the address, link, url for my other blogspot

http://michaeljaffrayk.blogspot.com/

There is another address which has inverted commas before theaddress and so the link will not work.. I tried to edit it but was not able to.
once again

http://michaeljaffrayk.blogspot.com/

hope you enjoy

part one of the bio of mjk

SENDING IN THREE PARTS...
PART ONE....

THIS UNABRIDGED AND ORIGINAL AUTO BIOGRAPHY OF ABOUT 92,000 WORDS, WILL GIVE YOU A VERY GOOD IDEA AS TO HOW THE LORD JESUS CHRIST HAS USED ME AND MINE OVER THE PAST 70 YEARS TO TRY AND BRING THE GOSPEL TO OTHERS.
WE HAVE NOT ALWAYS BEEN SO SUCCESSFUL BUT WE HAVE TRIED AND ARE STILL TRYING TO THIS DAY..
I HOPE YOU WILL FIND THIS INTERESTING AND IF YOU KNOW OF ANY WAY THAT I CAN PROMoTE THIS TO A PUBLISHER AND GET SOME INCOME FROM IT, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
I HAVE WRITEN YOU RECENTLY ABOUT THIS AMAZING LITTLE BOOK, THE WAY OF THE PILGRIM... IT'S A BEST SELLING 19TH CENTURY ACCOUNT OF AN UNNAMED AUTHOR FROM RUSSIA..
THIS IS ALSO A WAY OF A PILGRIM, ME, AND I HOPE IT WILL INSPIRE YOU AND HELP BUILD YOUR FAITH IN OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.............




INDEX OF SECTIONS AND PARTS
Preface and Title...
A Stranger and a Pilgrim!
The adventures of Michael Jaffray King.

A PERSONAL LIFE'S TESTIMONY from 1938 to 2007. 69 years so far.

Dedication.
To millions of the mislead,
to Irmgard my wife and sister in the Lord, to my 11 children,
the Bodnar family Lashkay family,
the Present and former members of the COG,
and all the enemies of the Splendour of Truth.

Commendation.
EWTN. Eternal Word Television Network.

Introduction. Special you and special me.
SECTION 1. THE EARLY YEARS.
Part 1. My beginnings, Secunderabad 1938
Part 2. Links with Fatima? and Faustina?.
Part 3. My Ancestors.
Part 4. Links to King James the 1st of England and 6th of Scotland.
Part 5. Grandad Clement Horn and the Rogue Elephant.
Part 6. Heirloom, Clements's King James Bible.
Part 7. Lady Mary Osborn and her son John Aspinall, the misanthrope.
Part 8. The British Spirit.
Part 9. How the English replaced the Holy Spirit with their own spirit.
Part 10. Karachi.
Part 11. Kashmir.
Part 12.Back to Karachi for the cool weather. Joke.
Part 13. Sand Spit.
Part 14. First thoughts of eternity.
Part 15. Imminent attack by Japanese.
Part 16. First Air mishap.
Part 17. Victory Germany Day.
Part 18. Babina Tank School.
Part 19. My first very cruel act.
Part 20. My first big lie and beating.
Part 21. Dad gets his wartime officers to relax and have fun.
Part 22. Dad's disappointment.
Part 23. Voyage to England Jeffries' House.
Part 24. Bloody Partitioning of India and Pakistan.
Part 25. Goring Hall day school. Family gatherings at Christmas.
SECTION 2. PREP SCHOOL..
Part 26. Ashdown House boarding Preparatory School.
Part 27. Merry England and a boat freak.
Part 28. Getting to know my brother Bill, very different kind of person to Dad and me.
Part 29. Vivacious and extravert mum, a good balance to conservative red neck Dad.
Part 30. Death of King George the 6th and mine muddled up. Ha! Family exchange with The French.
Part 31. Fascinating Uncle Mike my Namesake.
Part 32. Israel and the Middle East.
Part 33. My first leadership job.
Part 34.Bad school report.
SECTION 3.PUBLIC SCHOOL.
Part 35. Cheltenham College boarding Public School.
Part 36. Goodbye Mr Chips!
Part 37.Some titbits from Cheltenham College
Part 38. A Rowing Triumph!
Part 39. Only way out of this is Jesus.
Part 40. Ambitions to get into the Royal Navy.
SECTION 4.BRNC DARTMOUTH.
Part 41. Boozy King and the Royal Navy Entrance exam.
Part 42. Britannia Royal Naval College.
Part 43. First term at BRNC Dartmouth.
Part 44. My first taste of real disaster.
Part 45. Totally unprepared for such an event.
Part 46. Consolation.
Part 47. My first real cries to God.
Part 48. Compassionate leave.
Part 49. Time not wasted with Barnes Lawrence.
Part 50. Mum finds a new calling.
Part 51. First real thoughts about God and Mum finds new calling in life.
Part 52. Cross Country running triumph.
Part 53. Not really cut out for modern, technical Navy.
Part 54. A Leadership humiliation.
Part 55. Emerging importance of the Fleet air arm. Seamanship 1st Prize.
Part 56. Air familiarisation course.
Part 57. A serious air crash.
Part 58. Arguing with the Head Master about Jesus.
Part 59. Odds and ends. Mothers unconditional love and girlfriends.
Part 60. Passing out of Britannia Royal Naval College.
SECTION 5. FIRST COMMISSION.
Part 61. My first commission.
Part 62. More Death reminders.
Part 63. Boxing Mark Laister.
Part 64. Mediterranean. Forth Road Bridge almost disaster.
Part 65. Poaching duck on Lord Linlithgo's estate.
Part 66. Off to Malta. Rough Biscay crossing.
Part 67. Cyprus patrol.
Part 68. Almost famous.
Part 69. Meeting Admiral Crap Myers.
Part 70. Growing disillusionment with world system.
Part 71. Back to Portsmouth.
Part 72. Minesweeping endurance trials.
SECTION 6.H.M.S.SURPRISE.
Part 73. Commander in Chief's Despatch Vessel,
Part 74. Malta again.
Part 75. Captain Scott of the Atlantic.
Part 76. Mediterranean cruises.
Part 77. Trip to the Holy Land. Entertained by Israeli Navy.
Part 78. Mountain Race.
Part 79. Sports Officer success and broken heart with Admiral's daughter.
Part 80. Catholic Malta.
SECTION 7. HER MAJESTY'S COASTAL FORCES.
Part 81. Her Majesty's Coastal Forces. H.M.S.Brave Swordsman.
Part 82. 1st Lieutenant HMS Brave Swordsman.
Part 83. My first wife Susan. More Swordsman.
Part 84. Front page Daily Telegraph.
Part 85. Bitter disappointment but Admiral gives his word.
Part 86. Wallwin retired and now no help from Admiralty.
Part 87. Press ganged into Air Arm and training back in Malta.
Part 88. Thrown out of the Royal Navy.
SECTION 8. LLOYD'S OF LONDON.
Part 89. Lloyd's of London.
Part 90. International 14 foot Racing Dinghy.
Part 91. Prince of Wales cup.
Part 92. Lieutenant Dick Wallis and the Devil.
Part 93. God's infinite patience with me.
Part 94. Not everyone is as nice as they look.
Part 95. Winter sailing racing success. Short listed for British team.
SECTION 9. MY LIFE WITH JESUS BEGINS.
Part 96. Conversion.
Part 97.Kept going to hear the Gospel.
Part 98. Working with and trained by Christian NAVIGATORS.
Part 99. Started to read the Bible.
Part 100. Jesus' teaching so opposite to world's
Part 101. My first convert.
Part 102. Call to be a Missionary
Part 103. Christ like Kenneth Moynagh.
Part 104. Kenneth's secret.
Part 105. Pentecostalism.
Part 106. Mass Evangelist?
Part 107. Meeting an Angel?
Part 108. Fasting! My new Trip!
Part 109. Flash back yachting success.
SECTION 10. CHILDREN OF GOD JESUS MOVEMENT FROM CALIFORNIA.
Part 110. The Children of God.
Part 111. Holy Ghost Sample in Hyde Park.
Part 112.Life in COG very disciplined.
Part 113. My new name Joseph and Sexual Sharing.
Part 114. Early Church chose Celibacy?
Part 115. One Wife. Flirty Fishing.
Part 116. Catholic Teaching THE SINCERE SPLENDOUR OF TRUTH.
Part 117. 7Life in COG continues.
Part 118. Protestants hate FORSAKE ALL Doctrine. Long before they knew about our sex views.
Part 119. Internal rivalry starts rotting process.
Part 120. Life in Certaldo with Duke of Carnavaro.
SECTION 11. MORE DISASTERS.
Part 118. Backsliding from COG and becoming a Gold Coin Broker.
Part 119. First marriage starts to break up.
Part 120. Gold coin disaster.
Part 121. Secret plans to kidnap 2 of my children.
Part 122. The kidnap with disastrous results.
Part 123. I lose my kids. Divorced. Then Marriage to Paz.
Part 124. More involvement with Gangsters.
Part 125. Sudden Death of my Mum.
Part 126. Slow death of Dad.
SECTION 12. BRAZIL.
Part 127. rejoining full time with COG.
Part 128. A lesson on specific prayer.
Part 129. Being used as a Provisioner.
Part 130. Flash back to Hollingbourne Manor.
Part 131. How I met my present wife.
Part 132. Heidi changes name to Joanna and passes a tough test.
Part 133. A short Detour. 40 years in wilderness. Thank the Lord for EWTN.
SECTION 13. VISION FOR INDIA.
Part 134. Vision for India.
Part 135. Meeting with an angel, Judge for yourself.
Part 136. More Hitch Hiking stories.
SECTION 14 parts 137 to 170
Our Longest Hitch Hiking adventure full version... 22138 words....
parts 137 to 170

SECTION 15. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Part 171. Bombay at last. Objective achieved.
Part 172. COG India.
Part 173. 3 and a half years in Bombay.
Part 174. Mum gets Hepatitis!
Part 175. Reaching the top..
Part 176. Ship visiting Bombay.
Part 177.Russian dream.
Part 178. New Delhi.
Part 179. We are asked to leave
Part 180. Clobber the robber,
Part 181. The assassination of the two Ghandies.
Part 182. Smart thing to do, join the Catholic Church.
Part 183. Cog becomes top heavy. End time does not happen..
SECTION 16.BACK TO EUROPE. UKRAINE 9 YEARS, POLAND 4 AND SLOVAKIA 3.
Part 184. Back in Germany and starting up our own show for Jesus.
Part 185. A real story of love from Richard Wurmbrand.
Part 186. Engelthal fellowship and 1st trip to SU
Part 187. Some more thoughts on Crazy Faith. Witnessing and Provisioning!! When you WITNESS YOU ALWAYS WIN.
Part 188. Crossing the border into the SU
Part 189. Winter in Germany waiting for visa.
Part 190. Christian Pastor has mercy on us and visits us.
Part 191. Third visit to Ukraine. This time we get visa longer term
Part 192. A real supernatural and spectacular miracle.
Part 193. Contact with Otto Von Hapsburg.
Part 194. American Law books for the University of Uzhgorod.
Part 195. Free visas as a result and favourable documentary on TV at Government expense.
Part 196. Lack of unity amongst competing Protestant Churches.
Part 197. The Heart skit. Very effective for preaching the simple Gospel.
Part 198. Concerts everywhere. A short History of our nine years in the Ukraine,
Part 199. Death of Moses David and a Heavenly Visitor?
Part 200. Trying to become famous for Jesus on the world stage.
Part 201. Our first cassette. Your Team for Jesus.
Part 202. The Red Letter Vision.
Part 203. A near miss to fame.
Part 204. Our first CD.
Part 205. Big drive to promote our music.
SECTION 17. U.S.A.
Part 206. Trip to USA.
Part 207. A Miracle. From Tornado stricken battle scene to Pickwick suite in Oprey Land Hotel.
Part 208. Our Visa shorter than we thought. Off to Canada for visa trip.
Part 209. Children growing up and me failing them and not being able to cope with them.
Part 210. Protestants reject us.
Part 211. Roman Catholics accept us.
SECTION 18. BACK TO UKRAINE. HALFHEARTED ATTEMPT TO BE CATHOLICS.
Part 212. Return to Ukraine. Disappointment! No more fame possibilities.
Part 213. We meet radical Father Christopher from Poland.
Part 214. A Very Big Mistake.
Part 215. We become not very convinced Catholics but amazingly the Catechism is very Biblical.
Part 216. Approaching Warsaw the Capital of Poland.
Part 217. Finding Father Woitech Drosdowitz.
Part 218. The Church on the hill.
Part 219. An Awesome violent wind!
Part 220. From Warsaw to Gdansk via Lublin/
Part 221. Gdansk.
Part 222. Krakow
Part 223. Visit of Pope John Paul the 2nd.
Part 224. Dividing into three teams. Fighting over the money.
Part 225. Lodz
Part 226. Rug pulled out again.
Part 227. Back to Germany.
SECTION 19. THE SPLENDOUR OF TRUTH.
Part 228. EWTN and Father Roman.
Part 229. Telling the Truth is so good for me.
Part 230. Move to Slovakia. Kosice Capital of Eastern Slovakia.
Part 231. Living on a windswept field.
Part 232. Wild, cold and very windy.
Part 233. Our vision begins to change.
Part 234. Our Daily Schedule.
Part 235. Extracurricular activities for the children
Part 236. Husbands, wives and kids all under one roof.
Part 237. Chastity and the division of the sexes.
Part 238. Our on going experiment,
Part 239. Our five older children.
Part 240. Medical expenses and insurance.
Part 241. The way we witness. Humiliating but rewarding
Part 242. Start off in front of the Eucharist.
Part 243. Politely stopping the people.
Part 244. Holy cards very effective.
Part 245. English speakers can chose a DVD or CD
SECTION 20. A CHALLENGE TO THE READERS.
Part 246. Why don't you give it a go? You will never be lonely.
Part 247. Do not give stuff away free unless they have nothing to give in return.
Part 248. Works not only with donations of cash but for anything you need for the Lord's work.
Part 249. My final lessons from Bible and History.
Part 250. Peters Mistake.
Part 251. Henry the 8ths mistake.
Part 252. Crusade's Mistake!
SECTION 21 MY OWN ON GOING EXPERIENCE.
Part 253. Personal lessons
Part 254. Love is the most important thing.
Part 255. St Maximillian Kolby
Preface.
Preface and Title..
A Stranger and a Pilgrim!
70 years so far.

The adventures of Michael King. How a British subject, born in India of the occupying military aristocracy, travelled the world as a nomad for Christ, and finally discovered freedom in the regimen of Roman Catholicism
This is also a story of
Failure, Forgiveness and Freedom!
I chose the three Fs because it is true and in my experience we learn very little from success but oceans full, from Failure.
I have noticed through 69 years of life in meeting so many different people in over 40 countries, that by far the nicest and most helpful and kind are the ones who have had to face serious crises and often failed in dealing with them correctly.
The so-called successful ones are often lacking in kindness and mercy. They are not able to so easily relate to those of us that life has treated roughly.
For us humans, success seems to inevitably go to one's head.
I have failed on so many projects. This is more obvious in my case as I have 2 broken marriages leaving 5 children without a father.
All of my worldly ambitions ended in failure and rejection. Even my Christian endeavours have worked out shakily and I am far from through yet.
If I was to die today or tomorrow, and that is highly possible as I have had high blood pressure for 10 years, and am hopelessly overweight, I would die with still many lessons unlearned.
I am praying for the Grace to live at least another ten years and in this added time I would like to make real progress.
My testimony is that Jesus has never failed me, even though I have failed Him countless times.
In many instances these failures with their invaluable lessons have to be relearned over and over again.
Pride seems to just ooze out of success.

This is a personal testimony with the objective of bringing hope to many who might be feeling that they are a hopeless case.
If you manage to read through this life's story, I hope and pray that you will be able to draw encouragement from what you read.
The last 40 years of my life have been dedicated to trying to save souls for Jesus' Kingdom.
The purpose of this Autobiography account is to do just the same.
I want my readers to find a reason for living. If I am able to do this then I will be extremely happy.

THERE IS SOMETHING TERRIBLY WRONG WITH MOST OF US.
2 HORRENDOUS WORLD WARS IN THE LAST CENTURY.
MILLIONS UNNECESSARILY KILLED BETWEEN 1914 AND 1918 AND THEN BETWEEN 1938 AND 1945. MANY CONFLICTS
WITH THE ADDED HORROR OF ETHNIC CLEANSING.
THE LATEST HORROR OF BOTH THE LAST AND PRESENT CENTURY
IS THE LEGALISED MURDER (ABORTION) OF DEFENCELESS UNBORN CHILDREN RUNNING INTO THE MILLIONS.
1000 EVERY DAY IN THE COUNTRY OF GERMANY WHERE I NOW LIVE.
EUTHANASIA, BIRTH CONTROL, DIVORCE RUNNING AT 50% AND STILL ON THE INCREASE.
WESTERN POPULATIONS ARE DYING OUT RAPIDLY BECAUSE WE ARE NOW TOO SELFISH TO HAVE CHILDREN.
In other words, AS POPE JOHN PAUL THE 2ND SAID
THE CULTURE OF DEATH.
My Travels so far.
From India to England and a lifetime of travelling.
Pakistan, Israel, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Turkey, Tunisia, Kuwait, Russia, Moldavia, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Vatican, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxemburg, Spain, Portugal, Madeira, Malta, Greece, 4 countries of the old Yugoslavia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Scotland, Wales, Island of Jersey, the Island of Guernsey, USA, Canada, Brazil, Paraguay. 46 countries in all.

FROM NOTHING, TO MY ANGLICAN BAPTISM, TO BEING A BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN, TO PROTESTANT SEX CULT, TO ROMAN CATHOLICISM. A 40 YEAR WANDERING IN THE PROTESTING CHRISTIAN WILDERNESS.
Dedication.
I dedicate this book to the hundreds of millions of my countrymen and others who have been lead astray for Centuries by malicious Campaigns of Murder, Torture, Misinformation, Disinformation and False Propaganda perpetrated by those who are rebels to the Splendour of Truth.

2000 years ago the Splendour of Truth walked this earth and established TRUTH in the world.
He promised unconditionally to build His Truth on a mere simple and imperfect man His chief Apostle Peter.
Down through the next 20 centuries that TRUTH has not changed and has stood the test of time.
Now we have a 266th Peter in the form of Pope Benedict the 16th and this TRUTH although still under vicious attack is still very much alive.
Many times the worst enemy of the BEST is not only the demonic worst but also the far more subtle 2nd BEST.
Also I dedicate this life story to my eleven children, the result of three marriages, two broken. May God bless them with lots of Grace and Mercy so they can make it to the final destination, Heaven!!! To Irmgard my third wife and now Sister in the Lord. Without her, the most important part of this story would never have happened. God continue to bless you dearest Irmgard.
Also to the present members of the team, Hannah and her husband Mark and their five children, Andrew, Victoria, Samuel, Julia and Bogdan, and then Susie and John and their four children, Anna Marie, Kristina, Lilly and Daniel.
One further special dedication is to serving and lapsed members of the Children of God sect, who lead the Jesus revolution that swept through California and then into all the world.
I was a part of the COG for more than a third of my life.
As a final Word of love, I also dedicate this book to those enemies of the Splendour Of TRUTH. May God pour His Grace upon you so that your eyes would be opened and that you would open your hearts to HIS forgiveness and Mercy and HIS wonderful plan for your life and future.

COMMENDATION.
I WANT TO TAKE SPECIAL TIME TO PROMOTE AND COMMEND
MOTHER ANGELICA'S E.W.T.N., THE ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK THAT BROADCASTS THE SPLENDOUR OF TRUTH NIGHT AND DAY. 24/7/365. AROUND THE WORLD ON SATELLITE.
I was a very drippy half hearted convert to Roman Catholicism until I was really on the bottom, and I was about to have a nervous breakdown when Father Roman an English speaking Roman Catholic Polish Priest in Lodz Poland told me about EWTN.
The moment I switched this on and it did not matter what programme was playing it was compelling and hit one between the eyes and deep down into ones heart.
Here was something so amazing and so truthful and so powerful that it was and is life changing. We have EWTN on even through the night.
Some people are crazy about actors and actresses, or famous sportsmen and women, but we are crazy about Mother Angelica and her marvellous team of straight down the middle Orthodox Catholics.
I have watched these programmes for three years and I can tell you that God has used and is using this TV station to feed me and mine and is second to none.
There are tears in my eyes as I write this. This is not just a blurb. It is a heart cry to you dear reader whomever you are, "Please turn on and watch with an open heart EWTN.
Even if you never read this autobiography it doesn't really matter as much but please I beseech you tune in to EWTN.
It is a gift of God's infinite mercy to you and to me and to all mine and all yours of what ever age group. God Bless you!! Jesus Loves YOU!!!!!!!"
Introduction.
This is a true story about one life.
It is a personal testimony.
I have tried to tell it like it really was and is to this present day.
For most of the story, especially in the beginning, there is very little about God.
It doesn't mean He wasn't there it just means that He was patiently waiting.
Waiting for whom?
Waiting for little old me.
I think my experience would be fairly typical of millions of British of my era.
No reference or even mention of God. I do not remember meeting anyone who spoke about Jesus or even religion in a serious and authoritative way.
Maybe someone did but not with any fervour, not with any real conviction. If they had I am sure I would have remembered it.
I come from the so-called elite upper officer class and amongst us there was hardly any mention of God or the Gospel.

Famous people, celebrities, usually write autobiographies. Well I am certainly not famous but like you dear reader whoever you are, I am and so are you, very special.
When you think about it, you and I are the only you and I quite like us in the world.
Never has there been or ever will be a carbon copy of you and me.
When you think of all the billions of people that have inhabited and will inhabit this planet, it is mind-boggling!!!
God did not make a mistake when He designed and chose you and me.
That is why this story could be interesting?
We are all on a Pilgrimage!
It is a journey to the Promised Land whether we like it or not.
We will not all get there. Some will not make it mainly because they don't want to.
That is very very sad so if this book by little old special me can help persuade little old or little young special you that life is worth living and the journey with it's sacrifices, are worth making, then I will have achieved the right objective.
I have had a really amazing and I think interesting life, by any standards!.
At 68, and over weight, and high blood pressure to boot, my life on this planet must be soon coming to a close.
So as not to waste any more time let's begin at the beginning and pray that the Good Lord can by His Holy Spirit guide my pen or my fingers on the computer key board to proclaim His Mercy and His Love in creating little old me.

I want to make it very clear that this is an autobiography and as such there will always be a great temptation to gloss over unsavoury events that would spoil my image.
Actually I want to spoil my image so that His Image can clearly be seen.
This work has to be the truth. I sincerely want to tell it warts and all so that it can be an encouragement to other human beings that if a sinner like me can make it back onto the home track to the Father's house then there is hope for everyone.
Please note that I did not say I have made it but I am on the right track and if I keep going and trust in the Mercy of the One who died for me and for you on Calvary 2000 years ago, then I will make it and so will you.
I don't want to make the same mistake as a man who wrote an autobiography with the object of teaching Humility and he made sure there was a picture of himself on every page. Ha!!!!!
ALL BIBLE QUOTES ARE TAKEN FROM THE VERY FAMILIAR KING JAMES PROTESTANT BIBLE.
Eph Ch 1 v 4
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

SECTION 1. THE EARLY YEARS.
Part 1.
My beginnings. Secunderabad, 1938.
As you can see from Ephesians Ch 1v 4, we were all chosen a very long time ago, for a very solemn and wonderful purpose.
God has a plan for our lives if we want to obey Him. We are created for a purpose. I entered this world at the end of 1938 in a Balarum military hospital on the outskirts of the city of Secunderabad, India. My dad too was also born in British India in Sealcote in the year 1900.
Part 2.
Links with Fatima? and Faustina?
I was conceived around the time of that amazing and dramatic light which lit up the European night sky on the 25th of January 1938 of the same year.
This was a fulfilment of a prophecy given to Lucia by the Virgin Mary of Fatima fame. Our Holy mother the Virgin Mary had explicitly warned in 1917 in her appearance to the three Shepherd Children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francesco, that unless the warring nations would turn to God a much worse conflict than World War 1 would follow in the Pontificate of Pope Pius the 11th.
This extraordinary light acting as a sign would mark the prelude to the Second World War.
Hitler invaded Austria 40 days later.
A very important and precious modern day Polish Saint, Faustina died on Oct the 5th my mother's birthday and forty eight days later as a very late Birthday present to mum, I was born on the 22nd of November.
The message of Divine Mercy and extreme Grace given to the simple Nun may well be the reason that I am mercifully able to write this story now.
Part 3.
My ancestors!
I was the 2nd of two children and 8 years younger than my brother Bill. William Rodney Stuart King.
I was meant to be a daughter and before the time of ultra sound my parents were pretty convinced that I would be Jennifer.
I was baptized into the Anglican Church as Michael Jaffray King, second son of Major Rodney Stuart King M.C. (Military Cross) of the 7th Light cavalry and Helen Queenie King.

My mother was the youngest of three sisters born to Clement and Juliet Horn.

My dad's dad died young as an army officer on board a ship going out to India.
The only thing that I know about him is that he had something to do with the invention of and tactical use of the malicious Machine gun used to devastating and destructive effect in the First World War.
Granddad Clement was a pioneer railway engineer and had helped build the Bengal Nagpur railway linking the East of India to the West
Part 4.
Links to King James the 1st of England and 6th of Scotland.
His ancestry can be traced back to King James the 1st of England and 6th of Scotland.
This is not such an amazing fact as many people can trace their lineage back to a king or queen of England.
I always thought that Granddad had built his railway all by himself, but that of course is ridiculous! He was one of the main engineers in charge.
I remember him well and he definitely had a positive influence on my life.
Part 5.
Grand Dad Clement Horn and the Rogue Elephant.
He used to sit me on his lap and tell me fascinating stories. One such story was about an elephant, which was infuriated by the building of Granddad's railway line straight through his jungle territory and one day he laid down on the track facing the oncoming charging engine.
Of course metal and machinery won even over the tough structure of a magnificent angry elephant.
About 80 years after this event, as a missionary while coincidentally visiting the railway museum in Delhi India, I was astonished to see the very skeleton of that same elephant and his broken tusks and an account of this story.
No fabrication on the part of my dear Granddad Clement.
Part 6.
Heirloom. Clement's King James Bible.
After his death I was the one of 9 grandchildren singled out to be given his well-read and thumbed through black leather bound King James Bible.
I think possession of this Bible even though I never seriously read it gave me my first real inkling that there was and is a real God however remote He may have seemed to me at that time.
It held pride of place in my bedroom. Granddad had written lots of notes in it and it was obviously something he had read and treasured.
I was about 7 or 8 at the time and we had all returned to England at the end of the war.
Part 7.
Lady Mary Osborn and her son John Aspinall.
My Mother's sister Mary or Lady Mary Osborne to be precise was the mother of the famous Mayfair Casino gambler my first cousin John Aspinall, also born in India.
You can read about him on the Internet. He made his millions entertaining rich Arab Sheiks at his private casino in Mayfair.
He was a great friend of Lord Lucan, who mysteriously disappeared after a murder in the basement of his London residence.
Rumour has it that he was most likely helped in his escape and evasion and exit into permanent oblivion by JA and has not been seen again.
My 1st cousin John died in 2000 of cancer of the jaw and up to the last minute was giving betting odds as to his chance of survival. A gambler to the very end!
He was 12 years older than me. He invested much of his wealth in two private zoos in Kent with Bengal Tigers and his famous Gorillas.
He was a well-known controversial national character, a devout and confirmed hater of the human race, in other words a Misanthrope. This is a new word for me.
In John Chapter 3 verse 16 we can see clearly that God so loved the world and all its inhabitants that He gave and sacrificed His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Jesus with His supreme love and sacrifice for His Most Glorious Creation the Human Race was quite an opposite to dear John who for some reason had become very disillusioned with humankind and devoted his love to animals.
He mistakenly firmly believed that Humans could bond and become friends of dangerous wild animals. Two of his keepers were killed while carrying out his bonding idea and a small girl had her arm ripped off while feeding a beast through the bars of a cage.
To give John his due he would often lead the way and be photographed hugging Bengal Tigers.
He also was wounded in these efforts to prove his point of view about bonding.
Once he hit the headlines of the tabloid press for hiring the Queen's doctor to operate on one of his apes.
That was a typical antic of my first cousin John. I still do pray for him.
He was often in the Newspapers and BBC for his antics and exploits and radical violent Right Wing beliefs.
At the time of Socialist Prime Minister Callahan he and some Army Officers were planning a Military coup to overthrow what they presumed to be a very detrimental Government that would in their opinion bring ruin to their country.
As a young missionary I visited him along with a brother Christian from the sect I was a part of, The Children of God.
I remember the day well. All the members of our Protestant Evangelical Missionary sect had Bible Names.
This was and is a practise used by religious orders to show that their new member was now a new creature in Christ.
My name was Joseph and my spiritual brother was Canaan.
We drove Canaan's old car down to John Aspinall's beautiful Mansion and private Zoo in Kent.
Canaan came from a very good family with connections to the Royal Family and his mother had been a Lady in waiting to Queen, Elizabeth the 2nd.
This took place in the summer of 1974 and the idea was to ask for a little financial help for our mission.
Lady Mary, John's mother and my Aunt, gave us a very cool reception.
She and my mother never got on. Now, that I had joined a Christian Protestant sect was the last straw as far as she was concerned and so all we were able to do was to have a very respectful, no ideas of bonding, look at the Tigers and Gorillas.
Lady Mary made sure we never got near her son.
Part 8.
The British Spirit.
I would like to say something about the British spirit.
This is an important spirit and is far from being Holy and has affected the British for hundreds of years.
It is very Nationalistic in origin, with religion very much on the back burner.
Funerals, Weddings, Christmas and not much else.
That is the way it is and that is the way most people want it.
Much more important than the religious Holy Spirit of Love was the spirit attached to the military stoical tradition that was fostered on the Rugby and Cricket Playing fields of the expensive fee paying boarding schools known as Public Schools.
This spirit shaped the leadership of this extraordinary country for centuries.
This spirit handed down to me by my dad and by my attending such a school had a very profound effect on me. I was seeped in this and gobbled it up without question.
Let me give you some illustrations
There were unwritten sacred facts that I was lead to believe.
For example, The British were a superior race and were seeped in decent teaching.
It was as if Force Majeur applied to every British Officer and especially to the Royal Family and the leaders of the Conservative Government.
British History could only be viewed from one side and that was the side of the British always being just and honest.
The whole Henry the 8th saga was very carefully covered up to show how the Brits were very lucky not to be overrun by those wicked Papists.
I really believed that all things British were the best. My dad really believed this too and passed it on to me. I was a chip of the old block as my dad was of his ancestors too.
Part 9.
How the English replaced the Holy Spirit with their own spirit.
I believe the English lost their way spiritually, which let's face it, is the most important part of anyone's life, after the rebellion of Henry the 8th against the Pope and the True Religion.
As a young prince and king, Henry had won the admiration of the Pope who awarded him the title, "Defender of the Faith" for standing up and writing a treatise against Martin Luther's reformation.
Later on the Holy Father quite correctly refused to annul his marriages and give him permission to divorce.
In angry revolt Henry set himself up as head of the Church and then the horrendous butchering, hanging, drawing and quartering and sheer torturing of all people Catholic, especially the clergy began on an enormous scale and was continued even more forcefully during the reign of so called Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth the 1st, who is glamorised in English History as saving England from the domination of those wicked Papists.
Something had to replace the True Religion and it was this competitive killer instinct spirit of adventure that was instilled into the British leadership class.
To be brave and never to show emotion and to die for Queen and country was the ultimate in achieving honour and glory.
Any other view would be considered a weakness. This spirit has made the British a formidable fighting force helping them to win many a war and obtain an important and domineering place in History.
This would be the spirit that I would be brought up in. My Father idolised this spirit. When I received my Naval Officer's Dress sword, my dad had it engraved with the words "Conata sine metu," Latin for "adventure fearlessly".
The whole point of this spirit was to idolise adventure. If one died in the process, that was considered O.K.
I believe that my Dad would have been immensely proud of me if I had lost my life doing something daring.
He would be sorry for my death of course but deep down he would be really proud of me even if I died doing something, which really had no value in terms of saving life and was just a pride trip of say climbing a mountain.
Of course I now know that this spirit alone and born of PRIDE is not the Way, the Truth and the Life and will not stand forever.
This also explains why people who are religious are looked down upon as weaklings needing a prop for their lives.
This would also explain why Roman Catholics, who take their faith seriously, in particular are in a small minority and have suffered persecution in these British Islands for centuries.

Part 10.
Karachi.
So, back to India, I was there for the duration of the 2nd world war. 1939 to 1944.
Karachi, which is now a major business city in Pakistan, was in those days part of British India.
I don't know if you have ever visited India, but it is a city of immense contrasts.
I think it is really fascinating. The slums are the worst in the world and cover vast areas.
Today if you were to visit Bombay now renamed Mumbai you would land at the airport and then travel through Asia's biggest slum ending up in one of the most luxurious 5 star hotels, the Taj Mahal.
The contrast is so striking that even hardened businessmen are shaken and sometimes in tears before they arrive at their luxury 5 star hotel.
Karachi is hot and dusty with its fair share of slums and beggars and poor just like other cities on this Asian continent.
Even the weather demonstrates this contrast with unbearable hot weather followed by huge downpours of Monsoon rain, which, thankfully arrives to water the parched earth, and equally parched struggling humanity.
I have no memory of my father until I was five or six when he came home on a short leave just before the end of the war.
Dad had served mainly in the Middle East regions. He told me one of his main objectives was to stop the Arab Syrians from murdering the French who were the occupiers at that time.
I remember the joy of seeing my dad for the first time and he took me out to a large expanse of shallow water to try out a toy boat I had been given driven by a small steam engine.
The boiler burst for lack of water but I didn't mind because I was with my dad.
In Karachi, which in those days was a part of British India, we lived in a residential area called Bath Island, so named because the Monsoon rains collected there and made this huge lake or bath where dad and I tried out our boat.
There was and still is inadequate drainage. I found this out when I visited the web today that the problem remains.
No 1 Bath Island road was a building made up of four flats and was the first residence that I can remember. We lived on the top right and my other aunt Joy, sister of my mother and Lady Mary Osborn, and her husband John, a Civil Engineer working on the Sukkar Barrage fresh water irrigation project, lived on the left.
Downstairs was Lady Doctor Barlow.
I remember the air raid shelter at the bottom of the stairs where I kept a community of cats, which infuriated the downstairs residents.
At the back of the building were the servant's quarters. They were wooden structures on two floors surrounding a back yard.
I went to a Dame's school for small children all white, as this part of Karachi was an exclusive white man's area.
I remember the names of the two Dames. Miss Rogers and Mrs Carter and it was just across the road.
My mother tried to persuade me to go to Karachi Grammar School, which I endured for a few days and then made up a very convincing lie that I suffered from terrible headaches and so reluctantly Mum put me back in the Dame's school, which I much preferred.
Later on I confessed about the lie and Mum was visibly shocked.
My mother signed up as a WRIN Women's Royal Indian Navy 3rd officer as part of the war effort. She worked in the Cipher office at Naval Headquarters Karachi helping decode Japanese messages, and I was left to Nannies and servants to look after me.
We had plenty of servants. A cook from South India called Baboo Butler, endless Nannies or Ayahs as they were called, an assistant cook named Mahmood, a Dhobi lady who washed the clothes, a Derzy who did all the sewing and mending, a sweeper called Pinchin, a gardener or Mali who was shot through the leg by my elder brother who had been given a .22 sporting rifle far too early in life.
Together with his naughty cousin Felicity, the daughter of my Aunt Joy and Uncle John, they both thought it was rather a joke.
Finally there was a teenage assistant to Mahmood who on about three occasions committed homosexual acts with me when I went down for nap.
I had no real idea that this was wrong and when I told my parents years later they had a hard time believing me. I do not blame them for this as this was just one of the many horrors that are an inevitable result of the war.
Many others suffered much worse. So I lived in intermittent luxury when most others were suffering much more and were not so fortunate.
It is hard to remember much of what was going on in my mind in those days. I had few friends except for the tough Peter Carter the gang leader son of Mrs Carter the Head mistress and then there was a rather thin gangling boy called Ronald Honeycomb a sharp contrast to Peter.
Peter would lead us out on expeditions of destruction, breaking drain tops and smashing doors of the Indian shanties.
Later we were encouraged to channel our efforts into war work by collecting silver wrapping paper for which we received attractive medallions after retrieving a certain pounds weight. I
remember listening with my Aunt who lived next door to British News and the seeming success of the Allies over the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan. I often heard the name Hitler and was convinced that I had personally seen him at a filling station on the way to Kashmir.
Part 11.
Kashmir.
Before the extremely hot summer broke out, we regularly, together with all the British wives and their families, moved to Kashmir.
The husbands, if they were not away fighting in the war would join later for a shorter period.
This was quite an event as we took all our servants and pets like our Black Labrador Retriever Jesse with us on the train and then by taxi from Rawlpindi to either Gulmarg or Srinagar along the most dangerous roads cut out of the side of the mountains with huge ravines on the down side.
A family we knew perished on that strip as their taxi went over the edge with all their children.
I do remember that the wife survived miraculously, but the rest of her family was all killed.
I have on rare occasions visited and driven through Switzerland and the mountains there are breath taking but nothing to compare with Kashmir.
Pine forests and mountain peaks, which reached the sky. Picturesque lakes and castles or forts as they are called dotted this perhaps the most beautiful landscapes in the world.
It was fashionable to live on Houseboats on the Nageem and Dahl lakes. The reason we lived on Houseboats was so as not to offend the local Maharajah who did not want the British building houses on this land, which he possessed.
Remember this was now a time when the Great British Empire was at last crumbling in spite of the Victories soon to be won over Germany and Japan.
All across India the Congress Party was winning power and would eventually oust the British once and for all from their star of the East, which had made Britain one of the richest Nations in the world.
All this was coming to a finish and I was to be there almost to the very bitter end.
I can remember the Kingfishers and enormous water lilies.
We went everywhere in small water boat taxis called Shikars.
My brother was at a Mission boarding school one of the best in India called Sheikh Barg run by a famous British Indian family the Tyndale Biscoes in Srinagar.
We went pony trekking and often saw monkeys.
One other really beautiful memory of this area was the gorgeous well-kept gardens where I was convinced that I had seen an Indian Princess.
Part 12.
Back to Karachi for the cooler weather.
Joke!
Then we moved back South when the cooler weather returned to Karachi. This operation was a very fashionable thing to do for the richer Brits, which reminds me of a funny story.
A well-educated Indian from a rich Indian family went to England and when he wrote home to his parents he wanted to impress them. So he made up this story that during the hot summer months he moved to Northampton and then during the cold winter months he moved down to Southampton. Ridiculous as there would be identical British weather in both places which are only separated by 200 hundred miles.
Part 13.
Sand Spit.
At weekends our two families moved to a beautiful beach resort called Sand Spit. It was a ten-mile stretch of sand dunes, which we reached by a special launch from the Karachi Yacht Club and we lived in huts built on stilts.
It was wonderful!!
It was also a recreation spot for troops on leave from the bitter war that was being fought in Burma.
Initially the Japanese routed the British and Indian armies fighting there because the Japanese were able to penetrate deep into the jungles with just a handful of rice a day to feed them.
The Allies on the other hand needed vast supply lines to keep their armies fed until the very famous General William Slim, Bill Slim, a hero of my father, who wrote an amazing Army History Classic called "Defeat into Victory," was able to teach the Allies to operate on the same terms as their enemy.
As a result the war in Burma was reversed.
The famous movie, "Bridge over the river Kwai," gives an insight into these events.
These on holiday soldiers were a lot of fun and they treated me as their mascot and taught me how to swim at a very early age in the protected creek behind the spit and ride on the backs of turtles as they made their way back to the sea after laying their eggs in the soft sand above the high tide mark.
When the baby turtles hatched we would choose one and race him against a competitor as they made their way instinctively to the sea. If they hatched by night they stood a very good chance of reaching the sea without being eaten by gulls. The story was very different when they emerged during the day.
I remember there were up to a hundred eggs in each batch and we made some of them into scrambled eggs with a slightly fishy taste if they had been freshly laid.
During the Monsoon the beach would be strewn with washed up sea snakes and nasty jellyfish called Portuguese men of war. I don't think the sting was deadly but pretty tough. The sea snakes however were pretty venomous and had to be avoided at all costs.
I later learned that a tidal wave from an underwater earthquake demolished Sand Spit and so I am very thankful it did not happen when we were there nearly every weekend.
My Mother allowed me a tremendous amount of freedom for my age. I was not more than 6 at the time and it was in about 1943/4. She seemed to have complete confidence that I would be protected. Maybe she had a faith in God that she did not tell me about at the time.
I do remember that she had many boy friends usually British officers from the Army and Air force.
She was a very attractive woman but she assured me in later years that she never got sexually involved but was just good female company.
I am sure that they would have pressed her for it but she would remind them that she was married and had two children and she had the personality and strength of character to carry this off successfully.
She was the life and soul of any party and a very out going and compassionate kind of person.
In her old age she was always busy visiting the old and infirm and helping out at the local Cheshire Home in our area of South England.
For those of you do not know about Group Captain Cheshire, He was a bomber pilot that was used to mercilessly bomb German cities, and this must have played on his conscience, knowing that thousands of helpless civilians were being massacred, and then one day in the officers mess he heard one of the girl friends of a brother officer talking about her personal relationship with God as her own personal friend.
This set him off on a search to the local library and he was converted to the Catholic faith and started up the now very famous Cheshire homes which are all over the world and are designed to take care of the terminally ill.
This does not have so much to do with Sand Spit but as we continue you will see the hand of God over me and shaping me for the future.
Later on I was able to personally meet the Group Captain in Bromley Kent, and shared some of my Christian experience with him. He was a very nice Catholic man with a wonderful vision for the incurables.
Part 14.
First thoughts of eternity.
I do not remember having any concept of God and my parents and friends never discussed religion. It was unfashionable to do so.
Once when I was left on my own which was quite usual, I had a lot of freedom, as I already mentioned, I lay on the beach and looked up into the night sky and realised that as I stared into space that there was no end so I got my first thoughts of eternity.
I also remember having nightmares. It was always the same one. A tiger would enter my room and terrify me and then I would wake up just as he was about to eat me up. My mother had the presence of mind to say the following short prayer adapted from a prayer of St Francis, before I went to sleep. It was the first prayer I learned and it went like this. "Lighten our darkness we beseech the O Lord, and keep us from all the perils and dangers of this night." The nightmares stopped.
Part 15.
Imminent air attack by Japanese, and summer in Ooty.
Just before VG day, Victory Germany day, I do remember that an imminent air attack by the Japanese was expected on Karachi and we all took refuge in the air raid shelter. The cats had been driven out. Thankfully, no planes came. Maybe they were shot down? But this was the nearest I got to experiencing any war.
One summer we did not go to Kashmir but a more southerly Hill Station called Ooty Command. My Grandparents who had retired from the railways had a bungalow called Bon Espoir (Good Hope) up in the hills above the town. The temperate climate was very similar to England being neither too hot nor too cold and many British settled there.
It was beautifully green with rolling hills rather like the Sussex South Downs and not the dramatic mountains of Kashmir.
There was a famous tree in the garden where a Panther regularly came to sharpen his claws on the bark. I never got to see him but remember the scratch marks.
It was here that I first got to know my Granddad Clement. He took a liking to me and would teach me from his bed where I would lie beside him and he would teach me Geography from a beautiful Book of Maps.
Part 16.
First air mishap.
Mum had to return to her Naval work and I was left behind with my Grand parents. When it was eventually my turn to return, I was put on a train to Bombay travelling with a trusted servant and then on an aeroplane to Karachi.
I didn't travel as a passenger but as baggage with a label around my neck with my name on it. I was put in charge of a charming air hostess from Tata airways.
The Tata family were one of the richest families in India. They were Parsees.
This is a religious sect which originated in Persia and had fled to India centuries before and been offered refuge by the Rajas of India.
Rajas are the royalty of the many Indian states, which were really only united under British rule.
The Parsees remind one very much of the Jews and are extremely talented in business and quickly rise to fame and fortune.
They have a rather gruesome way of getting rid of their dead, who are placed at the top of high towers and then the resident greedy Vultures grossly overweight birds, feast on the body until there is nothing left but bones.
What an amazing world we live in.
While half way over the Arabian Sea one of the engines of the twin engine Dakota failed. Little old me sitting on top of baggage was quite unaware of the danger and I was then allowed to sit in a passenger seat of this rather empty aeroplane.
We made an emergency landing returning to Bombay. I learned later that it was quite dangerous and I was very late when I eventually arrived at Karachi airport to be met by a frantic mother who had been waiting there for many hours.
Part 17.
Victory Germany victory Europe day
I remember VE day. Victory over Germany day.
On second thoughts this may have been Divali, a Hindu Light festival, as the dates don't seem to tie in with my memory, and my uncle John took us in his fancy car to see the lights and celebrations in downtown Karachi.
This was a terrific honour, as he usually allowed no one inside his pride of possession.
It was a fancy limousine and very modern looking for those days 65 years ago. It had a polished wooden dashboard.
Sadly the little neighbour girl, Jean, who also came, vomited on the back all leather seat.
It's funny what one remembers. I remember too being fluent in Hindustani or Urdu and on the soon return of my Dad from the war I was used to interpret when talking to the servants.
My Aunt Joy who lived next door in the opposite flat was my favourite Aunt.
She was crazy about the Royal Navy. She had a secret boyfriend officer from the Navy. It was her influence that really shaped me for wanting to eventually join the Royal Navy.
I hasten to add she was a very dear soul and I always loved her and I pray for her and her two children Felicity and Ian that may still be alive but will be about 10 years older than me.

Part 18.
Babina Tank School.
My Dad now a full Colonel and acting Brigadier, was then given his last job in India, or so he thought, which was to command a Tank School in Babina near the large town of Jhansi.
We lived in a bungalow the best in the camp.
There were other British children and I was privileged to have my own Munchi or personal tutor.
He did a fantastic job teaching me way beyond what was expected for my age.
When I eventually went to boarding school in England I was well advanced over the other boys but I hasten to add they soon caught me up, as I was no nerd.
During this time I have no recollection of ever going to a religious service or even to a funeral.
I do remember when out for a walk with my servant, he took me beside a beautiful lake.
To my amazement and slight horror the beach of the lake was strewn with burnt out bones and skeletons of those who had been cremated.
This stands out and was a timely reminder that this life is not forever on this earth.
Part 19.
My first very cruel act.
I remember experiencing a very cruel act in which I sadly took part. I
was in a gang of British boys aged from 7 to 12 and one day we threw a young Indian boy down a hole rather as Joseph was thrown into a pit in the Old Testament.
We had no pity on him.
I don't believe he died but it was a typical callous act as we so called superior whites would shamelessly do such things against so-called lower class human beings.
We sadly thought nothing off it. I say we, but I was a little bit shocked and told my parents about it and I am not sure but hopefully some kind of disciplinary action was taken against the boys that did this.
My dad would be completely against such behaviour.
The Indian officers and soldiers on the other hand, treated me very well and I remember going out on exercise inside a Sherman Tank and being fired at by machine guns.
The bullets could not penetrate the armour of the famous American war machine.
It was exciting to be inside a tank and then hear the noise of machine gun bullets rattling against the outside shell of the tank walls.
My Dad and other senior officers would be observing the exercise with binoculars from the top of a nearby hill.
Part 20.
My first big lie and beating.
Another incident I remember was taking some scissors and cutting my hair.
When my parents came into the room and asked me what I was doing, I exclaimed," I didn't do it!"
The hair was on the ground and the scissors were in my hand.
I got the first good whack on my backside for that.
However I didn't get the point because I always thought I was beaten for cutting my hair but my mum had to continually remind me that I was beaten for lying.
Part 21.
Dad gets his wartime officers to relax and have fun.
My dad was determined to help his officers relax and have a good time as now the terrible war was over.
He organised game shoots which consisted of getting up very early in the morning and going out into the amazingly beautiful and wild Indian countryside and lakes and shoot Peafowl, ducks and geese which were in abundance.
I loved these excursions and we always took our Black Labrador bitch Jessie with us to retrieve the fallen birds from the lakes.
I was devoted to Jesse and remember her litter of adorable puppies, which were given to other officer families.
I also remember the noise of the howling Jackals, which woke us every morning and the frogs, which sometimes lived under our cupboards.
One beautiful morning the servants came rushing in to our house to tell us that there was a mad Jackal in the garden.
It probably had rabies so dad took his revolver and shot it dead.
One of my dad's officers was an Irish Lord called Major Barny Barrow.
He fell in love with one of my mother's friends from the Naval Office in Karachi.
She had come to visit us on leave for Christmas.
Christmas was not celebrated as a Christian festival and I am pretty sure there was no Pastor or Priest from the Christian Church in our cantonment.
Barney and Winifred were a beautiful couple and then one day out for a ride, tragedy struck.
Now remember horses were in abundance in a cavalry regiment. The cavalry converted to Tanks only at the beginning of the 20th century.
Dad's regiment was tanks but they were still called the Cavalry.
Winifred, this beautiful English sister WRIN officer of my mother, was thrown off her horse and her face was badly messed up and mangled.
God Bless Barny! He took her home to live in his ancestral castle in Ireland with her spoilt looks and married her and they have or had many children.
All this was taking place in 1944. Another of my mum's friends, Roger Collett was the brother of the Lord Mayor of London.
My brother Bill who went to England before us, stayed at the Lord Mayor's residence in London for part of his holiday.
He had a lot of fun being treated as a VIP.
All this info to say that we moved about in the upper half of society by man's standards.
India was one of the places where with little wealth one could live as an aristocrat as servants were so ridiculously cheap to hire.
Part 22.
Dad's disappointment.
My Cavalry Officer dad really wanted his youngest son to be a fine horseman.
My elder brother Bill was very good and had won many pony shows.
I had my own pony and went for rides with the Sice the Indian servant in charge of all things equestrian.
Every day I would be thrown off this pony and fall.
Sometimes the Sice would catch me and sometimes he didn't.
It was unbearable for my father to have a son that did not appreciate being crazy about these magnificent animals.
He was a cavalry officer and had fought on horseback in the First World War as a young 2nd lieutenant in General Allenby's advance against the Turks up the famous valley of Megiddo of Armageddon and Laurence of Arabia fame.
That is when he had been awarded the M.C. Military Cross.
My dad was an excellent Polo player and won the Beamer cup for Pig sticking a treasured trophy for British Indian Army officers.
The final straw was when Dad organised to have my photo taken of his would be cavalry officer son and as soon as the Sice let go the reins and the camera flashed, the horse bolted with me frantically holding on to its mane and eventually falling off unhurt to the ground.
I picked my self up from the dirt and strutted up to my Dad towering above me and said, "I will never ride again!" And I didn't, much to the disappointment of Cavalry Dad.
Part 23.
Voyage to England
Jeffries' House.
Another of my God Fathers, a Lieutenant General Luckry Woods took over from Dad and soon we were on our way to England.
Uncle Luckry was also an amazing character. I remember two important things about him.
First, he had taken part in the famous retreat of all the British and expeditionary forces from Dunkirque.
He told my family a very interesting little known fact about this extremely famous and daring retreat from the oncoming attacking German forces.
The weather at Dunkirque was very unfavourable for the fleet of all kinds of ships boats and craft to cross the English Channel and then lift the retreating forces from the beaches of Belgium back to the comparative safety of the mainland in England.
Although he was my God Father, he never gave me any kind of religious instruction, nor would my parents have expected that from him.
But, what he told us including 6 or 7 year old me did leave a big impression.
It was his job to act as a marshalling coordinator of the retreating forces and he would go up and down the stretch of beach doing his job.
To his very great surprise he found literally almost everyone on their knees praying.
People who had never prayed before were praying and crying out to God for help.
The result was that the bad weather eased and all or almost all the fleeing soldiers were lifted off to England. Large warships, Ferryboats, yachts, fishing vessels, even small sailing and rowing boats were used to carry soldiers and wounded from danger to safety.
It was a tragedy for the Germans and a miracle for the retreating Allies as the German High Command could have very easily attacked and defeated these poor soldiers perched like sitting ducks on the bare beaches.
However the various chiefs of staff were having internal squabbles trying to win favour with Hitler.
Their lack of coordination together with the answer to prayer about the weather were contributing factors which ensured the success of the Dunkirque evacuation.
The second rather amusing story he told us was about one time that he had fallen off his horse and literally broken his neck bone.
If the bone slipped in one direction it would have meant certain death. Uncle Luckry was very carefully lifted on to an aeroplane to fly him to the nearest hospital. The Pilot was asked to make the takeoff and landing to be as gentle as possible.
Actually the opposite happened and the neck bone after being very badly jolted in take off slipped in the right direction. Well he had to go to hospital for further checks. While sitting up in bed he was visited by a rather bossy Physiotherapist lady. She felt it was her duty to keep the Colonel busy.
She offered him many different tasks. He chose to do embroidery where you use different coloured wools and follow a pattern. He pleaded that if and when he completed the task that he would be left in peace.
The lady readily agreed. There would be literally weeks and weeks worth of work to do. It was a formidable piece of embroidery.
After she left he sent his Orderly to the local Bazaar where he hired about five or six Chinamen to work through the night.
Next morning he hid the completed work under his bed sheets and when the Physio came in to check on his progress, he triumphantly brandished the completed work. Needless to say she never bothered him again.
A sense of humour is very important and I can ask God to bless and save Uncle Luckry, which in the Hindi language means Wood hence his nickname.
There is an awful amount of good in people even if they seem to know very little about God. I am learning that, as I get older.

Soon we were leaving India for good from Bombay harbour on the P and O Liner the Duchess of Richmond, later renamed the Empress of Canada and burnt out in a fire while in Liverpool docks.
It was very exciting to travel on a ship. As a baby in 1939 I had travelled to England and back but of course had no recollection of that.
This was now my first real experience of a long voyage, which took about 24 days. We dashed; zig zagging across the Indian Ocean to the Suez Canal. There was still a threat from stray Japanese submarines that had not yet surrendered.
Before leaving I had a very vivid memory of a famous swimming pool area in Bombay called "Breach Candy." There were many outdoor pools carved from the rocks on the sea edge. It is very famous to this day and when I visited India as a Missionary I was able to revisit Breach Candy to find that it was exactly as I remembered it.

I was ill in the hospital going through Suez and could only see the banks of the canal through the porthole of the sickbay.
My next memory was arriving at Naples where a thousand Italian prisoners of war were released. Once I was over the Flu or whatever it was, I remember making friends with the Italians and finding them to be very friendly especially toward me as I was still a child of maybe just seven?
The whole ship leant precariously to the starboard harbour side as these now freed prisoners were waiting to disembark and be reunited with their families, wives and sweethearts.
The next thing I remember was passing through the Straits of Gibraltar. This extraordinary bastion of British Naval supremacy stands guarding the entrance of the Mediterranean, one of the most strategic military points on the world's surface.
Next we docked at Liverpool and then a train journey to the South of England to the beautiful family home, Jeffries' House, Goring by Sea, West Sussex.
England was cold and grey, a very sharp contrast to the blazing heat of Bombay and India. This house is a National Monument. The famous 19th century Poet and Naturalist, Richard Jeffries lived there. We recently visited it after 50 years absence. My Granddad and Mum's mum were living there and took us in while Dad decided what to do with the rest of his life.
Part 24.
Bloody Partitioning of India and Pakistan.
His immediate future was then decided for him and Dad had to go back to India to help in the transition period as India was in the process of being handed back to the Indians for self-rule.
This was considered by many to be a very black page on British history. The theory was to divide British India into Moslem East and West Pakistan and all the rest Hindu India.
In practice it was a disaster. Under the leadership of the last Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten a very quick and bloody job was done.
Not only was the Indian army with all its mixed religious units and regiments thrown into confusion but many Hindus in the new Pakistan panicked and tried to get back to India while Muslims were driven by fear into Pakistan from India.
The ensuing massacre and counter massacre of train loads of casualties and rioting in all the major cities has never been calculated but it ran into millions. The paddle steamers in the river Ganges were unable to operate because of the mass of dead bodies floating in the river.
My Dad was sadly shaken as he loved and admired his Indian officers and men and from what I found out later he too was a very popular and loved commanding officer.
The very excellent Movie, Gandhi, gives one a taste of these days.
Part 25.
Goring Hall day school. Family gatherings at Christmas.
The year was 1946/7 and for a few months, I went to private day school, Goring Hall.
I could walk there from Jeffries House down the Ilex Avenue of beautiful ancient Oak trees, which ended up on the beach of the South Coast, not far from the famous holiday sea resort of Brighton.
England had expected a sea invasion by the Germans, so there were unexploded mines and anti tank and anti landing craft obstacles and war defence debris everywhere along the entire South coast of Britain.
My dear Grand Dad was now bedridden and soon he died.
When the undertakers came to remove his body, I was sick upstairs with the Flu and my mother told me that the undertakers asked if they would be needed for me. Ha!!!
I remember that My Great aunt Mable and her husband Berty had a beautiful house in Rustington a few miles further down the coast.
It was called Cudlow Castle. It wasn't really a castle but a beautiful old Victorian house with a secret passage leading down to the beach. This was specially built to bring in the smuggled French brandy and wine, which would arrive at night on the beach from France in the previous century.
Once the gardener was digging in the flowerbed and fell through into the tunnel.
Every Christmas all the relations would gather in great numbers, maybe 40 or so. It was a really nice family atmosphere.
Looking back I believe everyone was thankful to have survived the war and were happy to have reunions. As peacetime continued the family meetings grew smaller and smaller and then faded out. We had all become more selfish and independent and the sense of family started to die.

Sad to say at school I got involved with some older misled characters and once again I became involved in homosexuality at 8 years old.
This time I was old enough to realise that what these older boys were doing by taking me into the bushes was wrong but I allowed it to go on maybe twice before reporting it.
I got no pleasure out of it what so ever except to say that having these so called older boys as friends was the pay off. As I try to think back at how I really felt about homosexuality, it is hard for me to remember. It was definitely no kind of sexual thrill and why they chose me to be the object of their lust, beats me.
Maybe I was at that time a bit of a pansy. Post war England with rationing was very far removed from luxurious India with servants waiting on one hand and foot.
I did however learn to stick up for myself and remember a boy named Plaistow who would make fun of me for having thin legs. In India there was a milk shortage and many children did not grow healthily as they would in a colder clime.
He would lie in wait for me and hit me until one day I reported him to the head master who at once decided to give us boxing gloves to fight it out under adult supervision.
With a lot of encouragement from others I put up a very good fight and from then on Plaistow who was really a cowardly bully never gave me any more problems.
I can't say that this was very Christian but one of life's lessons for an eight year old.
My parents however pulled me out of this rather second rate school and transferred me to one of England's best Preparatory Boarding schools which also happened to be in West Sussex near the Ashdown forest.
SECTION 2. PREP SCHOOL.
Part 26.
Ashdown House boarding Preparatory School.
This was one of the best Preparatory schools in the country, a school for the rich and upper class.
Interestingly enough the famous General William Slim, that I wrote something about in Part 13 on Sandspit and the soldiers on leave from the Burma Campaign against the Japanese, was now a Field Marshall, and was one of the board of trustees of the school.
He was a hero of my dad and we both got to meet him when he visited the school one summer. I remember he had a very beautiful daughter called June who married a Naval Officer and they all somehow were there together.
I think maybe the wedding reception was at the school? Here although away from my parents for 8 months of the year, I was much happier.
Again no real emphasis on a personal religion but we did have an Anglican Chapel which we attended every morning. I was about 8 years old and remained there until I was 13.
Here I learned to love sport. I was particularly good at Table Tennis a funny little sport but I also loved Rugby and Cricket and swimming. Looking back I can see quite clearly now how all this expensive education had nothing really to do with God but only with that British spirit which I mentioned in Part 2.
Very shallow friendships were made and again a very big emphasis on competition and winning. I certainly did not realise this at the time. It was just normal.
These boarding schools are very much like being in an army for children.
We were kept challenged to excel at sport and at academic subjects with an eye to becoming a leader in the future.
I took it all in my stride. God had given me a quick eye for a ball and I was able to do quite well at Tennis and Golf and with hours of evening practice I became champ at Table Tennis or Ping Pong.
However I would much prefer to have been good at Rugby, which is a traditional English game from which American football would have been adapted. I hear that now in the USA there are Rugby clubs and it is catching on.
The game originated at Rugby Public Boarding School in a previous century when a normal football player picked up his soccer ball and ran with it instead of kicking it.
The game was then developed and a system of scoring Tries was invented. If you could run with the ball across the opponent's goal line, which extended from one corner of the field to the other corner without being tackled or thrown to the ground by an adversary then one would score a try, which was worth 3 points.
Then one would take the ball and place it on the ground perpendicular to where the touch down occurred and try to kick it over the H cross post and thus score a further two points. This was easy to do if the touch down occurred under the H posts but considerably more difficult if the touch down was further towards the corner post.
Sometimes the angle was almost impossible but occasionally a good kicker could oblige his team from almost any angle. It is a great game and I loved it. Rather war like which I am sure was the original training intention of the game but not too dangerous, but serious injuries can on rare occasions happen.
I did learn many good things if not overtly Christian. Team sports helped one to tame the inevitable hotshot spirit and learn to work with others.
We did not really have free time except for once or twice every term or semester, parents would be allowed to visit and take one out on a Saturday or Sunday.
We even had a small golf course and I learned to play rather bad golf. We were kept busy either doing academic work like lots and lots of prep, homework, or sports.
By the time one went to bed one was exhausted. After a month's relaxing holiday at home I remember it was pretty tough going back and I was usually in tears at the departure railway station.
Mum would be crying and then as soon as another boy from the school would get on the train all thought of mum would be gone and one adjusted quickly.
I think most of us were very adaptable. It is usually the thought of change, which hurts but once we step out, we adapt quite quickly.
My parents, God bless them really sacrificed to send me to such a school. We were not rich but just reasonably well off. I never ever remember praying. There was absolutely no concept in my mind that I could have a personal relationship with God.
Aunt Mable died suddenly with a stroke, so there was an end of the head of the post war family and the very enjoyable feasts at Christmas, which we youngsters always enjoyed. There was no television or even radio.
By sending away to an address for war surplus products, I was able to get a crystal radio set.
About ten miles away was some kind of a music radio station and by attaching a wire to the school radiators and dropping an earth wire to the outside ground and then wiggling the crystal I was able to pick up sometimes faint and sometimes very loud signals of mainly music. Other boys also had sets. No one had a radio.
Part 27.
Merry England and a boat freak.
For my holidays I became a boat freak.
We moved out of Jeffries' House to a nearby village called Angmering.
This is a village in the picturesque county of West Sussex. Behind the village are the South Downs, a name for a collection of gentle rolling hills covered in green grazing grass and usually with a clump of trees on the top.
Mum and Dad had buried a ring in a special spot inside the clump of famous trees on top of “High Down” and were able to retrieve it 6 years later after the war.
My Dad commuted some of his generous and well earned pension and with the capital bought a piece of land about three acres and became a Flower Grower with Glass Houses.
We built a simple house. In those days planning permission was difficult and the Labour party also known as the Socialists were in power.
It was amazing to me that Winston Churchill who had manoeuvred the country to victory was soon thrown out by Clement Atlee who represented the common people and their claims to a fairer world.
My family was devoutly Conservative or Republican in the U.S. and always remained so. The name of our new house and land was called "Merry England" Nurseries.
High Down was one mile away and very much in view. With the help and advice from neighbouring Growers my Dad and Mum soon became very good at their trade and grew beautiful flowers for commercial sale in London's Covent Garden, one of the largest fruit, vegetable and flower market in England.
Some of our produce even went to Buckingham Palace. At weekends and in the summer holidays I would sail my racing dinghy in the mouth of the fast flowing River Arun, which flowed into the sea at Littlehampton.
The South Coast was just a couple of miles away.
Learning to sail in high winds and a tidal current that could reach three knots or 4 miles an hour was good training in seamanship.
My dad called me a water rat as I spent every spare moment with my dinghy and then a children's racing dinghy called a Yachting World Cadet designed by Jack Holt. This dinghy became very popular with pre and early teens.
I had two very special friends, Humphrey who was also a sailing freak and Geoffrey. We mucked about together every school holidays. Two months in the summer and a month at Christmas and a month at Easter.
The Cadet dinghy performed like an adult racing dinghy, easily capsized and easily up righted. I read up on racing tactics and lived and dreamt boats. This became my first love.
As there was no real emphasis on religion and no emphasis at all in having a personal relationship with God, something had to fill the vacuum. For me it was boats and highly competitive yacht racing.
With the influence of my dear Aunt Joy from India who had also settled nearby, I was on the road to devoting my life to all matters sea faring.
Part 28.
Getting to know my Brother Bill, very different kind of person to Dad and me.
My brother Bill was at the family Public school Cheltenham College following in the footsteps of my Dad and his very interesting younger brother Mike, who I was named after. Bill was also a keen yachtsman.
Being eight years older than me, I can't say that I knew my brother very well. He was very different to me. He was studious and an academic, very unlike my military dad and me.
He was a thinker and a poet and a romantic and went on to become a bit of an inventor. He knew how to debate and think deeply on subjects.
My dad found him difficult to get on with whereas I had already decided to be a naval officer and was about as narrow minded as military dad, and we got on fine.
However eventually Bill and I started to relate quite well with one another, as I grew older. Of course I admired him and he called me his baby brother.
By 14 years old I was taller than him and called him my little brother. Bill had a very old 2ndhand car. In 1952 cars were scarce and expensive. He would take me out for rides and I remember that beneath ones feet one could see the road and one of his girl friends lost her hand bag through the rusted metal gap on the floor.
At that time the Billy Graham Crusades were making their first appearances in England. Bill was not very impressed and I remember him saying that there was too much emphasis on sin.
Frankly I wasn't interested at all at that time. My head was just full of boats and dreaming about getting into the Royal Navy.
Part 29.
Vivacious and extrovert mum a very good balance to Conservative Red Neck Dad.
Whereas Dad was a kind of stereotype Indian Army Colonel my mother was very vivacious and extrovert. She was the life and soul of a party and would easily engage others in conversation without being boring but in an interesting way.
If mum went into a railway carriage full of strange people she would soon have everyone talking to each other. It was a real gift. She was a good listener.
Dad admired her for it but never tried to compete. She got on very well with Bill and admired his intellectual abilities and could converse with him on the same level.
With dad, he just made up his mind that a certain point of view was correct and then would not budge. Conservative, and rather a red neck, but was not a bad character. He could be very generous and adored mum.
They were a very good sample to me and they very rarely quarrelled. Before going on a trip dad would get very flustered and lose his temper but would always apologise. I was more like him, a one-track mind.
Part 30.
Death of King George the 6th and my death muddled up. Ha!!
Family exchange with the French.
One bizarre moment at my Prep School was when King George the sixth died of cancer and when I was about 12. the French master who was one of my favourites a Mr Gabain heard that the King died and to him it sounded like King died.
That was my surname. No one ever called you by your Christian name. He was very happy it wasn't me as I was very good at French and I got on very well with him.
I liked French and being quite musical it was easy for me to develop a French sounding accent.
One school holidays he organised for me to go on a family exchange and stay with some friends of his, a well to do French family in Le Havre, Normandy, while Antoine Rufenacht, the son about my age, stayed with my parents.
I can't really remember well whether I was excited about it, I think I was as I was always up for a change and an adventure.
On the first day in Le Havre having crossed over on the Ferry from Southampton I arrived to find a large wealthy family with a beautiful dark haired daughter about my age that I tried to get to know.
We played a game of Gendarmes and Voleurs, in other words Cops and Robbers. In my zeal to show off to her I fell of a woodpile into a bed of stinging nettles bringing logs of wood down on the back of my hand and breaking two of those concealed bones which end up being fingers.
Colinette was very unimpressed and I totally failed to make an impact. However I did enjoy myself there and there was plenty of fun with all the other members of this family.
It was however a very unfair exchange. I was thrown in the deep end with a family that spoke no English so I was forced to learn French whereas my mother, who had finished off her education at the Sorbonne in Paris, incessantly spoke and practised her French with poor Antoine and so he learned no, or very little English.
However being a very good tennis player he got to play in South Coast Junior tournaments at Ferring-by-sea, close to where we lived, so he was happy.
My French took off and I learned more French in those 3 weeks than in 8 years at school.
Part 31.
Fascinating Uncle Mike, my Namesake.
At the end of my French holiday, my favourite uncle Mike, my Dad's younger brother hired a 60-foot ketch and sailed it over the English Channel to pick me up.
Uncle Mike was very different to Dad. He had been a bit of a playboy and had eventually married into one of the richest families in Australia, the McArthur Onslow's, who owned ranches bigger than the county of Sussex from where I came from.
He was also a very accomplished yachtsman and his six-meter yacht Togolawoo was the Champion boat in Sydney harbour.
He also helped a famous round the world yachtsman Francis Chichester to learn how to sail. Francis who was dying of cancer was able to complete his lone trip one of the first to do so before cancer caught up with him and killed him.
My mother and father also accompanied Uncle Mike and I remember waiting on the breakwater at the entrance to Le Havre with a pair of borrowed binoculars to watch the Adele Jeanne sail in after a very rough channel crossing.
Mum told me it was so rough she thought she was going to die, and then she felt so seasick that she was worried she wouldn't.
We went to fashionable Trouville and then Deauville where everything was three times as expensive as anywhere else in France.
My uncle Mike was an amazing storyteller and would keep us enthralled with his stories of Tiger shoots or his exploits on the Sydney Hobart Ocean race. I found out later his rich wife divorced him but he had two children Peter and Susan who were about 8 years older than me. I got to see them once on their visit to England.
Part 32.
Israel and the Middle East.
I do remember one very important yearly school event. I am talking now about my Prep School Ashdown House in a beautiful setting in West Sussex.
The years were 1949, 50and 51. Israel in 1948 had just fought a very successful war against the attacking forces Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
The British had just given up their control of Palestine. Israel gained 50% more territory and Israel was officially declared a country. A touring current affairs lecturer visited our school. He was extremely interesting and kept drawing our attention to the importance of the Middle East. He remarked that what had happened and would happen in the newly found state of Israel and the surrounding neighbouring countries was going to shape our future.
He must have been a committed Christian. It really rang a bell and I think it was the Holy Spirit using this man to start drawing my attention to the land of God. He didn't exactly witness to us about Jesus but excited us about this extraordinary piece of territory and region in general that we learned about in Scripture lessons.
Another rather pleasant memory was when our Headmaster would read to the whole assembled school on a Sunday evening from such Historical Novels like the Robe and The Shoes of the Fishermen and also books from Dorothy Sayers.
Billy Williamson, the Head Master was a very good reader using lots of intonation as he read keeping the whole school enthralled. We were altogether about 100 boys from the age of 7 to 13.
Part 33.
My first Leadership job.
I was made a Prefect during my last term at Ashdown House.
A Prefect is a leader of a House. Head boy would be the leader of the School.
A House is just another word for a Team. The school was divided up into houses named after animals. I was in the Kangs or Kangaroos but took on the leadership of the Rhinos who were the bottom house.
We had a system of good and bad marks. These could be awarded for just about anything good and anything bad. At the end of term they were added up. The house with the highest amount of good marks after taking away all the bad marks was then allowed to sit at the top of the Assembly Hall for the following term.
The seats were not more comfortable but it was just a way to make those who had won feel like they had achieved some form of recognition for their behaviour the previous term or semester.
The other houses sat in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th positions depending on their results.
Part 34.
A Bad School Report.
I started off rather well. On the first day of term I rallied my troops in the Gym and as the Rhinos had done particularly badly the term before I gave them a good pep talk.
There was one little boy who had scored a record number of bad marks and he promised us all faithfully to do better. I am pretty sure I threatened him with a beating up if he did not pull his socks up and do better.
I think I was a very weak character at this time in particular because with all my fine intentions I allowed myself to be lead astray by a bright scholarship student called Parks.
Parks was a joker and a rebel but at the same time a favourite with the teachers because he was exceptionally bright and eventually won a Scholarship to I think it was Eton. England's most prestigious Public School.
I found him fascinating and a lot of foolish fun to be with. We got up to clowning around for cheap laughs and getting into trouble for not taking the highly disciplined and competitive life style seriously.
I got my first really bad and disappointing report from the Headmaster, Billy Williamson a very good golfer and Latin teacher. He wrote something like the following. "I really like Michael but I am afraid he neglected his responsibilities during his last term at school. He started well and finished badly."
It was sad to see the disappointment on the face of my parents when they read the report. I was beginning to learn that leading meant responsibility and not just goofing off with a joker.
Deep down I wanted to be a success and looked up to by others. I think this is very normal when brought up in any kind of environment. I was never taught to apply spiritual values of mercy and love to others.
It was basically a race, a competition and everyone was out to win. I was talented at Table Tennis or Ping Pong but that was a very minor sport. To captain the Rugby Team to victory over all the surrounding schools would have been considered a very great achievement.
This race however was in Ping Pong, Golf, Squash, Cricket, Hockey, Rugby, Shooting, Lawn Tennis, Swimming and of course Academic studies. I think this is the race in which we are all prisoners together. I remember getting a kick out of being the best at Ping Pong and being rather disappointed at not being a star at the major sports.
The mind set was as I have tried to describe before. This British spirit. I was a very long way from learning that in God's eyes, the only legitimate competition was to out do one another in Love and Humility and just being a Servant ready to lay down one's life for others.
Academically I did better in subjects where I admired the teacher. If I thought he was a good chap then I would be interested. Mr Gabain was my favourite so I did well at French. Actually all the teachers were good but maybe I just wasn't motivated or just plain lazy to excel and swat for exams.
I did swat but not to win but just to pass. I do remember I always did well at Scripture. Learning the Bible stories especially from the Old Testament. There was no application taught that one should pray but I suppose I did have a small sense of God.
I passed high in Scripture and French and just average for the rest of the subjects. English grammar and English Literature were my worst. Math, Geography and History, I was above average and Latin was OK.
I hated and found absolutely boring Chemistry and Physics.
SECTION 3. PUBLIC SCHOOL.
Part 35.
Cheltenham College Boarding Public School.
At my prep school I did average academically but managed to quite easily pass the common entrance exam to Cheltenham at the normal age of 13.
This is now the year 1951. The world was now entrenched in the Cold War. This was a struggle between the 2 major world powers at the time.
Britain was no longer ruling the waves and waving the rules as she had done through the Victorian era and the early part of the 20th Century.
The USA and the Soviet Union were competing for World Domination.
Winston Churchill had named the dividing line between the Democratic West and the Communist East, "The Iron Curtain." It was a very dangerous time as the world tottered on the brink of Nuclear War.

Cheltenham is a town snuggled into a very picturesque part of West Central England called the Cotswolds.
I arrived at Cheltenham two years after my brother had left. There were students there who remembered him. I was in Christow house under a very good House Master called Boutflower.
The Houses were where we lived. About 70 boys to a house spread out around the main college building with its Cathedral like Chapel, Dining Room and out buildings.
There were about 400 boys divided into 5 or 6 houses. I say Mr Boutflower was good because my dad liked him and he was an inspiring leader. He was able to inspire us boys and encourage us to do better than what we believed possible.
Christow, under his supervision and leadership had a high esprit de corps and we won most of the competitions against the other 5 houses.
He really liked my brother who not only excelled scholastically but had won the All England Silver Times medal for .303 rifle shooting.
The 303 is an army service rifle with quite a kick into your shoulder when you shoot a round. Bill had been chosen for the team at the last moment, as a reserve, but then excelled himself by winning against the best shots from all the Public Schools of England. There must have been over a 1000 competitors.
Part 36.
Goodbye Mr Chips!
By the way, there is an excellent movie called, "Goodbye Mr Chips." It is an English Classic Movie. This takes part at Sherborn Public School, very similar to Cheltenham and it will give you a very great insight as to how the Public School system works.
For example it portrays exactly how life is organised. For 8 months of the year boys between the ages of 13 and 18 are schooled 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in the British System. The Teachers or Masters as they are called, rather like overgrown schoolboys throw their lives into moulding these boys into being the kind of person that would help lead the Nation.
The movie shows all this in dramatic detail. It is very sad showing how many of the graduates were killed going off to fight in the First World War 1914 /18. This was trench warfare where newly trained young officers had a life expectancy of three weeks from the time of joining up with their regiments fighting in the mud in Flanders, Belgium.
I found it amazingly true to my experiences in both Ashdown House and Cheltenham College.
I have seen it twice and it brought back many memories not all of them bad but all of them very far removed from what I am learning now in my new found Christian Faith.
Pope John Paul the 2nd wrote about the Culture of Death and this British spirit that I mentioned earlier glorified war!
War is the most horrendous experience any one can have so to glorify it is in my opinion, totally on the wrong track.
.
Part 37.
Some Titbits from Cheltenham College.
Let me show you a few more fascinating events from Cheltenham.
It was interesting to see my dad's name and uncle Mike's name on the old boys roll. Here I was the 4th in line from the King family.
Cheltenham College was one of the most expensive Public Schools in the country. It had a VC room. It boasted one of the highest numbers of VCs (Victoria Crosses the highest award for bravery) won, more than most other schools.
It was very military motivated.
I loved to play rugby in the winter, I wasn't an expert but average, and on one occasion when mum and dad came to see me play in a house match, I very conveniently scored a try just as they arrived.
If you can remember a try is 3 points in a system I explained back in Part 26. I was still at this age very much the son of my father.
A chip off the old block. Dad's advice was always for me the truth. At Cheltenham however I was not completely happy and not really challenged enough. My sights were on the Royal Navy and becoming an officer and a gentleman in her Majesty's Armed Forces at sea.
Part 38.
A Rowing Triumph.
Then in the spring term I took up 4s rowing. My House named Christowe had a seniors boat made up of 17 and 18 year olds and our junior boat with an average age of 15. I rowed in the position of Stroke. This is the first oarsman next to the Cox who steered and it was my job to set the pace for the other three oarsmen.
Mr Boutflower was absolutely flipped because we finished 1st and 3rd. This was the first time in history that anyone could remember that a junior boat would be up with the seniors. We were all awarded our House colours.
Colours were a mark of distinction and the House crest could be proudly worn on our otherwise undecorated college jackets or Blazers as they were called. The fact was that we had an excellent trainer who pushed us hard.
Part 39.
Only way out of this is a life committed to Christ.
I was really caught up in this British spirit. This spirit is not at all to be confused with the Holy Spirit. This indoctrination is not even to be compared with the 70 year rule of Communism, but goes back much further to the violent overthrow of Catholicism in England by Henry the 8th.
It is so ingrained in the British way of thought and I am still trying to fight off its effects.
Papists, as Catholics are humiliatingly called, are so looked down upon and even though today there is emancipation and recognition for Roman Catholics, there is still an undercurrent of hatred and disrespect for them.
My dad would somewhat jokingly say when he hit his thumb with a hammer by mistake, "God burn the Pope!" The young village boy, who became almost like a son to my dad working faithfully for him for 28 years, respectfully reminded his boss the Colonel, "Sir! Wouldn't it be better to say, "God Bless the Pope?"
Dad took the hint and from then on used the reformed version of his swear word.
There is only one way out of this dilemma, a conversion experience with the Splendour of Truth, Jesus Christ. It is my opinion that Henry the 8th after rebelling against the Splendour of Truth reaped this counterfeit spirit for which the British are so famous and leading them as a nation away from the True Religioin.
Modern day England is sadly reaping the effects of this and has turned into a very materialistic and violent nation.
Part 40.
Ambitions to get into the Royal Navy.
I was desperate to get into the Royal Navy, which had an entry system at 16. So at 16, half way through the normal period for being at a P.S., I would have to take quite tough exams to be able to make it.
There was a very high failure rate. Maybe a 1000 would sit the written exam and then only 150 would make it.
It was a lot easier to get into Sandhurst, (West Point equivalent) the Army Academy than into Dartmouth, (Anapolis) the Naval College.
My dad who was qualified at about the same academic level as myself had failed 40 years earlier and had then opted for the Army as second choice. There was more glamour attached to being in Her Majesty's Royal Navy than being in an Army regiment.
Post war movies like the Cruel Sea were very popular and at any rate England being surrounded by rough seas had always excelled in History as a Sea Faring Nation.
Nelson of the Battle of Trafalgar fame is our most honoured Military Hero having his statue raised on the famous Nelson's Column in the middle of Trafalgar Square in Central London.
Nelson was followed a close second by Francis Drake, 217 years earlier. Drake, when he heard that the immense fleet of the Spanish Armada had been sighted off the West coast of England continued to finish his game of Bowls before setting out in by comparison a small and far inferior in numbers British Fleet.
The little and more manoeuvrable British Ships were able to weave their way around and through the fleet of Large Spanish Galleons. The British cannons pounded the Spaniards and sank and disabled many.
Drake's efforts, helped by ideal weather for the Brits, were able to prevent the invading soldiers from ever landing on British soil. The storms drove the remains of the Armada right around the North of Scotland with many ships foundering on the rocky Irish Coast as they struggled their way back home.
Today there are many very Spanish looking people who are the descendants of 1588 on the West Coast of Ireland. To give Francis Drake his due, he admitted after the victory that credit was partly to God and his famous remark, "God blew and they were scattered," is still remembered today.
SECTION 4. BRNC DARTMOUTH.
Part 41.
Boozy King and the Royal Navy entrance exam.
I had a scholastic term master called King. The same Surname as me. Boozy King. He was very old and had been at the school for 40 years.
Story has it that Boozy was apt to take a drink before the afternoon class. Uncle Mike's class some 30 or more years earlier, decided to play a very cruel trick on him. As he entered the class all the boys started swaying from side to side in perfect timing. The lamp hanging from the ceiling was also in motion. Poor Boozy came in and took one look at the situation and staggered out with his hand on his head enabling everyone to get a free time afternoon class.
Very cruel!!! 37 years later, he was honest with me and admitted that I didn't have much chance of making it into the Navy. My dad had tried in 1914 and failed and here I was in 1954 trying to succeed where my dad hadn't.
Old Boozy could remember my dad when he was a junior master.
Part 42.
Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth.
Well I sat the exam and then had to go for the interview, which took 2 or 3 days at Dartmouth Royal Naval College.
My Mum gave me some really excellent advice. She told me to make sure that before I went in for my interview before all these stuffy old Admirals and Psychologists (Shrinks), I had to make a decision to show all this formidable array of VIPs that I really liked them even if they were boring, pompous and objectionable.
It was basically a lesson on love. Any way I obeyed and was awarded the highest marks on record for personal qualities. OILYQ. Officer Like qualities.
I did the practical test in the Gymn of this great College with all the Admirals watching. When it was my turn as leader, I was given a task and kind of puzzle that I was able to grasp immediately and lead my team to a victory in an exceptionally short period of time.
As I look back it was a stroke of good fortune, as the other tasks given to my colleagues seemed much harder. Academically I was about 120th out of 150 but my OILYQ marks which were valued at 50% of the total, pulled me up to third place. When I showed the results to Boozy he grabbed me and waltzed me around the quadrangle.
Part 43.
First term at BRNC Dartmouth.
The year was 1954. England or really I should say the British were having a hard time giving up all their strategic out posts. Not least control of the Suez Canal.
As India had been already returned to self rule there was not really any point in keeping this important waterway but nevertheless for some of the old die hards, it was a tragedy. My brother Bill was now at Edinburgh University studying Engineering.
I was so proud to receive my officer cadets uniform. My parents were delighted. Dad had been a great help and while on holiday he would often take me to Portsmouth harbour and we would go on a passenger ferry boat and review the warships.
I knew all their names and classes. I also knew a great deal about the enemy's Naval hardware and knew how to recognise Russian Destroyers, Frigates and Cruisers etc.
My first term at Dartmouth was all that I had hoped for. I took my racing dinghy, a Fairy Marine Firefly, a very popular one-design class and I was able to race this and won nearly every race.
I spent every spare moment on the River Dart.
I learned how to manoeuvre a Picket Boat, which was like a miniature warship. I also learned to sail a Navy Whaler and a Cutter and Seamanship was definitely my favourite subject.
Discipline was extremely strict but I didn't mind. We had to run everywhere. No walking only running. The Cadet Captains were allowed to cane us for slip-ups, which they did on many occasions.
Every morning we had to dip into an ice cold bath sometimes even breaking ice on top. Cross-country running was compulsory and we even had to swim across creeks in the depths of winter. I didn't mind, I thrived on it all.
By the end of term one felt a sense of great accomplishment by just surviving. On the last day we were allowed to let off steam and had battles with the other houses kidnapping each other from the fortifications of the other. Furniture was broken and many bruises received but the authorities allowed it.
Part 44.
My first taste of real disaster.
It was then in my 2nd term that the rug was pulled out from under my feet.
It was the month of May 1954. I was coming back from winning a sailing race. I can't remember much about the race and I noticed my House officer Lieutenant Commander Gerard Pierce, a man I already admired and liked standing on the jetty.
I realised something very unusual had happened. He walked me up the hill to his private cabin and informed me that my brother had been killed that very day in a sailing accident on the river Forth, Edinburgh.
My brother had taken out a University owned dinghy accompanied by undergraduate Colin McPherson a former head boy from Cheltenham. It had started out a sunny day and then one of those infamous storms rolled down the side of the steep hills on the side of the Forth.
Bill was not racing, just out for a sail and they were probably watching the Olympic Dragon class keelboats that were racing.
The storm brought the visibility down to a few yards and the dinghy capsized. It was early May and the water was winter cold.
There was no built in buoyancy in this particular class of RNSA dinghy. A Dragon skipper picked up the body of my brother, Colin McPherson was never found. My house officer allowed me to stay in his cabin, he was a decent man and I was given time to allow this to sink in before going down to the dining mess for dinner.
Part 45.
Totally unprepared for such an event.
I was so unprepared for this kind of event. Like religion and sex, death was also a taboo subject. I read about this in the papers happening to others, and that was bad enough but to experience this first hand was just not in my agenda.
I blubbed and even in front of my fellow cadets there were tears in my eyes at dinner.
Part 46.
Consolation.
For the next few days I spent my spare time in the library and by good fortune a very dear old English and History professor, Mr Barnes Lawrence happened to come in. He put an arm over my shoulder and then disappeared for a few moments. When he came back he wrote down some very good words from a book that he had found. I do not know what book it was but the words were as follows.

"Life is eternal and Love is immortal and death is only a horizon, and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight."
These words are written to this day on a memorial plaque to my brother, Flying Officer Rodney William Stuart King, RAAF, in our Angmering village Anglican Church named St Margaret's
Part 47.
My first real cries to God!!
I pondered over these words and alone in the library I started to cry out to God. Why me God? Why our family? I was actually angry and even swore at God for allowing this to happen.
These fine words, which were the only Christian words that I could call on were such a comfort.
Part 48.
Compassionate Leave.
In the middle of the night a day or so later, when I could bare it no longer,I knocked on the door of the Chaplain's cabin and he listened sympathetically and the next day I was allowed to go home for one week's compassionate leave.
On the train I was able to read the back page of the person opposite's newspaper. There was an account in small print of the loss of William Rodney Stuart King and Colin McPherson.
When I arrived home, I found my mother in a darkened bedroom. My dad had just returned from Edinburgh morgue after identifying the body. He had picked up my uncle Mike his younger brother on the way.
Mum told me that when the policeman came to the door he had said aloud, "Oh God not Michael!" He was relieved that it wasn't me as I was his chip of the old block.
Of course he felt terrible to lose Bill but remember he didn't really get on with him and he didn't really understand him. Mum did and she was devastated. Dad told me never to believe this nonsense that when people die in such circumstances that they have peace written over their faces. My brother's face was contorted with terror.
Part 49.
Time not wasted with Barnes Lawrence
My time in the library with dear old Barnes Lawrence was not wasted and I began to share with mum especially that Bill was not dead but had moved on over the horizon.
God really used me and at the memorial service I read that famous passage in Philippians Ch 4 verse 8, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Part 50.
Mum finds a new calling in life.
My mum recovered and was used on many occasions to help others who were in mourning over the loss of loved ones, so as is stated in the Word of God in Romans Ch 8 v 28, it worked together for good. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
My mother became much more of a believer from now on.
One interesting little fact was that I was the only cadet ever to wear the cap badge of his mother.
The British WRNS were not king's commissioned and wore a rather inferior blue cap badge. Mum being in the Royal Indian Navy on the other hand was king's commissioned and had a gold badge similar to a male officer. Ha!! She had kept it and I proudly sowed it on my Naval Officers hat.
Part 51.
First real thoughts about God and devoting myself to sport.
This tragic event was I think the first time that I started to really wonder about life and the questions that go along with it.
At 16 years old I had not really experienced death except for Granddad and Aunt Mable, but time was a healer and the next four years passed fairly quickly.
I became Captain of the River for 2 years and lead the Navy team to Yacht racing victories over the Air Force military officers College Cranwell and the Army College Sandhurst. I was picked to play in the 3rd 15 at Rugby and we played local beer drinking Devon and Cornish Clubs. We won everything.
The Irish Rugby Master made Rugby into a religion for us, and the first 15 also triumphed over the other major Military Academies.
I do remember one memorable match between the first fifteen and us the third fifteen. They had no matches and we also had none so we played each other.
The match which should have been a walk over ended in a drawer of I think 11 points each, much to the surprise of everyone including us. We had no bright players like the 1sts but we held together as a team. It was an upset.
Part 52.
Cross Country Running triumph!
I had a very good friend called Richard Byrn, and he was an excellent runner. I dearly longed to go to the other military establishments on away matches in the winter months rather than play the beer clubs.
I couldn't make it in Rugby so I thought I would have a go at Cross Country Running. I trained with Byrne every afternoon and then we had the Plymouth Command Cross country race in which the College and men from the Plymouth fleet would compete.
There must have been well over 400 runners and thanks to the excellent training with Richard Byrne I finished third with a bronze medal. My House Officer Lt Cdr Gerard Pierce was delighted and I was awarded my house colours.
This was considered a huge privilege and I was allowed to walk with my hands in my pockets and take a short cut through the forbidden rose garden. A real chance to show off my superiority, Ha!!! When you think about it, it was really ridiculous but was once again all a part of fostering the spirit I keep mentioning.
From then on I accompanied the College teams with a place in cross-country running.
Part 53.
Not really cut out for a modern and technical Navy.
I was very ambitious but not really well placed to be in a technical modern Navy.
I was baffled by Electronics and not really interested in it. I adored Seamanship at which I excelled.
The Navy and even Yacht racing had become so technical and needed not only normal sailing skill, but the ability to read and interpret electronic instruments of increasing technical complexity.
I often thought I was born about 30 years too late and that I would have fitted in much better in the days of Admiral Beatty and Jellico and Cunningham and the less technical and more seamanship minded Navy of that time.
My Dad understood. Of course God knew better and His ways are not our ways.
Part 54.
A Leadership Humiliation.
In my House named Exmouth there was a very bright and intelligent student Midshipman in my term named Richard Channon. I knew he was a lot smarter than me and to my amazement I was made the head of the house when I was expecting him to be chosen.
I went up to him and as humbly as I could, offered my condolences only to be told by him that he had been made head of the College. My balloon went pop and that was quite embarrassing. I am sure he went on to become an Admiral.
Part 55.
Emerging importance of the Fleet air arm.
I get Seamanship first prize.
From 1954 to 1960 was a time of great change in Naval tactics. Atomic warfare was well on the cards. The Navy's Air Arm was becoming more and more important. I was totally uninterested in anything to do with flying. I was crazy for the sea not the air. In my last year at Naval college I won the coveted Seamanship 1st Prize, The Doctor Common Telescope but before being awarded this prize I went on an air familiarisation course.
Part 56.
Air Familiarisation.
It was compulsory and we accompanied a well-trained navy fighter pilot in a special jet fighter adapted for training, rather like a car with twin controls for Learner Drivers. The expert pilot would then report as to whether his student had natural ability to fly. I quite enjoyed my trip in spite of the terrible smell of puke in the oxygen mask left by the previous occupant.
We flew from a Naval airbase in South Wales called Brawdy. My pilot was called Sub Lieutenant Dickie Wren and had graduated from the Empire Flying School.
Well he flew me around, doing tight turns and subjecting me to lots of G and then low flying over the sea and between the rocky islands off the coast. It was a bit like a trip to the fair and riding the Big Dipper.
He then handed over the controls to me when we were at a high safe altitude. He told me to fly straight and level. I did ok on the straight bit but hopeless on the level bit and we lost an alarming 300 feet in a very short time. I was hopelessly disorientated. I could steer a ship pretty well but not a jet fighter.
Part 57.
A serious air crash!!!
By the time to land, a dense sea fog had enveloped the airbase. We came in by GCA, Radar Ground Controlled Approach but had to over shoot the runway because another aircraft was in the way.
Fuel was now dangerously low and we didn't have enough to fly all the way out to sea and pick up the Radar GCA so as a very good pilot he put on a set amount of rudder and hoped that as we completed the full circle in the dense fog we would pick up the runway in front of us.
I think he told me to pray. Well we did pick up the runway and as the wheels touched down Dear Lieutenant Dicky Wren with a sigh of relief pulled the under carriage up in other words the landing wheels, instead of putting the flaps down.
There was a terrible bump and the plane sped on its belly with a trail of sparks flying from the concrete runway. The plane was a total write off. Everything happened so quick that it wasn't possible for fear to click in. Adrenaline was high.
The plane eventually came to rest and miraculously did not catch fire and explode as with empty tanks and lots of fuel vapour it just needed one spark from the many produced by the crash.
We banged our seat belt release buckle and jumped out in record time, to be met by a very irate Commander Air and a fleet of fire engines. We were given tea for shock and I became the laughing stock of the Midshipmen's Gunroom, a navy name for a recreation room with a bar, as they accused me of pulling the wrong lever.
I hasten to add that the levers were not on my passenger trainee side. This experience did not endear me any more to flying. This was now the second time I had been involved in an emergency in the air and the Lord miraculously protected me. You may remember the first time was when I was about 6 flying Bombay to Karachi as luggage in a Dakota.
Part 58.
Arguing with the Head Master about Jesus.
Since the shocking death of my elder and only brother I was more conscious of the existence of God and I remember getting in a tangle with the Head Master of Dartmouth who was also religion teacher and a total liberal.
We read some book that explained away all Jesus' miracles as coincidences and false reporting. One story was about the feeding of the five thousand. This book which, did not deny the Historical fact of the existence of a man called Jesus however explained this miracle away by saying Jesus' inspiring sermon had motivated those who had brought lunch to share it with the others.
There were many other examples such as Lazarus had not truly died. This book was the standard textbook for religious teaching in this Military establishment. Maybe the other colleges, Sandhurst for the Army and Cranwell also used this book. It would not surprise me because it was so important for the establishment to downgrade the spiritual so as to foster the British spirit.
I did stand up in class and asked why the reports in the Bible might also not be true? I can't remember his exact reaction except it was not positive but the other students thought I was brave.
Part 59.
Important odds and ends. My mother's unconditional love and girlfriends.
Bill's sailing accident certainly did not put me or my parents off yacht racing and we continued with a vengeance winning many cups at Itchenor, one of the country's premier Yacht Clubs and a famous cup at Cowes, which I will tell you about later.
I started to have Girl friends and once again I was very extreme. Every time I fell in love I sincerely believed that this was forever. I remained a virgin because I was so scared of a pregnancy that I just did not do it.
My mother said something to me when I was becoming an adolescent, which remained with me and had an affect on me not getting girls into trouble as we used to call it.
She said that she would always love me no matter what I did. She would try and understand. It was like a pink ticket to promiscuity but it worked in reverse. Her promise of unconditional love held sway over my emotions, keeping them in check.
On reflection I think my mum was rather special. God bless her!!
Part 60.
Passing out of Britannia Royal Naval College.
I was a bit worried about my passing out exams. There were so many subjects to take and I wasn't a swat. I am happy to say that I passed, not very well and without gaining any seniority towards eventually becoming a Lieutenant.
So I graduated as a Sub Lieutenant and went home on leave to be with my parents.
By now Mum, Dad and I were members of a very elite Yacht Club in Chichester harbour called The Itchenor Sailing Club. My parents sailed in the X class, a one design dating right back to before the 1st world war.
The design had been updated and it was the most numerous and popular keel boat on the South Coast.
It boasted a fleet of well over a hundred in the famous Cowes Regattas raced in the Solent, a stretch of water separating the Isle of Wight from mainland South England.
The Royal Yacht Squadron was the famous Yacht Club from which the Kings of England raced their famous J class yachts against the Americans, never winning, I might add.
This was a forerunner of the famous America's cup, which is raced today in 12 metre yachts. Switzerland and New Zealand seem to be taking over the place of American dominance, which lasted for years with the huge Js, of the first half of the 20th century.
SECTION 5. FIRST COMMISSION.
Part 61.
My first commission.
1959. My first job at sea was as the junior officer in a wooden Minesweeper called HMS Coniston.
It was the first of many of the Coniston, or Ton class, Number 1101. Adding a thousand was a ploy to deceive the enemy into thinking we had many more sweepers than really existed.
As junior officer I ran the ship's office and gunnery, we had a Bofors Heavy Machine Gun mounted on the Forecastle and anchoring at the Bows or front end of the ship.
The Captain was a Lieutenant Commander John Piers Torres Torr. A quite extraordinary name. He had the most unusual signature. It was a series of circles. I have never seen anything quite like it before or since. He had a very strange way of speaking as though he had come out of the previous century.
He would have looked great in olden days Naval Officers garb with a cocked hat like Lord Nelson. Then there was the 1st Lieutenant, second in command, Lieutenant White and then a more senior Sub Lieutenant, called Pithers, and then me wet behind the ears.
Part 62.
More Death reminders.
One of our first jobs was to take part in Minesweeping exercises operating on the river Forth above Edinburgh at a small Naval base called Port Edgar.
Every day we would sail up and down on the same stretch of water that my brother had been drowned in four years earlier. God was on my case and He wanted to remind me that life is very short and in many instances can be cut off without warning.
By now some of my term had lost their lives in air accidents. Mark Laister newly married crashed while pilot training. As a pilot in peacetime, on average, only 2 out of 3 would survive to the age of 30.
Part 63.
Boxing against Mark Laister at the Naval College.
As cadets Mark and I had to box one another. He was short and stocky and I was long and gangly, but we were the same weight.
We made a pact not to hurt each other but soon that was broken as we were being screamed at to make a real go of it.
My long reach kept poor Mark a good friend out of the way and he was covered in blood streaming from his nose for the first two rounds and then in the final round he got in close and knocked me clean unconscious.
We both ended up in hospital and I was discharged before him so I drew a little consolation from that.
Teddy Mason who was the most amazing sprint swimmer breaking Dartmouth College records was killed landing on an aircraft carrier. There were no remains of his body except his tongue. These young men were volunteer fliers. The peacetime Fleet Air Arm took its toll on these fine young Naval airmen. I remember Teddy was the Anglican altar boy and obviously loved the Lord.
Part 64.
Off to the Mediterranean.
Almost Ramming the Forth Road bridge construction.
Soon our Flotilla of Minesweepers would be on its way to the Mediterranean but there are some more interesting events you might enjoy reading about.
The new Forth Road bridge was under construction, and one foggy morning the Captain was taking the ship out with severely reduced visibility.
I was on the radar on the Bottom Bridge or Chart house, while the Captain was on the open bridge. There was so much clutter on the Radar that I was not able to make out a pontoon on the screen.
It was sunk into the riverbed and many men were working down below sea level inside this hollow pillar. I was unable to warn him and we narrowly missed having a disastrous accident.
All those men would have certainly drowned but the 1st Lieutenant was able to save the day by a very quick alteration of course.

Part 65.
Poaching Game Birds on Lord Linlithgo's estate.
Myself and some other young officers would get up early and go poaching with our shot guns on Lord Linlithgo's huge estate. I shot my first duck, which I proudly presented to the Captain and thankfully we never got caught.
Part 66.
Off to Malta. A Rough Biscay crossing. (I found a picture of Coniston on the internet we could use it? Also maybe I can find other pictures to help illustrate. What do you think?)
We sailed as a squadron of four Sweepers, Yarnton, Wolverton, Coniston and one other that I have forgotten, just remembered, Appleton, and met the most severe storm in the middle of the Bay of Biscay a very notorious spot for bad weather.
One of the Squadron developed a fire on board and because everyone was so seasick they were only able to put it out with great difficulty.
Like everyone else I was also sea sick and when it was my turn to go on watch or do duties down below I carried a bucket for an emergency and ate the famous special dry and uninteresting Naval special issue biscuits which had been designed centuries ago probably in the time of Horatio Lord Nelson of Trafalgar fame and England's most legendary war hero of all times.
We docked at Gibraltar and enjoyed a rest after such a tough crossing and then on to the beautiful Island of Cyprus. I think we called in at Malta for refuelling.
Part 67.
Cyprus Patrol
Cyprus I remember very well. This was in the time of the famous and Charismatic Archbishop Makarios and Colonel Grivas who were trying to lead the island to union with Greece.
The British had very important army and air bases there and for all I know they still have them. The problem was that many of the population especially to the East of the Island were Turks.
EOKA was a freedom fighter organisation or terrorists depending on whose side you were on and they were regularly attacking and killing the British who were garrisoning the Island under the leadership of a Chief of Navy Staff called Admiral Myers V.C. and eccentric old veteran whom I would meet in extraordinary circumstances.
Weapons were being smuggled into the Island from the sea probably through Greek fishing trawlers and it was the job of our Minesweepers to board, search and arrest any suspects who might be supporting the famous General Grivas.
(I found out from Internet quite a bit about this period. Cyprus patrol etc so I could elaborate if you want?
Part 68.
Almost famous!
The year must have been 1959/60. Well it was my job to be the boarding officer and so armed to the teeth, we would go on night patrol and then board as many trawlers as we could.
There was a famous occasion when we boarded a trawler named SCALA. Of course we had a set routine. We asked their captain to wind in their Trawl Nets and then we would line the crew up flipping through a small pocket book of photos of the wanted men and a description of them including their height measurements.
Ordinary seaman Bungy Edwards had inadvertently allowed his World war one Lanchester sub machine gun to fire a shot by mistake luckily not hurting anyone and just putting a hole in the deck of the fishing vessel. This event no doubt heightened the tension.
To my delight the frightened Captain of the Trawler greatly resembled one of the chief wanted terrorists.
He was about half an inch too small but never mind the resemblance was too great to miss. So we brought him back on board and locked him up in the Tiller flat a very uncomfortable compartment at the very rear end (the stern) of the vessel.
My Captain was overjoyed and immediately radioed the good news back to the Headquarter base.
Thirty minutes later we received such a disappointing reply. Apparently the man was very well known and the same mistake had been made before and he was actually working for the British Intelligence authorities.
My Captain who was already celebrating a commendation was deeply disappointed. The innocent captain was taken down to the sailor's mess deck and shown a movie. We ignominiously returned him to his command.
Part 69.
Meeting with Admiral Crap Myers.
Admiral Crap Myers as he was affectionately called of course not to his face, would invite young Lieutenants to stay the weekend with him. I had just won a beard growing competition so I had to shave it off and went to meet the eccentric Admiral.
He was a very brave man and never bothered to have bodyguards and flaunted his person in front of the danger spots where the EOKA terrorists would easily be able to kill him.
However even they admired his courage and he was never shot at. Upon meeting me he engaged me in a wrestling match.
I had been warned so I was able to get him in a half Nelson and onto the floor. He was delighted at my victory and the next thing was to play him Squash.
This he won by placing himself in the middle of the court making absolutely no effort to get out of the way when it was my turn to hit the black bouncy rubber ball.
Totally unfair but what could one do except smile and enjoy his very good company and be taken care of by servants and a very beautiful wife much younger than him.
I will never forget this man who had taken his submarine into an enemy harbour and torpedoed the warships inside and then managed to escape without losing a seaman. He was awarded the VC and this last most prestigious job of chief of Naval staff Cyprus.
May God rest his soul and I pray that Jesus accepted him and that he accepted Jesus.
Part 70.
Growing disillusionment with the world system.
1960 was memorable too for the shooting down of the American Spy plane and Gary Powers the pilot was made prisoner for two years.
I remember too hearing how Nikita Khrushchev took off his shoe at the UN and falsely prophesied that the USSR would bury the USA.
One very important event which began to feed my slow growing disillusionment with life in the Navy and in the world in general was when I read in Time magazine that the British Military Police were mistreating and torturing Greek suspects on the Island of Cyprus.
I thought this was anti British propaganda fostered and drummed up by the Yanks.
Remember I was a member of the old school. The British were decent folk who understood and always played fair. We often used an expression, "That's not cricket."
Cricket was where we learned to win and to lose and be decent. It was like a code that we believed and started with the Royal Family.
Very shortly after this we were involved in an amphibious landing on the pan handle area of the island. Suspected terrorists were apparently hiding out in some caves. We landed a detachment of Royal Marines on the beach while other Marines were dumped by helicopters further in land to cut of the line of retreat.
My job was to command and steer the launch with the marines huddled together with their automatics trained on the beach as we approached. Now there I was dressed in my Ice Cream Navy Whites standing like a sore thumb at the stern of the boat and would obviously make a very easy target for a terrorist. I was too scared to show my fear by sitting down so I remained standing expecting to be shot at any moment.
Well no shots were fired and we safely landed our Marines and then a sailor and myself walked in shore to find the British Special services beating up two shepherds who had been found cowering in a cave.
What I saw was horrifying, with teeth being knocked out and blood everywhere. My sailor and I were disgusted and made our way back to the launch.
The Time magazine report was true and not a Yankee fabrication.
Part 71.
Back to Portsmouth
Soon our flotilla was on its way back to Portsmouth on the South Coast of England.
I went to the wedding of my friend who was the young Lieutenant on our sister ship Yarnton, the flotilla leader.
A few years later the married couple and their two children were out for a walk and were run over by a truck leaving only him unscathed. I met him quite miraculously and unexpectedly when I was a missionary and I was hitch hiking in the centre of London ten years later. My friend was now working for the BBC. (

Portsmouth was close to home and I would get leave at weekends to go sailing racing with my parents in their X class keel boat. Although I was aware of the existence of God there was no real desire in me to get to know Him. I still did not see any really good reason to have a personal relationship with Him. In fact I did not give the matter a thought.
Part 72.
Minesweeping Endurance trials.
Our Minesweepers were involved in endurance trials to see just how long we would be able to sweep a minefield before exhaustion would overtake us.
A team of scientists and experts accompanied us on one such trial.
My job was to track the ship's position by Decca Navigator, a fairly accurate way of finding one's position by watching and plotting the readings from three different coloured dials.
The weather was rough and after about 27 hours of sweeping up and down an imaginary minefield non-stop, our efficiency trailed off rapidly.
When I eventually got to bed I slept for 20 hours with dreams of these coloured dials.
SECTION 6. HMS SURPRISE.
Part 73.
Commander in Chiefs Despatch Vessel
HMS Surprise.
One day in 1961, at the breakfast table my Captain said to me "Surprise Surprise!" I had no idea what he was talking about but my one and a half years time on Coniston was coming to an end and the Admiralty posted me to HMS Surprise the Commander in Chief Mediterranean's flagship and Public Relations vessel for showing off the British flag.
It was a plum job and was an opportunity for me to gain promotion as I was surrounded by very senior officers and their flag Lieutenants.
Surprise was a converted Frigate turned into a Luxury Yacht. The huge extended wooden Helicopter deck stretching from amidships to the stern with its awning was the ideal place to throw cocktail parties for dignitaries.
The stern was full of VIP cabins and while the Royal Yacht Britannia was under construction the Royal Family used the Surprise for their Royal visits. One cabin I remember was labelled "Lady in waiting."
Part 74.
Malta again.
1962/3 I joined the Surprise in Malta, which was the Headquarter base for the Med fleet. While on this ship we toured many countries.
To get there I flew on an RAF Transport Hercules which landed first at Gibraltar.
I sat next to an incredibly attractive girl that looke like she was 19 or 20.
I vaguely knew her as she was a friend of an old flame Sarah D who at one stage I was detrmined to marry until her rather pompous father stepped in to stop us seeing each other. She sadly married a Royal Marine Officer and that ended in divorce.
I feel sorry for her as we got on very well and in different circumstances we could have made it.
I was pretty broke up by it all but here was her girl friend Angela P and so I took her out to a club and restaurant with Flamenco dancing.
To my horror I found out that she was only 14!!! Help!! I was 21 and the gap seemd at that time very large.
Surprise was quite different to HMS Coniston and had a ships company of about a 100 and the Captain was a four ringer and a real Captain by rank.
My job was the Quarter deck for going alongside when docking and the Ship's office.
There was a 1st Lieutenant who was a Lieutenant Commander and the a Navigation Officer who was a senior Lieutenant and then an Engineer Lieutenant Commander and a Lieutenant Gunnery Officer called Reid and the other names I have sadly forgotten. Captain David Scott I will always remember and he has now died on May the 9th 2006 on my wife's birthday aged 84. He was and is definitely my very favourite Naval Officer along with his very charming wife Penny
My first trip was to Libya, which at that time was a monarchy under King Idris. I remember being officer in charge of the guard. As the King approached our ship, the Libyan subjects who lined the quayside were forced to turn their backs towards the passing king.
I guess he was frightened of being shot by a member of the crowd. The Libyans seemed to be very primitive and it did not surprise me that not long afterwards, Idris was ousted and the charismatic Colonel Gaddafi took over and gave prosperity to a population that had been suppressed for just about ever.
Part 75.
Captain David Scott of the Atlantic.
My Captain, my hero, who was a very likeable man nicknamed Scott of the Atlantic, was often seeing the funny side of all our antics with the Admiral and his entourage and poking fun at the pomp and ceremony.
He would take me into his confidence and we laughed at some of the comical antics of some of these pretentious dignitaries. He often made jokes about it in front of me, and I enjoyed his confidence.
Having been a war hero with a remarkable personal History of bravery having served in 10 submarines and commanded 5 of them, he did not have much respect for protocol.
This was probably why he only made it to Rear Admiral. The title Atlantic was given to him because he was one of the first if not the first submariner to sail his submarine clean across the Atlantic submerged.
He had also been the 1st Lieutenant of the submarine used in the 2nd World War to deceive the German High Command by planting a disguised dead body on the beaches of I think Southern Spain with false documents showing where the Allies were going to invade, totally deceiving the enemy.
A Movie was made called "The Man who never was." This was an example of brilliant subterfuge on the part of the British Secret Service. After I left the Navy Captain Scott and his very charming wife Penny would visit my parent's home when they were in the area.
I am very happy to say this very brave and extraordinary Naval Officer was eventually Knighted by the Queen and promoted to Rear Admiral. He died last year and I pray for him that he would be mercifully received into everlasting life in Heaven.
There is a lot of nice information about him on the Internet. Rear Admiral Sir David Scott Royal Navy.
Part 76.
Mediterranean Cruises.
I spent one and a half years on the Surprise. We visited many countries showing off the flag.
My captain who knew I was an accomplished yachtsman issued a challenge to the King of Greece King Constantine who had just won a gold medal in the Olympics in the Dragon class.
We were in Piraeus the seaport for Athens. I am thankful that he was too busy because to race successfully in such a boat one needed a highly trained crew and we did not have one amongst our jolly beer-drinking sailors.
We also went to Izmir, Turkey, Levorno in Italy visiting the Italian Officers Naval college where I remember beautiful paintings on the wall of Italian warships triumphing over sinking British ships.
A slightly different view to what we had understood in Naval History Lessons.
I wanted to meet the famous Italian Olympic Gold Medal Yachtsman Straulino of the International Star class who based out of the college, but he was away.
Then we made a wonderful cruise around the Greek Islands. We went on many picnics and I learned to water ski and mono ski and then taught my sailors who became pretty good at it too.
Part 77.
Trip to the Holy Land and entertained by the Israeli Navy.
We even made a voyage to the Holy Land and were well entertained by the Israeli Navy with trips to Christian sights from Haifa.
I volunteered to go on all the organised trips. I swam in the Sea of Galilee, amongst a lot of dead fish and visited Capernaum and many other famous Biblical spots.
I do remember a feeling of awe at the thought that Jesus had trodden these areas. I also remember a fascination for and a sense of the spiritual wonder at all the Greek Shrines and white Churches that were everywhere in Crete, Cyprus and all the Greek Islands we visited.
Maybe a sense of God was slowly developing in my mind.
Part 78.
Mountain race.
On one Island, I think it was Thasos, the Captain offered a crate of beer as a prize to any of the officers who would like to lead an expedition to the top of a mountain that overlooked the very picturesque bay where we were anchored.
My competing officer took a team on a long way round which was not steep and I opted with my team to go straight up by the shortest route.
The going was tough and sometimes dangerous but by following the trails of the mountain goats we arrived easily first and planted the White Ensign proudly on the peak.
We came down the other side and in the intense heat we were quite dehydrated. We had empty water bottles and were able to fill them over and over again from a spring of crystal clear and cold water.
It was my most intense experience with water when thirsty and we became almost drunk with delight at this heavenly present.
We spent the winter in Malta and I made a point of promoting my sailors in sport and especially football.
Part 79.
Sports officer success.
Broken heart with Admiral's daughter.
I was regularly booking them grounds to play matches against other ships and watched and cheered them to many a victory.
For my part I was able to race in the Navy Fairy Swordfish class and won most of my sail races.
There was an engineer Admiral who had a beautiful daughter who was on her way out to the Persian Gulf to marry some young civil engineer.
Admiral Steel Perkins pressed me to take out his daughter Derry as crew and we got on famously. She came to cocktail parties on the Surprise and Captain Scott's charming wife Penny also encouraged her and me to get it together.
I guess we were in love. I had for a few weeks been engaged to a Navy nurse Jane Holyoak.
This didn't last and we had a disengagement party.
As the time drew closer for Derry to leave for the Persian Gulf, I was almost convinced that she wouldn't go but I hadn't reckoned with her mother who at the last moment held sway over her Admiral husband and Derry so that ended in my broken heart.
I want to hastily add that in all my relationships and there were many, there was no thought for the will of God. Even though I was convinced there was a God I definitely did not have a personal relationship with Him and neither can I remember meeting anyone who did. I was still pretty Godless living in a Godless world.
Part 80.
Catholic Malta.
Malta was very Catholic and because of my upbringing I thought that all things Catholic were totally off. I did sail my dinghy to meet a ship coming from Rome carrying a relic of St Paul. The Maltese took to the water in anything that floated to meet this ship with a Papal legate on board with the relic. To me it seemed ridiculous but I was amazed at the enthusiasm of the people. I often passed St Paul's bay where St Paul had been shipwrecked.
SECTION 7. HER MAJESTY'S COASTAL FORCES
Part 81.
Her Majesty's Coastal Forces.
HMS Brave Swordsman.
As my very pleasant tour was now coming to an end, my Captain asked me what I wanted to do. This is not usual, he was a very special and decent man.
My passion was for a fading branch of the Navy called Coastal Forces or Costly Farces as they were nicknamed.
In the Second World War MTBs or Motor Torpedo Boats (In the USA they are called PT boats) had been used with great effect.
They were extremely fast and could out manoeuvre larger warships and get in close and launch their torpedoes with deadly results.
The famous Scott of the Antarctic who perished at the beginning of the century on his expedition to the South Pole had a son called Peter Scott. He was a famous 2nd World War MTB Captain and was my hero.
He was also now a very accomplished Yachtsman in the 14foot International class, which I also raced in, ornithologist and artist and I loved his beautifully illustrated book called Snow Goose.
Part 82.
1st Lieutenant of HMS Brave Swordsman.
God bless my Captain because He got me my next job as 1st Lieutenant, 2nd in command of the Brave Swordsman a Gas turbine MTB capable of 52 knots some 100 kilometres an hour.
The vessel boasted two Bristol Proteus gas turbine engines which were used in airliners at that time.
I had a very nice young Captain called Dick Dennis who was on his way out of the Navy. At that time it was the fastest warship in the world.
Part 83.
My first wife Susan.
More Swordsman.
1961/2. While serving on this small ship based out of the submarine base, HMS Dolphin, at Portsmouth, I met my first wife Susan. She came from a family that also had connections with India.
Her Father worked for Calcutta Electric. She has three brothers.

In Brave Swordsman together with Brave Borderer the CO's vessel, we did many very interesting jobs. We worked closely with Special secret Forces and would land frogmen from the local secret service centre on the French coast at night and then pick them up a few hours later.
We did joint exercises with the Germans and the Dutch and the Norwegians and then a tour of fishery protection around the West Coast of England.
We sadly ran straight over and accidentally killed a beautiful Basking Shark. This is not really a shark at all but a small whale. We were travelling at High Cruising Speed about 45 knots, which is 50 miles an hour or a 90 kilometres an hour and did not have time to avoid it.

We acted as safety boat at the Channel Powerboat races from Portsmouth to Torquay. We had lots of parties and on one occasion we took our football team to our home village of Angmering docking our MTB at High Tide in the only quay at Littlehampton at the mouth of the river Arun where I had sailed as a kid.
The local village school adopted our vessel as did the famous Wilkinson Sword Razor Blade Company. We all had free best products from that company.
Part 84.
Front page of the Daily Telegraph.
At one stage we were doing rough weather trials with a very special buoy that measured the height of the waves and other Met details. We would drop this overboard and then do runs in the sea around it.
On one infamous occasion close to the South East tip of the Isle of Wight we lost the expensive buoy but as luck would have it before having to reports its loss, we had to answer an SOS distress message as two merchant vessels had collided in the English Channel close to Hastings.
We were so thankful for that message and raced at full speed towards the Lat Long coordinates explaining that we had abandoned the pick up of the Buoy.
That next morning a beautiful picture of Brave Swordsman was splashed across the front-page of the Daily Telegraph Newspaper.
The collision was not serious and both ships were able to continue their voyages. All this was quite a lot of fun and for a young Lieutenant aged about 25 in the year 1963/4
Part 85.
Bitter disappointment, But Admiral gives his word.
Sadly once again the rug was pulled from under my feet. At the same time as meeting my future wife I received a letter from the Admiralty that at the end of this job, I had been selected to become a Fleet Air Arm Observer or Navigator.
It was basically a press-ganging. They were not getting enough volunteers so they just press-ganged all of my term, who was at sea and who had not specialised in the various executive branches. For example, Gunnery, Torpedoes, Communications and Submarines.
I had wanted to be what in the old Navy was called a Salt Horse in other words a Seaman Specialist. In the modern Navy there was now no place for such a specialist.
I was very sad and immediately went up to the Admiralty to plead my case. I met an extremely sympathetic Admiral called Wallwin and he gave me a promise that if I went on the air course that after one or two tours of duty I would be allowed back to sea.
I had nothing in writing only this Admiral's word but it seemed good enough.
Part 86.
Wallwin retired and now no help from Admiralty.
Later on as my tour on Brave Swordsman was coming to an end I thought I would just check and made another trip to Whitehall and found a different set of personnel and Wallwin had been retired. No one knew anything about my situation. I was desperately disappointed and angry.
I wrote several letters of resignation and was refused. I threatened to write to the Newspapers at what was in my eyes a terrible injustice.
Part 87.
Press ganged into Her Majesty's Fleet Air Arm
Training in back in Malta.
On my final visit to London I was advised by an official not to do anything except fail my exams after the air course in Malta. So as a newly married, here I was back in the very familiar island of Malta but not as a seaman officer but as a trainee air navigator.
Their Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty had decided that pilots needed a specialised accurate navigator to help deliver the Atom bomb and then quickly retreat so as not to be caught in the after shocks and inevitable blasts.
An Observer or Air navigator was considered to be an essential and the Navy in the true tradition of hundreds of years would resort to the press gang method when volunteers were not forthcoming.
My resignation letters were on the table but were being totally ignored. When the exams came at the end of the course, I made sure that I did well at all subjects that were to do with the sea. Ship recognition, and photography but the rest I turned in protest blank papers.
Part 88.
Thrown out of the Royal Navy.
The commanding officer of the airbase was furious and told me he would like to kick me around the perimeter of the airfield. He said I was a disgrace.
I later learned that at the Admiralty there were some Admirals who were very sympathetic to my situation. I guess you could say the old school but the modern flying minded Admirals won the day and I was discharged for "Unsuitability for reasons that were under my own control."
I was pretty devastated. I had given my heart to the Navy. My parents were very sympathetic and I had to wait three months before the discharge letter arrived. I still did not turn to God for help but now I was out of work and married with as yet no children.
SECTION 8. LLOYD'S OF LONDON.
Part 89.
Lloyd's of London.1965 to 1971
A friend of my parents helped me to get a job in Lloyd's of London with a firm called Wigham Richardson.
They were responsible for insuring many Greek Merchant ships belonging to Onassis and other famous Greek Shipping Owners. I worked in the marine claims department under a very bright Lawyer from the Hollman family. I also bought cassettes and learned to speak a little Greek.
Part 90.
International 14 foot class racing dinghy.
In my spare time I graduated to sail a 14-foot International dinghy that was an elite class of boat and the forerunner of all the modern adaptations like the 505 and other newer Olympic designs.
It was four and a half meter long dinghy with far too much sail and required circus like balancing act to keep the vessel upright and sailing as fast as possible. It was at that time the premier racing dinghy of England and the USA.
Part 91.
Prince of Wales cup.
Now that I was out of the Navy, I threw my heart into yacht racing.
That summer I raced in the famous Prince of Wales cup and Easy Beat was in 2nd place out of well over a 100 boats until the last round where I tried a futile bid to beat the American boat ahead and ended a sad 15th.
Sailing racing was now my only way to regain self-esteem. I applied to the Navy to enter through the Lower Deck as a sailor, but was refused.
Part 92.
Dick Wallis' brush with the Devil.
A good friend of mine Lieutenant Richard Wallis was training to be Navy Diver. He was top of his course and inadvertently the Petty Officer in charge had forgotten to fill his oxygen bottles.
Poor Dick was at the bottom of Portsmouth harbour without air and passed out. He was negatively buoyant and should have remained on the bottom but miraculously and with the help of God alone, he floated slowly to the surface.
They hauled him on board and gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The first thing he did was to bite through the tough leather boot of one of the sailors with a demonic force.
He told me of his experience. While unconscious he was met by a voice from the deep that told him not to believe in Jesus Christ, that it was all a myth.
Dick said he was terrified. Of course the Navy felt it would be good to send him down again the next day with a full bottle of oxygen.
As he descended this time fully conscious he was met again by the same voice, which said, "Oh! It's you again."
He surfaced immediately and was invalided out of the Navy at the same time as me. Of course he received a disability pension and I received nothing. We kept in touch for some time and he became a Christian.
Dick's experience started to wake me up spiritually at least.
Part 93.
God's infinite patience.
God was using all these circumstances to get through to me but I wasn't convinced. My wife and I lived in a cheap flat sharing it with another young couple the son of the Admiral who had been very much on my side in my unsuccessful struggle with their Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty..
Part 94.
Not everyone is as nice as they look.
While I worked in Lloyd's my wife got a job in a Yachting shop close by, called The Boat Showrooms of London. One day I came back to find my wife in tears. The owner had sacked her because she wasn't prepared to do him indecent services.
The Pukka, an Indian word for Extra Proper, World taught me by my parents and the good old British traditions were beginning to unravel. Injustice was everywhere.
Part 95.
Winter sailing racing success.
Short listed for English team against the USA.
My wife found another job and together we winter sailed our 14 footer from Hammersmith Yacht club and finished the winter season in first place.
I was then chosen to be on the short list to go to the USA representing my country. There were 8 skippers short-listed and four would be chosen.
I met a very nice young guy from my club and he agreed to crew for me. He was very tall and would be able to lean out his weight and keep the boat sailing fast to windward.
We trained hard in the summer and then he was involved in a car accident in the centre of London in which the other occupants of the car were all killed.
He was hurt and not very fit when we went in for the trials. I still definitely had a very good chance and was a favourite to make the British Team. The weather conditions were rough which did not suit me, as I was better in light winds.
To my horror we came last in every race. It was as though a secret hand was holding the boat back. It was a terrible disappointment.
On November the 22nd 1963 while driving down from London with my wife and father in law Tommy, we stopped off in a pub for a sandwich and beer. As we went into the Pub no one was drinking but they were all pressed around the TV, I think it was Black and White. There were few colour TVs at that time and to our horror we were informed that President John F. Kennedy had been mortally shot.
That was quite an unwelcome birthday present. The year before he had succeeded in getting Khrushchev to back down at the last moment in the Cuban Missile crisis.
It was the nearest thing to all out Nuclear War but his nerve had held steady and the whole world owed him such a lot. In his very famous speech in Berlin he told the world, "Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your Country??????"
SECTION 9. 1965 MY LIFE WITH JESUS BEGINS
Part 96.
Conversion.
It is hard for me to remember the exact sequence of events but I remember the passing of Winston Churchill, after his death on January the 25th 1965.
I was one who filed past his coffin a few days later to pay my respects. I knew that a great event had happened. As well as being a great statesman, he was a great writer and artist. I had his four volumes of the History of the English speaking peoples and like all British from the better-educated class I thought of him as a hero.
My parents and I were ultra conservative and he was a brilliant politician of the Right wing who had lead England to victory over the Germans.
Shortly after this event a young man from another insurance brokers at Lloyd's invited me out to lunch. He was an acquaintance called Ian Doulton from the famous and wealthy Doulton family of Doulton Chinaware fame.
Doulton china is a household name in England. I thought he would take me to a cheap restaurant. I was thankful as I had few friends and was rather lonely.
To my amazement he took me to an Anglican Church in Bishop's gate called St Helen's. The Rev Dick Lucas and the Rev David Mcinnes were conducting lunchtime services there giving out powerful Gospel Evangelical messages.
I felt as if I had been rather tricked but on listening to the sermon, I was really struck. This took part on a Tuesday lunch hour and the Church was packed with a very great cross section of people.
I remember there were the tea and coffee boys and also executives and board room Directors, even Angus Ogilvy a relation of the Royal Family.
During the sermon you could hear a pin drop, people were really paying attention and so was I.
After the service finished we were fed delicious sandwiches and coffee out of a huge urn. This was a rather valuable fellowship time to get to know others, some converts and some still with questions like myself.

Part 97.
Kept going to hear the Gospel.
I went the next Tuesday and then the next. The message was very simple and I can honestly say that I had never heard anything like it before in my 26 years of life.
The core of each sermon was that we were all sinners and that if we accepted Jesus into our lives and hearts He would forgive us and we could personally walk with Him through reading, studying and applying the Scriptures.
The following Monday after about the third visit, I was coming into town commuting from Arundel to London Bridge. My wife and I had now moved to a bungalow on our small 3 acre holdings of Merry England Nurseries.
Dad's sister, my old Aunt Enid, who had moved to another flat in Rustington a nearby town, and had sadly become an alcoholic, had vacated this small house.
Someone probably dear Ian Doulton, had given me a book by the very famous evangelist Dr Billy Graham called "Peace with God". One section deals with Revelation Ch 3 verse 20 where Jesus says that He stands at the door and knocks. If any man hears his voice and opens the door, He promises to come in and dine with that person.
The train that was running very late was just about to come into London Bridge and I said a prayer, which went something like this. "God if you really are knocking on my heart, please come into my heart and take over my life."
Well something definitely happened, and that morning I sailed over London Bridge as if my feet were not touching the ground. Unexplainable peace filled my soul or my very being. That lunch hour I told my friend and some others and they said that they had been praying for me.
Part 98.
Working with and trained by the Navigators.
I was introduced to an American Missionary from a dedicated witnessing and follow up group called The Navigators.
They were a Baptist group who taught personal witnessing and scripture memory of key verses. They worked closely with Billy Graham in the famous Crusades that were sweeping London and Europe at that time.
Ed Rice and his wife and family adopted my wife and me.
I think we now had 2 children. Nicholas and Nina. My life has been so eventful that looking back over nearly 45 years; it is sometimes hard to get all the events down chronologically.
Ed met regularly with me taking me through the Bible. He also taught me how to share my faith with others using Bible verses that we memorised together. He would take me out to University Campuses to witness to students using the very verses that I had memorized.
The day after I asked Jesus to come into my heart, was a great surprise to my wife and mother and a bit of a disappointment to my poor father, who had already lost one son and was now seeing his pride and joy becoming in his words "a Bible Puncher."
Part 99.
Started to read the Bible
I dug out a Bible I had received as a prize at school. It was collecting cobwebs along with the Complete Works of Shakespeare.
Every day I spent 4 hours on a commuter train. I did this for 6 years from 1965 to 1971, and so in that time I was actually travelling in a railway carriage for one whole year.
Do the math and you will see what I mean. It was my salvation. I had time every day to think and reflect and this helped me prepare for my meeting with Jesus Christ.
Now I was on the train with my unused Bible, hiding it behind a newspaper because I was embarrassed and I didn't want the others in the carriage to know.
I did not want to be looked at as the odd ball. Someone had wisely advised me to start my Bible reading in the Gospel of St John.
Part 100.
Jesus' teachings so opposite to what I had learned in the world.
After a few days of reading this amazing Gospel. I started to realise the awesome and awful reality that just about everything that I had learned so far in life was opposite to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Jesus now absolutely fascinated me. Just the word JESUS would bring tears to my eyes. Soon I had the faith to drop my cover up newspaper and I thought to myself these poor people do not know what I have discovered so let them see.
Part 101.
My first convert.
The young man who often sat next to me was looking over my shoulder so I asked him if he was interested in the Bible. He then explained to me that the previous week his sister's husband had been killed in a car crash and he was kind of extremely interested.
Roy Richardson and I moved to the Guard's van where all the mailbags were stacked. A sympathetic railway official gave us a special key and we spent our mornings on the way to London reading and studying the Bible sitting on the uncomfortable mail sacks, but we didn't mind.
Another young man whose name I have forgotten then joined us. Roy Richardson went on to become a Navigator Missionary. The Lord became very real to me and answered even the stupidest prayers just because He wanted to show me that He really was there and loved me.
I would from time to time put Him to the test, and I don't advise you to do this but I was new and the Lord was very merciful. As I would come down the escalator into the subway I would say please have the particular train to come in at the same time so as I would not have to wait, and so it was.
My wife put up with all this enthusiasm and she came along, but wasn't really a part of all this. After about 2 or 3 years with the Navs I was seriously considering becoming a full time member and missionary
Part 102.
The call to become a Missionary!

I started to really believe in the Word of God as literal TRUTH. Mark Chapter 16 verse 15 said very plainly, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." In Matthew Chapter 4 verse 4 it says that, "Man shall not live by bread alone but from every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." That was a QED for me.
No argument. Simple but compelling. I was to either believe this or throw it out. I decided to believe it but as to how to put it into action was another question. This realisation was the first step. This step became a prayer and occupied my thoughts and mind just as Rugby football might or being in love with a girl.
The desire to see this come true was my ever increasing wish and objective. The Bible absolutely fascinated me. I loved to study and memorise and go witnessing.
Going to Church was boring by comparison and I couldn't see the point of it. Most of the people one met in Church had very little desire to share their faith and it was very hard for me to relate to them and them for me.
KJV Isaiah 43:5 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;

This was a ridiculous promise, which I claimed very early on after my conversion. After my born again experience. It terrified me because I knew that I would have seed in the East somewhere, and start off in the West.
Well I lived in the West. That was the easy part but I would at some stage have to go to the East. That was rather scary.

Part 103.
Christ Like Kenneth Moynagh
I would like to put in a paragraph about a very very good and special friend Called Doctor Kenneth Moynagh. I am quite sure I haven't spelt his name right.
He was a missionary doctor in Rwanda at the time of an unbelievable revival. He was a man that when he entered the room one was struck by his incredibly humble presence.
He was an Irish Rugby Cap with a very impressive and soft face. He was and looked like a Man of God. As soon as he opened his mouth he was confessing some mistake that he had just made but in a way that would reduce one to tears.
He was like a spiritual mentor to me. He worked at Bart's Hospital as a consultant and was famous for giving out prescriptions with Very Effective Bible Verses written on them.
Probably there was some medicine added too but he always said that it was the Word who could and often would heal.
He was a particular help with one young man whom we called Judge. He had been studying to become a Lawyer, and was involved in some political movement that promoted Anarchy. He was a chronic Asthmatic. He had asked Jesus to come into his heart but was bitterly disappointed that Jesus was not performing up to the high standard that he wanted.
I was therefore to blame and he phoned me to tell me he was going to kill me. If you knew Judge you too would realise not to take such a threat lightly. I went straight to the police who very politely informed me that they could do nothing until there was a body! My body?
That was a great help. I phoned Ken and I gave him Judge's number and within a few hours Judge was eating out of Ken's hands.
Very shortly after I joined the COG, Ken suddenly died of Kidney failure in Bart's Hospital. I think he has helped me from beyond the grave but I do admit until writing this I had largely forgotten him.
Part 104.
Kenneth Moynagh's secret.
This is a story that still touches my heart and I tell it because hopefully it will help you to see a facet of that marvellous Diamond The Splendour of Truth that maybe you have never appreciated so fully before.

In Rwanda there used to be two Christian Protestant communities. Maybe the line was a North South divide or East West. It doesn't really matter. What matters was that one area was having the most amazing revival and people were coming to Christ. Miracles of healing and even someone was miraculously raised from the dead.
Let's call these two areas, the Dry area and the Wet area. The Dries asked representatives from the Wet area to come and speak to the masses from the Dry area.
They complied and sent two Pastors, one black and one white. First the white Pastor got up to preach. All the dries had their notebooks and pencils expectantly ready poised to hear the secret. The white man started and said that for his talk he would like to take the words from St John's Gospel Chapter three verse sixteen.
Now if there is anything that every Evangelical knows by heart, it is John 3 16. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. King James version of the Bible.
There was a gasp of dismay as everyone felt that this verse had been exhausted and nothing new could come from this. The white man gave a good sermon but few were paying real attention.
Then it was the black man's turn. Hope was renewed because maybe at last now they would hear the secret. The black man took his stand in the pulpit and started by telling everyone that he wanted everyone to open their Bibles at St John's Gospel Chapter three verse sixteen.
There was a shocked silence and then he went on to say the following. "When you whites came to our country you found our method of unwise cultivation of crops.
We would sow our crops without rotation and eventually exhaust the earth of all its riches in nutrients and then we would move on leaving a sandy desert behind.
You whites found Gold. To begin with this gold was on the surface and was easy to pick up. Later, a hundred years later, it became more difficult and eventually mines had to be dug in the same spot many miles down into the earth to get the precious metal.
In our part of Rwanda we have discovered the GOLD at the foot of the cross. We are not moving we are just digging in deep."
Everyone almost without exception began to reach for their handkerchiefs as the tears began to flow and the noise of quiet sobbing increased.

I have told this story many times and I think one of our many problems is familiarity. This is why we converts are many times more on fire than cradle Catholics. I think it's just a matter of teaching and the right emphasis.
Part 105.
Pentecostalism.
However I met some Pentecostal Protestants and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. For the Navigators this was not encouraged, and so we parted company.
I soon also became disillusioned with the Pentecostal Movement as they lacked the evangelistic fervour of the Navs. For a time I worked with Michael Harper who is now an Orthodox Priest in London. He was in a Holy Spirit revival in the Church of England.
I did not really fit there either. However I did have a spiritual experience while coming home with Michael and his wife.
We were reading through Matthew Chapter 15 and the we read in v 43 Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.

Something clicked and it was a completely new realisation that I had never had before. Craving the Body Of Jesus.
In the King James Bible the word craved is only used once. I brushed it off but now realise some 40 years later that the Holy Spirit was trying to get through to me in what I now know as the Eucharist. The BODY BLOOD SOUL and DIVINITY of Jesus.
I had been lent a very fine house in a fashionable part of Wimbledon on Church Hill.
I lived there with a community of young Christian businessmen. It did not really work, as there were so many different visions that it was difficult to even pray together.
There are so many different shades of Bible believing Christians. For me evangelism was the important thing. I wanted to share my faith. I wanted to share the Good News with others. I had found Jesus and I wanted everyone to find Him.
I just did not know how to do it and it seemed to me that the various Protestant groups didn't really know either. Warming the Church Bench and just listening to another Gospel service with an altar call at the end was for me utterly boring and futile and was missing the mark.
Part 106.
Mass Evangelist???
Well as they say, "If you can't beat them join them." I decided to become an evangelist and give it a go. Maybe I was another Billy Graham?
I sent out many invitations and the house was packed for the first meeting. I thought that I was now really on the way. Everyone who came was so enthusiastic.
I repeated the event the following month and not one person showed up. Ow! that hurt!! Sadly defeated I was going door to door and met a Missionary from the Ceylon Pentecostal Church.
Their big emphasis was on fasting. I was becoming very disillusioned with all the different Protestant groups. They all had so many hang ups.
The Rev Dick Lucas told me to settle down and become a pillar of his Anglican Church. To me that sounded like bench warming and listening to the same Gospel message week after week.
I had already quit my job and was living by faith. My poor wife was worried as we had 2 children and I was introduced to tithing.
It was amazing because every time I gave 10% I received almost immediately multiple times the amount back again. Once after tithing, to the amazement of myself and particularly my wife who was convinced that with our very limited resources, we could not afford to give money away, a large sum of brand new anonymous L10 sterling notes were left on my desk in an envelope with my name on it.
When I got home I was able to throw this money up in the air and my delighted wife was picking it all up from every nook and cranny. I learned that God was not short of money but short of labourers.

Part 107.
Meeting an angel?
I am not sure exactly when this happened but one particular lunch hour I went into the Church of St Charles the Martyr. It was just across the road from where I worked.
It was normally very empty so it was a good place to go and munch one's sandwiches, or to meet a friend and read the Bible. It was one of those typically deserted Anglican Churches that are dotted around London.
On this occasion I was worried about something. I can't remember exactly what but as you read this book you will see that I was often in trouble and had plenty to worry and be anxious about.
I was kneeling down in a side Chapel and crying my eyes out. I looked up for a moment and noticed a black man, dressed like a labourer and he was looking at the decorations around the high altar, which was Catholic looking.
The Church was very old and had probably been Catholic five hundred years before. He turned and looked at me.
There was something very special about his eyes and the way he looked at me with real sympathy. Then without being invited he came over to where I was kneeling and took out a well used Gideon's New Testament and Psalms.
He thumbed his way through to 1st Peter Chapter 5 verse 7, which says, Casting all your care upon Him, because He cares for you.
I think he put a reassuring arm on my shoulder and then he walked away. I must have waited a very few seconds and I thought to myself I would like to talk to such a man.
He literally disappeared. I ran quite some way to the entrance and there was no sign of him. Then I searched in the little side rooms of the Church and he was not to be found. I only know that my spirit had changed and I felt so much better.
Part 108.
Fasting. My new trip experience?
So now I tried fasting. The Pentecostal Pastor named Joseph took me to a house in Nottingham and for 29 days I survived on lemon water and a small piece of daily Holy Communion bread.
I stayed for most of the time in an upstairs room praying and reading my Bible. I would take a little exercise and fresh air and I did have an unusual spiritual experience.
I believe the Lord showed me that I was going to lose all that I held dear. This made me cry. I realised that I would lose my wife, my kids, my love for sailing and just about everything that was important to me.
Part 109.
Flash back Yachting Triumph.
I forgot to tell you about my first sailing triumph, since becoming a committed Christian, which went something like this.
My parents with me at the helm were racing our yacht in the famous Cowes Town Regatta during Cowes week. There were over a hundred competitors in this one design class.
The finishing line was about two hundred yards ahead and we were lying in third place. I told my parents that I was going to pray.
They were horrified and said that God was far too busy to be bothered with a sailing race. I prayed aloud and the wind dropped for the two boats ahead and our boat caught a wind that neatly sailed us around them and we crossed the line first with a gun fired from the Royal Yacht Squadron, the most prestigious Yacht Club in the British Isles.
A Christian newspaper called Challenge took up the story with a picture of our yacht on the front page and I was convinced that Jesus and me could get into the Yachting business together.
Then followed the events I have already written about when I came consistently last in the British trials for the team race against the Americans. Jesus was slowly taking over my life. Now at nearly 69 years old The Process of letting go and letting HIM is still in development.

At the end of the 29-day fast I knew something important was going to happen. Pastor Joseph of the Ceylon Pentecostals told me revival was coming in June or July.
I didn't have long to wait. There was an old lady of Italian origin and a regular member of St Helen's Church in Bishop's gate. Nancy was an odd ball. She always carried salvation tracts to give out to people.
I really admired her for that. She loved Jesus so much that she wanted to share him with others. I was expecting a big financial miracle.
There was a verse in the Bible that spoke to me that something was going to happen tomorrow. My wife and 2 small children were living with my parents in Sussex so I was on my own in our Church Hill mansion.
No magic mail with money came through the letterbox on the appointed morning. I had put down 100 pounds sterling on a Trailer in a Trailer Park in Nottingham so that I could be a missionary to the many Blacks and Asians who lived there in abundance.
SECTION 10. THE CHILDREN OF GOD JESUS MOVEMENT FROM CALIFORNIA.
Part 110.
The Children Of God.
The year now is 1971. I was kneeling down in desperate prayer at my bedside wondering why on this occasion God had not coughed up the required amount of money that I was expecting, and the phone rang.
It was Nancy and she was very excited. She had met some extremely on fire Christians that had just arrived in England from the USA.
She had given them my address and they were on the way over to see me. So here could be my expected miracle. An hour or so later a taxi drew up and Hosea, the 2nd son of David Berg and his wife Esther arrived at the door.
I immediately saw in them a kindred spirit. I took them to the evening meeting at the small Ceylon Pentecostal Church and asked Pastor Joseph if they could speak for a few minutes.
Esther played the guitar and sang some beautiful songs about Jesus. Then Hosea gave a simple testimony that was a challenge to all the Church members.
He said something like this. "Why don't you all sell your houses and all your possessions and come and live in the Church? You can partition it off and make rooms and then pool your resources and then you will have lots of money and time to distribute salvation tracts. It would be very cheap to live as you could do communal shopping and live as the early Church in Acts Ch 2 verse 44 and 45 and also in Acts Ch 4 verses 32 and 33.
You would have so much spare time to give out evangelistic simple salvation tracts. To me it sounded an amazingly good idea so I loudly applauded only to be shouted down by the Pastor who told me and the Church that I was out of order and out of the Spirit.
I was a bit shattered at his outburst of disapproval. My self and another brother from this church often gave fiery sermons to try and persuade the members to come out witnessing with us. We made altar calls for the members to come forward to rededicate their lives to evangelism.
Every time half the church would come forward weeping many times. The next Thursday when we would meet to take them out to share their faith, no one turned up.
I was becoming more and more disillusioned with all the churches and all the Protestant organisations. On the way out I spoke to our two visitors and asked them if they agreed with the Pastor. "Of course not." They exclaimed. "You were great."
Part 111.
Holy Ghost Sample in Hyde Park.
They asked me to meet them in Hyde Park on the following day, which was a Saturday, where they would be giving a Holy Ghost Sample.
I readily agreed and could hardly wait. My dear old Lady friend crazy Nancy who was twice my age and I went to Hyde Park.
Nancy thought she could see the COG. There was a bunch of sweet but ineffective Christians sitting on the grass in a circle with a guitar singing insipid songs in a rather embarrassed way, and I was convinced that Nancy was wrong and sure enough a few minutes later a crowd of teenagers with girls in long skirts and men with long hair, guitars blazing and singing with great fervour came marching onto the huge grass expanse of Hyde Park.
This was a real sample and the crowds were following to watch them burn. They made a huge circle and then the most beautiful fair haired girl who was obviously some kind of a leader started with great authority to preach a most convincing Gospel message.
To begin with I thought she looked so frail that I should go to her aid. After all I was an accomplished preacher of the Gospel aged about 31 at the time. She was only 17.
Thank the Lord His Hand held me back as she was far better qualified than me. Later on when I joined the group my first Bible teacher called Gallio, ( We all took Bible names ) had only known Jesus 6 months and before that had been smashed on drugs, whereas I had been an evangelist for many years.
At first I was tempted to doubt the wisdom of this arrangement until the Lord showed me that he knew more as he had been living a life of total faith for that time putting the promises of God to the test daily.
I could not compete with that.
At the end of her dynamic address she invited people who wanted to forsake all and join the COG full time to sit down on the grass in the middle of the circle.
I was there like a shot sitting next to an Irish Girl called Sarah. My poor old Pentecostal Pastor Joseph died that same summer.
His revival had come but not in the way he wanted. This was a revival with a huge personal cost to it.
The COG started pouring across the Atlantic and soon my home in Wimbledon was filled to capacity with the unmarried sisters.
The brothers were living in their sleeping bags on the disused factory floor of a rich Christian businessman called Mr Frampton in a suburb of London called Bromley.
My wife and three kids joined me a bit bewildered and thinking that dad was on to yet another crazy idea of his. First of all, dad was a born again Anglican, then he became a Navigator Baptist, then a Pentecostal and now we have a new trip.
This new trip was to last me 25 years so it was quite a trip.
Part 112.
Life in the COG. Very disciplined.
Life in the COG was very rigorous. Very strict discipline. We all got up immediately when woken. Then a time of Inspiration with singing and praising and always a Bible message from a more gifted Bible teacher.
Some of us that had the gift of being a Provisioner, would get up very early and go to the local food markets making contacts with friendly stall managers. At the end of 2 hours our small van would be packed with free donated vegetables and produce to take back to Bromley factory where we would work on preparing one really good meal a day.
In the evening we would load on to an old 2nd hand Double Decker bus with the words JESUS REVOLUTION written on it in big letters and off to Piccadilly Circus to witness to drug addicts and freaks.

The more promising ones, we would then bring back with us for an early morning about 2am hot chocolate and a donated bun from the local bread shop.
The new babes as they were called were then looked after by an older brother who would sleep next to them, make sure they washed and were de loused and treated for scabies or any other skin disease.
They would be able to draw clothing from the forsake all pile of clean clothes. If their brains had been badly affected by drugs they would be given a walkman playing the New Testament by Alexander Scorby and the power of the Word would amazingly help them to get their minds back together again.
The press were fascinated by us and even organised a plant to pretend to join us in the hope he would get some scandalous information.
He confessed and joined the group for real. We went everywhere with our 2 by 5 pocket King James Bibles. Using a marking pen we would underline verses that spoke to us and try to apply them to our lives.
There was a great emphasis on the Word and memorization of key verses and there is no doubt that God really honoured our love for His Word.
The Word helped us to have crazy faith and we thought nothing of going out without money expecting God to provide all our needs as long as we witnessed to people.
These principles still apply in my totally dedicated Roman Catholic walk with God. The only difference is that the interpretation of the Bible in some of its harder sayings is now dependant on the Church's position and not my own private interpretation.
This is where the COG eventually became unstuck. Soon the leader of the COG was writing us personal Bible studies called Mo letters. To begin with these were really good and feeding.
Later Mo began to apply certain Davidic verses from the Old Testament to himself. These verses are now very plain for me to see applied to Jesus. He mistakenly thought that there would be some special end time David to lead God's Children back to a true faith in God.
For me this was very appealing because it was so easy to see that the denominations were all off track and very Luke warm for the most part. Even Billy Graham who I admired and still do admire had no place for a real forsake all way of life.
Roman Catholicism was not on the cards and did not fit into the equation as the enemy had done a good job in anti-Catholic propaganda and disinformation.
Part 113.
My new name Joseph.
Sexual sharing.
I was given just like everyone else, a Bible Name. Joseph. I have studied the life of Old Testament Joseph and maybe that name is more apt for me than first catches the eye.
My Birthday is on the 22nd of the 11th month 1938. In Hebrews Ch 11 verse 22, it talks about none other than Joseph.
Maybe with the help of this book I am writing, I will be able to lead so many of my former brothers and sisters back to the Church that Jesus founded on Peter the rock.

At one stage Mo wrote a letter Catholics or Protestants? At that time we were well received by a Catholic group of the Little Sisters of the Poor and they visited us at Bromley Factory but as soon as they heard about our emerging sexual views they for obvious reasons backed off.
At this moment in time we could have become Catholics but there was so much antagonism towards this Church mainly because of ignorance. There was no equivalent to EWTN beating the airwaves in support of and in explanation of the TRUE CHURCH founded BY JESUS CHRIST on PETER.
We all lived in ignorance and were drowned in misinformation. We even thought that there were branches of the Catholic Church seeped in the Illuminati.
The Hippy movement from which the COG evolved was a very promiscuous movement with its flower power.
In his letter One Wife Mo made up his mind that personal private families trying to live together were detrimental to unity.
He stated that to maintain unity one would either have to be celibate or use sex as a communal thing for everyone to share.
We knew nothing of the sanctity of marriage neither did we want to know. We saw that in the early church the families had lived together and shared everything and we took the everything a stage further to mean sharing wives etc.
However this was not done in a free for all way. Nothing in the COG was free for all but done under the strictest discipline.
Although wrong it was always or in 99% of cases a disciplined wrong. The motive in Mo doing this was not just his love for sex with girls half his age and only God knows his motivation correctly but a desire to form a movement of highly dedicated Christians with real unity.
It was in retrospect a Pie in the Sky attempt and severely went wrong.
The sex sharing part did not enter into the equation until about 5 to 6 years after the arrival of the COG in England. By that time we were basking in the success of our evangelistic accomplishments of starting up colonies or communities all over the world.
God blessed these efforts, as they were a result of faith in God's WORD and the result of witnessing at every opportunity. So Mo told us to ensure unity we had to choose between two alternatives. A Family unit when living communally with other family units would tend to live understandably selfishly putting their own family first above others.
Our life style apart from the totally wrong view of sex, was very Catholic. We believed Luke Chapter 14 verse 33 literally this is what it says 33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Like any Priest, Monk, Nun and any religious we believed in giving up ties to the world. We lived entirely by faith on a day-by-day basis for finances. God always provided. I learned to live entirely by faith.

Faith in the promises of God as we childishly understood them.
Part 114.
Early Church chose Celibacy?
The early church started with families communally living together but there were disputes about the sharing of food and so Deacons were appointed to take care of these quarrels. Later it seems that the Priesthood and the Female religious decided to live chaste so that they could be married to Jesus in the case of the Nuns and to the Church in the case of the Priests, Brothers, Friars and Monks.
The others probably returned to work and made their way in what I call the World System.
Part 115.
One Wife! Flirty Fishing!

Mo decided on the One wife principle, which effectively said that marriage was to the community and the children were everybody's.
Birth Control was forbidden and the Commune shepherds made strict control over the sexual sharing schedule.
This all happened at the time that a new method of Evangelism was introduced called Flirty Fishing.
Mo likened sex as to a natural desire similar to hunger for food. He was the undisputed leader and he could make rules from interpreting the scriptures himself.
What I am sharing is going to sound horrifying to most but to understand it one needs to understand the guiding motives however wrong they were.
For us as Protestants we firmly believed that once saved we were always saved. This I now know through studying scripture through Catholic eyes to be completely false.
On this false assumption we would try to get people to repeat the sinners prayer, which was to ask Jesus to come into one's heart. I was particularly good at doing this but Mo told us that certain hardened sinners could be won to discipleship and forsaking all by our sisters making love to them in a very spiritual way.
Then when they saw the freely given example of such a sister who was not doing it for her own benefit but to show real love using sex, then criminals and gangsters and hardened businessmen could be won by this extreme kind of sacrifice on part of the women involved and their mates who would agree to them doing this.
On the basis of our theology this seemed to work in many cases. I hasten to add that there is nothing in the tradition of Christ's Church formed by HIM on the Rock Peter, which would back this view up.
I tell you this to show you how dangerous private sincere interpretation can be. This kind of private understanding has lead to the fragmentation of all things Protestant into around 30,000 different Bible believing denominations.
From my experience of being in the group for over 25 years I did not really see this method abused for pleasure. No contraceptives were ever allowed or used or worn. No one ever resorted to abortion and the women involved if becoming pregnant would seemingly happily or bravely have their brown or black or white baby and then bring it up in the community.
When AIDS came a long this method was banned for obvious reasons.
Part 116.
Catholic Teaching, THE SINCERE SPLENDOUR OF TRUTH.
As a thoroughly convinced Roman Catholic I can now see that the above was sincerely wrong and has no precedent in Church History.
I now realise that Marriage is a Sacrament and Jesus' first miracle at Cana was His stamp on this very important Christian Act.
In many ways we were very Catholic. In 1998 some 20 years later and 8 years after leaving the COG and renouncing their extremes, when we were met by Father Christopher an on fire Dominican Priest, he told us that we were more Catholic in many ways than Catholics themselves.
Part 117.
Life in the COG continues. Belief in the End Time as being imminent.
Let me try to fill in some blanks. My wife and I lived first in Bromley and then some squatted houses nearby, called Baring Road.
The COG was quite a phenomenon and we were often on the News and in the Newspapers. As an older person in physical age, it was often my job to represent the Organisation to the authorities.
There was a tremendous amount of jealousy from the more mainline Protestant Churches because of our zeal and evangelistic fervour and we were winning some of the cream of the crop from those Churches.
Another driving motive for our organisation was the belief that we were living in the Time of the End! Having lived through a time of brinkmanship over Nuclear War, it was not too hard to come to that conclusion.
We believed that there would be an economic crash and the ensuing chaos produced would give rise to the Anti Christ.
Out of anarchy would arise a popular leader as a kind of saviour? In other words what had happened in Germany in the late 20s and 30s, which gave rise to Hitler a type of antichrist, would next time be on a world scale.
I personally as a convinced Catholic still believe that this is an option for future events. History seems to repeat itself. "The one thing we learn from History is that we never learn from History." Some famous Historian once said.
We in the COG were expecting this and this almost came to pass with the stock market crash of 1987. However we made the mistake of trying to predict the exact timing of the end of the world and the 2nd coming of Christ. When events did not pan out the way we expected many left the Family disillusioned.
Part 118.
Mainline Prots hated the doctrine of Forsake all!
Long before they knew about our sex views.
They hated the doctrine of Forsake all. It was anathema to them and we came under so much attack for promoting leaving everything to follow Jesus.
They continually used the example from the Bible that Paul made tents to earn his money and here we were successfully living by faith without any tent making.
It became a joke because visitor after visitor would come up with this same argument. I would spend a great deal of time in the greeting room and would be waiting for the tent bit which never failed to come up and I would burst into laughter when it did.
There were amazing healings of those who had been lost to drug abuse and were now successful and on fire witnesses for Jesus Christ.
The secret seemed to be the baptism in the Holy Spirit received by the laying on of hands, getting soaked in the Gospels and New Testament and Psalms memorizing large sections of the same and immediately putting them to work out on the witnessing field.
Scary at first but the more one did it the more one enjoyed it.
Part 119.
Internal rivalry starts the rot.
There was one sad part and that was the rivalry between the various original leaders who were the immediate children of David Berg, Mo. They were all vying with each other for favour from their dad. Understandable, but sad because it tended to destroy their unity.
I was also very ambitious and wanted to be a leader. I did eventually become the shepherd of this huge colony or commune in Bromley, between fifty and a hundred personnel. I did my best and I came across my first experience with demonic attack from another very ambitious ex member and leader of a Jesus Freak Community that had joined the COG.
While the other bigger leaders were away at a pop festival winning souls DH decided to attack my leadership and then the next higher one up and then Mo himself.
He left as an enemy and I went after him to try and persuade him to think again but to no avail. By now Mr Frampton the rich businessman who had sponsored the movement in the initial stages was becoming disillusioned because two of his sons had joined the group against his will.
I would often talk to him explaining that if he could find a better movement I would join it like a shot. No one ever thought of the Catholic Church.

Part 120.
Life in Certaldo on the farm of the Duke of Carnavaro.
1974. My wife and I were asked to move to Italy to live on a Commune owned by the Duke of Carnavaro who had also joined and married a beautiful young sister one of the very first recruits of the COG from the surfing Hippies of Huntington Beach California.
I was put in charge of the mailing list, which was to my horror an office job. I rebelled and later I realised that my rebellion was a big mistake. I handed in my resignation but before leaving Certaldo Commune on the beautiful farm of our tame Duke, I asked for permission to go on a faith trip with my son Nicholas and daughter Nina. Of course we went as usual without money but with crazy faith and a few Gospel tracts written in Italian.
We spent a glorious week on the island of Elba living in Pensions who would put us up for one night at a time. On the ferryboat we were allowed on the bridge and my kids steered the great ferry for a few moments. We had a lot of fun.
SECTION 11. MORE DISASTERS.
Part 118.
Backsliding from the COG
Becoming a gold coin broker.
Then came the day to backslide and leave. My parents sent us the train fare and before long we were living as a family in a cheap Trailer home on my parents' land.
Another very strong message from the COG was that we were living at a time when the end of the world and the return of Jesus Christ were imminent. We believed that very soon paper currencies would collapse on a large worldwide scale and the Anti Christ in person would take over the crashed and confused world.
What had happened in Germany in the Depression in the 20s and 30s was a dress rehearsal for an International and unprecedented crisis, which was about to happen in the very near future.
In view of this I became a Krugerrand gold coin broker. A KR is a gold coin containing exactly one ounce of pure gold. We believed that Gold was a Bible currency along with Silver, and was therefore the right currency to have in a time of crisis.
I would buy coins and then sell them at a slightly higher price to people who wanted to hedge their savings against this imminent economic collapse, which many people also believed could happen any day.
Mo wrote a letter called the Green Paper Pig, which was a nickname for the American Green back Dollar. I would give these out to the people I traded with as a warning and as an encouragement that they had done the right thing.
I advertised in a paper called the Exchange and Mart and started to earn very good money. I was still in good contact with the COG and would regularly tithe to them.
I was becoming more and more disillusioned with my new way of life and I yearned to get back to the COG. My wife however was settling down and my children were now going to the local school.
My parents were totally against me going back to the COG or CO Devil as they called them. One more very important thing had just happened which I was opposed to.
Part 119.
First marriage starts to break up.
My wife explained that she wasn't going to return with me. She had mentioned that we should split the children and she even used the Biblical words that we were unequally yoked.
We now had four children, Nicholas aged about 9, Nina aged 8, Joanna, (JoJo), aged 5 and Alexander aged 2. Alexander Pietro was born in Italy on the Carnavaro estate.
My wife now wanted to abort her fifth child. My parents were totally on her side sadly. She not only aborted the child but had her cords tied so that she would not be able to have any more kids.
From that moment it was as if there was a spiritual break in our relationship. We had often prayed together. She had found witnessing and distributing Gospel literature very tough and it certainly is not everyone's cup of tea so she had done other kinds of ministry in the large communes of doing laundry and teaching the children.
She was not cut out to be a missionary. We did love each other but had now totally different views of life. We stopped living in the same bed and we began to grow apart. I was pretty screwed up too. I certainly did not have enough love to be able to handle this growingly complex situation.
I do not blame my wife but also blame myself as maybe with more understanding and real agape love the disaster that followed could have been avoided.
Part 120.
Gold Coin Disaster.
Now back to another disaster, which took place with my Gold Coin Business.
Maybe I should add a new title to this book, Disaster after Disaster!!! I started very small, selling and buying about 10 to 20 coins every day. My clients grew to when I was selling 100 coins a day. This went on for about 8 months until I was involved with a deal with a criminal gang.
I was lucky to get away with my life. A young well-educated man with an Australian accent asked to do a deal with me on a Saturday.
I was to meet him in a hotel. Normally I would never do this except in a bank where I felt much safer. However this nice man charmed me into believing his story so I motored up to London to meet him.
The Lord was trying to get through to me. The car kept on stopping and overheating but I was ambitious and wanted to go ahead with the deal.
I left the car outside the hotel and went up to meet my buyer. He was seated in a bedroom and I told him that the 100 ounces of gold were in a plastic bag in my old car.
He seemed quite nervous and accompanied me down and together we sat in my car. He handed me a banker's draft, which is the usual way for doing such a transaction. It was a reputable bank and had the signature of the manager etc.
Anyway I was a sucker and took the draft and he took the coins. I was told that if I had refused he would have killed me and taken the coins anyway. In one way it was to my advantage that I did not resist this swindle.
I had a complicated system where I borrowed the coins from a friend and then would pay him back after buying them from the dealer. On the Monday I went to the dealer and then he gave me the coins in exchange for the draft. I then returned the coins to the lender.
On my next visit to the dealer a very anxious looking employee, a good friend explained that the bankers draft was a forgery. He was surprised to see me because he thought that I would have disappeared as a partner in the crime.
I was horrified. I later found out that this was a very well organised gang of international Mafia swindlers. The dealer knew my financial state and did not think me worth suing, so this was the end of my gold coin broking. Like I just explained, I was lucky to get away with my life as they were quite ruthless. God's Mercy!!!!!
Part 121.
Secret plans to kidnap two of my children.
For about two months before this happened I had informed everybody including the Gold dealer that I was going to return to full time participation with the COG.
My wife now said that she would not allow any of the children to accompany me back to the COG.
I felt this was a betrayal and so I planned to take matters into my own hands and made secret plans to kidnap if that is the correct term the two children that we had originally agreed upon.
While travelling back from London I picked up a hitchhiker who was a well-educated man about my own age whose father owned a famous Scottish bank.
I sold him my gold coin business for one pound sterling and he took over what was actually a very dangerous job.
Within three months or so his house was broken into in the late afternoon and two men stabbed his hand to the table with a dagger demanding for him to turn over all his gold coins.
Luckily the phone rang and he had the presence of mind to say it was the police checking up on him whereupon the two men left and he slowly pulled the knife out and set himself free. Wow!!! Was I glad to be out of that little game!!!!
Part 122.
The Kidnap with disastrous results.
What I am now going to explain was a very cruel thing that I did. My wife and I went out shopping and then I left her in a nearby town with two of the children and drove back with my two other previously agreed upon kids and drove to London.
There I picked up my old caravan that was being lent to a COG member and took the ferry across the Channel to Ostende. I just made it across before the police were able to alert all the major exits.
I had a very good lawyer called Mr Kingshill who helped the COG on many occasions and he was going to be my point of reference with contact with my desperate wife and parents. For three months we travelled singing and distributing lit that we picked up from the various European communes.
Part 123.
I lose my kids I am divorced by my wife.
2nd marriage to Portuguese Paz.
Eventually in Portugal I met a woman who was a friend of the COG and had been married too, but was now divorced from, a rich Portuguese Store owner of the equivalent of Harrods.
In Lisbon she took care of us and we fell in love. Soon the Lawyer got in touch and informed me that I had to come back as there was now a court order for me so reluctantly we left our car in Portugal and then flew back to England to be met by my wife's brother.
The children were then taken away and I entered a real low in my life. I lost my children to the courts and divorce papers were then served on me.
My Lawyer was still up beat to the last moment. He told me that a favourable judge had been appointed for our case. When I say favourable I should really say not so severe but at the last moment I got a toughy.
He had no sympathy for my cause and awarded sole custody of the children to my ex wife.

I went to Portugal and started a life with Paz. It was really a rebound civil marriage and for the first three years I literally pined weeping for my kids every day.
I wrote them daily letters until a good brother told me that I needed to learn to let go the past. My wife remarried and my parents took over the expensive schooling of the children.
Paz and I had one daughter called Anna and we eventually crossed the Atlantic and joined the family in Brazil, but as outside members. My marriage to Paz was a very rough passage.
She had four older children with an older son of 23?, that had been on drugs and was in need of a lot of love and help. I was really too selfish and too interested in being a COG Missionary to really be of a help to her.
Eventually she asked me to leave or renounce my affiliation to the COG. For me the COG at that time could be compared with my relationship to the Catholic Church today. I was not going to give them up then any more than I would give up the Splendour of Truth that I have discovered now at this time in my life as I write this.
Here was another page of disaster in my life.

Part 124.
More involvement with Gangsters
The year was now 1980. While I was living in a place called Mem Martins on the railway line between Lisbon and Sintra on the seacoast and while still married to Paz, I took up an English teaching job.
I was still very much in touch with the COG who had a few homes in Portugal. From time to time Paz and I would hitch hike to England to see my children. On one such trip that was always quite an adventure, thieves ransacked our Flat in Mem Martins.
We had a missionary couple that lived in one small room and none of their things was taken or even touched. I was very upset about this and instead of asking the Lord why this had happened; I started to do my own investigations.
There were some Hippy type people who lived in the basement and they pretended to make pottery in a huge electric oven. We were pretty sure they used this oven to melt down jewellery of mainly gold.
Now at that time there was a very dangerous gang that was frequently murdering policemen and had Communist political connections. I should have left everything alone but I am a stupidly confrontational kind of person so I wanted to hit this head on. I wanted revenge for the robbery.
We went to the police and told them about the occupants in the basement and they were not very convinced or interested.
I got to know them, the basement occupiers, a bit as I travelled with them on the train and I overheard their conversations. Then another policeman was shot so the Police phoned us and said they were going to raid the flat. At that time I had a single barrelled shotgun.
The Police did a lousy job because they went in just as I had expected by the front door and the occupants then went out by the back window. However I was up on the top flat balcony with my gun pointed down and the young man looked up and quickly ran back into his flat through the window.
I felt a victory and was very pleased with myself. The next day a very serious couple of policemen arrived at our door and told us that the gang was to do with a group called the 25th of Sept/April? something like that? They were very dangerous and would seek revenge and I and Paz should leave the country immediately as they could not offer us protection.
Within two days we were on a small passenger ship to the Island of Madeira where once again I took up teaching English mixed together with witnessing specially to my students.
Part 125.
Death of my mum.
While in Madeira I received a telegram that my dad was very sick with skin cancer and was in a hospice for the terminally ill. He wanted to see me before he died.
I turned up at Madeira airport and managed to hitch hike a ride on a charter flight to Manchester in the North of England. I then hitched through the night to my Godfather's flat in Worthing. My mother picked me up and we took dad out for a ride in the car.
He was wearing a huge net to hold his tumour that was the size of a large cucumber hanging from his face and neck. He was very brave and I hugged him and told him how much I loved him.
He had just had a very humbling experience as he had not been able to reach the toilet in time and had dirtied himself and the floor. The nurses who took care of him were angels and loved him and I am sure it was God's mercy for him to have this care.
Mum was in good heart and we had tea and then took dad back. The next day I hitched back to Gatwick airport and once again miraculously found a charter flight with one free seat and that was given to me as a donation.
So effectively I flew to England and back again for 50 pence that was the price of the bus fare to the terminal in Madeira. God is Very Good!!!! A week later I received a letter that my mother had died of a heart attack while talking on the telephone.
Part 126.
Slow death of dad.
My father received the news very sadly. He had expected to be the one first to go. In our village we had a very good evangelical Anglican Minister whose name I have sadly forgotten but maybe it will come back to me. Yes it has, Ivor Reith.
Maybe the spelling is wrong? Wreith? Anyway he visited my dying dad and told him if he wanted to join my mum he would have to accept Jesus as his Saviour. He told me at first there was opposition but when dad was half in coma and half out Ivor got a hand squeeze that dad was in agreement.
I was not able to go back for the funeral of dad that followed about one month after the rather unexpected death of mum.
Not long after I had a very vivid dream with dad.
Now if you remember he was very proud. I mentioned that earlier in this book. He was a typical very proper and proud Indian Army Colonel often caricatured in comic strips and cartoons in newspapers.
Well there was dad in my dream lying in of all places the luggage rack of a third class Indian train. It was crammed packed with sweaty and rather dirty Indian third class passengers. Dad would always travel in airconditioned first class and would rather be seen dead in such a compromising situation. He was propped up on one elbow and looking down at me. I said, "Hi dad, how are you?" He replied that he was in school. I asked him how mum was and he replied that she was in school too.
Now there was no way you could get that Indian Army Colonel to act like an Indian coolie and sleep up on the luggage rack. God knows how to humble us because He loves us so much. He loves us to the point of directing our lives to prepare us for being members of His heavenly Kingdom of Love.
Even the event in the Hospice where dear dad had not been able to make it to the toilet together with this hideous growth was all part of His love and humbling process.
SECTION 12. BRAZIL.
Part 127.
Rejoining full time with the COG.
Now I was able to rejoin the Missionary group full time. Now two marriages were on the rocks and 5 children without a father.
I worked together with a large family in Sao Paulo. I helped take care of their 5 children and took them out witnessing and singing with a lot of success. I then heard a good story that I believe is worth repeating.
Part 128.
A lesson on specific Prayer.
It is a lesson on Prayer and being specific with requests. A certain missionary desperately needed a car and so he prayed to the Lord for a car. Any old car.
Well he got what he prayed for. He got any old car, which drove a few hundred yards and then broke down.

He was rather angry with the Lord. Later someone pointed out to him to be more specific. So he prayed for a van in good condition. He even specified the colour and the seating capacity. He asked for good tyres and a reliable engine and of course the Lord gave him just that.
I now prayed for a wife who would really help me to follow Jesus. One who would be on fire and compatible with my explosive and far from perfect character.
Amazingly very shortly afterwards I met Joanna(Irmgard). She was 21 years younger than me and a very faithful Missionary. We got on very well together when out doing our Missionary work. We worked well together.
She was German and had just been discarded by her English mate and was actually living rather satisfactorily as a Spinster. She was not looking for a husband and didn't really want to marry a man of 46 when she was only 24.
However she had a very good relationship with the Lord and He eventually persuaded her that I was the right choice and so we started to live together.
In the COG we did not believe in the marriage certificate but with the permission of the elders we were allowed to live together as mates.
Part 129.
Being used as a Provisioner.
Let me tell you a little more about how I met Joanna, and let me tell you about Provisioning.
The COG held a convention for about 300 missionaries in a camp ground near Sao Paulo. It was my job together with a team to provision food and all kinds of odds and ends to make this work.
The Lord blessed and we were able to receive huge donations of food and vegetables and I can't even remember exactly what except that the Lord blessed the team and me abundantly.
The Lord had given me a gift for what in the family we called Provisioning, the procuring of useful items free of charge. Sometimes these items were given out of the sincere generosity of those giving but more often than not it is the donating of products, which would be thrown away or are surplus to needs.
I was used to do this on many occasions. It is amazing what you can get donated if you pray and have faith. Trips across the Ocean in Merchant Ships or Aeroplanes. In other words hitch hiking on a grand scale.
2nd hand Post Office Vans.
Computers that are being replaced by more modern ones, Houses to live in. You name it anything is possible with God.
Part 130.
Flash Back to Hollingbourne Mannor.
This reminds me of the very first time I was asked to provision for free a very big item. I had only been in the COG for about a year and David Berg, (Mo) who was extremely anointed at times, had a dream about a large country house that the COG family would be given to use as a springboard training school for missionaries to jump off on their way to Europe.
He wrote a letter called "Dreams of England." I was asked to find this 40 bed roomed house of his dreams.
Hosea was working directly with his father. Mo always kept out of sight. In all 25 years in the COG I never met him personally or ever saw him.
I did not even know what he looked like. We had a little donated Mini Minor and early one morning I drove off with an English brother called Giddell.
The leadership had drawn a circle on a map. Half way between London and Dover was a city called Maidstone.
This area would be ideally suited for the job. If you think about it, it was absolutely crazy. At that time property was at an all time high in value, 1973/4.
First we went to Maidstone Town hall. It had not really opened and a young man who was making the tea greeted us.
We got a free cup of tea and he told us to go to a Hollingborn Village Hall where there might be information about such a house.
It was still very early and we were not even able to meet an official, only tea boys. This young man at Hollingborn was very positive and told us where to go.
We were excited that our task was proving to be so easy and how God was guiding us. We arrived at the spot that we thought was correct and sure enough there was an old mansion there.
It had no roof and the grass was growing inside the ruins. Now the COG was very good at repair jobs but this was out of the question.
Very disappointed we continued to scour the area but found absolutely nothing. Eventually after hours of fruitless nothing, we came to an old Anglican Church and the old vicar or priest gave us tea.
It was about 3 in the afternoon. We told him what we were looking for and explained we had really turned the area up side down. Then like the tea boy he asked if we had tried the old manor.
We said of course but it had no roof. He smiled and asked if we had looked behind the ruins about half a mile away?
I did not finish the cup of tea. I was out of there and a few minutes later we were standing at the entrance of Hollingborn Manor.
The old Manor had been divided into flats and by an extraordinary coincidence? I mean the hand of a very Great God, all the occupants were leaving the following Monday.
They had all been given 6 months notice exactly 6 months before, and the land was scheduled for redevelopment. We motored to Dover to talk to the Estate agent, Realtor, and they were really totally unforthcoming and told us we were wasting their and our time.
We returned to Hollingborn and talked to some of the residents. It was as though the residents had been sworn to secrecy and they too were unforthcoming.
There was a small cottage that shared a common wall with the huge Manor and all its out houses and stables. Here a delightful old lady who said that she was very new in the village. She had only been there 7 years!!
She had had some small dispute with the owner of the Manor and was very happy to tell us the name and telephone number of the Rich Northern English Property Owner, Mr Charlaton.
Armed with this info we hurried back to Bromley Factory our Communal Home and with Hosea and other elders kneeling face down on the ground I phoned this man late in the evening at his personal residence.
I explained what we wanted and he almost put the phone down explaining that it was absolutely out of the question.
Then I said in desperation that the Lord Jesus needed his help. We had already explained that we only needed this property for the time that it would lie idle.
We promised to vacate the moment they needed it. From our experience it takes sometimes years before projects would get under way.
Anyway there was a moment of silence from Mr C and then he said for us to see him in his very fashionable Mayfair office the following Tuesday.
The rest is history. We lived there for nearly two years and maintained the property very well and eventually handed it back to an agent who stepped out of a helicopter to receive the keys.
This was not an unusual kind of event. This happened many times. God was putting His stamp of approval on much of what we were doing.
To see a very good video check out the following url
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?comments=&v=1360503966940
Part 131.
How I met my present wife continued.
I heard this story of any old car in Part 128, and of course applied it to asking the Lord for a very specific type of wife. I prayed this prayer of "Please Lord I have made such a mess of my marriages so far I am a dead loss at choosing women and I do need a mate.
I need someone who would help me to follow You, my first love, Jesus Christ." I did not have to wait long. At this same Camp Ground close to Sao Paulo where we were having our convention, I was about to take one of the many children that I took care of to the toilet.
The little child in question was called Patience. There were Men's and Lady's toilets and we thought nothing of going to either. However there were now some people who were not from our group and so sentries had been placed to remind the boys that they should only go to the Gents.
Heidi, my future wife was the very sweet sister who gently reminded me about this and took dear Patience inside to do her little business.
For me it was pretty much love at first sight. We sat together at the convention meetings. Then Heidi, which was her special Christian Name given her by the community, mine was Joseph, left at the end of week end to go back to her community.
This was in a more southerly city of Florianopolis in the state of Santa Caterina, I asked the Lord for a sign. I have many times seen shooting stars but that evening while thinking about Heidi an enormous meteorite seemed to fall into the camp itself. It was ten times brighter than any I have ever seen before or since.
Heidi was not so convinced and it took time and prayer and almost despair on my part.

Part 132.
Heidi changes her name to Joanna and passes a tough test.
The clincher came when we were not yet together but she had come down to Sao Paulo to see if I was the right guy or not. We were witnessing at a nearby town and it was time to come back to the colony in a farm belonging to a friend in a place called Guararema.
I asked Heidi if she would like to Hitch Hike or take a bus. It was a test question. She opted for a hitchhike. It was dark and we were on the edge of a three lane motorway. It was really very unrealistic to imagine that any vehicle would stop.
None did and they all went whizzing by at high speed. Then the miracle happened. A Japanese Truck driver stopped and he took us to the entrance of a side road that lead for about 10 miles to our farm.
We quickly picked up a lift and then the real test began as if the last one was not enough. A Pea Soup Fog descended on this winding narrow road. The driver and his girlfriend were in front and Heidi and I were perched terrified in the back. The girlfriend assured us that her young man really knew every bend in the road.
I was not convinced and neither was Heidi. We could not even see the side of the road let alone anything in front. The Lord spoke to Heidi explaining that it would be so easy to have a crash and then all her youthful beauty would be smashed so she just might as well marry this older guy. Ha!!!
The Lord has His ways. Heidi changed her name to Joanna. She was on fire for Jesus and the name Heidi had a kind of HIDE myself connotation.
She was now mated to an extrovert and wanted to become more of an extrovert herself. The word mated meant loosely married in the COG community. These unions could be changed if proved to be unfruitful for the Lord.
Joanna had never in her life become pregnant. It seemed she was barren. Like many of her generation she had been sexually active since her early teens. Before she joined the COG she had sometimes used the pill but for three and a half years she had been mated to an Englishman from whom she had recently become separated and never become pregnant.
Part 133.
A Short Detour. 40 years in Wilderness and Thank the Lord for EWTN.
As I write and tell you these events I would like to repeatedly tell you dear reader how thankful I am to have now found the True Church founded upon the rock Peter and built by none other than Jesus Himself.
I haven't exactly calculated but I think it is almost exactly 40 years that I wandered around in the desert of Protestantism. If I could make a criticism of Catholicism as I see it now, it would be the sad lack of understanding that cradle Catholics seem to have about the amazing TRUTH of their faith.
When I discovered Jesus over 40 years ago, I knew that I had discovered the Way, the Truth and the Life. Many others and myself also knew that the world was pretty sick in more ways than one.
I had been one of those sick ones and had now found most of the cure and I wanted everyone to know about it.
Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, COG, Jesus people and Baptists and many other sects were so much more convinced of what they have found than the Catholics who have the WHOLE TRUTH and the HISTORY and the tremendous example and Tradition of the Saints.
Now with EWTN, The Eternal Word Television Network, it is easier to see what my new faith, new to me that is, is all about.
I have a huge hunger to know the many many aspects of Catholicism. Even when I talk to many Priests, not all, I find the same rather apathetic approach.
It is sad and must become a real cause for prayer and a true working of the Holy Spirit. In the country I live in Slovakia, it is a nominally Catholic Country but very apathetic.
The Priests walk around in civilian clothes and are ashamed to wear even a clerical collar.
I call them my friends the private detectives because they are so camouflaged that unless you know them personally there is nothing to distinguish them from anyone else.
Thank the Lord for the Nuns, as they seem to be unashamed of their religious dress. That is a digression but I believe it worth making. It seems at the level of the Seminary there has to be a new emphasis. We have a seminary in the walking street where I live in the city of Kosice and they hold an open day for the public once a year.
I was left with a young seminarian and was asking him about his faith. He was in his 5th year and would soon qualify as a deacon and then the following year be ordained a priest.
I was shocked to hear that he didn't really believe in the Eucharist as being the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. He had serious doubts about it. Maybe that was an isolated case. Maybe however it is just the tip of the iceberg.
Thanks to Lay persons like Scott Hahn, Ray Guarendi, Patrick Madrid and many other amazing priests like Father Groeschell and Father Pakwa and Father Corapi and countless others who take part on EWTN, I have absolutely no excuse not to be on fire.
However I do feel for my friends here, as only the older women and a few older men are saying the Rosary or faithfully attending Mass.
I am talking generally and of course there must be many marvellous exceptions. Mostly the youth we meet on the streets even with Catholic Baptism are falling away in their droves and are embracing the modern evils and culture of the day promoted by the Media in all its forms.
Please pray for us and pray for yourself if you can identify yourself as not really appreciating the wonderful richness handed down for 2000 uninterrupted years.
There is something wrong with a Church that has all the TRUTH in its fullness and yet seems so apathetic to the world around.
Apparently it is only a very small minority that are on fire for their faith. It must be the fault of the shepherds for not instructing their flock to take an active part. I never met an on fire Catholic until I met Dot and Terry Boyle from Bristol, and then Father Bill Mc Carthy from My Father's House in Moodus, Connecticut, in the USA.
They took us into their hearts. We were lost Evangelicals and they introduced us to other Catholics and then we met Father Christopher a very unusual Catholic Priest called by his associate priests a freak. Thank God for freaks!!! The norms many times, just don't seem to cut the mustard.
SECTION 13 VISION FOR INDIA!
Part 134.
Vision for India.
Joanna and I were praying together and we both had a desire to go to India. I was born there and after three years in Brazil, I really wanted a change.
Our main way of travelling was by hitch hiking. We averaged at least three hitch hikes a day. It was a great way to get around. It cost no money and in fact after witnessing to the driver about Jesus and handing him some simple salvation literature we would usually be given a donation.
We were making about 1000 rides a year. We would collect addresses from the more receptive rides and these precious people would often offer regular small donations, which would help pay towards the rent of our community home.
Now the question was, How to get to India?
We read a passage from Isaiah and it really spoke to us. Hitch hiking 20, 50, 100, or 1 to 10,000 Miles was all Hitch hiking, only the distances were different.
We managed on the shorter distances so why should we worry about greater ones.
After all, the longest journey begins with just one step. This passage of scripture was from God's Word, which never fails and there is no mention of the need for money in fact the opposite. KJV Isaiah 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

As I look back at Brazil, it was one of the very best places I have ever lived in.
Joanna and I by being thrown in the deep end, soon mastered the language and we were even able to think in Portuguese.
The people were very open to Jesus. I realise now that Catholicism had made them that way.
The restaurant and hotel owners often helped us with free meals and a place to stay.
Part 135.
We meet what seems to have been an angel. Judge for yourself.
We met some very nice people and on one occasion I believe we met an angel. Let me tell you the story.
We had to HH to a convention about 100 kilometres outside Sao Paulo. I remember it was extremely hot and we seemed to get stuck about half way and it was the middle of the day.
We were by a bus stop and the people waiting were looking at us in a kind of negative way.
"Why cant this silly couple get on the bus instead of sticking out their thumbs for a ride?" You could almost hear them thinking.
We found a little bit of shade and I was praying for the Lord to at least allow the sun to go behind a cloud. I was a little discouraged. HH is not always easy and there do come difficult moments, and this was one of those moments.
The Lord did allow the sun to disappear. Then came the lift. The man was going to the very place we wanted and so we just had to settle down and enjoy the one hours drive.
Five minutes later the car stopped. We had turned off the Motorway down an exit road. Sure enough this place also had the same name as our destination.
My heart sank and we said thank you and got out. I shot up an arrow prayer of disappointment to the Lord but no sooner was it out of my thoughts, when a truck driver beckoned to us.
His truck was pointing the wrong way but we felt compelled to obey him. His truck was very dilapidated and as we sat down beside him, he introduced himself as Elias, Elijah in English.
We told him where we were going and he said quite ridiculously, "I know!" Then he started up the engine and turned the vehicle around. His exhaust tail pipe was missing so we could not communicate except when his foot was off the accelerator.
We knew this stretch of the road quite well and knew most of the restaurants along the way. We managed to explain to Elijah that we needed a place to get something to eat. Again he nodded just as if he already knew.
A little later he stopped at a Churasceria that we had never been to. He told us we would get a very good free meal there.
We got out thanking him profusely and entered the empty restaurant where scores of tables were prepared for hundreds of guests.
The owner met us with a big smile and I forgot to mention that as the truck drew off I noticed it had no number plates.
Brazilian road police are quite strict about such matters so that too was definitely odd.
So he sat us down and offered us a menu. We quickly told him that we were missionaries and he was completely at ease and just smiled and then treated us royally.
At the end of our meal we left full of thanks and well refreshed. I think it was the first vehicle that passed that then stopped and took us to our destination.
When we told our story many said it was an angel encounter and to this day I believe it was just that.
Part 136.
More Hitch Hiking stories.
Every three months we as foreigners would have to make a border trip to Paraguay to renew our visas.
We would arrive at Foz da Iguasu and then cross walking on the bridge over the river to Stroesner and get a stamp and then walk back.
I used to go with those five children, as their visas also needed a stamp. It was about 1000 kilometres and would take a couple of days there and a couple of days back It was actually comparatively easy as we would wait on the side of the road lining up like soldiers and arranged neatly according to size and then on a given command we would all stick are arms and thumbs out together.
Of course small cars would not be able to stop but we would make it to the border in about 2 days.
We would stop and get free donated meals from restaurants along the way and always a free place to stay.
One particular lift I can remember out of maybe hundreds was when we were on our way back and were left in a road with Brazilian Jungle on either side.
A little scary. Then a man stopped and we bundled in and he put us to the test to see if we really had faith.
He was a Christian but did not let on at first. The first test was that he said he was only going a very short distance.
We all exclaimed only gratitude, which duly impressed him. Then he said as he started to take us a long way that we could sleep in his car while he would sleep in a hotel.
Once again we said how thankful we were and it was genuine. When he arrived at the stopping off place he smiled and organised for us to have nice rooms and a meal, and the next day he arranged for us to sing in a hospital, in a school and in a factory.
He also organised our next lift. Events like this were normal.
The life of total faith in a living risen Lord Jesus Christ was about as absolute as it could be. I can say that in 40 years of Protestant Christianity, the Lord never let me down. I on the other hand must have let Jesus down countless times.
SECTION 14. OUR LONGEST HITCH HIKING ADVENTURE.
Part 137 to 170 have been deleted and replaced with the full version of the adventure story of Hitch Hiking from Barzil to India
My Short wave Sony Pocket Radio and BBC News. Hitch Hiking to Singapore.
First stop Santos.
1983/4. The early 1980s were a time of tough talking by US President Ronald Reagan. He referred to the Soviet Union as an Evil Empire. In 82 USA and 60 other countries boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and then in 84 the SU did the same to the USA in the Los Angeles Olympics.
The Middle East crisis was also at boiling point. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in Oct 81 and 8 months later Israel invaded Lebanon.
All during these times I was an avid listener to BBC News on my short wave Sony Pocket radio.
I really believed that the Antichrist government could arise any day and world events seemed to indicate the great possibility of this happening.
We believed there would be a final 7 year period divided into two halves of three and a half each and then would come the glorious return of Christ to set up His Kingdom on earth for a Thousand years.
We had one eye on our particular interpretation of the Bible and the other eye on World events.

Before I tell you about Hitch Hiking let me first extol the virtues of this activity.
First of all it is a wonderful way to travel. If you are a Christian and you want to share your faith with others then for the duration of the trip you have literally a captive audience.
Of course you need to be a wise witnesser. Let me give you a very good tip. Be a good listener. Draw your host for the trip out. Ask him lots of leading questions. I have educated myself about so many different occupations and I have learnt this all from Hitch hiking.
I have had literally thousands of lifts. People are lonely. They are usually driving alone. They love to talk about themselves and they are looking for a sympathetic ear. You can be that ear. When they have exhausted themselves, then you can come in and tell them what makes you tick.
Then you can talk about your own personal testimony about your best friend Jesus Christ. This of course would be on a long trip. On a short trip you have to tailor make your witness.
Maybe you only have a chance to do most of the talking. You leave a some literature and humbly and sweetly ask for a donation to help you in your Missionary work.
Even if they feel inclined to give you nothing, be thankful at least for the free ride. Always no matter what, be thankful!! Hitch hiking is very good for one's pride.
Or rather I should say it is very bad for one's pride. It smashes it! That is good.
Living the way I do is very humbling. I am basically a beggar. But I am a beggar with a difference. I am giving out information that is actually priceless.
If someone gave me a million dollars for a piece of Gospel literature, they would not have paid for it. It is good to keep this in mind.
With our witness whatever it is it is priceless. Busking on the streets and distributing Christian Literature to all who put their pennies into the basket, or handing out flyers and booklets CDs and DVDs and Holy cards and Rosaries in return for a donation can also be life saving for the one witnessed to.
In one instance I remember well, I was out with 9 year old Joel. We were going Office to Office in a Commercial building. We met a very intelligent middle aged Lady and she confessed she was planning a suicide the next Saturday. Her name was Martina and she was a highly paid personal secretary. We introduced her to Jesus and she did not commit suicide.
Armed with the verses from Isaiah Ch 55 verse 1 and 2.
KJV Isaiah 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
We figured either this was the truth or was a page that could be ripped out of the Bible.
It's like the story of the man who had a very thin Bible. When asked why it was so thin he said that he didn't believe much of it so he had torn out the pages and now there was just the covers left.
We figured there is not really much difference Hitch Hiking a small distance or a large distance. It was just a matter of a longer time. I remember the day we left the Guarerema farm and hand in hand we took our first step to India.
By now the COG had a new name, THE FAMILY. The year was 1984 in March or April. They gave us half a blessing, I say half because they thought we were pretty odd trying such a feat.
The family were losing some of their original fire maybe? Joanna and I tried spending a short time in Sao Paulo in an attempt to raise friendly supporters who would help us when we arrived in India.

Now I am going to include the full version of the Incredible Journey of the longest Hitch Hiking Adventure.



Well this is my contribution to helping you see from a true story of crazy faith that there is a God and He is the God of the Bible and that he loves you in particular!!!

THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY
OUR LONGEST HITCH HIKING ADVENTURE.


This is a true story of how my wife Irmgard and I went from Brazil to Singapore, 21,000 kilometres purely by faith with practically no cash. About 100 US$ in all to start with.

When we arrived in India three months later and after about 300 hitch hikes by car, by lorry, by ship and by aeroplane, we were able to donate almost 3000US$ from small donations received to our missionary organisation.

I hope it will encourage you to know how incredibly real the Spiritual world of Jesus Christ and His followers is.

Although I have failed Him so many times my testimony is that He has never failed me.

I hope you will find this interesting and look forward to hearing your comments.

It took place 25years ago and so I may get some of the chronology wrong but not the facts.

God bless you and have fun reading my first of 21 instalments.

The Purpose of it all!

This is a personal note to you all to try and explain, THE PURPOSE OF IT ALL.

By writing the Incredible Journey in about 15 to 20 instalments there is a purpose.

Most of us believe in God and the Spiritual World at least to some extent.

Maybe our faith is mainly Hope rather than Faith.

We are all getting older and that inevitable day of our departure from this material life will come upon us sooner or later.

On this three month trip, some 24 years ago, God was put to the test hundreds of times.

Miracles needed to happen by the hour rather than by the month or year.

Once we set out we never knew where we were going to spend the night.

We never knew where our next meal would be coming from.

We never knew whether we would fall sick or have a disastrous accident.

We had no insurance for any such unforeseen eventuality.

We were out on a limb for the duration of those three months.

We were walking on the edge of a very dangerous precipice for the entire time in parts of the world that were dangerous at the best of times.

Perhaps I can hear God saying that we too were put to the test hundreds of times.

I believe for those of you who read this story, the Incredible journey and believe that I have not exaggerated or stretched the truth, will see quite plainly that coincidences do occur in life but not on the scale that we experienced them during the Incredible Journey.

There can be really only one way that this adventure could have been completed successfully and that is with the help of a very powerful, spiritual DIVINE HAND.

If this story will help you to find and hold on tight to this most powerful DIVINE HAND for the rest of your life and then on into eternity then this objective will have been reached.

Thanks for reading and listening. I would really like to hear your reaction and look forward to what you may have to say.

Half way around the world on a spiritual journey.

The Incredible journey Stage 1.

Our Life in Brazil.

My wife and I were Christian Missionaries in Brazil.

The year was 1984.

We were both living on a farm which had been lent to about 20 of us Missionaries and their children, by a Christian supporter and was a school for the kids and a base for the grown ups to operate from.

It was in a small village called Guararema, close to Mogi das Cruzes about 50 kilometers from Sao Paulo, the commercial Capital.

We were members of a Protestant group of the famous Jesus revolution from California, made up of ex Hippies of the flower power the late 60s and early 70s.

We lived for telling people about Jesus. We not only told them but most of the time we were able to lead them into a prayer to accept the Spirit of Jesus Christ into their hearts.

Of course we knew enough Portuguese to be able to speak quite fluently and daily prayed with scores of people. We still do this every day of our lives except Sundays when we take a day off.

Some who were really interested gave us their addresses and so we were able to follow them up with more advanced literature than just a simple salvation tract.

We would ask them if they would like to contribute a small donation which many of them did, and from this we all lived.

Some did not help because they had no cash or because they preferred not to.

Some also gave items that we needed such as furniture, food, clothing, and even electronic equipment.

When they gave materials instead of cash we called this provisioning.

Whatever happened, we were just happy that they had listened to us and accepted the simple literature.

This they could read later and we believe that many did and were convicted and took their first steps towards following Jesus.

We had no visible means of support from a regular income, but were sure that if we faithfully proclaimed the Gospel which simply means the Good News then somehow our Spiritual Leader Jesus would take care of us through thick and thin.

A good definition of Good News is, News that is too good not to share.

Let me tell you He definitely did take care of us and still does to this day.

The call to India.

One day we received a letter from some of the missionaries in India telling us of the great need there.

Brazil was, and I'm sure still is, a very awesome place to be and it was going to be very tough for us to leave.

However being a missionary and following our Jesus Christ's command to go in to all the world meant a lot of moving and at my last count I can tuck over 40 countries under my belt.

Moving is our business.

Another factor that played a very significant part was that I was born in India and spent the first 7 years of my life from 1938 to 1945 there.

I could still remember it and felt very convicted that I should go back there one day.

Now seemed the perfect opportunity.

Pandita Ramabai Gospel Tract.

We had a very special tract called Pandita Ramabai.

It is a beautiful true and touching story about a lady with the same name who was diagnosed with a disease which left her only one year to live.

She decided to spend her last moments taking Bibles over the mountains to an area near Nepal where the Gospel had never really been presented.

Her doctor strapped the back pack of bibles in the local language onto her back and off she went.

She was never really heard of much again but the whole area soon had a thriving Christian spiritual community.

This tract was translated into Portuguese and then later back into English and was used to great effect.

We prayed with many 100s maybe 1000s to ask Jesus into their hearts.

The prayer went something like this. “Repeat after me. Please Jesus come into my heart,” then a pause for time to repeat. “Please give me the free gift of Eternal life. Forgive my sins. Fill me with your Love. Thank you. In Jesus Name.”

From time to time there were some very amusing responses especially from people who thought they knew English very well but understood very little.

The funny part was usually repeating the words “Please give me everlasting life.”

One person very seriously repeated, “Please give me everything I like!” Sounds a bit similar but not exactly the same meaning. Ha!

Also we would always be talking about India and then instead of repeating that they wanted Eternal Life, one person with absolute seriousness asked for “Indian Life.”

A crazy promise from the Bible.

My wife and I prayed desperately and were reading the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, Chapter 55 verse 1
All you that thirst, come to the waters: and you that have no money make haste, buy, and eat: come ye, buy wine and milk without money, and without any price.

This was a promise from our Spiritual Leader The Word of God.

It was either true to be appropriated or false to be discarded.

Of course we had no money, only enough for the day and a little for breakfast the next morning.

This was and is usual.

The spiritual promise right here in this first verse was really interesting.

If we had interpreted this correctly here was the invisible Holy Spirit, Lord of the Universe promising food including wine and milk without having to pay for it.

Irmgard and I stared at this verse for a few moments and then realized that this would continue to be the key for our journey across first the South Atlantic and then the North Atlantic to Europe and beyond.

We already were very experienced hitch hikers.

Every day we were dropped in Sao Paulo to witness and would come home the 50 kilometres at night simply by asking for lifts along the way.

In one year we averaged three lifts a day so we travelled more than 1000 times by hitch hiking.

I remember one person in particular who told us that he never stopped for anyone.

Brazil is quite dangerous and there are many criminal gangs operating.

As we stood in the road with our thumbs up smiling at the approaching driver he said that he had seen an aura of spiritual light around us which transmitted peace to him and so he stopped.

He later became a faithful supporter. This kind of occurrence was quite normal for us.

50 $ was our start out cash!

We collected a small donation which had been sent to Irmgard by her Aunt amounting to 100 DM or 50 Euro.

So we could boast 50 Euros or 65$ for a trip that would have to take us across three oceans, including the Mediterranean, the Suez canal, the Red sea and beyond.

One early morning we set out from the farm and as we passed through the gate we told the Holy Spirit, “This is our first step to India.”

Incredible journey Stage 2.
The longest journey begins with one step.

That first step was easy.

However the longest journey begins with one step.

We just had a further 9000 kilometres to go to reach our halfway point in Europe.

If you were to stop and think about it it was quite ridiculous.

It was best not to think about it and instead to think about all the spiritual help that was as yet untapped for this incredible journey.

That would be a good name for this true story, The incredible Hitch Hiking Journey.

The next step was to make our way to Santos.

This is the Port city for Sao Paulo and was a couple of hours away towards the South Atlantic coast.

That morning we managed to provision a nice free breakfast and had time to pray and ask The Father Son and Holy Spirit, what to do?

The Holy Spirit was already leading us to people who would be a help in the future.

After prayer which simply means having a chat with God we believed it would be better to stay for a week or so in the rich city of Sao Paulo and try and raise some permanent support for living in a poor country like India.

Having left our community we had nowhere to stay for the night.

We were travelling very light with just two shoulder bags but we did have about three heavy trunks of personal possessions which was also going to be rather a problem, hitch hiking with three trunks was adding cold water to the sacrifice.

Travelling with lots of luggage.

This reminds me of a time when we were donated a desperately needed double bed for our community.

Of course we accepted and told the person that we would be round the next day to pick it up.

The place was a good 20kilometers out of town and we had no available transport to collect it with.

It was left to me to get it and then take it home.

Now remember in the spiritual world nothing is impossible.

Only in the physical are there limitations.

I hitched a few rides to the apartment block and took the lift up to the fourth floor.

As I got out, there was the double bed all dissembled for transport.

I thanked the lady profusely and she asked me how I was going to get it to our house.

I told her not to worry as there was transport outside waiting to take it.

Not exactly true but in a way yes, as it turned out.

I took the the bits all neatly roped together out of the lift and leaned them against a wall in the yard below.

Thankfully the lady was not looking out of her window.

I shot up an arrow prayer of desperation into the spiritual realm and then opened my eyes.

Parked across the road was a van inside a warehouse entrance.

Soon I was talking to the owner and he was agreeing to deliver the bed free of charge to our home.

Later that afternoon he did.

Well a friend of ours agreed to store the heavy baggage and then we went off to down town Sao Paulo to look for a friendly Hotel owner.

We did have some friends amongst the Hotel people as they would give us discarded linen and even quite decent furniture and carpets often still in very good condition.

We also received Lost and Found articles so as you can see we were and still are expert scavengers.

However the usual friends were not able to help us with bed and breakfast for two weeks which is what we needed before moving to Santos.

The 5 star Sao Paulo Suite service gives us 10 days free of charge with breakfast.

We were walking down one of the main streets trying not to feel discouraged but keeping up our spiritual conversation with our Spiritual Boss and friend and saviour Jesus Christ and then I saw this huge complex of suites and rooms lumped together in the Sao Paulo Suite service.

Before long we were sitting sipping coffee in front of the manager and we told him how we were on our way to India as Missionaries and needed a place to stay with breakfast.

We gave him a Pandita Ramabai tract.

We were both praying hard at the same time as speaking to this man who we had never met before.

To our amazed relief he began smiling and gave us the most beautiful suite close to the swimming pool and sauna all for free with a huge breakfast for 10 days.

We printed out a small pledge form asking people to agree to give a certain amount of cash to us monthly and started distributing it to everyone we met together with the Pandita Ramabai tract.

Sao Paulo is full of delicious restaurants and getting our free meals for the rest of the day was comparatively easy.

Matthew Ch 6 verse 33. “But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”

We began every day with what we call devotions.

This was our spiritual beginning with contact to the Higher powers of the Christian God.

We read passages from the Bible and then laid our day before the Lord asking for guidance and protection and a supply of all our needs.

The Bible contains many promises for example Saint Paul's Letter to the Philippians chapter 4 verse 19
And may my God supply all your needs, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

This was one we used a great deal.

Of course these promises are no good if you do not really believe them but through experience we did, and they worked and still work superbly.

I can thoroughly recommend the promises in the Bible for all the world to use.
Also very important was listening to God for the answers.

This we did by allowing the Holy Spirit to gently nudge our consciences.

One of the most important ingredients in all of this was simply to take the time.

Consciously stop everything and take time with the spiritual world.

Nothing except disaster is accomplished by rushing through life without stopping, looking and above all listening.

We were off to a very good start.

10 days in a luxurious hotel was quite a beginning.

Breakfast swimming and sauna.
I had hardly ever used a sauna so that was a novelty.

The staff were very nice to us.

We were very busy every day getting up early as this was no holiday.

The objective of India was ever before us, coupled together with a rather blurred image of the Soviet Union, that vast continent we just called Russia.

Daily we asked God to lead us step by step.

We needed or so we thought, support for once we arrived in India.

We needed good health which we amazingly seemed to always enjoy and we needed to try and supplement our cash of 100 DM about 40 US$.

Incredible Journey Stage 3.
Narrow escapes from criminals.

Soon our time in this five star complex was coming to an end.

We decided to leave our 3 trunks in the Sao Paulo free storage.

So far everything seemed to be working to plan.

We did have some narrow escapes from criminals.

In the crowded places there were many bag snatchers and we always had to hang on to our shoulder bags.

One person was robbed in front of our eyes and the thief ran off with the person screaming.

He was soon lost in the crowds of people.

One evening when returning to our free hotel we watched a burglary in a deserted street.

As we approached a sentry gave the alarm and those responsible just melted away.

Once we boarded a bus and three stops before, the whole group of passengers had been robbed of all their cash and jewellery.

One guy in the front had had his finger cut off so at to get his gold ring.

The police investigation had already taken place and so we joined a group of very sad and bewildered passengers hoping that there would not be second strike.

Recreation and fun for free too.

We did have fun too.

We made friends with a Cinema owner some months before and he allowed us to watch movies for free.

One evening there did not seem to any good films except a Russian Classic called Dersu Uzala.

It was really an awesome movie about the real agape love of a Siberian wild hunter who saves a platoon of lost Russian Cartographers, map makers from freezing to death through the night.

It gave us a real love for Russia as well as for India and this was realized some 7 years later on.

Coincidentally that same day we were offered free Stroganof to eat
Hitch Hiking is such an amazing way to travel.

It is very spiritual as it requires faith against all odds.

This will come out later as we progress in our incredible journey.

Spiritual people are not the only ones who hitch hike but it sure helps to be in close touch with the spiritual world through prayer.

It was our last morning and we finished our breakfast and profusely thanked the manager and the waitresses who had become our friends and set off with our two shoulder bags each.

Stupidly I did not have a camera and frankly we could not afford one and so this whole trip is without photos.

I however managed to keep a log of the business cards we received from the 4 to 500 people we were going to meet on the way. Collecting pledges had not really worked out and I was a bit disappointed.


Two significant dreams

I had a dream that I think was very significant.

It was in two parts.

The first one, I was riding in a Steeple chase against many other competitors.

A Steeple chase is an English word for a horse race with jumps and although the race was long and gruelling it was just a matter of hanging on.

By the time I reached the finish, all the other horses had fallen.

On closer look at the Horse its head resembled Irmgard my wife.

No offence to my wife who is actually very pretty and does not resemble a horse.

Only in this rather significant spiritual dream.

The second dream we were walking on the water together.

As long as we kept moving we walked quite quickly on top of the water but if we stopped we began to sink and had to swim.

This slowed us down and was costly financially.

It was like we needed to keep moving.

Launching out into new places and changing our location daily was going to be the key or one of the keys to making this journey a success relying 100% on spiritual help all the way.

First stop the Port City of Santos.

We got a lift to the exit road from Sao Paulo to Santos and then there we stood on our first leg of our trip.

We had no prearranged place to stay and just left by faith.

This is something we have done countless times.

Launching out into the unknown trusting in the help from the Great Spiritual force of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who has never failed us.

A man stopped and was obviously going to Santos which was at the end of the highway.

He was extremely nice and a Christian.

He did not need for us to pray with him to receive Jesus.

He was a quite famous Lawyer who worked closely in helping those convicted of drug crimes.

He had been a drug addict and experienced a marvellous conversion.

After receiving the Lord into his heart he said he had been weeping at the name of Jesus for a week after.

Jesus was so real to him and he gave us a very generous donation and later the Lord would use him to be one of our only real supporters.

He dropped us on the sea front of Santos and this was one of our first views of the South Atlantic Ocean for a very long time.

We shot up some arrow prayers and there in front of us was a three star Hotel. I have forgotten the name but it was something like the Palace.

The Owner Fernando was a very helpful man and after sharing our crazy ideas of hitch hiking a ship to India he agreed to put us up bed and breakfast for an indefinite time.

He became our friend and confidant and was always very interested in the progress we would make day by day.

Incredible Journey Stage 4
Visiting the shipping companies

Now that we were in Santos, it was time to start visiting the shipping companies.

Most of these were situated in the Port and Dock area which was surrounded by a high wall and there were about three or four entrances which were guarded and one needed a pass to get in.

On our first morning after early morning prayer and reading from our super spiritual book the Bible and then breakfast and a chat with Fernando the Owner, we set off for the Port.

It was in walking distance as our Hotel which I can now remember is named the Avenida Palace and was very conveniently in the centre of the sea front road.

By looking as if we owned the place we smilingly walked past the guard into the busy port and no one stopped us.


Hitch hiking on cargo ships.

3 years earlier I had managed to provision free passages on cargo vessels from Hamburg to Santos for Missionaries from our organization.

It happened something like this.

I had a reputation for having a special spiritual gift from God of Faith and so I was asked by our leadership to try and get free passages for about 4 to 6 single missionaries to leave from Lisbon where I was staying, to Brazil.

The year was 1981 and at that time our group was making a push towards Brazil.

The company, Alianca, with offices in Hamburg, sailed to Brazil calling in at Porto and then Lisbon and so without anything prearranged I jumped on a night train from Lisbon to Hamburg.

The train arrived at 8.30a.m. and without an appointment but after desperate prayer for Spiritual help, I was sitting in front of an amused Managing Director at 10 a.m.

I explained our needs and he agreed to allow 2 passengers at a time to travel free as long as they did some work like painting and scrubbing.

Of course I was delighted and was back in Lisbon with the good news the next morning.

At least 4 to 6 missionaries used this facility to make it across the Atlantic without cost.

Now there was also a Passenger Liner which called frequently in at Lisbon on its way to Rio de Janeiro.

This luxury Liner belonged to the well known Italian firm, Linea C, Costa Armatori with headquarters in Genoa and having succeeded so well with the German firm, I was then dispatched to work the same miracle for more missionaries including myself.

Even though I had prayed and stormed heaven for a second similar miracle this time would be a different story.

When I arrived in Genoa, I had no trouble getting to see the senior manager a Mr B who had only one arm.

He was an extremely nice person and I spent a long time with him talking about spiritual matters which seemed to interest him a great deal.

He poured out his heart but was unable to allow us to travel for free but he did make a big discount of 50% which was a help and he gave me his business card which I managed to hang on to for many years.

This will become significant as our adventure unfurls.

Bluffing our way into the dock area.

Once inside the docks we were soon visiting every shipping company and shipping agent.

The first three or four days we found nothing.

It was a story of total disappointment.


The Doubtlets!

Giving up was out of the question but we continued to pray and hope and believe.

In the evenings we found a Seaman's club called “Missions to Seamen”, organized by the Anglican Church.

An old couple, I think he was a retired Anglican priest ran the place and were kind to us and gave us free beer and lots of complete and total discouragement.

Hardly any one frequented this rather uninteresting place but it was fine for us to relax.

They thought we were very presumptuous to expect a free trip East.

They explained how there were many people all trying to go for free to Europe who had a much higher priority than us poor rather stupid looking missionaries.

We learned to accept their free beer but not to listen to their doubts.

We nicknamed them Mr and Mrs Doubtlet.

It was rather tough having to tell Dear old Fernando about our failures but he put a brave face on it and continued to allow us to stay.

I guess the Lord helped him to have faith in us.


Bingo! We got our ride! Or so we thought.

On about the fourth or fifth day we were stopped going through our normal entrance and so we walked further down the road and went in another entrance successfully.

In front of us was brand new firm that we had not seen before.

This time everything seemed to go according to plan.

They promised 2 free berths in a cabin in a ship that would arrive in three weeks.

The destination was Northern Europe but in hitch hiking one has to be prepared to take any ride that is going somewhat in the right direction.

We were overjoyed and triumphantly reported to Fernando and to the Doubtlets who put a brave face to cover up their previous remarks and they just said, “Well you guys are just lucky, plain lucky”.

They were not really spiritual people but were friendly with billiards and beer for lonely sailors and I think they had rooms which were rather expensive for short stay overs.

Now we had to wait for three weeks and after the dream about moving we decided to go on a hitch hiking trip around Brazil getting more addresses and trying to supplement our donations which were still very low.

We have a little spiritual saying, “If you witness about Jesus and the spiritual world, you will always win.”

Incredible Journey Stage 5.

Visas for India.

Brazil is a huge country.

I think it is the 5th biggest country in the world.

Russia then Canada then China then USA and then Brazil.

Something like that.

Because I was born in India, I did not need a visa and neither did my wife even though she was German.

However by an amazing stroke of good fortune which was to save us lots of future trouble we found out that the Indians had changed their rules and now everyone entering India would need a visa, even British Nationals.

We returned to Sao Paulo and stayed with some friends of our mission for a couple of days.

I desperately needed a good guitar and there is a well known company called Di Georgio and we were able to visit the factory and tell the boss about our planned trip to India.

He was really moved and presented me with one of their beautifully hand made acoustic guitars.

Two hitch hikes by plane. Wow!


We then realized we would have to go to the Indian embassy in Brasilia.

Brasilia is the Capital and is quite some distance inland.

It is a fairly new city and literally carved out of the dense jungle.

Now we had a friend who worked for the local airways called Manoel.

He was quite a big shot and so we approached him to pull some strings for a free internal flight to Brasilia.

He looked a bit taken aback but promised to do what he could.

The next day he phoned us and told us to hurry over as there were two free seats but we had to hurry.

He said he would arrange the return trip once we were there.

It was time to remember to thank that huge and wonderful spiritual force Jesus Christ our wonderful Saviour and Lord.

He was arranging everything and planning ahead for us.

This extra time gave us the opportunity to get our visa sorted out. Something we had not planned on.

The flight to the capital was uneventful and the plane was not all that full.

There were quite a few empty seats.

Of course once again we had no where to stay.

This was normal and we knew we just had to tap in to those super spiritual forces to get us a free hotel.

First we went to the embassy and had to spend some of our hard earned cash on the visas.

This we could not avoid but while we were there we received good donations from distributing our Pandita Ramabai tracts and of course we came out on top.

Remember that quote? “When you witness you always win”.

Even the embassy official helped us with some notes.

Run away inflation but God is still on the throne!

The denominations were extremely high as there was rampant inflation running sometimes at 100% a month.

The Cruzeiro was worth very little and a note of a million was not unusual to see.

Later I think they knocked 4 zeros off and renamed the currency the Cruzado.

Living by faith was one way of hardly noticing the enormous daily and weekly rise in prices.

As the prices rose so did the donations.

We found a Hotel at the first shot.

This is not normal.

Sometimes it takes asking quite a few before someone will say yes and help. We phoned Manoel and the next day he arranged a free flight back to Sao Paulo.



Filling in time before getting our ride.

We still had two weeks to go before catching our prearranged ride to Europe in a Cargo vessel.

We had never really spent time in Rio de Janeiro and so we checked as best we could with our Spiritual Boss and He seemed to give us the go ahead.

We hitched to Rio in two days staying in a motel for free over night.

Rio had just finished Carnival so we missed that quite thankfully as everyone goes quite wild. I
t is quite a flesh trip and not much help to us.

We got to swim on the famous Copper cabana beach.

It is a little hard to remember but we did not meet any body exceptional and then I had a strong desire to go to Ouro Preto.

This translated meant black gold.

Well Lord help me but I was interested in getting some more spare cash for this trip.

Black Gold sounded a good place to find some good donations so off we set hitching and not spending money and slowly our finances were creeping up.

I think we had about 500 US$ by now which I wore in my belt.

Our Naivety and simple faith keep the criminals away.


We were not really a target for thieves as we witnessed our faith literally to everyone.

It did not matter if it was a possible Mafia boss or a policeman, we told them all about our wonderful Lord.

I think doing this got us out of a lot of trouble as we were so naive and even the worst kind of people respected us with our crazy faith.

We were not specially well dressed but just kind of normal wearing nothing fancy.

That was not a choice it just represented what we had been given.

Nearly all our clothing was provisioned from clothing shops or Hotel Lost and found items.

Sadly I did not have a camera. At the time I did not really realize that we were doing something that unusual.

Faith was and is a normal part of our daily life.

We know that in the end Jesus will come through.

He has never failed us even if sometimes the immediate circumstances seemed to indicate that He had and sometimes it really looked like it.

As we progress on this trip together there will be plenty of times when this will become very evident.


It takes the impossible situations for God to do a miracle

It is usually in the really impossible situations that He comes through with something so much better than what we had hoped for.

Just like the promise in St Paul's letter to the Ephesians Ch 3 verse 20.
And now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think.

These Bible promises as I have already stated are absolutely awesome but they have to be appropriated and believed in otherwise they are just beautiful meaningless words.

Ouro Preto the city of Black Gold, did not live up to its name but it helped to keep us busy witnessing and travelling and increasing the number of addresses of people who could become supporters.


The sure thing did not come through.

Now the time came for us to make our way back to Sao Paulo and then Santos to board our ship.

We arrived in Sao Paulo and a good friend drove us together with our three heavy trunks of baggage to the Avenida Palace Hotel in Santos.

We still had a day or two so we decided to check and see if our ship was running on schedule.

We arrived smiling in the office only to be told that the ship would be leaving with two VIPs taking our berths instead of us. Ow!!!!! Help!!!!!

Incredible journey Stage 6.
Defeat turned into another Victory.
He never fails!


Now you can imagine what a disappointment that was.

We had put our faith in this trip and here we were turned down at the last moment.

Maybe the Lord had really failed us this time?

This idea in putting so much faith in the spiritual world to help was a bit far fetched?

Up till now never! But this looked like it could be the first time.

It was very tempting to think like that.

Now do you remember the Linear C line from Genoa with the one armed Mr B?

Well we had already been to see their offices three weeks before.

The large passenger Liner only called in at Rio de Janeiro but smaller freight ships stopped at Santos.

They did not hold out much hope but we had shown them Mr Bs card and that had obviously impressed them.

So we rather reluctantly walked across the docks to their offices on the very slim chance that they might be able to help.

I wish I could tell you how full of hope and faith I was but that would be a lie.

It was a last resort.

Kind of lets go and find out that they too like so many others had politely turned us down.

We walked into their office and to our amazement the staff were all smiling and giggling.

That same morning they had received a telex authorizing Mr and Mrs King to travel on the container ship The Trans Oceanica Silvia which would be docking the next day. T

wo berths had been specially reserved for us in the ship's hospital.

The ship would take 21 days and would berth in Genoa taking us on a much more direct route half way across the Mediterranean Sea well on our way to our final destination India.

I still have the free ticket badly preserved in a file for all to see.


Doubtlets are pleasantly shocked and Fernado too!
Hitch hiking with all our gear to the ship.

We literally ran back to our Hotel and told Fernando and then the amazed Doubtlets not only gave us beer but sandwiches.

Back at the Hotel we started packing everything up into as neat way as we could.

The shoulder bags contained two sets of everything.

At night we would wash out our socks and underwear and hang them up on the radiators and put them on the next morning.

The ship was sailing sharp at 2 p.m. and we had to be on board by 12.

The only way we could carry our heavy baggage was in stages.

First take one trunk 10 yards and dump it.

Then the next and dump it in the same place.

Then the third and then start all over again.

It was like taking six times longer than just walking once.

Now I can say, that we did have lots and lots of faith.

This last miracle was a real faith booster.

At about 9 we had our breakfast and then I carried out all our stuff and dumped it in the middle of the busy sea road on a traffic Island.

Just imagine how ridiculous this looked.

A small traffic island piled high with trunks and shoulder baggage.

Last of all we too stood in the middle of the road facing the oncoming traffic which was moving in the direction of the port which was a good mile away.

I do not think we had to wait more than five minutes and we were able to stop a very amused pick-up truck driver who allowed us to pile everything into the back including me while Irmgard sat in the front.

10 minutes later we were at the bottom of the gangway of the Trans Oceanica Silvia.

We unloaded the stuff and some sailors helped us carry our heavy baggage on board.


Luxurious Hospital to live in.

The Hospital was very spacious and we just prayed that no one would get sick as then we would have to share this place.

I do not think it worried us unduly.

You know I too am a bit of a doubter and I wasn't really convinced that we had made it until the ship had passed through the outer harbour break waters and the Pilot had disembarked and we were well and truly heading out to sea.

Then I really started to cheer the amazing Spiritual World of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, inside my soul.


Two other Passengers. The Italian Consul and his Brazilian wife.

That evening as we sat at the Captain's table with other members of the Officer crew and yes there were two other real passengers.

The Italian consul and his very chirpy and entertaining and much younger than him, Brazilian wife.

They had a proper cabin and had obviously paid for their trip.

However apart from their rather snazzy cabin they had no more privileges than us poor missionaries.

Another nice touch from the Lord was that at every meal except breakfast there was always wine.

Do you remember the promise in Hosea Ch 55 v 1? Come and buy wine and honey and milk without money.


Good food fun and lots of Ping Pong and
A real Holiday!

There was always lots to eat and three to four course delicious Italian meals.

I was able to play endless games of ping pong with the Marconi a nick name for the communications officer.

I have to admit that I am pretty good at this rather ridiculous game but so was Marconi and we battled it out across the South Atlantic and then the North Atlantic.

From time to time Irmgard and I would perch up in the bows of the ship watching the endless flying fish dashing across the front of our vessel.

They would jump and fly for twenty to thirty yards to keep clear of the monster ship which they obviously thought was some kind of a mammoth whale that was ready to gobble them up.

The weather was really calm and many times too the flying fish were joined by dancing dolphins that weaved their way in front riding the pressure wave set up by the ship ploughing its way across the deep blue ocean.

This was a holiday! One of the first for a very long time.
We often went on the bridge and as I had been an officer in the Royal Navy I knew quite a bit about all the activities that took place up there.

My favourite watch was with the ship's mate the first officer a good humoured Italian and we talked endlessly about our faith in the spiritual world.

He was not convinced but remained a very good friend and wrote a very nice letter of recommendation for us to carry in the event that we would ever travel again hitch hiking on ships

Incredible journey Stage 7.
Time for reflection!

While on this long trip with nothing much to do except reflect on the vast ocean which stretched much further than the eye could see was an awesome time to meditate on this very unusual watery world. I

t has been said that all sailors are believers in the Spiritual.

There is so much evidence of eternity.

There is also so much time to think.

Just to reflect and wonder about God and His creation.

At night sometimes the sky is so clear of clouds and there is no smog from polluting factories and traffic to blur the atmosphere, that the stars and galaxies are visible with sparkling clarity from horizon to horizon.

There is nothing man made to distract one apart from the throbbing sound of the engines and the floating home that is protecting and transporting us from continent to continent.


Ships that lass in the night.

From time to time one would pass vessels going in the opposite direction using the same shipping lanes as ourselves.

In the dark we would amuse ourselves flashing a signal in Morse code to all those phantom passers by.

What ship? Where bound? All sailors are meant to know and practice the code and we would show off our ability to send and read the replies that came flashing back in longs and shorts.

“Julia Bay bound for Santos.”


A fascinating answer to prayer!

One day I was on watch and Irmgard and I prayed for something unusual to happen in the vast surrounding ocean.

We told the 1st Officer that we had prayed and then it happened.

A solitary whale was swimming in the opposite direction giving way its whereabouts with the tell tale water spout spurting up in the air as it cleared its nostrils.

The Captain was summoned training his binoculars and exclaiming that this was very rare at this time of the year.

He knew as he had made this trip so many times in all kinds of weather.

Normally the whales would be travelling in schools like herds of elephants in a totally different part of the Ocean.

Maybe this one had got lost? It made a welcome change and distraction.

When we crossed the equator, a sailor dressed up as Neptune and we all drank a brandy to commemorate the occasion.

As the days passed we all began to get to know each other and I have to admit there was a very good spirit on the ship and I think this was largely due to the Captain as he was a good person handler and put everyone at their ease, and yet kept his dignity and authority.

There were no fights or arguments among the crew and the morale remained high at all times.

The cabin steward Paulo took very good care of us and we were careful to clean our own area and keep it spick and span.

He would reward us with an extra Cappuccino for our efforts.

During all 22 days the weather remained amazingly calm which was a real boon as having experienced rough weather in a small ship when I was in the Royal Navy.

It was no joke.



Movie Night

On Friday evenings we would gather for a film.

The one I remember well was the Poseidon Adventure the story of a ship that capsized at the mercy of a giant tsunami wave.

It was quite a spiritual movie and showed the wisdom a of a small child who against all odds lead his little team of followers in the opposite direction to the well trained ship's officers and even the priest.

A little child will lead them would be an appropriate Bible quote.

Our ship was laden with Containers which were packed tightly below decks down to the hold and towered up nearly to height of the bridge giving the ship an unusual cuboid look.

Yes we were going to miss Brazil very much and we had a very wonderful time with these exceptionally nice people coming from all over the world.

There were communities from Germany and Japan rather like the USA and the Brazilian Portuguese had a flair of its own rather like the USA English to England's English.

Planning the next move.

Now what on earth were we going to do when we arrived in Genoa?

One question was what to do with these three cumbersome trunks of baggage?

After all our destination was India not Italy. Leaving the baggage in a port left luggage department would be exorbitantly expensive.

Incredible Journey Stage 8
Hello! Mediterranean!!
Straits of Gibralta.


Going through the straits of Gibraltar was our good bye to the peaceful North Atlantic.

I had often been to Gibraltar when I was in the Royal Navy and this rock of ancient British supremacy stands guarding the entrance to the Middle Sea so famous in Bible times.

The book of the Acts of the Apostles gives a very vivid account of Saint Paul's voyage to Rome as a prisoner and his shipwreck in what is now Saint Paul's bay on the Island of Malta.

Nowadays British sea power has been beaten into last place with the advent of aircraft, rockets and electronic warfare gadgets.

Another reminder of the first becoming the last and the last becoming the first. The bigger and higher they come, the harder they eventually tumble and collapse.

There was so much shipping just everywhere we looked going in and out of this very busy main Motorway for ships.

There was a buzz of excitement on board as Genoa was now only a couple of days away. Sailors who were almost all Italian were looking forward to their well earned leave with their families, before rejoining this ship again on the outward voyage West.


Genoa.

I had written a form letter to all our over 100 names and addresses from Brazil and the idea was to send it out from Italy as then the first real jump would have been completed.

I had often thought that if one can hitch hike 20 miles from A to B, the only difference from A to B at 21,000, kilometres is that the distance and the time taken is longer.

The spiritual principle remains the same.

The next thing I remember was that we were stopped outside the harbour entrance to Genoa. The Pilot came on board and there were two busy little tugboats buzzing around.

The Captain had allowed us to be on the Bridge as long as we kept well out of the way as the officers would dash from one side to the other gently nurturing this 12000 ton container vessel into its prepared berth.

Actually the Captain has to allow the Harbour Pilot to take control and give the orders.


Russia, USSR an alternative to India?

Now there was a very interesting little spiritual coincidence.

Irmgard and I had been toying with the idea of Russia or the Huge Soviet Union as it was then as an alternative to India.

We were not so serious about the idea but it was there in the back of both our minds.

Seeing that Movie Dersu Usala had really made an impression. So here we were on the bridge and then the spiritual world clicked in and the Pilot kept saying the words India over and over again on the wireless intercom system to the tug boats.

There was a stiff breeze blowing so the two little tugs had to either push or pull as tugboats do and believe it or not one of the boats was called India.

God is so good and here He was shouting his guiding words into our ears and minds.


Goodbye Transoceanica Sylvia,

We started to say our good byes and thank you to the Captain and the crew and specially to the cabin steward Paulo who had taken such good care of us.

We walked down the gang way with our two prepared shoulder bags and then a small crane unloaded our three trunks in giant a net bag. We put them together in a sheltered spot and went off into the port area to find the Port Director.

It was actually quite easy and we were escorted into his office as he sat behind an impressive desk. He spoke some English and we asked him if he would give permission for us to leave our three trunks in the left luggage area but for free.

He obligingly agreed to giving us two free weeks which would have cost us a couple of hundred dollars.

We found a large luggage cart and proudly proceeded to the left luggage presenting our very unusual permission slip to the man in charge.

We had nothing valuable except the guitar which we would leave there too. We had to trust the Lord for that one and any way everything was under lock and key.


Trip to Nuremberg.

We had a lot to do before making our way hitch hiking to Nuremberg Germany to meet Irmgard's parents for the first time together.

First we went to the Linea C head offices which I had previously visited 3 years before to say thank you to Mr B.

He was not there any more and had been transferred to the Linea C offices in the Bahamas.

We found a director who seemed to know all about us and we delivered our thanks.

Then we asked if they would like to do one more favour and Xerox 100 copies of our circular news letter. This they readily did for us.

We had already carefully written out all the addresses on the envelopes and so we stuffed them and went to the large office next door to ask their boss if he would like to put these letters in their daily post.

Of course we told him all about Jesus and our crazy faith and he not only agreed to take the letters but gave us a small donation in Italian Lira for the Pandita Ramabai tract.



Promising Russian Company for next leg.


Now it was important to look for possibilities for our next leg which would be anywhere in an easterly direction.

We found a Russian company that had 2 freighters that would be calling in in about 2 weeks and they promised to let us travel on them.

They were bound for Bombay which was the city of our destination and would cost 200 US$ each. Rather expensive but considering the circumstances suited just fine. This was almost too good to be true.

By now it was evening and so we set off to the entrance of the Motor way out of Genoa in the direction of Germany and stood there trying to thumb our first lift in Europe.

Hitching in Brazil had been easy.

What would it be like in Europe? Would the Lord do the same kind of miracles for us here in this new continent?

Incredible Journey Stage 9.
Amazing Hitch hikes.

What I am about to tell you is going to be very hard to believe.

Our first lift was an Italian business man who not only took us about 50 kilometres but gave a very good donation in Lira and dropped us at a Motorway Gas station.

This is a very good place to get our next lift from and we would very politely go up to the single business men sipping their coffee or having a light meal and ask them if they would take us in the direction of Southern Germany.

The route we would take and of course we had an autobahn map would take us through Milan, Bergamo, Trento to Innsbruck. By midnight we were in Austria making very good time.


The ride of our lives!


Then came the ride of our lives. We found a German business man, he was a famous lawyer and had a personal chauffeur driver.

They were sipping coffee together and smiled as we approached them and before long we were all aboard.
He sat in front while Irmgard and I hung on for grim death and our dear lives in the spacious back seat of a custom built Mercedes.

From time to time I would peer over the front seat to read the speedometer and it seemed fixed on 220 Kilometres an hour.

Every slight curve in the Motorway felt like a hairpin bend and we were flung from side to side.

What really freaked us both out was the fact that there was no room for error. At that continual speed any slight adjustment to miss another fool or a deer would mean certain death.

We were really praying!!!!!!However he assured us that he often made this trip from Austria to Hamburg and by early morning he dropped us off close to Nuremberg.


My wife's farm and family.

We were tired not having slept a wink but were now within about 10 kilometres of my wife's farm in a little village called Lind close to Zirndorf close to Fuerth close to Nuremburg.

It took about three more lifts and we were standing outside Irmgard's old farm house. We were expected but not so soon. We had covered the distance in about 13 hours door to door so to speak.

The Father and the Mother were both very nice but were continually working on their farm which boasted 6000 chickens and acres of wheat land which were already sown and waving green in the wind.

Irmgard has a wonderful aunt, the brother of her Father and she had taken care of Irmgard and her elder brother Werner pronounced Vanner, when they were young.

They all spoke a weird dialect of German called Frenkish and unless you know it it is pretty hard to understand.

The country side was quite beautiful and we borrowed old bikes and made many trips into the woods and surrounding little villages.

Donations in cash.
An amazing miracle!!


Our donations were not all that hot. We had saved about 6 to 700 US$ equivalent in various currencies of Dollars Liras and Marks.

On one of the days we hitched into Nuremberg and wandered through the old city offering our English language Pandita Ramabais to the German folk. Being in English we were not so successful but received a few donations of Marks.

We ended up at the train station to try and provision a free meal.

There was an Imbiss at the east entrance run by a very sweet old lady called Edeltraud Waltzell.
We did not know but she had a reputation of being called the angel of the Bahnhof.

She gave us a delicious free meal and then asked us if we needed anything else.

First she offered take away food but we explained that Irmgard's mother and aunt were in competition to feed us but if she would like to make a small contribution for our trip to India, that would be amazing.

She scuttled off and I thought to my self, if she gave 50 or 20 DM that would be awesome rounding of a really good day.

When she came back she pressed a note into my hand and as I opened it I realised that it was 1000 DM the biggest donation we had ever received in cash.

I started to weep with joy and amazement and thanked her so profusely that she ran off a second time and pressed a second 1000 DM note into my top shirt pocket.

When we got back again hitching all the way, Irmgard's aunt was visibly shocked by our success. “Nothing like that has ever happened to me!” she exclaimed.

Thankfulness! An all important virtue!
Back to Genoa.
Disappointment once again!


One thing I forgot to mention was that at the end of any lift or benefit we not only thanked the driver or helper but also made a point of thanking our Spiritual leader and guide, Jesus Christ.

I think that Thankfulness is a real virtue and helps God see that we take nothing for granted.

Now it was time to make our way back to Genoa to catch our Russian Cargo vessel travelling in convoy with an identical sister ship to Bombay.

Irmgard's dad generously drove us about 50 kilometres down the motorway and dropped us in a gas station.

He seemed sad to see us leave and we would not see him again for many years.

The trip back was quite different and we spent our first night in a hotel up in the Austrian Alps called Mozart.

The lady owner a devout Catholic gave us a beautiful room with a delicious breakfast the next day.

It was still quite early so we ventured off to the small village and met a famous Austrian Ski Champion who owned a pub and Hotel and he took us in his Jeep for a trip up one of the highest mountains in the area.

He dropped us off and then we made our way down sliding on the lush grass slopes back to his Pub where he gave us a beautiful dinner with wine.

The next evening we arrived in Genoa in time to catch the Russian shipping office before it closed.
Bad news.
The twin vessels had left Greece and made their way straight to Suez without coming up the west coast of Italy to Genoa.

The Incredible Journey Part 10.
Our baggage gets a free ride to India but not us.

Our immediate problem was to find a Hotel.

Once again we succeeded in our first try. Like I have pointed out this is not always the case and sometimes we have to wander around for quite some time before we find a place to stay.

I guess the Lord allows this to happen to show us not to take things for granted, and to be thankful.

It is so easy for us mere mortals to fall into complacency and expect it as our right that God will always be at our beck and call like some kind of Genie from Aladdin's lamp.

Sure enough this time too, it was a middle aged Italian Woman who met us as we walked into her little office.

She spoke a little English and along with our little Portuguese adapted into Italian we were able to persuade her to allow us to stay for a few days while we tried to sort out the next stage of our incredible journey.

The next morning we went back to the docks and I got the idea to find a shipping company going to Bombay that would not mind taking our baggage, even if they would not take passengers, for free.

Most Cargo ships do not take passengers as they are not insured for the eventuality of an accident or some need for an emergency doctor etc.

We always asked them to allow us to sign a letter of indemnity absolving them of any blame in case of a misadventure befalling us on the voyage.

This helped sometimes but on the Linea C Transoceanica Silvia they had insurance for us.

If we could find such a company that would be a load off. We tried a few until we found one that was plying between Italy and India and they very kindly agreed to take care of our three trunks and put them on the next vessel going to Bombay.

They were not ready to take us but they would take our baggage. We delivered our three trunks and guitar to their warehouse and spent the rest of the day looking for a shipping company to take us East.

Try as we would nothing turned up and so we returned to our hotel after obtaining all our meals at restaurants and Snack places all for free as promised in Isaiah Chapter 55 verse 1.

That night as I slept, I had a dream that we were in Sudan of all places. Now there were some Sudanese living in the Hotel with their extraordinary colourful Arabic like costumes and Turbans, so maybe the Lord used that to set this dream off.

A radical change in strategy.


After breakfast we spent some time in prayer and Bible reading and I received or let me say I thought I received the directions to go overland to Greece and then try from there.

We had done a ship trip and maybe now was the time for a land trip? Maybe all the way to Sudan????

The more we thought about this the more we liked the idea and so we thanked our Lady host and set off for the Motorway travelling the first leg just as we had recently done but instead of turning North to Austria and then Germany we would continue East into Yugoslavia.

We would soon find out that the great President Marshall Tito had died but there was evidence of him everywhere.

His picture hung in every restaurant and public place. He seemed not to be really dead and was still a public hero.


Yugoslavia.

That evening we were still in Italy and arrived in Trieste.

As this is a part of the world that I have never been to before my memory is a bit shaky but it was here that we met a very charming Italian priest who put us up in a guest room at the Parish house.

He was very impressed with our story and gave us a very generous donation.

The next day we hitched across the border into Yugoslavia passing through or around Rijeka with many small lifts down the Adriatic coast road with a view of thousands of very inviting small islands.

We were tempted to stop and swim but continued to the border of Albania which was in those day very difficult to enter and a sort of no go area, so we looked for a place to stay the night in Dubrovnik.

This is a small sea port and everywhere we tried we failed to find anyone who wanted to help us.

All the Hotels turned us down and even though we were praying desperately for help, none seemed to come.


A sleepless night with cockroaches!

It was now getting dark and then I had the inspiration to ask a young man on the street if he spoke English. He did and we told him our predicament. He smiled and told us that he had an old aunt who lived close by and that he would persuade her to help us. So far so good!!!

The old lady cheerfully lead us to the spare bed room and as we were dead tired we tumbled into bed immediately.

Then to my horror of horrors I felt something crawling over my face. I jumped up and switched on the light and the whole room was crawling with large cockroaches.

Once the light was switched on they all scuttled off and disappeared below the bed.

Irmgard gave out a slight scream and then the old lady came in and explained in her foreign tongue of which we understood nothing something to the effect that they would not harm us and to just be thankful and go to sleep.

As soon as she was out of the room we left the light on which prevented all except the very brave ones from emerging.

We got very little sleep and after a very long night, we thanked her and left very early in the morning.

We managed to find a small bakery that gave us free buns and black coffee which we really needed to keep us awake.


Greece.


That next day after many small lifts we passed around Beograd, Belgrade the capital of Serbia, and were tickled to see the signs changing from the Latin alphabet to Acrylic on the sign posts to Macedonia.

We crossed the Greek border late at night in a Truck that took us for a very long distance allowing us to get sitting up sleep. His destination was Thessalonica and this is where we got off at midnight in the town centre.


Midnight miracle in Thessalonica!


Usually we like to stop at about 6 in the evening giving us plenty of time to find a place to stay but midnight seemed pretty grim.

The centre was pretty dark. There were very few friendly looking lit up lamp posts to greet us and light our way.

The street and centre was totally deserted.

So some quick arrow prayers which just means a snap chat with our Lord of the Spiritual world and then there right across the square was one solitary café or bar that was open and lit up with a friendly glow.

When we arrived the owner was about to close down but he turned out to be Mr Sweetheart himself who spoke pretty good English.

We witnessed to him about Jesus and the trip we were making to India and of course that sounded really bizarre.

He believed us and then rustled up a delicious free meal and suggested without us asking, that we stay the night upstairs where his brother ran a Pension, a small hotel for bed and breakfast.

This time no cockroaches and a really good nights rest with a super breakfast with Mr S the next morning.

He gave us our first donation in Greek Drachmas on top of all the help he had already given.

From all this we learned that you cannot put God in a box and that the more extraordinary the circumstances, the more the Lord had the opportunity to do the most extraordinary miracles.

The Incredible journey Stage 11.
Piraeus.

Our next real hope was the port of Piraeus, next to Athens for a trip across the rest of the Mediterranean. That was our dream and goal.

Every day we distributed scores of Pandita Ramabai tracts and collected pockets full of business cards.

Xeroxing forty to fifty copies of P.R. Tracts was always very simple. We would go to an office and talk to a boss and then it was very rare that they turned us down.

We always asked everyone we met who took a tract if they would like to make a contribution.

Sometimes it was a few coins and sometimes it was generous notes and sometimes nothing.

We were always thankful and tried to get as many people to repeat what we call the sinners prayer. This went something like this. “Dear Lord Jesus please come into my heart. Forgive me for my sins and mistakes. Fill me with your Holy Spirit of Love and give me the free gift of Eternal Life.”

We must have prayed this prayer with about 10 to 20 people every day. This is something we still do today.

It is amazing how people who pray this prayer even flippantly will remember the occasion.

In Brazil we hitched a lift with a man towards the end of our stay and when we asked him to pray the prayer with us he said that he already prayed this prayer with us three years before.

On another occasion we prayed with three out of four young men who had stopped in their car. The fourth refused to pray and as they drove off we told the three that we would see them again in Heaven.

A few minutes later the car reversed down the road and stopped beside us and the fourth guy said to please pray that prayer with him too.

How many people do you meet in your life who ask you to pray a prayer like that?

Cash donations mounting!


Our cash credit was mounting and we had the equivalent of about 2000 US$.

We would change all our foreign currency to Dollars as that was the preferred world currency at that time. This could be done in little booths in the towns we passed through.

The exciting thing about living and travelling this way was that we experienced the hand of God many times a day.

We had to, as our situation was putting God on the spot moment by moment to take care of us. T

he number of lifts was mounting and we were trying to keep count of them but would forget in the excitement to keep exact records counting them and then forgetting the exact number.

Of course after 25 years it is pretty difficult to remember all the little details but the main interesting ones still stick out and also I have a previously rather badly written old manuscript to compare and draw on.

We were making awesome progress and Jesus our Spiritual Leader and guide was taking very good care of us. The cockroach episode was not dangerous and I think that maybe the Lord just wanted to show us a rougher side of life so that we would appreciate the good more and also to prepare us for the rough times ahead.

Bad spirits but a free stay.

I have missed out one Hotel where we stayed somewhere in Yugoslavia.

I think it was after we left Dubrovnik as we did not make it to Thessaloníci in one day. We stopped in some city on the way and I remember that there was a very noticeable spirit among the young people.

They seemed pretty unhappy and very sour. They did not smile and it was very hard to talk to anyone about anything remotely spiritual.

It was very hard to provision free meals and we had to make do with donated buns from a bakery as we were determined on the whole never to spend money.

We were very thankful to eventually get out of this unusual country that was finding it very hard to adjust after the death of the famous Marshall Tito their very long standing President whose picture small and giant size hung in every place imaginable.

In this small city whose name I have forgotten, we eventually found a free hotel from a very reluctant manager who was an avowed atheist.

However God eventually touched his heart and he even gave us breakfast after saying that we would get none.

We arrived in Piraeus and found a very 1 or 2 star hotel close to the Port.

The people here were much more friendly and after our usual devotional time with Jesus our spirits were up.

We were able to get quite easily into the port area and we were ready for anything going West.

Ship hike to Rhodes.

We found a small freighter probably not more than 2000 tons that was going to Rhodes.

Not very far but in the right direction. The Captain was happy to take us and we jumped on board early the next day as the ship had finished loading the night before and the sailors were allowed one more night ashore before sailing off the next day.

We spent one more night in our dockside hotel.

Now it is important to remember that I was not expecting to write this story down and as I said we did not even have a camera.

At that time we did not even own a camera but we did carry a small cassette recorder which used mini tapes and on these we recorded the words of the Bible to listen to as we went to sleep.

I would always carry a luxurious short wave Sony radio as at that time we were very news oriented as our Missionary group were expecting the end of the world to happen at any moment.

We were very busy trying to discern the signs of the times in relation to the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus Christ. The best that can be said for this was that we were all pretty up to date with current affairs. The BBC was our main source of information.

A promised ride to Egypt.
Then disappointment.


We arrived in Rhodes the next day in the early afternoon and berthed next to a ship that was very conveniently bound for Alexandria.

We talked to the Captain about a lift and amazingly he said that it was no problem but to be on board before 6 pm that evening.

We walked around the centre of Rhodes and then made our way back to our new ship.

There was no sign of the nice captain that we had met previously but only a new guy who emphatically exclaimed that he had no intention of taking us.

I think by now we were easily resigned to such happenings and just crazily believed that the Lord had a better plan.

We did look like a pretty forlorn couple as we stood on the road leading out of the Port trying to thumb a lift back into the city.


Then the Miracle happened.
7 days on holiday island.


A man stopped and we told him our sad story.

He was very receptive and was amazed that we had gotten this far.

The next ferry to leave Rhodes bound for Cyprus would be in one week.

He drove us to the top of the city and we stopped outside a Pension that must have belonged to his friend.

We waited in the car and then he came back smiling and we had a wonderful bedroom with a super view all for free with breakfast until the large passenger ferry would arrive in 6 days.

Whether he paid for it or whether the owner gave us this for free we could not tell and never found out.

The Lord was now donating a weeks holiday for us on this beautiful and very interesting Holiday Island surviving entirely on Tourism.

We hitch hiked around the Island exploring and witnessed the Son et Lumière show of the exploits of the famous Knights of the Crusades.

This was a story of unrealized hopes. First the Knights were driven out of Jerusalem and then...(need to research this later)........ and then Rhodes. They were thrown out of Rhodes and ended up in far away Malta. Hardly a success story.

It dawned on me that God was not on their side using violence to try and keep the Holy land.

We had a few needs like for example a Bra for Irmgard and we would just go into a shop for Lingerie and ask the boss lady having explained our trip and got everything we wanted

The Incredible Journey Stage 12.
God supplies all through generous people,

We really had a very good week and we literally spent no money.

Our small needs like shampoo and razor blades for shaving or tooth paste was all there for the asking.

We just had to witness to people about our spiritual journey through life with Jesus Christ and how He was and is the answer to everything and just like that promise in the Bible in St Paul's letter to the Philippians chapter 4 verse 19,
My God shall supply all your needs through His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

I am not a wino but I really enjoy a glass of wine in the evening or even at lunch and we always had wine offered to us with meals which of course were all provided free of charge.

Many people are prepared to help on a one time basis and sometimes regularly like once a month.

We did not have to make such arrangements as we were always in a new place every day almost.

Do you remember the dream about keeping moving would be our key to getting our needs met for free?


Passenger ferry to Cyprus and another amazing miracle.
Beat this!


Sadly our departure date approached and on the morning that the large passenger ferry docked we were there to meet it very early in the morning long before any other passengers.

As soon as the Gangway was lowered we were climbing up it and asking to speak to the Captain.

He was once again a very nice person and listened with great interest to our story.

He even offered us a whiskey which we declined as it was rather early to drink and then we dropped the bomb question.

Would he take us to Cyprus for free? He shook his head and said “Definitely not.” He was not a believer in God but rather the opposite and I think he got some pleasure at being responsible for not helping us.

There was a rather triumphant glee on his face as he shook his head as if to say “Your Lord has failed you and I am responsible for that.” It would have cost him nothing to give us a free passage.

Well we had enough cash and so we decided that on this occasion we would use our hard earned donations to pay for the passage.

I was bitterly disappointed because it kind of meant that the free part had not really worked out this time.

So reluctantly we joined the growing queue of passengers waiting to pay at the ticket booth and then climb on board.

So let me ask you. “Are you expecting a miracle from our miracle working God or are you like we were resigned to being just normal people just throwing in our lot like everyone else?”

Then Joanna looked across the queue at a young lady of about 25 to 30 years old and recognized someone that had been in our missionary movement and had then left some year or so before.

They both immediately greeted each other.

Irmgard told S about our trip and about our near miss with the Captain and she said for us not to worry as her husband was a very wealthy Arab sheik from Saudi and of course he would buy us both our tickets.

I began to break out in a triumphant smile and shot an arrow prayer of gratitude in an upward direction.

Just try and imagine what an incredible coincidence this was! What would be the chances of such an occurrence happening at such an opportune and important moment?

We never met anyone else on this trip that we had seen before except for Irmgard's parents and Aunt and Brother.


One in the eye for the atheistic Captain.

The Captain was standing at the top of the gangway welcoming the passengers on board and then he poignantly asked us if we had bought our tickets?

Of course he was expecting us to say yes but when we told him in a few short sentences what had happened, he was visibly taken aback. To give him his due, he then offered us a free cabin so that we would not have to sleep on deck.

Thank You Jesus!!! Another example of the Lord doing something totally unusual and all at the last moment showing us that He was still very much involved and mercifully travelling with us.

It was also a great witness to the Captain.

The Arab Sheik was a super rich businessman and when we arrived at Nicosia took us to stay overnight with him in his personal apartment.

I remember he gave us very nice watches and after dining us to a very expensive dinner we went to bed in anticipation of what the Lord was going to do for us the next morning.

The Incredible Journey Stage 13.
Cyprus.
Communicating by prayer.


The Port city for Cyprus was Limasol and so the next morning we set off West in that direction.

Now from time to time I make mistakes or as my wife would say, I blow it.

What I am about to tell you is I think a real blow it stage of the Incredible journey.
Everything depended on being in tune with the Jesus. We had to be in good contact with our Lord and Saviour. This sounds difficult but is actually quite easy and I have explained this before but it is worth saying again.

Step 1... is to pray. Praying sounds religious but all it is is having a chat with our Highest Power, our God Jesus Christ. This can be when done wrong, a rather one way communication.

Step 2 is listening to the replies, and is equally important but is the more difficult part.

Presenting ones problems and requests is easy but listening to the replies takes faith and takes Stopping, Looking and Listening.

It is easy to jump to wrong conclusions which is what I often do.

When one is worried or in a hurry or thinks that hurry is necessary then mistakes and wrong turns can easily be made.

Have you noticed when using modern navigation systems that if you take a wrong turn the gadget starts telling you to make a U turn as soon as you can.

If you persist in going down the wrong road then a new and fresh computation is made and the U turn voice gives up and instead you start with another chance on a new course.

Thank God! He too is like this. He takes into account our being late or taking wrong turns and forgives us if we ask for it and off we go again. This is the story of life with our awesome God.

We picked an amazing lift with an unusually receptive and needy person. He wanted to help us but he also wanted help in sorting out his personal problems.

He asked us to go to his villa and stay the night. I think if we had agreed he would have bought our ticket on the ferry across the Western Mediterranean and the journey would have been without cost.

I prayed and jumped to my own conclusion and declined his offer and asked to be dropped off at the port.

I wanted to continue and make progress and so I just ignored the stop look and listen process and instead, leaned to my own understanding.

We progress but with complications.

At the port we found a passenger ferry to Israel but try as hard as I could talking to officials and everybody I could, there was no free ticket for us.

Not even a reduction. So we just piled on board like all the other passengers, paying 50$ each and spent the night in two deck chairs as a cabin was very expensive.

The next morning the ship made its way into Haifa one of Israel's Merchant and Military ports.

I had been to Israel in 1960 as a young Sub Lieutenant in the Royal Navy some 24 years before.

Catching this ship and passing through Israel was going to cause many problems in the next few days.

Our passports were stamped by the Israeli authorities. If we had stayed with our needy friend maybe there would have been some ship straight to Alexandria Egypt and a lot of the following complications could have been avoided.


Israel rather hostile and unfriendly


Hitch Hiking through Israel to the Sinai border was not very pleasant.

The only really helpful people we met were Arab Christians which crossed our paths. One owned a restaurant and gave us a very good lunch.

We arrived at the southern border in the evening and shared a very cheap taxi with some Egyptians across Sinai. What took the children of Israel 40 years we completed in reverse in about 4 hours.

Getting out of Israel, which seemed to us to have a very dark spirit rather like Yugoslavia, was a great relief.

I have since learned to love the Jews much more and to respect their plight.

Their problem is really the hot spot of the world and I believe only the return of the Messiah in person will sort out these seeming insoluble problems between Jews and Palestinians.

I cant remember exactly where we stayed that night but I think it was in some kind of cheap hotel the other side of the Suez canal.

What I remember very well is arriving in Cairo and finding a monastery in Garden city run by Nuns who gave us a free room with a stove to cook on and our own private bathroom and toilet.

We used this generous facility for about three weeks. It became our Egyptian base.


Alexandria Port Said and Suez.


There are three main Ports in Egypt, Port Said, Alexandria and Suez.

It was going to be our job to find a ship leaving from one of these Ports in a Red Sea direction, or so we thought.

We Hitched to Alexandria and got a lift from a Protestant Open Bretheren Church Pastor or Elder and he invited us to attend an evening meeting.

They took a collection for us after we had shared our exciting testimony of our trip of 200 US$, which was extremely generous of them.

He put us up for the night too and fed us. He also worked in the Port and took us there the next morning.

Most of our lifts were obviously with Muslims and actually it was quite easy to witness to them about our faith in Jesus and many of them prayed to ask Jesus. Isa into their hearts.

That of course did not mean that they were converted but it meant that the Holy Spirit could start working from the inside.

We even learned some Arabic. We are coming from Brazil sounded phonetically like Anna Gay Menal Brazil and we are going to India sounded something like Ana zer hib el al hinde.

We are Christian missionaries sounded like we are Mubash Shereen.

We wrote this info in ball point pen on the back of our hands until it was memorized.

Shukran meant thank you and we greeted every one with the usual Salaam Ale cum and then the reply Ale cum us salaam.

We learned some other phrases too which I now can't remember.

Mohammed and Islam

Our new Christian Pastor friend too explained why Mohammed had rejected Christianity.

During his life time Mecca was a rather corrupt and backslidden Christian city and he was shocked by this.

Also the only Gospel available was St Matthew and then only up to Chapter 25, leaving out the crucifixion. This seemed to explain why the Muslims do not believe that Jesus was crucified.

We failed to find anything at Alexandria so we hitched back to our Garden City base to keep trying. In the evening we would go and talk to people in a five star hotel which I think was the Marriott.

Very fancy and we would sit in the Lobby and try to talk to people.

One helpful business man asked to look at our passports and spotted the Israeli stamps.

With those stamps we might as well go back to Europe. There was no way out of Egypt to another Muslim Nation with such a stamp.

Israel was so hated that they would not entertain having anything to do with us. How will this situation get resolved???? Don't forget to read the next instalment.

Incredible Journey Stage 14.
Trapped by our Israeli passport stamps.


Our first problem was to sort out the impossible situation that had arisen because of these unwanted Israeli stamps in our passports.

We went to some very chaotic Egyptian authorities where we were shuttled from office to office.

We tried to get some kind of an Egyptian document to get us over the border and out of Egypt without any hassle.

We tried this for about two days and then came the brilliant idea out of the spiritual blue to get new passports.

Eventually we found the German embassy and they did a rush job and Irmgard had a new passport within 2 days and at the same time we found the British Embassy and they were very sympathetic who also did a rush job on a new one for me too.

At last no record of those unwanted stamps!!! So we were off the hook but a little poorer as we had to spend a lot of cash to get those documents.

Remember if I had followed God's leading on the road to Limasol in Cyprus I believe the story would have been different.

God forgives us but there are consequences for our failures as well as rewards when we get it right.


Hopes fade for finding a ship.

We still had great hopes for finding a ship to take us East away from Egypt.

We circled round from Alexandria then to Port Said and then Suez quite some times.

Maybe we visited those places twice trying to find ships. We talked to Captains and shipping agents but no one wanted to help. It was a closed door.

The harder we tried the more impossible it seemed. We even had the idea of trying to board a ship when it stopped to embark a canal pilot.

We would be hitch hiking down a road and not realizing where we were exactly and then in the field next door we would see this enormous vessel towering above us, seemingly travelling on dry land.

Only when one came closer did we see the water of this most strategic and famous of all the world's Canals.

We became very good at hitch-hiking in this extraordinary country of contrasts.

It was good preparation for India.

Many times we were gazed at by crowds of children who had never seen two westerners at the side of the road holding out their thumbs or waving down vehicles.

They lived in very primitive conditions in small villages. Sometimes they got really close with a kind of very simple familiar spirit. When it got unbearable I would just shout out BOO! And raise my arms like a bear, and they would turn tail and run.

Sometimes they would come back and it would turn into a game. Kind of cute but sometimes rather inconvenient and annoying.

We got lifts with rich Arabs driving large American Limos and we would sit in the back seat with wife number 2 or 3.

Wife number 1 who was usually young and pretty would sit in the front.

The music was something else. A melody and then BUM BUM BUM at the end of each line with loud drums.

A totally different culture but very interesting.

The prayers that were shouted from the tops of the minarets made sure that we never slept in.

I got quite used to it in the month that we stayed at the Monastery. Our little flat was such a great help. We became friendly with the Nuns who many times offered us free meals and were fascinated by our faith.

In those day we were definitely not Roman Catholics but they were such a blessing for us.


Egyptian Drivers!!!


Driving in down town Cairo was bedlam. Horns sounding all the time. Short sharp continuous bursts to warn the many pedestrians who walked in the middle of the street and then scuttle away at the last moment.

Once we had passed they would resume their positions treating the main road like a European walking street where all vehicles are forbidden.

The contrast from the business area and five star Hotels to the simple and very primitive conditions out in the country was most noticeable.

I know this sounds ridiculous but we never visited the Pyramids. I was so intent on completing this journey that I believed that any deviation from the objective would have been a side track.

I regret it now. Many people asked us about this and this was the answer we had to give them.


Sudanese dream comes true.


Now we had two possibilities. Go back and give up or hitch to Aswan and take the ferry to Wadi Halfa and then a train to Port Sudan. Then we would have to pray that the Lord would part the Red Sea for us.

I was trying very hard to forget the Sudanese dream that I had in Genoa!

We pondered over this idea laying it before the Lord and this is what He seemed to want.

We made the decision to hitch due south to Aswan after thanking those Nuns and their Mother Superior.

The Incredible Journey Stage 15.

The resident rat's visit.

The weather was always fine and I do not remember one day of rain.

We became experts at washing our clothes each evening and by the morning they were dry.

Jesus and His Mother and Step Father lived here.

So off we went and got about half way.

I remember one lift took us to Asyut which is the town where Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus fled to and lived for two years until Herod who had tried to murder the baby king died himself eaten of worms.

We had to stay the night in a very run down Hotel in a pretty run down village not far from Asyut, but amazingly the owner gave us a free room.

It was rather primitive but the sheets were clean and then we had a visitor.

We had just turned out the light and we heard someone trying to turn the door handle. We had not locked the room as there was no lock.

This person was trying time and time again, but for some reason was not successful.

I got up to check the situation only to watch a huge black rat scurry away into the darkness down the corridor.

This resident rat knew how to jump up and put its weight on the handle and then open the door. It was pretty scary so we wedged a chair against the door and that put an end to his nocturnal activities.

Travellers usually carry food in cloth bags so the rats know all about this and like to get their share.

The next day we set off for Aswan. I think we made it in one lift as I cannot remember another night stop.

The roads were not so bad and the lifts we got covered the 3 to 400 kilometers in about 8 hours including stops.

The Egyptian drivers that we met were all without exception very nice people and enjoyed helping this Anglo German Combination.

We never had a bad experience.

Aswan was placed on the edge of the River Nile at the down stream North end of lake Nasser.

The Russians had built a considerable Hydro Electric Plant using the flowing Nile to turn massive turbines making electricity on a very large scale.

Asswan.

So here we are in Aswan at the end of stay in Egypt, but not quite yet.

We found a reasonable kind of 1 star Hotel I think it was called the Luxor. I did some research but since 1984 a great deal has changed.

The young Egyptian owner was rather amazed at us as we asked him to put us up until the next ferry arrived in a few days. However he gave us a room and spoke reasonable English.

There were very few tourists and the next notable event was meeting a middle aged couple who were Mormans.

They were working for the UN on some project that was out in the desert somewhere. They became very good friends and having lived there for some time knew all the ropes.

They gave us a donation to cover the cost of the new German built Ferry that went to Wadi Halfa at the other end of Lake Nasser in the Sudan section of the lake.

The ferry had been recently replaced as the previous one had burnt out almost exactly one year before with considerable loss of life.

About half of the crowded passengers escaped but the other half drowned or were food for crocodiles which abounded in the lake.

We found out about this and this all added to the spice of our adventure.


A friend at the Oberoi.
Ask and you will receive!


We became friendly with a manager of the 5 star Oberoi Hotel which was situated on an Island. Many times in the next few day we would get a free ride in a Nile sailing vessel and receive a free meal at the Hotel.

As missionaries we received a great deal of help from the managers and food and beverage chiefs of the various five star hotels around the world.

They were a source of great help and also just shelter from the enormous heat in these areas. Arriving in the air conditioned lobby after struggling in the heat was always a very pleasant relief.

As we are very outgoing missionaries we were experts at making contacts with people.

A verse of scripture which screams out of our spiritual book the Bible says in The Holy Gospel of Saint Matthew Chapter 7 verse 7 Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.

This verse was and is an essential key to our success then and now. We just ask and it is very wonderfully surprising how many people will respond and help.

Of course there are many that say no no no! I am sure that you have noticed that too on our spiritual journey so far but we only need one to say yes to make progress.

We believe that all those who help get very spiritually blessed. They come out on top as it is more blessed to give than to receive. The words of Jesus Himself.

When we ask for things we always give some kind of incalculably valuable spiritual reminder in return, whether a tract, like the Pandita Ramabai one or a pocket Gospel or New Testament.

I have explained to so many including you dear reader now, something I very strongly believe and that is that a simple child like faith in the Creator is worth much much more than trillions of dollars and will accrue to our credit in the bank of Heaven laid up for our future.

Well now we have to make progress so on to the next step.

The Incredible Journey Stage 16.
Mormons and their advice a great help.

We were able to talk to the Ferry owners but they would not agree to giving us a free passage but the donation from our Mormon Friends more than covered the cost.

The Mormons also gave us very good advice as to how to travel. A long Arab scarf made from cotton to wrap around ones mouth and nose was essential to keep the dust out.

Every time the train would proceed over sand covered tracks a ton of sand would make its way into the carriage through the ever open barred wooden windows and smother the passengers.

These scarves would act like very effective gas masks in the event of the many dust storms. God bless this very sweet Mormon couple.

Also a large supply of drinking water was an absolute must. I think the most useful and bizarre of all their suggestions was to carry a large bottle of cheap cologne and later I will explain how we used that to great effect.


Trip up the Nile.


The day arrived to embark on board the Ferry which had arrived on the return journey the night before.

I think it was a Friday but I am not sure. The trip would take the full day and then a night and we would arrive at Wadi Halfa the next morning.

To our surprise the vessel was quite modern and of course there was a stampede to board to get the best deck seats and cabins which were at extra cost.

We had been told to talk to the captain and maybe he would give us a cabin for free?

The old colonial days were well in the past but I did notice that because we were westerners we were treated with respect and that was very pleasant.

Argue as I could with the Captain, it was all to no avail. He was quite austere and refused us any concessions.

However some other business men agreed to give Irmgard and myself part of their spacious cabin and so the night part was not so bad.


Wadi Halfa.


The next morning we awoke and the ship was anchored a few hundred yards away from a small group of Nissan huts with corrugated iron roofs. This seemed to be all that was left of Wadi Halfa after the Russian dam built down river at the other end of the lake at Aswan had flooded the surrounding area, covering the small town.


Extraordinary train ride.

A very old fashioned train was also standing with its end close to the buffers at the end of its road so to speak. Every where else was the usual endless miles of sand and desert.

By the time we had bought our tickets to Port Sudan, our destination, the train was jammed and packed out.

Every compartment we went into was teeming with people. Men in their tribal colourful robes and women with their babies. No room for us.

We found a railway official and he ushered us back on to the train and then opened the door of a completely full and crowded compartment.

He uttered something in Arabic and very reluctantly the already jammed together occupants made a small space for Irmgard and myself.

After he left they all glowered at us. We were not welcome and terribly outnumbered.

Then I remembered the cologne. I got up and went around to each person gesturing to them to cup their hands and I poured in a generous amount of good smelling liquid.

Slowly smiles began to break out and we were transformed from being their avowed enemies into their very best and long lost friends.

God bless the Mormons and the amazing miracle working effects of cheap cologne.

Yes we did have our cannister of drinking water. There was water on the train. It was a very brown variety and only the Lord knows how many microbes and bacteria was in there.

We had to wait an indeterminably long time before the train took off. It was incredibly hot and sweat was teeming down our faces and our light clothes were already drenched.

Thank God for our drinking water obtained from the Oberoi five star Hotel the evening before. We had to drink so much that the five liters would soon be used up.

At last the train slowly and very deliberately began to move only to stop abruptly for another five minutes.

We found out that someone had fallen of the roof. He or she had to be helped back up again and then we really started to move.

I thankfully had a window seat sitting opposite to Irmgard who also could look out..

Sure enough the train from time to time would pass over sand covered lines and buckets of sand would come rushing into the compartment through the open iron barred windows like a dark cloud until it all settled again.

Our cotton scarves did the trick and filtered out all the minute particles of dust. The Mormons had shown us exactly how to wear them on such an occasion.


Photo album wins the day.


We all sat watching each other and then I got out my pocket photo album and passed it around.

It was full of shots from Brazil and we used it for provisioning material for the school in Guararema from where we had started out 2 months before. This was passed around and became heavily thumbed by all. One picture is worth a 1000 words and that too came in very useful.

Looking out on to the endless desert was also very interesting. There were many small pyramids dotted around and so many dust devils.

These are miniature tornadoes and dance around always missing our quite fast moving train. I say fast, maybe about 30 to 50 miles an hour?

We lost so much body water and then our drinking water ran out. We had about two hours before the train arrived in Atbara. Here we had to change trains.

Our train went on to Khartoum where as we needed a train to Port Sudan. We had 3 hours to wait at Atbara so the Lord gave me the idea to go to the local hospital. The signs were still in English and Arabic a reminder of the old colonial days under British domination.

We were dehydrated to say the least but dare not drink the water from the toilet tap.

The Incredible Journey Stage 17.
Bath with all our clothes on!


We went in the front entrance of a large building and asked at the reception if there was an English speaking doctor.

Actually all the educated class spoke English and the less educated a good smattering.

We were ushered into an office and there was God's man for us. He was very charming and listened intently to our crazy story.

Our first need was drink. He immediately ordered the local equivalent of a sort of Lemon Fanta. About 12 small bottles arrived and we literally drank them down in front of him.

He asked us lots of questions and we told him we were on the way to India.
“What else do you want?” He exclaimed. I replied, “A bath would be awesome”.

He lead us down some stairs into the basement where there were lots of old fashioned baths with cubicles around them. We thanked him profusely and proceeded to fill two baths to the brim with cold water. It wasn't really cold but it came out of the cold tap.

Soap was provided, that kind of brown block stuff and we jumped in with all our clothes on. Now remember it was blistering hot. We took our clothes off in the bath and washed ourselves and the clothes all at once so to speak.

We put the soaking wet clothes back on again and within a few minutes of walking outside we were as dry as a biscuit.

We found out later that there had been no rain for about three years.

We certainly did not have to dry ourselves as in 10 minutes of walking outside we were all as dry as a biscuit.

Overnight train to Port Sudan.

We waited for our train and this time it was not packed out to the brim and so we spent a comfortable night sitting up straight in our compartment. The next morning we pulled into Port Sudan.

This city is placed almost exactly half way down the Red Sea and pretty much directly opposite to Saudi Arabia's famous city of Mecca.

We soon realized that Port Sudan was the end and there was no way to go except two options. God would have to part the Red Sea so to speak as he had done for Moses 3000 years ago or we would have to head back to Cairo with our tails between our legs and to try again.

We walked through the city full of Arabs and Sudanese in their robes and turbans. Many stalls rather than shops and then we found a Church. It must have been Eastern Orthodox as the priest had a beard and usual high black top hat. He spoke English and French so I was able to tell him everything.

He was sympathetic and I think quite lonely. It must have been tough as he was surrounded by Muslims who definitely had the upper hand. He and we had to tread carefully.


Bedroom without a ceiling with many many rats travelling around on top of the wall at night.


He gave us a room without a ceiling that joined on to the church and his residence. The beds were comfortable and so we slept without mosquito netting as I do not remember mosquitoes.

There were no puddles for them to breed only salt water. No river or ponds. However as soon as the surrounding lights went out many, and I mean many rats would use the top of this wall as a highway.

One could watch them and there was no way down unless they fell which thankfully they didn't. Their continual little chattering squeaks were quite loud. I did not wake Irmgard as she would have freaked out but that little detail remains very clear after 24 years.

The Priest also gave us an adjoining room with a huge electric fan hanging from the ceiling. This was a great place to hide out between 11 o'clock to 3 o'clock avoiding the midday heat and raging sun which made any kind of work almost impossible during those hours.

Early mornings say from 7.30 to 11 and then 4 to 10 were are imposed working hours.

Port Sudan is a busy Port.


We found out that there were many ships using this port and they would come in and unload their cargo and then leave.

I boarded many ships that were heading East but without any luck. One day I had run out of ships to visit and there was a shipping agent for the Pacific International Lines. PIL.

They were a Chinese owned company based in Singapore. The shipping clerk was a Protestant Christian and that should have been a help.

He was rather like the Doubtlets of Santos Brazil. He spoke so much doubt to us telling us what was probably quite true. He said that in his memory no one had caught a hitch hike on a vessel. It was just unheard of. Eventually I asked if I could word the telex myself and so he allowed me to write out my own petition to these Chinese directors in Singapore, pleading for their help. I wrote it with lots of prayer of course!

Irmgard not feeling well. Something is wrong!

Now we had a new problem. Irmgard was telling me that she had a stomach problem and that it had started way back in Yugoslavia but was getting worse.

That evening we found some very nice Muslim doctors and they agreed to take Irmgard to their clinic the next day for a check up. Naturally I and she were both pretty worried and were continually committing this problem to the Lord in Prayer.

We arrived next morning early and they took us both off in a Jeep to where the clinic was. What we saw really broke our hearts.

Water in terribly short supply.

Water was in such short supply that people would queue up for hours in line waiting for it to be turned on and then fill up everything that they could find and take it home.

People were there with their camels waiting patiently. Remember I told you no rain for three years so the water table was at an all time low.

Irmgard disappeared and then came back smiling. Her sickness was that she was one or two months pregnant with our oldest and first of seven children Mikey.

The Incredible Journey Stage 18.

That was such a relief and very good news. Not only were we on the way to India but on the way to being a Father and a Mother.

Remember she had been barren all her adult life.

Every day I would go out and meet new ships and their astonished Captains and every day I would be back with no really good news.

We found the old English club which was now mainly frequented by Russians left over from the Hydro electric project.

We went there a couple of times. There was a very inviting swimming pool and the idea was to cool off in this atrociously hot weather.

We only tried it once. The water was hot from the beating sun and the water was salty. It was a no go club but we did meet a very amusing English guy who had married a Sudanese Christian lady. He told amazing jokes. We needed to hear them as now the future was not looking so brilliant.

It was very tempting to give up especially over the next event that I am now going to describe.

Intentions of the Orthodox priest in doubt.

I noticed that the Orthodox Priest was seemingly taking more than a friendly interest in my wife.

Being pregnant, I was leaving her behind as the heat was really unbearable. Irmgard was not worried and felt well able to cope. However this time as I left, the Priest bolted the big entrance door behind me. I do not remember him doing that before. I got a very big check about this and after a few moments I returned and started banging very loudly on the door. Nothing happened so I started to make a noise that drew a crowd and they all started shouting with me. Eventually he opened the door and Irmgard had a look of great relief on her face. I need to add that there was an old lady housekeeper there and so it was probably imagination on our parts too.


The last straw.

However this was the last straw and we retired to the room with the fan and we both began to weep and cry out to the Lord.

This was now probably the lowest moment of our trip. The Red Sea was not parting. Try as we may to wave our magic wand like Moses waved his stick over the waters to part them, they refused to part.

Even though we had made it so far, a miss is as good as a mile. In this intense heat and now the news of parenthood we or rather I was beginning to waver.

My spiritual strength was running out. Not for a lack of supply as that is always there but more from being not able to appropriate it and put this amazing powerful energy to good use.

Saint Paul's letter to the Hebrews in Chapter 11 verse 6 states very clearly that without faith it is impossible to please God.

However this story is not just about our crazy faith but also about something even more wonderful and that is the Grace and Mercy of our God.

When we or rather I failed He would mercifully step in.

The Red Sea Pars at last!


I do not suppose we had been in our darkened room with the fan full on for more than 15 minutes when something amazing happened.

From time to time we sprayed water over ourselves, which in the strong under draft, felt so nice and cool as it evaporated quickly from our bodies and clothes.

Suddenly there was a faint and rather timid knock on the door. I thought “Please Lord not the Priest again!”

Now try and get a hold of what is about to happen. Days of disappointments, bordering on despair!. Getting no where! An evil voice always there in the background telling us how stupid we were and how it was time to pack it in and be just normal like everyone else.

We had the money to extricate ourselves and go back to Cairo and even then fly to our destination.

Of course that seemed the sensible way out and I was definitely toying with the idea.

I opened the door and there standing in front of me was the office boy from the Pacific International Lines and he was beaming with smiles.

He beckoned for me to follow him back to the office.

Even though it was unbearably hot I ran and did not even worry about the Priest this time and there in front of me as we entered the PIL offices was my unbelieving Christian Clerk also smiling and waiving a telex from PIL Headquarters.

They agreed to take us to Singapore, slightly over shooting our objective of India in one of their cargo vessels that was already docked in the port for 60 US$ each.

It was really a token payment as we would be 10 days in luxury living and moving, travelling at 5$ a day plus board and lodging.

We would have a special cabin designed for passengers with our own bathroom and toilet etc. It was too good to be true.


Dancing with the Priest!

We hurried on back and danced with the Priest who was also happy and I think he gave us a really good meal cooked by his old housekeeper.

The next morning we boarded the Kota something. Sorry but I have forgotten the name. The officers were mainly Pakistanis but the 1st mate was a Hindu Brahmin from India.

The Brahmins are a priestly cast and usually rich and well educated. Vinod was no exception.....

The Incredible Journey. Stage 19. Almost the end
Too Good to be True.

You know, I wasn't absolutely sure that everything was going to work out.

I was half expecting a last minute hitch. They had happened frequently enough. The authorities in the Port thought that we were really mad and I was half expecting them to triumphantly produce some Trump Card of Objection to stop us.

As far as I know no one and I mean no one had ever hitched a lift from Port Sudan anywhere ever at any time. So this was a first!! And quite probably the last!!

The ship headed out of the Port into the Red Sea and the Pilot disembarked.

Then and only then were we able to pinch ourselves and realize that our dream had become true. T

here was a little disturbing news that some floating mines had been spotted in the sea.

They were some relic from a previous conflict in this disturbed part of the world so extra lookouts were posted.

I think that the Spiritual forces who were guiding us still wanted us to trust them.

Life at its best is always uncertain and extraordinary things do happen in quite ordinary moments so we had to keep on our spiritual toes so to speak.

Keeping our guard up with daily devotions.

We did not relax but kept up our daily devotions and engaged in friendly chats with the mainly Muslim Crew about our and their faith.

They had to admit that if our story was true and they had no reason to believe that we were making it up, there was some pretty strong evidence of our very powerful DIVINE HAND helping us in an amazing way.


Sumptuous Indian food.

I do not know about you, but Indian cooking is my favourite and the curries and chicken Tikkas and Marsalas and Chapatis and Nan breads were sumptuous and in the evenings after dinner we played games like chess and some fun parlour games that I had learned in the Navy.

Table tennis was also a favourite and Pakistanis generally have a great eye for a ball, boasting very famous World Class Squash Players and Cricketers.

All the Officers became our friends but particularly Vinod who had a favourite Aunt and Uncle in down town Bombay. He was very open to our Christian Faith and was always asking questions and we would give him answers from our pocket New Testaments which we carried at all times together with a handful of Pandita Ramabai tracts.

Well we thankfully missed all the floating mines and sailed into the Gulf of Aden heading South East into the Indian Ocean.

Fresh fish off the south tip of Sri Lanka.

We then bent left around the Southern tip of Sri Lanka and headed up toward Indonesia and Malaysia.

We would only make one stop and that was off the coast of Sri Lanka when we purchased very fresh fish from a small Senegalese fishing boat. It would have been nice if we could jump off and then make our way to India but we had to be content to keep going overshooting to Singapore.


Singapore soon a reality.


Soon we would be showing our Passports to the Singapore authorities and would have to explain to them what we were doing and where we were going.

We were such unusual tourists that the Captain was wondering whether they would receive us into their well policed and guarded and run city and country of Singapore.

We had no return tickets which would be normal for tourists. We did have nearly 3000 US$ as security but he was worried.

Pass close to Indonesia and could view the Sumatran coastline.


We got our first view of the Island of Sumatra as we entered the Singapore Straits. This was the furthest East that I had ever been. I was born in India in the state of Utra Pradesh in a city called Secunderabad to British parents.

My father was an Indian army Major at the time and the year was 1938. Dad had to go off and fight while my My mother and I had stayed in India until after the war and so I was returning to a country that I had left at the age of 6/7 and now trying to return there 40 years later.

The morning came when we moored outside in the anchorage. The Customs and Immigration officers came on board to inspect the ship's documents and of course our passports issued in Cairo a month before.

They were very amused and helpful and not a bit suspicious after we told them our story. We were able to show them 3000 or so US$ which was what we had accrued in nearly three months of travel. Not bad when one thinks we started out with about 200 DM or 100$.

We had travelled 13000 miles or 21000 kilometres, slightly more than half way around the world

Then a very loving and welcome touch from Vinod. He pressed an envelope into my hand returning the 120US$ of our fare.

That brought tears to my eyes and he also gave us the address of his uncle and aunt in Bombay and said they would put us up for a few days and he would warn and write to them.

God bless him he was very special for us. The launch taking us ashore arrived and we waived good bye to all the officers and some of the crew that had become our friends on a voyage that we or they would never forget.

Where to spend the night?


Once on shore our immediate need was to find a Hotel for the night. We hitched quite easily into the centre of this extraordinarily modern city.

There were sounds of patriotic songs and very modern shops and traffic control.

It was like a super city and very striking after Cairo and Asswan and Wadi Halfa and Port Sudan that were all quite primitive by comparison.

Our lift dropped us outside one of the most famous Singapore 5 star Hotels called the Mandarin.

I think everybody who has ever been to Singapore will have heard of this very impressive hotel. Well we marched in with our 2 faithful old travel bags, swinging from our shoulders and asked the duty manager if we could speak to the Boss.

He was amused and asked us why and that any way the Managing Director was very rarely available.

It was the evening about 5 to 6 pm. Well we played all our cards before this young guy and were amazed to see that he did not even flinch but winked instead and gave us our key to a double room with strict instructions not to drink the Alcohol that was stacked in the fridge.

He asked us to be out by 10 the next morning as otherwise he might get into trouble and we could help ourselves to the Buffet breakfast at any time after 6 am.

The Lord did it again!

That was luxury if there ever was. Rags to riches. As a missionary we have experienced this so often and the key seems to be thankfulness, no matter what.

Now quite ridiculously I was beginning to worry about our heavy luggage that should be waiting for us in Bombay in some warehouse.

Now Irmgard and I had survived very comfortably on 2 bags of clothing and personal possessions each for three months.

We had lacked nothing and yet I was concerned about these heavy baggage which for the life of me I could not even remember what they contained.

Religious books and????Oh yes! The donated Di Georgio Guitar. For ridiculous reasons this seemed to loom large in my eyes and the urge to go quickly to pick them up was becoming paramount.

Incredible Journey completed Stage 20.


We found out that there was a passenger ferry liner that plied between Singapore and Calcutta called the Chitundrum. It was very cheap and maybe we would get it for free but we would have to wait 3 weeks for it.

This vessel had also caught fire and had been refitted. The passengers who mainly slept on deck in terrible conditions would dangerously cook their meals on little stoves on the wooden deck often with disastrous results like the ferry on lake Nasser and now this one.

The second night we did not push our luck by trying the Mandarin again but settled for the 4 star Phoenix which was also donated to us and we were very thankful.

We continued to look for faster opportunities of crossing the Indian Ocean in reverse so to speak but were not successful.

Spiritual tiredness.


I have to admit that for me the adventure was pretty much over and I wanted to reach India as soon as possible.

Maybe I was going to make another big mistake. That last afternoon I dropped into a travel agency that were offering very cheap flights to Colombo and then change flight to Trivanderum in Southern India

For about 50 $ each we purchased our air tickets to India. As I look back I feel sure that we could have continued and done quite well in Singapore but it was not the objective. India was, on the other hand and lets remember there was those millions of dollars worth of personal possessions rotting away on the quayside at Bombay waiting to be stolen.

As you can tell as I try to recapture the moment of 24 years ago, my faith was running out. I was drying up.

Irmgard my faithful wife and always willing follower like Sancho Panza too was getting tired. The tension of this actually really good fun and exciting life was beginning to pale.

We missed our family of missionaries with whom we had had no contact for three months and so we boarded our plane to Colombo after getting one more free night's stay in the YMCA. So from 5 star, 4 star and then the YMCA was hardly a spiritual progression but more like a retreat.

A final touch from a merciful Lord

There is one last little touch of a reward from Jesus and the spiritual world that I would like mention as a way of finishing up this story.

We arrived in Trivanderum airport terminal in Southern India after spending a night in Colombo with someone we met witnessing and I was feeling a bit lost and looked around shooting up our usual arrow chat prayers to Jesus and spotted someone who turned out to be a Catholic Christian.

He took us home and put us up for the night before catching our train to Bombay. He gave us a really nice meal and like I explained we always had wine for meals. That had been the promise in Isaiah chapter 55 verse 1. Do you remember?

Well now that we were in India I was prepared to let the Lord off the hook and I would quite understand if there was no more wine after meals.

We finished our meal and our host suddenly asked if we would like to try out some of his home made wine?

Yes! We did stay a few days with Vinod's Uncle and Aunt and guess what? That extremely valuable and important heavy luggage did not arrive for another four weeks. We were also able to hand in nearly 3000 US$ to our very grateful Missionary organisation.

I would like to thank you for coming with me on this Incredible Journey but let us all remember we are all on an incredible journey.

Whether you choose to travel with or without that powerful DIVINE HAND, that proved Himself time and time again, or not, depends entirely on your own personal choice...the journey will end for all of us sooner or later......think about it!!!!!!

It is a most important consideration.

THE END or to be continued?

SECTION 15. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Part 171.
Bombay at last.
Objective achieved.
It was now end of July 1984. From Trivanderum where we met Joseph and his family with the miracle wine at the last moment, we took a 3rd class ticket to Bombay.
The train was crowded and we were the only whites on the train and an object of much curiosity.
Apart from the smell and the dirty toilets we had an uneventful journey.
We had no idea where the Indian contingent of the COG family was.
We had one telephone number. We stayed for two nights at Vinod's, remember Vinod was the Hindu Brahmin 2nd Officer on the PIL ship to Singapore, Uncle and Aunt's place.
We soon found out that the valuable and all-important baggage had not yet arrived and it would not do so for a few more weeks so we could have finished our trip with flying colours rather than losing faith.
We were relieved to have made it and soon we were living in an outskirt of Bombay called Char Bungalow with an American and his German wife Heidi and their three children all members of the Love in Action COG.
We were able to hand in our valuable funds of around 3000$ and were able to post all our letters off for free by befriending the Manager of the 5 star Oberoi Hotel.
On Oct 31st while at a COG retreat in Khandala a small town half way between Bombay and Poonah or Pune we heard of the shooting of Indira Ghandi the Indian Prime Minister.
4 months earlier she had ordered the assault on the Golden Temple, a sacred shrine for the Sikhs and two of her own personal bodyguards also Sikhs shot her in revenge and she died in hospital shortly after.
The Sikhs are a warrior class neither Hindu nor Moslem but a kind of a mixture. They come from the Punjab in more northerly India and were some of the very best soldiers in the British Indian Army Regiments.
My dad had a very high regard for them.
This reminds me of a hitch hiking adventure in Bombay when a very well educated Indian about 70 to 80 years old gave us a lift. He was also a Punjabi. I started to talk to him about my dad and he stopped the car and exclaimed to me and with my wife listening, "You must be Rodney King's son." It was quite an amazing coincidence to meet someone who knew my dad and my uncle Mike.
He was a member of the Bombay Yacht Club a typical relic of the British Raj (Rule). The Indians were very good at carrying on all the traditions started by the Brits. The Army Regiments still had the same names as during the British rule time of 30 to 40 years before.
He took us out for a good meal. My Dad had died in 1980 at the age of 81 and it was good to find someone who spoke very highly of him and my uncle Mike.
It was a trying time as there were violent repercussions because of Indira Ghandi's murder and the COG kept a low profile until all the rioting had stopped.
The Lord took very great care of us and we did not see anything first hand to distress us.
Part 172.
COG India.
The COG were highly organised and had opened many homes in most of the Major cities, Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore, Madras, Calcutta, Poona and many others including in Portuguese speaking Goa where they ministered to the many dopers and Hippies that lived on the beach. I was considerably older than most of The COG Family or Love in Action.
The reason we were able to do as well as we did, had I believe a lot to do with that amazing American drive and the fact that most US and European members were children of the better off.
We won disciples from the upper class families in India. Between 1984 and 1990 Love in Action thrived. We had made friends in High Places through befriending the Rich and Powerful. We had surprisingly little resistance from the Right Wing Hindus.
English is still one of the popular languages for the upper class educated Indians. I would like to mention here a very special and loyal friend we met in our first year or so in Bombay.
I was working at the COG school for the children of the group. At weekends Joanna and I and our small son Mikey who would be carried in a Papoose would hitch rides from Khandala that was about half way from Bombay to Poona to the big city of Bombay. Our object was to raise funds from distribution of our cassettes and videos to help run the school; God helped us to be pretty good at it.
We really enjoyed this, as it was our forte. It was our gift from the Lord and we have used it and are using it and teaching it to others to this day. Many times we would stay at the Salvation Army Hostel and it was there we met Greg Gardner.
He was a Pro-life doctor and was attracted to our evangelical zeal. I remember he gave us a huge donation of 100 Pounds sterling. In India, that went a long way. God bless him! We are still in very good touch with him.
God bless you Gregory Gardner who with his wife Grace and three children, Joel, Paul and Rachel live and practice medicine in Birmingham England. Greg is on the forefront of the battle of Britain against child murder with its so-called respectable name Abortion.
Part 173.
3 and a half years in Bombay
Joanna and I spent 3 and half years in Bombay and then three years in Delhi. We were in many different homes with different shepherds. Without exception we were always with extremely dedicated, no nonsense kind of people, who did their jobs very faithfully.
I cannot remember ever being treated unfairly or without a great deal of love and consideration. We were a family and an army all in one.
I did not see any abuses or even heard of any abuses as are so often described by those who are former members turned enemies. No one was ever corrected in Public but was at a later time taken on one side and very gently dealt with. We had a very good and very scriptural slogan. "When you realise what a hopeless case you are yourself then you will be merciful and understanding when dealing with others."
This was the rule and it worked very well. People handling was their speciality. I need to learn from them even now by remembering how I was dealt with.
Part 174.
Mum gets Hep
On a faith trip Joanna caught Hepatitis that the doctors wrongly diagnosed as Malaria.
The pills they gave harmed the damaged liver even more. We were quarantined to an empty Ashram belonging to a friend of the family.
An Ashram is a Hindu holy retreat house in the country. Mikey our first son was born and by now he was about 3 and Angela was one.
For about two months we lived there. It was actually a very blessed time. The Lord gave us the following verse because at one stage it looked very serious. Diet was the all important factor and we found a very charming Lady Doctor who gave us very good advice.

Jeremiah Ch 30 v17 For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.
This was a particularly apt verse because with Hepatitis it is a wounding of the Kidney. God is so good!

Part 175
Reaching the top
Like I already said the Family specialised in reaching the very top echelon of Indian society for Jesus. They were able to do this because most of us were from the upper and more well educated classes of the USA and Europe. Also as the movement had started in the USA The leadership were nearly all Americans and had that special drive that Americans are famous for. The top even included the Ghandi family and all the major business families of India.
They all heard about Jesus Christ from our members who frequented all the places where these men and women would hang out. It was truly very impressive and well thought out organisation, run like a well-oiled Christian business with many meetings in prayer and council. I played a small part in it, especially in the evangelism element.
Every day we would go out witnessing for four to five hours. This was on top of a very rigorous schedule in the home before we left. We got up with army regularity and appeared for Devotions at about 6.30. There would be a time of singing KJV (King James Version) Psalms to catchy modern tunes.
I still use these songs to this day. They are excellent and we sing many during the English Mass every Sunday in the city of Kosice where we are living now.
We would then read the Bible and some Good inspirational material taken mostly from the Bible. It is true to say that whereas at the beginning we only had our 3 by 5 KJV Pocket Bibles now we were reading the Bible studies of Mo the leader founder.
12 Volumes covering every practical application that one could imagine. Mostly pretty good common sense. Some as I have already mentioned quite off track.
Part 176.
Visiting and witnessing in the ships in Bombay harbour.
Being a former Naval Officer I really liked going to the ships. The sea is kind of in my blood.
We would have to bluff our way through the dock gates which was pretty easy and once in we would board and witness to the officers and crew of so many different nationalities.
It was very fruitful, not only in souls prayed with to receive Jesus but they were very generous with donations of cash and tins of food and cheese and just about everything one could think of that would be useful.
The only ships that were impossible to get on were the Communist Chinese. Political guards who did not even allow the sailors to go ashore heavily shielded them from foreigners.
I remember we visited a South Korean ship and were encouraged to find that the Captain and the Ships 1st Mate were Christians and held a Bible study on board.
The ship often came in and we were there to meet it and one time our friend the 1st Mate was complaining of an appendicitis. We laid hands on him and prayed for him and he went ashore for the operation only to return the next day with a total healing.
He was very thankful for our prayers, and he knew that Jesus had stepped in and healed him.
The summer sunshine was so hot that we would have to continually pop in to the local Five Star very Luxurious Hotels just to cool off as they were super cooled by air conditioning.
We made friends with the Food and Beverage managers and the basement Housekeeping departments. Many times they would get rid of their bedding and curtains, carpets and even furniture and we of course would come along with our van and gratefully take them off their hands.
Most of this stuff was still in very good condition. We got towels and many times quite valuable Lost and Found articles which ranged from Shampoos, Electric shavers and toiletry articles.
We would donate a Kiddy Viddy or music cassette and made many lasting friends among these precious people.

Hitch Hiking around town was also a very good way of getting around. We became so well known that we often got lifts from the same people over and over again. Every now and then the police would try to get tough on us for maybe some right wing Hindu was complaining.
On one such occasion they knocked at the front door of our residence and then we were all out of the fire escape. We had our flee bags always prepared and packed just so we could move at moments notice.
RK was a very old and famous News Paper reporter of one of the main Indian Dailies and would go to bat for us when we were in trouble and help to diffuse the situation for some minor visa infringement.

Part 177.
Russian dream.
As we travelled to India you may remember that we received a burden to go to Iron Curtain Countries.
We almost made a Russian connection in Genoa to travel on a Russian vessel. Then as confirmation that we were meant to go to India first as we were in a little doubt, the Tug Boat that pulled us into Genoa Harbour was called "INDIA" We were on the bridge and the name India was repeated so many times on the intercom between the captain and the tug.
We took that as a definite sign to go to India first. While back to our usual method of transport in Bombay, which was hitch hiking we ran into many Russians.
They mostly spoke English. It was the Gorbachov era. There was a loosening up in the hard line attitude of the Communists. We were able to make lose friends with some of these mainly junior diplomats.
Part 178.
New Delhi

From Bombay we moved to a leadership home in New Delhi. My main job was witnessing and raising funds and provisions for our Delhi Home.
We had a very nice 3 story house with a flat roof walled in for safety, in a rich residential area of town. As a landmark we were close to the Archinar Cinema.
The Indians are crazy about Movies. I love Movies too. I have a very soft spot for all people in entertainment. I really admire top actors and actresses. I pray for them and I believe God loves then specially because they use the talents He has bestowed on them even with all their hang-ups.
They make people happy. They take you into another world. Entertainment really has its place in our lives. As the Preacher says in the book of Ecclesiastes, There is a time for everything under the Sun!!! Our House was built for about 7 to 10 people. Indian families usually lived together in larger groups than their European counterparts. We however crammed in 40 to 50.
More than half were our children. We divided the kids into different age groups and home schooled them with the same Home school programme that I use today. ESP Super Workbooks from Florida.
Life was a daily miracle of the Lord providing the rent and the food for such a large group. Once a week we would put on an evangelical skit called the box skit in the poor area of Delhi called Paragange where many of the Western Travellers would congregate.
These consisted of Dope smoking Hippies and many just looking for a spiritual experience in Hinduism having failed to find anything in the affluent West.
We would scout the area for half an hour before the meeting and then pack those we had persuaded to come in to this rather squashed little den. Guitar Music and meaningful songs would then be sung culminating in the theatrical box skit. This was pure Pantomime accompanied by dramatic drums and guitar.
The sketch starts out with a businessman raking in his millions of dollars and then not finding real satisfaction.
He then turned to Drugs and then to Eastern Religion and finally got turned on by the Love of Jesus Christ.
While imprisoned by the various worldly so called benefits he would try to break out of his ever diminishing box prison and then one of the sisters would approach him and explain the love of Jesus to him.
This could be with a song. We had very good meaningful songs of liberation through Jesus. If only we Catholics would copy some of these more excellent methods of evangelism.
In our self-righteousness we tend to throw out everything if the doctrine is just not absolutely right.
Part 179.
1991 We are asked to leave.
A Tamil Tiger suicide bomber had just blown up Rajiv Ghandi. The COG leadership were nervous. The repercussions could be huge. I was considered too much of a security risk with my rather too free way of witnessing.
They felt it was time to only keep a Gideon's band in India. We were allowed to become a kind of a third order called "supporters".
My wife was devastated as the family was all she knew. I was on the other hand challenged and was looking forward to starting our own little team with our vision to go to Russia.
I had in a way outgrown the family and was not able to use my talents to the full. I was also becoming disillusioned with their views on sexual sharing.
It was always a trial for me being a one woman man but the sacrifice, and it was a sacrifice did not seem to be quite right.
No one was officially registered as a Christian Missionary. We just kind of bluffed our way through. For me it was my birth in India that helped us to get our Visa renewal every year.
The Policeman in charge of us was a Mr Deo. He was a Hindu and we realised that as we went to Pune to renew every year, we were literally throwing ourselves into the hands of God.
Deo was a very apt name being the Latin for God. We had a home in Delhi where I lived with many of the leaders. By now they were Indians and had been well trained in their jobs.
When we returned home after witnessing we would change Rickshaw Taxis to leave no trail if we were being followed. We were very conscious of our security. We tried as much as possible to keep a low profile, as the authorities were sometimes hostile.
I loved to witness, and I really loved the Indians. After all, I was born there and felt at home. I very much liked Indian cooking. It is the best in the world in my opinion. At times my zeal got the better of me.
Many considered me too much of a security risk. We were very fruitful and won many friends and even disciples. I was a very wholehearted witness and was sometimes careless about all the rules on security.
My antics never resulted in any problems with the authorities but brought concern to those in charge and in those monitoring my exploits. As Rajiv was blown up, there was a chance of a huge and violent backlash.
It never came but it might have and with the background of this looming rather bad situation, it was decided that Michael King should leave and his mate Joanna and three kids. By now we had three children. Mikey aged 6, Angela 4, and Jasmine 2. We had a little emergency money saved up and were able to purchase our airfare to Frankfurt.
Part 180.
Clobber the Robber
Just before we got our marching orders to leave I'd like to tell you an amusing and rather bizarre story about what happened in the middle of the night in our Delhi Community.
At over 50 I was beginning to suffer from a slightly enlarged prostate. I would have to get up in the middle of the night to urinate. Joanna and I were sleeping in a dormitory of children as their night guardians.
I entered the bathroom toilet and noticed that the window was open. We were on the third floor. Then I noticed that behind the slightly opaque translucent shower curtain a very black form of a man.
I shouted out to Joanna that there was a burglar in the bathroom. Burglar was not a word she knew. Robber would have been better. To her it sounded like some kind of a large cockroach.
Anyway she got up and joined me and that moment the intruder charged out brandishing a metal squeezie mop held above his head. I grabbed his arm and he grabbed my hair. Joanna screamed loud and backed by mistake onto the light switch plunging us into total darkness. This was no help as one can well imagine.
I had rubbed my elbow on a screw that stuck out and was bleeding profusely but hanging on for grim life with my opponent. Thank the Lord! Canadian Chris who is about 6 foot 2 and very athletic looking arrived.
My half naked opponent fell to his knees and begged for mercy. I was rushed off to have my wound attended to and the intruder was forgiven and asked Jesus into his heart. We got him to return by the way he had come up and were amazed to see how absolutely monkey like he was.
He went up and down to entertain us and then disappeared thankfully into the darkness never to appear again. I was a little sad that before throwing us out they the leaders should have maybe recognised that the Lord had used me to prevent a very unpleasant happening of having an intruder making his way around our house full of children.
One can only imagine what would have happened if one of the children had woken up and screamed????? But it was like all the other mishaps and defeats in my life, The Hand of God.
Part 181.
Assassination of the two Ghandies
When I arrived in 1984 Indira Ghandi was assassinated. Just before I was asked to leave the COG, in 1991 Rajiv Ghandi was assassinated. I was never in a position of authority. This was discouraging as I was older but I am also a hot head and as such would be disqualified from any kind of Christian leadership.
Getting my own spirit under control has always been a terrible weakness to this day and I will explain more about that later. It never was a problem in the Military or at school as we were all held in check by the same discipline controlled by fear and a very deep respect.
Let me explain. There was a structure to be obeyed. One was very rarely frustrated and certain standards were expected from warriors and students so there was not much room to lose ones temper with a senior officer as that would result in a court martial and very severe discipline.
In the COG there was a real attempt to get people to respond only to love and I mean real love. But without the help of the Communion of Saints and the help of the Angels and Archangels and more especially our Blessed Mother the Virgin Mary and then the promise of Jesus that He would personally be responsible for the building of His Church, the COG would soon be out of its depth.
Part 182.
Smart thing to do. Join the Catholic Church!
The smart thing to do would have been to move over to the Catholic Church and give up the wrong things and continue to try and put into practice the many right things. This is in fact what we in the Red Letter Family are trying to do at this moment.
After leaving the COG in 1991 for the next three years our family, which was now operating in Ukraine, kept in close contact with the COG. However under the leadership of Mo's Mistress Maria and her boy friend Peter Amsterdam the family started to change in my opinion much for the worse.
It was now operating a long way from that original blind and crazy faith of the 1970s. I also broke away entirely from them in 1995 shortly after the death of Mo.
One young Ukrainian, Timothy, one of the first to join our team defected to the COG. The second generation of revolutionaries lacked the fervour of the original bunch that I met in 1971 and 2. The children were a problem.
There was no real structure to handle them and fit them in or back into society or the System as we called it.
We naively believed that the children would just follow suit, but the majority didn't. We had no real provision for this and frankly neither did I when my kids started to grow up.
I just hoped for the best and that Jesus would understand and do something very special for my children in spite of my not really sitting down and counting the cost.
Actually when one lives by faith it is very hard to see ahead. It's a one day at a time existence. I love it that way.
There is a kind of blind abandonment into the arms of Jesus. It seems dangerous and quite crazy and yet it is the safest place to be.
God really honours this attitude. As long as you keep witnessing you will always win in the end.
You know the main problem was that Jesus had been and was already building His Church for the last 2000 years on Peter and here we were trying to build a church or community without the blue print of the Master.

Matthew Ch 16 verses 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

The emphasis in the above passage is that Jesus says that He will do it, He will give the keys, it is all about HE, and HIM and not about the efforts about weak frail mortal man. We only had half of the Master's plan.

Part 183
COG becomes top heavy
End of the world does not come
Bureaucracy set in and that crazy faith was beginning to get squashed by those now wielding the power.
There was also a great sense of betrayal because Mo had pretty much promised us that we were living on the brink of the end of the world and the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ.
No real dates were set but most of us thought that Jesus would come before the year 1993 and then 1997 and then 2000.
When He didn't there was a mass exodus of disillusioned souls. Very few that I know of when they left the family tried to do anything more for Jesus. When one reads the comments on the Internet, the anti COG lobby have very little to say in thanks.
It is just a barrage of complaints and no one seems thankful for the very many wonderful lessons that we learned.
SECTION 16. BACK TO EUROPE. UKRAINE 9 YEARS, POLAND 4 YEARS AND NOW SLOVAKIA 3 YEARS.
Part 184.
Back in Germany and starting up our own show for Jesus.
The year is now 1991. We are jumping around back and forth a little but I hope you are having fun as I rack my brains and put together the adventures of Michael King, or maybe a more appropriate name would be the Mercy of Jesus Christ!!!
Joanna's parents agreed to put us up for 7 weeks. In that time we would have to organise ourselves and be off to the USSR or in their words to get a normal job.
We had an upper room in the old farmhouse. In India we had bought some cassettes of the Russian language and we did daily classes.
We also used an American Home School programme called ESP. Educational Services programme. We still use it to this day. We started the day with devotions then School in the morning and then out. We had no money, no contacts but we had the Lord and He seemed to love our blind faith. We hitch hiked everywhere. We took our guitar to the walking streets of Nuremberg.
We put up a notice saying we were Missionaries on our way to the Soviet Union. Slowly we would meet people. We spent no money only saved. We had no vehicle, no visa only Jesus and He was enough.
It looked crazy but the great God of the Universe really admires faith even from mislead Prots.
Not only did we hitch hike back and forth the 10 miles into Nurnberg every day but we had one really good meal out.
This we had to get for free. Once a week the Food and Beverage manager of the Maritime 5 star hotel gave us the most amazing lunch.
On the other days of the week we would try many of the other restaurants and snack places. Sadly our friend Edeltraud of 7 years previously, you may remember the lady who gave us 1500 $ equivalent, died of cancer.
We met a very nice little Free Church called The Christian Centre. They had their meetings in a café in the park. The Pastor Gotfried arranged for us very generous donations towards our dead line of 7 weeks.
We met representatives of a famous Baptist Minister Richard Wurmbrand who wrote his famous book "Tortured for Christ". They piled us up with Bibles and His books translated into Russian.
We met a friend of a friend, our long lasting supporter Michael Weisbecker who has faithfully supplied us with various old vehicles in good enough condition and cheap enough for us to afford.
We got our first 17-year-old Mercedes Diesel saloon and then managed to buy a bit of a lemon of a caravan from the gypsies.
Part 185.
A real story of love from Richard Wurmbrand.
During the strong Communist times, a Baptist Pastor was told to stop evangelising in Romania by the KGB equivalent.
He refused and then he was put in prison.
Then his wife took over his work and she too was imprisoned and died shortly afterwards.
All that was left of the family was a 12 year old son. This is what he did. On the first anniversary of the death of his mother he gathered some wild flowers and went to the prison where his mother had had been tortured to death.
By miracles he was able to wend his way into the office of the prison Commandant. The austere man had his feet up on the desk and the young boy entered presenting the flowers that he had picked for his dead mother but offered them to the Commandant to give to his wife.
He was dumb struck by such a Christian gesture and broke down and wept. Not long after he too was imprisoned and tortured along with the Pastor who was still alive.
The Pastor was now able to minister to his previous torturer as he in turn died in the Pastor's arms from the wounds inflicted by his tormentors.
Part 186.
Engelthal fellowship and 1st trip to Ukraine, the Soviet Union.
Engelthal House Charismatic fellowship, a mixture of Catholic and Protestant Charasmatics, have faithfully supported us for the last 16 years.
They meet every Friday. We went with them to a tent mission run by a famous German Evangelist and God bless this man but he spent quite a long time telling us just how impossible it would be to go to the SU.
We would need a visa from Moscow and that could take anything up to year. Eventually we asked him just to pray for us as he sounded rather like those famous Doubtletts of Santos, Brazil.

Well eventually we set off. First we had to pick up the Russian Bibles and Wurmbrand books from the Boden See where there was a Wurmbrand centre in Germany.
We went slowly stopping in Camp grounds in Austria and then Hungary and eventually arrived at the border of Ukraine.
There were very few cars on the border. Hardly anyone was going to Ukraine. It was August 1991. The border guards were just not prepared to let us cross.
I was on my knees literally and then an officer smiled and told us to go back 100 kilometres to a Hungarian town called Debrecen and try from there.
Maybe I should point out here that God has given some of us this gift of what we call provisioning, or just crazy faith.
One has to be persistent and not easily take a NO for an answer. When people see that you are desperate, then they are far more likely to help you.
One has to be desperate for getting out the message of Christ. This desperation starts here. Then the Lord marvellously opens doors. When we talked to those Communist Border Guards we told them all about our mission for Christ. Whether they received it was not our problem. That is their problem.
Part 187
Some more thoughts on Crazy Faith!!!
Witnessing and Provisioning.
When you witness you always win!!!
Just some very recent examples to make this point clearer. My wife received a small inheritance recently and we are ploughing through it rather quickly. Too quickly for comfort. One of our three very old vehicles, a Personnel Transporter, needed special tyres for the winter slippery roads. There is a small efficient tyre place close by. They are not expensive but the out lay of money would have been over 400 $.
Our business manager Mark is excellent at doing his job but he is not a provisioner with crazy faith. With prayer support I decided to go off on my own to see what the Lord could do. At our normal place we received the normal reasonable quotation of a 100 $ a tyre.
Then I went to a very large firm in a Factory complex and they were even more expensive about 110 $ a tyre.
Across the road I noticed a battery shop. Our Transporter also needed a new battery. Needless to say, I was praying on my feet. This store was a very scruffy place and the words "Batteries," was covered in dirt and even hard to notice.
This place not only gave me a very good battery and a very good discount but the two workers, a Father and Son were very receptive to the Christian message.
They told me about a tyre firm that was unknown to any of us and it was tucked into an alley way, well off the beaten track. The owner just happened to be there and spoke good English. I showed him our Brochure book of pictures, which explains our work and this man started to take a great deal of interest. "For where you live up in the hills," he said, "You will need very aggressive tread on your tyres so I will give you these."
They were called King Star, a funny little coincidence as my name is King and our 5 older children are well on their way to becoming stars.
We will tell you about that later in the book. So Hang on!!! These tyres are made in Finland a country with harsh winters, so our wonderful Lord and Saviour knew exactly what He was doing. He gave them to us for 50$ a tyre.
This was well under half price. Of course I was overjoyed and proudly presented him with a DVD by Ray Guarendi called "Why Be Catholic?"
He is now a friend and a contact. Also by going into this area we have discovered a whole new witnessing ground for the winter. There are so many products manufactured here that could be useful to us including storages of frozen vegetables etc etc.
Another example is also very recent. An evening Newspaper that had already written a very good article about us two years ago now attacked us for abusing our children.
Twice a week when the weather conditions are good we sing with our children for about half an hour at a time, spread over 90 minutes with a break for ice cream in a local Café.
The kids really like it and are very good at it. At Christmas we sing Christmas Carols also giving concerts in the local Orphanages and a Crisis centre where we work once a week with about 10 to 15 children from the most unthinkably bad backgrounds.
The children also sing at the weekly English Mass on Sunday in the Chapel of St Michael next to the Elizabeth Cathedral in the centre of town. We have translated some simple Christian songs into Slovakian and when on the streets, they sing these at the top of their voices.
People who put their pennies into the box get a Holy Card and a Gospel message from Mother Angelica in Slovakian and another brochure that explains in a nutshell who and what we are, and what we do.
of the very anti Catholic Editors tried to make a good scandal even drawing in the Chief of Police. This editor is vehemently anti Christ and anti Religious.
It was quite a tough one for us. We had to go to the Chief of Police and witness to him. We realised without such an event this important man would never get witnessed to.
So what looked like a victory for the Devil turned out to be a resounding and decisive win for the Lord and we are singing still with Police permission and protection.
The Editor was humiliated in front of us by one of his more senior colleagues and as we left passing under the window of his office we could hear him swearing and cussing and shouting.
This job is not for the faint hearted but when one realises that the Great God of the Universe is egging one on, why should one feel afraid?
This has been a digression but is all a part of the story and objective of this Biography. Please try and remember a very important slogan, which says, "When you witness, you always win!"
I think Provisioning is just a fancy name for witnessing to unusual people for our requirements.
When we have needs and tell others about them, we put ourselves down and are then in a very good position to present our Lord to them.
One more incident which happened today was when a certain Head Forester had agreed to give us wood for our heating system at 4$ a cubic meter. When it was our turn to pay he upped the price to 12$ a cubic meter, exactly three times the agreed price.
We had to appear before the forestry commission and put our case politely but firmly. We were able to witness, as many of the commission were not Christian and we eventually paid a compromise of 5$ and were able to give everybody DVDs and Holy Cards and a good message from Mother Angelica translated into their own language.
These people would not have received a witness without this injustice so it goes to prove that "All, things work together for good to them that love the Lord and who are called according to his purposes." Romans Ch 8 verse 28. Also remember our slogan, "if you witness you always win."
Part 188.
Crossing the border into the SU
Having motored back to Debrecen and stayed the night in a camp ground, we found ourselves the next morning in a long line of mainly Gypsies waiting in front of the closed gates of the Soviet Union Consulate.
This could take all day. So we settled in for the long haul. After 5 minutes a face appeared at the upstairs window and shouted down to us in German.
We replied in English and before long we had a three-day visa to the country of our dreams. It was like getting the Camel's nose through the door. Back to the border and we crossed into Ukraine in the dark.
We had no idea where we were going. We motored in the direction of Uzhgorod. I was asking the Lord where to go and I had an inclination to turn right and then right again. We were in a football field in an outskirt, which we later found out was called Kinchass.
We stopped and waited in the dark for something to happen. A lone teenager walked by and we stopped him and in broken Russian and broken English we asked him if he would like to help us.
He jumped in with us and took us to a block of flats beyond Draftsay in a kind of military compound full of tanks, His Dad, who was an Army Sergeant, and his mother pushed the boat out for us and gave us such a great meal.
In this part of the world we found the people to be extremely hospitable. Even if they were very poor they would sacrifice everything just for a stranger.
This happened often to us and was a very rewarding experience for being in the Soviet Union. We slept in our caravan and the next morning went to the young man's school. We put on an impromptu concert and were received so well.
The boy was surnamed Mellihof and in the school we met the English Teacher Zoya Nicolaiva. We all became great friends and then the next day our last day we met the Director of the Pioneer Palace Mr Panov, who agreed to send away to Moscow immediately for a more permanent visa so that I could teach English.
Let me explain what the Pioneer Palace represented. In all S.U. countries they have a very well organised Youth movement similar to the Scouts only it was compulsory for all the youth and very political.
Panov wanted me to be a teacher of English there. Then we had the most amazing experience of giving out Bibles in the town centre. The people literally went crazy and as we gave them out we had to run backwards to avoid being crushed. There was such a hunger for the Word of God. Bibles were so scarce.
Part 189.
Winter in Germany waiting for our visa.
We took photos, not enough and now I have lost them.
We lived for a few months in a camp ground close to Joanna's parents.
Every day we did school and met lots more contacts like the US Army base Chaplains. My son Mike recited the whole of Psalm 91 for Chaplain Robinson and he was so impressed he donated 300 US$.
We lived off MREs short for Meals ready to Eat distributed to Army personnel. These were prepared left overs for those US servicemen fighting in the first Gulf war to liberate Kuwait from the Iraqies, which had been successfully completed a few months previously.
We sang concerts in their Church services and received donations and every day we went to the walking streets and sang and distributed a simple salvation tract from the local Baptist Church who donated thousands for free.
Part 190.
Christian centre Pastor has mercy and visits us
One day before the winter really set in Gotfried the evangelical Charismatic Pastor of the Christian centre visited us and really had compassion and through a contact of his we moved into a cosy flat in the centre of Nuremberg.
We waited for the visa but it did not come so once again we made a trip to the Ukraine. This time we received more hope and a date was set for us to come back for a long time.
Part 191.
Third visit. This time we get longer visa longer term.
It was now the spring 1992 and we set off with more funds to keep us going. We had many new supporters and were now placed to be able to stay there for a much longer period.
We were introduced to some friends of the Mellihofs who lived in Draftsay an out skirt of Uzhgorod, and they rented us a very cheap flat on the second floor of their house and I started to teach at the Pioneer palace.
We needed something very special to happen to get us started. Panov now had a visa for us to stay for up to a year.
Part 192.
A real supernatural Miracle.
I had been teaching at the Pioneer Palace for about a month and then it was the end of their term. All the different departments would put on a show in their large auditorium.
There were exhibits from Gypsy Dancing, Ice hockey and many more and then there was us. Our contribution would be a concert for 10 minutes with our kids singing simple Gospel songs, which we had translated into Russian.
The Theatre was packed and so there was no room for Mum and I and our 3 children and Timothy our first Russian disciple and interpreter to sit, so we had to wait our turn back stage.
First came the Gypsy dancers followed by a troop of Acrobats. I noticed that the acrobats were performing to a sort of very unpleasant Heavy Metal Raucous Rock sound.
Remember we were standing in the wings and were watching from one side. Right at the very beginning a young teenage girl hurt herself, not badly but it was kind of an indication of the spirit of the show.
Then the captain of the troop did the leap of death. This is where there is a see saw springboard and one man jumps from a height onto one end of the see saw sending the man on the opposite side flying into the air. He was then meant to do a double somersault and land on his feet.
Well he went up just fine and instead of landing on his feet he landed a kind of a belly flop. Actually I can't remember whether he landed on his back or on his front. He did not move. He did not groan and there were no signs of life in him.
The curtains went down and there was an awed silence and then pandemonium broke out in the room where they took him and laid him in an armchair. Of course there was no doctor.
The director was in a panic and everyone was shouting. I looked at Timothy my interpreter and a new member of our team.
My first thought was that this was not any of our business and we would best keep out and then I radically changed my mind.
I stormed into the room and at the top of my voice yelled out in English with my translator trying his best to put it into his own language with equal conviction.
"God, You are not a dead God! In the Name of Jesus Christ raise this man up from the dead."
There was a hush in the room everyone including myself was very taken aback and surprised.
At that moment the captain of the troop opened his eyes. Now the time came for the real miracle. I wasn't able to wait there any longer as now it was our turn to give our little concert.
The audience was still in a state of shock. The Lord had his perfect timing. We sang our songs to wonderful applause and then lead the whole auditorium to sing together with us loud, "Voidee moyo circza Isoos" "Come into my heart. Come into my heart. Come into my heart Lord Jesus. Come in today. Come in to stay. Come into my heart Lord Jesus."
We sang it over and over and the crowd of parents, communists, atheists, ex KGB members, all joined in whole heartedly. It was a victory for the Lord , Game! Set! Match! The Director Panov had his agenda and programme and Our Lord also had His programme, which was a resounding victory for Him and his children.
A few days later I was stopped on the walking street by a man who told me that the Captain had no broken bones and had made a complete recovery.
Again later the Captain himself fell at my feet and hugged me, thanking me for his healing. I explained it was only JESUS!
Now this is really amazing so hold on!
About 13 years later we were driving from Kosice to Bratislava in Slovakia in the middle of the night. We had stopped at a gas station.
We had no money so we were distributing some literature for a donation to try and get Diesel.
Joanna spotted an Ukrainian car parked in the darkness. I had seen it too but usually they are very poor and I did not hold out much hope of getting a donation from them.
Of course that is totally the wrong attitude as we should witness to everybody and trust the Lord to supply the donations. Mum was with my daughter Angela.
The man got out of the car and hugged us all saying he thought about us every day in his prayers of thanks.
It was the Captain of the Acrobat team and they were sleeping in their car between shows touring Slovak cities. He did give a big donation.
Angela now 16 was amazed and I think the Lord did it for her benefit too.

After this miracle we were able to see the Lord open many doors. We were able to get visas without any more teaching in the Pioneer Palace.
One of the Police chiefs gave us assignments to prove our love for the Ukrainian people.
Part 193.
Our love for the Russians put to the test. Contact with Otto Von Hapsburg.
The chief Visa Policeman, ex KGB and now the Interpol chief, told us that if we really loved the Ukrainians then we would have to do two special tasks for him.
School Number 10 had been built in the Hapsburg era and so it was our job to contact Otto Von Hapsburg on our next tri monthly visit to Germany and ask him to send help to this school. I
hardly knew who the Hapsburgs were but we agreed to do our best. I remember them vaguely from History at school. We found out that they lived somewhere near the Starnberg lake.
So off we set to find OVH. We camped beside the lake and realised that we were on the wrong side.
We motored around and then we were all hungry and so we stopped at a pub and asked the owner if he would like to donate us a meal.
He obliged and sat us down in the garden close to another party of people. I asked the man who seemed to be the head of the party if he could help us find the Hapsburg residence as it was ex directory.
We told him our story and then he smiled and said that he was married to OVH's sister. One hour later we drove straight in towing our caravan behind us right up into the estate and drew up outside the side entrance of the house.
We were oblivious of the keep out signs and an extremely charming secretary met us as OVH was out and she gave us tea and invited us to swim on their private beach and so began a correspondence with OVH that has lasted to the present day.
He did help the school and sent them school supplies and other books etc. My Ukrainian policeman was delighted with us and we got free visas. Then he asked us a second request.
Part 194.
American Law Books for the University of Uzhgorod..
This one seemed impossible. Where would we find USA Law books for the University? Well of course we took all these requests to Jesus and as usual He came up with the answers.
I wrote to an American friend and within a month he had found an American Lawyer who was clearing out all his older books and replacing them.
They were a full set and they were shipped out to the University as a gift. To this day they are in the University of Uzhgorod.
Part 195.
Free Visas as a result and a free favourable documentary TV programme on us at Government expense.
For the next three years until it was time to move to Lvov we received VIP treatment. The TV did a free very favourable documentary on us, which we have kept to this day. We had many write ups in the papers. We started performing concerts with our famous heart skit everywhere you could imagine.
Part 196.
Lack of Unity amongst the competing Protestant Churches!! Sad

I remember thinking that it was rather sad that now that Communism was beginning to crumble, that the Christian Protestants could have and should have presented a more united front to show that Jesus was a marvellous alternative to Godless Communism.
This did not transpire and although we were one of the very first to step across the old iron curtain border, we were followed by all the denominations all competing with one another. The main herd of people would quite naturally flock to the particular denomination that was bringing the most Humanitarian help.
People were very poor. The inflation rate was running at 100% a month at one stage so we with our Deutch Marks could live very well. One mark would buy 50 loaves of bread at one stage.
Having been in the COG I was already very prejudiced against what we called Churchianity or Sunday bench warming and this situation did nothing to dispel this thought and idea.
In a rather self righteous kind of way we looked down on people who seemed unwilling or unable to share their faith with others. This was to us the all-important factor. Now we are learning to be more charitable and to try to lovingly encourage others to do more to share Jesus Christ with others.
We realise too that there are many others who in different ways accomplish much more than we do.
A good example to me is dear Mel Gibson. With his Movie, "The Passion," He has reached in an incredibly powerful way millions. Mother Theresa too and of course there are many thousands of others who proclaim the Gospel in a very effective way.
However if this Auto Bio can encourage you that there is plenty that one person can do if you have the initiative to just try, then I will have achieved the objective of this book.
Part 197.
The Heart Skit. Very effective for preaching the simple Gospel.
Let me explain the Heart skit to you. Once we had drawn a crowd, with our singing, which was very easy to do, we set ourselves up to perform this very simple yet effective skit, which we had learned in the COG.
One Child would wear a huge heart hanging from a string around his/her neck. Of course the heart was red and there was a very visible keyhole in the middle. Then there were various keys named in Large writing in Russian such as
Money,
Power,
Things,
Education, and finally one marked,
The Love Of Jesus.
We would explain that the person wearing the heart was a sad sack and we needed to find a solution to cheer him/her up.
All the keys would be tried with great enthusiasm as if each one would be the real answer to happiness.
Each time the key was tried it failed to produce the radiant smile of contentment. Then we would admit there was nothing and would start playing sad music until one of the children would run up with Jesus Key.
It actually fitted the hole and a smile would break out and we would sing the following short song.
I'm so happy,
I'm so happy
I'm so happy
Why?
Because Jesus saved my soul
And Love is in my heart.

We would then invite people in the crowd to repeat this short prayer, "Jesus please come into my heart, Please forgive my sins and give me the free gift of eternal life."
Many times hardened Communists and Mafia would be in the crowds and tears would appear in their eyes and many gave very generous donations into the busking box.
Part 198.
Concerts everywhere
Short history of 9 years in Ukraine.

Mikey my eldest son started playing Guitar and we purchased some cheap equipment and gave concerts for the Army, Police, Hospitals, Old folks homes, Orphanages, For the Mayor, In the City Centre and for countless schools.
We sang many songs in Russian translated from the old Gospel favourites. Eventually we appeared on more than a dozen TV stations including National ones in Kiev and in Odessa.
We took part in major shows and sang in the famous Festival Na Dia in Lvov with Russlana, who won the Eurovision song contest.
Natasha was born in Uzhgorod in 1992 and then David in Perechin in 1994 and then Jemima in Kiev in 1999.
We Lived for three years in Trans Carpathia, two years in Lvov and off and on for 9 months in Odessa singing many times on Deribasavka Street and for Prisons and just about anywhere and every where imaginable.
We then moved to Kiev and were there for about four years.
Part 199.
Death of Moses David.
And a heavenly visitor?????
While back in Germany in 1995 Moses David died.
By this time I was only a loose kind of third order member of the COG and was running my own little sect called, "Your Team for Jesus," operating in Ukraine.
I would like to recount an event, which as this book progresses may be important.
The whole of our team in the summer of 1995 were camped in our caravans in a field in the middle of a forest belonging to a sweet German supporter, close to Nuremberg.
Miraculously we had been able against many odds to obtain visas for the Ukrainians. Ukrainians were very unwelcome in Western Europe.
It was a very isolated field and the only passers by were the foresters in their Niva van, once or twice a day.
Timothy our faithful disciple and myself drove into Zirndorf the other side of Nuremberg to check the mail at our P.O.Box. I
t was in this mail that we learned of the death of Moses David Berg who had died peacefully in his sleep.
Yes, we were sad and came home with this news. However while we were away an extraordinary old man had passed by the gate of our field full of encouraging smiles.
We were in the process of Packing luggage onto the roof our Camper van.
He stopped for some time at the gate of the field and waved his stick in the air in a very unusual and familiar way. Everyone saw him but just politely waved back and then after quite some time of observing us in an approving and encouraging kind of way, he walked off.
When we prayerfully considered what had happened and especially the extraordinary timing of this, I for one believed that this could have been a heavenly visit from our Don Quixote Leader Berg.
Maybe there was a message. Now that he was able to see the Splendour of TRUTH, maybe this was his last effort to give encouragement to us to continue on our journey home to the Catholic Church.
At that time we were definitely not Catholic in the slightest way of thinking. God who lives in the eternal present knew the future and may have given permission to Old Mo to appear for this brief moment.
In the three weeks we had been there we had never seen any one walk past and in the next few days no one ever passed again. We wrote a full report of this to the leaders of the COG but they never replied.
Part 200.
Trying to become famous for Jesus on the world stage.
I realised the kids were actually very good singers and this was the main thing they could do. I thought if only we could become famous for Jesus we could win the world with our music. It was very ambitious but I was convinced it was worth a try.
Part 201.
Our first Cassette.
Your Team for Jesus.
We produced our first cassette in an amateur studio and a very kind Christian Firm called Media cassette helped by donating 500 tapes, which they mastered. We distributed them for a donation and they went out like hot cakes.
Part 202.
The Red Letter Vision.
Please forgive me if I do not get all this in exactly the right order but I hope you find this true account of our activities interesting and faith building because it was all a walk of faith.
It is not a daily diary but an account of the main events that were rather spectacular and unusual.
While we were in Kiev at the same time as the music was beginning to take off, I believe it was the Lord who gave me the idea that the RED LETTER WORDS of the Gospels were in fact the most important words of the New Testament.
In Protestant Bibles the Red Letter Words are the spoken words of Jesus. We did not know it but this was our first step towards the Catholic Church. We would have been horrified if we had known that at the time. Catholics were kind of OK but strange.
Yes, maybe some of them were even Christians but in our ignorance they were like on another planet. We were in Germany and everyone went down with flu except me.
We were staying with a very sweet and precious family of supporters who owned a Pharmacy business and we were living in their upstairs flat.
Our camper was out in the car park and so I started to write songs, which conformed to our doctrine. In two days the Lord gave me the 12 Red Letter songs.
We renamed our group the Red Letter Family. Hannah and Mark and Susie and John back in Ukraine ably ran the other half of our team.
They had both been married in one wedding service with me officiating as the Pastor in a Methodist Church lent for the occasion.
This must have taken place in 1996/7. By now Timothy had left and joined the COG family full time in Kiev.
It was a sad loss and was mostly my fault for not appreciating him enough. However we remained on good terms and are still in contact.
Part 203.
A near miss to fame?
Once we got very close to getting a deal and maybe it was my fault that we did not make it.
Let me tell you the story. We were on the way to the Rothenpeelers, and we were in Stuttgart and met a lady music agent who phoned one of the first producers of the very famous Kelly family. Hans Deerer.
We got permission to perform a concert in the Café Stella in down town Stuttgart in front of the Deerer team.
They were an extraordinary looking bunch of guys with coloured hair and punk haircuts. The kids put on a marvellous show singing the songs they knew how to sing, about Jesus' red-letter words.
He was really impressed and then he asked me a very hard question. "Before we pour millions of Deutch Marks into this extraordinary group, do you want to change the world or do you want to please the people?"
I had very little time to think and I sent up an arrow prayer and replied, "Change the world." He said something like that was an excellent ambition but no deal. That was the end of it.
Part 204.
Our first CD.
Armed with our Lyrics we managed to persuade the Rothenpielers that we were a worth while project for their investment and we began to compose the Red Letter Music in their very excellent studios.
I was convinced that we were on to a winner and dear Mr Rothenpieler and his sons agreed. Before long, I think it took about 6 months on and of and about 6 weeks of hard work by a hired back up artist and computer composer Mr Meltzer the CD with 12 songs was ready and complete.
Part 205.
Big drive to promote our music.
Armed with our 12 song CD which of course we all thought was absolutely marvellous we toured Germany and England in our Fiat Ducato Camper visiting the Record Labels.
We met nice people and pushed our way in through many closed doors and at the end of the spring we had gotten nowhere.
It was very disappointing. In the secular world it is almost impossible to win popular approval with a strong Christian message.
Mikey was now 12 years old and Angela 10, Jasmine 8, Natasha 4 and Dave 2.
SECTION 17. U.S.A.
Part 206.
Trip to USA.
All this time our Ukrainian family steadily plodded on with their street distribution of literature and Gospel tracts and did a fantastic job keeping the home fires burning.
We were now back in the Ukraine. Joanna's Father had just died and we received an inheritance of about 30,000 $ and so we decided to invest this in a trip to the USA to try promotion in a more Christian environment than Europe.
We put our Camper on the Ferry and flew to New York Kennedy airport. We stayed in the Sunrise Executive hotel at quite a cheap rate all squashing into one room.
It was quite a thrill to be in the USA and we did our best to look for people to help us promote our music.
As usual we knew no one. It was all by faith. When we picked up our Camper we were so sad to find that they had stolen the laptop and most of the music equipment. It was a bit horrifying.
The company took no responsibility in spite of us writing many letters. Their company was in the fated Twin Towers and I pray that they were the ones that were able to escape.
We met a very fine Jewish Lawyer who was charging about 1000$ an hour just for his time and he advised us free of charge, to go to Nashville.
So we managed to replace the music equipment from some 2nd hand bits and pieces and motored to Nashville. We gave a concert on the way and were able to not just spend the inheritance but to actually make something from donations from impromptu concerts on the way.
Nashville was another story. It had just suffered from a series of very heavy Tornadoes and some parts looked like bombs had hit them. It was like a war Zone.
Roofs of Churches were ripped off. We tried to find sanctuary among the Black section of town but they did not like us and were sadly racially prejudiced toward us. I guess this was for them still Payback time for all their suffering for hundreds of years.
Eventually in the white side of town we found a Baptist Church and the Pastor allowed us to live next to the church on a stretch of mown grass. That night it rained very hard and we had a radio and were tuned in to all the info about new Tornado warnings.
We moved our Camper as close to the strong Church wall and prayed. Tornados were literally passing overhead but not touching the earth thankfully.
Part 207.
A Miracle!! From Tornado stricken battle scene to Pickwick suite in Oprey Land Hotel.
The next morning the Pastor visited us and told us he had listened to our CD and phoned a friend of his in the biggest Gospel label, Word Entertainment a branch of Sony, and they wanted to meet us that morning.
We motored down town and put on a Red Letter concert for them. This firm also owned the Oprey Land Hotel one of the most famous 5 star Hotels in the USA. It was an enormous glass complex. With the hotel built under it.
They did not appreciate our songs but saw in us a potential for us singing their songs. They were promoting Videos called Veggy Tales. I thought they were ridiculous as vegetables played Bible characters.
We were allowed to stay for three days in the Pick wick suite. It was priced at over a 1000$ a night. We were also allowed to use all the many different restaurants and send our clothes to the laundry ten times a day if we wanted to.
It seemed like a dream come true but there was this catch they were not really interested in our songs, they wanted us to sing their songs. Once again it was a difficult decision to make but the more I considered their option, the less I liked it.
They were very nice and when we moved out we stayed in the KOA Campground, which they also owned and were there for about a month.
Part 208.
Our Visa was shorter than we thought.
On examining our visas we realised that we had not been given the six months that we had hoped for but only two. So we set off to Canada to cross the border and then re enter for another 3 months.
We motored back up New York State to the border close to Montreal. There we had a mechanical break down so we spent three days living in a gas station and motor workshop.
We crossed back and slowly made our way to a place called Wolcott in Connecticut. We met a very nice free church Pastor who allowed us to stay in the garden of the Church property.
Part 209.
Children growing up and me failing them and not being able to cope with them.
Like I have said before, when the children were small, they did everything they were told. They were angels. People would often remark how well behaved they were. Now they were suffering from disappointment as Dad's plans were falling through.
He was no longer the Guy that never made mistakes. Mikey had said to me in the Oprey Land Hotel words to the effect that he didn't need his dad anymore.
He was 13 now and I became frustrated and my spirit, which, had not been so tested, began to fail under so many new trying situations.
With my first family too I remember losing my temper with Nicholas about pretty much nothing.
I deeply loved my kids but when the tests came I sometimes became violent. I have forgotten what exactly happened but Mikey was probably sassing me.
We lived in this cramped space of a small camper and we were 7 people. I got angry and held his face down on the seat in a most unnecessary and violent way.
When I let him go his whole face was marked with bruises from finger marks. We had a concert to do the next day and here was Michael with blue marks on his face. I had to make up an outright lie that we had been playing ball and he got tangled up in some branches.
Well it got us through the concert but I am sad to tell you that as my kids got bigger and the rest of the team who had been obedient Ukrainian teenagers and were now having children of their own were also now not reacting well to my autocratic rule I also often resorted to inflamed violence.
I am ashamed to tell you about these things but it is to show you that I am certainly no saint and like I told you earlier it was becoming increasingly more difficult to keep my spirit, which had largely been untried, in check.
So as I write more you will see that the situation grew worse and even to the time of writing there is not the progress that I had hoped for.
Part 210.
Protestants reject us.
We went to many Christian Protestants. We had always had a soft spot for Dave Wilkerson of the Cross and the Switch blade. This was a famous book written about the New York Narcotic Gangs.
We went to his Time Square Church and to me it reminded me of Gospel entertainment. They were not in the least bit interested in the Red Letter Agenda. The words of Jesus agenda left them cold.
Also this big Gospel label that did not like our songs and wanted us to sing theirs was called Word Entertainment. This I believed was a misnomer. The Word of God is not just to entertain us it is to guide us and help us to make sacrifices to follow our Lord.
Part 211.
Catholics accept us.
First we met a very nice lady called Dorothy Boyle. She lived in Bristol Connecticut. She invited us to do a concert in the Park near her house on a stage. We duly set up our equipment and I don't suppose more than 20 people turned up. It seemed an absolute flop.
However she arranged for us to go to a Catholic retreat centre run by Father Bill McCarthy in Moodus. We were so well received there. They invited us back and loved those unpopular to Protestants Red Letter Word songs.
They gave us donations and were altogether just wonderful. The Lord was softening us up for the future events, which were soon to unfold.
SECTION 18. BACK TO UKRAINE. HALFHEARTED ATTEMPT TO BE CATHOLICS.
Part 212.
Return to Ukraine.
Disappointment! No more fame possibilities.
Well without much more to tell you we returned to the Ukraine and rejoined our team. The disappointment of not making it onto the world stage, as I was so absolutely sure would happen, changed the spirit of our team. I for one was very frustrated and the kids were now teens and were also becoming restless.
We did hundreds of school concerts. We even did a remix of the CD as the children were now older and their voices had changed. We continued to try but from the point of view of fame we just did not cut the mustard.
Part 213.
We meet Father radical Christopher from Poland.
Then in December in Kiev we met an extraordinary Dominican Priest called Father Christopher from Warsaw.
He was taking the Masses in the English service in the Roman Catholic Church in the centre of the city. I met him while I was giving out literature and CD and cassettes in return for a small donation.
This is our main source of income. He dressed in his white cassock and long black beard, immediately started to cultivate us.
He became a real friend. He admired our life style and eventually he asked us to come to Poland with him on a retreat.
I really admired his wisdom. We were a very opinionated bunch. I was not a humble man and had so many hang-ups about the Catholics.
He seemed to have that extra spiritual eye, which could see the good, and possibilities that others could not see. He loved us and put up with us. We often gave him a difficult time.
Part 214.
A Very Big Mistake.
We lived on the outskirts of Kiev and I did a very stupid thing. I started to invite the local teenage boys around to our house. I gave them a Bible study but when it became apparent that they weren't a bit interested I allowed them to play cards with my older kids.
That was the worst thing I could have done. They pulled our own children down the very dregs that they were in.
There were terrible results and I can only blame one person and that is myself. I will not go into details but the situation was really bad and got out of hand. My frustration and anger grew. I was out of my depth.

I became increasingly more violent with my children who were going down the drain of modern promiscuity and just about lining themselves up with the norms of the world. I dealt with this situation in my own strength and matters got even worse. What I was desperately trying to stop became worse and worse. I was beginning to have very bad fruit and it was ALL my fault. FAILURE!!!!
Part 215.
We become not very convinced Catholics, but amazingly the Catechism is very solidly based in Scripture for the most part.
Thank the Lord we moved to Wroclaw close to where we had been to the retreat of Father Christopher. We started to study the Catechism and after one year we converted as a team to the Catholic Church.
My conversion and that meant all of us really, my four older children, the two Ukrainian couples of Hannah and Mark and John and Susie, was really rather tactical. We were so entrenched in our former faith and the degree of Truth that we had already received which had worked marvellously in Faith matters that we could not see all the truths of this Roman Catholic Church.
We all realised or began to realise that although we had a very high degree of Crazy Faith, we were all sadly lacking in the most important ingredient which, 1st Corinthians so aptly explains in Chapter 13, LOVE.
I could not see the Splendour of Truth as I see it so much more clearly today. I was however amazed to find out that most of the Catechism was surprisingly based on scripture from my King James Bible.
Because of our Faith successes I in particular and the rest of the team to lesser degrees, were extremely self-righteous. We needed continuing crisis's to remind us just how rotten we really were.
Great credit is due to Father Anjej Buinovsky who spent the best part of a year in our course on the Catechism. When the day came for our Baptism, Conversion, Confession, First Communion, Confirmation etc, we were well prepared and knew the facts in our heads but not so much in our hearts.
Not all of us needed all the above sacraments. I had been baptised and confirmed in the Anglican Church and miraculously still had a certified copy of the baptism certificate. For me I went through a conversion to the Catholic Church in small ceremony. For everyone it was different.
All my 6 children were baptised together with two children of Mark and Hannah and two children of Susie and John.
From then on we went to Mass and all days of Obligation and not so often to confession. We were Catholic and thankful to be so but not on fire as Catholics but very on fire as Christians. The Catholic part and the full understanding of the Eucharist would have to come later as more and more rugs were pulled out from under our feet.
Part 216.
Approaching Warsaw The Capital city of Poland
After one year in Wrocwav (in German Breslau) living in the back garden of a beautiful old Church in the Ulitza Trauguta called St Maurice we moved lock stock and barrel to Warsaw.
We once again had no idea where we would stay the night and as our convoy drew close to Poland's Capital we stopped in a lay-by and prayed. I was in the lead and was praying as I drove.
I had an inclination to turn right. So far there had been a noticeable lack of Church steeples to guide us and I had an inclination to take a right turn off the highway. This lead to a very rich rather Mafioso part of the outskirts with enormous expensive houses.
A passer by told us of a retreat centre and as we turned right again we arrived outside a very beautiful complex of out buildings designed for Catholic retreats. It just happened that even though they had a very full all year round programme, they were absolutely without a person at that time.
We got permission to stay a week free of charge and made friends with an enthusiastic priest who allowed me to preach the Homily in his Sunday service. It was a very beautiful place and we would have loved to remain there for much longer.
Part 217
Finding Father Woitech Drosdowitch

The next day we set out to look for God's man for us. This time we had been given the address of what turned out to be a really amazing priest called Father Woitech Drosdowicz.
He lived in the middle of the Catholic University in an area called Bielany, east of the city centre and agreed for us to stay on his beautiful lawn right in the middle of the complex. We were like Gold fish in a bowl.
Thankfully the students were on vacation. This priest was really a Godsend. He had implicit faith in us and signed important documents with regards to visas without batting an eyelid.
He slept in an open coffin in very simple and austere surroundings under the pretext that if he died in the night he was in the right place.
He was a really wonderful and very simple guy. He had spent several years in Siberia and on his return had organised a Catholic Children's programme for which he was even now well remembered.
When Jemmy was born he baptised her and we often sang in the mass. However the students were soon going to come back. We would have to look for a further more permanent place to Camp.
We always wanted to be near a Church. For one thing they usually gave us free electricity for a year and for another it was just a very good feeling to be close to a Mother hen.
However most Churches did not want us and it always needed a miracle to find the right place. We were down to the last day, and nothing had turned up. We were all getting pretty discouraged.

Part 218.
The Church on the Hill.
Then I noticed a Church perched on a hill in Ursinov. Father Joseph Mai took pity on us and gave us a spot in a huge open field, (Pictures available) (actually we have many picture especially of the more recent events and literally scores of News and Prayer letters that we can use if you think so fit).
The Church was one of the oldest Churches in Poland. St Catherine's. We found out later that under our 4 to 5 acre field were a labyrinth of tunnels that had been constructed in previous centuries.
We found a convenient hole in our field and would pour our toilet waste down there. To our horror and the horror of the authorities who would make a tri yearly visit there, they found all our stinking waste and we had to haul it all out bucket by bucket.
Of course we were very sorry and only then found out that it was a protected monument. We spent a glorious year there and three times on Warsaw TV they did a documentary on our extraordinary way of life and this is where we were when 9/11 happened.
I remember the day. I had just come back from the Supermarket after doing the shopping for our 23 person team. This was a defining moment for the world. The world would never be the same again.

Part 219.
An Awesome Violent Wind!
One day I had gone for a bike ride. We had come back from witnessing and I was trying out a rather nice bike and David was with me. We rode on a footpath around the vast complex of this Church's property. As we came back, we noticed a very black and ominous cloud approaching us from the direction of Down Town Warsaw.
Ruth was preparing the dinner in the fore tent. Then for fifteen minutes we were engulfed in the strongest wind, I have ever experienced. The fore tent went flying and ended up in a tree 100 yards away. Ruth got badly burnt as the stew went for six. All our kitchen utensils and plates and cups mainly made from plastic were strewn over a very wide area and took us days to recover.
In Warsaw there was a lot of damage. Busses stopped as they were unable to move and feared being blown over. Bill boards were left in a crumpled heap, and road signs came tumbling down. We all got into the very heavy 7 ton Mercedes Camper while I tried to stop one of the lighter caravans from blowing over by holding it up with outstretched arms.
Then just as quickly as it had started so it stopped. We had a young potential disciple that we had met out witnessing called Nigel and in the fray he lost a very special pair of glasses, without which he was blind and had to be lead around by the hand.
The chances of finding these glasses in tact was very remote as we had all been treading everywhere trying to bring back all the debris. We asked Jesus to help. We still did not really believe in asking Saints like St Anthony to help us.
We do now and he does an amazing full time job for us as I for one lose everything and am getting even more forgetful in my old age. Also in Warsaw we were invited to give a concert at a very important Youth Meeting at which Cardinal Glemp was present. This was the first time we had performed in front of a Cardinal.
Actually he walked out as we began but I don't think he did it to offend us, as he is a very busy man.
Part 220
From Warsaw to Gdansk via Lublin.

We moved first to Lublin for about three months and stayed behind a Catholic Holiday Complex.
Witnessing and distributing always goes well in new environments and we were very well received.
One memory for me, not very spiritual, was when we went to the very best Hotel and asked if they would like to help us with a free dinner. This was the first time where we were served by 4 waiters who simultaneously moved like soldiers in carrying plates and taking lids off dishes.
It was a scream and we were very thankful. Wow! How some people live? It would have cost the earth if we had had to pay.
In Lublin too we had some favourable publicity in the local newspaper. My teenagers, which included Ruth who had joined us in Kiev and Phillip who is Mark's youngest brother, had formed a team loosely joined to us and were learning to fly on their own.
They set out on their own for a short trip to Warsaw to have fun with some rather doubtful friends they had met there. At a party all their Passports and car documents were stolen plus some of their meagre funds.
This meant for Mum and me, a trip to Germany to replace all these documents, which took time and a lot of money. It was annoying but was also a sign that our efforts were coming to a crisis point. Tempers flared and unkind things were said on all sides.

Part 221.
Gdansk

Gdansk is a Sea Port with the famous Lenin shipyards. This is where Lech Walesa the leader of the first non Communist trade union in a Communist country had stood up to Moscow for 9 years, with lots of persecution and threats.
Morally and spiritually backed by John Paul the Great the Communists had to eventually give in and negotiate with Solidarity as the TU was called.
Lech Walesa was then elected President of Poland in free elections for one term and during this time the Berlin wall came down and Communism seemed to collapse.
I say seemed because in today's world there is an awful lot of need to read between the lines. Things are not always entirely what they seem to be. We were staying on the playground of a Catholic Nursery School, which was on holiday for the summer so we knew that we only had limited time.
Part 222.
Krakow

As Autumn 2002 arrived we moved to Krakow. A very sweet Newspaper reporter found a place for us to stay at the entrance of a Church called St Anthony.
Our unity was a little better but not perfect by any means. Everyone was growing up. I could not really rely on my Catholic Faith to help me because as yet I had only mentally embraced it.
There would come a time in the near future when God in His infinite Mercy and Grace would engineer events to force us thankfully into His eternal arms.
We were not really popular at this Church and miraculously we found a new more permanent location with a Priest whose beautiful wooden Church had been burnt down by an arsonist and so he was thankful to have us on his beautiful property to protect the new temporary wooden construction built over the basement of the burnt ruins.
He was half expecting the arsonist to strike again. He was never caught and prosecuted. This was in a rich area called Vola Ustovska and the Church was dedicated to our Lady of Chestahova and the Priest was and still is at the time of writing, Father Adam Ogwegwo.

Krakow is a very beautiful old city full of History and a favourite spot for tourists. Our literature and CD distribution of our Redletterkid Songs went out well and we were able to give a concert in a Prison in Nova Huta, which was the area where John Paul the Great had battled with the authorities to build a Church during Communist times.
We also sang in some schools and on Sunday masses. Financially we did pretty good there. I have some pictures of the layout of our camp and we were able to use some new buildings, which had been specially built for Pilgrims. These were hardly ever used and were of great help to us to dine in and cook and do our washing etc.

Part 223.
Visit of Pope John Paul the 2nd.

Pope John Paul was to make a visit and for this we got prepared. We were close to his Pope Mobil as it passed us on the way from the airport and we were asked to perform a concert for the many Pilgrim students sleeping on the floor of the Church of St Peter and Paul. The concert was at midnight (Photos available for all these and many other mentioned events.)

The Mass was a huge affair and larger than any crowd of people that I had ever seen in my life. The people were all very well behaved and the organisation was impeccable. It was truly a land mark in my life but did not consciously draw me any closer to the all important matter of the Eucharist which let's face it is the real crux of the matter.
Part 224.
Dividing into three teams.
Having always had a one pot system,
We decide to keep separate accounts.
My children wanted to branch out on their own and together with Phillip the younger brother of Mark who is married to Hannah, and Ruth from Kiev, they formed their own team.
They went back to Warsaw on a partially successful faith trip. The two other married couples were growing up and wanted to flap their wings and get out from under our feet. To be honest I was getting out of my depth. I did not really know how to keep everyone united and together. In other words we started to fall apart.
I was very disappointed at Mikey and his team leaving although I was happy that they would try and continue to do what we were doing.

We were beginning to squabble about the finances. I was against the Ukrainians getting their own car from Common Pot Money. I think in retrospect that I was wrong but at the time I could see the management of the team becoming much more complicated.
I was no longer the successful leader. Neither in my own eyes and not in the eyes of the others.

Mum and I also decided to take a break and went on a faith trip holiday with our four smaller children, Shelly who was baby, Jemmy aged about 2, David about 7 and Natasha 9 or 10.
As usual we just took some Italian lit and camped around the Riviera and then to Lake Como. We went witnessing every day and were able to provision marvellous Italian meals and campgrounds and sang in city centres.
It was an adventure without spending money. Well we did spend money but replaced it so that at the end, we were all square.
While we were away the Ukrainian families did very well and were able to buy themselves their own car. We met up again in Krakow before moving to Lodz.
Part 225.
Lodz (Woodge)
Sadly we left Father Adam Ogwewo and we moved to our last city in Poland.
The visas for the Ukrainians were being extended to the limit. Only one more year. There is only one more big city in Poland and that is Lodz pronounced Woodge.

We parked in a little copse beside an enormous redbrick Church which was filled to capacity 4 times a morning and 1 time in the evening every Sunday. This is where Mikey decided he had had enough. The year now was 2003.
Rug Pulled out from under my feet again.
Part 226.
The Rug is once again pulled out from under my feet.

It was our fourth year in Poland. My eldest son Mikey was now 18 and we had persuaded his Aunty to give him a second hand Mercedes.
He took his exam and driving test in Polish and passed first time, which was no mean feat as he not only had to memorize all the rules but in a language that he did not speak.
We were now on one of our tri monthly trips to Germany. We did have a small victory when we won the Furth City Festival. 5000 beer drinking Germans voted our kids the best against some quite famous opposition.
We got some TV coverage and the prize was a free stay at a famous holiday hotel near Regensburg. It helped to keep the flame of possible fame alive.

We had just visited a supporter and Mikey dropped the bomb. He wanted to leave the team. I was so shocked and was completely unprepared for this. I should have seen it coming. I was completely unable to handle this situation.
I wish I could say I hung on to the Lord but I totally lost sight. First he wanted to join the US Army. He had met some soldiers who had convinced him that it was a good job. Well he didn't, thank the Lord! His sisters too were also going though the mill.
We became directionless. One evening as we were preparing to go back to Poland my three eldest kids were like me in a bad mood. They had been staying in a flat of the son of one of our best supporters. I wanted them to be back by a certain time and they weren't. I lost it when they arrived late.
I said many unkind things and the net result was we left Mikey with a plastic bag of clothes and 10$ in the dark in the camp. Yes he could go back to the friend where he had been staying anyway and that is what he did but it was a desperately cruel and unnecessary thing for me to do.
I was in a temper and I had lost my cool. The journey to Poland was a disaster with my two daughters who were also terribly disappointed not only with me but with the whole directionless situation that prevailed.
Part 227.
Back to Germany.
As soon as we rejoined our team I turned the camper around and began the trip back again to Germany to try and salvage the situation.
It was too late. Even though we had not been away from Mikey more than three days. He had found enough support not to come back to his horrible father.
He got a Burgher King job, which lasted a month and he met a very helpful young Protestant Christian family who allowed him to move in.
He began helping this couple in the setting up of their Keyboard school, and they helped him and until this day they are like his second parents.
I was on my knees imploring Mikey to come back but to no avail. Then I became bitter and soon when Mikey fell off his bicycle, I told him it was God's judgment, as a very expensive operation was needed to reset his wrist.
SECTION 19. THE SPLENDOUR OF TRUTH.
Part 228.
EWTN Salvation through Father Roman, English speaking Polish Father.
Back in Poland Mum and I were on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I say Mum and I but I can really only speak for myself. I was so low and depressed, more than ever I can remember.
I am not sure how to define such an experience but I think we were pretty close.
Even though we knew Jesus personally, we did not have Him in fullness. For example our appreciation of the Eucharist was very feeble.
As a divorcee I wasn't able to partake of it and really I didn't believe in it anyway. I think I already said that I was a tactical Catholic. It was convenient. The Protestants didn't want us so I was just thankful to be accepted by someone.
I went to the Mass out of a sense of duty. When the priest would bring out the host for Eucharistic adoration, it was a bore. Our rather half hearted approach to our Catholic Faith, which was coming to us in Polish, was part of the problem and was really no help.
Most of the priests in the Church Grounds where we were camped in our two trailers and two Campers spoke very little English. It was easier for the Ukrainians as there were many similarities between Polish and Russian and Ukrainian.
The Lord in His infinite Mercy provided His man for us. We had a satellite and watched quite a lot of trash for entertainment and Father Roman told us about EWTN. We were ready for help and the moment I switched on this Channel I found the Splendour of Truth.
We became glued to this amazing 24-hour a day continual broadcasting of total TRUTH in a most digestible way. In 1981 Mother Angelica a Carmelite Nun stepped out by faith and produced a TV Channel that would help bring Orthodox Catholicism back onto the map.
It was our salvation and I am really thankful to God for allowing this work of Mercy and Grace. I restudied John Chapter 6 and could now see clearly that Holy Communion was not just a memorial meal but was the real McCoy.
I wanted to be able to consume Jesus and take part fully. Father Roman showed us how Joanna and I could start taking the Eucharist by living together with Chastity as brother and sister.
This seemed a small price to pay and me aged 65 hardly needed more children. I made my first confession, which was a pretty lengthy affair and received absolution from Jesus acting in Father Roman.
I can honestly say that I regained the Joy of my salvation and in fact the joy grew and is much greater today than ever before. I can honestly sing that Protestant song that "Every day with Jesus is better than the day before".
Saints, Mary, Purgatory, Papal authority and everything Catholic made sense and began to fall into place.
I could see it not only with the eyes of Faith but with the eyes of common sense. I can now say that I am a Catholic. Why? Because it is the TRUTH.
It is True. That is why I am a Catholic. That is why, plain and simple. Not really for any other reason as so many things Protestant especially their love for God's Word is much better appreciated than by most Catholics.
Part 229.
Telling the Truth however painful is good for one.
The moment we think we are doing well, inevitably because of our frail human nature, we start not to rely on Our Lord as much as we should. From what little I know about the Saints, they were all people who had a very low opinion of themselves and an amazingly high degree of trust and love for and faith in God.
They had faith in God's mercy knowing that they needed plenty of it for themselves. The closer one gets to God the easier it is to see one's own failings.
I really learned to give thanks for small mercies. Close to us was an underpass for pedestrians getting off the inter city trains. Together with Jemmy, Shelly and Dave we began to sing for all the passers by.
We did it day after day and the small change we received supported us. Gradually we were able to become more friendly with Mikey.
We started praying the Rosary and firmly believed that it was a really powerful prayer. Many things started to get better.
Eucharistic adoration became a real blessing instead of a bore.
Part 230.
Move to Slovakia's second city Kosice, capital of the Eastern end.
The year was now 2004. Because the visas for the Ukrainians had run out and could no longer be renewed in Poland we had to move.
We actually wanted to move to the Russian Enclave of Kaliningrad. We met a favourable contact but in the end it fell through. As we were driving back from the Russian Embassy in Warsaw we were driving down a side road very disappointed at the closed Russian door and we were praying desperately what next to do, and then we saw the Slovakian flag flying from a building and we stopped outside.
The Consul was so positive and immediately gave visas for our very precious Ukrainians to go to Slovakia.
We upped our camp and moved across the border skirting around and over the impressive Tatra mountains, to Eastern Slovakia. Mikey remained in Germany and started to pursue a career in Professional Music and Singing.
He started to write His own songs and became very good at it. We were able to patch up our relationship as I profusely apologised and asked for his forgiveness.
With the help of a very faithful supporter Michael Weisbecker from Extertall in Northern Germany we moved with our two camping vans towing our two trailers and a small luggage cart pulled by MW.
We arrived in the 2nd city, the capital of Eastern Slovakia, Kosice. Interestingly enough we were now only 100 kilometres from where we had started out 13 years before.
We had effectively made a complete circle from Uzghgorod to Lvov to Odessa to Kiev to Western Europe and to USA and many countries in between and now back to our starting point.
It seemed like the Lord was now allowing me a second chance to try again but this time in the Church that Jesus Himself built and continues to build on Peter and his successors until the end of time.
Part 231.
We end up with all our mobile vehicles on a wind swept open field.
As was usual we had no contacts and nowhere planned to stay.
We stopped in the Car park of a large Super Market TESCO and then Mark and I set off to look for open doors. We found an enormous Goliath Priest of a small church who was fascinated by our story and we spent one night on the very soggy lawn of his village church.
The next day his Parish Council made it very clear that we were unwelcome so we had to move.
We motored further out of town and found another Parish Priest Father Pawil of Visny Klatov and he told us we could move our vehicles onto an open field, which had just been purchased by the Community Of John the Baptist a very on fire Catholic Charismatic Order.
A very wonderful friend and Director Priest of the JBs Father Milan allowed us to stay there. There was no running water only a well. They had just laid the foundation stone of a Monastery. It was really nice in the summer, which passed all too soon.
Then came the autumn and one of the coldest and windiest winters. T
he winds were so strong that on two or three occasions the power lines came down and we were without electricity and we were frightened that our fragile Trailers could be blown over so we propped them up with bricks and discarded timber from the building site.
Part 232.
Wild, cold and very windy.
It really was tough in the winter. We used to joke that we never experienced snow falling down, only blown madly sideways blizzard fashion.
We survived but it truly was survival. We managed to witness every day and do school and cook and do our washing.
When the water froze we had to break the ice in the well which was a frozen hundred yards from our camp and then when we poured the water into the canisters most of it would be blown away.
People would ask us if we had running water? We would reply, "Yes, we have to run to the well to get it!" It was good for us and helped us to appreciate eventually finding a house.
The Ukrainians, God bless them, found the perfect house when I was away in Germany. I had been against a house because of having to pay rent but it was a lack of faith and so I was very thankful to move into Number 1, Vysney Klatov 10 kilometres from and overlooking the town of Kosice.
As you arrive at the very beginning of this picturesque village we are the very first house on the left and only 300 metres away from our field and the Monastery which is now after three years approaching completion.
Part 233.
Our 3 years in one place. Our vision changes through Catholic eyes.
Normally we would move every year. Moving was the name of the game. We would sow a lot of seed and when everyone knew us and it was harder to get small donations for our literature and CDs of the kids singing we would move to another place.
The moves in one way helped us to stay united, as it was so much work and organisation and just plain exciting, not knowing where one would end up. Now the Lord was calling us to move in a different way.
Moving closer to Him and closer to each other and also doing a more permanent work amongst those we had witnessed to.
No longer did we believe in the once saved always saved false doctrine of Justification only by Faith but by Grace and Faith.
The Ukrainians were now given longer visas by the John Baptist Catholic Community, which sponsored them for Visas. We took this as a sign from God that He was more pleased with this decision.
Part 234.
Daily Schedule.
Our Job in a Nutshell.
Our daily routine is pretty much as follows:-
1) 5.40 Wake up.
2) 6.00 Devotions begin, with Holy Land Rosary with Father Pakwa of EWTN.
3) 6.15 Reflections with Father Leo Clifford.
4) 6.25 We read the Liturgical readings for the day from A monthly publication called "Magnificat" There is also a good devotional daily commentary by a famous Theologian or saint. We can really recommend this publication as it is Orthodox Catholic full of prayers and history of Saints.
We also discuss the days programme.
5) 08.30 approx Breakfast.
6) 09.00 Clear up.
7) 10.00 Home school until 12 to 12.30
8) 13.00 Lunch and out to the city either Kosice or Presov,
9) 15.00 We say the Divine Mercy Chaplet wherever we are.
10) Home by 18.00 for dinner
11) Clean up and then Family Rosary.
12) 10.00 approx Bed time
As a team and as three families living together, we concentrate on Daily witnessing. Our job we believe is to promote Jesus Christ and His Church to the people on the streets,
in the offices and anywhere and everywhere we can find people. Our children's concerts have been and are performed in just about everywhere imaginable.
Of course we have had concerts on a big scale on National and Local TV. That is more the exception. This has happened maybe 50 times in our 16 years of existence.
Local concerts on the streets and city centres have happened thousands of times. In schools, on ships, in prisons, in old folks homes, in orphanages, Crisis centres, for the police, the army, factory workers, for the Mayors and dignitaries, for hospitals, on trains, on an aeroplane, in festivals, you name it and the Lord has used us somewhere.
We made a joke that the only place where we never performed was on a submarine. Maybe that dream will come true one day.
Part 235.
Extra curricular activities for the children, and for us grown ups.
When we moved every year it was difficult to integrate our children into activities such as Scouts and Dancing and Football, and ourselves into any activity of depth.
This has all changed and we now take part in all the above including a special time with some Nuns every Friday evening where the kids get together with other children and play games organised by very energetic Sisters.
We adults take part in an English Mass every Sunday morning at 11 a.m. in the Chapel of St Michael's, which is placed conveniently alongside the Cathedral in the centre of the city of Kosice.
We sing some simple but very effective Gospel songs, some of our own making and some well known ones.
Every Friday through the Autumn, Winter and Spring we run a Catholic English Club where we show DVDs taken from Programmes from EWTN. We are trying so far not very successfully to enthuse the more interested Cradle Catholics to learn the Apologetics of their faith.
On Mondays we visit the local Crisis centre run by the Archdiocese. We teach English and Catechise our faith as much as we are able to children from the ages of about 4 to 18. All this needs your prayer.
Part 236.
Husbands wives and children all living under one roof.
Have you noticed that there are almost no examples of families living together? Yes they may live close together but in separate houses.
In Monasteries they live together but not married couples with children. Why? I'll tell you. It is plainly extremely difficult. I am not even sure at the point of writing whether it is wise or not.
We inherited this way of life from the Children of God sect, which was trying to follow the New Testament pattern described in the book of Acts. See, Acts Ch 2 v 44 and Acts Ch 4 verses 32 32 34.
Acts Chapter 2 verses 44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Acts Chapter 4 verses 32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
35 And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.
36 And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,
37 Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
Part 237.
Chastity and the division of the sexes.
Well from the book of Acts and from church history, it is evident that Families living together just didn't work.
There were disputes about food distribution and then it seems pretty clear that those who wanted to be full time disciples or religious decided to live together with celibate lives of Chastity. Boys together and separately Girls together.
Part 238.
Our on going experiment.
So let me tell you about our own experience in this 20th and 21st century experiment. It worked very well when the children and the new disciples in their teens were small and thankful.
Yes, I was a Dictator but I was on the whole Dictating in what seemed the right direction. Human Nature is rarely satisfied.
The children were small and were very well behaved. I was so totally naïve. I thought that as long as we tried to follow God with all our hearts it would all pan out in the end. Well I am still hoping that.
Yes, God is merciful and now together with the help of the Communion of Saints and our very wonderful Holy Mother Mary, I believe, although everything looks quite bleak from time to time, it will somehow pan out.
Lets deal with the children first.
Part 239.
Our 5 older children.
Mikey, who left first, tried desperately hard to become a pop star. He very nearly made it. He is good. However there are thousands of others who are also good and he did not make it.
Then his producer found out about his three sisters and one younger brother. They had all been singing all their lives and were also very good.
Five in one Family is kind of an exceptional exception.
There was the famous Jackson 5 and then the Kelly family but at this moment there are precious few family groups.
Many Famous Record labels wanted to snap them up but they chose EMI. When I was a child in the days of old Gramophones there was a famous picture on the centre of the revolving record. It was a picture of a dog listening at the end of the Trumpet of the player. It was called, "His Master's voice!"
This can mean many things. It can mean a dog listening to the voice of his crooning master, or it can mean listening to the voice of the Master, Jesus Christ? At the time of writing they have landed an excellent contract with this same EMI a very big, the third biggest in the world, record label.
Their single should have already come out but they are going to be in a German Music magazine for 14 weeks. They have completed the first three issues and in each issue they become more of the main feature.
Last week they performed five concerts in different venues at the Berlin Music festival. Then they were allowed to sing the three songs of their soon to be released Album on the main stage at exactly 3 pm, The Hour of Mercy.
It all went very well. They travelled back by ICE express train to Cologne only to find the windscreen smashed and their satellite navigation system stolen. Mikey sings a song called "A Perfect Day!" It is full of mishaps but always ends with the refrain, "It's a perfect day!"
When I sympathised and offered to help, Mikey replied, "Dad, it's a perfect day!" So they have a future as Pop artists. My son is a prolific songwriter and although most of his music, though very meaningful, has very little to do with God, it is a secular job and with the prayers to back them up let's hope they will make it.
What they do with their success is also a matter of concern and prayer. Please pray for them that will be able to be good roll models.

Our own community is learning that the other husbands are not talented to do our rather extraordinary cold canvassing approach to evangelism and they are in the process of getting supportive jobs and we are very thankful for the financial contribution they are making.
John is now full time and hands in half his earnings for the up keep of his wife and kids and for himself and then feels a certain amount of autonomy by controlling together with his wife the other half.
It is I believe a good compromise and is working well for him and for all of us. We had some pretty tough experiences to arrive at this point but Romans Ch 8 verse 28 really applies.
The same with Mark who is very talented on Computer and all things technical. He has a part time job at the moment but hopefully it will develop into full time so he too will feel more fulfilled. We are real Learners.
We drive around our lives with a Spiritual sign over our heads Learners. Disciples. From the Latin word Disco, I learn.

Part 240
Medical Expenses and Insurance in general.
We have to abide by state laws and our vehicles all have the minimum state required third party insurance which means we are insured for any damage we do to other vehicles and their occupants when an accident is our fault.
The vehicles are all old so damage to them even in the event of a write off, we would lose very little compared to a new vehicle.
Medical expenses however we do not have. I cannot recommend this to others, as this is a matter of personal faith.
We have for example had 16 children all born without paying a cent. We have always been able to find a friendly doctor who sympathised with our work and agreed to do his services for free.
Last week is an example of what I mean. Kristy aged 9 has a form of Asthma and needed a very expensive test to find out exactly what irritant was setting off her Asthmatic attacks. The cost would have been 1500$.
Well Susie, her mum, and I set out supported by lots of prayer and in one morning after visiting all the various departments of different hospitals, we got a free test.
We are now awaiting the results. What will happen when we get old or when there is an emergency well????? It has come to that, we will just have to trust the Lord.
I expect you may have heard the story of the Cruise ship that encountered a violent storm. One old scared lady passenger managed to make her way up to the Bridge of the ship. She asked the Captain how serious was this storm?
He replied that they would have to trust the Lord. She exclaimed, "Oh my God has it come to that?"

Seriously we walk on the edge of a precipice. I developed a small tumour next to my left eye.
It was skin cancer. It was growing very slowly. I told the Lord that I was going to do nothing about it unless He would show me very definitely that something needed to be done. One day while we were in Lodz, Poland, I was on my way home and the Tram broke down. I was able to hitch a lift home with what turned out to be a skin cancer specialist.
As I thanked him and said goodbye he suggested that I take care of this spot on my face. He then agreed to have it removed for free.
For a couple of days after the operation, I was walking around with a black eye trying hard to explain that I had not been in a fight. There is another one developing slowly and maybe soon that will have to be taken care off too.
Sometimes I worry about these kind of things but mainly I am able to appropriate the Grace that the Lord gives.
Part 241
Humiliating the way we do Witnessing, but very effective and rewarding. Not everybody can do it. Takes lots of guts and lots of love for the lost.
One of the main aspects of our team is a very daring and humbling approach to distributing our literature and Amateur copied DVDs, which we give out for a donation.
We do not sell anything. That is an important fact to point out. We have become very good at this job of cold canvassing people in the street or in their offices or wherever we meet them.
We go out every day except Sundays.
Part 242.
Start off in front of the Eucharist, Jesus, or the Tabernacle, which houses Jesus.
Before starting we pray in front of the Tabernacle or the Eucharist if it is on display. This is very important because it is from the presence of the Lord that we get our strength and courage to do what no one else or very few are doing.
Part 243.
Politely stopping the people.
We hit the streets and we say something like, "Excuse me, do you have a moment?" It's important to smile and look them directly in the eyes. Many times I say. "Thanks so much for stopping." So now they have stopped and you have their attention.
One has to act fast and with lots of conviction and must be absolutely prepared, and this would be the hard and embarrassing part, for them to brush you off, maybe even rudely or with foul language.
Whatever happens one has to remain absolutely calm, cool and humble and just say with real love, "Never mind, Jesus loves you. God bless you anyway. Maybe next time."
Let's suppose they stay and then you can show them a well-prepared brochure with newspaper articles and lots of photos so they can see at a glance that maybe, maybe, there is a possibility, you could be for real.
You have to forgive them for being suspicious as there many rogues around hustling people. We then give them a piece of literature in their own language, which sets out again with lots of pictures all the different aspects of our work.
There is an address many telephone numbers and an e-mail address and a website. We also slip them a simple Christian message from Mother Angelica of EWTN. For example the one we are giving out at the moment by the thousands is called, "HOPE."
Part 244.
Have a good array of Holy Cards. Remember one right picture is worth a thousand words.
We then show them an array of Holy Cards, which are laminated, and with a short prayer on the back in the Slovak language. These are well produced and we have about 20 to choose from. We again point out that they are not for sale but are for a voluntary donation. They cost about 3 cents US$ to produce in bulk and we get a donation of about 30 to 60 in return.
Sometimes more and for the poor we give them away free or for a nominal donation of a cent or a stick of chewing gum or even an old pencil or ball point pen. Remember free lit ends up in the garbage around the corner.
Part 245.
English speakers can choose a DVD or CD
If they speak English we offer them a DVD which is marked, NON COMMERCIAL PRODUCT FOR FRIENDLY DISTRIBUTION AND HAS NO COMMERCIAL VALUE. For these we usually get about between 2 to 4 US$.
These are Documentaries on the life of Pope John Paul the 2nd, An excellent documentary on Fatima, one on St Faustina with the Divine Mercy Chaplet and a documentary on her life.
A fantastic presentation by Ray Guarendi called "WHY BE CATHOLIC?" This has subtitles in Slovakian thanks to the hard work of our Priest Father Dusan.
These are all home copied and we include links to EWTN website and also how they can too get EWTN by satellite. If we can turn people on to EWTN then our job is pretty much done.
Sometimes a generous person will give us much more than the 2 to 4 $ but as these cost about 60 Us cents to produce we make a living out of it and at the same time we are promoting our Christian Faith.
SECTION 20. CHALLENGE TO THE READERS.
Part 246.
Why don't you give it a go?
This would make my day and I believe Jesus would be so happy too.
I find this job extremely rewarding. There is no retirement age and one can do it anywhere in any place as long as there are a few people around.
Some times too we make long lasting friends and only the Lord knows where all this Christian Data ends up.
I notice that it really pleases the Lord and He pours an immense amount of Grace upon us all. Sometimes I squander this Grace, but hopefully I am learning. I should add that the three women on our team, my wife, and the other two Ukrainian wives are extremely proficient at this daring and yet very effective approach but the husbands do not have this gift, and that is why they have started to take on secular pursuits.
It is a gift and only God can reveal this. As a human being it is very easy to fall into the trap of legislating righteousness.
I dare say it would be humiliating for you too. But if you love souls and you love people and you want to get through to them as the vast majority are on the Broad way, which leads to destruction, then this could be for you.

A new aspect that I am in process of learning is the sharing not only of the Gospel but to clothe it in the message of Divine Mercy. St Faustina, who died on my mother's birthday a few days before I was born, has brought this all-important message to the world at a time when sin is abounding.
KJV Romans 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
The Bible tells us that when sin abounds, grace even more abounds. So somehow we want to be messengers of not only the simple Gospel message but also this not new but now emphasised message of Divine Mercy.
Matthew Chapter 7 verse 13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

You remember I told you about Amy Carmichael's dream see Part 139
It is just amazing whom you are going to meet when you live this way. It is not necessarily just the person who gives you a whopping donation but also maybe some little person who was about to commit suicide and your meeting and literature just helped tip the balance in the right direction.
What would please me is if you when reading this would also try to do this especially if you have time on your hands. Maybe you are lonely so here is a way to smash your loneliness and meet people for Jesus Christ. If you do it right and absolutely make sure that you are not in any way offensive, no one is going to try and stop you.
Part 247.
Do not give stuff away for free. Why? Please read on.
It is important not to give away things for free. So much literature is arriving in you Post Box and is immediately dumped into the waste basket.
Always try and get a donation if you can. If they pay something for it they will read it. Even get a stick of chewing gum or a pen or a pencil or a lunch voucher.
When you ask people to help you, you put them UP and yourself DOWN. Jesus did this to the woman at the well.
KJV Gospel of St John Chapter 4 verse
4. And he must needs go through Samaria.
5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
Jesus our Lord had a need. He was tired and thirsty. He put himself at a disadvantage to win the attention of the hearer. Then He was in a very good position to tell her the Splendour of Truth. This happens all the time when you are hitching a lift or stopping people in the streets.
Part 248.
This works not just for donations of money but for just about anything you need!!!!
This method works very well when you want to get items rather than money.
In a market for vegetables or even in shops when the shop owner is around to talk to it is amazing what you can pick up.
Remember the story of Hollingbourne Manor? Or our ship across the Atlantic? Hitch hiking air planes you name it is all possible
IF YOU WITNESS. We have a saying and I would like you to remember this. IF YOU WITNESS YOU ALWAYS WIN!! No ifs and buts about it. YOU ARE A WINNER.
The Saint and Martyrs looked as if they lost suffering terrible deaths, but they are for sure winners up there with Jesus in Heaven. Full Stop. John Paul the Great talked about the evangelism of the 21st century so here is a way that little old or young nobody you can be a part and have an adventure at the same time.

Please get in touch and I will try to teach you and encourage you how to do this. Remember the Harvest is ripe but the Labourers are few.
The Lord has plenty of money but He cannot force the Labourers on to the field. Come on Catholics. We have the Splendour of Truth. Let's give it away for a small donation.
If you have the ammunition, and by that I mean you have literature and/or some Holy Cards and/or some DVDs then you can travel anywhere on the basis of Isaiah Ch 55 verses 1, 2 and 3.
Part 249.
My final lessons from the Bible and from History.
Hopefully you will see that one of our most vulnerable moments to be driven to sin is when we have achieved some success. I am talking about someone who is really trying to follow the Lord.
No 1. Moses' mistake.
Lets take the story of Moses first. The children of Israel had just been worshipping the Golden Calf. Exodus Chapter 32 verse 9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.
11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.
14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
Now imagine yourself in Moses' shoes. Moses could say that he had changed the mind of God. Pretty cool!!! Wow!! God and me!! It would be hard to remain humble after this. So let's now look at the next example when he blows it!
KJV Numbers 20:1 Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
2 And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
3 And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!
4 And why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?
5 And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.
6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them.
7 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.
9 And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.
10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we(God and ME) fetch you water out of this rock?
11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
This was and is such an easy trap to fall into. I do it lots of times. God help me. With Pride comes always a fall. Pride kills the spirit of Jesus in us.
Part 250
Peters Mistake.
No 2. Peter's mistake.
Now lets look at an example from dear Peter in Matthew Chapter 16. verse 13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Just imagine how Peter must have felt. He got the right answer. He quickly forgot that Jesus had told him it was not flesh and blood, his own flesh and blood that had revealed this secret to him but The Father In Heaven.
"Never mind," he must have thought, "I got it right I must be somebody pretty important!" "I am given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven."
20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Peter meant well but he would have to learn that in the moment of thinking he really was someone, and he was, he was going to be the first Pope, but he also had to learn that it would All Be by God's Grace and Mercy.

Well Peter had to learn and so do I and so do you! I doubt if we will ever get it down pat here? Maybe? I hope so?
Part 251.
No 3. Henry the 8th's Great Sin and disastrous mistake
Now let's take a look at History. When I opened this book I told you something about the British Spirit. Henry the eighth was such a good Catholic Prince and then King, that the Pope bestowed on him the title, Defender of the Faith for standing up against Martin Luther.
English coins to this day are stamped with the Latin contraction, Fid Def. Even in his wicked rebellion, and wicked it was, God allowed him to set himself up as the English Pope!
Never was there a man less qualified for the job. An unrepentant murderer. Henry went on to murder thousands of Catholics unless they would renounce their faith.
He did not just kill them but tortured them. News of this got through to Rome and then a huge ARMADA was formed to teach those British murderers a lesson.
Hardly could there have ever been a more just cause for a war. I am not sure but maybe it had the Pope's blessing but it sure did not have God's blessing.
Admiral Drake with his smaller ships out manoeuvred the Spanish Galleons and routed the great ARMADA.
Actually Drake even gave the Glory to God and said, "God blew and they were scattered." Why? Surely here was a just cause for violence and war? Was it? What about the Martyrs? Why didn't they fight back? Because they wanted to die for their King and God and Mother Mary as a witness.
Part 252.
Crusade's Mistake!

Then I would think of the Crusades. I remember when I was in the Island of Rhodes when I was newly married and on holiday. Those famous knights of St John had been driven back and back and back. The Crusades were a total flop.
They were meant to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims, BY FORCE. It failed. They were driven from Jerusalem to Damascus and then to Rhodes and eventually to far away Malta.
God did not want violent military help at that point or at any point. The message of the New Testament is a message of love and suffering. I am still trying to learn this. I have not arrived. I have a long way to go. Maybe this applies to you too?
SECTION 21. MY OWN ON GOING EXPERIENCE.

Part 253.
Personal lessons after so called success.
I am thinking about one very notable event in my life. I was in Brazil and newly together with the woman of my life, Joanna, second only to My Holy Mother the Virgin Mary.
The leadership of our home decided that we should get together and have an appreciation meeting. People involved in the meeting would say only good things about each person as their turn came up.
When it was my turn everyone said the most beautiful things about my character and me. It was like an experience of Heaven.
It was actually too powerful to be able to bear. As each persons turn came up everyone was crying and the tears were really flowing. I felt very weak at the end of it.
Now if I had been in tune I would have realised as I am now desperately trying to realise that when I do anything good, it has to be ONLY Jesus in me.
A real work of Grace.
When I do bad it is ME with my eyes off Jesus.
That is a pretty good rule to follow.
Actually what happened in my case was that I got the measles. I had already had measles as a child and it is very unusual to get it twice. I got it really badly. I had a super high temperature and was in bed absolutely weak and helpless for quite a few days.
On my back, I could only look up and realised that if I managed to do anything good, it had to be the Lord. In the examples of Peter and Moses and Moses especially, it was the previous success that went to his head and then he made the mistake of calling the Israelites Rebels!! And then striking the rock twice in anger.
It is OK for God to get angry, that is his prerogative. He can accurately judge and has all the factors at his fingertips.
We at best only know a very small part of all the equation, and still to this day I think like Moses did in his situation, that I have a right to judge too.
One of my relations, maybe you can guess which one, was a hater of the human race and of God and only loved animals. He also probably had a very low opinion of me.
He died and the question is, should I pray for him? The answer, of course I should.
It is all a matter of Grace and if enough Grace can be poured out on this man, even he can have a last minute repentance. But you say it is too late, he died years ago.
With God there is no time and even my late prayers can arrive in time to help him accept God's grace. It reminds me too of that story in the Holy Bible in Luke Chapter 9.
Luke chapter 9 verses 51 And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
52 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.
53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
The disciples saw how Jesus was treated badly by the Samaritans. They had no dealings with the Jews and vice versa, and especially if they could see that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
At Sychar Jesus had had a very good reception from the woman at the well story in John Chapter 4.
The Good Samaritan was a parable about just that. Jesus has a soft spot for everyone including those Muslims who captured the Holy Land and those absolutely wicked English who murdered and tortured so many Catholics over the centuries.
This anti Catholic Bigotry continues to this day in England.

Part 254.
LOVE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING, NOT FAITH OR HOPE.
Learning from others is especially easy, if you love them. We are commanded to love our enemies.
Our objective is to arrive in Heaven and be reunited with the Trinity and our Holy Mother Mary and all the Saints.
In heaven we will not need Faith or Hope. Why? Because we will see HIM face to face.
Only Love will be important. We can learn so much from others. Even if they are at the opposite end of the spectrum. Protestants, Jews, Communists, Atheists, anyone in fact. I am always pleasantly surprised that when I meet a professed Atheist, he often gives a donation.
He will be blessed and my thankful heart will set him thinking. There is always something to learn from everyone. God has allowed all these other people and organisations and religions to be around.
One new secret that I am trying to learn especially in my relationship with those working closely around me, is to make excuses for their shortcomings. When they fail to come up to the expectation that I have for them, it is so easy to chew them out and get angry and emotional; all to point out how bad they are and how disappointed I am.
This is the normal human way to deal with other's shortcomings. It never and I repeat never brings about a lasting change in another. It may seem to work in the short term but there will be no change of heart in the other, only deep wounds.
Instead I should try to make excuses for them realising what a hopeless case I am myself, maybe not in the area that they are manifesting but in other ways which in God's eyes maybe much more serious.
I wish I could say that I have learned this very important lesson. Any one who is trying to lead others must learn this or be disqualified.
I am getting very close to disqualification.
I was watching one of my favourite English actors. Maybe you can guess who he is. Maybe he is not a bit interested in God. I can pray for him. He is a creation of God and is performing to the highest standard of his ability in acting. I am sure God admires him for using the talent he has so obviously been given.
He just needs prayer so that he can get into the Kingdom of God. He doesn't need my judgement just my prayers. I am thankful that he is so talented and brilliant at whatever roll he plays.
Maybe no one has ever really shared the Gospel with him. Maybe they would have but he wasn't ready. Only God knows.
This applies to everyone we meet the so-called good and the so-called bad. They all need love and appreciation. When they see the sample then maybe they will want Jesus.
Part 255.
Saint Maximillian Kolby.

Now I would like to end by quoting from Saint Maximilian Kolby, so bare with me a little longer as here comes what perhaps is the very best part of this book. By an interesting fact it just happens to be August the 14th his day of his commemoration.
Whoever is Humble is the Greatest.
Be recollected; whoever pours himself out on exterior things quickly loses the graces he has acquired.
A full jewel box is always kept closed. Humility:
Avoid all those words which can draw down on your glory, esteem, or the appreciation of others.
Let us listen unwillingly (without interest or reflection) and with interior reluctance to the words of those who praise or commend us.
It is dangerous to listen to one's own praise in the mouths of others.
It makes one loose his good judgement.
When others praise us let us keep our sins before our eyes. In this way we will judge ourselves unworthy of any commendation, and consequently we shall find an occasion for being ashamed of ourselves and for humbling ourselves.
Rejoice when you hear others praised. J
ealousy, attachment to one's own glory, is a defect.
Never do anything so that men may see and esteem you.
Never do anything out of human respect.
Do everything perfectly, because you are working in God's presence, for God and not for men.
In every situation think more about loving than about working.
Don't offer excuses when you make a mistake.
Don't cast the blame on others.
Do not offend by sarcasm those who correct you.
Do not renounce in advance your errors which someone is trying to point out to you.
Practice for a long time and with zeal until you succeed in willing that your defects may not remain hidden any longer, and until you learn to rejoice when the others judge you imperfect.
Do this to make up for your errors.
When you are reproved unjustly, do not excuse yourself.
Cut short all thoughts of pride….
Willingly accept every opportunity for humbling yourself.
Don't be offended at a harsh word, an imperious tone of voice, not being respected as much as you would like to be.
Welcome occasions of being disregarded and humiliated, first with patience and then willingly, without raising any difficulties, and finally with joy.
That will be perfect humility.
Make acts of humility ( as also of the other virtues on which you are interiorly examining yourself), beginning with a rather small number of them; then increase these continually, and make more and more progress.
This, in fact, is how one acquires a good habit and makes it grow strong.
HUMILITY IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE VIRTUES.
I put that last bit in capitals because that is something so important and I had missed before.
God bless Maximilian Kolbe for writing something so amazing and so courageous and so necessary for me to try and emphasise in my own life.

Please get in touch by E mail or cell phone, I and Your team and Your family for Jesus, would love to hear from you.
We would especially like to help you and encourage you to take up personal witnessing as a part time or full time occupation. I hope I have been able to whet your appetite. May God continue to bless you, He loves you much more than words can tell.

One last word to all my Protestant readers. Maybe even after reading all of my personal testimony you will be having doubts about the Splendour of Truth?
I am a Roman Catholic, not because the people are better and deliver better sermons, I know some much more on fire Protestants than most Catholics.
It's not because of any reason of natural attraction but simply because it is True and has stood the test of time.
I would very much encourage you to watch EWTN and especially a programme called the Journey Home with Marcus Grodi as host.
I have been watching these with great interest and can confirm that so many people are finding the Splendour of Truth.
I would also like to recommend a DVD, one of the best and amusing Apologetics talks given by Ray Guarendi called "Why be Catholic?" It can be ordered from the following…the Internet www.ninevehscrossing.com ALSO, Most important!!!!! If you do not have a satellite receiver, PLEASE invest in one and tune in not only to Marcus Grodi's Journey Home as mentioned above but to all EWTN free programmes and watch and listen with an open heart.
You will not be disappointed. www.ewtn.com for more info.
I have had so much fun sharing my life with you. I am sorry that I am not writing from the vantage point of being a great success but from a much more important vantage point. The success of the One, who has inspired me to write all this down.
Let me ask you a question????
Are you ready?????
What if all this is true?
What if the Bible is true?
What if the Early Church Fathers are true?
What if the Roman Catholic Church with all its failings and frailties is really the True Church which Jesus unconditionally promised to build on a far from perfect Apostle Peter? I can promise you that in my experience, IT IS TRUE.
Why don't you take the time to really check it out. The best way I know as to how to start to do this is to say a simple Prayer similar to the one I prayed on a railway train going to London over 40 years ago.
"Dear Jesus if you really are the Way, the Truth and the Life, please show me. I really would like to know. Engineer and inspire and guide my life from now on so that I can find out about you. Thank you!"
THE END or to be continued?


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