Free These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon

rejoined the rector and sat again.
    “My brother, I was in deep prayer as I preached, that the Holy Ghost would knock through the crust on every heart along that creek—but I have to tell you, my own heart was sinking, for it looked like the vineyard wasn’t givin‘ off a single grape.”
    “I hear you.”
    “That’s the way it was goin‘ when I noticed a young girl sitting on a limb of that big tree by the water.
    “Usually, a good many young ‘uns would sit up there for the preaching, but somebody had put a board across some rocks that evenin’, and all the young ‘uns but her was sitting on the board. I pay a good bit of attention to young ’uns, having been one myself, but I’d never spotted Lacey Turner before.
    “You talk about listening! Her eyes like to bored a hole in me. If a preacher had a congregation to sit up and take notice like that, he’d be a happy man. It seemed like every word the Holy Ghost put in my mouth was something she craved to hear. I got the feeling my words were like arrows, shooting straight at that long-legged, barefooted girl, but still missing the souls on the ground.
    “Wellsir, that young ‘un slid off that limb and landed on her feet right in front of me, blam!
    “Strikin‘ the ground like that kicked the dust up around her feet. I looked at that dust and looked at that girl, and I knew the Lord was about to do a work.
    “She said, ‘I’m sorry for th’ bad I’ve done, and I want to git saved.‘ It was as matter-of-fact a thing as you’d ever want to hear.
    “Well, the young ‘uns on the board, they started in laughing, but that girl, she stood there like a rock, you should have seen her face! She was meaning business.
    “I said, ‘What would you be repenting of?’ And she said, ‘Bein’ generally mean and hatin‘ ever’body.‘ ”
    “My brother, that’s as strong an answer as you’re likely to get from anybody, anywhere.
    “I said, ‘Do you want to be forgiven of meanness and hatred?’ and she squared back her shoulders and said, ‘That’s what I jumped down here for.’
    “I said, ‘Well, jump in here and say a prayer with me and turn your heart over to Jesus.’ And we both went down on our knees right there by the water, saying those words that’s changed the lives of so many lost and hurting souls.
    “ ‘Lord Jesus,’ she prayed in behind me, ‘I know I’m a sinner. I believe You died for my sins. Right now, I turn from my sins and receive You as my personal Lord and Savior. Amen.’
    “Wellsir, I looked up and half the crowd had moved over to that big tree and was going down on their knees, one by one, and oh, law, the Holy Ghost got to working like you never saw, softening hearts and convicting souls ‘til it nearly snatched the hair off my head.
    “We stayed kneeling right there, and I led first one and then another in that little prayer, and before you know it, brand-new people were getting up off their knees and leaping for joy!
    “Oh, you know the lightness that comes with having your sins forgiven! It’s a lightness that fills you from one end to the other and runs through your soul like healing balm.”
    The rector could feel the smile stretching across his face.
    “My brother, I scrambled down the bank to that creek, and that little handful swarmed down over rocks and roots, some crying, some whooping for joy, and we baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost ‘til I was sopping wet from head to toe.
    The old preacher was silent, then he smiled. “I’ve never seen anything to top it.”
    “Nor I,” said the rector.
    Absalom got up and set his empty bottle in a crate.
    “You can baptize anywhere you’ve got water,” he said, “but to my way of thinking, you can’t beat a creek. It’s the way ol‘ John did it—out in the open, plain and simple.
    “Only one thing nags me,” he told the rector. “Who’s goin‘ to disciple those children of God?
    “What’s goin‘ to become of