Chapter Thirteen: Brother
The goodbyes were quick as time got away from them while they struggled with where to put the pages of the Bible. Most of the villagers walked with them to the dock. One important figure was missing, Arzan. As the others walked on, Ryan pleaded his case with Bill to let him find Arzan. “The boat will not wait on you,” was Bill’s firm warning. Ryan gave his things to the brothers and took off running toward Arzan’s hut. He found him standing at the door, alone. Ryan had sought him out. He had stayed with him and accepted every task that Arzan had challenged him with. He had to say goodbye. He walked to Arzan, not sure what to do now. He realized that he should have thought about that before he got to him.
They both stood straight looking at each other with respect and honor. Five seconds, ten seconds, neither moved nor spoke a word. Finally, in as plain English as any American, Arzan said, “Brother.”
Ryan repeated the endearment to him and turned to run to the dock.
The boat was pushing off the dock as Ryan ran out to the beach. Still twenty five yards to go, but Ryan had no intention of swimming to Malé. The villagers saw him and began to shout. The Americans saw him too, but the rule was, the boat waits on no one.
Ryan’s adrenaline increased one hundred percent. His strides burst into pure energy excelled. He was running so fast that the sand didn’t have time to react to his footsteps. Onto the dock he jumped. The boat had edged a good fifteen feet away. “Make way,” Ryan yelled as he took his last steps on solid ground before thrusting himself into the air and landing on the boat still running. Mark and Wayne had to body block him to keep him from running off the far side of the boat.
All the Americans stood at the stern of the boat. They waved goodbye as long as their arms would let them and when their arms finally gave out, they stood there until the island could no longer be seen. The men all left Amy standing to herself as she couldn’t bear to look away. So many thoughts ran rampantly in her mind. She prayed and called everyone she had met by name. She wanted to make sure that God knew exactly who she was talking about, temporarily forgetting that He is their Heavenly Father and He knew them first, and loved them even more.
“How are you holding up, Amy?” Bill came to comfort her.
“I miss them already. How can that be?” Amy never turned to look at Bill for fear she would lose what little composure she had left in her.
Bill understood what she was saying. “You have loved them with the love of God. That is a deeper love than any of them have ever known. You gave completely of yourself. You will always miss them.”
“Yes, Bill, I will always miss them. May I ask you a question?” The need for knowledge came alive. There were so many questions that she dared not ask on the island. So much she wanted to know.
“Sure,” Bill said. “Anything”
“Why was St. Luke chosen?” Now Amy turned away from the direction of the island, and was ready for conversation.
“I was wondering the same thing.” It was Ryan. He saw Bill talking to Amy, figured Amy had come to grips with her emotions, so they could all talk now.
“A lot of prayer went into the decision to translate St. Luke. The four gospels cover the events of Jesus’ life and death. However, the disciples all had different backgrounds so they paid more attention to details that they related to. Luke was a physician. His family was educated and cultured. He knew well of the hatred of the Jews for the Gentiles. He often pointed this out because he was a Gentile and Jesus was a Jew. Jesus should have never spoken to the Gentiles, yet he traveled, ate, slept, and performed miracles on them. Luke was mindful of how Jesus treated the so-called second-class people. They moved to the bench on the side of the boat. Bill proceeded to explain that translating the Book of Acts is also part of the plan.
“Luke wrote Acts too. This also made him a better choice. In Acts, he writes about how the Holy Spirit is here to minister to everyone. The Spirit shows no partially, just like Jesus.” Bill shared more details throughout the trip to Malé. As the darkness overtook the sky, they all settled down for the night. Ryan purposefully positioned himself by Bill. As the others fell to sleep, Ryan whispered to Bill.
“You awake?” It was the kind of whisper that, if Bill was already asleep, was meant to wake him up.
“I thought I was.” Bill rolled over onto his back. “You want something?”
“I have a question. Now that you have the translation of some of Luke, what are you going to do with it? Ryan was curious of the next steps.
“I have to find someone to print the books, which will be the easy part. The hard part is getting the Bibles back into Maldives. I do not know how God is going to work that out. I am taking one blind step of faith at a time.” Bill paused before admitting to Ryan that those concerns were in the future, his biggest concern was about tomorrow afternoon at the Malé airport.
“Why is that Bill? I thought you had found a place for the Bible pages.” Ryan was confused.
“Ryan, Amy took the Bible and papers. She said she would hide them. I told her that if she is caught, they would do terrible things to her.
“What? Are you crazy? Why would you let her take them?”
Ryan was furious for so many reasons, most of them protective reasons. He cared about Amy and didn’t want to think of how they would torture her to get any information. There would be no sleeping now. He started planning on how to get Amy to give him the papers so that if anyone got caught and tortured, it would be him. Now all he had to do was convince her that it was the right thing to do. He told Bill his plan.
“I argued the same reasoning with Amy, but got nowhere. All I can say is ‘Be careful.’” Bill rolled back over on his side and went to sleep.
Ryan watched Amy sleep. He prayed over her and asked God to protect her. As soon as Amy opened her eyes, she saw Ryan’s gaze on her.
“Ryan, you okay?” Her voice was soft as the presence of sleep was still upon her.
“I know what you have and I want them so I can hide them. I don’t want you in such danger. Tell me where they are and I will take care of them.” Ryan expected her to agree and do what he asked. He sure got a surprise.
“I will not!” All the sleepiness in her voice had jumped overboard! She was firm, direct, and unstoppable. It’s taken care of and too dangerous to move now.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Amy wasn’t budging. Ryan didn’t try to argue. He actually liked her spunk. Her outgoingness complimented his quiet nature. Her determination and his strength were a good match. They docked for the last time and taxied to the airport. Amy refused to tell any of them where the Bible pages were. She felt it was safer that way.
Every fear and dread they felt coming into the country was multiplied by thousands. They no sooner got into customs that they were being pulled aside and searched. Every inch of their bodies was touched. All their suitcases and luggage was opened up and searched. Amy had her hair pulled up in a bun and they made her pull it down. The bongo cases were opened and searched. Bill was so thankful that God had given him the dream. God was watching out for them. Amy was held back and searched without mercy. Her personal items were dumped out for everyone to view. The white and black stones that she had collected on the beach were spilled out and they fell to the floor. Amy bent over and picked up the stones that were representative of her memories and put them back in her bag.
“What you have?” The guard spoke to Amy in a hateful tone.
“I don’t know what you are asking.” Amy remained so calm. She was in total peace as the guard touched her and humiliated her in front of the others.
“You have words for me?” The guard was looking for any type of behavior or excuse to hold Amy from the others. They threw Amy’s belongings on the floor like trash, including the beautiful Mat that Razan had made her. The guards walked back and forth on her clothes before they finally gave her
permission to pick up her things. Finally, unable to get a reaction out of any of them, they released them to go. With only minutes to catch their plane, they ran the full length of the airport, barely making last boarding call.
It wasn’t until they had all been seated and the plane started rolling down the runway that they felt safe. Amy had an emotional meltdown. She didn’t mean to, but couldn’t help herself. She had been so strong as the guards patted her down and bullied her. Now, her hands started shaking, then her whole body. She became cold all over and her face flushed red hot. If she didn’t find a form of relief, she was going to explode.
Ryan sat next to Amy. He was so aware of her. He could literally see her temperature rise in her cheeks. He didn’t ask permission. He didn’t care what others thought. As soon as the sign flashed that it was safe to remove his seatbelt, Ryan unfastened his belt and put his right arm firmly around her. She buried her face in his shoulder and cried. She cried long and hard. Ryan held her, not expecting conversation or apologies. The stewardess came by once to hand them tissues. When Amy finally stopped crying, Ryan looked down at her and she was sound asleep.
They landed in London for another four-hour layover. Ryan gently nudged Amy awake. His right arm had been asleep almost as long as Amy, but he was afraid to move, fearing he would wake her. His arm tingled and burned when Amy sat up and he moved his arm.
“I can’t believe I slept all the way to London!” Amy stretched and yawn trying to get revived.
“You slept through the refueling too.” Ryan informed her as he watched her move around.
Amy felt the warmth rising in her checks again, but this time it was because she saw Ryan looking at her. “I must look dreadful.” She rubbed her face and pulled her hair back.
“No Amy, not even close.” Ryan picked up the used tissues that had fallen to the floor while she was crying earlier. “Come on. We are the last ones on the plane.” He reached for her elbow to help her up, but Amy reached out her hand instead.
“Thank you, Ryan.” She showed her sincerity by looking at him and not breaking her gaze until he accepted her appreciation.
“You are welcome. Let’s go.” If the aisle way had not been so narrow, Ryan probably would not have let go of her hand.
“I thought you two were lost in there,” Mark said as they finally got off the plane. Amy didn’t banter with him this time. Mark was rather disappointed. He had gotten use to Amy always having a comeback and putting him in his place.
“Where is the nearest coffee shop? Caffeine is calling my name.” Wayne led the way because he wanted coffee and wanted it now!
Civilization, coffee, and junk food made for some happy Americans. They found a table with enough seating for all of them. “Amy you did a great job at the Maldives airport.” Bill spoke first and then all the men agreed with him.
“Where are the papers? Where did you hide them?” With caffeine finally in his system, Wayne was ready for conversation.
Amy looked at Bill for confirmation that it was safe to tell before she spoke. “I would like to know too,” Bill added.
“I did horrible at rope-making, but I turned out to be a really good mat-weaver. I had made a mat myself and Razan gave me one the night before we left. I laid all the papers out on Razan’s mat and carefully wove my mat to hers. I knew it had to be a tight weave in order to keep the papers safe. I was up all night weaving and praying.” Amy revealed a big part of her exhaustion. Everyone but her slept that night. She had the mat with her. She took it out of her carry-on and handed it to him. “The papers are weaved in the mat. If you please, be careful when you take the papers out. This mat means a lot to me.
“Wow! Smart thinking,” Bill admitted that he never came up with a safe way to smuggle out the papers. “God gave you a great answer. Almost all visitors take mats home with them as souvenirs. They would not have thought to tear apart your mat. And of course,” he added. “I will take great care of your mat.”
They chatted and went over the past four weeks. They talked and laughed at their experiences. It was good. It was really good.
“Our dad was right,” Wayne admitted. “One mission trip and your life will never be the same.”