Cross Roads
The Memoirs of a Palace Peasant
The Author
Lucille L. Turfrey
My parents forged a farm adjacent to the primaeval forest in southern Tasmania. As a teenager, I had already become an itinerant art teacher employed by the Tasmanian Education Department. I travelled many miles each week, working with children from kindergarten to final-year students. I loved the work, but a change of vocation found me engaged with a similar age range, though now involved in Christian Education. Some years into this wonderful, though challenging, role, I was appointed to a peripatetic agenda in Scotland. In being “called” back to home turf, I was appointed principal of The Salvation Army’s Officer Training College in Melbourne, which catered for Australian and international cadets. I was now involved in a worldwide scenario where colour, clime, and creed became as “one”! The world had opened, and I later discovered that the changing scenes of my vocation were introducing me to people beyond my immediate world. The “journey” became no longer bound to the Australian scenes of endeavour, for, just a few years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it became possible for me to head up The Salvation Army’s newly formed Officer Training Institute in Moscow! Now, some long years into retirement, my “classroom” has become that of “pen and parchment” – a number of books have been published, and I became a member of the International Society of Poets.
Cross Roads: The Memoirs of a Palace Peasant
CROSS ROADS – the Memoirs of a Palace Peasant is presented as a historical novel. It flows on from the basically true story of Manaen “who grew up with Herod”, as stated in Acts 13:1 where he is introduced as being one of the leaders of the Community of Faith in Antioch, Syria. It was at Antioch that the Community of Faith first owned the name Christian.
In this book, Manaen records his experiences – and those of Maryam who is introduced here as a half-sister to Herod Antipas – from early childhood and through his teenage years as a student at the Temple’s Rabbinic School in Jerusalem. He becomes a scribe assigned to observe and report on “The Nazarene”. Manaen tells his story as a “novel” way of presenting The Gospel for Jesus is his friend – and comes to Faith at Calvary! Rome’s influence is acknowledged throughout this historical narrative.
In escaping from Herod’s fury in Jerusalem, Manaen and Maryam, now his wife, arrive in Antioch and become involved in the ministries of the Community of Faith, with Manaen taking the role as Headmaster of the newly formed Christian Academy.
Manaen’s beloved writing kit becomes a means of presenting a unique account of the formation of the New Testament as he requests the testimonies and records of his friends Luke, John, and Paul for example. The theological component – including the illustrated “Picture Parables” first revealed in Ancient Hebrew, Grief Counselling, the Scope of Prayer, of Love, Paul’s Letters, and John’s unique input, for example – provides Biblical students with sound Scriptural input.
Throughout his Memoirs, Manaen adds valuable insight into the lives of such intriguing characters as Nicodemus, Saul/Paul, Barnabas, Mark, John, Peter, Dr. Luke, Onesimus, Lydia, Felix, Festus, Agrippa, and Nero.
Explore more of my books
In the Beginning- Gems from Genesis
Scratches on the Rock Face
Shadows and the Light
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