No Strange Fire

767 Pages·1996·1.63 MB·English

by  Ted Wojtasik

title: No Strange Fire
author: Wojtasik, Ted.
publisher: Herald Press
isbn10 | asin: 0836190416
print isbn13: 9780836190410
ebook isbn13: 9780585181929
language: English
Barns--Fires and fire prevention--Fiction,
subject Young men--Pennsylvania--Fiction, Amish-
-Pennsylvania--Fiction, Christian fiction.
publication date: 1996
lcc: PS3573.O445N6 1996eb
ddc: 813/.54
Barns--Fires and fire prevention--Fiction,
subject:
Young men--Pennsylvania--Fiction, Amish-
-Pennsylvania--Fiction, Christian fiction.
Page 3
No Strange Fire
Ted Wojtasik
HERALD PRESS
Scottdale, Pennsylvania
Waterloo, Ontario
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wojtasik, Ted, date.
No strange fire / Ted Wojtasik.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-8361-9041-6 (alk. paper)
1. BarnsFires and fire preventionFiction. 2. Young menPennsyl-
vaniaFiction. 3. AmishPennsylvaniaFiction.
I. Title.
PS3573.0445N6 1996
813'.54dc20 96-1197
The paper used in this publication is recycled and meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for
Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSIZ39.48-1984
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. See Author's Note on page 399. Scripture is
adapted from the King James Version of the Holy Bible. Prayers from the early Swiss Anabaptist prayer book,
Christenpflicht, are translated by Leonard Gross and used by permission of Herald Press, from
Prayer Book for Earnest Christians (1997).
NO STRANGE FIRE
Copyright© 1996 by Herald Press, Scottdale, Pa. 15683
Published simultaneously in Canada by Herald Press, Waterloo, Ont. N2L 6H7. All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 96-1197
International Standard Book Number: 0-8361-9041-6
Printed in the United States of America
Book design and cover illustration by Gwen M. Stamm
05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Page 5
Dedicated to
the Nebraska Amish
and
my mother and father
Page 7
Contents
Hostetler Family Tree 8
Yoder Family Tree 8
Acknowledgments 9
The Novel 11
Glossary 396
Author's Note 399
The Author 400
Page 8
Hostetler Family Tree
Yoder Family Tree
Page 9
Acknowledgments
Esther Stuter is the person who supported me and believed in me
unhesitatingly throughout this entire project. She introduced me to Big
Valley and to the Amish, and she was the driving force most
responsible for the success of this work. My gratitude is endless.
I am equally indebted and cannot extend greater appreciation to all the
Amish who graciously worked with me. I also wish to thank the
following people who helped me: Frances Barnes, Bob Bartlett,
Beano, Mike Bratt, Patti Burke, Don Chapman, Major Terry Clemens,
John Crownover, Clair Delong, Jim Felmee, Brandon Forsythe,
Corporal Norman Gantz, Shawn Gonsar, Gary Gonsar, Bob Harris,
Carrie Henry, David Kauffman, Elaine Mercer, Percy Renninger, Ollie
Shipe, Eric Specht, Grace Straley, Karl Westover, Denny Woodward,
Dennis Yohn, and anyone else whose name I might have overlooked.
Without your help, this novel could not have been written.
Finally, I must submit my heartfelt thanks to S. David Garber and
Herald Press for their support, encouragement, and faith in this novel.
TED WOJTASIK
Page 10
And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and
put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the
Lord, which he commanded them not.
Leviticus 10:1
And Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord, when they offered strange fire
before the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children.
Numbers 3:4
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as
though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as you
are partakers of Christ's sufferings.
1 Peter 4:12-13
For there may be no strange fire offered before God.
Menno Simons, 1535
Page 11
Chapter 1
The calves were crying. Ezra S., with dream-disturbed eyes, stepped
onto the front porch. The north side of the barn, facing the farmhouse,
exploded into a wall of fire as the smell of smoke filled the cold night
air. Prince, one of his best Belgian draft horses, burst as in a vision
from the barn of fire and smokethe great mane flaming, the leonine
head scorched, the eyes blindedand galloped straight into a barbwire
fence and crashed to the ground, tangled in the sharp barbs.
Helplessly, Ezra S. watched while the horse whinnied and jerked,
snorted, shuddered.
Then Eli, his ten-year-old son, shouting, "King! King!" dashed into
the wall of fire to save his four-month-old colt. Ezra S. plunged into
the burning barn after his son. The intense heat swarmed over him
and stung his skin, his eyes, his tongue. His breath burned so that he
thought he was swallowing fire. The colt darted past Ezra S. as his
son charged toward him. A thick oak beam thundered through the
floor of the hayloft, cracked Eli in the back, and knocked him down.
Ezra S. was rushing from the barn of fire and smoke with his son,
unconscious, in his arms when he heard not the crying but the
screaming of the calves, a shrill crescendo like a gruesome choir that
could not hit the right notes. As he laid his son on the ground, blue-
and-white lights flashed in his eyes. Lydia, his wife, knelt next to him
and stared fearfully at her boy's limp body while the colt scampered
about the barnyard, kicking up its spindly hind legs. A policeman
marched over to Prince, still tangled in the barbwire fence, and shot
him in the head.
The strident sound of distant sirens embraced the shrill screaming of
the calves. Ezra S. stroked Eli's corn-blond hair. The horses kicked