By the time the children awoke, Lena had regained control. She fed them breakfast and calmly explained what was happening. “Your papa left to join the other soldiers. He took our truck early this morning, and we’ll have to go pick it up after our chores are finished.”

“Are Nazi tanks and soldiers coming here?” Wim asked.

Lena hesitated. Pieter had advised her to tell them the truth. “They will probably try, Wim. But our army is going to fight back.”

“Do we have tanks like they do?”

“I don’t know. You can ask Opa when we see him today.”

Later, Lena, Maaike, and Wim climbed onto their bicycles and pedaled into town to fetch Pieter’s truck. She felt exposed and vulnerable riding through the open flatland with Nazi planes overhead, and she breathed a prayer of thanks when she finally saw houses and the village church steeple on the horizon. Pieter had parked the truck in the square beside the church. “Load the bicycles, Wim, while I talk to Opa.” Lena took Maaike’s hand and went inside.

The manse was empty. Lena came outside again and crossed the market square, finally finding her father in the bakery, talking with a group of villagers who had gathered there. He kissed the top of Maaike’s head and steered them in the direction of the church. “Pieter has been deployed,” she said.

“I know. I prayed with him and the other men before they left this morning.”

“I’m so scared, Papa.” She spoke softly as they walked toward the truck, hoping Maaike wouldn’t overhear. She saw Wim waiting beside the truck and told Maaike to run across the street to join him. “I’ve been praying all morning that our country will be safe and that Pieter and the others will be safe, but —”

“Do you want your way or God’s way?”

She stopped walking. The question made her angry. “Of course I want my way. Isn’t that why we pray and bring our requests to Him? But I’ve never understood why He doesn’t answer our prayers if He loves us. He didn’t keep Mama from getting sick and dying, even though everyone in the village prayed for her. Now we’re at war, and if anything happens to Pieter or one of our children, I . . . I don’t think I could handle it.”

“God has His reasons for allowing this great upheaval. Maybe He’s asking us to join the fight against evil and help redeem this fallen world.”

“I don’t have enough faith for this, Papa.”

“None of us do. All we can do is ask Him each day what He wants us to do.”