Grantville Gazette.Volume 22 Read online

  Pete walked away accompanying Susannah back to her home. Georg started pushing Chalker's wheelchair back to the church. Fischer followed behind thinking of the dangers that Hans was about to face. Almost unobserved, Constanzia fell in beside him and slipped her hand into his.

  ***

  Fischer woke with a start. He felt as if he had been dropped on the bed from some height and his forehead was throbbing. Throwing off the covers, he swung his feet to the floor and felt moisture dripping down from his scalp line. He wiped his brow then brought his hand down so he could look at it.

  Thank God, it isn't blood.

  Fischer hadn't had such a vivid dream in some time now. It was something about a rape amid an ocean of blood and violet flames. His heart throbbed just thinking about it. It's probably just the result of Hans going off to war.

  He tried to remember the details of the dream, but they had mostly escaped his memory. One detail did come to mind. It was the figure raping the girl. He was a large, heavyset man wearing robes, with a mustache and a spindly blond goatee. And he was wearing glasses. How odd.

  ***

  "Reverend! Reverend Fischer!"

  Fischer looked up from his morning paper to see who was calling for him. He enjoyed this little habit of having a quiet breakfast at the Higgins Hotel Restaurant each Tuesday morning after the Bible study the previous night. Georg Heinrich Vitzthum von Eichstedt, one of the Grantville Pentecostal Church's newest elders walked toward him. Fischer set aside his paper, smiled, and stood up to welcome the elder and invited him to share breakfast.

  Eichstedt arranged his napkin on his lap and got right to business. "A wonderful meeting of the Elders last night, Reverend."

  "Thank you, Herr von Eichstedt."

  "Please," Eichstedt interrupted with a smile. "I will call you Dieter, and you must not feel obligated to use my formal name. I shall be Georg Heinrich. The American way!"

  "By all means, the American way. What an amazing culture they must have had up-time. This city was just a back hills afterthought in their world and look at what it's doing to change our entire world in the here and now."

  Eichstedt nodded as the waiter came to take his order. "Yes, the meeting last night. I was going over the budget for using the funds from the radio show. It seems to me that we have a dilemma. We can only expand the church so much and you are already conducting all the Sunday services we can expect of you. Even with the new salaries for the cast and crew of the show, our charities contribution is going to have a difficult time spending the surplus in such a way as to not attract more members."

  He took another sip of his coffee before continuing. "Now with Hans newly ordained and sent off to war and Terrell making the commitment to becoming a minister of the faith giving us two chaplain missionaries… Well, it seems to me the time has arrived that we need to start physically spreading our flock outside the city limits of Grantville."

  Fischer looked puzzled, but waited for the Elder to explain.

  "You see, your radio devotionals and the Saturday night radio show are creating more and more interest in our practices. I'm constantly being asked about the church back home in Rudolstadt. There are a lot of rumors about our differences and unless we provide the answers, our adversaries will."

  "But, until Reverend Chalker can resume his pulpit here, I can't start up any new churches." Fischer gestured with his cup. "You've already pointed out that Hans is off with the army and Terrell is just beginning his formal training. It takes time to find and train ministers for a new church. Even using the mission riders system of the early Methodist church, the Holy Spirit just hasn't provided us the people with the calling to support more churches right now."

  "Ah yes! But a minister is not necessary for a church. In Matthew it says, 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' As it turns out, our church has brought back the most wonderful approach to spreading the Word. Two approaches actually."

  Fischer looked puzzled, so Eichstedt continued. "First, the weeknight Bible studies. With the new commentary you and Reverend Chalker have provided us, we can set up Bible studies in any town where a member can attract a gathering. We wouldn't even have to be in conflict with the existing religion of that town. Nor do we need to ask for contributions, thanks to the radio show. No doubt, we'd get contributions, but like the devotional, we wouldn't have to emphasize that part.

  "In fact, we can actually charge our new believers to get more active in their existing local churches! It's obvious from what I've learned since listening to the Holy Spirit inside me. Our mission is to bring all the Christian churches, whether Lutheran or Catholic, Anabaptist or Calvinist, back to the proper appreciation of the Holy Spirit in their worship. That was the way that the charismatic movement was initially spread back up-time. It will work just as well here."

  Fischer was astonished at this new way of looking at growing the Pentecostal faith. But Georg Heinrich was correct, even in the book on Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, during the early days of her ministry she converted existing churches to the power of the Spirit more often than starting new churches of her own. After thinking it through for a moment, he asked, "But you said two?"

  Smiling even wider, Geog Heinrich replied, "A traveling revival! Instead of holding our summer revival here in Grantville this year, we can spread it around and help bring new souls to those new Bible study groups forming all over the Germanies.

  "As you know, my ancestral family lands are just outside the gates of Rudolstadt. By my father's time, our family fortunes had dwindled to just some rents from here and there and maybe a thousand guilders worth of land. But when the railroad came, the Lord presented me the opportunity to develop the land into a service yard for the further construction of the new lines north to Magdeburg and west to Erfurt. That, in turn, allowed me to persuade other landowners along the line of the value of the new railroad to them and how they might also profit from voluntarily dropping their rights to tolls. And that advice has paid off with a good deal of influence in towns and cities all up and down the rail line.

  "In fact, during the last few weeks, I've been making inquiries of some of my friends for the use of their lands near the rail line for a few week nights. I'm confident that we can put on a revival tour unhampered by local authorities so long as we don't try to displace the local church."

  Fischer's face lit up. "And thanks to the radio and the correspondence we've been receiving as a response to the talent contest and the other requests for songs and such, we'll even know where we have concentrations of listeners who would be willing to attend our first tour. This is a brilliant idea!"

  "Exactly. All the elements are there. But most of all, the Holy Spirit has given us that rarest of gifts, a man with the power to persuade and the power to lead. You, Reverend Dieter Fischer."

  Chapter Fourteen

  March 1634, Grantville, State of Thuringia, United States of Europe

  "Well, long story short," Maria Kurger said to the preachers and elders, and a few good prospective elders when the time came, gathered in the offices of the Grantville Pentecostal Church, "here's the list of the towns from which people have sent either donations or correspondence in response to the radio show or the morning devotionals. I've ranked it by numbers of correspondents with the total contributions and total number of letters noted in separate columns." She handed out copies. Laying a map on the table in front of her, she continued, "I've also noted on the map in yellow the top twenty towns in terms of donations and in blue the top twenty towns in terms of pieces of correspondence. Green represents towns on both lists. The bolder printing of the town name indicates a larger population."

  Fischer leaned over Reverend Chalker's shoulder to get a better view of the map. This was the first tangible evidence he'd seen of where his listeners were and it amazed him how widespread his audience was. They ranged from Bavaria to the south and Fulda to the west, to Saxony in the east and Hesse Kassel to the north.


  "I discovered a real interesting thing while putting together this report," Maria said. "Starting in late January, we've been receiving a steadily increasing number of letters from people who have not been able to hear the show. They got their hands on a copy of one of the songs we've sent out and are writing us for more songs or information on the Bible lessons we offer on the other side of the broadsheet.

  "These second generation requests seem to follow the initial letters by about three to five weeks. That means that we may have really not even begun to find our audience for the shows from January!"

  Everyone was quiet for a moment, thinking of the ramifications of this new information.

  "Keeping Elder von Eichstedt's suggestion in mind," Pete Enriquez commented, "We need to identify the towns that are on or near enough to the new rail lines with good enough roads so our vehicles can make the journey."

  The other members of this year's revival planning committee nodded their heads at this suggestion.

  Balthazar Schenk pointed to Meiningen. "It's a shame the rail hasn't been completed there yet. I've made a number of trips to Meiningen purchasing gun parts and have been asked about my new faith. I believe that town is ripe for a revival."

  "Plenty of time for the Holy Spirit to lead us all over, Brother Schenk," Chalker replied. "This first tour needs to plant the seeds where we can get back easily to cultivate it. 'And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: but when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.' Mark, Chapter Four, Verse Five.

  "Yep, we need to place our seed so we can continue to water it and help it grow the roots it needs to survive. A regular 'Good News Crusade,' just like back home in West Virginia!" Chalker paused and ran his bony forefinger up the path of the rail line. Brightening, he added, "Well, I'll be! Looky here, Eisleben is marked."

  Everyone present already knew the importance of Eisleben. It was the town where Martin Luther himself was born and died, a stronghold of the Lutheran faith ever since.

  "Georg Heinrich, do you think we would be able to find a field to set up our tents there?"

  Stroking his beard and frowning as he thought the question over, von Eichstedt answered, "I'm not sure, Reverend. I know several large landowners there well, but freedom of worship or not, we are very likely to get a strong reaction from the local authorities. Halle might be a safer choice. The improvements in their coal mining industry there have really opened them up to new ideas.

  "Same with Aschersleben where the main rail line splits off to the west. That's becoming quite a boomtown as are Weissenfels and Kahla. Finding where the kaolinized feldspar sand deposits were located near Kahla has led to growth there on the order of Magdeburg."

  Nodding, Chalker turned to Slater Dobbs. "Slater, how you coming on getting the vehicles together?"

  "Real good, Preacher." Slater grinned. "Phyllis and my sister Doreen convinced Ogden that his fancy RV wasn't doing them any good just sitting under the shed behind their house. So, he agreed to sell it to us.

  "Then I pointed out to a couple of old hunting buddies of mine that they couldn't drive to the WVU games any more, so they might as well rent theirs to us. So that's three over-thirty-foot-long RV's with full showers that should be able to sleep fifteen or so. We've also got access to another six fifth-wheel camper trailers. That should take care of the bulk of the choir and crew y'all are planning on taking. We can rig them to tow behind the RV's.

  "Between the RV basements and the storage on top of all those units, we shouldn't need more than one or two cargo trailers, but I've found a couple that used to haul mulching that have high sideboards."

  Pete interjected, "How hard will it be to switch out their road tires and rail wheels, Slater?"

  "Not hard at all, boss. Me and my roadies should be able to switch all four wheels right there on the siding in less than twenty minutes per vehicle. The railroad built their town sidings with that in mind in the first place."

  Fischer asked, "Any problems with getting scheduled on the rail, Slater?"

  "No, sir. Brother Johann Gunter works over at the dispatcher's office. He said as long as we plan our trips outside the main cargo runs, he can get us clearance all the way up the line."

  Chalker leaned back in his wheel chair and smiled. "Looks like everything is working out right smoothly. What we probably need to do is to go ahead and pick one town and test everything out for a three night run, then come back and plan the rest of the summer tour."

  Looking around, he asked, "So, what town's going to be the Samaria for our Dieter's Philip and his first mission?"

  ***

  "Dieter, I asked you to stay so we could discuss your future."

  Even after three years with this old preacher, Fischer still felt uneasy when Chalker called him in for an unknown reason. Chalker slowly got out of his wheelchair, stretching his swollen legs a bit before sitting back down in his rocker, elevating his feet as the doctor fussed at him to do. Fischer sat straight and still, waiting to find Chalker's reason for the meeting.

  "My son, this is going to be the first spring revival at a church of mine in over fifty years that I won't be up on the altar. Doc Nichols shows no sign of letting me get active again and I'm starting to feel my age." As Fischer tried to interrupt, Chalker waved him off, "No, no, I'm not saying I think the Lord is ready to take me yet. You can bet that I'll be around for a good while yet, but our plans and our prayers are about to be answered. With this revival tour and three young and healthy preachers, the Pentecostal faith is going to survive and flourish in this world.

  "Dieter, you've read enough on the history of the movement to know that our faith tends to fracture pretty easily. Lots of different Pentecostal faiths back up-time, you know. Trust me, the same thing is going to happen here. When it does, and if I'm not around for you to come to, I want you to know that it's the working of the Holy Spirit and nothing against the leadership you're providing the movement."

  Fischer had felt a little uncomfortable at the thought of his becoming the central figure in this denomination. He remembered the tendency that Chalker pointed out being mentioned in his reading on Pentecostalism, but having Chalker put it in such a personal way somehow made it seem more real.

  "Dieter, keep your arms open to all during this revival. Invite the hurt up on the stage with you and show them God's love in front of the congregation. That will convey our message just as surely as anything else we could do. You've really mastered the art of moving a congregation during your Sunday afternoon services. With a revival, you'll have to step it up a notch to bring the first time attendees into the fold. Remember, every soul is there for a reason which most of them don't yet recognize.

  "That's your job. Open them up to their feelings. Pull their emotions out and let them hear that voice. If you do that, the Holy Spirit will take the lead and you'll be fine.

  "As the church grows, you'll be the person the new church leaders will look to, not me. Just like the newer Elders and a lot of our congregation members tend to look to you first. That's just the way it is." As the light from the setting sun slowly disappeared over the horizon, Chalker's lessons in church leadership concluded with a long prayer.

  Fischer walked home a troubled man that evening. He was now on a course that only faith could guide him along and that remained a very scary proposition.

  Special Edition!

  Markus Becker

  Frankfurt Main, late May 1631, just another street corner:

  "Special Edition! Special Edition! Town from the future in Thuringia! Read everything about the year 2000: horseless carriages, lights with no flames, guns that shoot ten times without reloading. Only in the Allgemeine Zeitung. Don't miss the woodcuts of scandalously short skirts on page 3!"

  Okay, I admit down-timers will probably put the woodcuts on pages one through three, but let's begin this article about down-time media where it started: in the dark mid
dle ages when there were no media. Why? All texts had to be copied by hand and only highly skilled writers could do it, so the process was both slow and very expensive. There was no way to publish a newspaper under such primitive conditions. For that you need to be able to mass produce texts and gather information in a reasonable period of time.

  That changed in the sixteenth century. First Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1490. Now any text could be reproduced in huge numbers, little time and for little money. Printing shops were being built everywhere. Just ten years later 40,000 different books were already being printed in Germany. The first book faire was held in Frankfurt in 1564, Leipzig followed a few decades later, but in the early/mid seventeenth century book fairs had already overtaken Frankfurt.

  At the fairs early forms of newspapers were sold: little books with the news of the previous month. Another form of pre-newspapers was fliers. Local printers printed them and traveling merchants distributed them. They were quite inexpensive. The ordinary worker could easily afford a flier.

  Also in 1490 the Taxis Family, later Thurn and Taxis started a courier system for the Habsburgs that developed into the Imperial Mail. In 1531 the couriers began to carry private letters and in 1597 the IM got an imperial monopoly for all mail, but it was challenged by local rulers for decades. As late as 1637 the Elector of Saxony did not permit the IM to operate in his province. Nevertheless the network of post offices got denser and of course the IM had its own "Pony Express"-like system of fast couriers.

  Publishers got a never ending stream of information from freelance reporters from all over Germany, and could send their papers to the subscribers like Joe Buckley in 1634: The Galileo Affair. Everything was so quick and reliable that Johan Carolus published the first weekly newspaper in Strasbourg in 1604. He promised the readers of the Relation all the latest news from Germany, Europe and the West Indies. As well, the first Dutch weekly was published in 1618, the first French weekly in 1621, the first Scandinavian in 1644 and Spain was a bit of a latecomer(1704). Many newspapers existed for only a short time and the circulation rarely exceeded 300 copies, but they reached a large number of people and a wide range of the society. Subscribers ranged from noblemen to pub owners. Today we have sports bars that attract customers with HDTV and pay TV; in the seventeenth century pubs had a newspaper. Sending newspapers out by mail was too expensive to have more than one newspaper in the inns and bars. Unlike today, a newspaper was not thrown away. Typically it would be resold or given to a friend. This meant the number of readers was ten times higher than the number of subscribers.