It was a normal day in 2025. The smell of freshly roasted coffee was in the air as Marissa, far from her home in Africa, bounced between customers in an Arab Gulf coffee shop. Although Marissa had braved the unknown to come to the Gulf for work opportunities, her life had been gripped by fear in other areas…

In the arid Arab Gulf, sprawling living quarters are filled with underpaid migrant workers far from home. Amid the small, crowded rooms and the pain of missing loved ones, something deep is happening. A fountain of hope has begun to quench the thirst and fill the emptiness of their long, laborious days…

The atmosphere felt eerie as Ibrahim observed the man on the hospital bed. It was his friend and former manager from the bank, Abdel. Abdel’s eyes remained closed. He was brain dead. As Ibrahim lifted his gaze, he realized that the expressions of the nurses in the room were twisted with a look of pure evil. Each of them appeared to have Abdel’s face…

It had been 11 years. Born and raised in East Africa, a young couple, Marcus and Maria, were carrying a burning zeal for the Lord. For the past 11 years, they had been teaching young adults to pray, preach, and worship across the Middle East. Yet, the feeling persisted that they were running the race alone…

…This story begins in a very dark moment of the past…in memories held within the very cobblestone streets of one of the oldest neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia: Shockoe Bottom, formerly the epicenter of America’s domestic slave trade. But it doesn’t end there…