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                                                            Chapter 10

                                        -Angel Encounters-

 

Looking across the table from her she saw an angel with red hair, green eyes and a sort of silent demeanor. She could see that he was about to say something, and the angels nearby could sense it without having looked at him, and they nevertheless looked in his direction just before he spoke. Kim wondered to herself how it was that the angels were able to sense something specific without having the foreknowledge to know what was going to happen. “Am I going to just accept everything I hear and see, or am I going to keep wondering about it after whatever it is has taken place?” She decided that she would accept it, and that there was plenty of time later to marvel over it. And she did not want to miss what this angel across from her was going to say.

“I had a rather interesting experience not long ago on the Island of Barbados.”

 Kim turned her head slightly sideways in a questioning look at Rahm. Rahm leaned towards her and with his hand shielding the sound of his answer to Kim’s questioning look whispered, “An Island in the Caribbean.” Nodding her head slightly, Kim replied with a short “Oh.”

            “My human is a fellow named Michael and he was in his twenties when this happened not long ago.” Kim was beginning to accept the fact that when angels said something like, a short time ago, or not long ago, it was always relative since their conception of time was different that hers.

            “It happened in a city and Michael was waiting for a bus. He had been waiting for a few minutes before the bus actually arrived and when it did, he along with the other people proceeded to get on the bus. Michael was the last one to get on and the bus was almost full. Just as Michael stepped up onto the bus and before he had gripped the side bar, his gaze was on the other side of the street and at that exact moment, a woman on the other side of the street who was dressed in a red, well…unprotective style of dress walking in the same direction in which the bus was heading. Well, I mentioned that Michael was a young man. And the bus driver was not looking at Michael who was, well, halfway perched in the bus door, his hand as if frozen still in mid-air and not clutching the side bar. The bus began moving and Michael who was still watching the woman in the red dress was unaware that he was falling backwards. The bus had picked up speed at this point and Michael was in danger. He realized this just as the side bar extended out of his reach. His heart began to pump really fast and I reached out and shoved him back up and he grabbed the side bar. Wide eyed and breathing hard, he looked every which way, expecting to see a human there, but of course he could not see me next to him speeding along with the bus. And he never forgot it. He would share the incident now and then wherever he lived whether that was in Barbados, upper New York State or somewhere else.”

            “Wow! That is so amazing!” Kim tried to think of a time in her life when she was in danger, and whether or not an angel had saved her, but she could not think of anything offhand. At that, she noticed that the group of angels sitting near and around her at the table glanced to an angel on the other side of Rahm who had black hair, blue eyes and a very cheerful expression.

            “I also had an interesting experience with my human who also lived in the Caribbean on the island of Cuba. His name is Arsenio, and he was the only son of a prosperous business man. Well, Arsenio and his family, as well as the whole neighborhood was in a certain amount of danger.  One night, the power that had taken control in Cuba was use to staging scare tactics.”

Looking at Kim because he knew that she would not understand, the angel proceeded to explain. “You see Kim, some governments, particularly the style of government you would know as communist, once they are entrenched in power, commence scare tactics for purpose of keeping the citizens in line through fear.”

            “Oh.” said Kim. “I am glad I do not live in a country like that.”

            “Not yet,” the angel replied. Before Kim could ask any questions, the angel went on. “Very often, the leaders of countries like that use fear to keep their citizens in line. Well, one night when Arsenio was sleeping, the government sent fighter plans to the city and neighborhood where Arsenio lived. His father was a sensible man who never precipitated unpleasantness by defying the government, and always had the welfare of his family in mind rather than lashing out because the injustices they suffered. The communists had slowly taken almost all his considerable wealth. Anyways, Arsenio’s father who had become a light sleeper, heard one night the sounds and droning of fighter plans. He could tell they were headed in the direction of his neighborhood.  He rushed into Arsenio’s bed room which was on a second floor and told Arsenio to leave the house as quickly as possible. Arsenio wasted no time and could easily hear the airplanes getting closer. He ran out into the street where all the neighbors were scurrying around trying to find shelter from what would be called 50 caliber machine gun bullets. Just before the airplanes roared overhead, their machine guns firing everything in their path, Arsenio ducked behind a thin door leaning up against the brick wall of a building. If I had been a second too late, he would have been killed for sure. There were bullet holes all over the door, but I was able to prevent any bullets from hitting where Arsenio’s body was. And, when it was over, Arsenio said, in Spanish, “However did I survive?”

            “So, you can stop bullets? You are that fast?” Kim had not considered this although later she would wonder why it should have surprised her with everything she had seen.

            “Well Kim, because we can convert ourselves into energy, we can travel faster than the speed of light, and also, we can alter the trajectory of the path of any bullets and I had to do that to save Arsenio’s life. Actually, I had to save his life again because he became a target of the secret police in Cuba and also when he escaped Cuba, which is an interesting story, but for another time.”

            “That is incredible. I can’t wrap my mind around how evil some people can be. And after being here for a while, I can’t wrap my mind around the knowledge of how good God is, I mean in sending you all to protect so many people”

            “As you spend more time here, His goodness will be clearer,” Rahm replied.

            “So, were people killed in the streets in Cuba when the airplanes flew through?”

The angel nodded sadly before continuing.

            “Yes. Many people died that day.”

            “But why weren’t there more angels to save other people?”

            “Well Kim, you have to understand that the enemy is at the moment, sort of like a governor. He will be defeated, but he still has power, and we good angels have fight with evil angels to not only save souls, but to save them also from physical harm. The reason that Arsenio was spared was because someone was praying for him and his family. That someone was his Aunt Clara who lived in Grants Pass Oregon. It was because that devout and faithful person was praying that Arsenio’s life was spared. Her prayers enable me to save Arsenio. When a prayer is prayed by someone who believes that God will answer it, it gives us authority to be on the enemies ground and to rescue people he would prefer to be killed and destroyed. And if he cannot destroy them with death, he will do what he can to make them miserable. Good angels do everything they can to encourage humans and once in a while this translates to extraordinary measures.”

            “What kind of extraordinary measures?”

At that, Kim noticed that the angels near her turned to an angel who was sitting next to her. He was a very tall angel with greenish eyes and auburn like hair.

            “That might include encouragement. At some point, my human had severe depression. His name was Glen and he was frequently downhearted. His family was not aware that he suffered from a form of what you might call clinical depression although it was never diagnosed. One night, when Glen went to bed so discouraged and sad, I knew that it was time for an extraordinary measure, and I received permission for it from a higher-ranking angel. When Glen, weary worn and sad went to bed and to sleep, I materialized and sat on his bed. Well, whether he was a light sleeper or not, that woke him up. He woke up and looked at me. I knew he knew I was an angel, and I smiled my biggest smile. Then I said to him, “Smile Glen!” And in his later years he had one of the most joyful smiles to be seen.”

            “What a wonderful story,” Kim almost breathed. “I can’t help hoping that I will be in an extra-ordinary situation at some point that does not involve danger or, well depression. Honestly, I am not really worried about depression.”

            “And,” replied Rahm, “you are in an extra-ordinary situation yourself right now.”

            “Oh, I should have thought of that. You are right Rahm and I guess I would not want to be in danger either. My cousin Jack has a motorcycle and he is very good at riding it, but sometimes I can’t help worry because while he is a good driver, there are people out there who are not and some others who don’t care.”

            After a short pause, Kim noticed that the angels looked at another angel sitting a few seats away from Kim.

            “I had an interesting experience with a motorcycle recently. My human lives in China in a large city. He has a motorcycle that has a sort of cart attached to the back and he goes to the markets to sell vegetables and other items. Of course, he tries to get to the market earlier, which involved him getting up long before daylight to make the considerable trek to where he gets what he sells and then to the market. Well, at what would be three AM in the morning, there is not much traffic even in a large city. My human was speeding along towards an intersection. What he did not know was that there was a large van approaching the same intersection at the same time. Well, it was early and neither the van driver or my human was really aware or watching for other vehicles. I was hoping that either the van driver or my human would slow down, but neither of them did, and I had to go into action. I regret to say that all of it was caught on camera and posted to some internet video site. Right before the van could hit the bike, I sped up to the bike and dematerialized in what must have been a fraction of a second. The van stopped and the driver got out looking all around. He had seen the bike disappear, but he could not make his brain believe what his eyes saw, and he look under and around and behind his van to no avail. I dematerialized on a side street that was also recorded. Humans quite often will not think about God when angels save them, and we good angels always give God the credit. So, we avoid people seeing us do good things because they are prone to not think about the fact that God sent us. Their entire focus would be on us and we want their entire focus to be on the goodness of God. But this principle comes second to saving their lives. Anyways, I dematerialized on a side street and my human was quite shook up. He leaned as far away as he could, and like the van driver, he had a conflict of his brain believing what his eyes were seeing. He then sat down on the curb to recover. I made sure that he was okay before walking away as quickly as I could.”

            “That is so amazing!” Kim could not get over how the world of the invisible so controlled and directed the world of sight.  Sitting not very far away she could see the angel who had controlled the red boat she had been on earlier. She waited till he looked her way and of course realized that she wanted to ask him a question.”

            “Esthoryne, was there a time when you saved a human's life?”

            “Yes Kim there was. The human whose life I saved is now in what is known as radio ministry in the US state of Arkansas. At the moment another angel is guarding him but that is another story. Well, when Len was a boy of about eight or ten, an incident happened and I had to save his life. His mother had what was known as a 1950 Plymouth convertible and it had bench seats. Unfortunately his mother and his grandparents had a heated disagreement. His mother was so upset that she got in her car and drove off. At the time the roads were not paved and the mother was driving much faster than usual. Humans do dangerous things when they get very angry. She went right through the nearest intersection but the tires on what humans call the passenger's side of the car slipped into the ditch and hit the oncoming road. The car went airborne and of course at such speeds, humans cannot control whether they fly into whatever is in front of them. Our reaction time is fast enough so that we are able to pick them out of the air. And before Len knew what happened, I had picked him out of the air and set him down on a nearby lawn.  Len always said that he was sure his guardian angel saved him.

            Kim had alternated between keeping her eyes on whoever had been speaking and darting glances the delicious food in front of her. She did not realize it, but though the food was so real and good, her utensils with food on them had stayed in mid-air for more than several minutes. The angels noticed this but glanced at each other with quiet knowing smiles.