The Record of Mehnipahsihts

[SPOKEN — soft music] There are records that teach us how to build Zion. And there are records that teach us what happens when everything we built begins to disappear. This is the record of Mehnipahsihts. She lived among the Forest Nemenhah in a time of councils, families, villages, and people trying to walk the Way of the Peacemaker. Then Tsimohtl came. He carried his Sacred Bundle. He entered their holy place. And he warned them. A Foreign Stranger would come from across the Eastern Sea. Great ships would appear. Sickness would follow. Cities would fall. And the people would scatter. But then came the promise. The Peacemaker would preserve that which was sacred. So the Nemenhah prepared. They copied their records. They hid them in different places. They taught their children. And when the danger came... they moved. [music deepens] Then the ships appeared. Strange men came from across the sea. And with them came conquest... fear... and diseases their healers could not heal. Families left their homes. Some traveled north. Some went west. Others returned toward the mountains. A people who had lived upon the land for generations began to disappear. But listen carefully. They did not disappear completely. The cities could fall. The people could scatter. But the Way could survive. And there is something beautiful in the very structure of this record. It almost moves like a great mirror. The people are gathered... then warned... then prepared... then scattered. And after the center of suffering, the pattern begins pointing back. The records survive. The teachings survive. A Remnant survives. And someday... there will be restoration. [music becomes hopeful] That is the promise. Not that nothing difficult will ever happen. But that the Peacemaker can preserve His people through it. Maybe that is why these ancient people worked so hard to preserve their records. They were writing for their children. And their children's children. For people they would never meet. For a future Remnant. Maybe even... for us. [pause] Cities rise. Cities fall. People gather. People scatter. But if the children remember... if the records remain... if someone still walks the Way... then Zion is not lost. [SUNG — brief gentle harmony] The Way remains, the promise stands. The Peacemaker remembers His children. Though we scatter, we'll walk His Way. What is sacred shall remain. [SPOKEN — very softly] Remember the Peacemaker. Keep the records. Teach the children. Walk the Way.