MacArthur's Freehold

Chapter 34

Chapter 34 -- MGIREQMBGJDRSQTIDQBAFD

"Thanks for inviting us" said Grant. "You've met Bill already. These is the other members of our committee - Douglas Stewart, Arthur Mitchell, and Gerald Duncan. Gentlemen, this is Luther Pierce - do you have a title or is Luther OK?"

"Luther is fine" he replied, smiling. "And we just call each brother and sister, nothing fancy." He introduced his colleagues and asked if the guests would like refreshments. They all accepted the proffered iced tea, which was quite good.

"My wife passed away the year after we came here" he said. "I've learned how to take care of things, but I'm not much of a cook, or good at making tea. I keep it simple, black coffee and strong sweet tea."

"This is good" said Grant. "I'm not that good at it."

"Well, then" said Luther "shall we get down to business? Are there any items in particular you'd like to discuss?"

"Not especially" said Grant, apparently being looked to as the leader since he had made the overture. "We wanted to formally introduce ourselves, and if you have any curiosity about us we'll try to answer your questions. And to offer any assistance we can, should you ever need it. Feel free to call on us at any time."

"Thank you" said Luther. "We live a fairly simple life here, try to keep out of the outside world as much as we can. At the risk of sounding like one of those fanatics you hear about a lot, it is quite frankly a wicked and corrupt place."

"We're certainly in agreement there" said Grant. "We're after the same thing. We're not all of the same faith, so we're not a church. But we do want to be away from the, as you say, wickedness and corruption. There are a couple dozen children who are home-schooled. I'm guessing you do the same with any children you have."

"We do" Luther said. "We have about thirty or so."

"You're probably wondering how much longer that will be allowed." said Arthur. "Some states have already made it illegal, and the federal government is putting pressure on the remaining ones to stop it. Which brings us to something we'd like to get your ideas on.

"As you've observed, the situation out there is bad and getting worse fast. We and people like us are probably going to have to make some hard choices before much more time goes by. And we don't know how it's going to play out. Do you have any plans for dealing with the future?

"I don't know if you've heard about it, but yesterday there a bad incident in Tennessee. From what we've been able to learn so far, it seems like they were making an example of someone. To warn the rest of us. If it's that bad now, it's hard to see how an of us are going to be able to avoid conflict."

"We trust God" said Luther. "We don't know what will happen, or if He intends for things to change. So we wait and watch. If at some time we have to act, whether it is to hide or fight, we trust Him to guide us."

"We understand" said Douglas "We have already made our decision, and we respect yours - whatever it may be. Since we don't know yet how the in the end the crisis will climax, so to speak, we have to watch events unfold and react as we decide is right."

"We understand as well" said Luther. "As you say, it's a matter of waiting for now."

"You've probably seen that we're armed around the place most of the time." said Grant. "Those of us that are out and around in the open, at least. There aren't supposed to be any dangerous animals out here, other than some bears. You don't want to run up on a bear with cubs."