She drew her legs into a crisscross pattern on the couch, facing me. “I knew the risk when I decided to stay. I have to do what God is calling me to do.”

“Abby, how do you know—” I stopped. Questioning people’s most deeply held beliefs was usually pointless. That’s why Christianity held on as long as it did. I found myself replying in a way I never thought possible. “How can I help?”

She smiled at me. “Thank you. I know you don’t agree with my beliefs, but I appreciate your help. How can I get the message of Jesus out to as many people as possible?”

I looked over at the still-muted visiscreen and sighed. “Well, we can make a visual message to put on the Grid.”

“We can? So anyone can see it?”

“Yes. But just because you put something on the Grid, that doesn’t mean people are going to access it.”

“But some people will?”

“They might.”

She nodded, as if accepting the uncertainty. “Then I’ll have to leave the results of that to God.”

I couldn’t help but admire her faith. I wished I had a deity I could trust with endeavors that had no chance of succeeding. “But,” I emphasized, “we can’t put it up there until it’s safe to do so.”

She nodded again. “All right. I understand. But we can make it now?”

We spent the afternoon recording Abby as she explained the Christian gospel.

“I’ll need to edit this and add background settings behind you,” I said when we finished. The whole thing would still look amateurish, but Abby didn’t care. Assuming we put it on the Grid, it would get the message out. Not that anyone would be interested.

Abby went upstairs after dinner. I stretched out on the couch and entered a VR program of an old university library, the kind with books. It seemed an appropriate setting to complete my research.

“Alistair, please pull up the New Testament. Same translation.”

I had scanned most of the gospel of Matthew when I received a tap from Dr. Dobunaba, the chief administrator at the Meridian Hospital in Papua New Guinea. I called Abby down and put the tap on visiscreen. We all exchanged greetings.