"No. I doubt that I am helping God in any way other than providing food and water. I feel as if we are doing nothing more than reading a few scriptures and then moving on."
Benton was sent on a missionary quest in Ethiopia but he was not as successful as he would have hoped. The people he tried to preach to were not interested in learning about the word of God and were instead more interested in receiving water and food from the missionaries. But Benton did not felt that what he was doing was enough because he considered that providing food and water was not supposed to be his mission. Instead, he went there with the purpose of helping people find God and learn more about his will. But the people were not interested in finding more about God. They were only interested in their survival and Benton, a person who never had to fight for his survival could not understand why the people were not interested in the words he was preaching.
''Ada Taylor knelt beside me on the floor as I cried for the first time over the thought that my favorite person in the world was probably dead.''
Soon after Gabriel disappeared, Cullen refused to accept his own grief and tried to hide his feeling from his family and those he knew. For a while, Cullen hid his grief and chose to become angry instead, blaming everyone for his brother’s disappearance and refusing to acknowledge the fact that his younger brother was most likely dead. However, one person managed to reach him and the closeness made him what to express his emotions to the world. Ada was the one who made Cullen feel vulnerable and it is in her presence when Cullen was able to cry for his brother for the first time. It was Ada who made Cullen feel human and vulnerable and who showed him that it was alright to cry and to express his emotions freely.
Habits like this meant that he didn't look up when he walked down the hallway at school.
Gabriel was different from his brother in the sense that he did not minded being alone. In comparison with Cullen, who always searched the company the others had to offer, Gabriel was completely happy with being alone and would often keep himself busy by reading or listening to music. This protected him from the bullying of the children in the school and thus he was much happier than his brother who always felt frustrated because he was bullied.
