James Patterson’s Journal – The Story of The Congregation of Andria Church During the Dark Time (Patterson’s Tale #10)
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“The village leaders decided to abandon the rebuilding of our fortified part of Andria, knowing that our enemies would send their war machines against us again. We concentrated on fortifying our own homes, making them as strong as possible, covering them with rock and dirt. Each family head was ordered to store some food and water, as many weapons as possible, including bullets if he had a firearm, and was ordered by our village leaders to review with his family all of the possible escape routes out of Andria. We all knew that we could not hope to match the weaponry our enemies possessed, but we all did our part to make our village as ‘unfriendly’ to our enemies as possible. We dug stake pits and disguised them, making certain our people knew where they were. We raised heavy logs into the trees, where they could be dropped onto our enemies. We constructed piles of large rocks on the hillsides around our village, being held in place by hidden barriers that could be easily removed, so the rocks would tumble down on our attackers.
THE ANDRIA VILLAGERS RECEIVE AN ANSWER TO THEIR PRAYERS
“During this time, which extended into Spring of 2410, our leaders were notified of a wonderful answer to prayer that had just been miraculously uncovered by Dale Kaskin, our village’s stone worker. The previous Sabbath, in our Old White Church, with most of the JS members of the village there (and even some of the pagans), Pastor Lee had petitioned our Heavenly Father to give us an answer to our prayers—to reveal His Will for us—to answer our urgent question—should we resist our oppressors or submit to them, no matter what happens? Most of our village was in favor of resisting, but some were in favor of surrendering to our Satanic enemies and letting them kill or imprison us without a struggle. I was opposed to that, and Dale’s find, in one of his many marble pits deep in the forest not far from our village, seemed to provide our final answer.
ANCIENT WISDOM APPEARS FROM OUT OF THE EARTH
“Pastor Lee, Edrood, most of their militia men, and many from our village, went to the site of Dale’s marble pit. It had long been known that much of the area around Andria, especially the area to its north, seemed to have been the site of an ancient large town long since destroyed. Apparently this town had contained many marble buildings, for Dale had been quarrying it for decades. Anyway, when we all arrived at the site that Dale had been digging, he greeted us with excitement, telling all of us that God had directly sent an answer to our prayers for His Will to be revealed. We went to a big pit that he and his men had been excavating. In its middle, about two feet down, was what appeared to be a large marble door lintel. His workers had dragged it up from where they had discovered it. It was when they turned it over that they were totally amazed. We all crowded around his discovery, and to say we were more than amazed would be true, for on this marble lintel were cut the words: RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD.
“All of us took turns closely examining this relic from the past, and we ran our fingers over the letters, which most of us could read. Pastor Lee dropped to his knees and began to weep, praising our LORD and Savior for an answer to our prayers. Edrood knelt beside his father for a time, also weeping, then stood and told all of us that God’s Will had been plainly revealed to us—we were never to surrender to our oppressors—we were to resist them to our last breath. We all became very silent as each one of us contemplated our possible fates. Our God had answered our prayers, and was telling us that to obey Him meant we must resist the tyrants who had persecuted and dominated us for longer that any Andrian could remember, probably far into the dark past.
PASTOR RACHARD LEE, LEADER OF MEN, ASKS THE ANDRIA VILLAGERS TO MAKE THEIR FINAL DECISION TO JOIN HIM IN RESISTING THEIR ENEMIES
“We all stood looking at this message from our God, silently realizing that to literally obey it would almost certainly assure our deaths, and sooner than we imagined. Pastor Lee arose and spoke, and said that each of us must now examine him or herself and decide our future action. He then loudly declared that “as for me and my house, we will obey our God” and resist them to our final breath. He walked a few paces away from us, then turned and said: “Any of you who, in faith, will stand with me and do the same, no matter the outcome, please come over here to me”. For several seconds no one moved, then Edrood and his sons went to our pastor. There were at least 40 from the village with us, plus almost all of Rachard’s and Edrood’s militia men. Every one stood frozen to his spot, until finally all of the pastor’s militia came and stood beside him—then Edrood’s militia did the same, and then every one else from the village also went and stood together by our pastor, our destinies sealed by our small act of defiance.
“Pastor Lee knelt down again and thanked our Heavenly Father for giving all of us the courage to make our decision. He then said that if any of us wished to reconsider our decision and not stand with the rest, then he or she was to leave us, and no one would condemn him or her. We all looked around for a minute or two, but nobody left. Pastor Lee then told us we were to go into Andria, to our families and friends, and over the next day or so tell everyone what had been decided by the group. Another meeting of the entire village would then be held in three days time. All who came would be committing themselves to resist our enemies to the death, if that became necessary. With a last look at the words that had probably determined our destinies, we turned and left Dale’s marble pit. I heard Pastor Lee telling Dale to rebury the lintel, and that if God so willed it would be found again by people of the future who might be battling for their own freedom, just as we were.
“Two days after we had destroyed much of their large new fortification, six Enforcer armored trucks came to the site. At least 60 heavily armed Enforcers set up a command post just outside the destroyed entrance. Our spies watched as they removed all of the bones of their dead comrades and dumped them into the river. Two days later another 100 or more Enforcers arrived with a large construction crew and began to rebuild their partly ruined fortress. The Lees decided it would be too costly in terms of lives and our dwindling ammunition supplies to attack them again, especially since they had set up large caliber automatic rapid fire guns at several points around their defensive perimeter. Other than watching them, we all tried to resume living our lives as normally as circumstances would permit. Unfortunately that would not last very long.
THE ENFORCERS BEGIN REBUILDING THEIR FORTIFICATION IN ANDRIA VILLAGE
“About a month after we destroyed the Enforcers’ first fortification, the Overmasters unveiled their newest weapon against the Jesus Sect community and their pagan allies—a large and real military force under the command of ex-Enforcer officers. Immediately we began to get reports from other villages closer to the Great Atlantic Ocean about how this military force had already totally destroyed six villages, including two that has Jesus Sect church buildings in them. We were told that this force was utterly ruthless, killing all living things within these communities, even the pagans who tried to surrender to them. The Lees and our other village leaders looked grim as they heard these reports.
EDROOD LEE AND HIS MILITIA ARE CALLED TO ANOTHER AREA IN DEMOCRATA, AND SAY FAREWELL TO ALL ANDRIA VILLAGERS
“At just this time, three large villages up toward the Blue Mountains sent a message to Rachard Lee by special courier, asking him to send Edrood and all his militia men to them. Edrood was to become their Over-Commander and set up some kind of counter military force to try to stop the one being unleashed upon the people by the Supreme Council and their Overmasters. Pastor Lee met with Edrood and our village leaders for much of the next day in my house. Edrood finally decided that God was leading him away from Andria and to an area where he was urgently needed. Three days later he and his family left Andria in two horse carts with their meager belongings. All of his militia men (about 75 by this time) left with him, which left a big hole in our defenses. He spent much time saying goodbye to his father and to Leah, and Rachard spent much time hugging his grandchildren. I think that all of them knew that it would be the last time they would see each other in this world, and their parting from us involved a great many tears from everyone.
“I’ve always believed that our Heavenly Father, in His wisdom, was leading them away from Andria and the horrors that would soon overtake those of us who remained. My prayer as they left us was that they would continue to battle against the tyrants who wanted us to worship them rather than our Savior, and that someday other Lees, and other patriots, using the whole armor of our God, would prevail and would vanquish the lovers of repression forever from our land. It was just two days after Edrood left that the first group of the new military force came and set up their camp where their new base was being constructed. They numbered around 500 men, I was told, and wore dark green uniforms with a red and green flag patch on their left arm. We in the village were informed that the red and green flag was the new flag of our country, called Democrata. Well, it certainly didn’t feel like it was “our” country, ever. On their right arm was a black circular patch with a red “clenched fist” on it. They looked quite ominous to our spies, and the villagers became very agitated.
“The next day, at around noon, all of the villagers who had agreed to resist our enemies met with Pastor Lee and his militia. I estimate that 90% of Andrians met in that field. The others were too timid or fearful, and within a few days most of them had disappeared from Andria. We discussed the new military presence, and how we could resist them, even for a short time. Pastor Lee assigned some of his militia to work with groups of villagers, helping them prepare ambushes and traps. Our goal was to resist these beasts as long as possible and make them pay as high a price as we could. Then when we could no longer resist, our people were to decide for themselves whether to flee or fight to the death. I chose to stay and resist as long as I had breath, and Leah did also. I was very proud of both of my daughters and their husbands, who also determined that they would not flee, but would resist as long as they could. Their children, my grandchildren, understood the possible consequences of their parents’ choice, and they made the same decision, as young as they were. It broke my heart, and my Leah’s heart, to consider what might become of them, but despite our tears we were proud of them.
THE ENFORCERS BEGIN THEIR FINAL ATTACKS AGAINST ANDRIA VILLAGE
“They came at us in a wave, about four days after the meeting with all of the villagers who had determined to resist. Their first attack was just before dawn, and they entered the northern end of Andria. We had been alerted to their coming, and our people were ready. The Council’s military mounted a mass attack, 400 to 500 troopers coming at Andria like a wall of evil. They hit us first with many armored trucks, some of which fell into our pit traps, as did some of the enemy. We hit them with our firearms and arrows, and especially our fire oil arrows, and within 15 minutes all of their trucks were ablaze. But they all had rapid fire rifles and wore some kind of body armor we had never seen. It repulsed our arrows and even some of our bullets. Our younger teens went into the trees and dropped heavy logs onto our enemies, and most of these brave young people were killed fighting God’s enemies.
“The rock avalanches up on the hill sides worked as planned, and I was later told that they destroyed several enemy trucks and killed 50 or more enemy troopers. We finally all retreated into the forest after about three hours of battle. Many of us had been killed or wounded, but we had destroyed 12 of their armored trucks and had killed or wounded over 100 of the invaders. They did not pursue us into the forest where we had the advantage. We regrouped during the time just before darkness. The group Leah and I were with consisted of all of the Jesus followers plus 40 or 50 of our pagan friends. I had been barely grazed by an enemy bullet, and Leah put a bandage on it from our medical kit. The husband of one of our daughters had been shot through his thigh, and one of our medical men bandaged him.
“Several others were also wounded, one very seriously. We watched as our medic tried to remove a bullet fragment from his chest. We had no pain drug, so he was screaming in pain and thrashing around. Suddenly he cried out that he could not breathe, and went into a spasm for a moment or so. Then he was still, and breathed his last breath. We held our three grandsons, aged 8, 10, and 14, and our two grand daughters, aged 14 and 16, close to us and to their parents, as we watched this brave brother in the LORD pass to Heaven. Leah and I wept, but the others just had the look of desperate resolve on their faces as we helped his wife and teen son bury him under a large tree.
“We expected them to hit us again the next day, but they didn’t. We all took turns at our watch posts as set up by Pastor Lee. The streets in half of our village were strewn with bodies, and our people used much caution when they gathered up our fallen friends, both pagans and Jesus followers. We spent that day and all the next burying our friends in the forest near some of the very ancient graves that had been there so long that most of the words carved on them were no longer readable. Pastor Lee blessed their memories as all their families wept loudly. That they were buried in what must once have been to our ancient ancestors a very sacred and hallowed spot was fitting, we all felt.
PASTOR LEE BEGINS THE PROCESS OF SAYING GOODBYE TO HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS
“The next day Pastor Lee took Leah and me, plus our daughters, their husbands, and our grandchildren, up to our Old White Church building, along with enough of his surviving militia to protect us if we were attacked. He told us he wanted to show us some very sacred objects that he had brought with him from his home in Fillyelfia. He said he wanted to show us where he had hidden these items. He carried his very old Bible with him—the one that had been printed in 2142 in Atlanta, Georgia—and told us he was going to hide it with the other objects, for he believed that he would soon have no further need of it. His dark and dismal words put all of us in a somber mood. Inside the church he led us to the big room that had two of the only intact and unsealed fireplaces in what had once been a large home that supposedly had belonged to a legendary hero from the past known as Rober Tely. The objects he showed to us that day spoke to us from the distant past, and strengthened our resolve to resist as long as we could.
NEXT TIME: Pastor Lee shows James Patterson and his family symbols from the past that had been used to encourage patriots of those times. On the columned portico of their old church, Pastor Lee tells his family and supporters how much he loves them and was honored to be their Shepherd for many years, and how much their Savior loves them, and that their Savior was surely pleased with their lives of devotion to Him and His Word. That same evening the last Sacrament of The Lord’s Supper is held for the final time by the remaining congregation of Andria’s Old White Church. James Patterson is elected as an Elder of that congregation. Most of the Jesus followers of Andria’s Old White Church come to the end of their earthly road.