Armageddon's Slaves Chapter Seven

The Servants met at the Gathering House for their usual semi-monthly meeting.  The February chill permeated the building, as they decided not to turn up the heat for a brief meeting. Only the local Servants took part. Although he often sat in, Luke did not attend this session, as he had business out of town. As Senior Servant, Caleb ran the meeting.

“Well, gentlemen, congratulations, we managed to get through that business with Phil Peterson without too much bad press.”

Samuel wondered if anyone had asked Mrs. Peterson how she was doing. The last he heard she had left for Wenatchee to stay with her family. No one knew if she had any source of money. The papers and TV and splashed the story all over town for two days, some local pastors wrote letters about how terrible it was to shun a church member. Then the story died, knocked off the news by the murder of a porn star vacationing in Coeur D’Alene.     

After that, matters continued routinely until Caleb said that he had more instruction about the new communication system. New Jerusalem had informed all Gatherings that they were responsible for the purchase of the flat screen TV and computer. New Jerusalem would supply only the software.

“How much will that cost?” Sergei Ivanov asked.

“The size TV they want will cost three to five thousand dollars, the computer with some extras will be under a thousand.”

“Do we have that?”

“We have almost ten thousand in our reserve for the roof,” Joe Garcia, the accounts Servant answered, “but it took us five or six years to get it. We’d hoped to do the work next summer.”

“Don’t worry, Armageddon will be here by then,” Sergei said, laughing. Several of the Servants chuckled, Caleb’s face clouded up.

“This is The Lord Almighty’s business,” he snapped, “not some joke.”

“Oh lighten up Caleb. It’s kind of a pain, but we’ll come up with the money.” No one but Ivanov could talk to Caleb like that.  The Disciple community knew the Russian émigré both a sense of humor and blunt manner. The combination sometimes got him in trouble.

“I don’t mind giving a brief announcement about it. We can ask the Gathering to try to give a little more.” Joe added.

So far, Samuel had remained quiet, at this he decided to say something. “We’ve always said that we didn’t go around begging for money like the churches. I hate to see that change.”

He heard agreement from several others. In the end, they voted to spend the necessary money, and wait to ask the Gathering for additional donations. Perhaps they could delay the new roof, or donations might increase if the regular accounting report mentioned the added expense.

“One last item,” Caleb said, “Matt and Laura Edwards have missed several Gatherings lately. 

Someone should say something to them, they need to be here. Big changes are coming, we all need to stay up on the latest information from New Jerusalem.”

“How many times have I heard that,” Samuel thought.

Sergei said he would talk to them and encourage them, he and Tatiana got along with them. He would invite them to dinner. There being no other business, Caleb ended the meeting.

**

When he arrived at home, Samuel decided he had too many unanswered questions about what they had discussed. The Gathering sent large payments to New Jerusalem. The United States contained about twelve thousand Gatherings. Assuming they all did the same, where was the money going? He knew that many Disciples in less developed nations had no money and no doubt took funds from New Jerusalem.

But Disciples in places like Japan and Europe would also contribute. For years, New Jerusalem collected millions from the sale of literature. Where did the money go? The Gathering, everybody not just the Servants, heard an accounts report every month detailing the income and expenses incurred. The two Area Gatherings held each year also reported income and expense to attendees. Sometimes the summer Grand Gatherings mentioned a need to cover a shortfall in finances. 

Yet never, in all his years as a Disciple, had Samuel heard or seen an accounting statement from New Jerusalem. Yet they asked constantly for contributions to worldwide Disciple-making. A special fund existed to provide money to build Gathering Houses in third world countries. But nobody ever accounted for the money.

Now, New Jerusalem started this communication idea, and demanded the Gatherings pay for it. Something didn’t seem right. He decided to bring it up with Caleb and Luke when he saw them, maybe they knew something he didn’t.

The opportunity came up a few nights later, over dinner, this time in his home. Judith and Sophia set up a taco bar, and they ate casually, the children entertaining themselves in the family room. As usual, the latest “news” dominated the talk.

Gloria Lighthorse continued to cause problems for her family. She refused to go to Gatherings, and complained constantly about not seeing any of her friends. When the talk turned briefly to Ricky Halbert, Caleb jumped in and changed the subject. Clearly, he didn’t want to talk about the young man. Samuel had heard nothing about discipline for him, he suspected that his father’s influence protected him from action by the Servants.

“Hey Caleb, Luke, I have a question, does anybody ever get an accounts report from New Jerusalem? 

It occurred to me the other night that I’ve never seen one.”

Both men looked nonplussed, and shook their heads.

“We trust the Apostles and other fine men at New Jerusalem to properly manage The Lord’s money.”

Caleb’s tone made it clear he did not want to discuss the matter. Samuel knew better than to push it. He suspected that his two in-laws were watching his words and conduct closely. He wanted to sort out how he felt before bringing on a confrontation of some sort. He was still, after all, a Disciple.

**

The following night he received a phone call from Matt Edwards, who wanted to have a private talk with him. He suggested they go out for coffee at Starbucks after Sunday Gathering. Samuel agreed, but wondered why Matt wanted to talk to him. Had his meeting with Sergei had gone badly? He hoped not, he liked Matt, who, he suspected, was also struggling with his relationship with The Word.

The topic of Disciple-making dominated the Sunday Gathering. Samuel only half heard it, as neither the sermon nor the Study contained new information, or ideas for educating the public. They just ordered the Disciples to do more work.

Matt had offered to drive, so Judith and David hitched a ride with Laura Edwards. As soon as Matt and Samuel left the Gathering House parking lot, Matt said they weren’t going to Starbucks.

“Where are we going?”

“To see Gloria Lighthorse. She ran away from home Friday. She’s staying in a shelter. She wouldn’t let them call her parents, but she told the shelter people to call Laura and I.  She’s been baby-sitting for us for a couple of years. I think we’re the only ones she’s comfortable talking to. I talked to her for a minute and decided I needed a witness to the conversation.”

“I see. You know this might get both of us in trouble.”

“I thought of that, but I want somebody there. I didn’t know who else to call. No offense, but I don’t think the other Servants know how to handle this.”

 “No offense taken. They are good men, but some can be hardline.”

A short time later, they arrived at a small office building. It wasn’t the shelter, but contained the offices for the shelter’s administration. A woman greeting them politely but coolly at the door and introduced herself as Helen. She did not give a last name, and said she was Gloria’s case manager.

She had them sit down while she disappeared to get Gloria. Samuel wondered if they should call the legal department at New Jerusalem, but decided he should hear what Gloria said first. He told Matt that he would have to report the conversation to Caleb when he got home.

“That’s why I said I wanted to take you out for coffee. You can tell him I didn’t tell you where we were going.”

“You’re going to get in trouble.”

“I’m already in trouble. I haven’t done anything wrong, except that I’m tired of waiting for Armageddon. Sergei Ivanov met with me Friday night and made it clear the Servants have their eye on me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not. I’m tired of all the nonsense that goes with this religion.”

“You came in right before 2008 didn’t you.”

“Yup.”

Helen returned with Gloria, who looked terrified. She had on no makeup, accenting her pale complexion.  She settled down when Matt assured her that they just wanted to hear what she had to say.

Her story was long and convoluted in the telling, as she kept backing up to some prior event and clarifying matters. Her frequent sobs made her hard to understand. The review committee had determined that she had harassed Ricky Halbert. She claimed that her parents had encouraged her to befriend Naomi Halbert, Ricky’s sister, as she could provide a good example for her.

“Disciple Collins, the Area Servant told my parents I needed spiritual guidance from someone my own age, and Naomi could do that.”

She dabbed at her eyes and tried unsuccessfully to laugh. “He told my Mom that I should get to know 

Ricky better since his uncle was an Apostle.”

After spending some time with the Halberts she believed that she liked Ricky, and the feeling was mutual. There had been one brief encounter, when Ricky was driving her home. That was all.

The local Servants had ignored everything she told them about her parents. When the committee made its decision, her parents “freaked out.” Her father slapped her. Her mother pulled down all her pictures, put them in a plastic box, and buried it in the backyard to show her that she was “dead to the family since she decided to leave The Word.” She decided to run away then, although she had to work up the courage to do so.

“I just wanted somebody at the House to hear my side. I don’t think the Committee heard a word I said.”

“What do you want us to do?”

“Tell the Disciples I’m not a slut. Tell them I was trying to do what my parents wanted. It’s not my fault I fell in love with Ricky.”

“We’ll see what we can do.” Samuel promised quietly.

When she finished her story, Helen called in another woman to take Gloria back to the shelter.

“So what’s going to happen to her?” Samuel asked.

“I can’t say too much. I need to call CPS tomorrow and they will investigate the allegation of abuse by her parents. She can stay here during the investigation. Then it will be up to the agency, they may remove her from the home, they may suggest counseling, they could suggest charging her parents with abuse, and Halbert with sexual assault. I don’t know.  There could be claims against your church on both matters if somebody knew there was a problem and didn’t do anything.”

“Do her parents know where she is?” Matt asked.

“No. We contacted the police when she came in. They don’t have a missing person report. I guess that goes along with her parents’ attitude.”

Samuel didn’t say anything. He had no idea what her parents might be thinking.

“If the parents file a missing person report,” Helen added, “the police will talk to them. We don’t usually bring in other people this quickly, but Gloria insisted on talking to Mr. Edwards.”

“Thank you.”

Armageddon’s Slaves © Jeffrey Thomas  All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. All events and characters are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.