1634: Turn Your Radio On (13 page)

"Besides," he continued, "It is time that I got on with spreading the Word with my deeds as well. After this war is finally over, having served as a chaplain, I'll be in a much better position to bring new souls to Christ." He grinned. "Which we cannot doubt that even some members of the Committees of Correspondence need."

He climbed the remaining steps to the main aisle and found a window seat about midway down the old converted school bus. The seat was next to a patch in the body. From the shape of it, it had probably been put there to repair damage caused by the Croat raiders as they tried to get past the bus barricade to the high school almost two years ago. While the tires of so many of those school buses ruined, several had been enlisted to furnish passenger service for the newly completed rail line to Magdeburg. In case the bus was needed for off-rail transport along the line, several stops had a set of jacks on the siding track and a set of tires so the rail wheels could be swapped out if necessary.

With his final passenger now on board, the driver pulled the lever closing the door, started his engine, and slowly pulled away from the new downtown Grantville station. Behind, he towed three down-time built cargo trail cars and a flatbed, which carried some sort of vehicle that was covered with a green tarp. A heavily bundled, uniformed guard rode on top of each rail car, cradling their SRG rifles in their arms and a shotgun strapped across their backs to protect the train along the journey to the temporary end of the rail at Eisleben.

As the train disappeared around the bend, Fischer turned to Chalker, who was seated in his wheelchair being hovered over by Georg Fleitner. "Well, Brother Chalker, our first missionary has been dispatched."

Chalker nodded, rubbing his swollen legs. Still solemnly looking down the now empty tracks, he observed, "Praise the Lord, Brother Fischer. The Holy Ghost has chosen well."

"Amen to that, brothers!" Pete chimed in. "You did give him the other copy for Terrell. Didn't you, Fischer?"

Fischer nodded. The copy Pete referred to was the book the church had just published, "A Pentecostal Commentary and Concordance" by Reverend John Chalker as translated to German by Reverend Dieter Fischer. Of the initial press run of one thousand, Chalker had reserved the first thirteen copies for himself and what he liked to call his new apostles. These would be the first twelve ministers to spread the Pentecostal Word to the ends of this new world. Fischer had insisted that Hans, as the newest ordained minister in the faith, should receive the first copy to take with him. The other copy Hans was taking with him was destined for Terrell Nemeth, who had also accepted the call to take up the ministry.

This was the book that Chalker and Fischer had worked on so long and hard since Fischer's arrival in Grantville. With Chalker continuing to conduct his Bible studies as his strength would allow, Fischer scribbled down his notes. Then, he carefully translated them into the common dialect that he and Chalker had selected to best reflect the common Germans to whom they were reaching out.

Meanwhile, a committee of down-timer members had tackled the job of translating the concordance from the up-time Bible that Chalker had brought through the Ring of Fire with him. Since Chalker also added personal notes and struck passages that didn't reflect his beliefs, this was also finely tuned to his faith.

The finished book was filled with the loving humor and keen insight into the human condition Chalker had developed in his years as a country preacher back up-time and now here in the seventeenth century. Wonderful stories, all tied to specific verses of the Bible, all designed to guide the reader into letting go and allowing the Holy Ghost in their own heart to take control of their life.

Nothing quite like this book had existed in this world. Unknown to the Pentecostal ministers, of the remainder that had been put on sale; a Jesuit priest in town had purchased the next dozen and shipped eleven back to Rome. Others were already finding their way to various Imperial cities, electorates, and principalities throughout the Germanies, Paris, Vienna, Denmark, and even Madrid. All in all, the book was about to be read by all the finest people. None of whom were likely candidates for conversion.

Pete walked away accompanying Susannah back to her home. Georg started pushing Chalker's wheelchair back to the church. Fischer followed behind thinking of the dangers that Hans was about to face. Almost unobserved, Constanzia fell in beside him and slipped her hand into his.

****

Fischer woke with a start. He felt as if he had been dropped on the bed from some height and his forehead was throbbing. Throwing off the covers, he swung his feet to the floor and felt moisture dripping down from his scalp line. He wiped his brow then brought his hand down so he could look at it.

Thank God, it isn't blood
.

Fischer hadn't had such a vivid dream in some time now. It was something about a rape amid an ocean of blood and violet flames. His heart throbbed just thinking about it.
It's probably just the result of Hans going off to war.

He tried to remember the details of the dream, but they had mostly escaped his memory. One detail did come to mind. It was the figure raping the girl. He was a large, heavyset man wearing robes, with a mustache and a spindly blond goatee. And he was wearing glasses. How odd.

****

"Reverend! Reverend Fischer!"

Fischer looked up from his morning paper to see who was calling for him. He enjoyed this little habit of having a quiet breakfast at the Higgins Hotel Restaurant each Tuesday morning after the Bible study the previous night. Georg Heinrich Vitzthum von Eichstedt, one of the Grantville Pentecostal Church's newest elders walked toward him. Fischer set aside his paper, smiled, and stood up to welcome the elder and invited him to share breakfast.

Eichstedt arranged his napkin on his lap and got right to business. "A wonderful meeting of the Elders last night, Reverend."

"Thank you, Herr von Eichstedt."

"Please," Eichstedt interrupted with a smile. "I will call you Dieter, and you must not feel obligated to use my formal name. I shall be Georg Heinrich. The American way!"

"By all means, the American way. What an amazing culture they must have had up-time. This city was just a back hills afterthought in their world and look at what it's doing to change our entire world in the here and now."

Eichstedt nodded as the waiter came to take his order. "Yes, the meeting last night. I was going over the budget for using the funds from the radio show. It seems to me that we have a dilemma. We can only expand the church so much and you are already conducting all the Sunday services we can expect of you. Even with the new salaries for the cast and crew of the show, our charities contribution is going to have a difficult time spending the surplus in such a way as to not attract more members."

He took another sip of his coffee before continuing. "Now with Hans newly ordained and sent off to war and Terrell making the commitment to becoming a minister of the faith giving us two chaplain missionaries . . . Well, it seems to me the time has arrived that we need to start physically spreading our flock outside the city limits of Grantville."

Fischer looked puzzled, but waited for the Elder to explain.

"You see, your radio devotionals and the Saturday night radio show are creating more and more interest in our practices. I'm constantly being asked about the church back home in Rudolstadt. There are a lot of rumors about our differences and unless we provide the answers, our adversaries will."

"But, until Reverend Chalker can resume his pulpit here, I can't start up any new churches." Fischer gestured with his cup. "You've already pointed out that Hans is off with the army and Terrell is just beginning his formal training. It takes time to find and train ministers for a new church. Even using the mission riders system of the early Methodist church, the Holy Spirit just hasn't provided us the people with the calling to support more churches right now."

"Ah yes! But a minister is not necessary for a church. In Matthew it says, 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' As it turns out, our church has brought back the most wonderful approach to spreading the Word. Two approaches actually."

Fischer looked puzzled, so Eichstedt continued. "First, the weeknight Bible studies. With the new commentary you and Reverend Chalker have provided us, we can set up Bible studies in any town where a member can attract a gathering. We wouldn't even have to be in conflict with the existing religion of that town. Nor do we need to ask for contributions, thanks to the radio show. No doubt, we'd get contributions, but like the devotional, we wouldn't have to emphasize that part.

"In fact, we can actually charge our new believers to get more active in their existing local churches! It's obvious from what I've learned since listening to the Holy Spirit inside me. Our mission is to bring all the Christian churches, whether Lutheran or Catholic, Anabaptist or Calvinist, back to the proper appreciation of the Holy Spirit in their worship. That was the way that the charismatic movement was initially spread back up-time. It will work just as well here."

Fischer was astonished at this new way of looking at growing the Pentecostal faith. But Georg Heinrich was correct, even in the book on Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, during the early days of her ministry she converted existing churches to the power of the Spirit more often than starting new churches of her own. After thinking it through for a moment, he asked, "But you said two?"

Smiling even wider, Geog Heinrich replied, "A traveling revival! Instead of holding our summer revival here in Grantville this year, we can spread it around and help bring new souls to those new Bible study groups forming all over the Germanies.

"As you know, my ancestral family lands are just outside the gates of Rudolstadt. By my father's time, our family fortunes had dwindled to just some rents from here and there and maybe a thousand guilders worth of land. But when the railroad came, the Lord presented me the opportunity to develop the land into a service yard for the further construction of the new lines north to Magdeburg and west to Erfurt. That, in turn, allowed me to persuade other landowners along the line of the value of the new railroad to them and how they might also profit from voluntarily dropping their rights to tolls. And that advice has paid off with a good deal of influence in towns and cities all up and down the rail line.

"In fact, during the last few weeks, I've been making inquiries of some of my friends for the use of their lands near the rail line for a few week nights. I'm confident that we can put on a revival tour unhampered by local authorities so long as we don't try to displace the local church."

Fischer's face lit up. "And thanks to the radio and the correspondence we've been receiving as a response to the talent contest and the other requests for songs and such, we'll even know where we have concentrations of listeners who would be willing to attend our first tour. This is a brilliant idea!"

"Exactly. All the elements are there. But most of all, the Holy Spirit has given us that rarest of gifts, a man with the power to persuade and the power to lead. You, Reverend Dieter Fischer."

March 1634, Grantville, State of Thuringia, United States of Europe

"Well, long story short," Maria Kurger said to the preachers and elders, and a few good prospective elders when the time came, gathered in the offices of the Grantville Pentecostal Church, "here's the list of the towns from which people have sent either donations or correspondence in response to the radio show or the morning devotionals. I've ranked it by numbers of correspondents with the total contributions and total number of letters noted in separate columns." She handed out copies. Laying a map on the table in front of her, she continued, "I've also noted on the map in yellow the top twenty towns in terms of donations and in blue the top twenty towns in terms of pieces of correspondence. Green represents towns on both lists. The bolder printing of the town name indicates a larger population."

Fischer leaned over Reverend Chalker's shoulder to get a better view of the map. This was the first tangible evidence he'd seen of where his listeners were and it amazed him how widespread his audience was. They ranged from Bavaria to the south and Fulda to the west, to Saxony in the east and Hesse Kassel to the north.

"I discovered a real interesting thing while putting together this report," Maria said. "Starting in late January, we've been receiving a steadily increasing number of letters from people who have not been able to hear the show. They got their hands on a copy of one of the songs we've sent out and are writing us for more songs or information on the Bible lessons we offer on the other side of the broadsheet.

"These second generation requests seem to follow the initial letters by about three to five weeks. That means that we may have really not even begun to find our audience for the shows from January!"

Everyone was quiet for a moment, thinking of the ramifications of this new information.

"Keeping Elder von Eichstedt's suggestion in mind," Pete Enriquez commented, "We need to identify the towns that are on or near enough to the new rail lines with good enough roads so our vehicles can make the journey."

The other members of this year's revival planning committee nodded their heads at this suggestion.

Balthazar Schenk pointed to Meiningen. "It's a shame the rail hasn't been completed there yet. I've made a number of trips to Meiningen purchasing gun parts and have been asked about my new faith. I believe that town is ripe for a revival."

"Plenty of time for the Holy Spirit to lead us all over, Brother Schenk," Chalker replied. "This first tour needs to plant the seeds where we can get back easily to cultivate it. 'And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: but when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.' Mark, Chapter Four, Verse Five.