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  “Yes, Pastor Yvonne?” came Dawn’s voice.

  “Dawn, can you get Deacon Brown on the phone, please?”

  “Sure thing. I’ll connect him to the conference room phone as soon as I reach him,” Dawn said.

  Yvonne looked at Thomas, then Sam. “We’ll get to the bottom of this in just a few minutes.”

  “What leads you to believe that Deacon Brown has been stealing from the church?” Thomas asked Sam.

  Sam cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses again as he sat up a bit straighter. “Well, first of all, I didn’t receive the church financial records from Clarence Brown. As you know, after Thomas wrote that check to the bank, I wanted to see the files for the past five years, and your church administrator gave me access to them.”

  “That’s right—Deacon Brown was on vacation,” Yvonne confirmed, “and I asked our administrator to pull the files since I knew you needed the information in a hurry.”

  When the phone buzzed, Yvonne pressed the speakerphone button. “Did you get him?”

  “No, I’m sorry, but Deacon Brown is not answering his home phone or his cell,” Dawn informed her.

  “Thanks. Just keep trying.” That was odd. Deacon Brown rarely missed a meeting that had to do with the church’s finances, and if he happened to be out of town or home sick, he would call in and participate over the phone.

  Yvonne turned back to Sam. “Okay, I’m all ears. What do you think is going on?”

  Sam hesitated for a moment.

  “Don’t be shy, now,” Thomas urged him. “Please, tell us what you found.”

  Sam folded his hands together and rested them on the table. “Well, my mother always said that the Lord works in mysterious ways, and we can be thankful for that. Because I can guarantee you that if Clarence Brown hadn’t been on vacation when I asked for those files, I never would have been permitted to see these reports.” Clearing his throat, he shuffled through a stack of papers and pulled out several that were marked with paperclips before continuing. “I reviewed the oldest financial statements first, and everything appeared to be in order for the first three years. But within the past two years, I don’t know what happened, but your financial records became complete fiction.”

  “Are you referring to the fact that we are bringing in less money? If so, that can be explained.” Yvonne was determined to defend Deacon Brown. She wanted to believe the best about him.

  Sam held up a hand, then went on. “I am aware that your membership is down, and that a good portion of your members have been laid off. All of that information has been accounted for in the financial records. However, it is also clear to me that hundreds of thousands of dollars are missing—and not because of dwindling attendance and tithing.”

  “Exactly how much?” Thomas asked.

  “About four hundred thousand—close to two hundred thousand each year for the past two years,” Sam told them.

  “Okay, so money is missing...probably an accounting error. Why are you so quick to assume that Deacon Brown did this deliberately?” Yvonne asked.

  “The reports are so blatantly false that any accountant worth his CPA certificate would have found it. So, if Deacon Brown never mentioned this discrepancy to you, I can only assume that it’s because he was responsible for it.”

  Yvonne wanted to disappear. If Deacon Brown had been robbing them for the past two years, as Sam was suggesting, then that meant that he had started right after David had been diagnosed with cancer. As she spent more and more time with him at the hospital, Deacon Brown had continually assured her that she did not need to worry about the church—he would make sure all the bills were paid and keep the finances in order. All she needed to do was spend time with David. Yvonne had allowed him to handle everything, and she’d never questioned him, not even when he’d told her that they weren’t bringing in enough money to meet their mortgage payments on the new building.

  “The silver lining in all of this,” Sam continued, “is that as long as you can eliminate whoever is responsible for stealing the money, your finances should stay afloat. You seem to be bringing in enough through tithes and offerings to pay your bills.” He turned to Thomas and handed him a document. “I’ve come up with some projections to indicate how your three-hundred-thousand-dollar investment can be paid back.”

  Without looking at the paper, Thomas said, “We can discuss that at another time, Sam. Right now, I want to know what we can do to solve the immediate problem.”

  ***

  When the meeting with Samuel Johnson finally ended, Yvonne felt like three different kinds of fools. She had allowed her grief over David’s illness and his subsequent death to take precedence over everything else, and now her younger daughter was pregnant and planning an after-the-fact wedding, her church was falling apart, and one of her most trusted deacons was stealing money.

  She plopped down on the sofa in her office, preparing to give herself a first-class pity party, when someone knocked on the door. She wanted to pretend that she wasn’t there, just like her mother used to do when the insurance man would come to call. Yvonne’s mother never seemed to have enough money to pay all of her bills, so she would just lock herself in the house and pretend that everything would turn out fine if she ignored reality. But then the electricity would be shut off. Their water would stop running.

  Yvonne had promised herself that she would never run away from her responsibilities and just expect everything to turn out okay. But in the last eighteen months, she’d been more like her mother than ever before. It was time to step back into reality. “Come in,” she said.

  Thomas came in, and Yvonne wanted to get up and run to him. His presence exuded strength and confidence, and she needed those right now. But she had already asked so much of Thomas that she didn’t feel comfortable appointing him as her shoulder to cry on. So, she said a silent prayer, telling God that she was weak right now and asking Him to be her strength.

  “I just showed Sam out, and I wanted to check on you,” Thomas said, coming to sit next to her.

  “You’re a kind man, Thomas Reed.”

  “And you’re a wonderful woman, Yvonne Milner.” He grinned. “Okay, now that we’ve given each other praise and affirmation, we need to decide what we’re going to do.”

  She turned away from him, ashamed about all that had happened while she had been busy grieving and not paying attention. She knew better than that. David had often quoted President Reagan’s wisdom, “Trust, but verify.” Why hadn’t she bothered to double-check the church’s financial records herself? But even as she asked herself the question, she knew the answer: It was because David had always reviewed the financial records. That wasn’t her realm.

  Yvonne turned to face Thomas. “I don’t know what to do about anything, Thomas. I feel like every aspect of my life is falling apart. Tia’s pregnant, Toya’s dating someone I have never heard a word about—that makes me nervous—the church is falling apart, and now I find out that a man I have trusted for decades has been robbing the church blind. I haven’t been handling my business well, so I really can’t blame anyone but myself for what’s going on.”

  “That’s not true, Yvonne, and I’m not going to let you take the blame for Tia’s actions,” Thomas said sternly yet gently. “She is a grown woman, and you raised her to know right from wrong.”

  “But I haven’t been there for her lately. I haven’t been there for anyone. I’ve been too wrapped up in my own grief.”

  “Then it was Tia’s job to hold on to the truth in God that she had been taught all her life. She didn’t, and she will have to deal with the consequences of her actions. All you can do is be there to hold her and assure her of your unconditional love.”

  Yvonne didn’t respond. She just sat there with her hands in her lap.

  “Toya’s a big girl, too, and she has a good head on her shoulders, so you don’t have to worry about her,” Thomas continued. “And it is certainly not your fault that Deacon Brown turned out to be a thief. As fo
r the church growth problem, my pledge to you is that Christ-Life Sanctuary will rise again. Because I’m not leaving until it does.”

  Yvonne gave a little half smile, but it quickly faded into a frown. “Oh, Thomas, I have been grossly unfair to you. I shouldn’t have asked you to help me with the church; I should have resigned, just as I had decided to do at the board meeting.”

  Thomas held out his hand. “Follow me. I want to show you something.”

  “Where are we going?” she asked as she put her hand in his.

  “Not far.” He pulled her up from the sofa and walked her over to the window. Then, he pointed at the future Family Life Center. “Whose idea was that?”

  Well, hers, of course. David had never wanted anything more than to preach Jesus and save souls. Yvonne had often asked him what they would do for the people after their souls had been saved, and David had always told her that Jesus would do the rest.

  She believed that was true, and that spiritual growth could happen largely without the help of a church, through personal Bible study, prayer, and regular fellowship with God. But there were so many distractions, many of which hadn’t been there thirty years ago when she and David had given their lives to the Lord. Yvonne believed that the people needed a Christian community—and a building to house it—where families could come and fellowship together without having to compromise their moral standards and religious beliefs. But Yvonne had been sidetracked by self-pity, and now that community was far from being a reality.

  “It’s not finished,” she muttered. “It’s been sitting there for an entire year, like an abandoned dream.”

  “It will be finished,” Thomas said confidently. Then he gently directed her away from the window. Still holding her hand, he opened her office door and led her down the hall to the sanctuary. They climbed up to the pulpit and looked out over the rows of pews. “Look at this incredible sanctuary,” Thomas said. “David told me himself that he wanted to build a much smaller church, but you convinced him that if he did that, it would mean having to build again within the next few years. You are a visionary, Yvonne. God has you in the right place, and I don’t ever want you to forget that. Okay?”

  Yvonne looked up at Thomas. His face was set with determination, and those beautiful hazel eyes of his implored her to see things the way he saw them. A smile began to form on her face.

  Before she could say anything, though, she and Thomas heard a commotion down the hall—voices shouting, it sounded like. They rushed down the steps of the sanctuary and into the hallway. When they rounded the corner to Dawn’s office, they saw a group of people surrounding her desk. Yvonne counted ten women and six men. They were shouting angrily and holding pieces of paper in the air. “We’ve got to do something about this!” one of the men said.

  A heavyset woman said, “Yeah! I know that Pastor Yvonne will never stand for it.”

  As she and Thomas approached the group, Yvonne recognized some of them as people who lived in the neighborhood nearby and also attended the church. At least, they had attended the church at one point in time if they no longer did. Yvonne hadn’t seen some of these people in months. “What’s going on?” she asked them.

  One woman broke away from the pack and turned toward her. Yvonne recognized her as Marley Parker, a seventy-year-old widow who lived in a house across the street from the church. “Pastor Yvonne!” she said in a quaking voice. “They’re trying to take our homes.” She thrust a folded letter into Yvonne’s hands.

  “Who is trying to take your homes?” Thomas asked, a look of confusion on his face.

  “The government,” said an elderly man with a cane. He hobbled closer and handed Thomas his letter.

  Yvonne began reading and saw that the government had indeed offered to pay a fair price for each person’s home. Perhaps “offered” was too generous a term. These letters were basically demands that the residents vacate their properties based on eminent domain.

  Something else in the letter stood out to her: it stated that every home or structure with in a five-mile radius would be purchased and that the area would be rezoned as a business district.

  Yvonne turned to Dawn. “Did we receive a letter like this?”

  “Yes, we did. I had just started going through the mail when everyone came in.” Dawn held up a piece of paper and handed it to Yvonne. It looked identical to the one Mrs. Parker had given her.

  Thomas reached out his hand. “Let me see that.”

  Yvonne handed him the letter. She didn’t need to read it. She knew it would say the same thing that Mrs. Parker’s did.

  Would her problems never end? First, the church board had tried to take the church from her, and now the government wanted her church and all the houses that surrounded it. Thomas had just spent several minutes trying to revive the visionary in Yvonne, and she was thankful for that, because she envisioned a fight in her future.

  Eight

  After the group had dispersed, with Thomas assuring them that something would be done to protect their homes, Yvonne went back to her office, closed the door, and got down on her knees to pray. When she finally got up off the floor, she sat down at her desk and began to formulate a plan of action. Most of the people who’d come to the church for help today no longer attended Christ-Life. A few of them had admitted that they had joined a different church, but more of them had said they had stopped attending church altogether. That knowledge got Yvonne to thinking.

  She picked up the phone and dialed Elder Dwight Conrad. Besides being on the church board, Elder Conrad headed up the evangelistic team, a group that organized outreaches to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ. If there was anyone who could accomplish what Yvonne needed to be done, it was the evangelistic team.

  After two rings, he picked up. “Hello, Elder Conrad. It’s Pastor Yvonne. I know you’re busy, so I’m not going to keep you long, but I do need your help.”

  “Name it, Pastor. Whatever I can do, I’d be honored to help you.”

  “First of all, is your team in the middle of a particular outreach right now?”

  “As a matter of fact, we just finished a door-to-door campaign in a local neighborhood, and we’re meeting next Friday to plan our next mission.”

  “Do you have the specifics of that project planned out already?”

  “To tell you the truth, Pastor, I have been trying to come up with an idea for about a month now, but every time I think of something, I feel like God is telling me, ‘That’s not it.’ I’ve been getting nervous. I have no idea what I’m going to present to my team,” Elder Conrad confessed.

  Yvonne had to smile. God was being good to her, even though she neither knew nor understood what He was doing. She was certain that Elder Conrad’s “lack of inspiration” had been on purpose because God was waiting on Yvonne to wake up and do something about a problem. “If you don’t mind, Elder Conrad, I have a project that your team could help me with.”

  “What would you like us to do?”

  “I would appreciate it if your team would check in on the members of Christ-Life who have recently left the church.”

  “All right, Pastor; that sounds fine. But how will we know who to talk to?”

  “I’ll have Dawn check our attendance records and generate a list of people who haven’t attended in the past six months. After I send you the list, I would like for your team to contact each individual or family, whether by calling them, e-mailing them, or knocking on their door.”

  “Is there a something specific you’d like us to say to them?” Elder Conrad asked.

  “Yes, I think I do. First, ask how he or she or the family is doing. Then, ask if they’ve joined a new church. Finally, see whether they need prayer or any other type of assistance from us. Things like that.”

  “Sounds good. We can do that,” Elder Conrad assured her. “How soon do you think you could have the list to me?”

  “I’ll have to check with Dawn, but I’m sure she will be able to send it before you meet with t
he group next Friday.”

  “Okay, Pastor. Consider it done.”

  “Elder Conrad, one more thing,” Yvonne said, hoping to catch him before he hung up. “If some of the people you talk to have joined a new church, I don’t want anyone pressuring them to come back to Christ-Life. Just bless them and pray with them if they need it.”

  “And what if they haven’t joined a new church and are just sitting at home with no desire to go to services?”

  Yvonne smiled to herself. “Those are the people I’m really interested in. Tell them that things are moving forward at Christ-Life. Tell them that Pastor Yvonne sends her apologies for not being the leader they needed her to be, and that—”

  “With all due respect, Pastor, I don’t think you owe anyone an apology for grieving the loss of your husband. And if you want my opinion, it’s the people who left while we were in transition who should be apologizing to you.”

  There was silence on the line as Yvonne considered his comment.

  “And I owe you an apology, too,” Elder Conrad continued. “I didn’t stand up for you like I should have at our last board meeting. I let other people sway me, and I’m sorry for that. It will never happen again.”

  Although she considered Elder Conrad’s apology unnecessary, Yvonne was still grateful for it. “Thank you, Elder Conrad. Well then, if we’re not going to be giving the people my apologies, please just tell them that the highly esteemed Thomas Reed has joined our ministry as co-pastor, and that we’d like to know what it would take to get them to come back home.”

  They talked about the new evangelistic campaign for a few minutes before saying their good-byes. When she hung up the phone, Yvonne felt energized. She had only just begun to fight. She wanted to call the police regarding Deacon Brown and turn over all of the evidence that Sam had given them so that the man would rot in prison for the rest of his days. But she didn’t have time to deal with that right now. The money was gone, and she doubted they would get it back. Right now, she needed to concentrate on this business about the government trying to take away her church and the homes surrounding it.