the future, and she told me you'd all meet in the elementary
school library-that you'd done it before, and though it was 246Melody Carlson
somewhat inconvenient and impersonal, it was better than
*nothing. Then, she told me the good news about Michael!"
Maggie nodded. "Yes, isn't that wonderful? I hope he'll
accept the position."
"Why, he already has. Rosa said that Sam spoke to him
for a long time on the phone last night, and Michael said that
* *he'd been praying about this very thing for the past several
days, and that he believes it is the right thing to do!''
"That's great. I'm so glad to hear it."
"I was happy for him too. You know how he promised
my Stevie that he would be a missionary to Pine Mountain.
Wouldn't my Stevie be proud of him now?" Barbara was
beaming.
"I'm sure he'd be very proud." Maggie wondered if the
news about Michael was to be the conclusion of Barbara's
story. Not that it wasn't good news, and it was fun to see
Barbara so happy, but she did have work to do.
Then Barbara continued. "So, I sat down to have my
scone and my cup of peppermint tea, and suddenly it
*occurred to me that I still own a building in this town. It
belonged to my husband's family, but of course, it's mine
now. So, I finished my scone in a hurry-a shameful thing to
do with such a delicious treat as that-and then I walked on
over to take a look at that old building. And, oh my, but it
certainly is a mess, at least on the outside. Well, of course, I
didn't have a key. I doubt that I could ever find one, even
back home, so I picked up a big rock and threw it right
through the glass window in the front door, then reached in,
carefully mind you, and let myself in." She chuckled. "Nat-
urally, I had to explain all of this to the sheriff, but he was
actually rather nice about the whole thing once he found out
it was my own building."
*Maggie was shaking her head in wonder, trying to figure
*out where she was going with all this. "And so, you went
inside?"
Barbara nodded. "And it's not so terribly bad in there. It's
clean and dry, with a wooden floor and ceilings that go up Looking for You All My Life247
about two stories, and windows way up high letting in lots
of light. I thought to myself, why couldn't this be a church?"
"Aha," said Maggie. "Now I see where you're going."
Barbara nodded, then raised up her index finger. "But
there's one thing."
"And that is?"
"I have decided I will donate the building and the funding
necessary to refurbish it into a church only on the condition
that Michael is the pastor."
"But the decision 5 already been made, and you said
yourself that he's accepted."