DO 27774/91

—Storytime with Grandpa!

Second Stay in London!

1. (David: Thank You Jesus for this storytime that we can have with Grandpa. Thank You for his telling us these fun stories & for how You've really been anointing him to be able to remember all these things that happened so long ago. We really pray that You'll bless & anoint him tonight too as he tells us the story. Please strengthen him & bring all things back to his remembrance like You said You would, in Jesus' name.) Amen!

2. Praise the Lord! Thank You Lord! Is everybody happy? (Kids: Yes!) Did you have a good day? (Kids: Yes!) I was just about to tell you the miracle story of our second stay in London‚ having left the U.S. in September of 1970 & gone clear to Israel & Cyprus & back to London. We were in Cyprus from January to April of 1971‚ & we arrived back in London‚ as I recall, on April 17th. I remember that date because of a funny story that I'll tell you about next time!

Search for a Room!

3. As I told you last time, we had phoned Mrs. Sieben from the boat for reservations, but couldn't get any. And then when we arrived on her doorstep, she was still full! Therefore we asked to leave our luggage in her hallway while we went out to look for a room. We went to all the places they suggested, but nobody had a room! This was the beginning of tourist season & the tourists were beginning to flood in, especially all the kids who stayed in these cheap places like we did! We still had some money‚ but we couldn't afford to pay the kind of prices that the fine hotels of London had to offer!

4. I'll never forget one unpleasant experience that we had that first night while we were looking for a place to stay.—Which shows you how you can form your ideas of a person or a whole denomination, for that matter. We were passing by an Anglican church, the Church of England, which is a very formal church‚ almost like the Catholics. I saw the residence of the pastor there, which they usually have next door, & I said to Mama, "Let's go knock on his door, he might have some idea of where there are rooms for rent."

5. So we knocked on his door & he finally came to the door. I think he tore himself away from the TV. He opened it about two or three inches & didn't even look at us, didn't even look at our eyes or anything. He just said very gruffly, "Yes, what do you want!" We said, "We thought you might happen to know of someone who rents rooms or might have a room to rent for us. We have no place to stay tonight." "No, no! I don't know anybody!"—Bang! Can you imagine, a Christian, a pastor of a church, not even wanting to help us? And we were nice-looking people, well-dressed, we weren't bums. I think if it had been me I would have invited the people in, at least to chat or have tea or something! He was probably watching one of his favourite TV shows & didn't want to be interrupted. He was a very selfish pastor, & that gave me a very bad impression of the Church of England, I'll tell you!

6. So the church having refused us & rejected us & sent us away empty–handed like Joseph & Mary from the inn—no room in the inn—we went on down the street knocking at doors & asking if they had rooms, or if they knew of anybody who had rooms. Finally this young teenage girl came out of her house & said, "I don't know if they have room or not, but I'll take you to see my friends a few doors up."—Which turned out to be a hippy commune! She said, "I'll go ask them. You can come with me."

7. So we knocked on their door, & first a girl answered, & then she went to get the head of the home, a young fellow about 30 years old. The girl who had answered the door was the one he was living with there‚ & they had several other young people living there, about a dozen all together.

8. He said, "We could put you up for at least a night until you can find something else." It just so happened that two of the kids who normally stayed there hadn't shown up that night, so they let us stay in their room, & we were very thankful. (Techi: That's better than the pastor did!) Yes, exactly! It's what the pastor should have done. It shows you how selfish some Christians are—church people! Here was this unbelieving hippy who showed more love & compassion & concern than a pastor of the Church of England!

9. We were so tired, we didn't even feel like going back & getting our suitcases from Mrs. Sieben's, & since we couldn't stay there more than overnight anyhow, we just decided to come in as we were & sleep in our clothes on top of the bed. I remember he gave us a big thick blanket to put over us to keep us warm. That was April, 1971‚ & here we are now just 20 years later from that, April, 1991! How about that!

10. So we stayed with the hippies, & God bless them, they also invited us to have dinner with them. They had quite a sparse meal, really very little, but we enjoyed it & we got acquainted with the rest of the young people & told them about our Work & our Hippy Colony in Texas & invited them to visit us if they ever made any trips to the U.S., etc. We all wound up with a very good feeling & friendliness, etc.‚ & then we went to bed‚ because we were really tired. We had walked & walked trying to find a room, & we'd just come in to London that very day.

11. We literally hadn't stopped since we left Cyprus! We did, however, have a relaxing time in that lovely stateroom on the ship before we landed at Genova & took a train to Paris‚ & from there to Calais, & a ferry to Dover, & a train to London & a taxi out to Mrs. Sieben's! So we'd been travelling a lot & we were tired! We really slept, Mama & I!

12. The next morning we slept quite late. I think we got up about 10 or something like that, & by that time everyone but the guy's girlfriend had all eaten breakfast & gone out to their jobs, etc. So we got up & she invited us to have a cup of coffee & a roll or something, & we were very thankful for that.

13. We had a very sweet time talking with this girl & we were able to talk to her personally about the Lord & how He can solve all of her problems, & she was really beginning to blossom. She was very receptive & very sheepy. We talked so long that her boyfriend came home for lunch & found us still sitting there talking to her, & he was very jealous! He didn't like the way she was receiving us & how she was accepting what we had to say.—And he showed it! He made some snide remarks about "how long were we going to stay," etc. And we said, "Well, we're going to go out today again to try & find a room." He said, "Well, fine. I'm glad to have had you," blah blah.

14. So we left to go & try to find a room, & suddenly we were reminded of Mama Helen, the lady next door to Mrs. Sieben's who hadn't been home the night before. We thought we'd check there again just in case, & it turned out that she had just gotten back from her holiday in Majorca that very morning, & she had a nice big room for us! So we went & collected our luggage from Mrs. Sieben's & put them in our new room where we would be staying for a few weeks before returning to the States.

15. When it came time to leave London, we booked our reservations on the plane, & you had to even book your seats on the bus to the airport!—Which was not Heathrow airport, but some little airline that flew from Gatwick Airport. Heathrow is far enough, it's about 10 or 15 miles West of London, but Gatwick is about 30 miles (45 km.) South.

16. We had to dump anything heavy, anything big‚ like the books we had accumulated along the way, including a great big beautiful book of pictures of Israel called "The Land of the Dream." It's more like the land of the Nightmare! It's a famous book by the guy who founded Zionism, Theodor Herzl. He is the one who encouraged the Jews to go back to Palestine. There was no Israel then, it was still Palestine in his day.

17. (Techi: What exactly is Zionism‚ is it a religion?) Well, it is a religion with them, in a sense. It's the return of Jews to Israel. For Jews to want to return to Israel is called Zionism.—In other words, return to Zion. Not all Jews are Zionists, but most support those who are.

18. So we cut down our luggage because we were going to have to go by plane now, & we had accumulated quite a bit of luggage during the time we had been in Europe & Israel & Cyprus, including a lot of books. So we tried to cut down all we could, & as I recall, we cut it down to just two big suitcases & our carry-on bags.

"Judas" Letter!

19. The night before we left London I finished writing a Letter I'd been wanting to write about a revelation I received about Jethro a month before, while we were still in Cyprus. It's about what made Judas what he was & why he became a backslider, turncoat* & betrayer. *(turncoat: person who changes sides & becomes an enemy) (Techi: So how did you know Jethro was being like that?) Well‚ I got it from the Lord that he was going to be a Judas. I thought I'd better tell the folks back home what I feared about Jethro. (Techi: How did they react?) Well, they all were suspicious of him already because of the way he & Deborah were acting.

20. (Techi: And how did he take it?) Well, I don't think he read it to his own Colony or distributed it until I got back & insisted that if he didn't want to read it, that somebody else should read it to the Colony. I never mentioned him by name at all in the Letter. It was a study on Judas‚ really, so it was sort of indirect & it was by inference so that they would get the point that he would most likely turn against us.

Bus to the Airport, Lost Radio!

21. That afternoon we went down to the bus station with our luggage. You could check in your luggage right there at the bus station & they would go ahead & put it on the plane for you, etc. It was about a 30-mile (45-km.) ride, which is actually about a two-hour ride through London traffic to Gatwick Airport.

22. We got off the bus, went into the air terminal, & I accidentally left my little radio on the bus. That's the only time we'd ever lost anything on our whole trip, outside of that strap on our suitcase that we lost in Rome. I had this little bag which was sort of like my overnight case with my shaving materials, toothpaste & toothbrush & this little tiny radio that we had used on our entire trip to listen to BBC. It was very small & it was also a clock.

23. I wish I had carried it in my pocket, but to be a little more comfortable, I stuck it in the overhead rack‚ & it was so small that when I got up & looked around in the rack I couldn't see it, so I forgot I'd stuck it up there & left it there. And‚ oh, I was heartbroken when I found out it was gone & we'd left it behind. We left word with "Lost & Found" & asked them if they had found it‚ etc., but they hadn't, & I knew they wouldn't take the trouble to send it all the way to Texas, so I just let it go.

Flight to New York!

24. So we boarded our plane‚ an overnight flight to New York, & we slept most of the way back. As I recall, this was a through flight. There was no stopover in Iceland because it wasn't Icelandic Airways this time. It was something we had gotten really cheap through a tip from the lady where we usually ate our suppers while we were in London.—That little Irish restaurant, remember? When she found out we were planning to go back to the U.S. she said, "I'll give you a tip on how to get cheap tickets!" And we got the tickets so cheap, it was almost unbelievable! It was some kind of a return flight for this club, & they had a lot of empty seats. The tickets were about $65 apiece. Even on Icelandic we had paid $100 apiece, so it was dirt cheap! It was a miracle of the Lord, I'm sure, because we didn't have a lot of money.

The Dalrich Motel!

25. We then drove from New York to Texas, which was about 1,500 miles (2,400 km.). We had phoned ahead & arranged for them to get us a motel room in Dallas. We didn't want to go any further than Dallas, & Dallas was a handy place to meet with the leadership. So they got us a nice little motel room, very reasonably priced, at the Dalrich Motel. I think it was called "Dalrich" because it was between Dallas & Richmond, Texas. It even had a little oval swimming pool.

26. I remember meeting a nice lady there who was just getting over an appendectomy*, of all things, & there she was out swimming. *(appendectomy: medical operation in which your appendix is removed) She introduced me to her little boy who was there & said, "If I leave him here, will you watch over him & make sure he's all right?" Because he was screaming to stay. You know how kids are when they don't want to get out of the water. So I kidded around with him & I was talking with him & witnessing a little.

27. But he wanted to know, "Who are you? Where are you from?" So I jokingly told him I was an alien from Outer Space! (Techi: You told him you were from Outer Space!) Yes, I said, "I'm a Spaceman!" He was about eight years old & his eyes widened. I said‚ "Yes, I'm from the Moon, that's where my Home is!"—I figured that was a good place to tell him I was from, & that was true‚ because we're all Spacemen & our Home is out there in Outer Space! Even though we're in this World, we're not of it—we're aliens! Well, he kept looking at me, & all of a sudden he began to cry, got out of the pool real fast & went running back to his mother! Poor boy, I'm sorry I scared him!

28. It was a very nice little set of rooms. As I recall, it even had a kitchenette. We wanted a big enough set of rooms so that different ones of the leadership could come & visit us, so we had a big double bed in one bedroom, two single beds in another, & a little kitchenette where we could cook & eat, etc.

29. We wanted to speak to some of the under-leaders who had reported what was going on with Jethro & Deborah, so I asked Rachel to come‚ & Joel & Martha & Shiphrah & a few others, I can't remember who they all were right now. I mean, the Work was at stake & I didn't know what would happen! The Work had now spread to a lot of cities in the United States & was growing bigger all the time, so it was important that we try to get the leadership straightened out.

30. So after I'd heard the stories from all the various ones about what Jeth & Deb were up to‚ finally we invited them to come out. And they came & we had some real serious talks with each of them.

"He Stands in the Gap!"

31. While we were still in London I had the vision of the silver knight, who turned out to be Abner, standing in the gap. (David: Was that "Stand in the Gap" or "He Stands in the Gap"?) The first vision was "Stand in the Gap" (ML #70), & that was even before Abner went to be with the Lord. Then at the Dalrich Motel, upon hearing of Abner's death, I had another vision of Abner, where his face appeared just below the ceiling of our room, & he explained to us that he had accepted the Lord's invitation to go to help with our spiritual security. (See "A Heavenly Visitor," ML #72, "He Stands in the Gap!"‚ ML#73A, & "Heaven the Way I See It!"‚ ML#2123.)

32. Abner had been killed at TSC in a motorcycle accident. He & Jeth were riding these two big motorcycles, the rascals, & Abner hit a rock. They were obviously riding too fast for a dirt trail out on the Ranch. (David: Was he wearing a helmet?) No, neither one of them had helmets on. (Techi: What was he wearing, nothing?) Oh, just his usual cap that he wore. (Techi: The one with the ear flaps that went down?) No, because it was Summertime. His front wheel hit a rock or ditch & he went flying off through the air & landed with his head on a rock.

33. He was in a coma for a few hours but finally died on May 10th at the local hospital. He was knocked out completely, a concussion, & he never regained consciousness or spoke after that.

34. (Techi: So why did you get that first vision?) If you remember reading that Letter, "Stand in the Gap‚" it was a very important & significant vision to have right then. The vision was of a city on fire within, which had caused the wall to crumble in one place. But the people were so busy fighting the fires of their own troubles inside the city, they didn't notice the enemy was outside making plans to attack them through the breach in the wall!

35. Then all of a sudden a great knight appeared in the gap facing the enemy‚ & the fire suddenly went out! God put it out! That was like Abner praying for us from On High to unite & stop the gaps & stop the fires of bickering between each other. You read the Letter & you'll see what I mean. There was a lot of disunity & bickering & arguments represented by flames in the vision etc. So then all the people joined with the Knight to fight the enemy & repair the breach, & a wind came down from Heaven & put out all the fires & the people closed up the gaps & the enemy gave up—the enemies who were peering at us from the woods ready to attack.

36. So they accepted that as a warning from the Lord & took it seriously. We had a real good prayer session, the leaders all prayed, each group that came, that the Lord would solve the situation, which was very serious. This disagreement & division of leadership & all could have destroyed the Family. So "Deth & Jeb" decided to try to stick it out—that's what I accidentally called them sometimes, & that's what they eventually amounted to.

From Dallas to Texoma Lake Park!

37. We'd been having a lot of people visiting us there at the motel for meetings & all, & we'd had a lot of conversations on the telephone. Until one day, I saw some line men stringing a new line across the roof right above our apartment! I wondered what in the world was going on. I saw them up there from my little balcony. They said, "We're just putting in some new telephone lines." Well, we were having enough trouble with enemies right then that we were concerned that maybe somebody had reported that "there are some strange people there, acting strangely, a lot of people visiting this apartment," & that maybe the cops had decided to put in a bug to find out what it was all about!

38. So we decided it was time to leave! We'd finished our business, gotten things back together. So I said, "Jeth, bring the Ark to town, we're going to have to leave!" So he did, & we packed up & moved back into the Ark & went back up to a park where we had stayed before, across the state line. I figured we'd be safer out of Texas, over across Texoma Lake in Oklahoma.

39. So we left Dallas in the Cruiser—the Ark—& that's as far as we have time to go tonight! Okay? (Kids: Okay!) Praise the Lord! And next time I'll tell you about the interesting time we had from there on! Praise the Lord! Anybody want to close in prayer? (Techi: Yes! Amen, thank You Jesus! Thank You, Lord‚ for this good story that Grandpa has been giving us. Thank You for how much fun it is. Please bless him‚ Jesus, & bless the rest of this evening, in Jesus' name, amen.) Amen, praise the Lord!—And GBY! TYJ!

Picture captions:

Page 2:

He said, "We could put you up for at least a night until you can find something else."

Page 5:

Desperate prayer at Dalrich Motel.

Page 6:

Our big 26-foot Dodge Home Camper, the Ark!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family