A new journey begins in Haran. For Mateo, that means a new friend, a very opinionated camel, and a place in Abraham's caravan.
When I finished Book One of Mateo and the Secrets of the Eternal Word, I knew where Mateo's next journey would take him.
Abraham.
But knowing where to send him and deciding what he would do when he got there were two different things.
In Book One, Mateo had witnessed some of the most extraordinary events in the Bible.
He watched Noah build the Ark.
He visited the Garden of Eden.
He witnessed Cain and Abel.
He saw the Tower of Babel rising toward the heavens.
Most of the time, Mateo was an observer.
He watched history unfold around him, sometimes knowing what would happen before the people living it did.
But when I began Book Two, I wanted something different.
I wanted Mateo to get his hands dirty.
And that meant giving him a job.
A job involving camels.
When Mateo arrives in Haran, Abraham is preparing to leave for the land God has promised him.
There are people to organize.
Animals to feed.
Supplies to load.
An entire household preparing for a journey into the unknown.
And somewhere in the middle of all that activity is a twelve-year-old boy from Nicaragua who knows absolutely nothing about taking care of camels.
Fortunately, there's Suri.
Suri is one of the men responsible for the caravan's camels, and he becomes Mateo's teacher.
He knows the animals.
He knows their habits.
He knows what needs to be done before a caravan can begin its journey.
And now he has another responsibility.
Teaching Mateo.
I enjoyed creating Suri because he gave Mateo something he hadn't really needed during his earlier adventures.
Someone to show him how to live in the world he was visiting.
Mateo could know the biblical story of Abraham and still have no idea how to prepare a camel for a day's travel.
Those are two very different kinds of knowledge.
And then there's Jamil.
Ah, Jamil.
If Suri represents patience and experience, Jamil represents something else entirely.
A camel with an attitude.
Jamil belongs to Sarah, and Mateo soon discovers that being assigned to care for him isn't quite the honor he might have imagined.
Camels are large animals.
They can be stubborn.
And apparently, they have their own ways of expressing displeasure.
Mateo learns that lesson rather personally.
Let's just say that Jamil has a remarkable ability to make his feelings known.
And Mateo occasionally finds himself on the receiving end. 🙂
I think that was one of the most enjoyable parts of writing Book Two.
The biblical events are important, of course.
God calls Abraham to leave his homeland.
Abraham obeys.
The journey begins.
But between those great moments of faith and obedience, people still have to live their everyday lives.
They have to eat.
They have to sleep.
They have to care for animals.
They have to pack up camp and travel another day.
And sometimes, they have to deal with a disagreeable camel.
I wanted Mateo to experience that side of biblical history, too.
Not simply to stand nearby while Abraham makes important decisions.
But to wake up early.
To work.
To learn.
To make mistakes.
To develop friendships with people whose lives are very different from his own.
And perhaps to discover that a journey of faith involves more than knowing where you're supposed to go.
Sometimes it involves doing the work that's right in front of you.
That's what Haran gave me as a writer.
It gave Mateo a place to begin becoming part of the world he had previously only visited.
And it gave me Suri and Jamil.
One to teach him.
The other to keep him humble.
In Book One, Mateo mostly watched history unfold.
In Book Two, he has a job to do.
He has a teacher named Suri.
He has a camel named Jamil.
And he has a very long road ahead of him.
Welcome to Haran, Mateo.
Your adventure is just beginning.
