The Unlikely Allies Read Free

Let’s have a little quiet here. I’m going to make a speech.”
    “Oh no!” Ross said. “Get your wallets out, everybody. He’s going to take up a collection!”
    The laughter went around the table, and Barney could not help grinning. “I’ll skip the collection this time, but I do want us to join together in wishing well our latest missionary addition to the family.” Barney’s eyes turned to Mallory as he said, “ Sending missionaries is new for us. We’re the ones who have always gone, and now a Winslow will be preaching the Gospel in Europe. I want you to know how very proud I am of you, Mallory.”
    Mallory’s face grew warm as she listened to Barney’s words of love and affection. Then, to her surprise, he finished with, “Now, let’s have a sermon from the newest missionary in the Winslow family.”
    Not expecting to be put on the spot like that, Mallory rose slowly to her feet and looked around at all the family and friends she knew would be praying for her. “I feel so incapable of doing this job,” she began. “But if you’ll all pray for me, as I’ll pray for you every day, I know I’ll have the victory.” The crowd broke into smiles and clapped, some voicing their agreement and praise to God at her declaration of faith. Then as they quieted, she spoke, more confidently now, about how God had blessed her with such a wonderful family.
    “What are the Lapps like?” her brother Chance asked when she paused for a moment. “Tell us about them.”
    “What I know about them I’ve mostly learned from Anna,” Mallory replied. “They are a small group, no more than twenty thousand, and they live in Lapland, which is the northern part of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. I plan to work primarily with the Lapps who live in Norway, because I don’t know a word of the other languages. Nobody knows where these people came from, but it was probably Russia. They are short people with high cheekbones, dark hair, and olive skin. Their way of life is very simple. They’ve tamed huge herds of wild reindeer, and they follow these herds to use for their food and clothing.”
    She ended by saying, “I don’t mind telling you I’m a little afraid of what life will be like for me there in such a cold, primitive place, but my heart is very joyful that I’ll be telling the Lapps about Jesus.”
    “How will you approach them?” Chance questioned. “I know you’ve learned Norwegian, but I thought they spoke another language called Lapp.”
    “That’s true, but most of them speak some Norwegian. And I’ll pick up some of their language after I get there. As for how I’ll approach them . . . why, it’ll be the same as it is here. I’ll try to hold up Jesus to them.”
    John Winslow smiled. “That’s the only way, daughter. Your mother and I are very proud of you.”
    “We’re all proud of Mallory,” Barney said. “And we’ll be expecting glorious victories for the kingdom of God.”
    Mallory felt a lump in her throat. She was leaving all she’d ever known, and life in northern Norway would be very difficult. Here she had always been surrounded by loving, supportive family and friends. There she would be alone in a strange, alien world. But looking around in that dining hall at all the loving faces of these people she knew would be praying for her, she was filled with a new confidence that told her she could not fail.

CHAPTER TWO
    A New World
    Mallory’s stomach fluttered uneasily at her first sight of Norway. Standing on the deck of the ship that had brought her from Africa and gazing at the dark, forbidding wall of rock that rose out of the churning waters, her apprehension grew. The snow-covered peaks above were beautiful, but cold and remote. She could not say why, but they seemed very different from the warm majesty of Kilimanjaro and other African mountains.
    The skies were blue and the clouds were white and fluffy on this beautiful April day, which somewhat mitigated her fear of the