CHAPTERONE

“What on earth!” Normally, it was a good day in the Kingdom, thought Jillie St. Peters, but the rumble of a motorcycle pulling into the Faith Staple Church parking lot not only shook the building but also her own very foundation. Steeling herself against dealing with memories to burn that the sound brought to mind, she wondered if this was a stranger pulling into the parking lot off the main highway, which ran in front of the building, or the new pastor, who had been installed while she had been away at the beach on vacation. Talk among shocked members of the congregation was that he had arrived on a Harleymotorcycle.

She walked to the window to assess the situation. Sometimes, if it looked questionable, she would call Lacy Ingram, her intercessory prayer partner, to give her prayercoverage.

Once, while the church was without a pastor on site, a man drove into the parking lot on a rainy day and sat there for quite some time before coming to the door. She had not felt right about the situation and had called and asked Lacy to start praying over the matter. When the man finally came to the door wanting to use the phone to make job calls, he smelled like he had been sleeping in his car for months. She didn’t know who would hire him smelling like he did, but believing God sent specific people to the church door, she nonetheless had let him in, putting him in the vacant pastor’s office, where he had stayed for nearly an hour. For all she knew, he could’ve been making drug calls. Then, the stranger had left as mysteriously as he had come. The vibes had not been good while he was in the building. After he left, she had called Lacy and thanked her for the prayers, wondering to herself what Lacy’s prayers had defended heragainst.

Jillie watched the motorcyclist swing off his bike, remove his helmet, and whistling, head for the church door. He was tall, dark haired, good looking, and probably in his late twenties. The phone rang and she went to answer it, but not before hearing a key in the front door lock that told her the motorcyclist was likely the newpastor.

When she got off the phone, she turned around to find him framed in her office doorway observing her. Broad shouldered, dressed in a pair of black slacks, a navy a