When One Door Closes

John Avery Whittaker and Eugene Meltsner have traveled far from Odyssey to a dangerous Middle Eastern country, where they are setting up an early Imagination Station prototype, housed in an old phone booth, in the church of Pastor Saeed Asam. Working with their friend Adam Haas of the ministry Open Doors, they hope the invention will help disciple young Christians who face bullying, threats, and even violence for their faith. Getting it running is a challenge, though: unlike Whit's End, the church has no steady power supply, and voltage spikes keep making the programs glitch.

That evening, the Asam family welcomes Whit and Eugene with a feast. Their son Daniel eagerly asks to be the first to try the "Bible machine," but their teenage daughter Grace, worn down by classmates who mistreat her because she is a Christian, quietly excuses herself from the table. Pastor Asam arrives late with heavy news: a man from his congregation, Michael, was shot by soldiers after telling them he wanted to share the gospel with them. Michael survives, but Sarah Asam is shaken, realizing her husband travels that same road every day. The family and their guests respond the only way they know: they pray.

The next morning, some fifty children line up for the Imagination Station. Daniel goes first, choosing Daniel in the lions' den, and comes out beaming. "It's like jumping into the Bible and living out the stories," he says, wondering if God might use him the way He used Daniel. But when a boy named Rashid steps up, Pastor Asam gently sends him home, explaining that Rashid's family is Muslim and that it is illegal to try to convert a child from Islam; letting him in would endanger both the boy and the church.

At lunch with Grace, a car bomb rumbles in the distance, and Whit and Eugene are stunned to learn that explosions are simply part of the city's noise. "This is normal," Grace tells them, adding that the kids she knows are more shocked by how easy Americans have it. When Whit asks how he can better pray for the believers there, Pastor Asam invites him to a refugee camp across the border.

While Whit is away, Daniel brings his friend Jalal to try the Imagination Station. Jalal is not a Christian, though his family does not really practice Islam, and he wants to understand Jesus better. After some hesitation, Eugene lets him in, and Jalal chooses The Passion, an adventure through Jesus' last days.

At the camp, Whit meets nearly a thousand Christians who were driven from their homes for refusing to renounce their faith, surviving in tents and shacks on whatever aid trickles down to them. One man, whose two brothers were killed for proclaiming Christ, prays that God will open his brothers' killers' eyes. Pastor Asam tells Whit that the believers there do not ask for prayers for safety or for persecution to end; they pray that people will bow to Christ and that they themselves will be bold, whatever it costs. "We need you to pray with us," he says. Moved, Whit recalls his grandfather's words: "You see things differently when you look through eyes that have wept."

That evening, as Whit and Eugene finish troubleshooting more glitches, the church phone rings. An unknown voice tells Whit, "Go home now or you will suffer." Driving away, Adam notices a car shadowing them. He races through narrow alleys to a walled compound where Christians in danger can hide, swaps vehicles, and slips past their pursuers with Whit and Eugene crouched in the back seat. Deciding it is safest not to return to the Asams' house, Adam calls Sarah to let her know - and hears something terrible on the line. Someone has been taken. "Who did they take? Sarah?" he asks, as the story ends on a cliffhanger.