—Sept.1970-May 1971.—22 years ago!DO 2799-41971

—Dad Describing Slides to Family in 1971!

London!

1. Well, we just made quite a jump in this picture, all the way from Cyprus to London! And here we are crossing the Thames—not London Bridge, which hasn't fallen down, but was sold to an Arizonian. Looking across the City of London, here's the House of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Cathedral & all of those famous places on a rather dark, gloomy day in London.

2. And here are a couple of Flower Children at rest looking at one of your publications about you.—A couple of baggage boys resting amongst the baggage at Victoria Station‚ the main train station of London.

3. Here's another weary, worn-out traveller (Dad!) sitting in the tube.—Not a test-tube, but the underground. He belongs to the underground (of religion). This underground happens to be a London subway.

4. And here is his London attic garret with his sweet little secretary looking at you from the upper window there where the light is. Oh! In this next photo, we've already jumped clear inside of the room! He is lying on the bed looking at the new album which you made up for him & enjoying your pictures very much, & maybe you can even recognise who the photos are of.

5. And on the table is his Sword (Bible) & his radio & his little electric shaver that you gave him, which would have been awful nice if it only had run on 220 instead of 110 volts! Just remember when you go to Europe or the Mediterranean, forget about any electrical appliances that can't be switched over to 220 or 250 volts. They just won't work over there. You can burn up your appliances in nothing flat! Besides that, the plug probably won't even fit! They have monstrous plugs that even have fuses in'm in that part of the World.

6. Our lovely fourth story garret apartment—or rather room, one room—overlooked this lovely rose garden.

7. Here are three lovely roses in the garden.—Who happen to include one of our hostesses, Mrs. Seiben‚ on the left, & Jonesie, her left-hand man, in the middle‚ & a lovely little hippie (Maria!) from America who is wearing our emblem. It's a beautiful rose garden. The English pride themselves on the beauty of their gardens, & of course, here it was at the change of season so it had not come into full bloom yet.

8. And here is something you don't want to miss in London, or in the Mediterranean: Your room includes a free breakfast! And in case you don't know it, you might be losing money by not eating it. And one way to make sure you get out of bed in the morning is to go to that part of the World, where you get this free breakfast, which no self-respecting Jew would ever miss, since it's free. Here he is eating his English breakfast. (Dad!) Sorry you can't see it so well.

9. And in England it's really something, with eggs, bacon‚ toast, tea & all you want to eat, & quite often baked beans or a slab of meat. A real English breakfast is not to be sneezed at, but to be swallowed with glee, & we were very thankful for it—enough good food to keep you going nearly all day! So don't forget that lovely English breakfast. You get the bed & breakfast for about what you'd pay for nothing but breakfast in the U.S.

10. Here are a couple of my many "girlfriends" who we witnessed to in London, Becky & Toni, who are from New Jersey & have offered their home for us if we ever come by, very sweet little travellers, & charming (photo #10). We talked to them late into the night, a very interesting time of witnessing. They were very thrilled with what we had to say, had tears in their eyes & really moved in the Lord's direction, & we hope that God will bring them through.

11. Here's a typical English street in the background, where we were living, & there's me in between them.

12. Ah! Our hippie family in London! Mrs. Seiben is the tall white-haired lady with Jackie‚ the maid. Then there was this guru fellow who looks like Elliot Gould, doesn't he?—Who was a typical American student. And then Dora, she was a doll—tall, about six-foot, a willowy, gorgeous brunette from New England, as I recall, who slept on one of the cots in our room when the house got crowded. This was a regular hippie house, & whenever it got crowded, we all shacked up together. We frequently had two or three other girls in the room with us, because we hated to see these poor kids turned away with no place to sleep. And everybody seemed to be happy‚ & a good time was had by all. Our little travellers were there, too, plus another girl, & another very cute little American semi–hippie tourist. (Maria!)

13. There was a boy swimming here & he ducked under just about the time we took the picture. Well, I hope he's not going down for the third time! This beautiful lifeguard (Maria!) is keeping an eye on him! This is out in the London suburbs, a typical big city, only London is an unusual city. People are very polite, kind, courteous, gentlemanly & chivalrous. We were amazed! There was no hustle-bustle or shoving or pushing in the subway. People politely wait for you to get off & stand aside & motion to you‚ & they're just charming!

14. The British are charming people, just about the most charming people we've met in the whole World. That good old thousand years of Christian culture has really taken effect, at least on their mores & their manners, & they are wonderful people. The Bible is even taught in the public school daily as one of the regular courses‚ whether they believe it or not. But it does seem to have a lot of good influence. The Word of God is powerful & it has resulted in a wonderful people in the English.

15. This is a couple making love in the park, & they were really going to it! (photo #13) We didn't stick around long enough to see how far they went‚ but they were sure busy & I thought I'd get a nice little picture of the freedom of the sexes & the permissive society of London where almost anything goes. Here you can see a sexy girl relaxing in the park in the sunshine there. (Maria! Photo #14)—And behind her, almost out of sight, there's another couple getting it together.

16. And I'll tell you, if there's anything about Hyde Park, it's that it's way out, Man! Really way out! Here we are actually in the underground, pointing to a sign which means this is the way to go out to Hyde Park. They don't use the word "Exit," they always use the words "Way Out." So many things in London subways are "Way Out"! Oh, I forgot to mention the fact that you notice this young lady's pointing upward to show you that really the only way out is up, for all of us! Amen?

17. And so here she is (Maria, photo #16), an American tourist in, not Paris, but London‚ on a rainy day, & we didn't have many of them‚ thank the Lord. London was a surprise to us; it's a delightful climate, mild & mostly sunny, with virtually no smog, smoke or fog. They have cured that problem by forbidding any more soft coal fires, etc., & London has a delightful Spring-like climate with only a few days of rain‚ a very charming, delightful, beautiful city, unusually quiet. They don't allow honking of horns, the traffic speeds by, all the little cars don't make much noise, & you stand there amazed at the quietness even right downtown in some of the public squares, with thousands of cars going by almost virtually silently, & it's just really beautiful!—Such a relief from the horrible Hell on Earth of New York City!

18. But one place that isn't quiet is Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, & they're plenty noisy here even on a rainy day. Anybody that has something to say, all he has to do is bring his sign along with him to Speaker's Corner & he can talk on anything from Communism to nudism, or Buddhism, & they were really going at it!—Including this dear little old lady preacher with her teeth out, telling you that the End is at hand! She had her co-worker there holding up the sign while she preached away, & everybody enjoyed her‚ she was so funny! She was really socking it to'm, I'll tell you!

19. Compared to Hyde Park‚ the stiff‚ dignified, prosaic, old-fashioned Salvation Army is a hangover of the past. Even the beautiful double-decker red bus in the background is more exciting than the Salvation Army marching traditionally down a London street playing one of the old hymns. But it was kind of a nostalgic old sight, reminiscent of the days when Booth first founded them to be real soul–winners & get out in the streets & really witness. Now it's a mere form & formality that they go through. They do their little march from their little churchy building & they stand on the street corner & do their little ditties & say a few words & march back home, & they've done their little duty for God.

20. But the real live place is down in Picadilly Circus where you can see the drugsters standing around shooting dope right on the street & in doorways, so that they call it Junkie Corner. Because heroin is virtually legal there. If you're an addict, you can get a doctor's prescription for many drugs that are forbidden over here. They just go in a drugstore & have it filled out & sit down on the curb & shoot. And so there are oodles of junkies sitting around. They claim that due to the legalised drugs, though, that drugs have not been as great a problem in England as they have been in the U.S., because only a few young people seem to be involved in drugs, but it is a growing problem. As you can see here, we tried to get a picture of some of these young people, a whole group of them were staggering down the street arm-in-arm. However‚ most of the people at Picadilly Circus seemed to be American tourists down there to spend their money.

21. But this is a special place there at the underground station where they seem to hang out, including all the pickpockets, who managed to get my change purse one night with a little over a Dollar in it, or that is, about half a Pound. They used a very good system, a team of three of them, & it was really amazing the way they did it. I didn't know it was gone till I missed it afterwards. I'll have to tell you about that some other time.

22. But we met a boy here on this corner who, when we took this picture, immediately confronted us. He was very intelligent-looking‚ but a rather tough lower East-side type of character, a young fellow, 23, named Raymond. He turned out to be the leader of the gang & a pusher & immediately wanted to know if we were working with the police. Well, we reassured him we weren't‚ we were working with the Heavenly forces, & he immediately began to try to argue religion.

23. But it soon turned out he was quite hungry, & finally after about an hour we prayed with him & he prayed with us. As we were praying for him he told us his name was Raymond. I think he said his name was Tom Smith at first, but right in the middle of our prayer when we kept calling him Tom, he said‚ "Hey, tell Him my name is Raymond, will ya?" And he actually was really concerned about the prayer. He said, "And please pray for my wife & baby, will ya?" He said this is a terrible life to lead & he said, "I'd like to get out of it." I think we got his address, didn't we? We've got a lot of interesting contacts there in London. So this gang leader was really sincere & there were tears in his eyes.

24. This is another scene, you can't see it very well, it's almost dark at Victoria Station. (photo #20) Those double-decker buses are great! Someone brought one to the States to travel around in, they camped in it. They had their cooking & living room downstairs in one of those big double-decker buses, & their bedrooms upstairs. It really has got a lot of room in it. It's a little top-heavy‚ of course, but man, you ought to see the way they go! They really go fast, don't they? And they slam on their brakes! It's one harum–scarum scary ride, like a roller coaster, riding on one of those buses, especially upstairs!

25. This interested fellow is not hypnotising us, but being fascinated by us as we show him your pictures, & he's intrigued with the idea & the story. I don't know whether he ever came to visit you at your place in Texas, but he was thrilled about it & he said he was a seaman on his way to New Orleans, I think, or Houston, by boat, & he said he'd certainly try to come & visit us. His name is Mr. Walker, & I don't know whether you ever saw him there or not, if he ever got out to TSC‚ but he was sure interested & he was really looking for a place to serve the Lord. He was a Christian & really loved the Lord.

26. We met him in our little Italian restaurant in London, of all places.—An Italian restaurant in England, frequented almost entirely by Irishmen & two Americans—us!—And where you can get a good stew steak dinner with more mashed potatoes than you can possibly eat, & delicious vegetables & everything for only 48 cents! That's four Shillings‚ the equivalent of 48 cents, so we therefore ate dinner there nearly every day after our free breakfast in the morning. These two main meals comprised our usual diet. A free breakfast & 48-cent dinner wasn't doing too bad!

27. This next photo is a very charming West Indies couple, as you can see, & we had a lovely conversation with them. They are extremely charming people. You notice the various shades‚ because there isn't much discrimination, & has been none until recently. The English are beginning to worry, though, about the large volume of natives of various African countries & India & the Indies, etc., pouring into London to seek a fortune because they're so poor in these other countries. But if they happen to be from a Commonwealth country, part of the British Commonwealth, then they have some access to come to London & find jobs there. Most of the menial jobs are held by foreigners in London. In fact, you'll find almost more foreigners in London from all over the World than you will Englishmen. This couple was very interested in our Work.

28. Here's a common sight in the London underground, especially when it's rainy outdoors: Some typical hippie kids, the youth down there trying to panhandle with a little music. The main guitarist has a mouth harp on a frame, close to his mouth, & that beautiful girl's name is Carol & we have her address. She was fascinated by what we were telling her about you folks & she said she'd love to come & work with us & play in our coffeehouse or something, & she was holding the bag that she passed around to take up the collection after each number. This is the way a lot of the kids there earn their drug money.—Not "pin money" (money for incidental expenses), but needle money.

29. Here's their interested audience seated along the corridor of the underground. They belong to the typical London underground, which means a subway, & are just average London kids sitting there listening to the music. This sort of thing (busking) is illegal, but the dear Bobbies (police) of London are some of the sweetest things you'd ever want to run into, very good-natured‚ happy fellows.—And you see very few of them around because there's almost no violence in London, very little crime. People are so nice & there's such freedom & a permissive society. Sex is free, & apparently nobody is worried too much about money, so they're very gentle people & there's very little violence. (There have been a lot of changes in 20 years‚ though. It's not the same any more & there are riots, protests, etc.) But these hungry kids sitting here are just as hungry for the Lord as they are anywhere in the World. And I hope you can save them!—Amen? God bless you & make you a blessing! We love you!

Handwritten note from Dad:

(—Amen!—So many wonderful places & folks to witness to in Europe & the East!—And so hungry!—We had a wonderful time pioneering there for you!—And oh, how you've grown!—From a few to thousands! GBY!—And now the door is open to Russia & the East waiting for you! What a Miracle! WLY!—D.)

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family