The Chest of Visions: Secrets of Caperston. Tim Ferguson

      The Chest of Visions: Secrets of Caperston

      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.

      Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are taken from the Good News Bible.

      Resource Publications

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

      Eugene, OR 97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      paperback isbn: 978-1-7252-7960-5

      hardcover isbn: 978-1-7252-7961-2

      ebook isbn: 978-1-7252-7962-9

      Manufactured in the U.S.A. 08/21/20

      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.

      I will pour out my spirit on everyone: your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your old men will have dreams and your young men will see visions.

      —Joel 2:28

      Foreword

      I’ve known Tim Ferguson for 45 years. And there have only been a handful of people who have influenced my life more.

      We first met in 1975. I had just returned home after graduating from college. He was leading a young adults Coffeehouse in the basement of the local Presbyterian church. Most of us who came to the Coffeehouse regularly saw it as a social organization—a place to have fun, make friends, maybe even meet someone special. (A lot of marriages, including my own, came out of that group.)

      But Tim always envisioned it as something more. It was his way of doing God’s work and doing something to improve the community in which we lived.

      That was still Tim’s mission a few decades later, when he started running the church’s Youth Group out of that same basement. I eventually became his assistant and got to witness firsthand how his vision was really bearing fruit. This, I could see, was what Tim was really born to do.

      The fun was still there; that’s why the Youth Group attracted many kids from outside the Church. But now Tim had a chance to do more teaching. He was always trying to find new ways to bring the word of God to our youth. New ways, too, for our youth to do God’s work, especially feeding the hungry.

      It was out of this quest that The Chest of Visions was born. It’s a highly imaginative mingling of Christian theology and modern scientific theory (something else that has always fascinated Tim.) It takes the story of Jesus and re-imagines it on a different world with a different set of characters. But it isn’t a simple retelling. Just when you think you know exactly where it’s going, it hits you with a surprise that packs a powerful emotional wallop.

      Tim wants to give youth a fresh perspective on Christ’s message—and he succeeds.

      Today, Tim and I are still friends. He is still dedicated to mission work and community outreach. And he is still teaching, this time one of our Confirmation classes. (He can’t stop. It’s in his blood.)

      I’m teaching the other Confirmation class. In fact, I’m now chair of the Christian Education committee. But I wouldn’t be doing either if I hadn’t walked into that basement 45 years ago. Tim is still influencing my life. When you read and use The Chest of Visions, he may influence yours.

      Frank Tangredi

      Preface

      The story of The Chest of Visions began with an effort to bring the gospel in a creative way to a junior high/high school youth group in Deer Park, New York. We had been corresponding with a young lady on a year long mission trip by posting monthly letters we received from her on our Christian Youth website. The youth enjoyed keeping in touch with her in this manner.

      Then her mission trip ended. After meeting with her upon her return from the trip, we went our separate ways. Since the youth enjoyed the monthly letters, a decision was made to continue a similar correspondence on the website, this time with young people residing in a faraway land, in fact, in another universe. It was the universe of Caperston where no one had a concept of God.

      Letters from the faraway planet captivated not only our youth but many adults, who were visiting the website on which they were posted. Someone suggested combining the letters into a book and that encouragement was all that I needed. Then the idea of writing the gospel story, as if it happened in a different universe, emerged.

      I remember reading a story of a mythical being when I was young. It was a relatively short story but what made it captivating were the illustrations that helped me visualize the story. A contact with the illustrator, Jose Carlos Gutierrez, found him enthusiastic about the project from the very beginning

      Published initially in 2012, a continuation of the story was written several years later. Wipf and Stock Publications expressed interest in that story, “The Chest of Visions: New Pathways ‘cross Broken Highways,” but also wished to pick up the publication of the first book.

      The Chest of Visions: Secrets of Caperston is now a revised version. What has changed? Some reviewers, who offered positive critiques of the book, expressed an interest in knowing more about the youth and adults of Caperston. In response, this revised version follows the initial plot but offers more details about the individuals, who follow Chihaysu as well as some, who oppose him. This revised edition also gives details about the customs of Caperston, similar to many customs on Earth but with differences, in part, due to only recently experiencing the concept of the existence of a God.

      The revised version also has two additional lessons, for a total of twelve, for youth group leaders to use as youth read the story of Caperston in the Chest of Visions series.

      Acknowledgments

      I would like to thank my wife, Linda, for her continuous support while I worked on this project. I want to thank my sons, Scott and Brian Ferguson, for reviewing the initial manuscript of the book and making helpful suggestions. I also wish to thank my friends, Frank Tangredi and Davina Durgana, and my wife, Linda Ferguson, for their review of a revision of the book and for their comments.

      A special thanks is given to Jose Carlos Gutierrez for his inspired artwork throughout the book and on the front cover. Jose’s prayers for the project and his enthusiasm encouraged me to continue to develop the story as well as the characters of the youth of Caperston.

      Lastly, I want to thank all of the young people I have worked with over the past forty years. Their enthusiasm for truth and questions about matters of faith challenged me to find a creative way of presenting the gospel message.

      Tim Ferguson

      1

      In the Beginning

      In the beginning there was God . . . so reads Genesis chapter one.

      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