Category: Inspirational Publisher: Living Stones Fellowship International
ISBN-10: 1885054742
Type: Fiction
Pages: 202
Copyright: 2009
ISBN-13: 9781885054746
An unlikely trio of women discover the power of a Name in this historical/inspirational novel set in first century Palestine.
Step into the pages of this historical novel of Faith. Meet beautiful Yo-hannah, whose tortured past has imprisoned her body and heart. Walk in the stooped steps of Veronica, whose mysterious malady has made her ceremonially unclean. Thirst for living water with a half-breed whose checkered past is about to catch up with her.
Thrown together from dead-ends, each woman seeks answers to her own desperation. Will Yo-hannah find the peace she craves? Can an unclean woman receive a touch of mercy? Where can a despised half-breed go to be made whole? And what about old Hadessa, whose enigmatic past is as mysterious as the Nazarene who crosses each woman's path?
Each woman's life and future hinges on the Nazarene's answer to one question: Who are you?
Excerpt
Meandering into the suk, Yo-hannah swatted an airborne net of gnats as she made her way to the silver seller's stall. Slim and supple, the olive-skinned young woman moved quickly and deliberately, seeking a special gift.
Ordinarily, Yo-hannah would have sent one of the lesser maidservants of Herod's household on such an errand, but this gift was for her husband's birthday and she decided to make the trip herself. Yo-hannah's smooth, slender fingers stroked the hems of lambskin cloaks at the weaver's stall en route to the silver seller, pausing long enough to trade village gossip.
A tangle of alleys filled with colorful wares, noise, bustle and flavors, the suk was the shopping center of town. Shops and work places opened directly onto the lanes by way of wide archways which were shuttered at night.
Shopkeepers displayed their goods in the open while craftsmen worked on the street in front of their shops. Pungent garlic, cumin and dried fish fought for supremacy with the more gentle aromas of cinnamon, coriander and fresh mint sprigs in the stifling heat.
Energy dwindled during the intense summer heat that filled the Galilee basin. Heat rolled off the hills in waves, scorching the dry land in burnt umber and sienna. Everyone welcomed the mild winters when, for a few brief weeks, rain transformed the withered landscape with fresh greens, scarlet anemones and yellow mustard flowers. Even without a heat wave, however, there was never any rain in summer when life is sustained by dews and mists.
~
The ache in her joints was vociferous. When was the last time I rose in the summer dawn to climb the hills above Nazareth? Or looked to Mount Carmel to see the plain below covered with low white clouds and waited for the surrounding mountains to emerge like islands?
Old Hadessa knew well the night mist which forms in the summer because the Carmel range is so close to the sea. As soon as the sun rises, the mist disappears. Just like the Jewish hope of Mashiah, the promised deliverer for whom all Yisrael held its breath and placed her hope, waiting as a bride awaits her groom.
But Mashiah was as far away today as Mount Carmel and Hadessa had an empty market basket to fill. She hauled her ancient frame off her pallet, dressed hurriedly and lumbered through the doorway into the misty blue of morning. Her tired bones protested every step to the suk.
"And how is the steward of Herod these days, and his accounts?" Hadessa inquired of a camel driver who had stopped to water his caravan at the well near the fringe of the bazaar. A stout woman of ancient age, Hadessa was a cook from a Galilean villa whose keen eyes, quick hands and razor tongue yielded her the freshest produce, most succulent meat, the finest fish, and the best wine at bargain prices.
"Chuza will find no cause to complain with the profits from this trip," the camel driver grunted, slurping water from a leaky gourd. Hadessa nodded amiably and kept her own counsel almost as closely as she kept an eye on the steward of Herod the Tetrarch and the steward's wife.
The Harvest of Souls Crossover is a story that is exciting, vigorous, and full of suspense about the fight of good and evil in two realms, the light and dark world. The Howdy Family is determined to defeat the world of darkness, led by the seemingly
