The Land of Promise

Book excerpt: LAND RUSH! Britt Clairborne, United Cherokee Nation Chief of Police, and his sweet wife, Cherokee Rose, face challenging times. It’s 1889, and the Cherokees are being moved onto reservations within the Oklahoma District. The remainder of the land promised to them decades ago is being opened for white settlers to homestead. Of course, the Cherokees are unhappy. Some are outraged and want to stand and fight–despite Britt’s warning that they will be punished swiftly and severely by the U.S. Army. Before long, white settlers converge from all directions. Lee and Kathy Belden and their two children come from Texas, where they lost their farm after years of drought. Martha Ackerman, newly widowed, arrives from Kansas with her three young children and her parents. Craig Parker, fresh out of prison and cleared of a bank robbery he didn’t commit, travels with his loyal wife, Gloria, from Missouri. And so many others. They all come for land and a new beginning, yet face so much that is unexpected: fraudulent sooners, funnel clouds, rattlesnakes, even oil. And of course, unexpected kindness and God’s provision. Will the Cherokees and the settlers all find a home in the land of promise? And perhaps a spiritual home as well?