The Chest of Visions: New Pathways ‘cross Broken Highways. Tim Ferguson
on>
The Chest of Visions
New Pathways ‘cross
Broken Highways
Tim Ferguson
Foreword by John F. Underwood
Illustrations by Jose Carlos Gutierrez
The Chest of Visions: New Pathways ‘cross Broken Highways
Copyright © 2020 Tim Ferguson. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Resource Publications
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
paperback isbn: 978-1-7252-7957-5
hardcover isbn: 978-1-7252-7958-2
ebook isbn: 978-1-7252-7959-9
Manufactured in the U.S.A. 07/27/20
To Christian youth,
who have asked honest and challenging questions
as they grow in a faith which makes a difference in the world.
You are the leaders of the world.
May your faith bring the world together in Christian love.
We seek an enlargement of our being. We want to be more than ourselves . . . We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own . . . We demand windows.
—C. S. Lewis
Foreword
For the twenty-two years I served as pastor of Community Presbyterian Church on Long Island. I worked beside Tim Ferguson as a colleague and as a friend. Nearly that entire time he served as the lay leader of the church’s youth ministry. His ministry was an energizing force in the congregation. For two decades he inspired, motivated, and energized the young people of the church and the community. He then went on to leadership of the men’s ministry.
His ministry was characterized by imagination and creativity, empowered by a gift for understanding what would make young people and adults work and what would inspire their faith and their minds. More fundamentally, his ministry was undergirded by his personal energy, the example of his faith, the witness of his commitment to service, and his gift for making personal connections to those he served.
In his youth ministry he helped young people think theologically. Every year he would ask them to raise questions they would like to ask God; he would then assemble a panel of guests from various churches to engage them with ways God might respond to their questions. One of his youth learned to think so theologically he enrolled in seminary and is now an ordained minister.
He inspired the youth to action. Within the church they began conducting prayer walks to provide a new avenue for engaging the faith of the congregation. Beyond the church they began contributing to the care of a child overseas to increase awareness of needs beyond their community. Above all he guided them to a deeper understanding of the problem of hunger at home and abroad and led them to actively respond to people in need. They fasted in solidarity with the hungry, they collected food, they volunteered to help a local outreach ministry prepare food, they then helped serve that food to the hungry of New York City at street side stations.
He empowered youth group members to leadership in their activities, to advocacy in the congregation, and to engagement with people of different ages not only within the church but also with different congregations in the surrounding area.
What Tim Ferguson did for the youth of the congregation, he did for the adults as well, providing leadership, inspiring faith, motivating the members to outreach and service.
He did the same for me.
He engaged me. He inspired me. He empowered me. He helped me. He fed me with his faith. He energized me with his creativity. He lifted me up with his imagination.
He also captivated me with his words. I first learned of his gifts in writing on the shore of Fire Island, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Every year he wrote skits for the young people to present at an Easter Dawn service as the sun broke above the horizon and rose. That was just the beginning of his writing.
It is my deepest hope and my sincerest conviction that as you meet my colleague and my friend in his writings, you will find that he, together with the characters he has created, will engage and inspire you as well.
Rev. John F. Underwood
Acknowledgments
Thanks is given to the following individuals, who offered ideas that enhanced this story of the interaction between youth in America and youth residing in Caperston.
Bonnie Solomon, movie producer, made worthwhile suggestions that encouraged me to be more adventuresome in opening the door to more sci-fi than I had included in the first book in the Chest of Visions series.
Illustrator, Jose Carlos Gutierrez kept encouraging me to continue this project and suggested that it be done as a series of stories under the title: The Chest of Visions.
Family members including my sons Scott and Brian Ferguson reviewed early copies of the book and made helpful suggestions that kept me focused on more current types of science fiction in both literature and in the movies. Lastly my wife, Linda Ferguson, encouraged me to continue this vision to find a unique way of reaching Christian youth with the gospel message.
The Chest of Visions
New Pathways ‘cross Broken Highways
In the beginning there was a singularity. So states the theory of cosmology, the study of the origin of the universe. This singularity was infinitely small, made up of the most elemental of atomic particles. These particles were in constant motion and their location could not be identified. In a sense they were nowhere and yet everywhere.
About fourteen billion years ago a gravity-defying force appeared, and the singularity exploded in what is known as the Big Bang. The universe expanded to about the size of a grapefruit then split into several identical universes. Just as human twins grow up genetically identical, yet different as they mature, so did these universes. For our story we simply consider two: our universe and the universe of a young man named Mattpaul. Beginning with an e-mailed letter on April 28th, twenty-two letters were received from young people in the far-off land of Caperston. Twenty-one were from a young man named Mattpaul and the last, received on December 10th, from his best friend, Huchfee.
The world of Caperston is similar to Earth but much smaller. Its population center is less than a thousand individuals. The residents are technologically advanced but still live under a Ruler, who has a status of an absolute monarch. They had no concept of a God, a Caring Creator, until very recently, when a prophet named Chi-hay- su emerged and taught about an unseen Ruler. Another difference is in the names of young ladies. At birth all female babies are given a name ending in “-ing” or “-ling.” Upon marriage the suffix is dropped so, for example, Rachaeling’s name would become Rachael once she is married.
Much has been happening in Caperston involving the teachings of Chi-hay-su and the imprisonment of the writer of the first 21 letters, Mattpaul. The book, The Chest of Visions: Secrets of Caperston, records each of these letters, telling the story of Caperston, while reflecting on the way of life of its inhabitants. Now the story continues.
January 2017 Letters
Developing