This story is dedicated to my friend Yohannes, an asylum seeker who was deported to Ethiopia on Tuesday 16th January 2007, while this story was being written. Details of this story are based on real accounts of Yohannes and others like him. It is called closed country and the country it refers to is never mentioned, in the style of many missionary news reports which never mention the name of the country or the name of the Christians as this would endanger them.
This is the winter of our discontent. A winter when oil, uranium and most of the fossil fuels in the world finally ran out and no one was actually ready. The long, cold winter of 2079. You may wonder if this is far fetched, if I am exaggerating. But at the end of 2005 a gas shortage occured in Siberia that killed many people. It can happen.
"Julie," she said, "I'm pregnant." "Pregnant? Mary, Joe's in the army, he's been away for months. How did it happen?" "It's a miracle." "For goodness sake Mary, have an abortion."
I was clever. I built radios. I understood evolution. Eventually I would go into the top science class at school. I thought that scientists had disproved God. How did I become a street evangelist?
'Do we really want the presence of God? Would it be too troublesome? We've got it nicely wrapped up. We are a well-ordered community. Rushing wind and tongues of fire? The awesomeness of God? Oh no! We're content to know him in a relaxed way; you know - the 'still, small voice.' This account is based on the book Fire In Our Hearts but contains only short excerpts which I have rewritten in my own words.