some type of tentacles that wave back and forth. First in an upward motion, and then in a downward movement, like seaweed in a tidal pool swaying back and forth as a wave passes overhead. As each movement pass, he finds himself a little farther down the hill. He looks at the bottom of the slope and is startled at the sight of a sheer drop awaiting him at its base.
Tim tries to stand but cannot. So he tries to crawl up the rise, but for every inch he moves up, the tentacles drive him two inches in the opposite direction. Finally he stops and looks about him. He sees two men clinging to each other like lovers facing death together, and he is sickened by the sight. He looks on a scantily dressed woman, her face caked in makeup in an attempt to hide the black and blue discoloration beneath her eye. He watches as a man in a fine suit bows his head in prayer until he falls into the abyss before all of them. As the individual falls into the darkness below, Timothy looks at the impending darkness before him, and a sadness starts to fill him as he looks over the edge. A sudden feeling of hopelessness fills him as he leans toward the void before him and allows himself to fall over the edge.
The darkness is not complete as he feels himself falling towards his unknown destination. He sees the silhouettes of others falling with him, ever downward. At one point in his descent he sees the forms of several people in a circle holding hands as they fall ever deeper, into the bottomless pit of blackness. Tim joins the group and notices that they are singing a hymn. After a short time he releases their hands as they all continue downward towards the ultimate goal as they continue to sing their joyful song.
After a time he feels as if he has been falling for hours when he suddenly sees a reddish light start to appear below him. He looks carefully as the distance between him and the light grows ever smaller. The light flickers like a flame as he looks at the terrain below him. At first he thinks his eyes are being tricked by the fluctuating luminance, but it is not. The ground is moving like a vast ocean beneath him, always active. As the distance closes, Timothy soon becomes aware of the reason for the motion below. He begins to see the form of millions upon millions of individual people all moving about as if in a daze.
Finally Tim reaches the end of his fall. He feels himself slow as he approaches the ground below and looks about at the endless mass of walking bodies around him. His feet touch the ground, and he knows he is in Hell.
“Tim,” comes a voice to his ears, but the sound is far and distant.
“Tim Browning,” the voice says again, louder and more clearly this time; and Timothy turns in the direction from which he thinks it is coming. There he sees a ray of bright light fracturing through the red glow. He looks at the forms around him and looks into their faces. He sees the eyes looking aimlessly around, as if searching. Searching for some sign that they are here by mistake, but never finding any.
“Timothy Micah Browning!” He hears the call again and returns his attention to the light, larger now, and with a greater brilliance. He begins to walk toward this light, as it grows wider and more brilliant, till it almost blinds him.
The sound of battle fills his ears, from metal meeting metal, to the sound of people screaming in pain. Tim opens his eyes and looks up to see Christa kneeling over him, dressed in her armor of the Lord. Her shield is poised to defend not only herself, but him from harm.
“Tim, are you all right?” she asks as she touches his face gently.
“Yes, I think I am,” Tim replies weakly.
“Well, brother Timothy, I’m glad to see you.” comes a familiar voice from behind his wife. Tim raises himself slightly to look beyond her. There standing above her he sees the tall black man he first talked to upon the Battlefields of Right and Wrong. His tall form is balanced in a defensive stance as he quickly glances back at Timothy and then forward again. Tim looks in the direction he is facing, and he can see the horde a short distance away.
“They were about to try to pull your helmet off when your wife and I fought our way to you.”
“But that would have caused me to.....”
“Die in the sight of the Lord? Yes, but Christa is a good wife. She saw your pain and reached out for help. That is why we are here. Now try to stand. We’re still on their side of the lines,” Gerald
Washington says, and so Timothy tries to stand. When he is upright, Christa makes him lean on her as they begin to back away from the slowly creeping forward creatures of Satan. It takes them several minutes to return to the lines, of the blue and white glad forms of the soldiers of
God, but once they are there they all sit down.
:3:21 a.m.
As Timothy Browning sleeps, for the first time in months, he rolls over in bed and wraps his arms around his wife.
THE FIRST SOJOURN
:Memphis
:1990, February 14
:7:23 p.m.
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Tim. Happy birthday to you,” come the singing voices of Tim’s and Gerald’s families, as Timothy sits at the kitchen table of Tim’s home.
“So you’re thirty years old, ah?” Gerald says in a comedic tone of voice. “You’re over the hill now.”
“Like you have any room to talk,” his wife Liz says as she hits him on the arm. Tim looks at their youngest boy, Malcom, who is three inches taller than his father and in his last year of high school.
It would be a year next month that Timothy first met Gerald, the day after his dream of his descent into hell and it's never ending sorrow. He remembers telling Christa about the dream and that she immediately picked up the phone. Within the hour Gerald was at the front door of their home, unshaven with sleep still written in his red eyes. Tim remembers looking at him and pointing.
“You’re the man...” was all he was able to say before Christa jumped in and explained everything to both men, first to Gerald, about Timothy’s dream, and then to Tim, about Gerald.
In the year that has passed, Gerald and Christa have helped Timothy in his fight against his sinful enemy of alcoholism. Gerald also has had long talks with Tim about the Bible and his dreams, both of which the two men have enjoyed thoroughly. They quickly have become good friends and strong allies in their beliefs.
After the birthday cake has been cut and eaten, the two men go and sit in the living room. Once again they begin another of their long talks about the Bible. At one point Gerald begins to talk about Timothy’s book.
“You know, Tim that I have found your book very informative, but I just can’t shake this feeling that something’s missing.
“I agree, but I don’t know what it could be.”
“You know that might be why, when you tried to get it published there were all those roadblocks, other than the people not wanting to hear you.”
“You’ve got a point. I was thinking that myself the other day. That’s one reason I’ve been a lot happier lately. I have the luxury of knowing what God wants me to do, which in itself is what most Christians would like to know, but just can’t find their place. I realize that when all those problems happened, I was being tested for my strength, but I guess I failed.”
“So God sent in the reinforcements,” Gerald interjects.
“Right, and those reinforcements were you and Christa, and you two have been just great. I just want to thank you for that. I really learned a lot about God those first seven years of my Christianity, but I have learned so much in just the past eleven months, it’s just incredible.”
“I know what you mean. I feel that I have grown a lot in the Lord too. Your dreams are just amazing. I thank God almost every day for the insight they have given me in how we should act and live as the children of God.”
“All right, that’s enough, you two,” Liz interrupts. “If I don’t stop you now, we’ll be here all night.”
“You’re right as always, my chickadee,” Gerald responds, standing and stretching. “I am a little tired at that.”
“Well, thanks for coming over, you guys. I really enjoyed h
avin’ you here,” Timothy says as he shakes Gerald’s hand grasping the older man's upper arm with his free hand. Then he receives a hug from Liz.
“Thank you, for comin’ over, Malcom. I know you didn’t have to, but I really enjoyed your being here,” Tim says as he shakes the young man’s hand.
“That’s all right, Mr. Browning. I really like you and your family, so I enjoy coming over.” He steps out the front door before his parents. Gerald and Liz then hug Christa and follow behind their son, again saying their farewells.
:11:03 p.m.
Timothy feels himself floating in an endless void. A vast grayness surrounds him as he floats gently through the expanse.
Suddenly before him he sees a bright glowing figure, like that of a man standing motionless. He looks, and he feels that this luminescent form is millions of miles from him but looks as if He is only a quarter of a mile away.
The form gestures with what Tim thinks is His right hand, and another figure appears, glowing as the first, but not as large. The large form’s arms lift above its head, and then arch in opposing directions, as both figures are surrounded by a circular rainbow. In tandem both of the gleaming figures’ motion and their corona suddenly burst forth irradiating the nothingness. As it dims, Timothy notices a huge shimmering orb beside the two gigantic forms, their corona still about them. The gray void that had