Free Kingdom Come - The Final Victory by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins

sometimes He doesn’t tell you everything—”
    “Because it should be obvious, sure,” Tsion said. “So you’re asking questions to which He implies you should know the answers.”
    “But I don’t feel led to children in other countries.”
    “Do you feel led at all? Or is He just bringing that verse to mind for no reason?”
    “Surely not. But if I feel a nudge, it’s toward adults.”
    “Remember, Rayford, anyone under a hundred is a child now.”
    “Excuse me, Tsion.” Rayford stood and moved away as the cellular implant in his inner ear sounded and Chloe spoke.
    “Dad?”
    She sounded sad. How long had it been since he could say that about anyone? “Hey, Chlo’!”
    “Could you come? Bring Tsion if you want. We have an issue here.”
    “An issue?”
    “We’ve been rocked, I have to say.”
    “Tell me.”
    “In person, Dad. Please.”
    Rayford asked Tsion if he wanted to come along.
    “Not unless you need me. Go and assess the situation.”
    Rayford soon sat in Cameron Williams’s great room surrounded by Irene, Chloe, Cameron, Kenny, and Abdullah and Yasmine Ababneh.
    They all looked staggered.
    “Who died?” Rayford said, thinking he was being rhetorical.
    “Cendrillon Jospin,” Cameron said.
    “The French girl? She was a leader, with you since the beginning.”
    Chloe sat shaking her head. “You could knock me over with a fig, Dad. If I’m not mistaken, she had actually led others to faith.”
    “I’m not sure about that anymore, Chloe,” Cameron said. “She taught, yes, and she counseled. And it seemed she was an enthusiastic saint. But as I think back, I can’t say I ever knew of someone coming to Christ specifically through her leading. Can you?”
    Chloe fell silent.
    “The Jospins want me to speak at her funeral, Rayford,” Cameron said. “They know the truth, and yet still that’s what they want. Whatever would I say? She seemed a wonderful girl, and had her death been the result of an accident back in previous years, I’d have been able to rhapsodize about her. She was a dear friend, a valued coworker.”
    “And an unbeliever,” Chloe said.
    “How did the conversation go with her parents?” Rayford said. “What are they suggesting you say?”
    “They just want a simple eulogy,” Cameron said. “But a funeral is no place for me to tell the awful truth. Cendrillon is in hell, no longer with us because she never trusted Christ for salvation. Is that what I tell people? And would her parents forgive me? Perhaps they’re in denial, desperate to find some loophole, some reason why a believer might die at one hundred.”
    “Ask them, Cam,” Rayford said. “Because if they don’t permit you to be honest, there’s no point in doing anything but declining their request. The only benefit I see coming from this is if they allow you to warn other young people of the consequences of putting off the transaction with Jesus. I could go with you to see them and—”
    Rayford paused when he noticed Yasmine nudge Abdullah. “Tell them,” she whispered. “You know you should.”
    “What is it, Smitty?” Rayford said.
    “Well, it is most troubling. Our daughter—you all know Bahira—when she heard the news she was most distraught, as we all were. But she perhaps a bit more. Not that they were all that close. Cendrillon had wanted to be her friend, but our daughter rebuffed her.”
    “Because?”
    “Because of what we are talking about now. In front of Cameron and Chloe and the others, Cendrillon was a model leader. Behind their backs she was critical, a scoffer, a doubter at best.”
    “How long has Bahira known this?”
    “Just a few weeks, and she feels horrible for not telling us sooner. She worries that she is responsible, because she knew Cendrillon’s birthday was coming and that it was possible she was not a believer.”
    Rayford stood. “We need to visit the Jospins. Perhaps it should be only the three of us—Cam, Abdullah, and me. Is that all right with