Gabriel: Faith Rewarded

By Harwood Loomis

Aishah—a beautiful, innocent, and devout young woman—is unmarried, living alone in a remote village in Afghanistan. The dreary monotony of her life is suddenly shattered when she is rescued from death by none other than the Archangel Gabriel, and then given a job working as a scribe for the leader of an occupying army.

 

This fast-moving story is set in post-9/11 Afghanistan—a time when the hunt for Osama bin Laden was in full swing and American military units were scattered across the rugged Afghani countryside. Thanks to an Afghani taxi driver turned translator who can't read or write, Aishah finds herself transcribing messages for an American Army unit camped outside her village. Already rescued from one perilous situation by the Archangel Gabriel himself, Aishah soon finds herself in danger again. This time her savior isn't Gabriel, but the American officer for whom she works. Or is it?

 

Through all her trials, Aishah's faith in Allah remains steadfast and unshaken. In the end, she finds her faith rewarded in a way she could never have imagined.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elderslie Press
• Release date: Mar 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781736443484

Harwood Loomis

Harwood W. Loomis is a semi-retired architect, clinical hypnotherapist, and author whose technical articles have appeared in publications dedicated to architecture, engineering, and property management. A life-long automotive hobbyist, he has crewed for a stock car racing team, built his own race car, and he is a former state champion in the Connecticut Council of Sports Car Clubs autocross series. Harwood is a Vietnam veteran. His awards include the Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with Two Bronze service Stars, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation with Palm Device, and the Republic of Vietnam Civil Actions Honor Medal Unit Citation, First Class. He was a member of the 1814 Color Guard and a member of his battalion competition shooting team. Professional affiliations include being a founding member and Director of BOCA Professional Chapter Number 1, a professional organization which became the Connecticut Chapter of the International Code Council; his positions included Vice President, President, and multiple terms as a Director. In addition, he has served as a Director, Vice President, and President of the New England Building Code Association (NEBCA), and Chairman of the Building Codes and Regulations Commission of AIA Connecticut. He has been an instructor on building code issues for the State of Connecticut Office of Education and Data Management. Harwood has served as a member of the board of directors and Vice President of Cornerstone, a mental health halfway house in New Haven, Connecticut; member of the board of directors, author, and contributing editor for the Trumbull [Connecticut] PC Users Group; and member of the board of directors and newsletter editor for The Phenix Society [a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for senior citizens]. He currently acts as a moderator on three Internet discussion forums and writes for and serves as Senior Editor for an on-line magazine. Harwood lives with his family of Jeeps in Woodbridge, Connecticut. The house stands on the last remaining portion of a larger tract of land that was granted to a maternal ancestor by King George of England before the American Revolution. He qualifies for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution as a result of service during the revolution by ancestors on both sides.

Book preview

Gabriel_(E-book)_KDPHarwood LoomisHarwood Loomis3182021-03-14T06:20:00Z2021-03-14T20:07:00Z2021-03-14T20:24:00Z1001987489867Aspose74821910952216.0000

GABRIEL

Faith Rewarded

Copyright © 2021, 2004 by Harwood W. Loomis

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, scanning, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this work are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance between characters in this work and actual people, living or dead, is coincidental.

ISBN: 978-1-7364434-6-0 (Paperback Edition)

ISBN: 978-1-7364434-7-7 (Kindle Edition)

ISBN: 978-1-7364434-8-4 (EPUB Edition)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021905044

Cover design by Izabeladesign  https://www.fiverr.com/izabeladesign

Published by:

ELDERSLIE PRESS

172 Peck Hill Road

Woodbridge, Connecticut 06525

United States of America

Gabriel_(E-book)_KDPHarwood LoomisHarwood Loomis3182021-03-14T06:20:00Z2021-03-14T20:07:00Z2021-03-14T20:24:00Z1001987489867Aspose74821910952216.0000

In memory of my late wife, Maria Sergia de la Concepción Ríos Sepúlveda, who is now among the angels.

Gabriel_(E-book)_KDPHarwood LoomisHarwood Loomis3182021-03-14T06:20:00Z2021-03-14T20:07:00Z2021-03-14T20:24:00Z1001987489867Aspose74821910952216.0000

The more you go with the flow of life and surrender the outcome to God, and the less you seek constant clarity, the more you will find that fabulous things start to show up in your life.

― Mandy Hale, The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass

Gabriel_(E-book)_KDPHarwood LoomisHarwood Loomis3182021-03-14T06:20:00Z2021-03-14T20:07:00Z2021-03-14T20:24:00Z1001987489867Aspose74821910952216.0000

~ Acknowledgments ~

Although I originally wrote this as a short story with no intention of publication, once I made the decision to publish it I reached out to my support group for advice and counsel. Spyros Georgilidakis and David Kantrovitz provided much-needed and timely encouragement and moral support. Geoff Dutton went beyond the call—when I asked him to take a look at it, I thought I was asking for a quick scan and a Yeah, it’s okay or No, it stinks opinion. Instead, Geoff responded with a detailed developmental edit, which was invaluable.

Thank you all.

Gabriel_(E-book)_KDPHarwood LoomisHarwood Loomis3182021-03-14T06:20:00Z2021-03-14T20:07:00Z2021-03-14T20:24:00Z1001987489867Aspose74821910952216.0000

~ Angelology ~

The concept of angels occurs in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—the three religions in the Abrahamic tradition. All three also recognize the hierarchical structure of the angelic realm and the existence of higher-order angels called archangels (although Judaism does not use that term).

In Judaism, the most powerful of the archangels is Metatron, who does not appear in the angelology of Christianity or Islam. The next two, however—Michael and Gabriel (or Jibra’il in Islam)—appear in all three traditions. In all three, Gabriel is a messenger.

In the Hebrew tradition, it was Gabriel who communicated with Daniel in the book of Daniel. In Christianity, it was Gabriel who announced to Mary that she would give birth to a son even though she was a virgin. And in Islam, it was Gabriel who delivered the words of God (Allah, in Arabic) to the Prophet Muhammed.

Thus, the archangel Gabriel is an important member of the angelic realm, and (with Michael) one of the most powerful of the archangels. As the young woman featured in the following tale learns, it’s nice to have friends in high places.

Gabriel_(E-book)_KDPHarwood LoomisHarwood Loomis3182021-03-14T06:20:00Z2021-03-14T20:07:00Z2021-03-14T20:24:00Z1001987489867Aspose74821910952216.0000

GABRIEL

FAITH REWARDED

Gabriel_(E-book)_KDPHarwood LoomisHarwood Loomis3182021-03-14T06:20:00Z2021-03-14T20:07:00Z2021-03-14T20:24:00Z1001987489867Aspose74821910952216.0000

~ Chapter 1 ~

Aishah walked easily across the open square to the village well, located in the center of the group of rough, crumbling mud houses that was her town, and the only home she had ever known, deep in the central part of Afghanistan. There were no trees in the center of the village—those were away in the mountains. There was nothing, in fact, to shield man or beast from the unremitting glare of the summer sun overhead. Dust rose in spiteful clouds around her sandaled feet as she moved.

Her village was small, and water was to be found only deep beneath the parched earth in this part of the country. None of the humble homes had water in them, or near them. Everyone in the village drew their water from the single well in the center of the open square around which the squalid huts huddled. Life was harsh in this part of Afghanistan, but at least her village had been spared most of the turmoil and fighting of recent years. The terrorists had retreated toward the mountains along the border with Pakistan so there was no fighting here, no Northern Alliance, no war lords, and no foreign soldiers. And little to eat, nor work for a single woman living in a Muslim society that looked down on women who were not in the home and who did not follow the strict interpretation of Islamic life left behind when the Taliban fled the region.

Aishah was, of course, Muslim, and she considered herself a devout and conscientious follower of the Prophet. But, like it or not, she had been both blessed and cursed with being born to parents who were better educated than most in the region, and more tolerant. Her mother had taught her to read and to write at an early age, and her father had taught her that under the laws of Islam she had rights. She had grown up to believe that she was cherished by Allah, and that in His eyes women were the equals of men.

Such views, accurate though they were, had not sat well with the fundamentalist Taliban when they came to power. Her father, Haji, had been a gentle man, but proud and stubborn. When the illiterate mullah put in place by the Taliban government told her father he must follow the Taliban’s interpretation of the Qur’an or else, Haji had defied him. Worse, he had ridiculed the mullah in public. Not long after, Haji was killed by unknown assailants. Aishah’s mother, the lovely Laila, made the mistake of openly blaming the Taliban and the mullah, and soon she was also killed.

And now the Taliban were gone. The mullah remained, but he maintained a considerably lower profile than when his fundamentalist leaders were in power to support his rambling teachings. Aishah