Hope's Journey

God's Rangers Ministries

Hope's POV;

As the car moves towards the white building. I can't help but be astounded by my surroundings. The first thing that caught my eye were the identical bushes, neatly trimmed to perfection, that rode along the narrowing way towards the white building, the church, I suppose. The entrance of the building was embedded with multiple flowers, from roses to lilies, of different shapes and colours. Grape vines grew along the walls of the majestic building with enormous stained glass windows, that sparkled in the sunlight, and mirror like glass doors just above a few red tiled steps. To top it all off, the fountain of a baby angel spitting water out of its mouth while playing the harp put the whole scene together perfectly.
"It's...it's..." I gasp, out of words.
"Glorious, isn't it?" Ethan suddenly buds in. "If the teachings in this church are as astounding as its surroundings, my visit here may not be as bad as I thought it would be..." I say with a wide smile on my face. Everyone laughs as we park under a shade provided by the owner of the church. There are only two cars, ours and a black Benz we parked next to, at the moment, so its either due to the fact that we are early, which I doubt, or due to the fact that most of the church members don't come with cars or own one.

As we come out of the car I am able to pay more attention to detail. For starters, the ground had a well designed curved walkway made of broken tiles, that curved around the fountain before reaching the door of the church. I also noticed the orange trees planted in the various corners of the fence. The citric smell in the air relaxed me as we made our way to the glass door. I could see myself on the door, but not the interior of the church. Using that opportunity, I checked my red short sleeved, knee length, flared dress for any wrinkles and adjusted them. I also adjusted my hair that was in a bun, putting back any loose strands and bent down to tighten the buckles of my white pumps.

I stand up to have my gaze met with a pair of unfamiliar green eyes that really stood out thanks to the head of red hair of its owner, she smiles at me brightly before she looks at everyone else. "Happy Friday Mr, Mrs and Ethan Gregor! I hope you all
enjoy the service..." She exclaims with a smile, in a deep Western accent before trailing off as her gaze meets mine once again. "Well hello there sweetie, you must be new. I send you the warmest welcome to God's Rangers Ministries and I am hoping that your coming here becomes something regular..." She says to me still maintaining her smile. I smile back and notice Ethan suddenly enter the church, I wanted to see where he was going but my view was blocked by the woman talking to me. "By the way, I'm Margaret..." She says bringing her hand out for me to shake, I shake her hand as I take a good look at her. She looked as young and vibrant as her spirits portray her, she was definitely blessed by God to have such a grace. "But you can call me Aunt Maggie," She says still with a smile before she releases our hand shake. "I'm Hope," I say with a warm smile which Aunt Maggie returns before she looks at Mr and Mrs Gregor that have been waiting patiently to enter the church for over 5 minutes. Aunt Maggie suddenly blushes in embarrassment, "Woopsy! I got carried away, sorry for keeping you waiting," she tells them with an apologetic smile. "It's alright, we want to make sure Hope feels as welcome as possible before we go any further anyway," Mr Gregor assures Aunt Maggie with a smile before both Mr and Mrs Gregor send me a smile. "They are so sweet to me even though I'm not their child, I just can't hold myself, I love them!!!" I thought with a smile. "Anyhoo! Let's head into the church now..." Aunt Maggie sings as she leads us to our seats at the back of the church, making sure we were comfortable, before walking back to her seat by the glass door.

"Great, we came late and now we are backbenchers..." I hear Mr Gregor grumble causing Mrs Gregor and I to lightly giggle. I look around. There has to be at least a hundred people in this church, and it made me wonder why I only saw one car excluding ours in the car park. Maybe people live nearby hence they come walking or there is another car park I knew not of. I focus my attention back on the altar, the stage was beautiful as well. There was a large screen that displayed lyrics to songs or the messages of the pastor and the background wall was filled with 3 large stained glass windows of people in the Bible; Jesus, John and Peter. It was colourful, glorious and spectacular all combined in one! The stage was lifted above the ground by seven steps that covered its entire width. A red carpet ran from the stage, along the steps and to the rest of the church. The walls were checkered in black and white and the designer wall brackets added as much spice just as much as the purple tapestries did, to the whole scene. How majestic! My old church was nowhere close to achieving such beauty! I thought.

A robust middle aged man, around Mr Gregor's age, with black curly hair and small brown eyes runs up the stage. Everyone in the church suddenly stands up and erupts with sounds of celebration as he runs to the altar, and I can't help but join the fun as well. I turn to see Mr and Mrs Gregor do the same before flashing brief smiles at me. "Praise the Lord!!!!" The man on the altar suddenly exclaims as he jumped up and down with excitement, winning the chorused 'hallelujahs' of the entire congregation, including me.

This is going to be fun....

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Chapter 3! What did you see? Comment on my mistakes and vote no matter what it takes, just kidding! Do as you like but just don't disappoint this newly inspired tyke. God bless you!!!💗💗💗