Join me as I spin a tale!
During the seminar with Pastor John Eli, we learned how to take an offering, sing in unison, speak in front of people, and those of us that could read learned how to take notes.
All in all, it was an amazing learning experience that I was excited to tell my parents about. I also wanted to tell my cousin Jabez because he meant the world to me.
The Preacher man gave us the challenge to pray and fast and instructed us to speak about it at a return meeting in one month.
In parting, the Preacher said,
“If you want to find God, go to the wilderness.”
Convincing my parents to let me go to Northwich was easy. My dad encouraged me to spend time camping and hunting in the woods with Jabez and his friends.
However, I had never been to the wilderness and most folks didn’t go either.
Mom said under no circumstances would I spend thirty days in the wilderness alone. Uncle Walter and Aunt Betty said the Preacher man was nuts and Cousin Jabez and Melonie told me I would die.
I believed Jabez and told him I wouldn’t go on his word alone. He shook his head. “You best listen to the Preacher Man.”
I trusted Jabez with my life. He was good family.
The only reason dad said yes is because he revered the Preacher Man as if he were the spokesman for God Himself.
With painstaking preparation, I brought a bow and drill for fire, a bedroll, snares, string, hooks for food, parchment, quill and ink for taking notes, and importantly, my dagger. I left the nice cloak my parents purchased me because I didn’t want to damage it.
Mom wept, and when dad said goodbye, he said it like he meant it.
I was a good ten miles out when I discovered
My cousin Jacob tried to come along and I had to take him all the way back to his home.
Jacob listened pretty well but didn’t say much. He used to talk when he was a child, but he was troubled in the head and said things that didn’t make sense or nothing at all.
On this occasion, He wailed like a rabbit in a snare all the way back and it was disturbing.
When I finally left the trails and headed Northeast to the Wilderness, I felt very alone.
My days of prayer and fasting were at first troubling recollections of everything that frustrated me.
A recent memory was Orson Berengar.
I found out the hard way his family was royalty in Northwich and he could talk to me anyway he saw fit.
Fortunately, I had not laid a hand on him because they took that seriously. He was rude and pretentious for the entirety of the Preacher Man seminar.
I also remembered Doctor Gryll who said I never had a hernia and it didn’t get better after being prayed for. That bothered me. I wondered at times if he missed the knife he threw in the woods to make a point. I sure admired it.
In addition, I was frustrated that due to sickness as a child, I felt I was always playing catch up
Lastly, I struggled with that undeserved whipping I got from dad for the poem I didn’t write to Ellie Mae.
I thought about her for a while and worried someone might marry her before Dad let me try and court her.
After a while, the fog cleared a bit and I didn’t think about those things. I thought about those dinner rolls, dried apples, and sausage the Preacher Man’s wife made us.
A few days into my Wilderness foray, I wasn’t even that hungry and spent time taking notes about churchy things so I could report back for the update class for the Preacher Man seminar.
Author: Benjamin
Benjamin Thiel is a community leader, urban farmer, and author of The Ongoing Tale at Brothers Campfire. He might know a guy...