We enjoy telling short stories! Our story tonight is about a young prince by the name of Jack. Now you see, Jack lived in a magnificent kingdom, and he was prince. His mother was the queen, and his father was the king – and this is an important point. Now this young prince Jack was but a boy, and he enjoyed playing in the kingdom. He had many friends and playmates, and all who encountered Jack honored him and loved him. He led a very good life as a prince in the Kingdom of sIAM.

As Jack went through his childhood days, he had a craving to experience new things. He had a craving to play. He had a craving to learn, and those that saw the young prince shook their heads and remarked, "He is quite the creator, quite the magnificent creator. He is the one who loves to journey and loves to experience. His soul is always playful. He is always moving forward." Oh, this young Prince Jack could not keep his feet in two places at one time. As he grew into his teens, his journeys took him further and further through the lands of the kingdom, to the outer reaches, to the villages that were away from the center of the kingdom. And there he met peoples who were part of the kingdom but were new and different.

Jack took longer and longer trips, often being gone for days or even weeks at a time. He loved what he was learning. He loved the new types of animals and trees that he saw in the outer reaches of the kingdom. He loved the new lands and new skies that he saw. He loved his journey. The young prince Jack never rested, always, always proceeding onto a new journey, always finding a place that he had never been to before, always making friends along the way.

As the young Prince Jack reached early manhood, he knew that soon enough he would be ruling the kingdom. He knew that he would be sitting in the throne. He soon would be king. So he made a decision. He said, "Before I am to be king and must stay at the castle in the throne all day to rule over the kingdom, I choose to go on one final experience, one long journey to a place I have never gone to before, to a place that is exciting and challenging."

The young prince decided not to take the royal contingent that normally followed him on his journeys. He decided to slip out late at night with only a small bag packed for his long journey. So he slipped out and began traveling past the places he had gone to before. He passed the villages that he had visited in his past. He kept on journeying further and further until he came to territories that he had never walked upon before. And the land was new and different and exciting, but it was still within the boundaries of the kingdom of sIAM.

As he pushed forward on his journey, which had now taken months and months of time, he came to the edge of land. He came to water, an ocean like he had never seen before. He had seen lakes, and he had seen rivers, but he had never seen anything like this before. He had heard of grand oceans in the lore of his kingdom. He had heard of the place where land ends. He had heard that it is not to be journeyed past. He had heard that this is where the kingdom ends, and it is not appropriate to go past. Young prince Jack sat up all night long contemplating whether to take the next step. He debated with himself whether to set sail onto the ocean … or to return home.

Oh, and as you know, he was far too restless to return home! So the next day he began constructing a vessel, a small boat that would take him on his journey. Jack worked on this for days and days and days, until he was satisfied with the boat. Then, with a lump in his throat and a pit in his stomach, feeling like perhaps he was breaking a sacred rule, perhaps he was going where he shouldn't venture, he set sail.

The current took him swiftly out onto this ocean. He sailed a good number of days. The waters were calm. The wind was gentle. The sun was bright, and all things felt good. But there was an uneasiness. There was an uneasiness in Jack’s being. The lump in his throat grew larger. The pit in his stomach grew more queasy. He knew something was coming.

One quiet afternoon -- -somewhat boring by Jack’s standards -- he saw a great wall of fire rising from the ocean ahead of him. He started to paddle backwards, trying to avoid this great wall of fire. But as hard as he tried, he could not overcome the forces of the great wall of fire. It was sucking him in, pulling him closer and closer. He could feel its heat, and he could feel its turmoil. He could feel the turmoil within this wall of fire. Jack began screaming as he paddled, trying to go back to the kingdom of sIAM. But it pulled him in. It pulled him into this wall of fire.

What happened from there, Jack did not remember. He only knew that he awoke, feeling exhausted and empty and with no memory. He awoke on the shores of strange land. He could not remember his name, or from whence he had come. Yet there was something within that told him that he was somebody, but he could not remember. It was, in a way, an amnesia.

When Jack opened his eyes, he saw a new land, different from anything he had ever seen before. He knew it was time to get up and start exploring. He explored this new land day in and day out, discovering things that were new to him and new to his soul. All the time he was searching about, exploring this new land… all this time he felt an uneasiness once again. He felt there was something he should know or remember but couldn't, like he was trying to put his finger on something, but it was not there. He was trying to remember his past.

After much time exploring this new land, one day he came upon a woman. They talked, and they rejoiced in seeing each other. There seemed to be a familiar bond, but they did not know from where. She brought him back to a village where there were others. In this village they were making buildings. They were having children. They were creating a new civilisation, but none who were in this village could remember where they had come from. They could not remember who they were. They just knew it was time for them to move forward. It was time for them to continue on with their lives.

Now, dear friends, there is no particular end to this story, for it has not been written yet. And as you probably already know, this story of Jack and the others who he met in this other land is your story. You the ones who were the angel explorers and adventurers. You were the ones who went to explore all of the kingdom of God in the first circle. You were the ones who were the princes and princesses, the ones who would inherit the throne.