Times of Trial

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By Cliff Ball

One Sunday morning, a few weeks after President Collins had nullified the election results, it was Laura’s turn to take care of the under three year olds in the nursery. The babies and toddlers were usually quiet, so Laura sometimes used the time to study for school while also listening to the church service over the radio system that had been set-up for anyone who was in the nursery. As she was studying, she heard a rumble, along with the sound of helicopters overhead, but there were no windows to look out of to see what was happening and she couldn’t leave the nursery, so she figured she’d wait until church was over to find out what had happened. She didn’t have to wait long.
In the auditorium, which had four hundred people seated in the pews, the choir was singing. An M-1 Abrams tank suddenly crashed through the front doors of the building and came into the auditorium, interrupting the singing, while two other tanks crashed through the east and west walls, with black clad soldiers walking into the auditorium from behind the tanks. The congregation was clearly frightened, but they had nowhere to run, and Pastor Fields got up from his chair, went to the podium, and asked, “What’s going on here?”
A man, who looked like he was in charge of this interruption, walked up the steps of the platform, walked over to Pastor Fields, and asked, “Pastor Matt Fields, I presume?”
“Yes. Who are you and what on Earth are doing by bringing tanks and soldiers in here?”
“Who I am is of no concern to you. We’re here to arrest all of you for being enemies of the state. We have busses outside waiting to take you to our holding facility. Go quietly and no one should get hurt. Not much anyway,”
“You can’t do this! This is a free country, we can worship as we please. What right do you have?”
“I can do this, and no, you are no longer free to worship as you please. Men, escort these people to the busses and sweep the campus to look for others to pick up. Pastor, will you go or will you resist?”
Fields looked at his congregation being forcibly led outside, prayed inwardly for the strength to do what he was about to do, and said, “I will not go. I resist your attempt at tyranny. If I die, I die free,”

About Cliff Ball:

Cliff Ball lives in Texas, born in Arizona, is a born again Christian. Has two BA’s, and a Certificate in Technical Communications. Has published eight novels and two short stories. Won third in high school for a short story written in Creative Writing class for a young adult magazine. Please visit his website at http://www.cliffball.net
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  1. Reblogged this on Blog of Christian Indie author Cliff Ball and commented:
    Times of Trial, featured at the Grace n Faith Blog. For the links to buy the novel, please visit http://cliffball-christianauthor.weebly.com/times-of-trial.html

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