"The End of Time"

Do you ever wonder sometimes, whether life could ever go back to the way it was before? I mean, can you imagine just living life normally again, going where you feel like going, not worrying about if you are breaking some law or code of conduct? I do.

It's been two years now since the United States has become a two-sect country. In the Civil War, it was noted, "The North" and "The South". Now, in this time of Christianity vs. the rest, we have been divided once again. The others (non-Christian sect) are in a newly formed "country" called, "Oneness in Peace" or 'The OP" for short. This group of OP members think we are nuts, radicals, extremists, intolerants, hate-mongers, you name it. It's gotten bad, that's for sure. The looks on their faces...Anyway, in case you don't know, I am a Christian. My family and I live with the rest of the Christians in the lower states - namely Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennesee, Arkansas, Kentucky and Alabama. There are a lot of us, that's for sure, but they've managed to keep us contained in these seven states and called our "country" or sect "The Radical Conservative Country" or "RCC" for short. We, on the other hand call our newly founded country "Blessings United". Isn't that pretty? Well, it really is. We call it "Blessings" mostly, because that's what it is ~ a true blessing from God. Things could have gone so much differently, we could be dead now. However, God had His hand in this and has held us together and blessed us. Things are so much different now, but first I want to tell you a little bit about my family.

My name is Mandy and I'm the oldest living child in my home. I say oldest living because I had an older brother, who was 19 but he was killed in the Riots just three years ago. He was my hero, but I'll tell you more about him later. I just turned 15 this summer and think that next year will be my best year yet. I can't WAIT to be 16, sweet 16. The romance of it seems so exciting. Maybe I'll finally have a real boyfriend, maybe we'll fall deeply in love and decide to get married as soon as we graduate from college. A girl can dream, can't she? I dream alot. I know, for example, that I want to get started having a family as soon as possible for a girl living in Blessings. There are certain things that are expected of a proper, young Christian lady, which is okay, really. I don't have any intention of racing to the alter anytime soon. I'm not ready!

I have two younger sisters, Kara and Lizzy. They are twins and in the 7th grade. I love those girls to death, but they can be a real pain. They were a real surprise to my parents and when they found out they were going to have twins, people thought that they had gone completely nuts. Nobody would have expected for them to have anymore kids, because my mom had such a hard time when I was born. Anyway, the twins were born a month early and have been spoiled ever since. Not a day goes by that somebody isn't making a fuss about them. Which leads to the fact that, even though I know my parents love me, I don't get much attention. I try and be understanding, after all, they do have a lot on their plate. With all the adjustments, worry, threats, persecution that we've had to endure these last years has been over-whelming to say the least. We've moved 10 times in since the Latter Day Wars have begun. It was predicted in the bible thousands of years ago and it happened to us. A normal, everyday, happy Christian family. We aren't rich, but we're not poor. We were lucky enough to finally settle into a fairly nice house on the outskirts of town. We have learned alot these past few years and I hope I can shed some light so that it will give you something to think about and to learn from.

I'll go back three and a half years ago. At that time, we lived in Boone, Missouri in a 5 bedroom ranch style house. Both my parents worked to make ends meet. My father, at a local Conservation and my mother, a cook at the elementary school. Our lives were so busy then. Us kids went to school everyday and then when school was out, my brother would head off to work at the Dilly Dally supermarket and I'd walk the twins home. My mom always felt like life was going to fast and she really wished that she could spend more time with her babies, but life wouldn't let her. There were too many bills to pay. It seemed my parents felt that in order to keep your kids in the best shoes, clothes and clubs, you had to hold down at least one job. They felt it was their responsibility. As soon as her shift ended at school at 2:30 in the afternoon, she ran home for a bite to eat and change and then she would go to her private nursing job she did five days a week for 4 hours. When she got home, she was usually dragging and too tired to eat. My father drove a taxi evenings to supplement his income. It really was crazy-busy, but I didn't know any different life. We loved each other, laughed alot when we could hang out together and we always, and I mean always went to church together on Sundays. Was I lucky or what?

Three years ago, there had been rumors going around town that a few of the teachers were going to be forced to resign for their religious beliefs. Word was that these characters were making a whole lot of mess for a few radicals like themselves and it made the school look bad. Turned out to be true, so when I went back to school that fall, these four teachers were gone. It made me sad, because one of them was my favorite teacher. That year, in school, things seemed to go downhill pretty quick. With the "radicals" out of the way, morals declined greatly. The concept of seperation of church and state was used often. In every grade of school, a required course was Human Sexuality Acceptance. Another one which was required for high-schoolers was United World: A look into world-wide peace. The concept sounded good to those who didn't see what was happening, but as Christians, we had been warned in the bible of these things. Families in the church were upset and began to make plans to appeal these classes and the slanted view the secular society had in regards to helping to raise their children.

At the year's first PTA meeting, a bunch of our families showed up and confronted the staff and board about these classes. We also brought up the fact that forcing us to keep our bibles at home was an infringement on our rights as U.S. citizen's. Of course, most of the people in attendance just glared at us and rolled their eyes. My brother was 16 at the time and in football. He loved the school and loved the game, but things had changed so much that he was getting angry. He stood up at that meeting and had the maturity and nerve to say that he thought that some of the outfits the cheerleaders wore were too revealing and distracting and may offend some people. He really got it for that! The board just told us they would "look into it" and had us sit down.

The next day at school, my brother, Jacob, went to shower in the locker room after P.E. When he came out, he found out that his clothes were missing from his locker and in it's place was one of the girl's cheerleading outfit. He was ticked off! He didn't have a stitch of clothing to put on. Later, he told us, that for a split second he thought about putting on the outfit that was left for him, just long enough to get to a phone, but just as quickly decided against it. No way was he going to humiliate himself just to have those jerks laugh him out of school. If they wanted a fight, he was the one to give it to them. After waiting around for over an hour, the P.E. coach came downstairs and found Jacob sitting there waiting. He said that the coach didn't do a very good job hiding his laughter but he did manage to find a t-shirt and shorts for him to wear for the rest of the day. Two weeks later, my brother dropped out of school because things just proceeded to get worse and worse for him. He felt that his time would be better spent studying for his G.E.D. and concentrating on writing letters to local and state government officials. He wanted to let them know that there are families here that were being negatively affected by all the worldly points of view and that it needed to stop.

One Saturday afternoon, there was supposed to be a big parade in town to celebrate the Championship game coming up. There are always tons of floats, lots of families, teens and little kids running around and laughing. This year, we heard that there was going to be a prize given out to the most popular float and the prize was a $2,000 check given to the winner's favorite cause. There were so many people and floats there, it was hard to believe. The competition was fierce. Everyone wanted that prize.

There were several church floats, nursing homes, local businesses, etc. That was pretty typical. You'd see a clown walking with a line of local kids on bikes decked out for the big day, just the same old stuff. Then, we saw it. The float coming down the road with beautiful glitter all over it. The colors were almost blinding, the music awesome. The closer it came into view, a sick feeling came into my stomach. There, standing in the middle of the float, was two men, standing at a make shift alter, preparing for marriage. The reverend who was to perform the ceremony was dressed in a black dress and pumps and bright red lipstick on. There were several other men and women sitting in the "congregation" dressed in alternative dress and smiling and clapping. The motto on the side of the float said-'Let's all live together in peace and love'. Shocked, I looked over at my dad and brother. They looked like they were going to get sick. I quickly scanned the crowd and saw that most of the people were smiling and nodding in their heads in agreement. They actually bought into this garbage. A few more floats whirled by and then it was over. After that, the mayor of the city stepped up to the podium up the central stage and cleared his throat. He spoke for fifteen minutes and during that time, he must have spread more paranoia and hate than Hitler did in WWII. He spoke of those amongst us, in our fair city, that would prefer living an existence like little robots, obeying an out-dated rule book made by a bunch of senile old geezers over 2,000 years ago. He said that not only was it a make-believe story, but that science had disspelled the legends that went along with it years ago. He stated that those who could still actually believe in this had to be living in a world so far from reality, that they themselves are most likely a danger to our peaceful society. He went on the explain that today our communities are becoming filled with loving people. Good citizens who actually care equally about both genders of mankind. Smart, consciencious citizens who are learning to become one with the world around them. They are ecologically responsible, recycling and caring for their environment. They attend regular weekly worship meetings at their local World Church. That was the last thing I heard before the shots rang out. A man known as Rowdy came from nowhere and with three swift shots, our mayor lie dead on stage, in front of everyone. Terror rang out everywhere. People were screaming and weeping, horrified that this peace-loving man could be hurt. My father grabbed me and sisters hands and started making his way out of the center of the crowd. My brother was probably over by the concession stand, he had said. On our way to find him, Rowdy and another redneck made their way up to the stage and grabbed the microphone. They began shouting about hate, abortion, religion, homos...it was too much and I began to cry. I didn't understand why all this was happening, after all, I was barely 12 years old. We finally made our way over to where my brother was standing with a bunch of his friends. They were mostly kids from our church and a couple of others and in general, pretty nice kids. However, on this day, they didn't look too nice. They looked mad, scary mad. They were shouting back and forth to a huge group of people that we knew as the World Church crowd. We knew these peoples beliefs and they knew ours. After Rowdy shot the mayor, they grabbed their chance to make us look bad and ran with it. They were claiming that we were the reason that world peace had not yet been achieved, due to our narrow-mindedness. That we were the reason, beautiful, loving couples could not marry (referring to the gay sect). They said that us "loving" Christians were the reasons young girls were dying all over the country, due to carrying babies they didn't need. It was an argument filled with venomous hate and the crowd around my brother and his friends was enlarging rapidly. I was scared and begged my father to just get us home. Mom had stayed there, feeling under the weather and I was looking forward to just being in her arms again. This was all just too much.

Apparently, some of these peaceful, eco-conscious members of society felt it necessary to carry guns to the celebration because the next thing I heard was a hissing "schvoop!!!" and my brother was lying face down on the pavement in a pool of blood. The frenzy that followed is something I'll never forget and I believe it was the saddest day of my life.

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The Boone Express was the local newspaper and the sad events from the weekend were splattered all over it's front page. The way it read went something like this:

"There was blood spilled Friday afternoon at the parade events honoring our boys and their upcoming Championship game. It seems that a mob of hate-filled locals found yet another reason to call notice to there latest causes. Shots rang out as our beloved mayor spoke words of wisdom and peace... He was pronounced dead at the scene. Then the rest of the participants in the blood-fest began shouting angry words that they felt were beneficial to there cause. More bloodshed came and in all, five people are now dead because of ignorance. Many people interviewed are mortified and wonder when we are going to put a stop to all the radicals and their slanted views and bigotted lifestyles. I wondered that myself, so I made a call to the city manager, who will be replacing the mayor in his duties. He said this is all getting so out of hand, that there will be an emergency meeting this Friday night at the World Church."

By that Friday night, my church had decided to have a meeting of it's own and had invited other churches with their small smattering of members to attend as well. They knew that the way things were going, our God-given rights were going to be taken away from us very soon if we didn't do something about it. It was eventually decided that we would ask for a chance to voice our opinions peacefully at the City Council Meeting. It never happened. At 10 p.m. while we were getting ready for bed, the phone rang. It was the newly appointed mayor and he told us that we needed to get all of our family, friends and church members together and to meet his board at the park the next morning at 10 a.m.

We hardly got any sleep that night, wondering how this was going to end up. By the time we called everyone it was close to 1 a.m. We all met at the park 30 minutes early and in a circle we stood holding hands and prayed for God's guidance and protection. Some were weeping and I was one of them. We could not believe things were going so wrong, but at the same time, we knew the Bible spoke of these things. The council showed up right at 10 and their supporters or "followers" were there as well and must have out-numbered us at least 5-1. We were the minority. We knew it and they knew it and it gave them power. It came down to this. At their meeting the night before, they had unanimously decided it was of best interest for all parties if we would find somewhere else to live or else there would be even more unfortunate bloodshed and they did not wish this on anyone. We didn't expect this and were at a loss for words. Finally, my father spoke up and asked where they would suppose 300 or so families would pick up and go? That, they said, was not their problem. We were the source of the intolerance, ignorance and hate and since we refused to adhere to their peaceful world, we could leave and make it quick. The meeting was short, because they offered no other solution, only the one. We all eventually gathered at the house of our preacher, Pastor Jessup, and we began discussing possibilities. The meeting lasted all day and while the men talked and the children played, the wives went back to their homes and brought back food to serve during meals. By 8 p.m., it was decided that the families would go to the state capital and speak to the governor on behalf of Christians everywhere. Even though we felt like a few persecuted Christians, we knew of many more states with the same type of thing going on. Our country was not United anymore. It was definately divided and the difference made co-existing impossible. Violence was escalating everywhere you turned, pinning Atheistic, "peace-lovers" against Christian "radicals".

The following Monday, with close to 100 Christians in tow, we stormed the capital. We had with us legal representation, doctors, teachers and more all of which were brothers and sisters in Christ. The day was long and boring to my 12 year old mind but the outcome of our speech was mind-boggling. They felt that this had gone on long enough and that they were going to indoctrinate a bill that stated 'There will be zero tolerance for intolerance in our state'. Under this bill, it was stated that "if anyone was charged with not having their children educated in Human Sexuality Acceptance-they were a bigot and an unfit parent." It went on to say that there would only be one Christian church allowed for every county across the state. They felt that an over-abundance of religious fanaticism was negatively affecting our world. Our families knew this could not happen, so on the ride back home, the decision was made to make a trip to Washington D.C.

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So, that's what happened. After a long, drawn out two year battle with the countries officials, a decision was made. Ultimately, the violence had escalated to such an extent that the U.S. leaders had to sit up and take notice. Lives were being taken practically on a daily basis. It was all due to intolerance, no matter which side you may be on. They made the decision that autumn to emancipate the radical Christian members into a their own little "area" or "country" or "prison", however you may take it. Well, finally, something was done. Some of us were heart-broken while others were elated. For so long, we had fought for our rights to be respected and now, well, in a funny way, I guess they would be. We would be given our own little corner of the world to live how we saw fit. The sad thing was, that even though we would be surrounded by fellow believers, we all had unsaved loved ones who we would not be able to see very easily. Living in our own country, we would have to buy a passport, have visas, etc. to leave and visit the U.S.A. Crazy sounding as it was, it was now a reality. Another negative would be the fact that God has told us to be the salt and light to the world and now that would not be an easy task. We would be missionaries, so to speak, when we left the borders of our new little country.

On a cool, breezy day in October my family had all of our possessions loaded up and we drove, caravan style with many other church families to our new country. We had sold our house and had enough to move into a pretty 2-story house in a little town called New Hope, Missouri. It was a nice little place located between two huge lakes surrounded by fir trees. There were only going to be 350 people living there and I was just so happy to be somewhere where the faces were friendly and we were finally going to be at peace.
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In the autumn of my 15th year on this earth, things finally started to feel safe again. I had started back to school and was doing very well in all my classes. The kids I went to school with were all pretty good kids, raised by Christian parents. Life was good! Our community had planted it's own crops in the spring and now, with harvest time coming, there was plenty of chores to do after school. However, it was fun, can you imagine? I got alot of satisfaction out of reaping the crops with fellow believers, knowing that it was for the good of New Hope. On November 1, we had a Harvest Day party and I believe it was one of the funnest days in my life. There was home-made apple cider, roasting ears, a whole hog roasting in the ground. There were 3-legged races, watermelon seed spitting contest, just everything you could think of. The music played was beautiful and loud and went on past midnight. Finally everyone said their good-byes and went to their homes for a much needed rest.

Early, Monday morning, before we went to school, there was a special news bulletin on the radio. My mom shushed us and we all listened.

"More than 2,000 innocent lives were taken last night as an unknown bomber spread mass havoc at the Rockfest held in upper New York. Although, nobody knows for sure who is responsible, many who stood by in horror said that they believe it to be the works of missionaries that recently visited the nearby area. Some were said to be praying on the street near the field where the music celebration was being held. We will bring more to you as we get it."

Mom clicked off the radio, in tears. "Why do they always have to blame the Christians? Why can't they SEE what they are doing to each other? Tying God's hands like that, making Him unable to help them in these days when things are getting so ugly and violent? I just don't understand it!"

It was hard going to school that day, not knowing how Mom was going to deal with her heartache and not knowing how the rest of the secular world was going to deal with another "violent act from the radicals". I was beginning to feel scared again.