Amy woke early as usual, getting up, brushing her teeth, combing the snarls out of her curly hair.  As she got dressed in her blouse and skirt, she started thinking about what had happened the week before. The man that came through town was dirty, and he smelled bad too. But what he talked about to our small group was so different. He spoke about having peace in our hearts, beyond the pain and misery of the lives they all led. How could this be possible, they all thought. And the smelly man said, a god named Christ came down from the heavens, and he was the most powerful god in the universe, for he made all of the others.  This god came to Earth, as a human baby, went through life as a human, with all of our problems, and never did anything wrong. Then his own people thought he had demons, because when he touched people, they got healed, and he even brought people back to life.

     Well, we thought this was so interesting, so when he started his meeting the following night, there were more of us, for we all talked to our friends and families about this god that came down to Earth. But when old man Charlie came in, sliding on his deformed legs, everyone got quiet, and we all looked up at the smelly man to see what he would do. Well, he just went down the row of seats, looked down at old man Charlie, and told him, the god Christ has forgiven all of the things he had ever done, and that he can get up and walk, because this god Christ has already healed him. There were screams, and shouts, as Charlie’s legs starting popping, and stretching out underneath him, then Charlie stood up and wobbled, and leaped up into the air. He and everyone else were crying, so happy for Charlie!

     Then the stranger went back up the front of the group as if nothing had happened, and started talking again about this man god. And how his own people beat him, and spit on him. They even turned him over to the governor to be killed. And they stuck him on a tree, with nail in his feet and hands. And after he had died, his closest friends came to say their goodbyes after the day of rest, and he was not there. The stranger said the man god was raised from the dead. Well this was too much for a lot of us, because how could someone come back from the dead. Well the next night, our group was quite a bit smaller, but we were still curious, mainly because of what had happened to old man Charlie, who by the way walked into the meeting, all grins and teeth. He looked so happy!

     Well this night the stranger was talking about being holy, but this was confusing, because no one could be holy, except the gods. But according to the stranger, when this man god rose from the dead, he forgave everyone’s wrongs, and in so doing made us all holy, if we would just believe. We all wanted to be holy, who wouldn’t? Because we knew if we were holy, then that would mean no wrong could be found in us. And the gods would not hold anything against us. So now he had our attention.

     As we were getting ready to depart for the night, Beverly, the lady from down the street, came in crying, she was looking for Jeremy, the funeral man, because her little boy had finally died. He has had a very contagious disease. Well, this stranger asked were the boy was, and Beverly took the stranger to her house. Well we all waited outside; because we knew we would all get sick if we went in. But the stranger just walked on in. In about ten minutes, Beverly came screaming out, her face was all white. She ran right up to Jacob, the town holy man. She said her son was alive and there were no more signs of the disease on him.

Jacob dropped his books and went running up to the door with Beverly, but he stopped, because he knew how bad this disease was. But when the stranger came walking out the door, with Beverly’s son walking beside him, we all fell down and bowed before the stranger, for only a god could do this. But the stranger got all mad, and said we should not do that, because he was just as human as we were. So we got up, and followed him back to where he was staying. Here was when he told us about becoming followers of the Way. So we all said we wanted to, he said that we need to know that we had done wrong, and to feel sorry for what we had done, and to let this God become our only God. Some of the group said they could not do that, and left. The rest of us did what he said. Then after we had accepted Jesus as our God, he said we needed to die and be washed of our sins and that Christ would live in us. So we went to the river and got washed. He dunked us under water and said we were washed clean in Jesus’ name. We came up one at a time, all smiles. After he had washed us in the river, he said one more thing needed to be done; he said that when Jesus was raised from the dead and went back to heaven, He left His Spirit to help us. So we were all prayed over, and he asked Jesus to fill us with the Spirit of God. And that the Spirit in us would enable us to do what he had done, and that the Spirit would lead us to live our lives for our new God.

Just before the stranger left, he said we should help all of the other people that became followers of the Way, if they needed things; it was our responsibility to help them. So we got all of our stuff together, and whatever another family needed, if we had extra, we gave it to them. Jacob, the town ex-holy man, took his entire expensive books, and sold them, he took all of his money he got for the books, and other things, and gave it to the others that were broke.

Me, I gave away all of my dresses, and blouses, I kept the one I am getting dressed in now. We are so happy, even though the soldiers have come and shot twenty eight people yesterday for following the Way. Today is so special to me, it is my turn to stand before the judge and tell my story about Jesus.

The Way, part 2

The Way, part 3

By Gary Robison (August 26th, 2009)