My experience with Children of God/The Family, Part III
Part I : Part II : Part III : Part IV : Part V : Part VI : Part VII : Part VIII : Part IX : Part X : Part XI
I was awakened the following morning by the blast of a trumpet, playing the revilee song from the army. I shook the sleep out of my eyes and looked around the room. To my right was my buddy Bethesda, smiling at me, saying, "Well God bless you sleepy head, it's time to rise and shine for the Lord." One girl was standing beside the window doing a sort of stretching exercise with her leg up on the ledge as if she were a dancer. On the floor below her was a 3 X 5 small binder notebook from which she was reading or memorizing something. Most of the others had folded up their sleeping bags and were sitting around the room reading or reciting something from the same exact type of black, 3 X 5 binder notebook.
Bethesda smiled again and said, "Today we are going to get you set up, with your revolutionary bag, note book and 3 X 5 Bible, and pen." " No revolutionary for Jesus is properly armed without their sword of the Lord." She patted her Bible with her hand. "The Bible", she giggled, "It's your spiritual sword to fight Satan's lies."
The morning went by in a flurry of activity which I can still barely remember. I must explain here how the hierarchy goes in the Children of God, or did at that time in 1972. Each of us had a buddy, one person who would be with us at all times. The two of you were part of a "tribe" which were usually named after one of the twelve tribes of Israel, in the Old Testament. Each tribe was divided into 10 people. Each tribe had a tribe leader who was to report to his higher up who would be in charge of overseeing about 50 people I think, I never knew exact numbers and this took me several months to find out anyway. We all wrote a "tribe report" every night before bed. This consisted of you telling a bit about your day each day and how you felt about it. It had to be a full page from your binder.
Over all of this was the commune or "colony" Shepherd, as they were called then. This Shepherd and his wife, the Shepherdess, were to report to the Regional Shepherd and his wife, and they in turn to the country shepherd and above that was the ministry leader. For example, one person, usually one of the top leader`s family was in charge of worldwide music ministry, or in charge of all printing and distributing of the leaders letters to be published. Another member of his family was in charge of all writing and rules about child care. etc. etc. All permission was given, after authorization of a top leader if the his under-leader could not answer.
The colony ran on a very strict schedule, just like an army training camp. In fact, they called it boot camp. We arose about 7:30 am, had an hour for prayer and memorization, (quiet time). Then there was a schedule with everyone's name printed on it as to who could take a shower or not. Each of us got to brush our teeth, shave, put on deodorant and so forth. But we were only allowed two showers a week. When the commune was very large like this one, it was once a week. This commune had 150 people in it. You can imagine the organization needed! We also had on the kitchen wall a schedule for who would help the cook, Abba, prepare the meals, each of the two daily meals was listed, and there was a clean up schedule for the dishes and mop up. You never worked without reciting Bible verses, or listening to a tape of the Bible verses being recited or a letter by our leader. They believed idleness of the mind would invite Satan, causing you to doubt God. While the group chosen prepared the meal the rest of us gathered in the central coffee house downstairs where there was a sing song with several of the band members. This was where we also had the leader pray with us for the day. By this time we were expected to have our two verses from the Bible and sometimes one small quote from the overall leader Mo memorized. Then we would have to sing the song to thank the lord for the food and line up to eat. While the clean-up did their work, the rest of us sang a few songs with the band and then the commune leader would sit us all down for a Bible reading or Mo letter reading. It was during these times that the new recruits, or Babes, as they called us were taken downstairs and given our intensive Bible training. This usually lasted 6 to 8 hours a day.
While we took our training, the rest of the commune grouped into the chosen teams which the Shepherd chose and went out into the streets to preach and win souls. By the time they got back, the team that came back early had the supper just about ready. We were finished our training and helped to set the tables. Then we had supper all together and they would clean up. After a bit of admonition from the leader, we would open the coffee house to the public. The evenings ended usually with closing the coffee house and the leader would have a big prayer session and people would give testimonies of their soul winning that day or how many pieces of literature they handed out. It would end with the shepherd reading us one the top leader's, Mo's, letters to us.
At first I asked who this Mo was, I was told he was just a nice old preacher whose kids started this youth movement. He cared for us as if we were his own kids and would write letters to encourage us. After several days I began to notice that a lot of his letters were also spiritual visions, and Bible stories expounded and explained and stories of Mo and his family's experiences in being evangelists in the U.S.A. Then one day, someone told me that Mo was actually the chosen prophet for the last days of the world, to lead God's children in to the Promised Land of Heaven. This was very hard to swallow at first, I just thought, "Yea, this person is a little fanatical, over zealous, we know Jesus is our savior." I should have listened more closely. Paid more attention to the signs. They kept me so busy all the time and I just never got the chance to ask about my family or friends or anything else. They put me on kitchen detail with Bethesda, and then it was wash-room cleanup and also full time babysitting one of the Regional Shepherd's babies, Little Josh, was the baby's name. I was never allowed out of the colony.
Finally, I asked one of the leaders if they had heard anything from my parents or friends. They told me no, they had not had any one try to contact me. I was very puzzled by that. The leader said, "Maybe they just don't care, or love you now that you live with dirty hippies." That hurt me. I asked if I could call them and was told no that I was not ready yet spiritually to face the battle with my fleshly hang-ups. They would tell me when they felt I was ready. Sure enough after about 6 weeks the leader brought me in to his office and told me he felt I was ready to go out for my first time "witnessing".
Preaching and handing out literature was considered like going out on to the front lines of battle in a war. It was both an honor and a fear. What I found out about this period years later after I left the group was that for this period of time my parents had called, come and even sent friends and people claiming to be my friends to try to see or talk to me and the commune leaders had repeatedly said they had never heard of me. That's it for Part III, more to come later.
End of Part III
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