"You were close with your father?"
"Yes." Softly she added, "They poisoned him when he would not give them what they wanted."
I had surmised something like that had been the case from what Chantry had said about a mysterious suicide.
"I'm sorry about your mother; no kid should go through that." I said meaningfully.
"What do you know about my mother?" Asia asked cautiously.
"That she was sent back to your father in pieces. That had to be hard on both of you."
Asia was quiet for a moment. "She wasn't a good mother. In fact all she did was give birth to me and nothing more. She only had me so that my father would marry her."
"That's a little harsh don't you think?" I asked feeling her out, more than a little bit curious, as to what was the underlying story.
"My mother was the Code peoples first attempt at getting to my father." Asia said softly.
I turned back to her in surprise, "She was an enemy plant!"
Asian nodded, "Father knew it from the start, but he wanted me to have a home, so he married her, but guarded against what my mother could see or find out. She had nothing to do with me. She even tried to kill me once, when she grew desperate. They cut her up in pieces, because she failed them, not because my father failed to offer a ransom as some believe."
It would seem that Asia and I had a lot more in common than I had thought. How did someone turn out so well faced with so many challenges to deal with as a kid? I hadn't turned out well, so what could explain what she had that I didn't, which had helped her succeed where I had failed? I glanced back at her and then I decided to stop to ask my question.
"What made you become a Christian?"
She looked thoughtful, as she took the opportunity to rest by sitting down on a boulder. I leaned back against a tree to await her answer.
"The need to know why, I guess, is the best answer. I'm a real geek girl, always have been. I spoke thirty seven languages before I was thirteen and I already knew my way well through all the sciences and math. I was doing my own research and development, but as successful, as a prodigy that I was, the question that echoed over and over in my head was, why? Why did anything exist? Why no matter how finitely I discovered the ways of some path of science did I discover that there was, but another even more complex layer to be discovered under it? I rejected the secular teachings of evolution, as a means to explaining everything. True science and a mere look at the facts that we know of clearly proved that such a theory was both outdated and terribly wrong. Knowing that only left me with a hole to fill. Somebody put together everything I was seeing, but who? I considered all the religions of the world, but none of them spoke my language including Christianity. I asked my father for some time off away to think my way through this, because I felt tormented not knowing why. I felt like I could never truly be me, if I couldn't understand why that I was. I didn't need to go to college to learn academia. I went to experience what it was like to be among others, to experience relationship. I thought maybe that would give me a clue into understanding more of what I couldn't see in the lab. In college I made friends, one of them became my best friend and she was a Christian. I confided in her what I felt torn about inside and she tried to share her faith with me, but Bible stories weren't enough. Yes, I saw the wisdom of them, but how to make the jump from good sayings to abject faith in something when I still couldn't answer to myself the question of 'why'. I really wanted to believe in her Jesus, but what made Him the answer to my 'why'? She asked me to give her three days to pray about it. Three days went by and she came back to me and asked me to go with her to a museum in Kentucky based on a Biblical framework of science and history. I went with her. Do you know what they teach there? They teach the science behind why you should believe God is who He is by what He has already done and left for all to see. I'd been seeing His work for years and now I could read why everything was and why I was and what my purpose was. Faith made sense, because now I could see beyond a doubt as to who to give the credit to. Knowing who God is isn't enough though. My experience in college taught me the importance of relationship and what I read only made me see how important it was to have a relationship with my Creator. His very work made me yearn to experience life with Him so that I could see even more, as to what He had done already on display all around me. My friend brought me to the saving knowledge and faith in Jesus and what He did for me on the cross in my dorm room a week later. Life has never been the same and I will never be the same. My God answered my question of 'why' through the language of science and the facts that supported it. My purpose was so that I might know how much He loved me so that I could worship and love Him in perfect relationship for forever. So that's why I am a Christian. God spoke my language and showed me love and I found my God ordained purpose by being in Him and so I serve my life trusting in Him the Author and Finisher of all things."