Excerpt 1 from TUNNELS

I don’t know how I got into this building. Sometimes that happens to me in this place. I don’t think it’s memory loss or anything magical. It just is. When I say “I suddenly found myself outside”, well, that’s literally what happens.

There were a lot of people, mostly between the ages of twenty and forty, busily moving around. I saw a couple of guys step out of the giant round openings of what looked like room-sized washing machines. Front loaders. I peered into one after they turned the corner. Clothing was stuck to the far inside wall of the machine and had to be peeled off like Velcro. I know because that’s what I did. I needed a new disguise. Stealing someone’s freshly washed laundry would have to do.

But before I could change I suddenly found myself outside. I walked around the building looking for an entrance and finally found one at the walk-out basement level. A line of people stretched twenty feet or so with each person pushing a wheeled laundry basket. You know the kind – prisoners escape in them all the time.

I didn’t think this was the way I had entered the first time, but I had known there would be challenges when I came here. I cut in line and edged in. No one complained. I took the first set of stairs up two flights and followed the women as they went right, men left. There was a pool, swimsuits, towels. I disrobed and wrapped myself in one of the plushest white towels I had ever felt and went looking for the giant washing machines again.

The building had a party room with a large stone fireplace. I didn’t enter. Probably my terrycloth gown would not be classy enough.

An announcement blared. The police were on site. I didn’t just need clothes now, I needed ID as well or a really quick escape route.

I followed a woman my size and watched her pull armloads of pants, shirts, underwear and sheets from one of the machines. She heaped them in a pile on a long folding table and then went back to the giant machine, crouched and entered it, presumably to peel off the items that would be stuck to the back.

Of course I grabbed what I wanted from the table and ducked into an open machine to change. I was fast and then I hurried to one of the small windows that looked out toward a fading sunset. I wasn’t the only fugitive it seemed. Several people were jumping out, landing on the loose dirt and sand-surfing down the steep hillside. I wiggled through the opening and did the same. A few yards beyond the building’s perimeter we all were in the cover of sudden darkness.

copyright 2011 by Debra Chapoton

Kindle Version Out First - CROSSING THE SCRIPTURES

Later this month the paperback version of CROSSING THE SCRIPTURES will be released. Right now the Kindle version is available at Amazon and also at Barnes & Noble

CROSSING THE SCRIPTURES is a Bible Study supplement for anyone who wants to know more about each of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. I've posted a number of "snippets" from this book on my blog that show the divine links between Old and New Testament books and the Hebrew alphabet. This new way of approaching the Scriptures will edify even those who have spent years studying the Holy Word. The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet connect three times each with the 66 books of the Christian Bible. CROSSING THE SCRIPTURES matches each letter to each book, in order, three times, so the reader can observe the amazing connections between books that are spaced exactly 22 books apart. It's pretty cool.

Kindle Edition at 99 Cents

The Kindle Edition of EDGE OF ESCAPE is currently marked down to $.99. Here's the link: EDGE OF ESCAPE

A Little Snippet, part 10

I love it when I figure something out and realize that the solution was right in front of me all along. Sometimes we need someone to point out an obvious connection that our brains just skip over. Sometimes just letting our gaze go, like staring at those 3-D pictures, brings things into focus. Here’s another of those cool “wow” moments I had in writing CROSSING THE SCRIPTURES, which will soon be released.

Chapter 23 of the book of Leviticus starts with what I think is a pleasant contrast to all the previous negative prohibitions and sacrifices. The Lord appoints some feasts: The Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and the Feast of Tabernacles. These are wonderful “parties” and have special significance to Israel, but even more significance to Christians. Why? Because they are or will be fulfilled in Christ.

First of all Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits fall on the 14th, 15th and 17th of the Jewish calendar month of Nisan. These are spring feasts. Pentecost is 50 days later on the 6th of Sivan, a summer month. The last three feasts are all autumn festivals falling on the 1st, 10th and 15th of Tishri.

The Passover supper (the Seder meal, explained earlier in the chapter on Exodus) was what Jesus and the disciples were having the night before His crucifixion – The Last Supper! For the Jew Passover celebrates liberation from slavery to Egypt; to the Christian Christ’s crucifixion signifies liberation from slavery to sin and death.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread began on the day Christ was crucified – Good Friday! Leaven, or yeast, is symbolic of sin. Jews eat unleavened bread, bread made without yeast called matzah, during the seven days of this feast. Matzah is striped and pierced, an obvious (to a Christian) link to Christ’s pre-crucifixion beating and the sword piercing He received on the cross.

The Feast of First Fruits took place on the day Christ rose from the dead! This feast was to present the first fruits of the harvest to God. The priest would wave the first sheaf of grain and it was accepted by God on the people’s behalf – just as Jesus now is the “first fruit” accepted on our behalf.

The Feast of Pentecost was the day the Holy Spirit was poured out onto the disciples! The first Pentecost was 7 weeks after the death of the Passover lambs. On that day Moses received the Law on the stone tablets and when he returned to camp 3000 men died because of their sin. Seven weeks after Christ, the Lamb of God, was crucified the disciples received the Holy Spirit and 3000 believed that day (Acts 2:41).

The next three will be fulfilled as prophesied in the Holy Scriptures. The Feast of Trumpets was a day of rest for Israel on which they should “sound the trumpets”. This is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. At some future date the trumpets will sound Christ’s return. Now that will really be a new year!

The Day of Atonement is the day that the priests made atonement for Israel. The people fasted and prayed. On some future Day of Atonement Jesus will be revealed as King and return to this earth.

The Feast of Tabernacles was a feast of joy when the harvest was brought in. Someday it will be the harvest of saved souls and a day that Christ will begin His rule.

These seven feasts, given and explained THOUSANDS of years ago, show us right where we are on God’s calendar. Here are two good websites to visit if you want to read more:
Jewish Holidays

Jewish Feasts
(excerpt from pre-published edition of CROSSING THE SCRIPTURES by Debra Chapoton, copyright 2011.)
BY THE WAY, I'm looking for objective reviewers, so if you'd like a pdf copy of CROSSING THE SCRIPTURES for review, please email me at bigpinelodge at gmail dot com

Bigfoot Day, Ninja Night excerpt

This is an excerpt from chapter 4 of BIGFOOT DAY, NINJA NIGHT. This book is for kids ages 8 - 12 and is full of humor and suspense as a group of kids sneak off into woods.

So there we were. Lost. Deep in the dark forest. Monsters lurking. Mosquitoes buzzing. Spiders watching. Blood dripping. Dried poop stinking. Or something else . . .

“Okay, who let one?”

“Not me.”

“Not me.”

“It wasn’t me, either, and it’s different from this stuff that’s dried on me,” Sydney smiled as she said this. Nothing gets to that girl. I think she’s happy to be lost.

“Maybe it’s the creature.” Callie said this like she knew the creature personally and, well, it’s just the creature. Yeah, that’s all, the creature just had a little gas, no biggy.

I wasn’t falling for it. I made a face. I turned. I sniffed. I turned again, sniffed again. I picked a direction. There was nothing stinky to the left so that was going to be our new path. The others followed like the little lambs they are.

“Hey, let’s sing.” We just ignored Sydney on that one. Way to not be cool.

“I don’t get why it’s so dark,” Callie said as she stumbled along, last in our miniature parade. “It’s only a little bit after one. Maybe. I think.”

“Yeah,” Austin agreed. “We just had lunch before we came. We haven’t been out here that long.” He really stretched out the word “that” when he said it. We haven’t been out here thaaaaaaaaaaaaat long.

I wouldn’t be making a big deal about how he said it, but it was just that when he was stretching out the word I heard another sound. A sound that could have been someone else trying to mimic him. Not an echo exactly. Just the “aaaaaa” sound, like a sheep’s bleat or a bubble stuck in your throat or the witch in “The Wizard of Oz” before she says “my pretty.”

“Aaaaaaaaaa.” There it was again.

“What was that?” I asked. I glanced back and again everyone was swinging their heads all around. I knew that they had heard it, too. I could imagine all their arm and leg hairs popping out straight with goose pimply fright. Our parade line was tightening up fast as Austin crowded up closer to me and Sydney reached for Austin and Callie closed in on Syd.

“The Bigfoot,” Austin breathed.

“Mr. Two-toes,” Sydney said at the same time.

copyright 2010 by Debra Chapoton BIGFOOT DAY, NINJA NIGHT

A Little Snippet, part 9

There are many words that begin with aleph besides God’s names, such as “one”, “love”, “light”, “truth” and “faith”. These are very important words to our beliefs. Pause a moment and think about why they would all begin with this first Hebrew letter.

Now think of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5). What’s the first one? No other gods before me! God is Number 1, the One and Only, the Eternal Omnipotent God. His first initial is the first Hebrew letter. Throughout Genesis we get a good picture of God as our Father: He keeps reaching out to man, provides new covenants, never gives up on us and blesses us. He is the Sovereign Ruler over all of His creation. By the way, the Hebrew word for “created” and the Greek equivalent are prominent not only in Genesis, but in Isaiah and Romans (the other two aleph books) to the tune of 10 times above average.

(excerpt from pre-published edition of CROSSING THE SCRIPTURES by Debra Chapoton, copyright 2011.)

A Little Snippet, part 8

Let’s look at the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet: aleph. Verse 1 of Genesis says: “In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heaven and the earth.” Elohim starts with aleph, in fact many of God’s names start with aleph: El (God, Mighty One), El Shaddai (God Almighty), El Olam (God Everlasting), El Elyon (God Most High). Also many facets of God’s nature begin with this letter in Hebrew: love, light, truth, faith, Sovereign Lord.

When you write the three letters in Hebrew that spell “aleph” you get 3 different words - eleph which mean “ox” or “thousand”, alaph which means “teach”, “learn” or “tame”, and aluph which means “prince”, “chief”, “leader”, “master”, “ruler”, “guide” and “teacher”. The first one, eleph, may seem weird at first if you’re trying to relate the letters to Biblical symbolism. However, an ox signified strength. It was the chief domesticated animal of the time and had to be “tamed”. That brings us to the second word, alaph, which means “tame” as well as “teach” and “learn” with the idea of learning by association. The last word, aluph (prince, leader, etc.), appears in Genesis 52 times, that’s 64% of all the times it appears in the entire Bible. I think Genesis is showing us very clearly who our leader, master and guide is: God.
(excerpt from pre-published edition of CROSSING THE SCRIPTURES by Debra Chapoton, copyright 2011.)

Melanie's Baby

(sequel to the blogpost titled “The Appointment”)

Melanie had one week left before the scheduled C-section. She was ready to not be pregnant, but she wasn’t ready for the 24/7 sleep-deprived care of a newborn. The plan was for her husband’s parents to take a Friday and Monday off work so they could take care of two-year-old Jannie while she was in the hospital.

But things never go as planned. After all she hadn’t planned on the horrible battle with the foreign doctor either. He had advised her to abort this baby. Each ultra-sound after that wavered. One week everything looked normal and the baby looked fine. Then another reading showed that the chances of Down syndrome were one in seven. She and her husband prayed for strength and a miracle.

The next appointment the odds changed to one in fourteen. Prayers were answered, it seemed. But today’s ultra-sound showed measurements indicating that he did indeed have that extra chromosome.

Melanie had no time for tears. She retrieved Jannie from the babysitter’s and headed home. Then her water broke. She panicked about who to call first: husband, doctor, parents, babysitter. Of course the order was doctor first, then husband, and he took over from there.

The birth was fast and easy and the new doctor handled the C-section differently, making the cuts smaller and, she told her with a laugh, giving her a tummy tuck at the same time. The plan was for Melanie to hold that little one immediately and marvel at the miracle of a perfect little person. But again . . . the plan changed. A nurse took the naked nameless boy straight to the NICU.

It was hours before Melanie was allowed to check his precious little fingers and toes, eyes and ears. She didn’t need the DNA test to tell her what she knew: her baby had Downs.

The Wishmaker

Once upon a time . . . no, scratch that, it was yesterday. Yesterday I went into my sister’s room to find her frantically searching for something.

“Help me find it,” she said. I didn’t know what I was supposed to look for. Her next couple of instructions seemed kind of vague, but I started scanning the messy room and making half an effort to spot the round and sparkly, magical diamond. “It grants your wish,” she whispered.

Right, I thought. But then I thought again. She had been awfully lucky lately.

I got down on my hands and knees and peered under the bed. Nothing but dust bunnies and a button that looked like it had grown short fuzzy hair. I grabbed it.

“Found it!” I kept my fist closed tightly and stretched my hand out high. She couldn’t reach it. Didn’t matter, she just stared, probably hoping I wouldn’t make a wish. Or maybe waiting to see what I did wish for.

I didn’t make a wish. She went back to searching and I went back to my room, still clutching the object. I opened my palm and instead of a dusty old button there was what I can only describe as a crystal clear and quite dazzling little drum.

This was awesome.

Now, what would I wish for? Wait, how many wishes did I have? I didn’t want to waste any. This was really important. A candy bar versus world peace . . . and everything in between.

I didn’t wish for anything yesterday and today I can’t find that drum shaped diamond. This morning my sister came to my room and now she’s helping me look.

Strange . . . I’ve never seen these before. Seven little objects, all so small they could fit together in a ring box: a teeny tiny movie theater spotlight, a porcelain puppy, a miniature instruction pamphlet, a multi-colored beach ball and three other miniscule things I can’t identify. All under my bed, all grouped together as if they were one. I place them in my hand, squeeze it shut and, like yesterday, I tell my sister that I found it.

She actually hangs her head down, defeated. As she closes the door behind herself, I relax my grip, ready to open my hand, not expecting to see seven tiny items or a diamond or even a dusty button. I am pretty sure that I will find something else entirely. I just have to open my hand. I just have to open my hand.
Copyright 2011 by Debra Chapoton

Easter Secret

Happy Easter!
Here’s a secret – Easter is far more important to Christians than Christmas is. The secular world has taken over Christmas with Santa and Easter with bunnies and eggs, but they think that Christmas is our main holiday. Not! We wouldn’t bother celebrating Jesus’ birthday (uh, yeah, that’s what Christmas is) if it weren’t for Easter. In fact, who would even know about Jesus if He hadn’t died on the cross, been buried, and then rose again to be seen by HUNDREDS of witnesses for forty days afterwards?

No other religion has a central figure who claimed to be God as Jesus did. He said He was God so either He was a liar or a crazy person or . . . He was and is God.

This is Easter Sunday and millions of Christians around the world are proclaiming that “He is risen!”
Are they lying as they worship a liar?
Are they deluding themselves as they revere a delusional maniac?
Or are they singing “Hosanna” to the Lord?
Search your heart – you have already decided.

Zombies in the Bible!

Yes, there are Zombies in the Bible.
I’m not a regular reader of the paranormal, vampire, witch or zombie genres, but I love the supernatural. While listening to the scripture reading in church last Sunday I was struck by the reference to “zombies”. Yes, that’s right, there are zombies in the Bible, though I doubt they looked like the Hollywood version with their skin peeling off and dragging their left leg.

Jesus was crucified. You can read the Biblical account in the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There are tiny variations in each which are natural given that no two people would report an event verbatim. Matthew 27: 50 – 53 gives us this:

“And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”

Dead people came out of their tombs! This is where Hollywood got the idea to begin with, I suspect, and then made what had to be a wondrous, joyous thing into something that is scary and evil and dangerous. On that first “Good Friday” these “zombies” were holy people. When they went into Jerusalem three days later they were most likely met with some fear and lots of wonder and joy and amazement.

There are other important things to consider in the verses above, but I will focus on just one on this Good Friday: Jesus “gave up his spirit”. Crucifixion was a long and tortuous way to die, but He didn’t linger on for hours, no, He took on our sins, every one of them, and then died for us of His own free will, giving up His spirit.

Teacher's Guide for Free

The Teacher's Guide for the first book in the Big Pine Lodge series for kids ages 8-12 is downloadable at Amazon and Barnes & Noble for $.99, but FREE for my blog readers at Smashwords
The Secret in the Hidden Cave - Teacher's Guide has over 130 questions which follow the chapters of this middle grade novel. The activities cover musical, artistic, spoken and written categories.
(Homeschoolers will love this!)

A Little Snippet, part 7

The Hebrew Letter Dalet

The name of the 4th Hebrew letter is Dalet and it represents a door. This pictographic little letter represents the two doors through which we arrive and leave: birth and death. In the Bible the first birth and the first death are recorded in Genesis in chapter 4.

If you line up the 66 books of the Bible in 3 rows corresponding to the 22 Hebrew letters the 4th book is Numbers. 22 books down the line you find Ezekiel and another 22 books later you come to Galatians. I did a search for the word door in the Bible and found 239 verses containing this word. Here’s how it looks in a graph matching the books up 3 at a time:

It is rather amazing that the meaning of the 4th letter peaks right where it should.

Other interesting “connect 4” tidbits:

Numbers records the fourfold camp and the first violation of the 4th commandment.

Ezekiel has the greatest density of the number 4 and records the fourfold temple and the four living creatures that had four faces.

Galatians speaks of the four “weak and beggarly elements” (days, months, times and years) in chapter 4.