They decided to sleep in shifts. The boat began pitching gently, and Peter saw how the lights of the one following were winking faintly as the freshening breeze threatened to blow out the lamp at the masthead. The big lugsail was drawing full, and the boat began to plunge more heavily, spray breaking over the bowsprit as they ran before the wind. Peter was sailing, and Jesus, exhausted from the long, rigorous day, was below in the stern sound asleep and oblivious to the increased tossing of the deck.

The wind was fairly howling around their ears now, and Peter's words were whipped away as he hailed James and the others, who were fully awake and beginning to show concern, to reef the sail. This finished, they soon double-reefed it, and, as the wind increased, John shouted, "This wind will snap the mast if we don't heave to. If it goes, the sail will drag us broadside to these waves and we could turn turtle! "

Peter nodded, and, shouting orders to James and Matthew to signal the others to heave to, they manhandled the sail down, nearly losing their grip on the flapping sail. It seemed determined to shake them off into the waves.

Throwing out the sea anchor, they brought the bow around until their direction was reversed, and now they faced the shrieking gale, the bows dipping into the waves, shipping green water that foamed and hissed along the deck to fill the scuppers and pour overside. Water flung by the wind hit their faces in stinging spindrift. Now that their direction was reversed, they could dimly see the pitching, dancing light of the other boat ahead of them making strange, corkscrewing motions as it pitched and heeled over when a fresh gust struck.

The waves were monstrous now, the largest Peter had ever experienced! Many a time Peter had seen these land breezes rushing back toward the Arabah as if in retaliation for the constant east winds blowing across the lake from the heights. But now it was clear their very lives were in danger, and it was likely they could swamp!

How could He do it? Peter wondered, looking down at Jesus below the weather deck in the stern cabin, protected from the howling blast of the wind. The deck moved so violently Peter could not keep his feet without hanging on. The wind was rattling lines against the mast, setting up discordant howls as it tore at the rigging and flung spray at them from the crashing whitecaps that were taking on the size of ocean breakers. Yet Jesus seemed totally oblivious, completely asleep. Peter wondered if He should be awakened and warned to find something floatable to cling to if they were overturned or swamped, the way the others had, but he hesitated. Jesus had put in one of the longest days so far, and Peter hated to awaken Him.

Straining to see the others, his clothing rippling against his skin and his hair streaming straight across his face, Peter found he could no longer see the lights on the mast of the boat following them! Either the wind had blown them out . . . He looked up. Yes, their own lamp was out, so perhaps the others were still afloat.

The timbers of the aging craft were straining audibly as the water came crashing over the bow to be dashed into spray against the splash rail and cabin, and hissed along the deck over Peter's feet. Most of the others were huddling in the lee of the meager shelter of the tiny cabin, shielding their eyes from the stinging spindrift, casting anxious glances toward Peter's bulky figure where he held firmly to the tiller, checking their sea anchor line. The sea anchor, nothing more than discarded sections of net with large leathern buckets affixed, provided a dragging weight, thus keeping the bow to the waves and for the time being, at least, insured they would not be rolling wildly in the troughs.

Somewhat irked by the somnolently indifferent figure of Jesus, sound asleep out of the wind and the spray, Peter lashed the tiller down and flung himself full length on the deck so as to let head and shoulders hang partially through the space of the hatch, with its ladder leading below.

He shouted, "Master, save us!" The fear caused his voice to rise into an unnatural pitch. "Save us or we're all going to drown! Don't You care?"

Rising at the first shout, Jesus had sat up, glanced upward at Peter's anxious face and clambered up the ladder.

Gaining the deck, Jesus steadied Himself by clinging to the handlines running from cabin to stern and, seeing the frightened faces and looking at the huge waves hissing and frothing, their tops raggedly whitecapped, said to them all, Why are you so filled with fear, you of little faith?"

Then, bracing Himself against the wind, He stood straight up, and, holding out His hands as if to physically catch the force of the wind in His own hands, He said, addressing the waves and the wind, "Shalom! Peace! Be still!"

Almost instantly the shrieking of the boat ceased, the waves began to subside, and the boat's pitching, corkscrewing motion slowed. Some were sick, and others clung to the boat in a listless manner from the soporific motion and constant din.

A great calm came over the whole sea, and they could see distant figures moving about on the boat ahead of them.

Their fear of drowning was replaced with total awe! What kind of Man is this? Peter thought. Why, even the wind and the waves obey Him!

"Why are you so fearful?" Jesus was saying to them all, though addressing Peter first. "Haven't you yet learned to have faith? Where is your faith?" Peter could only hesitantly stammer out his apologies and thank Jesus for what He had done, shaking his head in bewilderment at what he had seen.

Later they hauled in the sea anchor, set the sail again, and, aided by the big sweeps (for there was almost no wind now), they continued on their journey. Jesus had again lain down astern, and the others talked of their experience through the rest of the trip. Both Mark and Matthew began immediately jotting down notes, now that they could find a steady enough platform on which to write, for they wanted to remember well this incident later.

They made a landing in the early morning hours, and some went ashore to find a place to sleep in the deserted area near their boats, while others elected to stay where they were and catch a couple of hours rest.

Finally, after breakfast, repacking their clothing after gathering it from the rigging where it had been drying following the drenching of the night before, they began to climb along the rocky hillsides that rose steeply a short distance from the shore, toward the country of the Gadarenes.

There were rumors about two crazy men who lived in the graveyard that served several nearby villages.

It was said they were possessed of evil spirits, and that one of them was so insane with demons that he would frequently tear his clothes to shreds and appear to be flung violently to the ground, that he was continually wearing bruises and lacerations from these violent rages and spells.

Though his relatives tried to clothe him or talk to him in moments when he seemed lucid, most of the townsfolk were terribly afraid of him, it was said. Armed groups had tried to capture him to hold him in a safe place so he wouldn't come raging out of the tombs to frighten wayfarers and scare the daylights out of children who had become too adventuresome and who, out of curiosity, would try to get near enough to watch his antics.

They were afraid he might seriously hurt someone.

However, even though they had succeeded a time or two in binding him—not without considerable damage to some of their own number—they had no sooner strapped his hands together with horsehair ropes, leathern straps or even chains than some violent rage would seize him and he would burst the bonds, even chains, and, screaming out at his antagonists, send them scurrying away as fast as they could go.

He became a legend in the area. Day and night in the graveyard up on the mountainside he would be screaming, wailing, sobbing and cutting himself with sharp rocks.

When this man saw Jesus from a long distance away, he ran forward and, worshiping Him, screamed with a loud voice, "What am I going to do with You, Jesus, You Son of the most high God? I adjure You by God, do not torment me! Are You come to torment me before the time?"

Jesus, looking at the man, spoke directly to the demon who had used the man's voice and said, "What is your name?"

It answered, "My name is Legion, for we are many," and then began to beseech Jesus not to command them to go completely out of the country.

On the nearby mountain slope a huge herd of pigs was feeding. The demons besought Jesus, saying, "Send us into those swine so we can enter into them."

Jesus said, "Go!"

Immediately the unclean spirits left the man and entered into the swine.

The disciples looked on in amazement as the pigs began to squeal with terror, the entire herd rushing down the steep talus slope, tumbling down like a multicolored avalanche, with a cacophony of loud grunts, clattering rocks and squeals. The entire herd of about two thousand pigs lunged into the lake in a muddy froth. The whole big herd was drowned!

The swineherds ran as fast as their legs would take them to the nearest town, excitedly telling everything they had seen.

When a delegation from the town came out, they found that the man who had been such a notorious plague to them and their children was sitting quietly beside Jesus, fully clothed in garments the disciples had provided, and in his right mind. They were terribly afraid when they saw this, and some of the swineherds related how Jesus had cast the demons out and how the big herd of pigs had stampeded into the lake.

Immediately the delegation from the town began to beseech Jesus to leave the area, for they feared Him. Jesus walked back down to the shore and began to climb into the boat again. The man, now in his normal mind, begged Jesus to take him along.

Jesus said He would not permit it, but said instead, "Go to your own family and friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you!" From that time on, the man went on his way and began to tell everyone who would listen in the towns of Decapolis the great things Jesus had done for him so that all who heard him were amazed.

Jesus and the disciples returned back to the other side of the Sea to Capernaum. Their return trip was memorable to Peter. After the big blow that threatened their lives in the previous crossing, it was pleasant to catch the fresh breeze that spread rippling patterns on the sea as it pushed its cooling air back toward the heights, even if it meant tacking often, lying as close to the wind as possible, and taking much longer than usual.

Several of the men caught up on lost sleep, and Jesus had joined Peter at the tiller after arising from a nap Himself.

Andrew was sitting atop the little cabin splicing some lines that had parted in the big storm, while James, who was equally experienced in the handling of the boats, stood at the tiller of their smaller companion tossing along behind them, its rounded bows bursting through the larger waves in a sparkling shower of spray.

Peter was continually amazed at the fund of knowledge Jesus possessed.

Their conversation wandered from the weather to the subject of the hide and tallow shops and leathern-making. Jesus asked a question about their sea anchors.

Tossing along in the freshening breeze like this, with Jesus' sole attention on their own conversation, Peter couldn't help thinking about the vastness of what they were trying to do.

Hermon loomed vast in the purple distance, and the evenly scattered cumulus clouds marched over their heads like fluffy sheep headed eastward toward Persia. Beyond them a whole world lay in prostrate subjection to the emperor at Rome. Tales reached their ears of some minor fracas here or there, usually months later than the fact and probably much embellished by the time it reached their ears.

The products of the whole world were flowing like a never-ending stream from fabled Cornucopia right into the palaces of the rich in Rome while Peter and his people (strange that he had begun to take a more paternal view of the masses of suffering peoples of his homeland now that Jesus' teachings had begun to inspire him) labored for pittances, either bordering on or living in actual squalid poverty. Not that the tradesmen couldn't carve out a comfortable living if they applied themselves and knew the right people.

Peter knew of bronze and iron workers who managed to pile up sizable fortunes by contracting to supply the Romans with various weapons while keeping up a lively business with their local clients and the Eastern caravans. Usually they kept their sword and spearhead molds and worked as weapons smelters, casting the shields, breastplates, helmets and shin guards that had become fashionable in a back lot out of sight from prying eyes.

Peter supposed the natural human instinct to survive led to many a loyal Jew compromising his conscience by cooperation with the Romans.

While displaying a full line of plows, hoes, adzes, awls, knives, rakes, scrapers, rings, buckles and pulleys for the fishing trades or harness makers, many an enterprising metalworker was carrying on a brisk business out of his back lot, saddling up the camels and mules with their packs after dark when their clandestine contacts called upon them.

Even Samaritans, those untouchables of society, were known to be go-betweens for some of the Eastern traders, who usually had direct contacts with the shippers in Tyre and Sidon, or at Joppa, where the ships were loaded for their trips to Asia, Greece and Italy or the islands in between.

Peter knew of at least two major clay quarries that were prospering in the manufacture of amphorae, those huge jugs that served so many purposes and which, almost completely encased in hemp slings, carried the water and wine supplies for the ships at sea. They came in every conceivable size and shape, from the tiny pots and lamps for household niches and walls to the ponderous jugs carried aboard ships or set in concrete, side by side, in the front of the wine shops.

Jesus' conversation with Peter ranged from all these things to the stories of exotic animals being trapped in Africa and taken to Rome for the games. Always, though, He would interject some observations about the rottenness of human nature, the thievery, dishonesty and especially the hypocrisy of people.

They fetched the jetty on their final tack, and Peter was acutely sorry to see their return trip end. He knew that, as sure as people found out Jesus was back inside His home in Capernaum, the crowds would gather. They tied up the boats, and Peter instructed Judas to give a small offering to Jona and Zebedee, who had been absent from their boats for two days, before accompanying Jesus and the others up the side roads to Capernaum.

Sure enough, it was less than two hours later that a sizable crowd had gathered outside, and many were noisily calling for Jesus to appear. One of the main leaders of the local synagogue, Jairus by name, managed to approach closely to Jesus through the crowd, and, overcome with grief and apprehension, threw himself down at Jesus' feet, begging Him, "Please come and heal my little daughter! She is at the point of death, perhaps has died already. I beg of You, come and lay Your hands on her that she can be made whole and live!"

The little girl was about twelve years of age.

Jesus told Jairus He would come and heal the girl, and as they headed toward Jairus' home another great miracle occurred.