This is a work of fiction. Some characters are based on historical figures, while others are fictional. Amani’s character is loosely inspired by Kandake Amanirenas, a Kushite queen and warrior who was among the few military leaders to defeat Roman forces by invading their territory around 30 BC. Despite Rome’s retaliation, Amanirenas resisted Roman imperial domination, securing a peace treaty with Augustus that preserved Kush’s sovereignty.

Amani is moving slowly, every movement of her aging muscles is piercingly painful. Long gone are her days of youthful agility when, despite her unassuming stature, her leadership and fierce fighting skills intimidated the most powerful empire on earth. But here she is now – an old, frail stranger in a foreign land who had travelled far to see someone she does not know and has never met – or so she thinks.

The Roman Caesar looks reluctant, but he goes on to issue a public proclamation in which he swears a solemn oath to not only withdraw his military forces from all Kandushian territories, but also to restore complete sovereignty to their leader, Amani, the one standing only a few steps behind him, watching his every move with calculating contemplation. Moments earlier, they have negotiated a peace treaty which greatly favours Kandush and leaves Rome slightly disgraced. Augustus, formidable emperor of the world’s most powerful empire had to yield to Amani, unassuming ruler and warrior queen of Kandush, a seemingly insignificant African territory. History would go on to tell of how Amani’s army seized Roman territory – an almost impossible feat – and how Rome’s retaliation reflected their intent to assert imperial domination through conquest. Yet history can never reveal how a young woman not only defeated Rome, but halted their advance and forced their retreat. Only Augustus and Amani will ever know what she said just before their negotiations concluded.

By the time Amani arrives at her destination, it is disappointingly evident that she is too late. She has missed the event which she has been looking forward to for so long, but for some inexplicable reason, she does not feel dismayed. Her soul has soaked up the comforting excitement from the multitudes of departing strangers who passed by her on their way home. She notices a soldier ahead of her approaching her on horseback. His armour is a dead giveaway of his Roman identification, and it looks exactly as she remembers it. It had not changed at all in over sixty years. She feels an exhilarating awe rising up deep within her, but before she could make sense of it, an unexpected force knocks her off her feet. For a brief moment she feels somewhat disoriented, but it is transient in nature, and before she could make an attempt to get up, she feels the tender hands of kind strangers helping her to her feet again. It turns out that the soldier on horseback is unskilled in dodging maneuvers and he nicked Amani as he passed her by. Amani’s compassionate helpers introduce themselves to her, and their Hebrew identity takes her by surprise. All of the Hebrew people she has encountered during the last few days have been rude and dismissive. Their anxiety has been palpable and all of them were apprehensive about something none of them seemed able to express. But Amani’s Hebrew helpers are not anxious, in fact, they appear to possess the ultimate answer to whatever causes apprehension to their counterparts.

Amani was swept back to memories from over three decades ago, in Egypt. She recalled her encounter with a mysterious yet kind and gentle man who appeared out of nowhere as she stood mesmerized by mountain goats scaling an impossibly steep rock face. Her attention had been drawn to the goats when she tried to find the source of a faint clicking noise, caused by their hooves as they leapt upward. The man spoke with a voice unlike any she had ever heard – soft yet piercing. She could not recall everything he said, but she vividly remembered how he pointed to the goats and called them ayyal, the Hebrew word for mountain goat or ibex. He explained that the goats she had been observing were all female and that the Hebrew prophet Habakkuk had so beautifully used their surefootedness to illustrate the sustaining empowerment with which YAHWEH ADONAI equipped those who trusted in Him, even in times of crisis and calamity. The ayyal, a simple female ibex, symbolized resilience and hope.

BUT WHO WAS YAHWEH ADONAI? She never got the opportunity to ask aloud, but the man answered it as if she had. YOU KNOW HIM AS EL ROI. Dumbfounded, she stared into his eyes, from where an unusually bright light radiated, filling her with inexpressible hope. She soaked up the healing, hopeful light for a good, long while longer before she closed her eyes. She felt a jolting realisation awakening deep inside her. It became overwhelming as she understood that that the legacy of Hagar, the Egyptian slave woman, had to be true. Her mind was flooded with questions she had wanted to ask, but when she opened her eyes, the mysterious man had vanished. Frantically, she scanned the open terrain for any sign of him, but there was none – as if he had never been there.

Amani’s second encounter in Egypt was with a lovely young Hebrew couple and their firstborn baby. They had fled their homeland, because their baby’s life was in jeopardy; their own insecure king had issued a diabolical decree to execute all male babies under the age of two years old. Amani was surprised by the couple’s lack of hatred or vengeance. Something about them and their baby defied explanation, and had she not met the mysterious man, she might have dismissed their remarkable story as a fairytale. But she knew it was true. Once again, she longed to ask more questions, but their paths never crossed again – or so she thought.

Amani first accepts her Hebrew helpers’ invitation to join them, and then without hesitation, she also accepts their offer of accommodation for the next few nights. Generally, she considers decisions of accepting such intimate invitations to be reckless, having lost count of how many past decisions had turned out disturbingly less than favourable. Yet, in that moment, she finds herself more certain than ever. By the time they leave, Amani is able to recall some of her new companions’ names: Mary, Salomé, Matthew, and John, though the others remain unclear. During their walk, a fast-talking man named Peter and his quieter brother Andrew also join them. Amani has no doubt that these kind people have significantly slowed their pace to match that of their newfound guest – a tired, old, half-blind woman. She goes on to share stories of her warrior days, including how she lost sight in her left eye on the battlefield, allowing them to sympathize before adding how she led her army to defeat Roman forces in that same battle. After their laughter fades, John and Matthew speak of their lives as students of a remarkable Rabbi. But it is Peter’s words that make Amani’s head spin. JESUS WENT AHEAD OF US, HE WILL MEET US AT LAZ’S HOUSE. Their Rabbi is the same Jesus she had travelled so far to see, and once again, kind hands support her – this time, not strangers’ hands, and she did not fall.

Dusk has turned into full-blown darkness by the time they reach the house of Lazarus. Martha welcomes Amani with the warmest hospitality and then shows her to a room where she is able to wash up before dinner. WILL HE BE THERE? WILL SHE MEET JESUS? At dinner, Amani sits beside another older woman, also named Mary, and as they enjoy a delightful conversation, she cannot shake a sense of familiarity, a feeling Mary seems to share. Recognition dawns in Mary’s facial expression as she rises from her chair. Amani realises that she is looking into the same eyes she had seen so many years ago in Egypt, though they had belonged to a younger woman who also left the dinner table to tend to her crying infant. Mary rose because John had alerted her to her son’s arrival and she walks over to greet him at the door. IMA! SON! Mother and son engage in a loving embrace. Mary whispers something to Jesus and He nods, already familiar with her words. He then looks beyond Mary, directly into Amani’s eyes. Amani stares back at yet another set of familiar eyes, and then suddenly, as if struck by a lightning bolt, leaps from her chair. AMANI AYYAL, I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS MOMENT! The soft, piercing voice of the mysterious man, is coming from Jesus! In a swift, involuntary motion, Amani wipes the tears from her seeing right eye, and in that split second, she makes another startling discovery. She can see out of her left eye! The joy of her salvation is complete, and when her head starts spinning a third time, she is held up by Hands that will never let her go. That night, safe and warm in her bed, she awakes to feel her head spin one last time, but she does not resist this time. Instead, she just closes her eyes again. SHE CAN SEE EL ROI, WAITING FOR HER WITH HIS ARMS OPEN WIDE!

§§§

Amani passed away peacefully in her sleep that night at the age of 83 years. She had lived a full, purposeful life full of adventure and adversity – a complex journey marked by unspeakable horror and indescribable joy, abandonment and adoration, desolation and delight, victimization and victory. Like an ayyal, she had navigated impossibly steep rock faces, and like an ayyal, she reached the summit. A Gentile woman redeemed by the Light of the Hebrew God, once devoted to pagan deities, she was ultimately saved by the Son of God, the God of all nations.

“…I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”‭‭
Isaiah‬ ‭49‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to tread on the heights…”‭
‭Habakkuk‬ ‭3‬:‭19‬ ‭NIV‬‬