—Sept.1970-May 1971DO 2799-31971

—22 years ago!

—Dad Describing Slides to Family in 1971!

Mr. Jean's Hotel in Cyprus!

1. Here is our Greek/French host at the little family hotel where you not only get your rooms, but you get your meals at a very reasonable price, & he's always courteously offering us wine, especially his favourite sherry, especially to this cute little American tourist here. (Maria!) He loved to try to get her "liquored up," as he did all the girls, as a typical Frenchman would. He was very charming & looked loquacious (talkative) & was always talking, a well-known man all over Cyprus. Everybody chuckles when they think about Mr. Jean, because he's a great talker with a good sense of humour. He's also quite a philosopher, as well as a dogmatic atheist, sad to say. No matter how much you'd talk to him‚ he'd explode every time you talked about God. He became very embittered as an orphan in a Jesuit orphanage & never wanted to hear about God again. He apparently had some bad experiences with the Jesuit priests.

2. There's his son Frank standing beside him (photo #1), a very charming, sweet, quiet little boy, very intelligent, who was very much interested in the comic books we bought him about Jesus & Bible stories in Greek. They are Greek. Mr. Jean is a French Greek, mostly French, really, but he married a German wife. And the boy is a very intelligent little boy.

3. Oh, you notice that fireplace behind us there roaring? It was Wintertime! It was cold in Cyprus even in the Wintertime. Although it's a Mediterranean country‚ like Israel, it's an island & is ordinarily colder than Israel. They were having an unusual cold spell, the coldest spell in many many years while we were there. But thanks to our little heater & hot plate, we managed to keep warm. Mr. Jean was always happy to try to build us a nice fire in his lobby fireplace to keep us well heated‚ & it was very cheery, we enjoyed it.

4. We had many many religious discussions with these old boys, these old drinking buddies in the lobby of the hotel, with sometimes quite an audience.—Mr. Jean always managing to get around to God & religion somehow & getting hot under the collar & arguing about it, while I tried to keep sweet. I really enjoyed him, though, he was really funny. And all the time I think he really believes in God, but he's mad at Him because of the experiences he went through—he lost his first dear wife, the dearest person in the World to him.

5. And Mr. Tom who you see there with the big handlebar moustache—that is not Kaiser Wilhelm, neither is it one of the cough drop brothers (Referring to a brand of cough drops which has a picture of two brothers on the box with handlebar moustaches.)—but that happens to be Mr. Thomas, & he was a very very charming host to us, very sweet. He's pure Greek, a salesman, & usually sat there very quietly all evening, never said much at all. Once in a while we got him to open up & talk a little bit. He had real strong faith in God & the Bible & Jesus, & could even quote Scripture because he was a regular Bible reader. He belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church, but he had a simple, sincere, rather childlike faith.—And he used to get so mad at Jean when he would talk against God or the Bible.

6. Here we are in an earnest discussion with dear Mr. Thomas, as you can see. He is listening very intently about our way of life, & that cute little American hippie girl (Maria) sitting there with that gleam in her eye seems to be enjoying it!

7. Here she is again (photo #4) with that old rascal (Dad) having his birthday! They gave me a piece of cake with one candle!! One year old. They never get older than that there. That's Frank beside me. And this bevy of gorgeous beauties you see around the table are all but one from dear old Sweden, my grandfather's native country. One of them was even from Kalmar, his hometown. The little girl with her chin stuck way out‚ her name was Osa, & she was practically in tears as we witnessed to her several times. I got something very special about her from the Lord & I believe that she is going to come through yet. We've told her all about our Colonies & given her the address & everything & they said they want to come visit us. They live in Sweden & were just visiting in Cyprus. They were all nurses.

8. A lot of Europeans come to Cyprus for the Winter because it's so much warmer there. We often saw these Swedish girls going swimming in the freezing cold water! They said, "Why‚ it's just like Summertime in Sweden!" This Mediterranean Winter climate was just like Summertime to them. And they were very cute.

9. The little girl next to the American tourist there (Maria), was a little cool, but the big tall one in front of Osa (photo #4), giving you that sly little smile, was a very big tall girl who was always coming in very late at night with some boy, & very cute. All of them listened with interest to what we had to say about you & your Colonies & way of life‚ & all thrilled & hoped to see us some day. They claim to be real Christians, by the way.

10. And beside the girl that's laughing there (photo #5), our hostess & cook, Catherina's mother, Jeanie, is serving us birthday cake. Although you can't see it‚ there's a mini skirt on the other little Swedish girl. Mini skirts are very popular in Europe & very very mini!

11. And here we are, our little hotel family! (photo #6) The lady in the white sweater happens to be the boss' second wife, Mrs. Jean, & Jeanie the cook is sitting next to her in black. She was Catherina's mother. Catherina, as you can see, is sitting in the foreground, a very pretty little 13-year-old French girl who acted as our waitress & worked hard all day long for very little money, & was glad to do it, just to be a big girl, & allowed to‚ apparently, in that country, where there was not much in the way of child labour laws. There's little Frank with that American tourist girl again. (Maria!)

12. Well, here's an interesting character from ... what was the name of that country he'd just come from? Morocco? This young traveller at the hotel had bought this typical Arab burnoose, a long hooded cloak‚ & he said he wore it most of the time on his travels. It kept him warm when it was cold, he'd sleep in it & everything. He said he was from that town where those people used to be called Jesus Freaks, where they had a club right on the beach in California. (Huntington Beach!) This boy is from that beach. He seemed to be kind of checking us out.

13. Here he is with Catherina. And that is an old, what do they call that kind of a grill there in the middle? I think it's called a prima–pump. It's a forerunner of the cook-out barbecue pit, & they cooked on it. So you see, those cook-outs are not anything new! The Arabs have been using them for centuries. But this guy was very suspicious. He asked too many questions, so we didn't give him any answers, & he didn't seem to be too much interested in religion or the Jews or anything but where people came from, what they were doing there, & a lot of other silly questions!

14. Here is the smallest member of the hotel family, little Victor, who his older brother Frank is feeding (photo #8). He was so cute & so smart & he waddled around the lobby there all the time saying "Hi" to everybody. He would talk to us‚ he chatted to us in his language—he was only two—& we would chatter to him in ours. In fact, in our original language that some of you know we speak sometimes (Romani), & we seemed to understand each other very well, very very friendly.

15. The charming couple you see in the background is a Swedish couple. Scandinavians & British mostly come to Cyprus in the Wintertime for the nice warm climate, even though we thought it was cold. And this charming man was connected with the UN troops there. There are a lot of Scandinavians in the UN troops. And then, of course, there are a lot of the British in the British Air Force bases, etc. So most of the folks there—outside of the Turks & Greeks—were either British or Scandinavians. The UN boys were very sweet‚ you could always spot them easily because they had that golden blonde hair with those bright blue uniforms & it was a beautiful combination‚ blue & gold, my favourite colours!

16. Here is a typical Greek bouzouki player! The bouzouki is the national instrument of the Greeks‚ & they can sing & play so beautifully on that. He came in to give us a special concert, just for our benefit, so that we could enjoy that delightful Greek music. And they danced so beautifully, it is really something when they dance.

17. Here he is still playing, & the old gent in the background there was playing the guitar. They were a couple of travelling musicians & they gave us a little concert in the lobby. I suppose they expected a little tip.

18. And here this pretty little mini-skirted girl (Maria) is showing pictures of you to that handsome bouzouki player, and he was very fascinated by you & your way of living & your faith, etc. We found young people everywhere extremely interested in this new movement of Jesus Freaks in America! That cute little short blue leather mini skirt is genuine leather, made in Cyprus, and one of their most popular products and very very cheap, dirt cheap. When she needed a little something to keep her warm in that cold weather we had to go get her something, and this was it.

19. Well, how about that! Here's another entertainer! On the rooftop of the café, here's a Jewish pianist (Dad!) entertaining no guests‚ I assure you, on top of the Esperia Hotel in Famagusta, a very beautiful view of the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea. It was a big hotel & we just went up there & used it for the nice view every once in a while. We'd get a cup of coffee or something when it wasn't busy‚ & sit in a corner & do our paperwork. "All things are yours in Christ Jesus!"

20. Now this charming couple (photo #13) were a typical Romeo & Juliet—in fact, I think we found out he was Turkish, didn't we? He spoke fluent Turkish anyhow—& his name was Panic & he usually panicked the girls! And this cute little blonde was another one of those Scandinavian girls who had come down there to be made love to by all these handsome young locals. They seemed to have quite a good time, because the poor local boys can't get as much out of the native girls because you usually couldn't even get within ten feet of a Cypriot girl unless she had her whole family along & you had already promised to marry her & been betrothed & paid her father $8,000, or something like that, in order to get married! You couldn't even touch her! So the boys like foreign girls very much & frequently stay out all night with them. Panic, however, was very very receptive to the Gospel & to our Message & very interested, & a very sweet boy when he wasn't busy holding hands with the girls.

21. This poor old Jew here (Dad!) sitting in the lobby of the hotel kept bothering everybody by playing his little tape recorder of some funny kind of music called "Mountain Children," & he kept playing it & playing it to the annoyance of all the customers, but he thought they actually needed it & would enjoy it, which some of them seemed to ignore, but some of them did seem to enjoy.

22. And here he is visiting with Demetrius, another Greek boy whose father owned a very fine restaurant right on the ocean front‚ as you can see. See the fancy hotel in the background? Famagusta, & Cyprus in general, is becoming a very favourite Winter & Summer resort now for Europeans & Mideasterners from all over, & is booming! It's going to be another Miami Beach, sad to say. And here's a Miami Beach Jew visiting it! (Dad!)

23. Demetrius had had some experience with the Jehovah's Witnesses‚ who had practically saturated the island with their doctrine, won many converts, & he was full of their doctrine, but very much interested in ours, which bore some resemblances, including witnessing, etc. He had a rich aunt in Miami who had promised to bring him over there. We told him once he got across the water to come to Texas & pay you all a visit! So he promised to do so.

24. And here are a couple of American tennis players that we saw on a tennis court there. (Dad & Maria! Photo #16) A father, an elderly–looking gentleman with this awfully young girl, but she's cute so you can't blame him, & they were there to play tennis with this charming pair in the photo below (photo #17), who were living together in what's known as a typical Swedish marriage.

25. And this tall, willowy, winsome, buxom‚ Swedish blonde with a very charming personality is a travel agent in Cyprus & has been touring around the Mediterranean for a few years. She comes from the same part of Sweden that my grandfather, in fact, my father was from, & is probably related to me. She is also one of the "five foolish virgins" (hardly virgin!) thus far‚ including Anaik, Maria Theresa & one more we have to show you yet in England. We called them the "five foolish virgins" (Mat.25:1–13) because they didn't come right away when the Lord called them. And this is her Swedish boyfriend. They're an awfully charming couple, & we had quite a bit of fellowship with them. We really witnessed hard to them, & they are very close to the Kingdom.—She is in particular, & said when she got back to Sweden with him, if she wasn't happy, she'd come to us. So we surely hope for her sake that she will come to know the Lord better.

26. Here's a little American mountain climber (Maria) viewing the rocky slopes of Cantara Castle, another of the ancient Crusader castles of Cyprus.

27. And here is foolish virgin number four, Felita, from London, England, in our little hotel room in Cyprus. She is an airline stewardess & was just about sold, but is teetering between her desire for independence & freedom & World travel on some of the World's biggest airlines‚ & her desire for fellowship & genuine happiness with us. So pray for Felita, who's looking at our photo album of the Family as she's seated in our hotel room.

28. And here is a poor weary worn-out traveller (Dad), who is attempting to organise a little Bible Study for you while sitting in the doorway of his "Mediterranean villa" consisting of one room & a balcony.

29. And here he is having a bit of communication with Headquarters before passing on the message to you.

30. And here he's getting one of the communications & visions to relay on your set. And here he is relaying a message from Headquarters to you. Now let's see, where is that verse, anyhow? It must be here somewhere. I wish I had Aaron with me, otherwise I need a concordance! The dark glasses are not to mislead you as trying to be incognito, but are due to the bright Mediterranean Spring sunshine, & he is dictating one of those epistles. When he gets his hands behind his head, he is really rolling strong & going to town! (Maria's taking the flash fotos.—D.)

(To be continued!)

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family