Free A Measure of Mercy by Lauraine Snelling Page B

Maydell has any sense, she’ll tell us tomorrow that they’re getting married next week.” Grace and Astrid fell across the bed laughing.
    “You think so?” Deborah sat cross-legged at the foot of the bed, brushing her hair.
    “I do. Before he changes his mind.” Astrid wiped a tear from Grace’s cheek.
    Giggling, the three tied ribbons around the ends of their night braids, blew out the lamp, and crawled under the sheet. A blanket lay folded across the bottom of the bed in case the night cooled down.
    In the quiet Astrid signed to Grace’s hand. “I’m so glad you’re home. I really missed you.”
    Grace curled up close like they did when little girls, only now without Sophie wiggling.
    “Me too,” she signed back. “Long talk tomorrow.”
    Maybe Grace could help her understand how not to miss Blessing if she went to Chicago. If she went. The ifs murmured her to sleep.
    Astrid woke to the sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs. Onkel Lars had stayed late. She rolled over on her side, careful not to push Grace off the edge. Walking home with Mr. Landsverk would have been interesting, but was she ready for more complications in her life?
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    JOSHUA WAS WATING at the steps to the church when the Knutsons and their extra passengers drove up the next morning. The Bjorklunds arrived at about the same time. Joshua tipped his hat to Ingeborg in greeting and smiled at Astrid. “May I sit beside you in church?”
    “Ah . . .” She glanced at her mother, who nodded. “I guess so.” No man had ever asked to sit next to her like this. But when they shared a hymnbook and his full baritone harmonized with her alto, a thrill raced up and down her spine, then sparkled off her fingertips. Surely the entire congregation was singing better because of his voice.
    When it was time for the sermon, Pastor Solberg stepped forward and gestured to a man who was sitting in the chair next to him behind the pulpit. “Today I would like to introduce a missionary friend of mine, the reverend Ted Schuman, who is serving in Kenya, Africa. He will bring us not only the message for the day but a report on his mission there.”
    Astrid had trouble concentrating on the beginning of the sermon with the warmth of Joshua’s arm right next to hers. But the speaker caught her attention when he quoted Jesus’ words from John’s gospel: “ ‘Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.’ ” He went on with a quote from Matthew: “ ‘The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few.’ ” After a pause where he looked around at all the faces in the congregation, he softened his voice. “The harvest is indeed ready, but the laborers are terribly few.” He continued with stories of his life in Africa, of the native people who had come to faith in spite of their old beliefs, and the witch doctors who fought to destroy the light the white man preached.
    He closed his sermon by saying, “If God is calling you to serve Him as a missionary in foreign lands, please hearken to His call. We so desperately need help, especially those with medical training.”
    His eyes seemed to bore right into her own. Astrid swallowed. Surely he didn’t mean her. She didn’t even want to go as far away as Chicago. He couldn’t mean me. Lord, is this really you?

7
    J oshua felt a huge weight leave his shoulders as he sat next to Astrid in the service. She had not refused his slightly impertinent request to sit with her. Maybe his impulse to return to Blessing was right and not crazy, as he’d been wondering, although he’d been pretty sure of that when his heart about jumped out of his chest as soon as he saw her again. He tried to compare the young girl he’d tried to forget with this Astrid sitting beside him . I stayed away to give her time to grow up, and now I’m back and she didn’t seem to be troubled or irritated by my attention. Then suddenly she became distant, like in a trance.
    What happened?