The Day of Ezekiel's Hope by Donna VanLiere

Author:Donna VanLiere
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736978828
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Published: 2021-01-20T00:00:00+00:00

The next morning, as Jamie reads from the Bible to the volunteers, new believers, and children, Emma notices the shadow of someone running past the curtained window. She beckons to Kennisha, and they both go to the door. Emma cautiously opens it, looking outside, and sees no one. But her breath is taken away by the purple and pink colors dancing and swirling in the early morning sky. As she marvels at the sight, a soft noise catches her attention. She looks down and sees a box on the stoop. Picking it up, she hands it to Kennisha, then closes and locks the door.

Kennisha sets the box on a table near the door and carefully lifts the flaps. She and Emma lean over and discover a sleeping newborn inside, along with a note. This is common now; since moving into the building, babies and children have been left here at all hours of the day and night. Emma picks up the note and they read it together: I heard that you take in children. Please help him. I named him Max.

“There’s no formula left,” Kennisha says. Milk has been impossible to get lately, for dairy farms across the country were left shorthanded after the disappearances, and in many places no refrigeration is available to help keep the milk fresh. And formula had become too expensive to buy.

“What about Estela?” Emma whispers, looking at the young woman sitting among the volunteers. “Her baby is five months old now. She’s still breastfeeding. Maybe she could help feed him.”

“She’s so thin,” Kennisha says. “Would she have enough milk to feed two babies?”

Emma stands up straighter. “I don’t know, but we have to try.” Looking down at the baby again, she says, “I’m so glad you’re here, Max.” The thought overwhelms her: Max’s mother had chosen life in a time of great darkness. This now makes more than 300 children who have been rescued from the streets by this home church. She walks quietly over to Estela and whispers in her ear. Estela follows her to the box and looks inside at the baby, who is now awake. “If you don’t think you’ll have the milk for him…” Emma begins.

“He needs to eat,” Estela says, cutting her off. She takes the new baby and tucks herself away on a chair at the back of the room. She is 18 and has an infant of her own, but she can’t let this child die. The love of Christ compels her and all the others who come here to volunteer each day. She shows the infant what he is now screaming for and prays that Max will latch on, smiling when he does. She pats his back and bends to kiss his head, a young woman barely entering adulthood, caring for a child not her own.

Brandon moves to the front of the room and opens his Bible. “John chapter three,” he says, reading: “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

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