Magnolia Square

Pamela J. Lantz

Description

In this final offering from the series The Trinity Promise, Lila and her Israeli friends follow the Holy Spirit to the ends of the earth.

After accepting an invitation to rescue children in Brazil, Lila, and her Israeli friends set out on an adventure of a lifetime. A mission compound far from the wealthy tourist district had been established by the Crow family. This would be Team Operation Set Captives Free headquarters for the duration of their stay. Aptly named Magnolia Square for the abundance of Magnolia trees that lined the property, where impoverished children are loved, taught, and fed during the school week. On Sunday the church’s mission bell rings, calling everyone to gather for worship. It’s a humble work, important and lifesaving.



The Crow family had been given permission to repurpose several city lots in the Warehouse district that neighbored the city dump. Homeless children, many with disabilities, were in want of medical attention, clean water, proper nutrition, and an education.



Overwhelming needs for sure, but as of late, change seemed to be in the air. The Holy Spirit was on the move, He had called and they had answered. In short order, Team OSCF and the Crow family realized they were not the only ones that had been requested to attend His party. An afternoon visiting the inhabitants of the city dump brings the team in contact with a peculiar young man. Father Jude, a thirty-something Anglican Priest from England who had made Brazil his home and the residents of the landfill his people. Jude’s Council members had told him to expect help to come from the Holy City and that when it arrived, Dunamis Belem would ignite. It was time.



The Holy Spirit was wooing and brooding, breathing fresh wind into souls and spirits and explosively empowering His church.

Sujets

• Missions
• Religious
• Acts
• Israel
• Special education
• Smuggling
• Holy Spirit
• Acts of the Apostles
• Special Needs
• Brazil
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 08 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664275492
• Langue: English

Extrait

Magnolia Square
Book 3 in the Series The Trinity Promise
PAMELA J. LANTZ


Copyright © 2022 Pamela J. Lantz.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
 
Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
 
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7548-5 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7550-8 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7549-2 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022915160
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 09/07/2022
Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
 
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
 
Epilogue

To Magnolia McKinley and all the future little ones who may arrive after the printing of this book. And to my eight grandchildren, who inspired the character names. May you seek to know and love the Lord all the days of your life.
Acknowledgments
A special thanks to Richard, my husband and friend. Your encouragement during the writing of The Trinity Promise Series has been immeasurable.
Preface
This is the final book in The Trinity Promise Series. Just Let Them Love You , Selah , and Magnolia Square are works of fiction, birthed from a word that landed on imagination. The characters, events, and timelines serve to carry the story of a God who promises to set us free and love us forever.
The idea for the setting of Magnolia Square originated from a family’s missionary assignment in Belem, Brazil, in the year 1950. Reverend Crow and his wife, Flora, now reside in their heavenly home, but my dear friend Susan (their daughter) and her siblings live on.
As one who imagines, I can hope they know they have played a part in allowing the reader to step into the book of Acts to meet the Holy Spirit.
After an eventful few years, Lila, Patty, and their Israeli friends find themselves on a whole new adventure. By invitation from the Holy Spirit, Team Operation Set the Captives Free journey to Belem, Brazil, and eventually up the Amazon River and to the ends of the earth.
The Holy Spirit and His never-ending and exciting ways are their focus this time around. You are invited to join, and if you let yourself, you too might find Him utterly irresistible in the best possible ways!
Pamelajlantz.com
[e-mail]
Chapter
ONE
Flora stood by her kitchen window and watched the children gathering in the distance. The iron gate was locked nightly, securing the walled compound around the church and mission house. Jon, her preacher husband, had designed the perfectly square mission compound on a paper napkin in a local café one Saturday afternoon, shortly after their arrival in the bustling Brazilian city. The cinder block church squatted and tanned in the far corner. Its hollow wooden steeple was washed in white, towering in glaring contrast.
“A bell. It needs a bell,” said Susan, during a breakfast of grits and eggs. “How else will the people know when to come?”
She had a point. The Crow family’s adopted land didn’t seem to be constrained by clocks and watches and other conveniences that spoke of changing time and seasons. So requests were made, and children from their home state of Alabama took on the charge. After no time at all, the children had gathered enough coins and paper bills to purchase a bell. Dressed in taffeta and white stockings, bow ties and suspenders, the Sunday school class presented their offering one Easter morning in early spring. Enveloped in a bubble-wrapped cocoon, the bell arrived unscathed.
Photos of the Easter-morning service where the children had presented their offerings were included with the brass bell. The children stood shining, polished, tall, and proud. The stark contrast of worlds was not lost on any of the family. Even Susan, whose feet had only touched America’s soil a scant few times, and who knew of another world of fancy and ruffles, spun around as normal as could be.
Grateful for the gift and compelled to see it to completion, Jon cut a hole through the peak of the steeple and built a brace on which to hang the bell and its frame. He threaded a rope through the pulley and let it drop down through the center of the steeple until it hit the floor of the church. Now, the ringing of the bell marked the beginning and ending of each day, and it punctuated the Sabbath with an extra burst of joy.
Jon’s concern for his family was the reason for the solid concrete block wall that surrounded the mission compound. It consisted of one square acre and had been aptly named Magnolia Square, for the white-flowered and waxy-leaved magnolia trees that lined the streets and offered intermittent shade over the mission house, church, and surrounding land. The locked iron gates were to protect his family, yet their forbidding appearance still troubled him. He was not trying to keep people away—certainly not. Most people anyway. Unfortunately, just the mere fact that they were Americans and the assumption that they were wealthy because of their land of origin marked them as targets for thieves and dangerous sorts.
He had hired a local crew to plant flowering vines and bushes to soften the edges. He had also planted rows of greens, peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, and squash outside Magnolia Square’s gate, free for the picking. Mango and avocado trees stood opposite the magnolia trees. The trees’ fruit had become equal parts food and weapons as the children often pummeled one another or a passerby.
Flora planted colorful succulents, cacti, vegetables, and greens in a corner of the backyard, for both beauty and function. The raised garden beds resembled framed quilts, composted and fitted with soaking hoses in order to ensure a harvest even through the harshest of summers. There she would prod greens with fish emulsion and cover them with canopies in the heat of the day. Tomatoes, peppers, corn, sweet peas, onions, and summer and winter squash tendrilled up trellises and over fences.
Jon hung a tire swing and built a playground on the grounds between their home and the church. Woven grass mats sat under palms, where daily the children would sit and listen to teachers speak of letters and numbers and of angels that rode on the currents from blowing winds.
This was home. They tended to its square borders and lovely people as best they could. Some funds were certain, as they had been set by the mission board. Other resources came through letter campaigns and fundraisers. But for Jon and Flora, this was not enough. Just caring for their own needs was not why they had come to Belem. They could do that anywhere. No, they had to establish themselves as working people, creating their own income and teaching others to do the same.
They needed to immerse themselves in the culture and community, making friends with leaders, politicians, local school officials, and police. It took some time, but through the years, the tall, fair-skinned couple learned perfect Portuguese and could throw down an authentic meal cooked straight from their own garden, just like their neighbors.
The throngs of flies that hung on strings of fish and slabs of meat in the outdoor market hardly bothered Flora anymore. “Enough heat in the oven and pan will kill any germ that tries to tag along,” she would say as she carefully washed all produce purchased from the market-stall vendors. She had also learned to gather corn and flour from the middle of the market’s sacks of grains. She had learned to strategically drop purchases on her walk home, not wanting to cater to the beggars, for her safety, but wanting to contribute to the beggars just the same.
Flora and her girls could cook a traditional seafood stew without a