Ming Lee pushed the papers she had been working on away from her on the desk, and leaned back in her chair. There was too much turmoil in her spirit to concentrate on studies at the moment. It was semester break anyway, and only the most avid students would be working ahead.
The usual campus population had gone home, apart from a few international students. Under normal circumstances, Ming would have returned to China too. But she had chosen instead to defy her parents' wishes. This was the source of her inner turmoil. Surely, they would sense the reason behind her decision, and this could lead to serious consequences. Sooner or later she was going to have to face them.
More than a thousand visitors were using the empty student lodgings at Macquarie University, in conjunction with a big interfaith conference that was opening at the Entertainment Centre, in Sydney, the next day. Posters around campus had outlined some of the topics to be covered, and some of them interested Ming. She decided to go for a walk and to see if the delegates were doing anything tonight.
There appeared to be a number of small meetings going on in various classrooms surrounding the main hall , but at the last moment Ming felt too embarrassed to walk in on any of them, for fear that she would be asked to leave. She wandered slowly down the empty corridor, listening to the soft murmur of voices coming from the various rooms. But then she reached an empty room at a darkened end of the hallway. She knew it was empty, because the light was out. But she caught a glimpse of something inside... a candle, and some movement around it.
She peered through the glass on the door for a moment, and then pushed it slowly open.
"Hi! C'mon in!" A heavy-set woman in her late thirties peered eerily across at Ming. She had just seated herself on the opposite side of a low table on which the candle was burning, and it was now immediately below her face.
"I was expecting you," the woman added.
Ming's curiosity was aroused. How could this woman have been expecting her? She stepped inside, and moved hesitantly toward the table.
"My name is Ming. What is yours?" she asked politely.
"Sheree." the bigger woman responded. "Did you hear the voices too?"
"Voices? Well , no, I..."
"Not to worry," said the woman. "You're here, and that's the main thing."
Sheree pointed toward the door that Ming had just entered, and Ming turned around to see what she was pointing at. Another face had appeared in the window, and he too pushed the door slowly open.
It was Mashallah (although the two women did not know his name at this time).
"Excuse me. Am I interrupting anything?" he asked.
"No, not at all," said Sheree. "We were expecting you."
Now Ming was more than curious. She was a wee bit scared.
"I was looking for the Muslim delegation, and I noticed the light," he said.
"You're looking for more than the Muslim delegation, aren't you?" Sheree asked.
"Well yes, in a way. How did you know?"
"I just listen to the voices," Sheree replied.
All this talk about voices was making Ming nervous. She knew enough about psychology to know that this woman probably had mental problems. Ming excused herself and headed swiftly for the door.
She pushed the swinging door open so abruptly that she almost caused a group of people walking down the corridor to crash into it. Some papers went flying and an Indian man bent quickly to pick them up.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said as she looked at them in surprise. "I was not looking."
"No harm," said a short plump man, with a smile for Ming and an apologetic look for his Indian friend, who had just retrieved the papers. It was Chaim Rosenberg. And with him were Molly, David, and Vaishnu. "Are you lost?" Chaim asked. He could see that the room Ming had just left was in darkness, and he assumed that it was empty.
"No. Actual y, I live here. I mean, not here, but at this university. I'm a student here. Are you here for the conference?"
"Yes we are," said Chaim.
Just then, Sheree poked her head out through the door. "Hi!" she said.
"Are you going to come in, or should we meet out here in the hallway?"
The four friends looked at each other in surprise. Chaim almost laughed out loud. Molly nodded quite seriously, to let Chaim know that she believed the woman to be one of them... spiritual y.
"Shall we go in?" Chaim asked Vaishnu.
"Certainly. Let us do so," the Hindu replied.
Ming, who had been so eager to leave, was now drawn to re-enter the room with the support of the people she had just bumped into in the hall way.
Mashallah was seated in one of the chairs, with his hands folded in front of him.
"Mind if I turn the light on?" David asked.
"No, that's fine," said Sheree. "I was just using the candle for meditation."
"What a good idea!" said Chaim, who was, himself, trying to work out what was happening. Why don't we all sit quietly for a few moments, and meditate?"
David had already switched the light on, so they left it that way while they each took a seat. There were seven chairs conveniently placed in a circle.
Sheree blew out the candle and joined them.
They had hardly been sitting for a minute before Chaim felt the old familiar quaking. But this time, he was sure that he was going to say something. He stood nervously to his feet and opened his mouth.
"Our coming together here is not a coincidence. It's part of a plan... a plan to bring people of faith and goodwill together from all over the world. It's now going to be our job to ask God what role we each must play in that bigger plan."
This was followed by more silence. The full impact of what Chaim had said did not sink in to Ming, but mention of God had touched her. Her fears about Sheree's sanity gave way to other fears, unrelated to the people in the room. She began to weep softly. Sheree was next to her, and she lovingly wrapped her big frame around Ming.
"You wanna talk 'bout it?" she asked softly.
Ming nodded as she fought back the tears.
"I don't know who you people are, but I have a big problem," she said.
"My parents hate God. They will force me to leave here. My parents are very powerful in China. We were happy about the fall of America; and I was sent here to help the Communist Party. Now I have betrayed them by becoming a believer."
Ming related how she had been swayed mostly by the religious and political tolerance she had experienced in Australia.
As he listened, Chaim was struck by just how relative freedom can be.
Most of his friends had been only aware of how much tolerance had been disappearing from the Australian political and religious scene, whereas Ming could still see and appreciate what other Australians had come to take for granted.
"Even people who disagree with the government are supported here,"
Ming continued. "Some communists and anarchists are elected to the student council. We do not have such freedom in China.
"There are many religions. I do not want to join any one of them, but I want to be a believer... to be part of them all . Can I do that?"
Chaim nodded. "I think that's why you're here, friend. God has chosen you." Chaim paused to give Ming a fatherly smile before continuing: "If God cares enough for you to bring you here tonight, don't you think he can make a way to protect you from your parents? Just relax and take things one step at a time."
"Do you know where is the Imam Mahdi?" asked Mashallah, who had been silent up to this point. "I must find the Imam Mahdi. He will lead us to the Messiah."
Chaim flinched at mention of the Imam. He knew Muslim prophecies, about how such a man would lead Islam to Jesus on his return, and about how the Jews would follow Dajjal, the evil one-eyed Antichrist. Muslim teaching is that Jesus will eventually hand control of the world to Muslim clerics, who will punish the Jews. Everything about the prophecies was anti-Jewish, so obviously Chaim, and all the Jews he knew, had some strong feelings about such prophecies.
Chaim waited politely to see if any of the others wanted to reply, and then he spoke: "I'm sorry, but we know nothing about the Imam Mahdi," he said. "We are each seeking. Some seek one thing, and some seek another. Have you asked God about it?"
"Yes, I have been asking All ah, and he led me here... to this room… tonight."
"You're in the right place," said David. "We too are looking for the Messiah. But we must be careful of deception. There will be false messiahs."
Vaishnu spoke quietly: "Excuse me, but I am not clear. I am not a Christian. I am a Hindu. What does this mean... messiah?"
"Mmm, yeah. We're going to have to be patient about some of our differences. I don't understand them myself," Chaim replied.
Though he did not have things worked out, he still seemed to be the natural leader. Unfortunately, the others looked to him for answers that he still did not have.
"We're all seeking; but if we say too much, all we'll see will be our differences. Can we each be patient, and wait for God to fix up our differences?"
David said nothing, but he was clearly disappointed. He had assumed that Chaim's silence over the past few months had meant consent to what he and Ben had been saying about Jesus and about Bible prophecy. This was the right time for Chaim to be steering people to Jesus: the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
But he wasn't doing that.
"So am I following the same God?" asked Sheree. "I pray to the Goddess, and I follow the voices." Sheree, like David, had come with her own expectations; but, at least on the surface, she seemed to be taking the disappointment well.
"It's not my job to tell you how to worship," said Chaim, "but by your presence, you must be part of the same spiritual movement that we are each experiencing." He took an immediate liking to Sheree. She seemed so unpretentious and confident. He went on: "There is that of God in each of us, so if we center on what we have in common, I believe we can move forward together."