Standing in God's Holy Fire

My first piece. This diary entry is by an early missionary and his experience in during one of his missions. It is about him writing about a particular experience.It is completely fiction and I wrote this after watching the documentary Baraka. It is inspired by the Balinese Monkey Chant scene in that movie. I suggest you watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkxuPxdsZ58; as it gives you a context for the entry. 


Basically I wanted to examine the possibility that perhaps the missionaries who were sent to convert people from their so-called uncivilised cultures actually became civilised by these unfamiliar customs. I hope you like it. 

~~~

February 23^rd 1887,

I experienced something today.  Something no other outsider has ever witnessed. Something even greater than myself.I saw God.

            I was sent to this Polynesian island of Tuvalu to convert the pagan natives; to turn these heathens toward heaven. I was to bring faith, knowledge and virtue to this barbaric, sinful land. Yet, when I sat with the men of the village to call upon Ashanti – their true God – I felt His presence.

            We sat, legs folded on our thighs, in a crescent surrounding Ashanti’s symbol on their land – the Great Atua Monoliths. As the sun struck the limestone figures, an unseen power entered us all. A firm immortal call escaped the chief priest - a power beyond the ground beneath our bodies and the heavens above. The all encompassing call overcame us all. My mouth let out the same profound tune as the natives, our voices harmonizing as one. My arms moved up toward the monoliths as if an intangible spirit pulled them in the direction of the great stone beings. My body swayed to the sound, the same rhythm that forced all present into a deep dance – a soft, swinging, peaceful dance. I started to speak a strange foreign tongue, we all did. We all spoke the language of Ashanti. At that moment, Ashanti Himself appeared and sat in our centre, separating us all into two groups. Suddenly, something heavy pressed upon me and upon the men in my group, pushing us backwards onto the ground. The same entity pulled the other group of men  above us, their heads scrapping the clouds. My attempts at fighting this force were futile. I saw my body – from an outside eye – singing and shivering and shaking with Him. As quickly as the compressing power came, it left, and another feeling lifted my shaking, singing, powerless body up high above the ground. Then, everything stopped.

An eerie silence hung over our heads and kept us still. We remained in this state until Ashanti made His leave.