Dear Nieces & Nephews,

Here's Chapter 2 of "Mystery at Camp Paradise." Take special notice of Alecks' struggle with fears in the underground tunnel. It comes directly from the life experience of myself and the ones I love. I pray adventure, discovery and healing for you as well!

Much Love,

Aunt Michelle

Guilt

As Aleks pulled himself up at the edge of the new and deeper darkness that loomed in front of him, he grabbed for the lantern and sat panting, acclimating to the new void. It was the opening to a stairwell. Should he take it down and explore what lay underneath? Alone? In the dark? As he trembled with exertion and excitement, it wasn’t hard to decide. There was no turning back now. 

Unsure how safe the old stairs were, Alex took his time stepping down. As he pressed forward into the darkness, he used his left arm as a shield in front to ward off the spider webs he had come to expect in these old cabins. Strangely, there were none. And the smell of garlic and weird spices had become stronger. Where was it coming from?

The bottom of the stairs revealed a small underground antechamber. He had to duck so he wouldn’t hit his head on the cement ceiling. It was round, about 10 feet across, with stone walls and a dirt floor. Having assumed he would find a larger room on the other side, Aleks was surprised to find the door led to an underground tunnel. Thankful for the new batteries he’d just put in his lantern, he pushed ahead.

Thankful. He could turn that into another prayer to tell Rubi about. “Thanks God for this good solid lantern and its new batteries,” he whispered. 

This was followed by a cloud of doubts. 

What right do I  have to talk to God? Why would He want to hear from me?

Trying to ignore the questions, he pressed ahead.

“I wonder how far this goes?” and, “What in the world is it here for?” were questions much easier to think about. 

Cool and damp, the tunnel sloped gradually downward. Tree roots growing through the dirt floor created blockages that had to be wiggled through time and time again. Eventually, spider webs did appear, giving evidence to the conclusion he was the first to travel this way in a long time.

As Aleks continued to walk deeper into the unknown, his questions and doubts grew deeper as well, his heart heavy with the same worries and fears that had troubled him in bed. They flitted in and out, hovering and stinging, hard to identify but leaving their damage behind. 

What did make his heart so heavy? Did he even know?

Guilt.

The word settled into his heart, and Alex was startled to realize that his heaviness grew from guilt. Like the underground tangle of roots troubling him now, all hiding under the surface of his life, thriving in the atmosphere of fear that he had grown so accustomed to breathing.

He was guilty. He was dirty. The dark passageway around him was a reflection of his feelings. Wanting to run from them, he quickened his pace, but they only grew worse. Now he was remembering what he was guilty of. Stealing. Lying. Hiding. Hating. Anger. With each one, even those he hadn’t known were wrong, his heart grew heavier. Now he knew. They were all wrong. He should be punished. The thought pressed hard into his heart, and a cloud of anxiety rose up from a pit in his stomach as remembrances of his failures multiplied and flung themselves against him with increasing speed and force. Fear intensified, gripping his heart and he imagined hundreds of bats swarming him. Each of them carried a different kind of venom. Rejection swooped at his head screeching, "No one wants you!" Intimidation whispered a hideous, "You're not valuable." He ran to escape as Confusion chanted, "You can't, you're stupid!". He wanted to turn back but his panic was too big to turn from. He couldn't stop; but he couldn't breathe either.

Finally, Aleks crumbled into a heap. He lay there, trying to reach deep for air, but was unable to get beneath the shallow, choking gasps rising from his upper chest. His heart pounded, his whole body trembled and sweat drenched him. Then everything went black.

Time passed. Aleks didn't know how much, but gradually the light of his lantern came into view and  he realized the attack had subsided, his breathing had slowed and he could think again.

He pulled himself to his feet, took a step forward, and banged his head against against cold metal even as he tripped over a shin-level blockage, which plunged him onto his knees on a hard echoing surface.

"Help, God! Help! What is happening to me?"

Despite his pain, from his kneeling position he held up his lantern and saw that the tunnel had changed. It was a perfectly round culvert about three feet tall. The light reflected off his lantern made everything brighter. Tentatively standing to his feet, crouching low, he moved ahead. His footsteps resonated through the tunnel with low, eerie, creaks that reminded him of deep sea submarine sounds he’d heard in a movie. The tunnel swayed slightly under his feet, and he realized now that it sloped upward. His head throbbed and his body ached, but the change in atmosphere lent an air of relief and Alex realized the fear and anxiety had faded, as though the bats hadn't been able to enter the culvert with him. They had given way to a mindless calm.

The tunnel walk must have been about the length of a football field. Just as Aleks’ legs and lungs began aching from the climb, he became aware of a dim circular glow ahead. Faint rays of hope and anticipation li his heart as he drew closer to the light. Little by little, it intensified and proved to be the end of the tunnel. Aleks stopped just in time to keep from stumbling as it spilled out onto a floor about two feet down. There was a density to the resonating acoustics that echoed the emotions in Aleks' silent soul. Reverence gripped his heart and he felt an urge to blend into his surroundings. He turned off his lantern. 

Jumping down onto a cement floor, he drew in his breath and held it. 

The View And What It Did

Aleks was in a cubicle about ten feet across in all directions. The walls to his right and left, and the ceiling above him, were all glass. On the other side of the glass was water. The water was a penetrating, luminescent blue, carpeted by the glowing green of underwater plant life. Swimming lazily through this scene were large, tranquil fish.

Could this be an underground look at Lake Paradise itself?

What else could it be? 

Like he was looking into a giant aquarium, Aleks could watch the water life of the lake going on in front of him … only he was the one held captive in a small “tank.” Largemouth Bass, Northern Pike and Walleye swam casually in front of him as though he was just an everyday part of their world. Rays of the finally-rising sun created a glow in this underwater world that was breathtaking.

Alecks' guilt, fears, worries and troubled thoughts of the past hour melted away in the wonder of what lay before him.

With a "Th-wunk!" understanding dropped into his heart. God and his enormous beauty were much bigger than anything he’d ever done wrong. Bigger than his guilt. Bigger than his fears. Dropping to his knees, he sobbed with relief.

“God!” he prayed, and this time he realized just how much God wanted to hear from him.

“God, take all this junk from me. My stealing, lying, hate, fear, anger. It’s You I want!”

Out of the recesses of his mind came the remembrance of things the Hart Family had taught him. Jesus had been punished for the junk so that Alex didn’t have to be. He only had to ask.

"I want your forgiveness, Jesus. I want you in my life. I want to live for you!"

And then Alecks soaked in the beautiful peace that surrounded him.

A new life had begun, and it would be rich with mystery and adventure. But for now, he would sit in the stillness and let it work its change from his inside out.

Back

Aleks' adventures had only begun. He had found Christ and chosen Him. Now he had to learn what it meant to follow Him.

It was actually on his way back through the tunnels that this new lesson began. While he was in the antechamber at the bottom of the steps, smelling garlic and other weird spices, he heard a small child’s scream. His heart beat wildly in his chest. He held his lantern up and looked around but couldn’t see any other exits. Apprehensive, he ran up the steps, slammed the trap door back into place, hid the key, looked around the cabin to make sure no one was in there, plunged his arms into his rain coat, and made a dash across the yard and into the lodge. His attempt at tossing his rain gear into the coat tree was unsuccessful, but he determined to come back and fix them before anyone else got up. With tiptoeing leaps he sped down the hallway and back into his bed. Heart hammering, he lay there for a moment, wondering if he should have done more to search for the child.

Rubi tiptoed into the room a moment later, asking him what had happened. He wasn’t ready to talk about what he’d found underground, but he did tell her in a whisper about waking up at 3:16 every morning.

"3:16?" she asked him incredulously, eyes wide. "Look up John 3:16. I think God's saying something to you."

Aleks searched thru his bedside books until he found the Bible his foster parents had recently given him, and he read in hushed tones --

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

Rubi stared at him blankly for a moment after he finished, then reached for his Bible. "That's not right," she said, looking for herself. She paged back and forth for a minute before fading into an "Ohhhhhh. That's First John 3:16. This is John 3:16." And she read -

"For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

A contented smile filled Aleks' face. Rubi handed the Bible back to him, waved, and went back to her own room. Alex lay contentedly for a few minutes, thinking of the underwater chamber. Then the heart chill of the crying child came over him again, and with it the remembrance of First John 3:16. Jesus had laid down His life for him. Now he wanted to lay down his life for someone. Today he would search that child out. After his morning chores. Everything in his new heart wanted to help.

The freshly discovered peace settled back over him and he drifted into a sleep deeper than he’d experienced in a very long time.

Tiana's Job And Discovery

Tiana was Aleks’ youngest foster sister … 7 years old. She was bright, talkative, fun-loving, and pretty selfish. If she didn’t get her own way about things, her temper would soar, and she wasn’t afraid to dish out a whack or a good, hard shin-kick. Truth be told, Tiana had suffered a lot of abuse before coming to live with the Harts and had to unlearn violent reactions.

But she was sweet too. If ever anyone had a need, she was the first to respond … usually with great compassion and kindness.

Tiana’s chore that morning was to sweep out the cabin furthest from the lodge. “No!” she’d screamed at her foster parents. “I hate that cabin. It’s haunted!”

“Tiana, are you afraid?” Mrs. Hart had asked her.

“No! I’m NOT afraid! I just hate that old cabin.”

“Well, if you’re not afraid, we want you to sweep it out anyway. Once it’s clean, you’ll find it’s quite a cute little cabin. In fact, I’ve been wondering if it might make a good playhouse for you.”

After a few more exchanges in which Tiana was assured that she’d be writing scriptures all morning if she wouldn’t comply, the little girl stormed off to the cabin with broom and dustpan.

While she was sweeping, sort of, and pondering why the cabin stunk so like garlic and weird spices, she realized one square on the floor was much cleaner than the rest. And then she found that there was a key lying just outside of a tiny recessed hole. Fitting it into the key hole, she wiggled it until it gave a satisfying clunk. Sticking her hand into a knot hole to pull it open, she found she couldn’t lift the door more than an inch. After trying this and that, occasionally giving it a serious kick, she went running for help. Ty was the first one she found. (Ty, you’ll remember was eight, and he seldom talked. He sucked his thumb all the time and cried, which Tiana found particularly annoying, but he did keep secrets well. And he was a sturdy little thing.) She talked him into taking his thumb out of his mouth long enough to pull from the knot hole while she grabbed the widening crack with both hands, thrusting the trapdoor open.

Both stood staring into the dark abyss. Ty hadn’t even stuck his thumb back into his mouth, which was hanging open.

So what do you suppose they did?

You guessed it.

They looked back and forth from each other to the opening for only a moment before Tiana began descending the stairs with Ty close on her heels.

There was enough light from the stormy skies through the open trap door to see they were in a small underground room. An outline of a slightly-ajar door, completely camouflaged but illuminated by the light behind it, led them to open it and see where it led.

The strange spicy smells became overpowering now, and one glance inside showed why. Tiana started with surprise and stepped back so fast she knocked Ty down behind her, tripping and landing on top of his lap. She looked back at him with wide eyes and held a finger to her lips. Ty’s eyes, reflecting her own, held a mixture of fear, cautious agreement and curiosity. But he did not say a word.