My experience with Children of God/The Family, Part VII

Part I : Part II : Part III : Part IV : Part V : Part VI : Part VII : Part VIII : Part IX : Part X : Part XI

Well, I was at the night club with my friends from work and trying amongst all that noise and the party atmosphere to explain to my friend Carmen why I was quitting work and going to re-join the Children of God to serve Jesus, and why I still believed it was the end of the world.

That's when a young good-looking guy starting bumping my chair from behind. At first I got very annoyed with him and told him off. He kept smiling and laughing at me and insisting I talk to him. In a normal circumstance, I would have probably been flattered but I wasn't. In fact I wondered if it was Satan trying to prevent me from witnessing to this girl who was my friend.

After all, it might be my last chance to save her before the end of America. Now it is important to note here, that this was about 1 1/2 years after I had gone home for Christmas.

My friend Carmen picked up a guy and so did her cousin. They were dancing and laughing and so forth and even invited them to sit at our table! I was really annoyed now.

The guy behind me waited until they all were up dancing and I sat alone at the table and came to sit at my table with me. I told him I wasn't interested in talking to him and he kept laughing and telling me he liked me and insisting on a dance. Then he knocked my purse by accident on the floor.

There were lipsticks rolling around and, there we were on our knees, under the table, with me trying frantically to scoop up all my belongings as quickly as I could. Now I was really mad, thinking he was trying to rob me.

Well, he wore me down and finally got me laughing too with his wit and charm. Since my two friends kept telling me I was crazy not to dance with him, he was so cute, I accepted to dance with him.

We had a lot of fun, he was a great dancer and actually managed to get my phone number out of me. I told him I would never go out with him, not to bother calling. He said arrogantly that he knew I would agree to go out with him because he liked me enough to keep trying.

After several phone calls and arguments on the phone, I agreed to a date. He picked me up at my parents' and took me to a club where they were playing all Beatles music. We had a great time and he truly was sweet but I tried to preach to him. I explained to him that I was about to dedicate my life to Jesus and he should just forget about seeing me much longer. He said he completely understood and he loved Jesus too.

As we continued dating he introduced me to his two buddies with which he shared an apartment. One of them was very critical and skeptical about me. The other was very Catholic and wanted to even visit the commune with me one time.

So we will call my new boyfriend Leonard. I went to the colony and spoke to Keziah about Leonard and his friends and she hesitantly told me I could bring them for a visit.

During this time she told me about a special colony which had several families with children, babies, living there. She asked me if I had anything I wished to give from my "forsake all" that could help these struggling families. "Matthew 99" was at this colony and took me in their truck to visit this colony.

When I visited a very slim girl with big eyes and long black hair greeted me at the door. Her name was Rainbow and she was carrying a baby about 6 months old. She was only about my age. Toddling along behind her was two other children about a year and 2 years old. They were all crying.

Bouncing the smallest on one hip and struggling to pick the second one up, she smiled politely and said, "God bless you." The third child with the runny nose was winning and hanging on to her leg. She invited me in, introduced herself, and asked me to sit down in the living room.

"Are these all yours?" I asked. She laughed and told me only the smallest was, but the mothers were out witnessing and she was minding them.

She asked me about myself and about my stay in the family and so forth, what my Bible name was, who my shepherds were, and so forth.

When she was comfortable with what I was saying, that I was not an "enemy," she began to take me on a tour of the house. They needed diapers, pacifiers, milk, high chairs, carriages, bedding for cribs, etc. They needed everything, basically. I was amazed at how she managed to juggle all three kids, keep talking, and continue smiling all the time and preaching.

I offered to take one of them but she insisted not.

Later on, the commune shepherd and his wife showed up and offered to drive me to the grocery store.

I ended up emptying my savings account, which I had built up over my year of working, $900.00. At the store I bought diapers, sleeping bags, baby food, milk, eggs, a highchair, carriage, etc. I spent over $400 in two stores. Then the leader told me the truck needed repairs and I gave him the rest of the money.

I felt so sorry for those mothers without even snowsuits or proper food for their kids. So they told me God would bless me for helping his missionaries and prophets.

Back at the commune where Amaziah and Keziah were, I was called in to Amaziah's office to talk.

He told me they had been praying about Leonard and believed it was God's will to bring him in to the fold. He seemed like a sheep. Amaziah said God would not want me back in until my mission was fulfilled.

When I went home I was very confused and began praying frantically as to what to do. I liked Leonard a great deal but had never thought of marriage! So I asked the Lord to give me a clear sign if it was His will. Now that meant some sort of magical happening.

The first thing I took as a sign was that I told Leonard that I was definitely leaving him to re-join the COG and he got very upset and said he did not know if he could stand it without me.

Then one day I asked my mother out of the blue what she would think if I said I was going to marry Leonard. She said he seemed like a very nice boy and why, was I in love with him.

That was the second sign I thought God had given me.

The third came when we were talking on the phone and I was telling Leonard about a dream I had and he said he had had almost the identical dream. I took that to mean we were in tune spiritually with each other. Then finally, he actually asked me to marry him.

I got so excited and spaced out I ran out the door and actually began hitchhiking to his place alone.

I felt as if since I was doing God's will, nothing would touch me. A car stopped with two young guys in it. I got in the back and they started driving, asking me where I was going. It is incredible how much danger I was placing myself in. Suddenly I realized we were driving over an overpass straight in to the headlights of on-coming traffic!!! I screamed and so did they. They managed to pull over to the very side and stop. They were so close to the edge that one car passed and actually scraped the side of their car. I think they were drunk or high on drugs to have driven on to the pass in that direction.

So I simply jumped out of the car and ran off the bridge. They sat there yelling at me to come back.

Needless to say Leonard never found out about this. He would have been very angry at me for hitchhiking.

Things moved like a whirlwind after this. He started working double shifts at work to put money in the bank for us to get married. I got another job during this time and started saving.

We were visiting the commune every weekend and even reading Mo letters together and the Bible and going out witnessing with the group. Leonard was in training at his job, how to do printing, and he also was able to play the guitar and sang beautifully. Yet his two friends were not too happy with the change they saw in Leonard and were polite but suspicious of me.

It seemed to bother them that I was still a virgin. One of his friends was making fun of me and telling Leonard that he did not believe me, that at 19 very few girls were still virgins.

I went to a doctor and found out that I was too small and had to have an operation to have my passage opened up and my hymen broken in order to be able to make love. I went through the operation and Leonard was very sweet and brought me long-stem roses in the hospital and everything.

I still was not head over heels in love with him. But I was willing to go through all of this to fulfill my mission to God, to the family.

My parents had no clue what Leonard and I were doing. They did not know that I had agreed to marry him on only 1 condition, that he join with me. He agreed to that.

Little did I know it then, but I was obeying the whole set of new Mo letters called, "Flirty-fishing."

You see, I was allowed to read some of the new material from Mo, but not the DO ones yet.

My parents had a church wedding, my whole family was there, and his. We had a party at my mother's and moved in to the apartment that Leonard had with his friends. They had moved out.

During the next 7 months, we had one or two couples from the COG living with us at all times. They would let us buy the food, give them money for transportation, they would read the Mo letters and bible with us every night. On the weekends they would take us out witnessing with them. Handing out literature, the Mo letters. All money we would get in donations would, of course, go to the couple.

Then it happened. I was starting to really love Leonard, very much. Amaziah sent my first teacher Matthew 99 to live with us. Just him alone.

He spent extra time with me and kept everything so clean and he was so nice. One day when Leonard was at work on a late shift, Matthew 99 told me the time had come, God would not tolerate my delaying any more, I should do as Jesus told his disciples, "Follow me."

I tried to argue that Leonard was not ready yet. Matthew 99 told me that I had done what God told me to do about him and it was up to Leonard to choose now to serve God or not.

I was quite upset but he came with me to empty my bank accounts and stop by my work to give in my resignation and I even had the nerve before I left to hand everyone a Mo letter before I walked out.

My boss told me that I should wait before collecting my last pay, in case I changed my mind. He was truly upset.

When I got home, I left Leonard a note saying where I was going and told him to follow me.

He was going crazy, I am sure. Many years later my mother told me he phoned them upset, crying, asking them what he should do.

It took about two or three weeks for him to hand in his resignation at work, break his lease and sell some of his stuff, but he did come to join me.

I will go to the next stage of this in my next installment. The story takes a deeper and stranger twist after this. My parents were very upset too.


End of Part VI I