Simple Faith

© 2014 by Anna Schmidt

Print ISBN 978-1-62029-141-2

eBook Editions:
Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-62836-978-6
Kindle and MobiPocket Edition (.prc) 978-1-62836-979-3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without written permission of the publisher.

All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.

Cover design by Kirk DouPonce, DogEared Design

Published by Shiloh Run Press, an imprint of Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, OH 44683,
www.shilohrunpress.com

Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses
.

Printed in the United States of America.

Part 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Part 2

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Part 3

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Epilogue

About the Author

Special gratitude and appreciation to those who lived through events similar to those described in this novel and to the historians who tell those stories so that they may never be forgotten.

Thanks once again—as with book 1,
All God’s Children
—go to Denise Heap and Jessica Slavin, who read the manuscript in progress, keeping me on track as they reviewed historical facts and made suggestions to enrich the story.

Thanks also to my editors—Rebecca Germany, Annie Tipton, and Becky Durost Fish—for the opportunity to tell Anja and Peter’s story and for the love with which they brought those stories to publication.

Thanks always to Natasha Kern—my friend, mentor, and agent—who believes in me when I sometimes fail to believe in myself.

And finally, every book I have ever written owes its inspiration to come to light to my beloved husband. As he held me in the Light throughout the life we shared together, so I hold him in the Light as I travel on without him.

Dear Reader,

In book 1 of the Peacemakers series,
All God’s Children
, the story evolved against a backdrop of true historical facts that included the remarkable story of a small group of German medical students who banded together in what came to be known as the White Rose to speak out against Hitler and the Nazis. In time the hero and heroine of that novel—Josef and Beth—along with their friend Anja were imprisoned in the Nazi death camp Sobibor in eastern Poland. The events of their escape from that horrid place are also based on fact.

The journey that our characters—including Anja and Josef and Beth—take in the following pages is also set against a background of historical fact. Amazingly, during World War II there were several so-called escape lines managed by the brave local citizens of countries occupied by the Nazis. Like those who worked on the American Underground Railroad, these individuals—at considerable risk to their own lives and safety—provided false papers, safe houses, food, shelter, and clothing to move Allied airmen from the site of their downed planes behind enemy lines across much of Europe until they could reach Gibraltar—a British territory—and move from there back to England. They traveled hundreds, even thousands of miles by train, bicycle, or on foot, and perhaps the most amazing piece of this story is that the best known of these escape lines—the Comet Line—was created and managed by a young woman.

I have long been fascinated with the courage of ordinary people in extraordinary times, and I hope that Anja’s story will inspire you as well. I do hope you will write to me via my website (
www.booksbyanna.com
) or to PO Box 161, Thiensville, WI 53092—I so enjoy hearing from my readers.

All the best,
Anna

   CHAPTER 1   

I
f you land at night and are not badly injured, count your blessings.”

Second Lieutenant Peter Trent could not fathom why he was muttering the opening lines of the guide for avoiding capture provided to British flight crews. He was American after all and had certainly received similar training. But he had spent the better part of the previous evening in a pub with Tommy Johnstone, a gunner with the Royal Air Force. He and Tommy had a lot in common. They were the same rank. They were the same age—twenty-seven—older than most of the rest of the guys on their crews. They were both facing their first mission over enemy territory. Tommy’s flight was scheduled to go out at night, but generally Americans did not bomb by night. When Tommy heard this, he began quoting the guidebook.

Pay attention to what I say, Petey, because you are going to have to be one lucky bloke not to get shot down flying in broad daylight
, he had warned. Peter had laughed off Tommy’s dire prediction and wished him well as they both headed off to get some sleep. On the other hand, maybe he should have paid closer attention, for at the moment he was free-falling through the air on a collision course with a fallow field below and wishing he could remember more details of Tommy’s refresher course in survival tactics. He was all too aware that the force of his landing even after he activated his chute would be a little like jumping out a second-story window. Add to that the fact that he was pretty sure one of the Nazi bullets had hit his leg, and there was little doubt that this was going to be painful.

When the pilot, Captain Jack Walker, had ordered the crew to abandon the plane after it filled with smoke, Peter had waited his turn and then leaped out just as he had practiced the move dozens of times. But, the force of the leap flipped him onto his back. Now he was straining to look over his shoulder in order to judge how fast he was falling and when to pull the parachute’s rip cord. He and the rest of the crew had successfully dropped their load over Frankfurt and were on their way back to base when they’d been hit from below by antiaircraft artillery. Unfortunately, a photoflash bomb used so that planes engaged in night photography reconnaissance need not be limited to low altitude was still on board. Why they had had the thing on a daylight mission was a mystery to Peter. But the photoflash bomb had been the source of the fire that they’d used every available extinguisher on board to try and control.

They had failed. Under the best of circumstances, these flash bombs required extreme caution when handled. They were so sensitive that the change in temperature could set them off. In the case of antiaircraft fire pelting the plane, the bomb going off and starting the fire that swept through the bay was a sure thing. Matters were only made worse when the gunner Haversole—a wet-behind-the-ears kid determined to be a hero—decided to open the bomb doors in hopes of pushing the thing out. The rush of air served as fuel for the fire, and before they knew what was happening, acrid smoke had filled the cabin. More ground fire targeted the plane, and this time the bullets had found their mark—killing Haversole and at least grazing Peter’s leg. The crew had tried everything to contain the damage, but finally the pilot had given the order to bail out.

Because it was still light—the sun just setting beyond a line of trees—Peter knew that although his fingers were itching to pull the cord, he had to wait until the very last moment to do so or risk being spotted by German ground forces. Given what he knew of their flight plan, he judged he was somewhere over Belgium, but that country—like most of Western Europe—was occupied by the Nazis. Of course there were other dangers as well—power lines, trees where his chute might get entangled and leave him dangling like a sitting duck for a Kraut with a rifle. He forced himself to focus on the positive and mentally schooled himself in the actions he would need to take once he made it down safely. Get rid of the chute and start moving—fast.