Children of the Sanctuary

by David Pollitt

  Chapter 20

  Sanctuary

  The Episcopalians were wonderful with their hospitality. The kids slept Sunday night on the floor of All Saints, and early in the morning Irish got them up to go, but not before the Daughters of the King brought in piles of homemade biscuits and Jimmy Dean Sausage. They also bagged thousands of to-go, breakfast snacks, including sweet rolls and juice boxes. It took all night for the 20 of them to do it, but it was their delight.

  The angels decided to remain rather distanced and only showed up when they had to while wearing sunglasses but no wings. It was wisdom Isaac told Enya. They knew there was a strong anti-angel undercurrent at Sewanee. There were those who felt they were illusions, and those who didn’t. It was causing some turmoil and divisions among the community. They didn’t want to be responsible for creating schisms among believers. They didn’t care if someone wanted to disbelieve their existence as long as they believed in their Lord Jesus. They noticed that those who were most disturbed by the angels made themselves scarce too. That’s one of the reasons they wanted to get to Sanctuary as fast as possible, not wanting to overstay their welcome.

  Soon they were all loaded up and ready to go. Cole’s church members were anxious to get back to Nashville. Some had families, and those who brought their whole family distrusted in leaving their homes vacant too much longer. That was asking for looters to break in. Almost all of Aaron’s legion had returned to middle heaven to

  support the on-going battle, and the rest went to other areas to help other children. There was Mountain City and Roan Mountain in East Tennessee, Buffalo Valley near Cookeville, and many others near the Blue Ridge Mountain Chain. Near Chattanooga an extensive effort was taking place for Raccoon and Look Out Mountain.

  These groups were excited about the success of Sewanee. They were leaving for their escapes within the next couple of days. This left only Aaron, Caleb, Irish, and Isaac, with the exception of Joseph, arriving soon. Only Irish was staying permanently. The rest were on call, but they had many more children to save.

  As the buses approached Sanctuary, people from all over the mountain were coming out on the sides of the road waving and giving them the thumbs up. The whole mountain was filled with curious visitors and those coming to help. Sister Bernard had kept her promise.

  Aaron was ever so pleased at the generosity of the mountain folks. He had never seen such a desire to help, and he had to believe like at Cole’s church that the angels had a lot to do with it. He knew they wanted to help, but they came to see the angels. They discussed it and agreed when the time was right none of them would be disappointed.

  Winchester, Tennessee sent a busload of 4-Hr’s to help. They brought two truckloads of old two-by-fours, and several farmers tore down their old tobacco barns to donating the wood. Soddy Daisy and Dunlap combined their efforts and sent some extra plumbing conduit, with a flat bed loaded with bush hogs, backhoes, and bulldozers. When Beersheba Springs and Altamont heard about it, they sent a load of cement and a dump truck full of lake gravel. There were over 500 volunteers with carpenter tools and as many nails as they could find.

  Enya felt an unusual excitement today, but she didn’t know why. Every time she saw Isaac, he had a silly grin on his face. She even confronted him about it. "Okay Isaac, what’s going on? What are you angels up to this time? Do you have any idea how aggravating that smile of yours is? It’s like you have a surprise birthday party planned for someone. 'Fess up, Isaac, tell me."

  She reached up and thumped him on his chest with her fingers while standing only inches from the top of his stomach. He didn’t relent but just shook his head and made a sign like a zipper on his lips. He wasn’t going to say a word, and this really frustrated her, then she got sidetracked again with taking care of the children.

  Sanctuary was 30 acres divided between thickly almost suffocating woods and an open camping area. The Boy Scouts made a rock arena for Indian pageants and Order of the Arrow ceremonies. The arena seated several thousand adults and even more kids. It was almost completely circular with a ground level opening. It was more than adequate for the kids’ use. Surrounding the arena were flat open places where the Scouts set up their campsites. The campsites and the arena were hidden from the road by the numerous pines and heavy brush. The road leading to the camping areas was just big enough to get a pickup truck through, but not buses. The thickly covered road was about ten degrees cooler than anywhere else since not much sunlight got through the canopy of over-hanging woods. The road was a beautiful lane with various hiking trails leading off in different directions.

  As anyone came out of the woods, they entered the camping area. There was Nash’s picnic pavilion, and 20 acres away on the far side of the camping area was his latest donation, bathrooms with showers. The Boy Scouts helped by donating the building constructions for the communal bathrooms and a smaller one near the picnic pavilion. Nash

  and Enya built the communal facility, and the Boy Scouts took care of the smaller one. Nash and Enya took a summer off to work on the project before moving into the Mission. It was one of the most rewarding times of their lives.

  They took the time to have a local farmer come in and clear paths all around the property and through the middle of the heaviest woods. They put up exercise pads every half-mile. It included a walk-the-beam and jump-the-beam pads, wooden jungle gyms, chinning bars, a tire-obstacle course, mile-marker stretching-poles, and plastic-barrel crawl-thrus. They put up permanent nature markers identifying the kinds of trees and specific foliage as a nature trail. They even drove a well, which provided the water for the bathroom showers. The Scouts provided the piping and well bits, but Nash decided to do it the old fashioned way. He drove the pipe himself by using a heavy two-handled ramming hammer, which he lifted up in both hands and drove it inch by inch for hours. Nash thought it was great; he was in the best shape of his life, all from hard work, fun, just before dedicating the next seven years to the Mission. He only drove the piping hard for 20 feet before it ran away from him. He had hit an underground cavern; and when he finally finished running the pipe, he hit an underground lake at about 50 feet. It took a lot of pumping to get it to the top, but once it started, it was wonderfully fresh. Several years later, Nash found a small opening in the mountain that allowed him to get into the edge of the cavern. It had a natural path around its massive dome, extending safely six feet. When they were vacationing, they moved the mobile Boy Scout storage units on top of it. They used their Montero to push it out of the way and sneaked to it on the hottest days. They finally braved their fears of heights with a sturdy rope ladder and took dips in the lake below. The lake was about 40

  degrees, a real chill, but fantastically refreshing. Around the quarter-mile lake extended an immense, crystal shore. The lakeshores were great for having cool picnics.

  The mountain folk started working on the site late Sunday afternoon. By the time the first cars from Cole’s church arrived, Soddy Daisy had cleared another five foot of brush on both sides of the road all the way to the camping area. It was now big enough to handle the buses except for the low hanging trees. Nothing could be done for that right now, but they could get through if they moved slowly. The gravel from Altamont helped soak up and stabilize the traction so there were no mud holes to get stuck in.

  Enya was shocked at the work the folks had done. They all knew how many kids were coming, and they naturally figured the girls and boys needed to be separate. By the time the kids had arrived, the foundations were dug for two, large cabin-like facilities. They could be called long houses, not very wide but about 100 feet long. They straddled Nash’s bathhouse showers. They were crude but functional. Vented wood burners were placed at both ends of each building, and there were no windows and only one door. The concrete truck spread a very make-do slab of concrete before framing up. If codes saw it, they would have stroked. Not to worry, there were no codes for anything anymore. Someone came up with an idea to put hammock like stalls at differen
t levels from the walls. Once the kids got there, they took the cots, which had been carried up in a separate truck from Cole's church, and lashed the cots with rope, reinforcing them with electrical tape and anchored one end to the wall and tied lines, suspending them from the ceilings. It looked scary but worked fine. They staggered them on the walls in a stair-step pattern using every available space. The older kids got the highest perches and thought it was cool, but rope ladders were certainly the most practical help of the day.

  When the kids walked out the front of the long houses, they could see the ground entrance of the arena facing them only 100 feet away. The biggest obstacle was the kitchen. They needed to have a place big enough to cook the meals, and they couldn't afford to take a chance on a fire. Everyone agreed to put a cooking area in between the long houses. They made plywood coverings extending out over both the buildings towards each other.

  This left ten feet of covered cooking area for each building and a 20 feet distance in between. Between the donated charcoal grills and pit grills, it was sufficient. They still had the rest of the Boy Scout kitchen supplies left in the storage units.

  It took another five trips to various farms and abandoned houses before enough wood was found to finish it all. It looked funny with all kinds of colors from every conceivable type of building construction. Even the roofs were a combination of 15 shades of shingles, old and new. There were 100 containers of black roofing pitch donated by the National Guard, thanks to Larry and his unit’s influence. It was slapped on top of the shingles, making the dwellings take on mud-house appearance, except jet-black, so irregular and lumpy that it looked like a lunar, alien landscape.

  Near dusk, everything was winding down. The progress was so outstanding that the angels felt it was time to give the folks a real terrestrial appearance. About that time, someone decided to erect a cross between the front of both the buildings. An old man in coveralls and a white beard remembered there were a couple of telephone poles laying beside the road several miles from the site. They were discussing some ways of cutting them up so they could move them.

  Aaron heard them talking about it; and before anyone could mobilize; Aaron, Caleb, and Isaac took off to get them. The folks worked with angels most the day and no one noticed whom or what they were, then they saw them in the distance coming over the tops of

  the trees. Everyone pointed in amazement while Aaron and Caleb carried a telephone pole.

  They came in without their shirts displaying the awesome power of their physiques. They looked like muscle-bound cargo ships coming in for a landing. Before Aaron reached the ground, he took his pole and flew high enough for a good throw, then plummeted it towards the ground exactly where someone said it needed to go. It hit the ground with such force the mountain seemed to shake. He stuck it a good five feet through rock and dirt. He came above it and with both hands brought them down on the end of the pole driving it down another five.

  Everyone was shouting and yelling; they couldn’t believe the show. They couldn’t figure out what Caleb was going to do. Caleb ended up flying lower and lower to the ground as he came closer to the campsite. He wasn’t as powerful as Aaron, and the weight was getting to him. His wingspan was shorter by a foot on each side. Caleb was grateful he wasn't stuck with planting the vertical pole like Aaron. He made his exhaustive landing pattern look very deliberate and laid his pole on the ground near Aaron’s.

  Aaron floated down beside him and turned to the folks saying, "I'm Aaron, and this is my good friend Caleb. Don’t let anyone ever tell you angels aren’t real. For what you have done today, God will bless you. You've been a blessing to us and to the children. These are the end times, and each of you must decide whom you serve. Do you serve God and our Lord Jesus Christ? Or Not! You must decide. If you decide right, then we will always be near to help you

  in time of need. If you do not, then when the storm comes, and it is coming, you'll not be able to call for us. We will turn a deaf ear to your cries, decide! Do you hear me, decide?"

  Aaron with the same passion took his sword and with one massive swing cut Caleb’s telephone pole in two. Immediately after, Isaac came over the tops of the trees. His powerful, black muscles glistened with afternoon sweat. He had 100 feet of telephone line, and Aaron picked up one section of the pole and held it up while Caleb and Isaac lashed it securely in place. By this time, it was almost evening.

  Everyone heard a car horn blasts coming from the Sanctuary road. The angels looked up just as Enya did. It was Nash with his Montero flying down the road and not about to let up on the horn. Enya’s hand went over her mouth with tears running down her face, and she looked back at Isaac, then shook her finger at him mouthing, "You rat."

  Isaac laughed joyously, and the angels gave a thumbs up for victory. Anne, Carey, and Keel came running out of a long house where they were hanging cots. They knew by looking at Enya exactly who was coming. As they saw them running towards each other, they felt the great love between them. Nash picked her up in the air as he gave her a long kiss and hug. Anne saw someone else. She saw Hunter and gasped. She remembered him from school, and how he had witnessed to her.

  "What’s wrong, Anne?" Carey asked as she noticed how visibly upset she was..

  "Nothing’s wrong. It’s Hunter Younger, the one I had a burden for.”

  "Oh no! How wonderful!" exclaimed Carey.

  Keel overheard them, "I remember Hunter. He was a year behind me in school. He was a great witness."

  Anne tucked her floppy shirt in her pants, licked her hand before trying to scrub off some smudges, and started walking directly to Hunter. Hunter saw her coming and thought, "What a cute girl. Oh, I remember her. I witnessed to her, and she looks like she’s heading for me. Maybe, she’s the welcoming committee."

  As Anne approached him, she felt something else. She felt her heart skipping beats. She thought, "Man, he looks even better than when we were in school. I wonder if he has a girlfriend?"

  "Hi, remember me?" She was shaking inside with lots of mixed-up emotions, some kind of giddy.

  "You bet! Are you still serving the Lord?"

  Hunter looked intently and warmly at this little girl. She was several years behind him in school, but he thought she looked even better than what he remembered. He liked her short-cropped hair—Carey had cut it even shorter recently. It made her look much younger and accented her deep brown eyes.

  "I wonder if she has a boyfriend." He scolded himself, "How can I think about girls at a time like this?"

  The three girls from the trip came up and stood beside him. They said in unison, "Hey, Hunter, what’s next? Is this God’s Mountain, Sanctuary?"

  Anne was absolutely intimidated by the girls. Hunter noticed and stepped towards Anne, put his arm through hers, and led her away from them, saying, "Make yourselves at home. Go visit with some angels. I want to chat with my friend."

  Anne felt like a million bucks. Hunter was picking her above those other girls. Man, this is great. She stopped him, "Hunter, I have to tell you this. The Lord gave me a burden for you. Are you okay, now?"

  "Anne, I knew someone was praying for me. Thanks.

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