is why we pray. Those who don’t pray simply don’t believe that prayer is heard and answered. They are the fools who live by choice outside of the power of God.”
“I am going to have to work with that one for a while,” Murphy said.
The Search for J-14
Returning to the president’s office aboard Air Force One, David Barnes took the opportunity to report on recent developments.
“Mr. President, I have been on the phone with Stephen Hollister, Attorney General Rodriquez, and Darrell Reed. We are close to J-14.”
“I don’t like ‘close,’ I like caught,” the president responded.
“Sorry Sir, I don’t make the news, I just report it.”
“So report, please.”
“Homeland Security got to Carmen, Arizona late by a few days. A group had been using a house as a place for individuals crossing the border illegally to hide and then be transported to their assigned location by over the road trucks. The young man who reported the incident said that the people in the house were Arabs, as were the people who left the house and the drivers of the trucks. Apparently, they abandoned the site. Our best guess is that they left because adequate operatives are already in place for MD. We have a lead on the trucking company, but nothing more at this point.
“After we left Williams, Sally Johnson took Tom Campy back to the hospital, and they got his cell phone. It had a number on it in the directory that Abdul Farsi had given him as a contact number when he joined the Citizen’s Militia. The number had a 617 area code — Cambridge, Massachusetts again, same as Harkins College. The FBI is checking with cell phone companies to get the records for the number. Again, no contract with anyone by the name Abdul Farsi, but the number remains active, and the records are being retrieved. We should have them later tonight and will check for other 617 numbers he called. The physical address is not helpful, a post office box in Boston. It is being watched.”
“And the good news is?” the president asked.
“Actually, there are two pieces of good news. The first is that the return email on the prayer website works, and we have great hope that it will be something that will provide us desperately needed intelligence. The other good news is that the Justice Department lawyers clobbered the Harkins’ President in court today. The Judge has ordered the documents to be produced at 1:00 PM tomorrow and has already sanctioned the lawyer for instructing his witness not to answer a question. The deposition is going to be completed in the Judges’ chambers, and he has threatened them with jail if they disobey any of his orders. We should find out what they know tomorrow and ought to get the lists we have been looking for. There is a good chance we will have the probable identity of J-14 by early afternoon.”
That is good news,” the president responded. “I only hope it will not be too late.”
But it already was too late, as Demas Assad and Phygelus Aldar had completed their series of one on one meetings with the coordinators and had left the Phoenix Westin Kierland Resort under new identities. They would spend the night in the Embassy Suites Phoenix Airport hotel and catch a 6:00 AM flight to Mexico. By the time the deposition convened tomorrow in Cambridge, they would have been in Mexico for hours to help with final preparations at Oaxaca for the great border crossing.
Chapter 6
The Two Questions
Friday, February 15–MD minus 24 days
The final decision was made on the helicopter ride from Andrews Air Force Base to the White House. The beginning of the East Room service would be broadcast so that people who did not have a place to go could participate in their homes or offices; those who did not understand what the president had called them to do would be able to see exactly what this day was to be about. After a call from Tom Knight, ITN quickly agreed. Their feed would again be made available to the other networks, on their website as well as the Together We Pray website.
Throughout the world, millions of Christians were awakened in their sleep to pray for America and the coming day of decision. The burden was heavy and carried with it a call to pray for their own countries and governments, to confront their sin as God views sin, and to turn from that sin and be changed. It overcame the desire to sleep or eat or focus on anything else. Believers were being invited to unite and share these moments with the Lord, even as Peter, James, and John had been invited to do in Gethsemane.37 Those three slept, but this wasn’t the case for many believers that night. Guardians protected them while the light within opened their understanding that this was not about what God wanted them to do, but rather what God wanted to do in them. They were being invited to share His heart and passion and stand against the forces of darkness — and stand they did.
If the earth could have been viewed in those hours as seen from behind the Curtain, individual bright lights would have been apparent in every city and nation. The sound of millions of voices raised at once, united in purpose in many languages would have been heard. It was an amazing moment; one not witnessed often since the day Adam was given life and placed in the garden.38 The power of the prayer muted the efforts of the forces of darkness. People would be free to choose.
As dawn cascaded across America, people began to gather in sunrise services and private moments together in their homes. There was an awareness throughout the land that an opportunity to participate together as a nation was being offered when the East Room service would begin. All night long the announcements had appeared on radio and television, and headlines regarding the East Room service greeted those who picked up their morning papers or who listened to early morning newscasts. Even nonbelievers had a sense that the televised service was a way to resolve what they saw as a problem by providing something for believing employees without “wasting” the day or insulting their faith. The East Room service was set to begin at 11:00 AM, which would allow for it to be broadcast at a convenient hour throughout the country. Schedules were adjusted to make that time available for any who desired to participate. Churches that had scheduled their services at that hour hustled to make arrangements to have televisions available to join in the East Room service.
Sleep had not come to the Bookseller that night. The burden was heavy on him to be careful to say only what God wanted him to say. He remembered God’s cry of frustration and anger to Jeremiah against self-appointed “prophets” who ran with a message that He had not given them, leading God’s people further away. “But which of them,” God questioned, “has stood in the counsel of the Lord to see or hear His Word?” The Bookseller wanted to be such a man; a man who stood in the counsel of the Lord to hear His word because of how God said He would use such a man. God had declared, “But if they had stood in My counsel, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.”39 He knew that God’s declaration must be his purpose for this day and the few moments he would have to open the East Room service. His words must be God’s words to God’s people.
A peace came over the Bookseller as he dressed. He passed on breakfast, for this was not to be a day to focus on himself, even in the simple act of eating. This was a day to deny himself, even that small pleasure, so that he could focus fully on God. Taking Margaret’s hand, he smiled. “I must admit, I never thought I would live to see a time when a modern president would have the courage to call the nation to repentance. God has done an amazing thing. He must have a clear purpose for a changed America.”
“Yes, if America will allow itself to be changed,” Margaret replied.
“It is not America as a whole that is at issue this morning,” the Bookseller responded. “It is we who call ourselves Christians, but who live in active rebellion against the teachings of the Bible. Many Christians’ lives effectively declare that we can be our own god and live any way we want. By our lives, we have said to a watching world that the Bible is a lie and Jesus is not God. Who in their right mind would want to become what they see of Christians today? The only argument for being a Christian is the ‘happy church