Milestones How It All Started
Ryfka’s Miracle 1990
The Yolk Shall Be Destroyed
I Will Be Your Support 1991
Whats The Matter DJ? 1992
The White Wall 1993
People Of Strange Language 1993
Decisions.. Decisions
1994
War Is In His Heart
The Sixty Rupee Radio
Song of Solomon
Khazana.. December 2001
Hindu gods in our Space
And Beyond
Fire Fall
An Unexpected Trip To India 2004
A Dedicated Laptop
How It All Started
August 1989...11pm in a tiny two bedroom cottage in Ahmedabad, India. The family was
asleep and I was sitting at my dining table, with my Bible opened to the gospel of John and a large, badly bound commentary. In between struggling with the rather long winded commentary I found myself wondering how I ever got into the mess I was in and more importantly..how I was going to get out. My
life to date had been spectacularly unsuccessful and had gone even further downhill if that were at all possible. Married and divorced twice by the age of 25, I was now in my early thirties and involved in a dangerous and destructive relationship with a man heavily on drugs. (When He went off the drugs he started drinking heavily which was worse for all in close proximity) I had succeeded to some extent to getting my life back on track after I returned to India from the US after my second divorce but had since regressed. This was a terrible relationship with the all too common mix of alcohol and drugs. It would take far too long to go into details of the endless times I ran away from my own home, the bout of amnesia I went through (I did not take drugs nor use alcohol to any significant
degree. The amnesia was probably caused by extreme stress) and the desperation. Suffice to say it was a nightmare and I had no clue as to how to get out of it. The church was little or no help. Kindness and caring were words unknown to them. I felt looked down on and had almost stopped going. So why was I reading the gospel of John in the
middle of the night? All I can say is when I was seven months pregnant my mother, son and myself made a trip to the south of India to see my father and my paternal family. Although my dad’s sister Maria was (and is) a Charismatic Catholic she was also extremely wise and said not a word to me (I wouldn’t have listened anyway) but kept putting Christian books in my hand. Somehow, slowly the books began to get interesting. It began to seep into my consciousness that maybe this was the something I had searched for for so many years without knowing what it was I sought.
When we returned home I dusted off the old Bible and, being a firm believer in doing things properly, bought a commentary. I also remembered reading that the Gospel of John was one of the best places to start, so every night I would diligently pore over John. At this point I have to digress and describe my house to you. We lived in a very tiny two bedroom cottage with, for some obscure reason, all the rooms placed in a semi circle. The front door was highly unusual in as much as it was not solid, but made of the same grillwork as the rest of the wall. It was locked by means of
wrapping a heavy chain round both doors and securing it with a padlock. Opening and closing the door meant unlocking the padlock, unwrapping the chain and then tugging on the heavy grill. This made such a racket that it had probably long since raised all the dead in a ten mile radius. This night I
was sitting at the dining table and reading as usual. My son, daughter, her father and my maid were all asleep. Out of the blue I heard a very clear, very quiet voice in the room... “Get up and go outside”. I don’t remember hitting the dining table on my way down but I am sure I did. Convincing myself that my imagination was in overdrive I resumed reading only to hear again..... “Get up and go outside”. By this time I was reasonably sure that I wasn’t hallucinating and was facing a dawning realization of who this voice possibly belonged to. so I started talking back... “I don’t want to go outside”. “I am not dressed to traipse around the neighborhood and there is no way I can open a steel cupboard to take out something to wear.” “If I even TRY to open the door, the racket will rouse the whole house and how am I going to explain where I am going at this time of night?”
But something about that voice and the calm measured tone ..... I had to go. I eased the chain off and pulled open the door which made much less noise than usual, all the while straining my ears for any sign of the any of the family stirring. I walked out on the porch and feeling extremely foolish, lowered myself into a chair. It is difficult to find the word to describe what happened next. The best I can do is to say that the very Heavens seemed to light up both literally and figuratively. I wish I could describe the sensation of the whole world being ‘lifted’
but I don’t have the words to do so. All I can say is that I found my hands in the air, speaking words that were not mine..” Thank You for taking me over”. The whole experience was akin to a huge lighted fountain being turned on, and then, a few seconds later, abruptly turned off again . That was it.
The light subsided... the night went back to normal and I went back inside the house, but deep down I knew that nothing would ever be the same again... I knew very little about Christianity and the Living God, but I did know that He had reached down out of the Heavens that night and used my own
voice to make me a promise... “I have taken you over” Why did the Lord Jesus walk into my life unannounced and so unexpectedly? I don’t know, but was one of the questions I planned to ask Him one day, along with why He had kept such a strong hand on this family for so many years. Many of the
subsequent stories are testimony to His care and guidance through some very rocky times and a gradual unfolding of what we all perceive to be a plan for us as a family. I quickly learned to go to Him whenever I had a problem or a decision to make and got accustomed to getting almost immediate and
very precise replies. The Lord warned me when something was about to happen and more than once told me He would solve a crisis long before I knew the problem even existed. I was extremely grateful for His help and direction, without which my life would have been an intolerably difficult path. The Lord, quite literally, became almost the only rock I had. Definitely the only sure thing in a very unstable world, to the point that I could not imagine going on without Him. All the while I was under the impression that that my experiences were shared by all Christians. It was only much later that I began to realize that this was not quite as I had imagined. That many Christians don’t believe that God communicates with a person on a one to one basis. Realizing this, I resolved
that I would, one day, ask the Lord why He had intervened so directly in our lives. However, in the light of hindsight, it is entirely possible that I will have the answers to these questions long before I get to Heaven. Subsequent events through the years have led us to the almost inescapable
conclusion that our lives have a purpose, that we have a very definite job to do on earth, and that the incident mentioned on this page was only the first small step.
Ryfka’s Miracle
1990...
Ryfka was a little over one and a half years old. Pretty as a picture, so very good-natured and healthy and the love of all our lives... Until she got malaria... the scourge of so many parts of the world. Malaria
can be a very dangerous and debilitating disease and the malaria drugs themselves leave you feeling like you crawled out from under a rock. Many people cannot stomach the tablets and have to take shots instead Both my mum and DJ had had several bouts of malaria and seemed to get over it without too much
difficulty. Not so with Ryfka. She started the course of medicine, seemed to get better but had a relapse just as the course was coming to an end. She was given a further five days of drugs and was, by this time, getting very weak. We did however have great hopes that this second course would knock it out of her..... It didn’t. She had a third relapse and whether, for some reason the drugs did not kill all the parasites or whether she was re-infected is something no one seemed to know.
BY this time the drugs were taking their toll and she had reached a point she could hardly lift her head off the pillow. The doctors said that her system would not tolerate any more of the medication.. If the malaria didn’t get her, the drugs would. I believe they had given up all hope. I have not been known to panic many times in my life but by now I had chewed my fingernails down to the elbow. She lay there all weekend...... and it was more than we could do to get her to swallow liquids. By Monday morning my house filled up with friends rallying around us. I will never forget the husband of one of my
teachers who took leave from work and put himself “at our disposal’ for whatever we wanted to do. Now will I ever forget one of the rickshaw drivers who used to transport the children to and from school arriving with a big wad of money in his pocket...” Incase” We made the decision to move Ryfka to my
mother’s apartment which was way quieter than my house which had the school attached on one side. We got her over there and settled her in. I spent Monday night at my mother’s but had to return home for a short time on Tuesday morning to take care of some of the school business so never witnessed the ‘miracle’. Sheila (our housekeeper and Ryfka’s second mother) stayed with her and my mum. Sometime that morning my mother unable to bear the situation any longer went down on her knees at the foot of the bed and prayed a very short prayer.... “Jesus..save this child.. only you can do this now”. She looked up and to her amazement Ryfka had raised her head off the pillow and was struggling to sit up. In fact she not only sat up, but rolled her way to the edge of the bed, got off and walked across the room
on very unsteady feet. Mum later remarked that she looked like a very small drunk staggering her way across the floor. I think both mum and Sheila were too stunned at that moment to do or say much but Ryfka took care of it for them. Her first words were “Hungry!”. Sheila asked her what she wanted and she replied “Eggy”. She never looked back from that moment on and made an amazingly quick recovery... Today she is a healthy, beautiful teenager and it is hard to imagine that except for the Lord she may not have been with us today.
The Yolk Shall Be Destroyed
Christmas 1990.
Shortly after the Lord healed Ryfka of malaria I made a short trip to the city of Bangalore in the south of India to visit my father’s family.
Nothing had changed in my situation except that I had almost broken away from the tiny evangelical church I was going to. I understood the church people’s point of view about living with someone I was not married to but I also knew it was close to impossible for me to do anything about it. Why is it that so many times your logical mind knows that you have to find a way to get out of a situation and yet you feel that it is beyond your strength to do so. No one in the church seemed to understand this and to be perfectly honest.. no one seemed to care about the emotions involved. To them it was all cut and dried. “You are not supposed to do this.. so stop!” It was not anywhere near as simple for me.
Ryfka’s father had left more than once and had always returned. I felt like nothing was in my control and in many moments of desperation had told the Lord that if anything was to be done about the situation He was going to have to be the one to do it... an attitude that was not looked favorably on by
the church. While I was in Bangalore I had a few heart to heart conversations with my dad’s sister and she suggested that I bring the family there for Christmas and perhaps there was a Christian organization there that could help Peter. I flew home a few days later with this one ray of hope...
Perhaps this was the break I had been praying for. Back home I was reading my Bible in Isaiah one afternoon and my eyes kept straying to the opposite page. I kept trying to concentrate on the page I was reading until it dawned on me that my attention was ‘being drawn’ to something. That something
was Isaiah 10:27. “and it shall come to pass in that day that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yolk shall be destroyed because of the anointing”. At this point in time I was not sure whether the relationship was to be broken up or the yolk of drugs be ‘removed’. In the light of hindsight it is pretty obvious but it wasn’t then. The Christmas holidays in India have one thing in common with the rest of the world.. It is very difficult to get train tickets and by no stretch of the pocketbook could we afford plane tickets. I had tried several agents etc and no one held out much hope. I was beginning to look like we were not going to be able to go after all and I was crushed. It seemed like the one hope I had was rapidly
disappearing. When it seemed like I had to abandon all ideas of Bangalore, the Lord spoke to me again, this time through Psalm 107:7. “And He led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city of habitation”. Bangalore probably has more Christians than any other city in India and City of Habitation seemed very apt. I knew then that we would somehow get the tickets, as we did a few days later thanks to several cancellations. In the period of time before we left I had asked the Lord over and over again what He meant by Isaiah 10. One night after another battle, which once again threatened to get out of hand causing me to stay overnight in my mother’s apartment. I was settling in for the night and talking to Lord while doing so when the voice said very
clearly “Read Mark”. “Read Mark? Lord do you know how long Mark is? Do you know how late it is? You want me to read the whole of Mark?” It certainly sounded like He did, so I got up, put on the light and began to read. It did not take long before I knew why I was reading Mark. I was so tired and so emotionally drained that I am sure my concentration was nonexistent, until I got to the Mark 3:25. “And a house divided against itself cannot stand”. I knew. As I recall the first three days in Bangalore were okay, well sort of okay. Polite at any rate. After that it all went downhill and it was a very steep slope. P was on his worst behavior, including several trips to see if he could find some ‘stuff’ My family didn’t take very kindly to the shenanigans and somehow I got blamed
for it all. So add confusion to misery and Christmas mysteriously loses some of it’s charm. The last straw came on the 31st night when P, in the never ending search for ‘a high’ got a hold of some of my dad’s medication which was put into his dinner every night. A word of explanation here... My dad had been a mental patient for years and as long as he was on certain drugs he was pretty easy to handle...
The drug in question had to have been more than a sedative and instead of the standard dose of a few drops he swallowed half the bottle. Trust me.. you NEVER want to try this stuff. You never want to so much as sniff it. the reaction was swift and terrible. I don’t remember all of the details but I do remember that he could not get his tongue back into his mouth.. New Years Eve in a hospital bed with a patient you are very inclined to want to kill is not recommended. This was the last straw.. Everyone had had enough and P made arrangements to leave and go back to Ahmedabad to MY house. As much as I hated to stay behind with no one in the house except Dj and Ryfka talking to me but I had little or no intention of going back with him. what precisely I was going to do was something
that I couldn’t even think about.. I don’t think I really cared. My mother and DJ had to leave for home as well. Dj had to go back to school and planned to stay with her until I knew what was the next step was. I was totally isolated in Bangalore. No one was really talking to me and I missed
home. the only company I had was Ryfka who was two years old at the time. While she was a delight, she lacked a certain something when it came to a sane meaningful conversation. The good thing is that during ‘my exile’ I met some phenomenal men and women of the Lord. I started going to a small ‘in home’ bible class taught by a wonderful woman who was fluent in Greek and could explain all the subtle nuances of the book of Hebrews. There were several instances when the Lord reminded me that He was still in control. He spoke to more than once from His Word. Once, when I was was exceedingly down He brought Colossians 3:2 to my attention. “Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth”
Another time it was Psalm 20:6 “Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed. He will answer him from Heaven with the saving strength of His right hand”.
The most awesome was from Deut 3:24 “Oh Lord God, You have begun to show your servant your greatness and Your mighty hand”
This was in December before P left.
Two of the most amazing incidents happened during this period. One morning just before P left my aunt woke up one morning with the name Saul going through her head. She was strongly convinced we had to go and see Saul who was a Christian psychologist. At that point in time I thought “This must be the man who will help get P straightened out”. So we made an appointment with him and he and P talked for a long time. they came to agreement on several things including how many times a week they would meet and also P had to give his word that he would call Saul ANYTIME of the day or night that he felt the urges too strong to resist. Aha! At last thing seemed to be going better.
Of course it was only a matter of a day or two until P decided he didn’t need anyone helping him and refused to keep the very first appointment. Disappointed beyond belief I took the long drive to Saul’s office to tell him that P would not be there that day. Since Saul had the time earmarked for P
anyway we sat out in his garden and talked for a long time. I know we must have talked about a lot of things but all of a sudden Saul said something that jolted me... The feeling was closely akin to being slapped sideways. Or as my grandmother used to say “being slapped into the middle of next week”. He said something to the effect of why did I think I was responsible for P?
Who precisely had said, or ever implied that I had to take on his problems? All of a sudden I felt like someone had shed a great light into my brain. Part of the reason I kept letting him back into my life was the deep seated but totally illogical feeling that if I didn’t try and help him his continuing addiction would be partially my responsibility. All of a sudden there was a sudden clarity.. something had finally got through.... I WASN’T RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ADULT WHO COULD MAKE THEIR OWN CHOICES. I had NOTHING to feel guilty about.. I had done more than could be expected already. I know this is something I should have known all along and probably did (somewhere deep down) but the realization of it was like a strong wind that blows away much in it’s path. I suddenly felt different, stronger, cleaner, and very relieved. The vague feelings of guilt had been swep away. My aunt had been right.. We had to see Saul, but it was for my benefit, not anyone else’s.
While I was still in Bangalore I heard of an interdenominational prayer group that used to meet weekly. I felt a deep urge to attend one of their prayer meetings but didn’t know Bangalore very well and asked my aunt to take me, which she agreed to do. On the evening in question
she wasn’t feeling very well so I suggested we make it the following week. However she felt that since I had had strong feelings about going, we should go. We got to the place and were rather embarrassed to find that they were celebrating something that day and had planned coffee and cake after the meeting. We tried to excuse ourselves and disappear but they would have none of it. While we were standing around and meeting various members of the group a man, a total stranger, came up to me and said that he had a word for me from the Lord. He said that he didn’t know me and didn’t know my circumstances but he felt that I was going through hard times and that the Lord had told him to tell me that I was being refined in the fire and that I
was not to worry.. He was with me. Another bolt from the blue. I knew why I had to come to that prayer meeting. I also had two dreams during this very lonely time. The dreams that are from the Lord are very different from any other and have come to be referred to in my house as ‘One of those dreams’. They have an amazing clarity and I remember them years later. Both these dreams were about being in a very tight spot.. one in a pool without a bottom I could reach and the other on a roof of a house without a way down. To cut a long story
short I managed to pull my way out of the pool and scramble down from the roof. Both these dreams only reinforced the message I was getting from other sources. It was a very difficult situation but I would make it. Three long months went by. I had had several letters from DJ and my mother and a few very precious ones from Tony... A Nigerian friend who had done more to encourage me and my faith than anyone else. He never judged, never condemned and was always there. Sadly, while I was
still in Bangalore Tony left for home and we lost touch. (See Footnote) Then one day I received a letter from mum telling me that P had had packed his bags and left and that I should come home. However I still felt that the Lord had not yet said “yes”. So I waited a little longer. Then one wonderful day I felt a total release deep inside and I knew it was okay for me to go home. I cannot even begin to describe to you what it felt like to be home again... MY home. With no one there to
disrupt my life. Never again would I have to run away in the middle of the night, never again would I have to lie awake at night wondering what would happen next. It was my home and it was totally peaceful. It was wonderful. No, it was the closest this to Heaven I will experience on this earth. I had also, unknown to me, come to home to a bad financial crisis... but that’s another story and one I never tire of telling. I learned a great deal from this series of incidents. I learned of the Lord’s intervention in the lives of men and how He can pull out impossible situations if we will let Him. The only person I talked to about my situation in any depth was the Bible teacher who I met in Bangalore.
I talked to her once about being so terrible isolated all those months both before and after coming to Bangalore and she made an interesting observation which made sense. She said that I was probably very lucky that for a long period of time I had no one to turn to.. this forced me to seek help from on high and in the process I found my God. Though it was really tough on me at times I was also grateful that it had turned out the way it did. Jesus knew that that He had to pick me up and whisk me off somewhere far away and keep me there for a period of time to break the never ending cycle I was in.
He sent me to speak to Saul (who was the first person who made sense to me), He encouraged me all the way, He warned me many times that it was going to be tough but I would make it. He had saved me with the saving strength of His right hand.
Footnote:
We have since found Tony .. In November 2004 a long though sporadic search came up with the right Tony living in the US on the East Coast. We have not met in person but hope to someday soon.
I Will Be Your Support
1991 As I mentioned before while I was yet in Bangalore I met several strong Christians, some of whom
belonged to a small church I began to attend. They were a wonderful caring group as was their young pastor and his wife. I made friends with the couple and spent a couple of very pleasant evenings at their home. The church
had a prayer meeting scheduled for the evening before I was due to leave Bangalore and they decided to have a small ‘goodbye’ get together for me afterwards. Shortly before the meeting was about to come to a close I looked up to see the pastor (we were all sitting in a small circle) looking at me with a rather strange expression on his face. Later on he came up to me and said that the Lord had said something that he was supposed to convey to me but he did not fully understand what it meant and that The Lord’s exact words were “I will be your support”. I was puzzled but somehow felt this was financial support the Lord was talking about. I mentioned this to the pastor and he said that he had had the same impression. This was confusing as if there was one area I seemed to be okay in (at least at that particular time) was my finances. My school had been running while I was away and my mother had been paying my bills etc. The last I had heard I had enough money to last me to the end of the term still more than three months away.
My totally delicious home coming didn’t last very long. It didn’t take much time to discover that somehow, somewhere along the line the accounts had gone terribly wrong and I was broke. (I still haven’t figured out exactly what had happened while I was away) A few days later I had come down to fifteen
rupees in the house and three months to go before my next paycheck. Many schools in India take term fees which could be once every three or six months.. I had elected to do the six month bit. (There are no public schools in India) Fifteen rupees and three months to go!
...... There wasn’t even enough food in the house to get us through the next three days. I also had the pastor and his wife coming over for dinner in an attempt to make peace (which turned out to be an uneasy truce) I had warned them of the situation and told them they would be fed left overs. . That night Dj and got into bed with my head spinning... What in the world were we going to do? How would I feed the kids? What was going to happen? About ten PM, as I was about to fall asleep, someone rang the bell on the gate. Wondering who it could possibly be at that time of the night I went to my grill door to see a man standing at the gate. He apologized profusely for the intrusion and asked if he could speak to me for a
moment. As it turned out he was from the neighboring town of Anand and owned
a pedigreed Great Dane female. (Not too many people in that part of the world keep Great Danes) He had brought her in to Ahmedabad to be mated with a male whose owners lived not too far away, but every attempt at mating the two failed.... I didn’t really ask why. The the owners of the male then told him of another Great Dane male (my Jethro) who they thought was also registered. He was. The gentleman said that his dog’s time had almost passed and he hated to have the entire trip wasted. He wondered if I would agree to an attempt to mate her with Jethro. Not having a thing to lose I agreed.
To cut a long story short he brought his female over early the next day.... Everything went very smoothly and after a cup of tea the jubilant owner thoughts turned to the two hour drive home. As he was walking out of the gate he handed me an envelope with five thousand rupees in it. This, at the time,
was the entire amount paid the male’s owners if they did not want ‘pick of the litter’. However the money was usually paid in two installments. Half up front and half after the female conceived. For no apparent reason Rohit (the owner) put the whole amount into my hands and walked off. I don’t suppose even he knows exactly why he did this. I do! The Lord said He would be my support long before I even realized I had any need of support.
Whats The Matter DJ?
1992...
This part of the story has been written by Dj In every persons life there are events that take place, which leave an indelible impression. Happenings, as it were, that form our life, shape our future and play a role in creating the person we are today. While there are many stories, and
many people who have impacted my life, the story you are about to read has perhaps changed my life more than all the others put together. And while the events are not ones I would want to relive, the experience and the lessons learned will live on. I grew up in the medium sized city of Ahmedabad,
in Gujarat India. I must have been close to 13 years old and the school I attended was at a reasonable distance from my house. I used to ride my cycle to school and it would usually take me about an hour each way. Ahmedabad was a paradoxical city. If one were to compare it with cities of similar
size it was very safe ... most of the time. There were certain areas one did not wander into alone or after dark, but by and large there were very few incidents of violent crime. However the city was also plagued by periodic outbursts of bloody racial rioting between the Hindus and Muslims. There have been unofficial eyewitnesses who have counted as many as 200 bodies lying in the street after one outbreak of violence. Some of the areas that I had to ride through on my way to and from school
were notorious during the riots. On this particular day the storm clouds had been gathering for a several days with minor clashes in a few places. And while the atmosphere of the entire city was tense and very wary, most schools continued to function as usual. Suddenly towards noon the trouble
broke out with vengeance. My school principal immediately ordered the school shut and told the students to leave, as was happening in most of the other schools in the city. Deserted by friends equally anxious to get to safety, I finally got on my cycle and began to wend my way home. Needless to
say I was terrified. I had hardly gotten started on the long ride when I realized that the only way home was blocked by a huge, angry mob. As with most rioting mobs they were burning rickshaws and cars, breaking into shops and beating up any passersby as they went. A little over twelve years old,
no other way to get home I did the only thing I could think of … I stopped. It was about that time when I was desperately trying to figure out what side roads I could possibly take when I heard a strong, calm voice say... "Get on your bike and ride on". I would be extremely hesitant, to trust some voice in my head and ride into a raging mob, but, when I hesitated, the voice spoke again "What's the matter DJ; Don't you trust me?". I will never be sure what prompted
me to act on the urging of the voice but heart in my mouth and reciting the only Biblical verse I really knew, Psalm 23, over and over again I remounted and rode directly towards the mob and beyond it … home. Riding into the mob, I noticed the strangest thing. As I approached them, the people
would step aside and allow me to pass almost as though I was not to be harmed. I know what it must have felt like physically and emotionally when the Israelites walked through the parted Red Sea, I’ve been through a Red Sea of my own. While there are those that might argue that it was merely the
sight of a little boy that moved the mob to compassion, I know for a fact that several youngsters were murdered in that same area, in the same time period. So when today I come to situations that are scary or unpleasant, I still go back to that voice and find confidence to move on... in those words. “What’s the matter DJ, don’t you trust me?” DJ Quinn
The White Wall
February 1993.. We were doing okay except for the finances. We never seemed to have enough money and no matter how carefully we budgeted it always seemed to run out before the six month period was up and the fees for another term came
in. At this time Dj was still in the same school and was still traveling a long way each day. The riots described in the last story turned out to be long and very bloody. School were out for many days
which was really bad timing as the mid-term exams were looming on the horizon. Taking advantage of the break he and his best friend Saumik spent many days at our place studying together. One day he was preparing some answers in English Literature which was a breeze for him. Feeling that he would do well to turn his attention to something a little more difficult he asked me to write out a couple of the answers which I did. The city gradually limped back to normal, schools resumed and the term exams came and went. All well and good until DJ’s report card came in....... He had flunked in five subjects.. including English. When I got the actual exam papers back I carefully scanned the English paper and could find no reason he had flunked. In
fact it was my belief that he should have done very well on the paper. To add to which two of the questions I had helped him with had been asked and he had quoted my answers almost verbatim yet had hardly been given any points for them. I suspected that a large part of the problem was that he had
had an altercation with his English teacher some time prior to the exams and this was the result. Sadly, though most students in India learn English in schools (it is a required subject if the medium of instruction is in the vernacular) the standards can leave much to be desired, an understandable situation when English is not your mother tongue. The next day I went to the school and showed DJ’s English paper to the principal. To cut a long story short he refused to do anything about it and being thoroughly irritated by this time I challenged anyone in the school including the principal to frame the answers better that had been done, very secure in the knowledge that they would be pitting their English against mine. (Inow, I know! I shouldn’t have done it!)
The upshot of all this was that DJ refused to go back to school. He acknowledged that he had probably done very badly in language and math but refused to accept that he had done equally badly in English. He had a long and difficult ride to school and as he said even if he brought his other grades up to
par, all his work would be for nought if he was flunked in English again in the final exams.. DJ had never been a rebellious nor a difficult child and I did see his point. However the situation was very complicated. It is VERY difficult to get admission into schools in India and to find another
school that would take him without a huge donation, which I didn’t have, would be impossible. I was very upset and very worried about how he would continue his education especially with such a bad report. That night I was talking to the Lord before bed and He said very clearly “Ephesians 1:11” which says “He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will”. I could not understand this and wondered how “His will” could possibly be in this situation. That night I had one of ‘those dreams’ Very briefly I dreamed that I was on a ship and saw a tidal wave approaching which was large enough to swamp the entire vessel. Someone on board said that it was going to be on us in a day or two but I knew it would hit in the next few minutes. As the solid wall of black water came
within inches of the ship a low, glistening white wall rose from nowhere. The tidal wave which was much much taller than the wall hit it but only a few drops of water splashed over the wall. This was a very comforting dream... I felt protected. The next morning I was looking through the newspapers
and saw and ad for a school called St Anns that had recently been started. Taking a chance I visited them and told the principal what had happened. She only had one incredulous comment “YOUR son failed in English!”
She Also said that they would accept DJ as a student but they had three terms and there were five weeks left for the final exams. If DJ could manage to get passing marks (35%) they would promote him to the next class or grade. They would also give him any additional tuition or extra classes if he felt he needed them. Six weeks to cover several months work! It seemed an impossible task to me but Dj was determined to try. To add to this he was in hospital with appendicitis which knocked about ten days off the already inadequate time he had to prepare for the exams. However with a lot of hard work he not only made the minimum grade but ranked tenth in the class of more than 60 students. This school was a MAJOR turning point in DJ’s life. He changed for the better so rapidly it made my head spin. His personality and leadership traits began to emerge with so much encouragement and was class prefect the next year. The following year he was school captain, a position held in high esteem by the entire school.
When Ryfka joined the school she was known as ‘DJ’s sister’. For several years after he graduated whenever he visited his Alma Mater it was amusing to see young children nudge each other whispering “There’s DJ” I do not believe this would ever have happened in his previous school and I thank God who works things “according to the counsel of His own will” He knew what was best for DJ.
People Of Strange Language
August 1993... DJ
was well settled in his new school and we had
returned to the perennial problem of being short of money. I knew I had to do something to supplement our income. Examining my strengths and weaknesses I realized that I had one distinct advantage.. Thanks to my English Irish heritage ( My mother was an ‘O’Neil’ and her mother a ‘Ball’. My grandmother was born in what is now Pakistan and was the first generation to be born on the Indian subcontinent) I spoke fluent English (a vast majority of Indians speak English in varying degrees but most do not speak it fluently). I began toying with the idea of teaching English as a second language to adults. I had been teaching for years, enjoyed it thoroughly and it seemed like it would be a pleasure to work with adults for a change. However this would be easier said than done. I had no access to course materials and I would have to design my own syllabus etc. This would be a laborious and difficult process & one I was not willing to embark on without a clue as to whether even one student would entrust themselves to me.
By now I was learning fast. Difficult problem? Ask the Lord.... He knows! His answer to this question amuses me to this day as I am sure it amused Him back then when He gave it. The verse He gave me was from Ezekiel.. Chapter 3 and verse six. What I read was “..People of a strange language and harsh
tongue whose words you cannot understand. Surely I will send you unto them and they will hearken unto you...: This is not exactly as the verse reads but in my haste I put two and two together and came up with 22.. Gujrathi ( the language of my state) is a harsh tongue and one I do not follow very well
and I took the whole verse as a go ahead. It wasn’t till a few years later that I realized that I had misread part of the verse but I am very very sure that the Lord knew that I was going to do just that, which is why He gave it to me. After a lot of ground work I started the classes and had students from
all walks of life.. college students, businessmen, housewives and one college professor who was my favourite pupil. (He was a world renowned professor of Sanskrit) It was hard work as I had several batches a day but I really enjoyed teaching. However the really amazing part of this episode is next.
Decisions.. Decisions
July 1994
For the previous three years the Ahmedabad municipality had been overcharging me on property taxes. After
countless futile and very frustrating attempts to get this straightened out.. I had no recourse but to take it to the small claims court. After a prolonged court case the judge ruled in our favour. Winning the case was really good, but it also meant that I had to pay the back taxes, although it was a much smaller amount than I had been previously billed for, it was still a large sum of money for me..... Money I didn’t have. At about this time the latest batch of ‘English as a second language’ students was about to come to a close and DJ’s school offered me the job of overseeing their primary section which would have meant a small steady income. The choices were to either put in an ad for my English classes and start teaching another batch or take the job at the school. I was extremely undecided as to which course would be best in view of the large bill hanging over my head. Everyone I talked to seemed to think that since there was no guarantee of how many students I would get, and that the school job, while not very well paying, would mean a steady income, it
would probably be best to work at the school. Somehow, for some reason, I was not entirely convinced but had to give the school a definite answer very shortly. Then one day I suddenly realized that I had been worrying my head off trying to come to a decision and had been talking to family and friends about
what I should do. I realized that people, no matter how well intentioned, could only give me advice to the limits of their knowledge and wisdom. However people cannot see around corners, nor do they know what the future holds..... but I knew someone who knew exactly what was going to happen and could see around all corners. So what was I doing talking to people? So, as I always did when I needed an answer to a thorny problem, I went into my bedroom, closed the door and began to talk to Him. It wasn’t very long before Psalm 68:12 came to mind. To my knowledge I had never read that particular psalm before and, if I had, I certainly didn’t remember it. “....She that tarries at home divides the spoils”. The decision had been made. I showed the verse to DJ and his only comment was “I guess you aren’t going to be joining the school then”. He was right. I put in another newspaper ad for my English classes and the truly amazing part was that this time the response was overwhelming. My phone rang off the hook and I tripled the
usual number of students. I made enough money to pay the entire tax bill in one shot. Had I taken the job at the school I would have been paying it off in small increments for the next year. Why we humans ever rely on our own judgement and wisdom is beyond me. Common sense said “Take the steady job” God said “I’ll send you the students.
War Is In His Heart
I believe this incident occurred late in 1995. This is a story I
should not ever have had to write as it is sheer stupidity to ask the Lord about something that the Bible is already very clear about. I had taken a job with what I later realized was a time share company. Back then I had never heard
of timeshare but the job paid extremely well and I was glad to have it until I realized that it was not altogether on the up and up, but thats another story. I was also on the verge of making another foolish mistake in my life. I was interested in someone I had recently met who was not a Christian. This fact alone should have been enough for me to drop any idea of a relationship but I was not completely aware of how strong the Biblical warnings are against the ‘mixing of light and darkness’, and tried to gloss over the ones I was aware of. However something about this relationship bothered me and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it... From time to time I had the uneasy feeling that this person was not all he made out to be and as time went on this began to gnaw at me.
One evening I had several friends and colleagues over and we were all sitting around in my bedroom chatting. (My living room was so tiny that invariably people spilled over into the bedroom and onto my king sized bed which was in the corner against two walls). On this particular evening I was sitting
with my back against the wall and paying little attention to the cheerful and lively conversation. I was very far away. In fact I was talking to the Lord about whether this relationship was ‘okay’. I know! I know! Very foolish and I am glad to say I have learned a lot since those days. With a room full of people making a fair amount of noise, I didn’t really expect the Lord to say anything but all of a sudden I heard, very clearly and distinctly.... “Psalm 55:21” Taken by
surprise but unwilling to wait until later to read what the Lord was telling me I climbed over to my Bible which was on the table on the other side of the bed. “The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, But war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, Yet were they drawn swords” I knew then that the relationship had gone as far as it was going to. Shortly after this when I called the budding relationship off I did see the uglier side of the person and realized how right the Lord had been... Again. It was about
two years later that the Lord brought someone into my life, someone who lived half a world away in Washington. It is a story I will always marvel at and be grateful to Him for for the rest of my life..... But, six years into the marriage there is always this niggling feeling that there was, and is, more to this than simply bringing two people together.
The Sixty Rupee Radio
1996 For a long long time one of my biggest health problems was a mystery ailment that involved me getting very swollen… very tired and in a very bad mood. It often took more that
24 hours for me to feel better.. Sadly DJ learned to look at my hands as a barometer of what the day would be like. If my hands were swollen he and Ryfka tended to walk carefully. I do not remember how long this had gone on but after a particularly bad bout I decided to see a doctor, but had no idea who I should go to, since I did not have a personal physician at the time.. So I talked
to friends and eventually came up with the names of three different doctors. Not having the faintest idea of which one would be right I left it to the Lord. A couple of days (I was sick again) later one of my co-workers unexpectedly showed up at my house in the evening, husband in tow (he had just got home from work and had been dragged out again by his wife). She explained that she could not get rid of the
nagging thought that I had to go and see HER doctor. In fact she said that it was bothering her so much that she could not wait until Monday to tell me. I asked he who her doctor was and she mentioned one of the names already recommended. Of course! I now knew who I had to see but did not at the time have the money to do so. So, I remember praying that most doctors charged Rs 60.00 for a first visit and if this was the doctor the Lord wanted me to see, He would have to provide the money.
A couple of days later
we were sitting around when my maid walked into the room and told us that one of the traveling junk men was outside and did I want to see what he would give us for the ancient radio we had in storage. Indifferently I agreed and she took it down, only to storm into the room a few minutes later breathing fire and brimstone. Apparently that crook (her words) was only willing to give is Rs 60.00 for the radio and she had pretty much told him what he could do with the money. She wasn’t a very happy camper when I sent her chasing after the man to accept his offer.
To cut another long story short the doctor wound up running battery of tests all of which came up negative. Apparently I was as healthy as a horse. I cannot for the life of me remember where the additional money for the tests came from. Anyway when he had about given up and was, to my disgust, hinting at psychoanalysis I was about to walk out of his office, when he said the magic words… Of course it
could be an allergy. I knew that that was what I had come to hear. Don’t ask me how.. I just knew. Sadly it was many many years before I found what I had been allergic to.. in fact it was only by accident in 2007 that I discovered an allergy to nuts, and experimenting further also allergic to beans and soy. We had never been able to find the allergen in India as much as we tried, simply because we never included our cooking (read peanut) oil into the equation. It was just oil, or so we
thought. I guess I am curious as to why it took so many years to find the problem and why I found it at this stage in my life. Time will tell.
Song Of Solomon
1997
I had just finished with several short term projects which helped relieve the financial situation to some extent. Dj and I had done a Philips multi media workshop and helped organize a five day inter-school, inter-college event as part of Hewlett Packard’s international printer awareness campaign.
However I was restless. We were a very close family and even to date I consider it more interesting talking to DJ than most other people. However I was beginning to be acutely aware of the lack of ‘someone’ in my life. Then the husband of a really close friend who had worked with me at the school for years was promoted and they were moving away. Apart from missing her personally the thought of running the school myself was unpleasant to say the least. My only other very close friend had
bought a house much further away which meant I would see considerably less of her. These two families had been my support group for years and I couldn’t imagine doing without them. To add to this DJ had been given admissions to two universities in Illinois and we were trying to figure out how we would swing this.... there was a considerable chance he would leave too. All of a sudden my foundation was being pulled out from under me which is when I decided I had to meet someone and this time it would be a Christian man. The divorce rate in India is very low so the chances of meeting someone in my age group was slim to nonexistent. In any case Christians number only a little over 2% of the population so I figured it would have to be someone who lived outside India and the only way to do
this was over the internet. Of course the fact that I wasn’t quite sure what the internet was didn’t give me much pause. With a borrowed modem and our 386 (worked like a charm) we set out to discover the intricacies of the world wide web. Luckily it doesn’t take the younger generation much
time to figure our stuff like this and it wasn’t long before DJ had found a couple of ‘personal’ sites. Almost the first ad he found was placed by a man who was looking for an honest Christian lady. DJ’s comment was “Write to him mum, he seems like a nice guy”.
At the time I wasn’t too keen on an American simply because of the high divorce rate in this country but I wrote anyway. He was totally taken aback at receiving a letter from India but was intrigued at the thought of learning about another culture etc. We wrote for many months and developed quite a friendship. In the mean time I was taking a lot of flak from various people who scoffed at the whole idea of meeting someone on the internet. To me it was a very logical way to do it. I figured that if there was one good man out there and he had a computer I would find him. I know a lot of my friends thought I was nuts. However this time I was very very determined to do it right. I was not going to be carried away and was going to screen every
letter and read between the lines. You know what? It does work pretty well. If one is very objective it is amazing how many traits come out in the written word. I dropped a lot of people after just one or two messages and had met some ‘possibilities’ All this time Al and I were writing regularly. My letters to him were different from all the others as I considered him a friend and little else. He had even called unexpectedly a few times and we had had some warm and interesting conversations.
One person I was particularly interested in was a man from Vermont who by that time was talking about making a trip to India to meet me or vice versa. In fact I had told Al this and we wondered if there was anyway I could ‘swing by’ Washington to meet him if I did come to the US. About this time
I had a dream... One of ‘those dreams’. I dreamt that I was running up a flight of stairs which led to a balcony. I meant to turn left at the top of the stairs and go into a room at the end of the verandah but I was running so fast that I couldn’t stop or turn in time and went headlong over the edge.
This dream troubled me. I could only interpret it to mean that I was rushing headlong into something and there was nothing substantial to hold me. As it turned out there wasn’t. A day or two later the man from Vermont backed out of the whole thing saying that it wasn’t his style to meet someone over the internet. One other person from Darwin Australia that I was particularly inerested in simply disappeared one day. Something I couldn’t understand as he had even taken the trouble to call from Australia on Ryfka’s birthday just to wish her. So the whole internet thing was beginning to look like a bust.. and I was getting quite frustrated with the whole project.
Then one day I was reading my Bible and the Lord spoke. All He said was “Song of Solomon 2:10”. The Song of Solomon? “Lord”, I thought “Who reads the Song of Solomon?” But He repeated the chapter and verse..“Song of Solomon 2:10”. “Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away. For, Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.. The flowers appear on the earth.....” Now I was really confused........ What in the world was this about? It didn’t take long to find out... Twenty four hours later there was an e-mail from Al in which he asked what it would take for me to come to Washington. He also said something to the effect that it was a perfect time to come as the winter was almost gone, the tulips would soon be in bloom and that the birds would soon be returning. Rise up my love and come away...
the winter is past.... Have you ever had moments of instant clarity? This was one of mine. I knew I was going to marry this man even though I hadn’t seen more than a photograph. What I didn’t know is the unusual circumstances that had taken place in Al’s life to get him to put in the ad in the first place and the growing feeling he had had that he had to meet this woman from India. When my plans to visit the US fell through, he decided to do something about it.
I arrived in the States on the 15th of April 1998 and we got married about three weeks later on the third of May. I had shut my school down before leaving, so sure was I that the Lord had arranged this. Al and I do have some ups and downs and tend to look at many things very differently especially in the
areas of raising children and family relationships but it is a rare day that one or the other of us doesn’t stop for a moment to thank God for His planning. Oh yes! we did go and see the tulips just a couple of days after I got here. They are beautiful as is almost everything in Washington.
Khazana... [December 2001] Something has been nagging at me to write this particular story but I keep putting it off, in part because it is a very rare day that I actually enjoy putting pen to paper... (Figuratively speaking that is.. I am not sure I remember how to hold a pen.) DJ read a couple of the stories last night and said they were the worst example of my writing that he has ever seen.
I know! Perhaps once all the stories are ‘out there’ I can go back and improve on the language etc. We shall see. Even now I am struggling for words just as we are struggling to find some direction to our lives. It has been a
difficult year and only seems to deteriorate further with every passing day, but perhaps I should start at the beginning. Al worked at Boeing for over 29 years and got laid off in the summer of ‘99 at which time he began to look at doing something ‘different’. I am not sure if our idea evolved
from the shoddy goods I had seen imported from India but, wherever the brain wave came from, January 2000 saw Al and me on a seven week trip to India to ‘see what there was to see’. Apart from the fact that he enjoyed himself thoroughly we also came up with the idea of designing and making high end women’s clothes with an ‘East meets West’ theme (Western style and design combined with Indian silks and touches of Indian embroidery.) To cut a long story short the sample pieces we brought back were applauded by the many women we showed them to and we began to look for an outlet. We turned our attention to Seattle and did a lot of searching....... for months. Either the places we found were totally unsuitable or the landlords thought we were. And then the doors
seemed to open. Quite by accident we found ourselves on Main street in Old Bellevue (a city we hadn’t even considered) and discovered a beautiful corner shop for lease. Again everything just fell into place, we signed a sub lease and opened our doors on the 1st of February 2000, exactly one year to the date after we left for India. (DJ in the mean time had made two long trips back home to get things done on that end.. cutting through the enormous amount of red tape and getting production
going.. (a job I did not envy). The Indian side of the business was largely handled by two young and very trusted people, one of whom was a class mate and friend of DJ’s and the other a young woman, who has been ‘one of the family’ for years. The shop which we called ‘Khazana’ (treasure) was
beautiful and, in my opinion, was one of the nicest, most elegant shops I have ever seen. We had a few pieces of antique carved
furniture from India which went perfectly with our theme. It was a warm and very classy environment. The response from the people in and around the area was very encouraging. Many of them came by to welcome us to the neighborhood and wish us well. All according to plan except for one factor... No one was buying very much. I wish I had had a dollar for every time I heard the remark “You have beautiful things” or “My friend said I just had to see this store”. Also most people seemed to think our prices were pretty reasonable. We had also made a lot of friends among the merchants and were involved in building an Old Bellevue web site and other activities designed to promote the area we had fallen in love with. Hindu gods However perhaps the most interesting event connected with the shop happened one lazy afternoon, when Al and I took advantage of DJ’s presence to stretch our legs in the nearby park. When we were decorating the shop an Indian advertising agency made us three large Indian scenes on semi transparent paper. Al made shadow boxes and placed a light bulb behind each one. The effect was very appealing especially since one of the
prints showed two man block printing fabrics in a hut with white washed walls. This was particularly interesting to customers since we used a lot of cotton block prints in our garments. So on this day, Al and I were walking around the park and DJ was doing something on the computer when he heard the Lord say... “Get up and walk around”. DJ started walking around the shop until he came to the back where he was told to stop. He was quite confused and asked what he was supposed to be
doing, at which the Lord told him to lift up his eyes and look at what he had in the shop. Dj looked up and realized he was staring at the picture of the men working. But this time he saw what all of us had completely overlooked. There, in the picture, on the walls of the men’s room were two framed pictures of Hindu gods. Let me explain. You can not go anywhere in India without coming across evidence of the Hindu religion. Almost all homes and shops will have their gods in pictures on the
walls plus statues and altars. Almost all public transport will have at least one picture somewhere, making it impossible to avoid and, in time, one has to learn to ignore it. We hadn’t even noticed the pictures of gods in the room in the photograph, but the Lord had and He was not pleased. Needless to say that picture was immediately torn out of the box and burned at home. So what went wrong? Tax time? The economy gradually sliding downhill? I guess we will never know. What we do know is that the Lord let it happen... since all this time I kept hearing reassuring messages from Him. By August we had lost almost every penny we had and had little choice but to close the shop which we did over labour day weekend. Dismantling that shop was not one of the easiest things we have
ever had to do. It had been put together with so much care and effort and so much of us was invested in it that it was heartbreaking to see it come down. Then we had the very practical problem of what to do with all the furniture, merchandise etc. to say nothing of the million dollar question.. .. What next?
Today II Today is the 30th of December 2001. One more day to the end of this year. DJ got two weeks leave for Christmas and returns to Fort Jackson very early on the 1st morning. He signed up with the army reserve in
November, a decision largely arrived at after Sept 11. It has been good having him home even for a short time. Ryfka turns thirteen on the second of January which he will miss for the first time. Our house is now totally overcrowded with extra furniture that we didn’t have room for in the first place and the garage is overflowing with beautiful clothes. How long they will last in an uncontrolled environment is anyone’s guess. The wrought iron stands are already showing a few signs of
rust.. This is not good. As for Al and me? Both of us are absolutely lost as to what we are supposed to do next. Since August we have looked for direction and have tried everything we can think of to get rid of some merchandise and raise some money. Among other things we have had merchandise at
friends shops, on E-bay and have followed up several other leads.. all of which have come to nought. Al has been unable to find a job and with the recent Boeing layoffs it is becoming increasingly difficult. Thanks to a mix up with my INS paper work I am not allowed to work until it is settled. Every
time I have gone to the Lord with the problem, I have been given a very firm “Wait”. The message has come in so many forms that I don’t doubt it is from the Lord. We seem to be on a holding pattern and the circumstances tell me that the Lord is simply keeping us going, until it is time for the next stage of His plan to be put into effect. Perhaps I should explain why I feel this way... When we closed the shop back in August we were close to being totally broke. More than three months later we are still here. Every time we have got down to pennies something has come along to pay all or part of the bills, usually in the nick of time to avoid our electricity being cut off or... We were down to $2.50 in our account when Dj came home on the 18th with his salary which allowed us to buy some groceries. Not having a Christmas of sorts didn’t worry me personally, but having young people in the house made it a very sad situation. However Al’s dad called on the 22nd of December to say he had put some money in our
account. This enabled us to have a Christmas which was a quiet but very pleasant one. We also, quite unexpectedly, managed to sell one of our cars on the same day which means that most of the bills will be caught up. However the one that really bothers me is the house note. We are well behind on
our mortgage payments and now have less than thirty days to come up with the full amount which, needless to say, we don’t have. But I am sure the Lord has a calendar and knows the dates as well as, if not better than, we do. The only good that I can see has come out of this enforced period of
idleness is the fact that I have been able to do some very extensive work on this site. It needed a major overhaul and I have added and subtracted articles, rearranged much of it and have even begun making my own backgrounds. My hope is that this site will be a blessing to someone somewhere. Strangely enough none of us have yet chewed our fingernails down to the elbow. I dread to think what our state of mind would have been had we not had the Lord to depend on and not known for a fact
that He still has it all under control. I would be lying if I were to say that we have been totally calm all this while. There have been periods of anxiety, some depression and an occasional sense of futility. My mother usually spends part of her year here with us. We neither have the money to
put in the paper work much less buy plane tickets, so there are frustrated people on both sides of the world. Above all I think we are all very tired and wish it were behind us but I know that the Lord’s timing is perfect and He is leading us along the path He wants us to be on. Maybe there are
lessons to be learned here. Maybe we have to learn to let go and let God. Maybe we are in the position of the Israelites who had to go through the wilderness in order to reach the promised land, in which case it wouldn’t do very well to grumble. Look where complaining and unbelief got them! I know that all of us would like to work full time for the Lord. I cannot believe that the He led me to this country and this marriage to let it all fall apart just three and a half short years later... especially considering how He has looked after us for so many years now.. There is a plan here and it is beyond our capabilities to see or even guess what it is. So we wait...
And Beyond
March 2004. It has been more than two and a half years since the shop
closed. In some respects it has been a very long but a remarkable time. For almost two years the finances didn’t change at all. Without any income whatsoever we never went hungry and managed to pay the power and water bills. DJ put in his regular once a month stint in the army reserve for which he got paid and Al did odd jobs for various people. However, it is far more than us ‘managing’ on these small amounts of money. The timing was always incredible. Every single time we have came to
empty wallets and no groceries the money came in, sometimes from very unexpected sources. It was never a day late nor a day early. Both Al and Dj, used to being productive have, from time to time, got tired of the situation and tried to get a job. Neither one succeeded and it is almost amusing to see the very ‘unusual’ things that went wrong.
The Lord often shuts the doors in very strange ways. Dj even volunteered to go to Iraq, even if it meant deploying in another capacity other than Chaplain’s Assistant. Again, no matter what angle he tried, the doors shut in his face. He told us to “wait” and He has faithfully provided us with the necessities while we are doing so.
An interesting, yet slightly funny incident took place just before Christmas of 2002. Ryfka’s school had put us down on a list of ‘needy families’ and we received a call from the local fire department saying that they had some boxes of food for us for the holidays. When we went to the fire station we were
astounded to find that they had twelve boxes of food (and a few gifts for the young people) waiting. I was extremely uncomfortable with this and felt there were people out there who would need this far more than we did. So I got on the phone and finally after many conversations we decided to give the food to ‘Child Haven’ in Seattle, which we planned to do the next morning. Late that night DJ was watching television and got hungry. Noticing that there was a bag of microwave popcorn on top of
one of the boxes he walked over to get it. As he stretched his hand out the Lord spoke very clearly. He said “Touch not the offering of the Lord”. Dj jumped back and went without popcorn that night. However while we are endlessly grateful for His providence, it is not the really remarkable part of this
time. What has been truly astounding is the dawning of a glimmer of understanding of what is going on. When the shop first closed I was very dejected, yet completely sure that the Lord would help us get back on our feet and did not quite understand what we were waiting for. My small thinking could go no further than perhaps ‘a better opportunity’ would present itself. It was Dj, who was on short leave for Christmas in December 2001, who put paid to that idea. One night just before he left to
go back to basic training we sat up until three in the morning and he told me all of what had been going on in his walk with the Lord. This was the first time I began to have an inkling that what we were going through was not just a ‘time of testing’ but was a path to somewhere.
Fire Fall Perhaps one of the earlier clues as to the general direction of that path is a dream DJ had in the summer of 2002. He dreamt of an enormous fireball coming down and hitting our house. It then began to spread at a fantastic speed across the country. In his dream Dj was travelling with it
and seeing it cross mountains and lakes etc. When it reached the ocean it kept going... to countries on the other side. He woke up in total awe of the immense display of power but had no idea of what it meant. When he fell asleep again the dream sort of re-wound itself, but this time there was a voice from the center of the ball. It said "I Am the I Am. (While ‘Fire Fall’ is commonly used as a way of describing revival, referring to the tongues of fire which were seen over the heads of the Apostles at Pentecost, there are more than 200 references to fire in the OT, most of which refer to the wrath of God. This is after eliminating the ones that are actual fire). One of the incidents that stands out in my mind happened late in 2002. I woke up one morning feeling very burdened, very heavy, as if I were carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. Being a fairly analytical person I tried to figure out what I was feeling. I ran through all the negative emotions I could think of.. Was I depressed, worried, upset, physically down? The answer to all the questions was a resounding
no! I felt well, wasn’t depressed, had nothing to be worried about, nor had anything particular happened to be upset about. The feeling of ‘heaviness’ persisted all day and I simply could not understand what I was feeling but knew I had never felt this before. I did not speak of this to anyone as there was simply no way to explain it and I figured it would eventually go away. Later on that evening I was sitting out on the porch after sunset, stroking the cat, talking to the Lord and enjoying the cool and quiet. The front door behind me opened and I turned to see Ryfka standing there with the door open a few inches. She asked me to come inside and I said no, it was very pleasant out there in the cool. She abruptly slammed the door very hard, which is an unusual thing for her to do, and the
next thing I knew DJ was sitting on the step beside me. He said that Ryfka had asked him to persuade me to come indoors. We chatted for a few minutes and then went inside since I knew Ryfka was upset about something. That night, after Ryfka had gone to bed, the three of us were sitting in the living room and
DJ had the distinct impression that he was to pray, which he did. I do not remember all he said but as he finished praying I realized that the heaviness that had plagued me all day had suddenly lifted. It was gone. Almost simultaneously DJ looked out of the window and remarked that the angels had suddenly appeared in very large numbers. Perhaps the whole incident may have been soon forgotten had I not asked Ryfka the next day why she didn’t want me out on the porch and why she had acted so strangely. Her answer was astounding. She said that she had actually opened the front door to come out and sit awhile on the porch with me before going to bed, but the first thing she saw as she opened the door was a spirit ‘kneeling’ at my feet looking up into my face. As she
spoke to me he turned and looked at her, which is when she slammed the door and ran for Dj. She said that he radiated both power and evil and was very frightening. These are only two incidents among several. My mother visited us from India and on more than one occasion heard whispering in the middle of the
night and had something dark brush by her on the stairs when everyone else was asleep. Al’s 17 year old son Beau spent a few months with us and almost jumped out of his skin when, one night, DJ told him to look towards the corner of the room they shared. He jumped straight up out of bed as ‘there was someone standing in the corner’. Dj had already seen the angel there and was curious as to whether Beau would see him too. He did! In the days that followed he saw the angels several more times.
For reasons, yet not fully clear, this family has been witness to some of the very real struggle between dark and light, good and evil. I heard Satan laugh 20 years ago, long before I was sure he actually existed, and he hasn’t really let up since. But we also know we have the Lord’s protection and direction
for our lives. Early in 2003 I once again asked the Lord “How long”? His answer was from Deuteronomy and very clear. ..
“ Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn”. (Deuteronomy 16:9).
At the time this was a riddle.. one we certainly could not figure out.... until late March, when Al turned 55 and started filling out the
application for his Boeing retirement. Suddenly the light began to go on... Corn! Corn is the harvest.. a harvest is the fruit of something you have worked for... Al’s retirement was his ‘harvest’ from years of work... could ‘beginning to put sickle to the corn’ be the first check?? Due to a couple
of hitches and a major goof up in the application process, the first check was delayed until the 9th of June 2003. Counting seven weeks or 49 days from this date took us to the 28th of July, which is when we expected something to happen. It did, but not exactly what we expected. Al’s mother died on the the 28th after a long prolonged battle with cancer. Less than a week after this we received notice to vacate the house. At the court hearing the judge said he was amazed at why the new owners
of the house had started proceedings on several different occasions to get us out [long story], but had never followed up on it. I had to smile.. I knew why they had... The Lord has His timing and nothing can interfere with it. | 
