that common in Jerusalem. I heard singing right from the walls it seemed, had time, followed it. Song was unfamiliar, but they, largely an international group, tourists, clearly knew the words, singing acapella.
Kings and nations tremble at His voice,
All creation rises to rejoice.
Gloria thought to herself, Hey, they are singing about my God.
This earnest young man, clearly middle eastern, started to teach from the Pentateuch:
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
I've heard that all my life, but it always seems the people of the earth have been blessed through the toil and sweat of Jews. We earn it, they kick us out, or kill us, and then steal it. Thankfully, we have our land now.
The young man, Asher, kept teaching, reciting the scriptures. For the first time, Gloria thought, maybe Jesus was the messiah, the promised one. And then he recited from the prophets, Isaiah.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Was Jesus the messiah? Newsflash in case you didn't know, lots of Jews were killed by the Romans. And a bunch of nations since then and it isn't over today. Yet.
Gloria wrote in her journal: "I started thinking, maybe dreaming, hard to say, one ear was processing what Asher was saying, my head bobbed, have you ever had that happen? Know you want to stay awake, but sleep, unbidden, comes up and grabs you and your head bobs? But I saw, clear as day, a man, a little black man, a raggedy man, praying, it was the reverend. And when my head bobbed up, I wanted to shout, "I believe," seemed wrong in a church while the young man was clearly trying to find his conclusion:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And so I shall, so I do. Now I realize the ultimate toil and sweat with the Messiah. I wanted to talk with someone, I thought of Mr. Slocom, but now it was 0830 in Jerusalem, no way he would be there, but why not call.
RING RING
PHONE:
Hello Sister Gloria
How did you know?
There's a party going on, don't you know? A party in heaven.
END PHONE.
After talking with Chase Slocom, she knew what she had to do. It wouldn't be easy, started with her unit commander.
Of course someone had mentioned all the money that had been spent training her for the IDF. The Jews are in competition with the Catholics for "the guilt button". But she was, as usual, a step ahead.
Drop In: Hey Wonk!
PRESENCE: Wonk, I need a favor, can we get a set of tacticals for the soldiers in my unit, the good stuff.
Sure Gloria, we will need measurements.
I'll do it myself, sounds like fun.
I can only imagine. OK, I'll get right on it.
Thanks, see you soon.
END PRESENCE.
Wonk hoped they were not going into a dangerous mission, but set the order for heavy duty, extra spring backs and made sure there was a set for Gloria. He had enough photos with things that scaled to build on.
There was a small ceremony. IDF units had tacticals of course, but nothing like this. They gratefully accepted her gift and then drummed her out of the corps.
Gloria took the bus North from Ramat Rachel into the old city via the Zion Gate. Sunrise, thin high clouds painted with orange light, great morning to be walking, to be alive. As she was walking by the Saint James Cathedral, she always wondered if they have an infirmary; she could feel that blues song is playing right in her head, ever hear that rendition of with Mike Poor?
Smartwatch log, stardate 1908.34 Walking by, well it was a church, which is not that common in Jerusalem. I heard singing right from the walls it seemed, had time, followed it. Song was unfamiliar, but they, largely an international group, tourists, clearly knew the words, singing acapella.
Kings and nations tremble at His voice,
All creation rises to rejoice.
Gloria thought to herself, Hey, they are singing about my God.
This earnest young man, clearly middle eastern, started to teach from the Pentateuch:
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
I've heard that all my life, but it always seems the people of the earth have been blessed through the toil and sweat of Jews. We earn it, they kick us out, or kill us, and then steal it. Thankfully, we have our land now.
The young man, Asher, kept teaching, reciting the scriptures. For the first time, Gloria thought, maybe Jesus was the messiah, the promised one. And then he recited from the prophets, Isaiah.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Gloria wrote in her journal: "I started thinking, maybe dreaming, hard to say, one ear was processing what Asher was saying, my head bobbed, have you ever had that happen? Know you want to stay awake, but sleep, unbidden, comes up and grabs you and your head bobs? But I saw, clear as day, a man, a little black man, a raggedy man, praying, it was the reverend. And when my head bobbed up, I wanted to shout, "I believe," seemed wrong in a church while the young man was clearly trying to find his conclusion:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And so I shall, so I do. Now I realize the ultimate toil and sweat with the Messiah. I wanted to talk with someone, I thought of Mr. Slocom, but now it was 0830 in Jerusalem, no way he would be there, but why not call.
RING RING
PHONE:
Hello Sister Gloria
How did you know?
There's a party going on, don't you know? A party in heaven.
END PHONE.
After talking with Chase Slocom, she knew what she had to do. It wouldn't be easy, started with her unit commander.
Of course someone had mentioned all the money that had been spent training her for the IDF. The Jews are in competition with the Catholics for "the guilt button". But she was, as usual, a step ahead.
Drop In: Hey Wonk!
PRESENCE: Wonk, I need a favor, can we get a set of tacticals for the soldiers in my unit, the good stuff.
Sure Gloria, we will need measurements.
I'll do it myself, sounds like fun.
I can only imagine. OK, I'll get right on it.
Thanks, see you soon.
END PRESENCE.
Wonk hoped they were not going into a dangerous mission, but set the order for heavy duty, extra spring backs and made sure there was a set for Gloria. He had enough photos with things that scaled to build on.
There was a small ceremony. IDF units had tacticals of course, but nothing like this. They gratefully accepted her gift and then drummed her out of the corps.
Comments
Post a Comment