He leaned back in his seat and wondered what he would write about when he got home. He had already written extensively about the bombing in Washington on his flight home and uploaded all that at the airport. He couldn’t write about Jon and Erin’s wedding, of course. They hardly needed more publicity. But the truth was, that beautiful ceremony was what he was thinking about most.
Mordechai had particularly enjoyed his conversation with Ken Costello and his wife, Tracy, just before the service had begun. They had been intrigued by his memo and fascinated with his theory. But they still weren’t sure they bought his conclusions. By their own admission, they had been agnostics before the world had taken a turn for the worse—“lapsed Catholics,” in their words — whose trips to church in the past had been on Easter and Christmas, but rarely in between. Now they were searching for answers and attending a Bible church in Bethesda, Maryland. Mordechai had no doubt they would discover the truth. He just hoped it was in time.
“Dagger, this is Periscope, over.”
“Go ahead, Periscope.”
“We have eyes on the target. Just hit some traffic. Slowing a bit. But still headed your way.”
“Roger that. All units stand by.”
Something extraordinary was under way.
In Ezekiel 38 and 39, the God of Israel had declared, “I will magnify Myself, sanctify Myself, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the Lord,” and “I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel.”
And sure enough, these ancient prophecies were coming to pass.
Never in history had so many Jews and Gentiles declared themselves followers of Jesus Christ. Every day Mordechai received e-mails with news from around the globe that made him literally weep with joy. Churches and messianic Jewish congregations were exploding in numbers. The term small-group Bible studies was quickly becoming extinct from the evangelical lexicon. Nothing was small anymore. Once-deserted cathedrals throughout Europe were filled to capacity. Tiny country churches in rural America were having enormous camp meetings in cornfields. Thousands of Buddhist and Hindu temples in India, Pakistan, and Southeast Asia were being converted into Bible churches. In Korea and Japan and throughout the Pacific Rim, millions of new believers were meeting for worship in soccer stadiums.
Perhaps most extraordinary was word of hundreds of new Bible-believing, Bible-preaching congregations springing up throughout the Middle East, as well as news that once-clandestine house churches and underground gatherings of believers were now coming out into the warm Mediterranean sunshine. Muslims were turning to Christ in record numbers, and Mordechai could only shake his head to see former mullahs and imams on Al-Jazeera and other regional television and radio shows now preaching the gospel like modern-day apostles.
He wanted to go and see it all for himself, firsthand. He wanted to visit the people, the homes, the rapidly growing assemblies of new believers in Libya and Sudan and especially Iran. He had received invitations from all over the region from believers eager to hear his teaching after reading his words online. But time was running out. The Lord was coming back soon. How could he best invest his time until the end?
Mordechai scrolled through his Treo for new e-mails. As he did, he came across one from the pastor of Christ Our Shepherd Church, now the largest and fastest-growing congregation of Muslim converts to Christ on the Arabian Peninsula.
Dear Brother Mordechai:
Greetings from Mecca, where Jesus is now the King! Thank you so much for your very encouraging note, and even more important, for your unceasing prayers. I write to you with good news of great joy, an update on how our risen Savior is blessing our little congregation. Over the past thirty days, we have had the privilege of baptizing another 2,206 members, bringing the total followers of Jesus in our community to just over 14,000. We face great hardships here. As the shock of the earthquake and firestorm begins to lessen slightly, persecution is intensifying-but not from Muslims. Indeed, there are few true followers of Mohammed anymore. Most Saudis are experiencing great confusion over what they believe and where to go next. They have seen their god shattered, like the prophets of Baal, and now they are searching for the truth and asking us many questions. We can barely keep up!
That said, the trials we face today come mostly from the U.N. peacekeeping forces who recently arrived to "keep order." They have shut down our church’s food-and-clothing-distribution efforts to families in need and are accusing us of trying to bribe people into our faith. They have denied us a building permit as well, refusing to let us build a church amid the ashes of the destroyed mosques. But we have not lost our joy! May it never be! We will persevere by His grace.
Would you pray about coming to preach to us, to encourage us, and to help us choose and anoint elders who can guide us through these difficult times? We would be most grateful. The Lord’s family is growing so rapidly here, and as you well know I have only been a believer myself for a few years. I need all the wisdom and advice you can supply. Thank you so much, and may God continue to bless you and keep you in His mighty arms.
Yours in Christ,
Brother Faisal
One by one, the four men rechecked their weapons.
And one by one they clicked off their safeties and eased into position. Dagger would take the first shots from a rock ledge, using a high-power sniper rifle smuggled in through Gaza from Egypt during all the chaos. The rest would follow suit, then disappear into the hills, never to see one another again.
Their radios suddenly crackled to life.
“One minute,” said Dagger.
Mordechai reread the e-mail.
He felt a lump forming in his throat. He had never been in Saudi Arabia, even while serving in the Mossad. He had certainly never been to Mecca. What an amazing privilege it would be to preach the gospel there and strengthen the new followers of Christ. But when would he have the time? His schedule was already packed with speaking opportunities for the better part of the next year. Still, he would pray about it, and perhaps the Lord of the harvest would make a way.
Mordechai’s phone rang.
“Now!” Dagger shouted into his radio.
He took careful aim at the oncoming vehicle and pulled the trigger. His snipers immediately opened fire as well, blowing out the tires and riddling the doors with armor-piercing rounds. The car swerved violently. It veered into oncoming traffic, then came back again into its own lane, barely missing a tractor trailer, as the shooting continued without pause.
The windshield exploded.
Mordechai ducked below the seat as the cell phone, still ringing, fell to the floor. His driver abruptly slumped forward. He’d been hit in the face and chest multiple times.
The car again swerved violently. They were headed for the guardrail and a thirty-foot embankment. Mordechai reached over the front seat and tried to grab the wheel. But more machine-gun fire now erupted from both sides of the road. It was a classic ambush, and for the first time in his life, Mordechai was caught utterly unprepared.
Shattered glass flew all around him. Armor-piercing rounds penetrated the thick metal doors of his government-issue Volvo. He felt one rip through his arm. Another ripped into the small of his back, and Mordechai cried out in pain.
He felt the car crash through the twisted metal of the guardrail and plunge through the air, and for one brief moment, all was silent. No gunfire. No pain. Just the horrifying realization that he was about to die and then the sudden, unexpected joy that he was about to meet his Savior face-to-face.