8. The Effects at Work and Leisure Activities.

 How a Victim of Intimidation Became a Source of Power.

The social structure of Britain in the 1960s was quite different to what it is at present. The class structure was more rigid, and corporal punishment existed in homes and schools. In turn, there was a respect for authority to the point that some school students were terrified of male teachers who wielded the cane. No pupil would dare answer back to a teacher. At home, it was Dad who gave me my share of whacks, mainly for answering back when rebuked. To him, this was not cruelty. It was part of growing up and learning respect for others.

However, at secondary school, I was wise enough to avoid physical chastisement, even if I received my share at the joint infants/junior school. During physical education classes at our secondary school, the boys were split from the girls and combined with boys from another class. From time to time, someone would forget what day of the week it was and leave their gym kit at home. Without an appropriate excuse, such as a doctor's note, the boy was subjected to several strokes, administered with full strength, with the sole of a plimsoll across his buttocks in front and in full view of us all. Each boy's reaction differed. I knew two who just screwed their faces and took the punishment without showing any emotion or tears. But one in particular burst into tears midway through, and pleaded loudly to stop. But the master didn't until the appropriate number was delivered. 

It was this type of scene that stuck with me for life, reminded me what day of the week it was, and made me remember my gym kit. Yet throughout secondary education, I just managed to avoid corporal punishment altogether.

With such an upbringing and what I had seen, I entered the world of work with very low self-esteem. Hence, pushing a broom across the floor each morning wasn't shocking or humiliating at all. Rather, this was something to be expected. In addition to that, I absorbed teasing and smut without any reaction. And the culture in that all-male environment revealed much. That is, with only around twenty employees in the entire furniture factory, many were suffering from low self-esteem, including post-War trauma. I became a pawn or a footstool on whom others used to lift their own egos. I was still working there when, as Christmas 1972 was approaching, I was converted to Christ through the meeting of the Children of God cult in London.

All the other employees were taken aback by my new faith, as I was open about it and never kept it hidden or a secret. With one employee, war veteran Alf Earl, my testimony brought out the worst in him, denying his existence because of a vulgar lack of physical evidence. Other employees showed respect, albeit grudgingly. I was no longer the helpless pawn. Rather, I seemed to have some power residing within me.

However, in 1968, a few months after leaving school and working at the furniture factory, I joined Bracknell Athletic Club and took part in track running in the summer, and cross-country foot races in the winter. However, this didn't erase any of the mockery I had to endure at work. Rather, participation in the sport only added to it. I remained a member of the club for two years, from 1968 to 1970. After 1970, I "returned to the world", as my coach, the late Mike Marlow, puts it.

At 16, (centre), I was a member of BAC in 1969.

However, in 1972, shortly after arriving home from Spain, my first holiday abroad without my parents, I became a member of the Reading Life-Saving Club, based at Arthur Hill Pool in Reading, a large town eleven miles from Bracknell. I attended until the spring of 1973. What we did was exactly what it said on the tin: rescuing a distressed person in deep water by various methods of towing, according to a given situation. This included the extended-arm tow for calm and cooperative victims, the cross-chess tow in rough water, and the chin tow for the violently panicking individual. We also learned the Silvester-Broch method of resuscitation, along with mouth-to-mouth (both of these are now obsolete). Alongside in-water rescue exercises and dry land resuscitation, we also learned A Level human anatomy, especially of the respiratory and circulatory systems.

During these Wednesday evening sessions in 1973, I never kept my faith in Jesus Christ a secret, but I was quite open about it. Through this, I discovered two or three other believing members who have linked their life-saving sessions with their faith. Here, the atmosphere was very different from the furniture factory I was working in. No teasing, no smut, I was treated equally to other members, and there was little or no low self-esteem that had a hold at the factory. By Christmas of 1992, the same time I met the COG movement, I took the Bronze Medallion qualifying award exam, consisting of all three: an in-water rescue demonstration, a demonstration in resuscitation, and my knowledge of human anatomy. I passed the threefold exam, and I was awarded a bronze medallion.

Possessing the medalion has opened the door to becoming a pool lifeguard anywhere in the UK. In May 1973, I left the furniture factory after I was offered a post at the Central Pool in Reading as one of the four patrolling lifeguards during the weekends, and with just one other person during the school term week. It was at the Central Pool that I had to go through in-water rescue exercises under a tall, muscular and bearded duty manager, Mr Birch, whose height dwarfed all of us. A few weeks later, I was transferred to Arthur Hill, where I first trained, and I was the sole attendant of the pool during the working week.

From the post of a lifeguard, by the Autumn of 1973, I switched jobs again. I accepted a job offer at Bardens, a precision engineering factory specialising in ball bearing races. These are the two rings where the solid steel balls roll. I was there from the Autumn of 1973 to the Autumn of 1977, four years in all. The workforce was of both men and women, and a very different atmosphere from that of A.G. Clarke's Furniture. There was no smut, no dirty language, and teasing was light and occasional. Also, a hot drinks vending machine was installed on the shop floor. Attached and facing the street, the management office housed male employees dressed in their business suits, a contrast to our white overalls and a visible manifestation of our class-divided society.

As I learned to use the micro-gauge, I quickly became known throughout the company for my Christian faith, as I insisted that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that salvation is found by believing in him. During lunch breaks, I made my way upstairs to the open-plan office and testified there, too.

It was while I was at Bardens that I first attended St Jude's in Brixton. Meanwhile, my knowledge of the Bible grew, both the Old and New Testaments. And one location of note was Jerusalem, a location with which Jesus was familiar. He credited the city as that of the Great King. He was crucified there, buried nearby, and on the third day, he was resurrected, proof that he was God, and that he paid for all our sins, opening Heaven to us. 

Having done some backpacking across Europe, especially Italy, I wanted to visit Jerusalem and see the city for myself. By then, I had moved from St Jude's to Bracknell Baptist Church in the late spring of 1975. This was the result of the 1974 Greenbelt Festival, where some friends in St Jude's met some from the Baptist Church, and even in my absence, I was the subject of their discussion.

Bracknell Baptist Church in the 1970s.

Returning to Bardens, by 1976, I was ready to take off to the Holy Land for a three-week holiday. However, the knowledge that I was travelling to the Middle East on my own has stirred astonishment throughout the workforce, both on the shop floor and in the offices. I became "the talk of the town".

However, a year earlier, in 1975, I had changed churches. Under the recommendation of my friends in St Jude's, I walked into this odd-looking building next door to the college in late spring of that year. At the time, the Reverend Ben Davies, a super extrovert, short in height, bearded, and slightly plump in his body build, was regarded as the senior pastor. Under him were four deacons: Dave Prior, Bob Wilson, Alan Lloyd, and Sidney Stevens. As I write this, all four have passed away, although Ben is still alive and has moved back to his homeland, Wales. For the first time, I noticed an adult baptistry built into the church, surrounded by columns which also held up the marquee-like roof. After watching several baptisms taking place there, I too asked to be baptised.

Before the ceremony, Ben wanted me to be approached by three of the four deacons. For the following month, I was to have lunch in the homes of Dave, Sidney, and Bob. This was for each to independently assess whether I was truly converted to Christ and qualified for baptism. All three separately gave their verdict. I was genuine.

That summer of 1975, I stood on the platform to give a brief testimony to the watching congregation. Then, fully clothed, I lowered myself, along with Ben, and he dunked me underwater. Splash! And the symbol of a new life begins.

A year later, in 1976, marked another major turning point. Since the end of 1972, my conversion to Christ has started a rift forming between my parents and me. It accumulated with my father tearing up his own KJV Bible into shreds and binning it in front of me. That Bible sat in his bookcase, untouched since around 1954 or 1955. When I took it out to study and became familiar with it, this nominal Catholic and agnostic was clearly annoyed. And also, I was an embarrassment to his mates, especially on the Creation/Evolution debate.

And so, the time arrived for me to fly the nest and set up home for myself. I was 23 at the time, and two years too young to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Bracknell. But I was just old enough to rent a bedsit at a newly built estate of Birch Hill. I accepted their offer after submitting my work reference. This bedsit was to be my residence for the next 26 years, the launching pad for self-employment, for world travel, our wedding, and also the birth of our first daughter.

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Next Week, Details of Christian growth at Worship, Work, and Leisure.

7. Knocker Men.

During the Months at St Jude's Anglican, Brixton.

I attended St Jude's Church in Dulwich Road, Brixton, mainly between late 1973 and 1975. This, as I emphasised, occurred due to coming across a magazine, Buzz, while searching for a Children of God colony that was recently set up, so I was directed to Railton Road in South London, where I came across, by chance, St Jude's Infant/Junior School.

At St Jude's, I allowed myself to be "deprogrammed" from the beliefs and teachings of the COG cult, and I felt loved and accepted at St Jude's. They described themselves as a "live" church, as opposed to a "dead" church, the latter of which stuck rigidly to its Anglican liturgy in its services, including praying for the Queen, offering virtually no fellowship, and having congregants return home soon after the service ended. I felt discouraged from attending such a church. Especially with the doctrines of David Brandt Berg, whose "Revolution for Jesus" is still fresh on my mind.

Although St Jude's (and most other churches) failed to "rightly divide the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15), I could see their sincere love and belief in Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Dividing the Word means "cutting straight" like a knife through a cake, cleanly separating the whole into two or more parts. Hence, by failing to understand that the Bible has portions written for different people, at different times, and even at different places, meant that I found the "peace which passes all understanding" virtually impossible to attain. Instead, there were times when I had doubts about my salvation, I was prone to worry, and I suffered from an inferiority complex. Having lost my girlfriend in 1972, I wondered whether I would ever marry and raise a family.

So, what do I mean by "cutting straight"? Simply recognising that the Law of Moses, including the Ten Commandments, was given exclusively to Israel. Furthermore, the Decalogue was given to reveal the ten segments of the sinful nature that lies in every human heart, and the need for a Saviour. In the New Testament, the words spoken by both John the Baptist and Jesus himself are, Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. This Kingdom, addressed only to Israel, was meant to be an earthly Kingdom, with Jesus Christ reigning from the throne of his father David in Jerusalem, if Israel accepted him as their King. Instead, the nation rejected him and nailed him to a cross. 

The crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Christ from the dead ushered in what Paul called "the Mystery", which is the Gospel of free grace of eternal life. This is a free gift from God given to everyone who truly believes, and once received, the believer will never be lost again, for he is sealed with the Holy Spirit and kept by God until the day of redemption. This is the present Church Age, which is mostly for the Gentile world (non-Jews).

This wonderful knowledge was kept from me for many years, actually decades, and no doubt, there were always Christians who, over the centuries, lived and died without fully knowing this truth. But that doesn't mean that they were never saved. I, for one, was an example. I was saved in a pub in December 1972, but the knowledge of "cutting straight" didn't come until 2025. That is a wait of over half a century!

I attended St Jude's until 1975. But to show up at each service, I had to board a train at my hometown of Bracknell for London Waterloo, then travel by tube to Brixton. This became a burden, especially if there are many other churches in between. Those at St Jude's also realised this. 

Then, in 1974, some of those at St Jude's spent a week at the first Bible Week festival held in the Midlands, the Greenbelt Christian Festival. This was the forerunner of the Dales Bible Week, based in the Yorkshire Dales, and later, the Downs Bible Week, based in the South Downs in Sussex. The two I attended were Stoneleigh Bible Week near Coventry, and Spring Harvest, the latter a festival held at the Butlin's Holiday Camp, Minehead in Somerset. All the others required camping.

Greenbelt 1974 was the initial festival held near Ketley, Shropshire. Apparently, my friends at St Jude's camped near some young people from Bracknell Baptist Church, another "live" church, this one in my home town. Although I wasn't there myself, I became the key subject of the discussion that took place between the two groups.

Greenbelt Bible Festival, 1974.

However, despite the "nuisance" train journeys, St Jude's became my home church, and as I have already said, I was treated kindly. In addition to the Sunday services, I also attended Saturday Bible study and their fellowship meals. This was the advantage in those days of living with my parents. Each week, I paid Mum 50% of my wages for food and keep. The rest was mine for both saving up and pocket. Hence, these train trips were within affordability. In 1973, I saved up enough for a backpacking trip to Italy, where I stood on the rim of the crater of Mt Vesuvius and walked the streets of Pompeii.

I also bought myself a HI-FI unit with its two speakers. With it, I began to purchase Gospel music. In those days, they came either on vinyl or on cassette tape. Since I didn't have a record player in those days, I settled for the cassette tape. One cassette was the one I liked most of all. It was Come Together, by Jimmy & Carol Owens, and released in 1972. I also had other cassettes by the same singers, Tell the World, Show Me, and If My People. These recordings featured the singer Pat Boone. Another cassette I had was Scripture in Song, by David and Gale Garratt, and Praise the Name of Jesus, a music album also by David and Gale Garratt, with bird tweets in the background. These cassettes I still have to this day, but long in disuse.

The original album of Come Together.

Knocker Men.

One afternoon in 1974, I had just completed my morning shift, and I was at home with my father, who was already annoyed with my new faith. Himself a self-confessed agnostic, he still believed that the Roman Catholic church was the place to be for any religious veneration. His biggest headache I created for him was my abandonment of Darwinian Evolution and all the science and university graduations that went with it, to embrace Divine Creation with the worldview that the heavens and the earth, and all life on it, were created in just six literal days, as recent as 6,000 years ago. This alone has created a chasm between Dad and me. Especially with any hint that the Dinosaur and Mankind co-existed.

That afternoon, there was an unexpected knock on our front door, and when Dad answered it, he saw two young, smartly dressed men, of about my age, standing at the door. They identified themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses. For my father, this wasn't his first encounter with them. When I was little, Dad had a discussion with a couple of Witnesses while we lived in Pimlico. From them, he was given a King James Bible, complete with cross-references and even the date on which the events took place, dating back to 4,004 BC.

But Mum shouted angrily at him, If you have these two in again, I swear, I will divorce you! Mum was nominal rather than devoted; she still had an unwavering loyalty to her Catholic faith, a promise she made to her mother shortly before emigrating to England from Italy in 1950.

However, during our discussion, I became friendly with one of them, Paul. We were both of the same age, and we had much in common. We both wanted to get to know God better. And so, he invited me to his parents' home, less than a couple of hundred metres from our home. Here, Paul had his mate with him, and they led me to a Bible study.

The Watchtower Society of Jehovah's Witnesses is another cult, like the COG. However, their chief heresy was their denial of the Trinity, and Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and not God the Son. That is, Jesus was a created creature, inferior to the Father, who has begotten him without a mother, and was given the name Michael before his incarnation. Hence, their use of the term, the only begotten Son. If Jesus wasn't God incarnate, then his role of Saviour was reduced to the point that salvation is earned by hard work. That is, door-to-door evangelism, separating the "sheep" from the "goats". Also, once saved, always saved is denied, and one's endurance is required to be saved. With the deity of Christ denied and reduced to an archangel who was impaled on an upright pole, and not crucified, man is left to be his own saviour.

During the discussion, I instinctively stood up for the Trinity, and without any training or tutelage, I managed to defend the Trinity. Neither side was convinced, and the argument ended in a tie. They would not accept the truth of the Trinity, and I refused to accept Christ as a mere archangel. That is, until Paul's father arrived home. He didn't throw me out. Instead, he completely demolished me in his attempt to convince me of his denial of the Trinity, and our discussion ended.

But I took home a couple of Watchtower books. One of them was The Truth which Leads to Eternal Life. This was the book used in initial Bible studies for conversion. As I read it while alone in my bedroom, Dad came in with a strong rebuke, saying that in no time, I'll be converted to a Jehovah's Witness. With that in mind, he took the Bible I was reading, the very Bible given to him by a Jehovah's Witness when I was little, and in front of me, he tore it to shreds and binned it.

I was almost paralysed with shock! But I said nothing. Instead, I bought a new Bible for myself, a Revised Standard Version for easier reading and understanding. I also bought a beautiful black leather-bound King James Bible, and with this, I could compare text in different versions. The leather-bound Bible had a central cross-reference, an Index to the Bible at the back, along with a Concordance. Finally, a series of maps completed the book. To me, it was a treasure.

Another book I felt compelled to buy was Nestle's Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. The discussions I had with the JW included John 1:1, which in the KJV, reads, 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Watchtower Society had its own version of the Bible, The New World Translation. In it, John 1:1 reads, ...and the Word was a god.

Also, with their denial of the Holy Spirit as the third Person of the Trinity, and depersonalised as a mere active force, he was written without capitals in the NWT. Thus, I felt that the need for the Interlinear Greek-English New Testament was a necessity, and with it, I managed to learn how to read basic Greek.

The study made an impact on my life, and furthermore, on my colleagues at work. In the spring of 1973, I terminated my employment at A.G. Clarke's furniture factory to take on employment as a lifeguard at the Central Pool in Reading. However, by autumn, I switched to the Barden Corporation, a factory specialising in precision engineering. On the shop floor, I began to make an impact on my work colleagues, and the office staff did not escape, either.

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Next Week, how my testimony made an impact at work.

 

6. An Encounter During a Storm?

What was life like inside a cult? 

I couldn't say exactly when I found myself standing in front of St Jude's Primary School on Railton Road, Brixton. But I say a good several months, maybe even approaching a year, after my first encounter with COG at the Strand. Yet even as I sat in the primary school hall, with a magazine on my lap, I recall that rainy night I met these two young men who approached me to ask what I thought about Jesus Christ.

Most would have responded that this was none of their business, and quickened their footsteps to widen the distance between the enquirers and the enquired. But not me. Instead, feeling downhearted and wanting some attention, I responded positively, and I was converted to Christ in a pub.

As I sat on the chair and waited for the show to begin, I read the main article in the Buzz magazine, and I felt nostalgic for that fateful evening. However, I was curious to read the main article with a title that put in a clear rebuke to the statement: David "Moses" Berg was the "David" fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel 34:23-24, which reads:

And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he will be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken it.

The real David here could well be the resurrected king of Israel, the youngest son of Jesse, who reigned around 1,000 BC. But the writer of the article attributed him to Jesus Christ himself, after his second coming, to reign on his father David's throne in Jerusalem. But one thing is certain: this character was not David Brandt Berg!

As the number of his followers grew, David "Moses" Berg began to see himself as a kind of Messiah. He laid down strict rules for all his disciples. In my day, there were several sources of literature, all authored by Berg. One was titled Letters from a Shepherd, and on its cover was a shepherd's staff held in front of a distant range of high mountains. This presented a vastly different environment to the disused factory in Bromley, let alone the slums of London's East End! 

Then there were the Mo Letters, ot tracts handed to the public. On one of them was a line drawing of a young, naked female, apparently a seamstress, condemned in Hell, forever operating a sewing machine without producing anything. Her well-rounded breasts were specific in detail and beauty. Yet, I was convinced that this was created by a genuine man of God and must never be questioned.

A play with words was another feature in Berg's tracts. In one of them, he gave vivid details of the word "hole", from the recess in the Earth's crust filled with the ocean, to the female genitalia and its function. More emphasis was given to the latter than the former. He then transliterated "Hole" to "Holy", and then went on about the Holy Spirit. By believing that the author was close to God's heart (but not as a messiah), I absorbed everything he wrote as authentic and Biblical. Berg's use of the female genitalia to emphasise the Holy Spirit was pointed out in the Buzz article, and having possessed the original tract, slowly, a light began to shine within my soul, exposing the deception.

The above-mentioned literature was available to the public, but there was one that was kept strictly within the organisation. And that was The Revolutionary Manual. This was a booklet containing "classes", again authored by Berg. Studying this, one gets the impression of a radical form of orthodox, or mainstream Christianity. The first lesson was about salvation by free grace, and very unusual for a cult, Once Saved Always Saved was advocated. The second class was about being filled with the Holy Spirit. The third is about the Bible being the inspirational Word of God. Others followed, one about forsaking all to be Christ's disciple, another on street witnessing, another on daily tasks. Scripture references were sprinkled liberally within the text, and the new recruit was quickly brainwashed by the cult, believing that this organisation was setting out to achieve what the churches had failed in their mission over the centuries.

St Jude's Primary School, Railton Rd, Brixton.

The danger with this radicalisation was that there was no rightful dividing of the Word of Truth, as Paul instructed Timothy (2 Timothy 2:15). The mixing of Salvation by free grace through faith in Christ Crucified, and Discipleship, which was voluntary service to Christ's ministry. This led to a two-tier salvation. A believer who hasn't forsaken all, although he has eternal life, will still be shut out from the glorious New Jerusalem described in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. Instead, he will spend eternity free from Hell but still with regret. A "limited torment". Also, to note, there was no Communion, no Lord's Supper, nor any doctrine of the Trinity or other key Christian doctrines. As already mentioned last week, any contact with the home family was forbidden. Also, nobody claimed any property as their own. Instead, everything was equally shared by all in the colony.

Hence, in the decades that followed, I questioned my salvation and wondered whether I was really saved. Those were the years when I lacked the "peace that passes all understanding". Mixing free grace with the conditions of discipleship made evangelism very difficult, thus compounding the problem when I read about or hear sermons on the Great Commission.

How Buzz began the road to Delivery.

On that Saturday evening, whilst I was waiting for the show to begin, I was reading the main article featured in that particular edition of Buzz, a magazine published by the Church of England, and found by random on one of the unoccupied chairs in the school room. It just lay there and was ignored by others assembling in the room. It was as if whoever placed it there had the foreknowledge that I would turn up while trying to find a COG colony at Railton Road.

However, by reading and digesting the article, a ray of light shone within, indicating that David "Moses" Brandt Berg was not the supposed messiah he claimed to be. What if he wasn't after all? Would I accept the mainstream church as of God, after vigorously denouncing them over the past months?

This was difficult to accept. However, some lads of my age, including the Youth Leader, welcomed me with open arms. Each one spoke kindly, as if each had a genuine interest in me and my affairs. However, in response, I railed at them, accusing them of being "milk and water Christians" and having no idea about discipleship. Yet, even from Scripture, they showed me where I had gone wrong. Furthermore, I saw agape love in them, and, shown to me. I was taken aback. Then, one of them asked if I would like to go to his home nearby. When I said that I wasn't local, he offered a bed for the night. This kind of hospitality I was already used to, after sleepovers at Sandra's, the family home of my ex-girlfriend.

These people were of St Jude's Anglican Church at Dulwich Road, which was across a housing estate from Railton Road. Even from Railton Road, the steeple of the church could be seen. I recall my first visit to one of their evening services. As I sat through the liturgy, I, at first, felt embarrassed. I was taught by COG to despise such a place. And so I did throughout the months past. Yet, they accepted me for who I was, and for an Anglican Church, the minister, Dennis, believed in the Eternal Security of the Believer, as the COG members did. This alone helped me to settle in, and I made St Jude's my regular church, even if it meant a train from Bracknell to London Waterloo, then by tube to Brixton. Because of the travel, I could only attend the evening services.

St Jude's Anglican Church, Brixton.

Sadly, although the building is still there to this day, it ceased to serve as a church in 1980, and later was used as a furniture warehouse. The attendees of St Jude's then merged with nearby St Matthew's Church, on Brixton Hill.

One Stormy Night...

During childhood and adolescence, I grew up as a fan of the Dinosaurs and Darwinian Evolution. Before my conversion towards the end of 1972, I had always rubbished religion and any ideas of Divine Creation. As a boy, I took out the double-page colour illustration of an ancient jungle featuring a Brontosaurus from the Look and Learn, a weekly periodical published for schoolchildren, and taped it on the wall immediately above my bed headboard. Even after my pub conversion, I still heartily believed in Evolution, and the theory that Dinosaurs existed over 60,000,000 years before the advent of mankind.

One evening, I was alone in the house, as my parents and younger brother all went out for the evening. By then, I was already attending St Jude's. I was alone, and outside, a thunderstorm rolled. This was a good opportunity to read my father's Bible, and, curious, I turned to the very beginning, to the first chapter of Genesis.

I read the first three chapters, while mentally, I was begging Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and to try to be like the gods. My tension turned to disappointment when I read that they did eat the fruit. I looked up into the living room, where I was sitting. Although I couldn't see or hear him, I felt as if the Lord was standing right there, in front of me. He was offering me a choice. Either believe what I have just read, or carry on believing in Evolution. Which will I choose? There was no middle ground.

Without hesitation, I immediately believed the Biblical record as history. From that moment, I repudiated all theories of organic Evolution and embraced Divine Creation, the Fall, and the Noachian Deluge.

Little did I know back then that this was another major turning point. It has opened the door to a higher level of education and to future opportunities for World Travel, including the Holy Land.

However, this was also the cause of a widening family split.

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Next Week: Drifting from family life, and a shocking incident.