The Official Writing Challenge
BACK TO
CHALLENGE
MAIN
INSTRUCTIONS
how it works
submission rules
guidelines for
choosing a level
ENTRIES
submit your entry
read current entries
read past entries
challenge winners
Our Daily Devotional HERE
Place it on your site or
receive it daily by email.


TRUST JESUS TODAY

  • Share
  • how it works
  • Submit
Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: ESCAPE (03/04/21)
“What do you think? Is it strong enough?”
Lydia’s fingers ran over the braided ropes, the basket was old and soft sided, her grandmother had made it. “He’s not a big man, he’ll need to curl up, it’s the best we can do.”
“Lydia, you know this could be a trap, he has come to Damascus for a reason.” Jethro had only said what the men were both thinking.
“I will vouch for him, he is full of the Spirit.” She had heard him speak the previous evening, at Benjamin’s house. “He preaches powerfully, proving that Jesus is the Christ!”.
Jethro had some rope, the two men lashed it through the handles. There was a soft knock at the door, two strikes, a pause, then a third, the signal. Lucas slid the bolt, two men slipped in quietly.
The first was Joel, he was known to them, the second had to be Saul.
“We haven’t got long, they’re working their way down the street.”
Lydia knelt at the older man’s feet. “Rabbi, bless our household.”
Saul reached down and placed one hand on her head, he extended his other hand towards the men in the room. “May the risen Lord bless you and keep you, His name is mighty, His works are wonderful.”
There were raised voice outside the house now. Jethro explained the plan; the house was built against the city wall, they would cover him with a blanket once he was inside the basket, a brother was waiting on the street below. Saul hesitated; he had recognised a voice.
“That’s Sosthenes, I brought him with me to Damascus to root out the followers of the Way,” he paused and looked at each of them in turn, “your friends. He is brutal but careless. Do not look him in the eye and we may have a chance.”
The noise outside the house was becoming louder. Saul knelt in the basket, then lay on his side curling up into a ball, Lydia covered him with a fabric and the three men lifted the basket onto the window sill. There was loud banging on the door, they started to lower the basket, the door crashed open. They must have been using a small battering ram, they weren’t waiting.
Jethro was the first to react, he looped the cord three times around his wrist, then spun round to face the room, he braced his left shoulder against the window reveal, the back of his thighs against the sill. He looked at the ground. The basket was some three feet below the window sill on the outside of the city wall. If anyone walking along the Via Perimetri had troubled to look up now, all would have been lost.
Sosthenes strode into the room. “Whose house is this?”
This was a man who was used to getting results quickly. His men worked their way through the other rooms, pottery crashed to the floor as they pulled furniture away from walls, they knew what they were doing. Jethro looked around the circle of his friends, there were just too many of them there at once, it looked like a gathering, surely Sosthenes would guess.
“This is my husband,” Lydia spoke, moving forward she took Joel’s arm, “these men are my brothers.”
The cord was cutting deeply into Jethro’s wrist now, he could sense his fingers swelling outwards under the pressure of the blood in his hand. If he had been asked to move the cord would be visible, he stared fixedly at the floor, willing his shoulder to stop trembling. Another ninety seconds and he would be pulled out of the window by the deadening weight gradually dislocating his shoulder.
“You are unwell?” Sostheses was standing opposite him now, face to face, no more than eighteen inches away. There was a sheen of sweat on Jethro’s face, his arm was shaking behind him
“There has been sickness in this house.” Lydia’s words had the desired effect, Sosthenes stepped quickly backwards, his men came into the room. He regarded them contemptuously.
“There’s a reward now, come to the city gate if you hear anything.”
They left. Joel and Lucas lowered the basket down the city wall, Jethro lay writhing on the floor, he bit into a leather strap to stop from crying out in agony as the blood surged back through his veins.
They received a message three days later. Saul was teaching in Jerusalem.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE

JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
This article has been read 155 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Virgil Youngblood 
03/13/21
A fitting title for a story that flowed well, holding my attention. Adding a line of space between paragraphs would greatly improve readability. Well done.
Stephen Kimball
03/14/21
I think you did a very good job writing this compelling story. There is an easy flow to the dialogue, the details are enough to picture the scene. It doesn’t seem realistic to me that the rope, bearing the weight of a full grown man, could go unnoticed, unless you were to have described the man holding it as Herculean, or perhaps approached it as more of a miracle. But that aside, I thought this was terrific!
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
03/18/21
You did a great job with telling this story. The conflict had me holding my breath. Congratulations on ranking 2nd in your level and 14 overall. The highest rankings can be found on the message boards.