This excerpt is from The Prince of Sumba, Husband to Many Wives.
Copyright 1998 Don Milton All Rights Reserved.
All Copyright Laws Apply - Thou Shalt Not Steal

Chapters: [Prologue] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]  [19]  [20]  [21]  [22]  [23]  [24]  [25]  [26]

   John now sipped from his own cup of coffee, breathing deeply to savor the fresh aroma. He sighed loudly as he exhaled as if revisiting his past would be painful.
   "John was not always my name. I've gone by the name John for many years to protect the identity of my family. To that end, I've also changed the names of some of the characters in my story; for there are places where family would turn against family before the Lord would have it.1 The Lord is preparing those places and families for the time that His message of peace as well as division must be delivered. There are powerful forces of both a spiritual and earthly nature that do not want the Lord's message to reach the entire world, yet through prayer and godly example we can reach those lost souls who as yet are in darkness.2 As the Lord shall choose the day, it is for us to call upon Him and search for His will. His Holy Scriptures will reveal new treasures to those of us approved worthy in that day.3 Would that today were that day!"
   John's serious demeanor was now replaced with a look of joy and anticipation. His eyes shone with emotion.
   "I'm thankful that all of you here will be able to pass this story on at the appropriate time and I'm praying for the blessings of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, upon you. Wherever the hearer be when you tell this story, may it be told to bring glory to the Lord and to accomplish His will. It's a story of many blessings and many trials. May my story help you to know the Lord better and may you follow Him in everything. May you give thanks to the Lord for your blessings and depend on Him to deliver you through every trial.4
   When I was a child I played with the children in the market, suffering little more punishment than an occasional whipping for coming home dirty. But I never resented the whippings. It was a small price to pay for having spent the whole day tasting my favorite peasant dishes. I had, as you'll remember from your own childhood, a way of getting dirty as if it were a talent to be improved upon. This talent, my mother admired no more than yours. Though she knew I must be punished, she took heart that her son, a prince with royal blood, was able to have friends beyond the palace gates.
   The reason my clothes appeared so dirty was that they were not my clothes at all. I was in the habit of trading my royal garments for one of my friends' peasant garb as soon as I left the palace. This way I'd have the whole day to play with my friends and not a soul would suspect my real identity.
   If you could have seen what my poor nannies went through trying to change that peasant garb back into clothes befitting a prince. My nannies couldn't figure out how I could have gotten my elegant clothes so utterly filthy. They'd try soaps, dyes, a snip here, a snip there. They would even add pieces of lace and colored material to the outfit. Each night it seemed I would burst from holding back my laughter at their tortured manipulations when right on schedule, they would leave for their evening prayer meeting. Before leaving they would hang the clothes in my royal wardrobe muttering that they'd have to keep trying later.
   With uncanny timing, the mother of the friend I'd traded clothes with would show up right after my nannies had left. She would switch my real clothes, which she'd neatly pressed and brushed, with the clothes my nannies had so so hopelessly tried to repair. When my nannies came home they'd pat each other on the back saying how this or that cleaning method must have been the one that returned my clothes to their original state. Sometimes they would get into shouting matches about whose remedy had actually worked.
   'It's the drying, the drying that did it. Notice how properly I hung them up to dry?' To which the other would counter, 'Oh no, without my secret cleaning fluid, none of this would have been possible.'
   Oh those delightful nights I spent watching them. I thought I had such secret knowledge. All the while, my loving nannies had been putting on a show for me. It was their job. As I got older I found out that the nannies my mother had hired were formerly court jesters, or is it jesteresses? It was their comic genius that gave me an appreciation for the power of appearances both for good and evil.
   My mother was the king's first wife. For my mother this was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, in that she had given birth to the king's firstborn and was treated with all the pomp of a mother destined to see her son ascend to the throne. A curse, in that she didn't have the luxury of picking her husband's other wives. A second wife knows the identity of at least one of the wives she'll share her husband with. A third wife knows the identity of two. And the fourth wife knows the identity of all three wives before she weds. Of course, a king's wife rarely has the luxury of choosing her husband. Her parents would never stand for her turning down a royal offer of marriage and denying them the honor of becoming part of the royal family but my father's wives did choose him and they loved him very much. Neither did his wives have enmity between them. My father wasn't wicked in his ways like his grandfather but spent most of his days romancing his different wives. He'd built his estate in such a way that he could meet with his advisors between visits to wives. His days were half love making and half business."
   "Like you, daddy?"

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1. Micah 7:6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
2. Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
3. Colossians 2:3 In whom [God the Father and Christ] are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4. 1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
5. John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
6. John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
7. Matthew 20:28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
8.

*2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

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