Joan's Crusade

From the Gateway Books series - a series of interesting stories for the slightly older child, with some adventure and each with a Christian theme. It was the story of the Children's Crusade, hundreds of years ago, that fired Joan and her friend Wendy with a tremendous idea: why shouldn't they go on a crusade too? Not a fighting crusade to the Holy Land, like the long-ago time ones, of course: just a day's crusading in their own neighbourhood, where surely a lot of people would be glad to hear about God and His Son. So, with Pluto the dog, they set off one bright morning. They met with rebuffs and setbacks and disappointments, but they also found people who were happy to listen, people who were lonely and afraid, people who needed help; and when they returned home that evening, they were tired but very happy, and in them both had sprung the hope of becoming true missionaries one day.