Courageous Quest (Gospel Time Trekkers #5) ebook

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dateno, Maria Grace.

Courageous quest / written by Maria Grace Dateno, FSP ; illustrated by Paul Cunningham.

  pages cm. -- (Gospel time trekkers ; 5)

Summary: Siblings Hannah, Caleb, and Noah travel through time and space on a journey that retraces Jesus restoring Bartimaeus’ sight and calling Zacchaeus down from the tree.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8198-1628-3

ISBN-10: 0-8198-1628-0

[1. Time travel--Fiction. 2. Brothers and sisters--Fiction. 3. Jesus Christ--Fiction. 4. Healing of the man born blind (Miracle)--Fiction. 5. Zacchaeus (Biblical figure)--Fiction. 6. Christian life--Fiction.] I. Cunningham, Paul (Paul David), 1972- illustrator. II. Title.

PZ7.D2598Co 2014

[Fic]--dc23

2013013466

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Mary Joseph Peterson, FSP

Cover art by Paul Cunningham

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

“P” and PAULINE are registered trademarks of the Daughters of St. Paul.

Copyright © 2014, Daughters of St. Paul

Published by Pauline Books & Media, 50 Saint Pauls Avenue, Boston, MA 02130-3491

Printed in the U.S.A.

CQ KSEUSAHUDNHA10-231011 1628-0

www.pauline.org

Pauline Books & Media is the publishing house of the Daughters of St. Paul, an international congregation of women religious serving the Church with the communications media.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

17 16 15 14

To my

(so far) twenty-two nieces and nephews,

who were my inspiration

for writing this series.

Contents

Chapter One: Along for the Ride

Chapter Two: Making a Plan

Chapter Three: Leah at the Well

Chapter Four: Meeting Daniel

Chapter Five: Dinner on the Roof

Chapter Six: Daniel’s Story

Chapter Seven: Hope and Disappointment

Chapter Eight: So Close, Yet So Far Away

Chapter Nine: Noah’s Plan

Chapter Ten: Run for Your Lives!

Chapter Eleven: The Man in the Tree

Chapter Twelve: An Important Question

Where Is It in the Bible?

Chapter One

Along for the Ride

I sat moping in the house on a Wednesday afternoon. It was a perfect September day. I had finished my school work early, and I was dying to go out, but I was stuck inside because of Garrett.

Garrett is our neighbor’s little boy, almost two years old. My mom always watches him on Wednesdays. Each week, one of us (me, my eleven-year-old sister Hannah, or my sixyear-old brother Noah) takes a turn watching him for a half-hour, while my mom does other stuff. He’s a really cute kid, but the problem was, I couldn’t bring him outside because he has allergies.

“Cabe,” said Garrett. That’s what he calls me because he can’t say my name, Caleb.

I patted his head. He has silky, soft brown hair.

“Cabe pway.” Garrett looked a little sad, like he didn’t understand why I was just sitting there.

“Sorry, Garrett,” I said. “I’m just mad at your allergies. What do you want to play?”

For an answer, he started pulling books off the bottom bookshelf in the living room and dropping them on the floor.

I dumped out a box of blocks and started building a tower to distract him. It worked. He came over and knocked down the tower.

I didn’t say it to Garrett, but I wasn’t just angry at his allergies. I felt angry at Hannah and Noah because they got to go outside. I knew it was my turn to watch Garrett this week, but I wished it were one of theirs.

I started piling the blocks again, this time faster.

Of course, Hannah and Noah didn’t want to stay inside either, so they were probably glad it was my turn.

Garrett knocked the tower down again, giggling like crazy. I quickly built up four small ones in a row. But at that moment, I heard the back door open.

“Caleb?” called Hannah.

“We’re in the living room.”

I was surprised to see Hannah and Noah come around the corner.

“You know, Noah and I were thinking that maybe we would come in and hang out with you and Garrett.”

“Really?” I said. I couldn’t believe they would do that, when they could be outside having fun.

“We know how it’s kind of boring playing with Garrett by yourself,” said Hannah.

“Yeah,” said Noah. “Let’s ask Mom if we can get out something like clay or finger paints.”

“Um, clay would be good, Noah,” said Hannah, looking at Garrett. “Finger paints, not so much.”

“Cay!” said Garrett. He sounded happy about playing with clay.

“Mom’s doing laundry downstairs,” I said.

Hannah picked up Garrett and we all walked toward the kitchen, where the basement stairs are.

And that’s when it happened!

As we walked, we were suddenly moving in slow motion, and the air felt as thick as water.

And the next second, we were standing in an empty street, dressed in robes tied with belts around the waist. They’re called tunics.

We weren’t as surprised as you might think. This had happened before. Actually, it happens whenever we go back in time to the time of Jesus. Of course, we weren’t expecting it at that moment!

“Oh no!” said Noah.

I looked at him in surprise. Usually when we realize we are on another adventure, Noah is jumping up and down for joy. This time he was standing there, with his mouth open, like something bad had happened.

Chapter Two

Making a Plan

I looked at what Noah was looking at.

It was Hannah. She was holding Garrett!

“Garrett came too?”

“Yeah, I guess because I was carrying him.”

“Cool! Maybe next time I can bring my friend Kevin. I can’t pick him up, but if he has his hand on my shoulder or something like that maybe—”

“Caleb, that’s not going to work,” said Hannah. “Kevin can’t walk around with you for weeks. We never know when it’s going to happen. It might never happen again.”

“Oh, don’t say that, Hannah!” said Noah. “I want it to keep on happening! I want to see Jesus!”

“Yeah, that’s what we try to do every time, but we still haven’t had a chance to see him,” I said. “We need to find out where he is, right away, so we have time to travel there.”

“It’s true, the last two times we just missed him when he arrived in the town we were in. Remember in Gennesaret, he was arriving that morning and we were going to see him.”

“And last time, in Capernaum, we were on our way to the place they said he was,” said Noah.

“Hey, we know we have two nights here, right?” I said.

“Yeah,” said Noah and Hannah together.

“So, let’s plan how we will spend the time. We have the rest of today.”

We all looked up at the sky. It seemed to be sometime in the afternoon.

“And all day tomorrow,” said Hannah.

Garrett started squirming, and Hannah let him down.

“And a little bit of the next day,” said Noah.