The Final Mission: Missionary Kids

By Steve Stroble

Missionary kids and brother and sister Derek and Jolie are grown now, with families of their own. Then a mysterious friend of their recently deceased dad shows up seeking volunteers for a mission he claims could help "hundreds of millions, maybe even billions of people."
Burned out from the stresses of the Corona Virus lockdowns and their impact on his business, Derek welcomes the opportunity. More cautious than her older brother, Jolie begins to have doubts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve Stroble
• Release date: Jan 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215454862

Steve Stroble

Steve Stroble grew up as a military brat, which took him from South Dakota to South Carolina to Germany to Ohio to Southern California to Alabama to the Philippines to Northern California. Drafted into the Army, he returned to Germany.His stories classified as historical fiction often weave historical events, people, and data into them.His science fiction stories try to present feasible even if not yet known technology.His dystopian and futuristic stories feature ordinary heroes and heroines placed into extraordinary situations and ordinary villains who drain the life out of others' souls (their minds, wills, and emotions) by any means available.

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The Final Mission

A Novella

Steve Stroble

The Final Mission Missionary Kids A Novella copyright © 2022 Stroble Family Trust. All rights reserved.

This book is a work of fiction. All people, places, events, and situations are the product of the writer’s imagination. Any resemblance of them to actual persons, living or dead, places, events, and situations is purely coincidental.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

Lyrics to Wayfaring Stranger, public domain.

To my brother-in-law Dave Arnold. You told me I needed to write something different. It seemed to me what you said was a message of wisdom from the Lord (1 Cor. 12:8), so I took it to heart. I hope and pray this story is what you meant.

Table of Contents

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Acknowledgments and Afterword

1

October 15, 2020

Missionary Kids

In the sky over Southeastern Nigeria

Jolie throttled back on the controls of the amphibious aircraft. Capable of landing on either water or land, the single-engine, four-seat plane could take pilot and passengers to most places on planet Earth.

Today, it carried sister and brother Jolie Meyers and Derek Hope back in time.

To a place where they had served as missionary kids during the previous century and millennium – their first assignment as part of Dad and Mom’s call to Nigeria. All these years later, Jolie’s hair no longer remained a magical mix of her mother’s straight black hair and father’s curly brown hair. Now, flecks of gray had appeared. Her hazel eyes had lost some of their sparkle.

How Jolie longed to at last have what she liked to call an adult conversation with her grumpy, moody brother. As usual, the harder she tried, the more her older brother resisted. His jet-black hair and chalky complexion gave him a half-human, half-ghostlike appearance.

Do you think maybe we can talk about Mom and Dad’s current situation? she asked. They are both getting older and –

Derek shrugged, his favorite response when anyone brought up something he had no time for. Avoidance of unpleasant topics had become his number one escape mechanism. That is, topics he considered unpleasant.

Don’t ask me. I really don’t know that much about all of that stuff; do you know what I mean?

Jolie sighed.

Only because you’ve cut off all lines of communication with them, she thought. Why do I always have to play the part of peacemaker in our family? Just once it would be nice if you would –

Derek’s excited pointing ended her thoughts.

Look. Over there. It’s the lake. This is the very first time I’ve had a chance to see it full of water. He clapped his hands. Man, it looks beautiful, huh?

Derek leaned as far forward as the tiny cockpit allowed.

Hey, where the heck is everybody? I thought there would be at least a hundred people waiting for us to land.

The small lake about a thousand feet below looked deserted. Derek grabbed the powerful pair of binoculars sitting on the floor by his large feet. His eyes scanned the entire shoreline of the lake.

Wait a minute, there’s somebody over there. He’s waving at us. It looks like he’s signaling us to land right next to him. You can do that, can’t you?

Jolie groaned.

Um, I need water deep enough so that the floats don’t scrape the bottom of the lake. But I promise we’ll touch down as close as possible to whoever it is down there. He’s flapping his arms so hard it looks like he’s trying to take off to meet us up here. Maybe he was one of the kids you told, ‘someday, we’ll be like angels in Heaven,’ when we visited here the last time.

After a long, slow turn into the wind, Jolie leveled the wings as she eased back the engine’s throttle into the slower speeds required for a safe landing for this size of aircraft. Choppy waves skipped across the lake. The strong breeze off of the South Atlantic Ocean to their south had created less than ideal landing conditions.

All of which was lost on Derek, whose time aboard any of the aircraft taking him around the world had always been spent in a passenger seat.

Why are you slowing down the plane so much? he asked. The pilots on jetliners always land way faster than this. Aren’t you afraid the engine will stall out at this real slow speed you’re doing?

Because I don’t want to crash when we hit the water. Airliners land on nice long, solid runways that are sometimes two miles long. Flying a float plane and landing on water is a whole different story, morning glory.

She nodded toward the foamy waters below.

Especially when there are waves. Those down there look kind of choppy.

Derek squinted.

Your eyes must be way better than mine. All I see are what looks like the kind of ripples that happen when you throw a rock into a lake.

For the first time during their hourlong flight, fear took control of Derek. He grabbed the instrument panel in front of him. His adrenalin fed grip whitened his hands’ knuckles.

Good move, big brother. I was just going to suggest that you do that.

The first contact of the floats under each wing with the lake produced a bounce, followed by four more until the plane settled into a swaying motion atop the waters. To save fuel, Jolie killed the aircraft’s one engine.

Whoa, Sis, Derek said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his even sweatier forearm. That landing was as good as any that Dad ever made, I bet. I guess all those flying lessons he gave to you while you and me were MKs were worth it after all.

MK? Jolie asked as she undid the harness strapping her to the pilot’s seat. She opened the door and dropped the anchor designed to keep the plane from drifting away.

You know. MK is short for missionary kids. Just like PK is short for preachers’ kids. I guess I should be grateful we were just MKs. PKs have way harder lives.

The rhythm of splashing water turned their heads toward the small boat pulling up next to the plane.

Welcome back to our village, Brother Derek and Sister Jolie, a short muscular dark-skinned man said as he put away an oar and grabbed one of the plane’s wings to anchor his boat. With a hand over hand motion, he pulled the boat next to the pilot side’s door. I am so very sorry neither one of your parents could be here today for the celebration we have planned in their and your honor.

Something about the man’s infectious smile triggered pleasant memories in Jolie. No, it couldn’t be.

Are you Brother Monday? she asked with a smile bigger than his.

The man’s tongue clucked like a chicken’s as he laughed.

Yes, indeed, it is I, Jolie.

She shifted the focus from herself. Somehow, she had to cover for all of her brother’s lack of social skills, graces which he never had seemed to acquire. Lord only knew how hard teachers, pastors, parents, and a little sister had struggled to impart them.

Please forgive Derek, Brother Monday. His brain is still foggy from jet lag because we crossed so many time zones while flying from the United States to get here to Nigeria. It will probably take him a good night’s sleep before he can remember you.

Derek extended his body to get a better look at Brother Monday.

How about we get to shore, Brother Monday? he demanded more than asked. I need someone from the village to heat me up more than one strong cup of Chai tea. Caffeine is the only remedy that is going to get me through the rest of today. You don’t want me to fall asleep during the dedication ceremony, do you? Jolie took away the soft drink loaded with caffeine I bought at the airport in Harcourt because she said it would make me have to go pee during our short hop from there to here.

We will be to shore and your cup of tea shortly, said Brother Monday. I am so glad that Missionary Aviation Assistance Plan was able to lend you this plane. It would have taken you far too long to travel here by bus or in a rented car. You can put the plane next to the dock while I take Derek to shore, Jolie.

Jolie revved the plane’s motor and steered it toward the wooden dock. She had the plane tied to it before the boat reached shore.

Hey, a man yelled from the lake’s rocky shoreline. Brother Monday, where is your mask? he asked. The one asking used both forefingers to point at the large surgical mask reaching from the top of his nose to the bottom of his chin.

As the boat drew closer to the one who now paced back and forth on the rugged beach, his features became clearer. He had sunburned white skin, dark brown eyes, and straight black hair covering the top halves of his ears.

After listening to what he considered a pointless putdown of Brother Monday, Derek made every effort to avoid looking at this punk. Besides, he looked young enough that he probably