TOPICS

~When I first met up with the Moonies, I was cautious, but open to what they had to say. The German girl who met me on the street in downtown L.A. seemed to be trying her hardest to get me to see things I already was aware of, but I listened politely and agreed to go to her centre. She had no idea how prepared I already was for the "spiritual life".

~To my surprise the place she took me to was very familiar. It was very similar to a dream I had had a few nights earlier - where I had seen my best friend, a German girl, who had died in 1970, working for a very serious group. She was busy setting many long tables for a meal. The place I was taken to had the same long tables and was full of Germans.

~The lecture was mostly about the state of the world and sin. I was quite aware of the state of the world, and needed no convincing about the need for positive change, but I was curious to know what they thought "sin" was. When I asked, they said I could find out more up at their camp in the mountains, where they go into depth about their beliefs and also enjoyed the Alpine environment.

~Well, I didn't want to commit myself so quickly, and had a dinner engagement, so could not just drop my plans, but they were pushing me to do so. I knew that when God calls, one should drop everything (having been a contemplative solitary Christian all my life, and having read "Imitation of Christ" several times - a book that was once my grandfather's when he was a Catholic monk). I also knew that God doesn't ask us to hurt others in our desire for spiritual righteousness.

~When I got back to my apartment and heard that my friend had cancelled our dinner date, I felt guilty that I had not trusted God enough and shown my faith in just going to the camp. I felt I'd failed a test. There was something I didn't like about this new Unification Church though. F

~For some reason, which I know now, I had come over extremely tired - sapped of energy, when I sat in on their lecture, and yet jubilant when I left - thinking I had found the religious retreat that I had come to America to find. I felt God had answered my prayers and I was going to be "actively" invovled in preparations for the Second Coming. The tiredness though, felt more like demonic influences. I had seen and experienced it before.

~For the next week I got daily calls from Kristen, the German girl, who warned me that Satan would try to keep me from doing God's work, when I told her that I was not well and had a bad cold. I also believed the devil works to bring us down low, and stop us being shining lights of good (and God) in this world. I was torn. Then my brother called from England to ask how I was doing, and for some reason jokingly asked, "Are you still searching for the meaning of life?" and when I said "yes" he said somewhat more seriously, "well, you'd better hurry up then, there's not much time" This I took as a push to go ahead and experience the Moonies, since my brother and I had often talked late into the night about the meaning of life and unexplained things. As soon as I hung up from speaking to him, I called the Unification Church in Hollywood, and told them I was ready to come to their camp. They seemed excited and immediately sent a van down to the Marina to pick me up. As I left, my Californian friend joked, "Bye! You're going to come back brainwashed!" I just laughed and said "No way, not me!"

~The driver of the van was not very talkative, but I asked him a few questions. Why did he join the church and how it had improved his life? He told me that he had been very negative and angry beforehand and was even a member of the Nazi party in America. My eyebrows raised and I looked at him more closely. He seemed to be still very negative and angry, but subdued. This immediately made me question the legitimacy of this new group, and whether it was of God or the devil, since I knew there would be false christs in the last days. I had even left England with a warning from my boss, to beware of religious quacks in America.

~After picking up a van load of young people, fresh off the streets, we set off for a two hour drive into the mountains, just outside of L.A. We began to get acquainted and one of the passengers joked to me about the group, saying they were weird and the guys were all suppressed homosexuals, and they had a big hang-up about sex, in that the male and females are not allowed to get near each other - and pointed out that the females were sitting in the front of the van, and the guys at the back. Young people in America weren't used to this. We were long time unisex. The sexual liberation had been swinging for at least eight years.

~Our arrival at the camp was strange. I felt lightheaded from the thinner air, and somewhat in the clouds from tiredness and travel. We were ushered into a basement room, in a huge Pine log lodge, and given some food (rice and sauce) and Koolaide. Told not to smoke outside, due to the danger of fires. Couldn't sneak away, either, as the few smokers found we were followed by German youth who smiled as they spoke, but you could tell they were deadly serious. It was all very well organised. Singing was coming from the main lodge. They were just breaking up from what we were proudly told was "family night". I stepped away from my group and took in what was happening. I felt quite high and in tune with everything.

~One guy wanted to leave, but they wouldn't give him his belongings. They were saying he had to see "Wolfgang" and he insisted he should not have to see their leader in order to get his things. He said something about taking the bus back to L.A. and going on to San Francisco. For some reason I stepped up and said, "I've just come back from Frisco, and it's raining up there right now" To this day, I don't know what came over me,and why I said that! I had not just come back from San Francisco, but felt I had to keep him there, no matter what. Besides I had just got there, and hadn't met him yet! (He turned out to be a very important influence on me, in later days) So, instead of enjoying the sun in a trip along the coast highway, he reconsidered. This, I realised later, was my first act of being like a Moonie. Lying in order to get someone to remain with the group!

~Before the morning came though, I was shown my bunk bed in the dormitory close to the "sisters" as they called themselves. They drew me out and showered me with friendship, which I lapped up, having come from a very large family with several sisters. During the course of our sisterly chat, I noticed a photo in a frame by their beds and tuned in to it.

~I then asked, "This isn't his first wife, is it?" and they looked very surprised, and asked "Why did you ask that?" and for some reason, I blurted out, "because he doesn't look like a virgin!" Their look of surprise, turned to shock. I was somewhat shocked myself, since I would never usually come out with something like that! I somehow knew they worshipped him and that he was not the pure religious leader that they thought he was. I wanted to shatter their delusion.(illusion?)

~After telling them about my dream premoniton, they seemed very excited and wanted me to have a pen and paper in case I have any "teaching dreams" while I was at their camp. That night I certainly did dream. I had a vivid nightmare and woke in a sweat to feel the unclean entities that I was dreaming about, were around my bed. They had been trying to get into my body! (I found out a while later that other new recruits had similar dreams)

~The next morning, I got acquainted with the large lodge. Sitting at one of the long tables, with a hundred or so new recruits, I looked around at my new surroundings. A bright, energetic place. Full people and mystery. I noticed a huge fireplace and hearth. The open staircase looked decidedly familiar and then my previous dream flashed back into my mind and I completely recognised it. Everything was where I had seen it in my dream, exept there was no Ursula. Well, not physically, but I was told she was with me in spirit, and actually growing through me here.

Part-2 COMING SOON!

Brenda Henry is currently working on a book of her experiences, which include her journey through the Moonies, and meeting up with Elton John, where one of the musicians (A Christian) helped Brenda realise through the Bible, that the techings of Moon are false. She also met Hal Lindsay (Brenda is mentioned in one of his books) who is the Best Selling author of "Late Great Planet Earth". Mr. Lindsay also spent time with Brenda, and through the Bible, showed her that God's prophecies of the last days were coming true, and that Moon was not the Christ, but an anti-christ. Check out her website and information on her book:

WEBSITE:
http://www.angelfire.com/in2/harmony/outline.html
EMAIL:
Eltham@net.ntl.com

 

X-MEMBERS TESTIMONIALS - SECTION Danny Harth Gordon Neufeld Sveta Bill Taylor Brenda Henry John Guzman Bora Uzima Harlan Simantel Isshi Natalija Velikorodina Todd Harvey

 

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