Never Forsaken
~By Emily Klesick

   “Remember that He will never leave you nor forsake you.” Claudia’s loving mother embraced her as she left the place they called home. She knew that this may very well be the last time she would see her daughter.   The year was 64 A.D. and every known Christian had a price on his head. Leaving the safety of the catacombs where the Christians lived was dangerous. The Praetorian Officers swarmed the streets like bees. They were searching for the Christians they so despised. Their golden helmets shone in the sun, a message of terror to all Christians. The very thought of going to the marketplace alone made her only more fearful. But she had to go. Stealing softly outside the door she traveled along the dusty path to the marketplace. 

   The marketplace was filled with people everywhere, but Claudia cast her gaze away from them. She had long since learned not to attract attention to herself by starring at people. She quietly rounded the bend to the place in which she bought bread. Once there, she glanced freely up. The man selling bread was a brave Christian, and smiled a cheery welcome. Although Claudia felt she loved this man as her father, she knew that being such a bold Christian. He may not even be there the next day. The thought ran chills down Claudia’s spine and she shivered.

   Claudia knew that she was not a well-known Christian but the thought was not very comforting. Many unsuspecting people were captured in the streets. Soon Claudia’s worst fear was to come true.

   Turning to leave she ventured back down the street, but she didn’t go far before an arm seized her!

   “He will never leave you nor forsake you.” The words flashed through Claudia’s mind as she felt the strong and twisting grip of the Praetorian officer. She remembered the words of Nero that were read in the streets only an hour ago. “If any man confess that he is a Christian he will be put to death without further trial, as a convicted enemy of mankind.” Was she going to meet her Jesus? She had been sighted on the street, suspected of being a Christian.

   Looking up she saw the officer’s rough eyes burning with hatred. She couldn’t help but pity him. The fear of him had left her. She was surprised at how young looked. He couldn’t be much older than she was. Realizing the danger but wanting to tell this  man of her Lord, she attempted to speak.

   “Sir,” she ventured. “Could I ask you a question?”

   “Don’t say a word”, he muttered casting a rude glance her way. “I won’t have you preaching to me.”

   “But sir, what I have to say is vital,” she continued knowing she could never catch his interest, but she was hopeful. “Do you know where you are going when you leave this earth?” 

   “I don’t care where I am going. And I certainly don’t want to hear your opinion of where I should be going either!” He growled tightening his grip on the helpless girl. 

   She felt she most certainly couldn’t leave him to continue in sin, without having said something.  So she attempted to speak one last time.

   “Sir, my only hope is that I meet you in Paradise. The Bible clearly states that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Without him you are nothing. Please find my Jesus.” She imparted the words to him confidently. The officer gazed down at her with a look of disgust, but said nothing so they continued the rest of the journey in silence. But Claudia had planted a seed in the hard heart of the officer that was there to stay. 

   While struggling to keep up with the officer, new thoughts flooded into Claudia’s mind. Where was she going? What about her mother left at home? Claudia pushed the thoughts aside and tried only to think about what it would be like in heaven. Who would she meet there?  The thought of heaven lifted her spirits, and she was no longer worried about what the future held. She knew He would never forsake her.

   As she was roughly pushed into a crowded, cold, cell with stone walls, she tried to make out the different people she could see. Some she knew, others she didn’t, but nobody was a stranger. They were all there for the same reason, because the emperor Nero had decided they were guilty. 

   The officer that had first grabbed her then released his grip and quickly pushed her into the cell. He glanced back only once. But Claudia thought she saw a hesitant, questioning gaze. Maybe this man would consider Jesus. She silently prayed he would.

   At the break of dawn she once again felt the mean grip of the officer, and saw his eyes brimming with hatred. The helmet he wore still shone as a message of terror to many. But Claudia knew behind the hard gold helmet, was a heart that needed Jesus. The helmet’s shine didn’t seem to bother her anymore, she could only pray for the Heart of the man behind it.

   He was taking her to meet her death. Taking cold, steel chains he slowly and hesitantly shackled her to the post. And Claudia heard him ask a fellow soldier why the Christians sacrificed their life for the mere sake of this man called Jesus. She felt that for the first time this man felt pity upon the Christians he spent his days killing, their brave actions had put him to shame. Again he spoke to the other man and said, maybe, just maybe, I will find this Jesus. When Claudia heard the words, her spirits lifted. As the Lions closed in, a cry of delight was heard from the young girl she had joined her Lord. At the sound of the cry the young soldier tore from the arena, he had to find this Jesus, the man that the Christians died for.

Hebrews 13:5, “He will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”

Emily Klesick, 14, loves to write, and after writing many poems she decided to try writing stories. This is one of her writings!

MARKED

For

Death

 Terrified, Elly crouched on the floor of the funeral car. The rain dashed against the draped windows and the back wheels began to spin in the mud again. Would they ever move? Elly’s mother, father, and brother Henry crouched beside her, tense and silent. It was another uncertain ride to safety – 2 weeks of safety.   ~~~~~~~~

The Nazis had taken over Holland in 1940’s and no Jewish person was safe. Elly and her family were Jews. During Elly’s grade school years, she had mixed freely with Dutch children and did not even realize she was different. When the Nazi’s came, however, she soon learned otherwise.

The Dutch treated their Jewish neighbors kindly. In fact, Amsterdam, Elly’s home town, was called “the Jerusalem of the north.” Elly was a very happy girl. Then the Nazi’s came.

All of Holland’s 140,000 Jews had to register to carry special identification cards called persoonbewijs. A ‘J’ on the card let everyone know that the person who carried it was Jewish. Jew’s also had to sew six pointed yellow stars on the left sleeve of all their clothing – shirts, dresses, sweaters, coats, even their pajamas. Many wondered what was coming next.

 Little by little Jews were made to feel that they were somehow wicked for being born Jewish. These were war days and food was scarce. Jews were allowed to shop from only 3-5 pm. At all other times the stories were off limits to them. One day Elly and her mother went into the local grocery store. What they found there filled them with fear.

“There is nothing left!” The man behind the counter said. “I’m sorry.” He held up his hands and pointed to the empty shelves. Not a can or jar was in sight nothing was on the shelves.

Elly’s mother squeezed Elly’s hand so hard she almost shrieked. “Nothing?” she repeated the desperately. “Nothing at all? What will I feed the children?”

The store keeper glanced nervously out the window to make sure no police were watching. From under the counter he took a wilted head of cabbage and a bag of stale rolls. When Elly’s mother trued o pay him he said, “No, no keep your money. Come back in two days. I will try to save something for you.”

Elly’s stomach complained as they hurried home. She had been used to nice, hot meals, fresh bread, and rich desserts. Now she was hungry all the time. But things grew even worse. Jews were fired from jobs. They had to turn in all radios and bicycles. They could not ride trolley cares or use telephones. Jews were insulted on the street by the Nazi police.

One day Elly was walking home from school with her best friend. A block behind them walked Judith, an older Jewish girl. As Elly and her friend turned the corner they heard Judith scream. When they ran back to look, Judith was gone and a police car with three Nazis in it was pulling away. Judith never came home.

Later, the Cohen boys cam home from school to find their parents missing. They were never seen again. No one seemed to know anything about them.

Soon Jewish families were sent notices through the mail to report for factory work in Germany, or to be transferred to another country. The Nazis wane to get rid of all the Jews in Holland. 

The Jewish family down the street left. Soon Elly’s family received a postcard that read, “We are having a nice holiday. We were given a small house and al is well.” Elly’s father angrily tore up the card, but Elly didn’t understand. Weeks later, Elly’s neighbor escaped in the middle of the night to tell the true story. His family was in a concentration camp in Poland.

One day Elly’s father said, “We will not wait for the Nazis to knock on our door. We will go into hiding.” Many Jewish families had already gone underground. They went to live in cellars and holes until the war was over.

Elly’s family however went above ground. For 11 long months, they hid in an attic over a drugstore. They never saw the sunshine or breathed the fresh air. They did not even dare look out the window. Her family turned pale, sickly, and yellow from lack of fresh air and sunshine. All they could do was stay inside, cramped in the tiny space. Each night after the drugstore closed, brave Dutch friends smuggled in food and news. It was the one bright spot in the day.

Soon it was not safe to stay in the attic any longer. Elly’s family found several friends who agreed to hide them two weeks at a time. To stay longer than that would put everyone in great danger. And so began the eerie rides in the funeral car every two weeks to change their hiding places. After a while it became too hard to hide four people, so Elly’s family split up. Her brother went with one Dutch family, her parents with another, and Elly was sent to live with a kind school teacher in Leyden.

Day after day the teacher talked to Elly about the Lord Jesus Christ. Elly had never heard of him. She thought, I’ll learn all this to please this teacher, but I’ll forget it just as soon as the war is over!

Then word came that Elly had feared. Her parent’s hiding place had been discovered. They had been taken to a concentration camp. Elly fell down to her knees and began to pray to Jesus. This time she was not just pretending as she had to please the teacher. “How can I live without my mother and father?” Elly cried. From deep inside, Jesus seemed to tell her, “I will be more to you than a mother and a father.”

From that time on Elly began to read the New Testament and compare it with the Scriptures she had learned in the Old Testament. She saw that Jesus was really the Jews’ Messiah. (Messiah means “Savior.”) She asked Jesus to be her Savior. Now, happily she could say, “I have found my Messiah and I will not let him go for anything in the world.” Each night Elly prayed for her brother and her dear parents.

Elly longed to tell her people, the Jews about Jesus, but she was just a child and it was wartime. She told her aunt and uncle of her new faith and they laughed at her. “Wait until you are older and the war is over. All you will have to think of then will be parties and having fun.” But Elly knew the living Savior had entered her life to stay.

One day an American pilot had to bail out of his plane. He landed in the meadow next to the house where Elly lived. Before Elly could hide, Nazi soldiers burst in, shouting and searching. “Have you seen anyone? Did a stranger come in here?” they asked. “Answer, you stupid girl.”

In their excitement the soldiers failed to notice Elly’s Jewish features. They didn’t bother to find out who she was. God kept her safe. During the long months of the war, Elly often thought of he mother and father. Were they still in the concentrations camp? Were they still alive? And what of the thousands of other helpless Jews? But Elly held on to a verse she had found in the Bible. It was Romans 11:1 “Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.” She knew God would bring her people through this terrible struggle.

At last the war ended. The Nazis were defeated. Finally the Jews could come out from their hiding places. The Red Cross provided a list of those who managed to live through the awful years in concentration camps. Elly traveled to a nearby town and spent hours reading the lists while the tears ran down her cheeks. Neither her parents’ nor her brother’s names were on them. Where are they? Elly cried silently to God, why haven’t they come home? But as the days and weeks passed, their names never appeared on any lists and they never came home. During this time Elly almost lost her faith. She blamed God for the death of her parents. But once again the Lord reminded her, “I will be a mother and a father to you.”

Elly knelt and prayed, “Lord Jesus, if You loved me enough to die for me then I will trust you with my parents and whatever has happened. Soon Elly found her brother alive. How happy she was! She knew God had spared him also.

Elly didn’t realize at that time how God would use her life. She only knew that God did not bring her through five years of war to live only for herself. She wanted to live for others and help them find the Messiah, Jesus Christ as their Savior. She dedicated her life to working among Jewish people. Her experience has been a testimony to many.

This story is written by Lois Dick. Lois lives in Newton NJ.