HomeARC ML 1067
THE KNOCK ON THE DOOR!--A Dream?--By Father David DFO 1067 25/12/80
--Are You Ready?
1. WELL, PTL! HALLELUJAH! TYJ! MERRY CHRISTMAS! This is happy Christmas morn, in fact, it's Christmas noon, & we've just been getting waked up & making my coffee in bed & about to tell Maria the strange vivid dream that I had this morning at nine o'clock and thereafter. It seemed like I was dreaming the entire three hours from nine o'clock after I went back to sleep--I must have gone back to sleep about 9:15 or 9:30--the whole three hours.
2. IT WENT ON & ON & ON JUST LIKE A MOVIE, until when I woke up a few minutes ago I just couldn't believe it was only ten o'clock, because it seemed like I'd been dreaming for hours. And sure enough, it wasn't ten o'clock. Our electricity had gone off during the night & the electric clock was two hours behind & it was twelve, so it had been three hours from the first dream through the rest until now.
3. MARIA'S JUST SAYING THAT I LIKE TO KEEP HER IN SUSPENSE. I kind of do like surprises & shocks, & to keep people temporarily in suspense is sort of fun. I must be a tease. Am I a tease, Honey? XXXXX! ILY! (Maria: I like to, too, I think I got it from you!) Well, to keep you in a little more suspense, I'll ask you a question:
4. WHO DO YOU THINK THAT WAS THAT KNOCKED ON OUR DOOR AT NINE O'CLOCK?--With a very heavy hand like the hand of a man? Knocked just like this: "Knock, knock, knock!" It was just about that long, & then one more time: "Knock, knock, knock!" (Maria: Did somebody knock on our door or was it in your dream?) Yes, definitely knocked on our door because it woke me up! (Maria: Out of your dream?) No, I hadn't dreamed a thing yet, nothing!
5. THE KNOCK WOKE ME UP AT NINE O'CLOCK. In fact, I looked at the clock after the three knocks & it said it was about two or three minutes after nine. The knock must have been almost exactly nine o'clock. After the three knocks I waited to see what would happen & I thought, "Well, he'll surely go to the other door & somebody at the house will answer him." It sounded like the heavy hand of the farmer, definitely the hand of a man. A woman just hasn't got enough flesh & bone on her hand to have that heavy a weight.
6. FIRST THING THAT CAME TO ME WAS THAT IT WAS THE FARMER & that he was all dressed up & had a little gift for us of some kind, that perhaps it was a rural custom to present your gift on Christmas morning as they go around & visit the neighbours. I figured, "Well, he'll give up on our door & he'll go over to the other door & knock where he usually does, & the folks there will surely be up by this time!" Everybody at our house is usually up by nine o'clock or before, as wherever you have children, certainly eight or nine, that's the limit, because they usually have devotions at nine.
7. SO I FIGURED, "WELL, HE'LL GIVE UP ON OUR DOOR & he'll go over there & leave his little present with them." And then I began thinking "What in the World did he come knocking on our door for? Maybe he did knock on their door first and they didn't answer because they were up late last night, Christmas Eve, & they could have all slept in & at nine o'clock still not have been up or awake to hear him even, although he didn't honk or even, although he didn't honk or ring the bell." (We're in a trailer!)
8. HE, OF COURSE, CONSIDERS HIMSELF A PRIVILEGED CHARACTER since we more or less rent from in a way & share his farm, so if he had a gift in his hand--now that was my opinion--as I tried to figure out who it was--he would have come probably to the door without bothering--except I couldn't figure out why he hadn't run the bell. I guess usually somebody's in the kitchen by that time & he's used to somebody being right there & he just knocks on the door & comes in instead of ringing the bell to disturb the whole neighbourhood.
9. THEN I THOUGHT, WELL, MAYBE THEY DIDN'T ANSWER & NOBODY WAS THERE IN THE KITCHEN THIS MORNING, they hadn't opened the shutters yet or anything & he figured they didn't hear him so he came out here to our little trailer in the rear & knocked on our door. I wouldn't have been surprised, being curious country folk, he'd been dying to knock on this door anyhow to see who it was what was out here. I think maybe they already told him that I lived out here & he's been wanting to meet us. So he decided, well, he had his gift & he wasn't going to give up so easy, so he'd just come out here & knocked on our door.
10. HIS KNOCK WOKE ME OUT OF A SOUND SLEEP, I was still sleepy, but it was a very heavy hand & loud knock & I was kind of surprised you didn't wake up! I might have missed one of the first knocks, but what I heard was just like this: "Knock! Knock!" And then a wait of quite a few seconds. Well, it was at least this long, we didn't reply right away. That would have given us time to get on our bathrobe or something, & he went: "Knock! Knock!" Real big heavy deliberate hand, you know, almost authoritative. I thought, "What in the world is he doing out here knocking on our door anyway?" Meanwhile, all this was going through my head about who it could be & what he could be doing & why should he be knocking on our door, etc.
11. SO BY THE TIME I WAS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IN THE WORLD HE WAS DOING KNOCKING ON OUR DOOR, he gave a last knock: "Knock! Knock! Knock!" I know it was twice the first time & it could have been three times each time the other two times. That would have been natural, if you didn't wake somebody up or you didn't get their attention, a big heavy man's hand, very sort of imperative like, "You guys ought to be up by this time, I've got a Christmas present for you!" At least this was what I was thinking & had on my mind, that it was no other than the farmer & nobody else would have the nerve to knock on our door at this hour.
12. OBVIOUSLY I WASN'T WORRIED ABOUT IT, I figured he'd go over there & get their attention & they had received the gift & gave him his gift, & that would settle it & that was that. And since we had not gotten to bed until four o'clock this morning & had then made love for about an hour & then got up & washed & hadn't really gotten to sleep till six, I wasn't exactly in any mood to get up at nine!
13. I WAS SO SLEEPY, BUT THE KNOCK REALLY WOKE ME UP! I was sound asleep & I was still in the mood to go right back to sleep, & I did. As far as I know I went right straight back to sleep right away, it couldn't have been more than 9:10 or 9:15 when I went back to sleep. I went back to sleep immediately because I thought, "Oh my, he sure is a persistent little old duffer! I wonder when he's going to give up!" So he did then, apparently, whoever it was, & evidently went away or back to the other house or whatever he did, at least that's what I thought.
14. BUT THAT WAS CERTAINLY NOT WHAT I DREAMED, because I fell asleep & this was the dream, because it was not the farmer! It wasn't a bad dream, it was even fairly pleasant. It was a little sort of surprising, shocking, but I wouldn't say it was bad. I had a rather good feeling throughout the whole thing, almost like it was something I had been expecting.
15. AND NOW I'M SORRY, BUT I MUST STOP & MAKE MY COFFEE IN BED. WE really have it nicely arranged here where I can reach out of the bed early in the morning & turn on the heater with only one hand out from under the covers, & then I can reach up & put the little hearing coil into my cup of water to heat water for my coffee, & I can make my coffee right here in bed! We have a little tray of three containers, one of coffee, one of milk & one of honey, so I can do the whole thing right here in bed without ever getting out & getting cold.
16. DEAR MARIA IS USUALLY THE ONE WHO GETS UP & GOES POTTY & raises the shades so the sun can come in & turns up the front room heater, & sometimes puts on the kettle for some hot water, grabs herself a little food of some kind & hops back in bed while I'm busy making my coffee--& gets me my egg too sometimes if I want an egg for my coffee. So that's what has just happened & is happening now & I'm now making my coffee & it's almost one o'clock & I still haven't even begun to tell you the dream, but that was the setting.
17. IF THAT KNOCK AT NINE O'CLOCK WAS A DREAM, I WILL BE SURPRISED, because it woke me out of a sound sleep & I could swear this minute that I heard a knock. I was really expecting to hear this morning that the farmer had been to their door & left a gift, & that may be one of the tests of the dream. Because according to the dream, that is not who it was! Honey, why don't you hold the tape recorder? You don't have anything else to do right now & I've got to make my coffee, OK? (Maria: OK, I'd be happy to!)
18. I HAVE A NICE PRETTY RED GINGHAM BIG LARGE CLOTH SERVIETTE OR NAPKIN & I sit up in bed & I put the cloth out all over my lap. I know exactly how long to heat my coffee water for each kind of drink. Well, if you don't want to hold it, I'll hold it on my chest. Poor Maria is still half asleep & tired she didn't get her needed ten hours sleep & only got about four, six to twelve. Poor girl. Honey I'm so sorry.
19. I PUT THE LITTLE COIL IN THE WATER & I PUNCH THAT LITTLE BUTTON. My watch has a timer that you can set for any length of time from one second to 23 hour & 59 seconds & it will do a countdown till it reaches zero & then it will start beeping. However, I sent my timer & keep it all the time at one minute. For just plain water to wash my mouth or drink I just punch it once & it gets to the end of a minute & goes beep, beep, beep. For my normal breakfast coffee with breakfast, with by bacon & eggs, I set it twice so it heats two minutes. There it goes! That's the one minute. And I set it three minutes for egg coffee to counteract adding the cold egg so it will still be hot to drink afterwards. So that's the way I make my coffee in bed.
20. I HAVE A LITTLE SHELF RIGHT BESIDE OUR BED HERE. On the very bottom shelf it contains a little electric heater that I can reach down & turn on or off from the bed without even getting anything but one hand out from under the covers.
21. THE NEXT SHELF CONTAINS MY GOOD SHORT-WAVE RADIO with which to get BBC & with a very good speaker & sound system with which to play the MWM radio tapes, very very good; we have one in right now which we had been listening to last night. That's one reason we stayed up so late, I made a tape for MWM & the whole Family really, & evidently it was the Lord's Christmas message for us.
22. ON THAT SAME SHELF WITH THE RADIO I have tissues & tapes & magazines & books & various & sundry other things. And then on the next shelf there is the video machine & our intercom for contacting the main house & various parts of it, which is very essential since we have no phone out here in our little trailer.
23. AND ON THAT SAME SHELF I HAVE MY WEATHER STATION which gives me the temperature, the barometric pressure & the humidity, of this particular room at least. And then on the next shelf ... another shelf? Yes, it has actually five shelves that stand beside the bed until they go way up & tower over us! On the next smaller shelf we have an assortment of all the latest videos, about a dozen or so, & my electric clock.
24. ON THE VERY TOP SHELF STANDS THE SMALL PORTABLE COLOUR TV ON WHICH WE PLAY THE VIDEOS. In fact, it's the kind of a TV on which we can't even get local TV because we don't even care to, we can't understand its lingo so it's just a waste of time. So we've got this special colour TV just specially to play the videos in PAL, PAL TV, & it's very good for that. It's small & it's also very much cheaper just to get a single-system television instead of dual- or triple-system TV.
25. A SIMPLE SINGLE SYSTEM TV THAT GETS EITHER PAL OR SECAM OR NTSC IS FAIRLY CHEAP, but when you go into double systems they're twice as expensive & then the triple systems are about four, five, six times as expensive! So we just use the single simple cheap ones as much as we can in our various Homes around here, which means a simple little very small PAL portable TV with about a 30-centimeter screen. It's not the smallest, not those very tiny miniatures, but it's the smallest in the standard size home TVs, more or less, that are still portable.
26. THAT'S ON THE TOP SHELF ALONG WITH MY CONTAINER OF COFFEE, MILK & HONEY, here in the land of milk & honey. Here we have a land of milk & honey & coffee, TTL, for a little cup of coffee first thing in the morning to get you waked up, bright-eyed & bush-tailed & a little nourishment too since it's quite awhile usually before I eat my brunch. I say brunch because it's a combination of breakfast & lunch. I usually don't eat it till noon or afternoon, but I like my coffee first thing in the morning, if possible, before I get out of bed. So, PTL! So that's the top shelf that also happens to have a couple of bananas, a small bottle of wine & a bottle of water too & teaspoons & a comb & an extra cup for water & a few other odds & ends.
27. I HAVE SO MANY THINGS PLUGGED INTO ELECTRICITY that are on this combination of five shelves, plus overhead lights for reading, etc., I had to put a special plug-in block attached to the wall here beside the bed in front of the shelves, this stand, & nail it to the wall so that I am able to plug in my ten different electrical cords to ten different electrical appliances--which are the heater, the radio, the little tape recorder I'm now using with its transverter, the video, intercom, electric clock, electric water heater, TV & one clip-on overhead light, etc.
28. I'VE FORGOTTEN WHETHER I'VE GOT THEM COUNTED JUST RIGHT OR NOT, but about nine or ten things I usually have to plug in right here beside our bed & in our bed, which is to accommodate all the various things, electrical equipment that we use while we're in bed. We only watch videos in bed when we're too tired to do anything else, & all these other things are necessities that we need right here by the bed, electric clock, intercom & all the rest of these things.
29. SO, HERE I AM JUST ABOUT TO MAKE MY COFFEE, & I WILL HAVE TO TELL YOU WHO THAT WAS THAT KNOCKED AT THE DOOR after I've made my coffee, is that OK? (Maria: You are a tease! Hurry, make your coffee, quick!) Because I went to sleep then almost immediately, & immediately I dreamed the following dream as to who it was that really knocked at our door, & then you will be able to decide on who you think it really was! PTL!
30. BUT I THOUGHT YOU'D BE INTERESTED TO KNOW HOW WE LIVE & HOW WE SURVIVE IN OUR LITTLE TRAILER with a bedroom so small it can barely hold our little small double bed that's not much bigger than a 3/4 bed, almost a single bed. We have to sleep very snuggly, close together, but it's very convenient in the Winter. (Maria: And in bed we always have to turn the same way so we can fit each other!)
31. YES, WE SAY, "ONE, TWO, THREE, SHIFT!" & she turns left & I turn left so that we can fit around each other. Or "one, two, three, shift!" & we shift to the right! Her knees fit under my legs then, & my bottom, & we have plenty of room. But woe be unto us when we decide to shift opposite directions! Either our hinies are bumping or our knees are bumping the walls or shelves, or we shift the other way & our knees are bumping & our hinies are bumping the walls & shelves.
32. BUT THAT'S NICE CLOSE FRATERNISATION & close cuddly cozy, what would you call it? (Maria: Companionship!) Lovey-dovey companionship. And we sleep well. (Maria: It's fun, I like it! I like togetherness!) She likes to sleep close to me, in fact she likes to sleep usually with her head right on my shoulder. She says that's her opiate or her sleeping pill.
33. IT SEEMS LIKE ALMOST THE MINUTE HER HEAD TOUCHES MY SHOULDER SHE GOES RIGHT TO SLEEP! So since I'm not quite as sleepy & don't fall asleep so easily, I lie there for quite awhile, often 20 minutes or half-an-hour enjoying her sweet little head on my shoulder & kissing her on the top of the head & loving & sometimes it develops into more than that if my other hand is under the covers! Ahem!--Which it did last night at five o'clock in the morning so we didn't get to sleep till six!
34. SO MAYBE YOU THINK I MUST HAVE HAD THIS DREAM BECAUSE I LOST SO MUCH SLEEP or something & I'm having fantasies or hallucinations or something, but boy, the dream was sure realistic to me & it sure seemed like it was actually happening, & this therefore is the dream of the knock on the door! The Knock on the Door! The Knock on the Door! Do you want to hear more? Then you'll have to turn the tape o'er, for the knock on the door! GBY! ILY! (Turns tape over.)
35. WELL, I WAS TELLING YOU HOW I MAKE MY COFFEE IN BED, I FORGOT TO FINISH IT. I put this napkin in my lap sitting up in bed, & then I plant my cup of hot water after heating it in the lap between my legs so that it won't dump over--unless Maria gives a mighty tug on the covers, which just almost happened!
36. THEN I REACH UP TO MY LITTLE CONTAINER OF THE COFFEE & open it & put in my little teaspoon, which was thankfully provided before, into the hot water. As soon as the coffee's pretty well dissolved & stirred, I open my little milk canister & I pour in the milk. We're saying we hear something running. It's not my electric clock because it's almost completely silent, TTL, because I'm very conscious of noises.
37. I'M TAPPING OFF THE EXTRA MILK THAT CLUNG TO THE OUTSIDE OF THE CONTAINER, tapping it onto the edge of the cup so all the excess milk will fall into the cup. I don't like to waste anything, neither do I like to have crumbs in my bed. Now I'm stirring the milk in the coffee & it's beginning to look real good, nice & chocolate brown, ready finally for the honey.
38. HERE COMES THE HONEY, PTL, & hopefully the honey has not gotten all sticky from Maria using it on something of hers, because I always keep it very very very clean. I do so by putting the spoon into the honey, having carefully licked it off, & dipping out quite a heaping teaspoon of honey, I like it sweet, & then I cut off the stream of honey with the end of the spoon on the edge of the honey jar. Then I put my tongue to it & lick off the excess honey from the lip of the honey jar so that it will not drip down afterward.
39. JUST BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T GET ANY HONEY ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE HONEY JAR & then you wipe that off doesn't mean you're not going to have honey later if you left honey in the lip of the honey jar or around the edge. It will eventually leak down & your honey jar will be all gooey and icky-sticky. So here we are we've got the honey in it, put back the honey into my little canister tray, & by this time we've almost got the honey thoroughly stirred into the coffee.
40. I'M GOING TO PUT IN AN EGG THIS MORNING since it's rather late & I'm rather hungry & I still have to tell you the dream! So here we go! I hold the egg over the cup, take the spoon, give the egg a sharp crack. Whoops, I missed the middle that time, & then open the shell with my two thumbnails, dump the egg into the coffee like that & wait till all of the white has dripped out, put on shell inside the other & wrap them about with a tissue so that they won't drip.
41. THEN SO THAT I WON'T FORGET TO PUT THAT EGGSHELL & ITS DRIPPINGS INTO THE GARBAGE & not a wastebasket--I don't want it here in the wastebasket by the bed which might not be emptied for quite awhile & would begin to stink like a rotten egg--I simply throw the neatly wrapped-up eggshell on the floor beside the bed so I will remember to pick it up & put it in the garbage.
42. I HAVE FOUND THAT THINGS THROWN ON THE FLOOR, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, ARE SO CONSTANTLY IN THE WAY YOU NEVER FORGET THEM! You don't forget to pick them up if it's right on the floor. If I have an important note or important paper that I want someone to remember to deliver to somebody, I put it right out in the middle of the floor, believe it or not, or right on the floor in front of the door. (Maria: And I usually pick it up & put it on top of something & sometimes it gets forgotten!)
43. YES, SOMETIMES DEAR MARIA IN HER TIDINESS PICKS IT UP & PUTS IT IN ONE OF HER PILES. Poor Maria, she has piles--piles & piles & piles of papers! I don't know how she ever does it, she reads so much mail! It's her job to open all the mail & read it all & share some of it with dear Peter, but it's a job, PTL!
44. SO, HERE WE ARE, I'M JUST PREPARED TO THROW THE EGGSHELL ON THE FLOOR, there it goes, almost right into Maria's boot! Honey, I hope you don't stick your foot in there & wonder what's crackling! And now I'm going to stir the egg in the coffee. Normally it doesn't really take me this long to make it, but explaining it to you while I'm making it is taking me so long, it's almost getting cold!
45. USUALLY IT ONLY TAKES ME THREE MINUTES TO GET THE WATER HOT & I'd say about three minutes to make the coffee, for a total of about six or seven minutes from the word go, when I first plug the little waterheater coil in to heat the water. It takes a little while to thoroughly mix an egg in, to break the yolk & mix it good to be sure not to get slimy streams of yolk or white, but I really beat it into the coffee. I'm so shaking that side shelf that the bottles on top are clinking together!
46. WELL, PTL! THE COFFEE IS ALMOST WELL-STIRRED & I'M ABOUT TO QUIT TRYING TO STIR IT & START TRYING TO DRINK IT, because I'm really thirsty & hungry by this time, too weak from hunger to even crawl out of bed to go to the toilet. I usually keep a little jug right beside the bed on the floor with a tight lid which I can use during the icy cold nights. I can reach out, pick it up off the floor, bring it gently under the covers & remove its lid & hang something else into it that's very conveniently constructed so that it can drape into the pot, my little jug. Then I relieve myself, go wee-wee into the little potty, remove the pendant with a tissue, replace the lid & re-set the little potty jug back on the floor that usually dear kind Sue empties for me the next morning!
47. SO HERE WE ARE, I CAN DO EVERYTHING FROM COOK BREAKFAST TO GO TO THE TOILET IN BED HERE, beside watch videos, listen to the radio, read, study, make coffee, all these things in bed! Quite an operation when you have a small trailer & very convenient that way, PTL! There, I think it's pretty well mixed & I'm tapping the spoon on the edge of the cup to remove the excess. I usually lay the spoon up on the shelf where it'll be remembered to take away to the dirty sink. Perhaps I'd better just throw that on the floor too. There it goes, on the floor, so we won't forget that it's dirty & put it in the wash. (I licked it off first.)
48. AND NOW, HERE WE ARE, COFFEE ALL MADE & POTTY TAKEN CARE OF & TALKING TO YOU AT THE SAME TIME & I've not even taken one step out of bed! I've only sat up in bed & put on my shirt & my sweater and meanwhile it's getting quite hot in here, TYL! And I remove the napkin from my lap, fold it nicely & place it back behind the intercom & get out of bed a moment to run turn off the livingroom heater.
49. PTL, AS A RESULT OF ALL THIS ACTIVITY, ACTION & HEATING, it's now hotter than a firecracker in here, way above normal level, about 25, when we usually like to keep it at about 20-22, that is Centigrade or Celsius. In case you poor Americans don't know what that means, that means around about 68-72. PTL. We heard something running & it was the fan of the little electric heater down below here by the bed. I had forgotten to turn off the fan.
50. WHEN I'M TURNING OFF ELECTRIC HEATERS--& this is good counsel & advice for you too--you should turn off the heating elements first, either one or two or how many you have on, the little red dots, but leave the fan on for a few moments to cool off the heater & its heating coils so that when you turn it off you don't stop it dead still while the heating elements are still very hot. If suddenly the fan stops, the heating elements can either melt right on the spot or very rapidly deteriorate that way so that they will soon burn out.
51. IT'S MUCH BETTER WHEN YOU'RE TURNING OFF AN ELECTRIC BLOWER HEATER, TURN OFF THE HEATING ELEMENTS FIRST & leave it at least to the slow count of ten before you turn off the fan. I had turned off the heat & forgot to turn off the fan, is why we heard something running down here. Also it's very important when you turn on an electric blower heater, unless you want to blow your lights & blow your fuses & throw your breaker switch, don't turn the whole thing on suddenly at once, all two or three thousand watts plus fan, boom! Just turn on one element at a time!
52. FIRST OF ALL BEFORE YOU TURN ON EVEN THE HEAT, TURN ON THE FAN. Usually most of their regulators are adjusted or built that way so that you have to turn the fan on first, because if you should be able to turn on the heating elements without the fan, they will get so hot they will immediately melt & you'll have a totally nil heater that is a total loss! So turn on the fan first, which is usually the way the controls are built, the little blue dot.
53. THEN WHEN THE FAN GETS GOING GOOD & STRONG, TURN IT ANOTHER NOTCH till the first red dot, or turn on another switch, however yours is built, whether it's with a dial or with switches. Turn the fan on first, then the first heating element, & if it's real cold, wait just a moment to turn on the second heating element. This way it also gives not only your fan a chance to get started & each heating element on at a separate time, it gives your breaker switch or fuses a chance to stand the shock.
54. WHEN YOU FIRST TURN ON ANYTHING ELECTRICAL, USUALLY THE FIRST TURN-ON THROWS A SHOCK OF ELECTRICITY INTO THE SYSTEM that's about five times what it is to actually normally run it. It takes five to ten times as much electricity to turn an electrical utility on as it does to continue to keep it running. For just a moment there's a sudden jolt, a sudden big boom or explosion of electricity which is far above the normal regular consumption of the unit!
55. SO IN OTHER WORDS, IN TURNING ON A 1000-WATT HEATING ELEMENT OF A LITTLE ELECTRIC HEATER, suddenly it goes whammy on your fuses or breaker switch up to about four or 5,000 watts just for a moment, which is why most fuses & breaker switches are built not to burn out immediately or throw immediately, but to wait a few seconds till the electricity gets back down to normal, your unit gets back down to normal consumption.
56. AND OF COURSE IF YOU GO THROWING ON SUDDENLY BOTH HEATING ELEMENTS AT ONCE, which is often 1500-2000 watts, you're suddenly shocking your electrical system with 10,000 watts for which it wasn't built, & it may knock it out, blow a fuse, throw the breaker switch, or if they're not fast enough, even burn up your wiring if it's pretty old & weak & even weaker than the fuse or the breaker switch. So watch out!
57. WELL, HERE I AM NOW HAVING COMFORTABLY PERFORMED ALL OF THESE THINGS WHILE YET IN BED & enjoying the beautiful sunny day & recalling the strange dream, rather shocking dream while I'm enjoying my coffee. So I'm going to put down the tape recorder a minute & take another drink. Thank you for your patience, but I thought you'd like to know some of these little things about how we live--in bed! Our little trailer is so small there's not too much room to live outside of bed, that's why we spend so much time in bed.
58. WELL, WE DO EVERYTHING OUT OF BED THAT WE CAN, our desk & table is located in the next room & both of us work at the same table, one on each side, & have our own things & papers all stored on each side of the table & seats. I have my little briefcase all nicely packed a with my important papers right beside me on my seat at the table, & I have good reading light over me & so does Maria, & she has her piles stacked about her & her cupboards stuffed as well with lots of stuffing & big filing cabinets.
59. EVERYTHING PACKS NICELY INTO OUR SMALL TRAILER & fits very well & our little trailer is about as small as some of your trailers & caravans, PTL! Hallelujah! Now for another gulp of that delicious coffee to give me the strength to have the courage to tell you this shocking dream! Hallelujah! The Knock at the Door!
60. WELL, PERHAPS WHILE I'M FINISHING MY COFFEE I CAN VERY QUICKLY TELL YOU THE REST OF THE DREAM, or the dream, whatever it was. Maybe the knock was a dream too, but since it woke me out of a sound sleep & I woke up enough to look at the clock to see that it was about two or three minutes after nine, it's hard to believe that the knock was a dream!
61. ANYHOW, ACCORDING TO MY OWN CALCULATIONS, AFTER WHAT SEEMED TO BE A VERY REAL KNOCK, knocking two or three times each time, three times, whoever it was seemed to go away & I fell asleep almost immediately. Then the rest of it was almost as vivid, but I know it was a dream. Obviously after you hear the dream you'll know it must have been a dream.
62. BECAUSE IN MY DREAM I WENT BACK TO SLEEP ALSO, apparently, but it wasn't long, maybe about an hour or tow, until I heard this heavy knock once again & quite a commotion outside. And by this time we were up & dressed in the dream, I presume, because when I woke up from the dream I was still in bed & not dressed, so it was obviously a dream!
63. BUT ACCORDING TO THE DREAM WE HAD GOTTEN UP & DRESSED & EATEN BREAKFAST & so on when I heard this heavy knock on the door again of our little trailer. This time I was awake enough to peer out the window first--which you should always do to see who's out there before you open it--& there was standing a very tall military army officer in uniform, very tall & dignified looking like one of these tall political figures around here; in fact, he looked a little like Charles de Gaulle only he was a lot better looking--tall, handsome & in obvious military uniform, not a policeman, believe it or not!
64. NOT THE USUALLY BLUE-UNIFORMED POLICE WHICH YOU SEE AROUND IN MOST COUNTRIES, but a seemingly different colour, it could have been partly blue but it seemed like it was partly tan. I think maybe the jacket was blue & the pants were tan, but anyhow, definitely an army officer & not a policeman. So of course I like to be very congenial & very cooperative with the authorities, so I quickly put on my jacket & stepped out the door.
65. I DON'T LIKE TO PARTICULARLY INVITE STRANGERS IN, especially on short notice. [DELETED] So when callers come to our door we usually open the door, step out & talk to them outside. The Family inside then can scurry around rapidly & get things put away [DELETED] in case they should merit being invited in or insist on coming in!
66. SO I STEPPED OUT, & THE MOMENT I STEPPED OUT THE DOOR THE OFFICER SNAPPED TO ATTENTION & SALUTED. And I, having been in the military myself, automatically snapped to attention & returned the salute, which just become automatic to you if you've ever been in the military, you're taught to do it all the time, particularly with officers. So I immediately returned the salute respectfully.
67. OH, I FORGOT TO TELL YOU SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT, EXCUSE ME! I'll have to leave you hanging right there for a minute because in my dream first of all I woke up thinking about the knock, & somehow or another I had the feeling that a policeman or one of the authorities of some kind had been knocking & that they might be back & they might be concerned about the location of our vehicles here kind of scattered around the yard & perhaps I'd better tidy up a bit & move some of them out of the way so it won't look like we're running some sort of used car lot or trailer park or whatever.
68. SO I HITCHED UP THIS ONE TRAILER TO A CAR & DECIDED TO PULL IT OUT OF THE WAY over to another part of the yard where things wouldn't look quite so crowded, & this was where it was when I apparently then went on to eat breakfast, etc., until the next knock at the door, & there was the military officer standing saluting, & I saluted back.
69. HE SAID, "I'M SORRY, SIR, BUT WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO CLEAR THINGS UP A BIT ABOUT HERE. You know, you're near our military base & we have a very important military dignitary about to visit us & we want to make sure everything is shipshape & secure & we're going to have to move all your vehicles out of here right away!"--And quite obviously he wasn't waiting on us to do it!
70. THERE WERE SEVERAL JEEPS AND TRUCKS & SOLDIERS ALREADY MILLING ABOUT THE YARD & the front yard & they had already started hitching up some of the vehicles to their trucks & were pulling them away! Apparently they weren't going to wait for us to do it, they were going to do it right then & right now!
71. PERHAPS IF I'D GOTTEN UP AND TALKED TO HIM EARLIER in the morning at nine when he first knocked he would have warned me & we could have done it on our own, but by this time it was late, I had the feeling it was about noon, & since he hadn't been able to give me the warning they had come prepared to remove the vehicles themselves.
72. YOU KNOW, WHEN IMPORTANT MEN ARE AROUND THEY'RE ALWAYS WORRIED ABOUT BOMBS & booby-traps & vehicles in the vicinity where some kind of bomb or sniper might be hidden or something like that, so he was evidently coming this way & they wanted to clear away everything on his route to make sure there were no hazards.
73. SO THEY WERE CLEARING AWAY ALL OF OUR VEHICLES & it seemed we had quite a few in the dream, including some vans & trailers, etc. (Maria: Maybe it wasn't right here, maybe it was somewhere else?) Well, I', sorry to say but in my dream it was this place, right here, quite familiar--& very vivid & very real!
74. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER IT WAS JUST A WARNING OR A PREDICTION of what is going to happen, that may depend on us, but it was certainly a vivid dream anyhow. Well, maybe it was just a dream, maybe I just had that on my heart because of the knock. Maybe I was just worrying in my sleep & hallucinated or imagined these things, who knows? But usually when I have dreams like that they're pretty clear warnings or even come true!
75. SO HE THEN INDICATED THAT HE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE ME MOVE MY VEHICLE & its trailer, & I was very happy to do so rather than let them hitch it up to one of their trucks & take off with it like they were moving all the rest of the things! I apparently had the feeling that they were just going to clear them away not too far until I would be able to find them or be notified where they were to pick them up later.
76. SO I GOT IN MY CAR, HITCHED UP OUR OWN TRAILER & I PULLED OUT, this time not just to another part of the yard but completely off the property, out the driveway & down the road. And as I went along I remember there was quite a low archway I had to go through in one place that the top of the trailer just barely cleared. That's one of the hazards of driving a trailer!
77. THE WHOLE AREA SEEMED TO BE A BEEHIVE OF ACTIVITY OF MILITARY OFFICERS & VEHICLES, & pretty soon I saw the same officer that had knocked at our door & someone with him with about a half-a-dozen officers standing around a limousine, another very tall handsome, looked like a military general or a commander-in-chief with a moustache.
78. ANYHOW, THE GROUP OF OFFICERS I SAW STANDING BESIDE THE LIMOUSINE & a particularly tall distinguished dignified important-looking one who looked like a commander-in-chief of the army or something, very important man, made me begin to realise why they were tightening up security in the whole area for his visit to this military base.
79. IT WAS ALL VERY PRIM & EFFICIENT & FIRM BUT VERY FRIENDLY. I had a good feeling about them, they were quite friendly & quite polite but quite firm in their words & orders & activities & obviously meant business. By the time he got back to me after he'd been gone three hours after the first knock at nine o'clock, he came back at noon & we had not cleared out because we hadn't gotten the warning, therefore they were helping us move out.
80. THEY WERE DOING IT VERY MORE OR LESS KINDLY, POLITELY, BUT FIRMLY, & in a friendly fashion, just more or less apologising for having to do it, but definitely insisting that it be done. The whole area seemed to be astir with military personnel & vehicles obvious important preparations for this important visiting dignitary.
81. THAT'S ABOUT THE LAST I REMEMBER OF THE DREAM as I drove by down the road past this limousine with these officers standing there in intent conversation. They paid no attention to us whatsoever, like they had one their duty & we were out of the way & we were complying & everything was going in a decent & orderly fashion.
82. THEY HAD NOTHING AGAINST US PERSONALLY, they simply wanted us to clear out & get out of the way for the important events that were occurring. You almost had the feeling they were going to have some kind of a parade or something & they were clearing the route & all the sidelines & bordering areas to make sure that this man was safe & secure as he entered the area, & I rather had the feeling that it was the head of the country himself, the president or premier of the country, that it was a really important visit is why they were being so careful about security and really clearing his path.
83. IT WAS SIMPLY NOTHING AGAINST US PERSONALLY OR AGAINST US AS A FAMILY or that they even knew who we were, but that they were just routinely clearing the whole area of all the questionable vehicles, etc., so that there would be no threat to the security of this visiting head of state. But it was very very vivid & it was very very clear & I can see it yet, him standing outside the door a respectful distance.
84. AFTER HE HAD KNOCKED HE HAD STEPPED BACK A FEW PACES, & the moment I came out he snapped to attention, saluted, & he apologised & said "I'm sorry but we're having to clear you out right now because So-&-so is coming"--and they were already starting to move our vehicles for us. So I jumped in & decided to move my own & drove out & down the road past the limousine, saw the officers & had the feeling it was something very important, it was a very important visit by a very important man; it was nothing against us personally but just to clear his path from any security hazards.
85. MAYBE I DREAMED IT BECAUSE OF THE KNOCK ON THE DOOR THIS MORNING--I'm still trying to find out if anybody did knock at the door, because it was certainly very clear to me & woke me up out of a sound sleep after only three hours sleep from six to nine! So far, the Family says they haven't found anybody that heard it. So if that was a part of the dream, it certainly was vivid & it's strange that I knew it was at nine o'clock, but I definitely opened my eyes & looked at the clock & it was two or three minutes after nine when the knock was finished.
86. APPARENTLY THEY HAD DECIDED TO GO AROUND & KNOCK RIGHT AT NINE O'CLOCK as being a decent hour to get people up & out of the way, if it was a part of the dream. But it was certainly vivid & clear. I turned & looked at Maria to see if she was awake & wondered if she heard it or if it woke her, but it was loud & it was imperative, rather demanding insistent, the heavy hand of obviously a man with authority. First I thought it was the landlord but it turned out to be this military officer.
87. WELL, AT LEAST IT MADE ME THINK SERIOUSLY & PRAY ABOUT ALWAYS BEING PREPARED FOR ANY EVENTUALITY & any heavy-handed knock at the door which could represent the authorities with some important message for you or warning or even investigation, questioning, search, etc., such as I dreamed about one time in that famous dream, "The Empty Wind" about a search of the house & so on. (See No.367.) So you should always be prepared for such a thing if it should happen.
88. SOMETIMES NEIGHBOURS ARE SUSPICIOUS & THEY CALL THE AUTHORITIES & tell them what they think about these strange people living next door & the authorities just come as a matter of routine to investigate, to question you & find out who you are & what you're doing there, etc., & you had better always be prepared for it, everything always put away. [DELETED]
89. IF IT'S MERELY A ROUTINE NORMAL QUESTIONING, INTERVIEW, they just come to your door, knock on the door, you could step out first to speak to them to give the folks inside a chance to quickly tidy up. [DELETED]
90. IF HE SAYS THAT HE WOULD LIKE TO TALK TO YOU A FEW MINUTES, the polite & customary thing to do is to invite them in, particularly an officer of the law, military authority of any kind, detective, investigator. If you're fairly certain that he is what he pretends to be or what he claims to be & is safe to invite in, usually they'll show their identification & say "I'm So-&-so of the secret police" or "I'm So-&-so of the military police, may I come in or may I talk to you for a few minutes?"
91. SO YOU INVITE HIM IN, VERY POLITELY HOSPITABLY, CHEERFULLY, WITHOUT FEAR, nothing to be afraid of, because you're not a criminal, you're not dishonest, you have done "all things honestly provided for them that are without" (1Th.4:12) & you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to be ashamed of, you have not broken any laws & therefore you should a clear conscience & be unafraid to invite them in & be very kind to them & very hospitable & very cheerful.
92. IMMEDIATELY OFFER THEM A SEAT OF COURSE, FIRST OF ALL, & then ask them if they'd like to have a drink, coffee, tea or some other type of drink or even just cold water or whatever. Then sit down with them or across from them smiling & happy with perhaps some of the other Family members & children playing in the area, nurses or women caring for the house & the children & available to be seen how sweet & pretty they are & sweet innocent children.
93. NORMAL FAMILY, NORMAL HOME ACTIVITIES GOING ON, NOTHING UNUSUAL, just like any normal family would be occupied with & nothing to hide, nothing to fear, nothing to worry about, everybody happy, no one looking afraid or worried and normal home activities going on, people in the kitchen working or cooking or washing dishes, perhaps someone setting the table for dinner or breakfast or whatever.
94. IF HE COMES AT MEALTIME & THE FAMILY'S AT DINNER, THEN EXCUSE YOURSELF & INVITE HIM IN & seat him in the living room away from the dinner table, if possible, so they can continue their meal, & apologise for the fact that you're eating & he'll probably apologise for interrupting your meal. But probably if he's important & he has something important to say, he's not going to leave & say I'll come back later. He'll probably get it over with, however, as quickly as he can, question you as quick as he can.
95. IT'S VERY WISE TO HAVE AT LEAST TWO PEOPLE THERE AS WITNESSES, you & some other member of the Home, preferably a woman, pretty girl, your wife. This always makes a good impression & has a good feeling about it with her pretty smiles & her charm to answer questions with you or confirm your answers; or if you have any questions you don't know exactly how to answer, perhaps she can, & between the two of you can answer the questions.
96. FREQUENTLY THEY COME TWO-BY-TWO so you may have two men dropping in on you & two cups of coffee to fix, two chairs to provide & to seat yourselves opposite them so that you can look them full in the face & they can see your open cheerful honest face & happy smile & know that certainly these people are not guilty of anything & have no problems even despite some nosey neighbours or suspicious voiced to the authorities or suspicious voiced to the authorities by neighbours or acquaintances or enemies or whatever.
97. ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS VERY HONESTLY. Try to give them the honest truth & nothing but the truth, but no more of the truth than you have to give them. Show yourselves to be very cooperative, very open, very honest & quickly answering any questions that they may have regarding your identity. They may ask you for your passports or ID cards regarding your visa status, how long you've been in the country & what are you here for & how soon do you plan to leave & what are you doing here, etc., & may ask you why you're passing out such literature when you're here as a tourist.
98. ALTHOUGH IT MAY BE A FREE COUNTRY & HAVE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS & SPEECH, RELIGION, ETC., they still may have some regulations regarding distribution of literature, particularly by strangers as tourists. Even States within the United States, particularly in local communities, have restrictions on the distribution of literature & the asking of alms.
99. SO YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO HONESTLY ANSWER THE QUESTIONS even if you now they may be incriminating as far as they're concerned & it may result in you being asked to either stop your litnessing or even to leave the country. Be very thankful if they don't get excessively tough with you & haul you off to the police station for further questioning or fining or jailing!
100. THIS MAY BE JUST A WARNING, just an investigation to see what you are up to & why & how come, etc., & they may just give you a warning & either tell you to stop litnessing, or they may ask you to leave since they feel you have violated your privilege as a tourist & they may give you a certain period of time to leave such as 24 hours!
101. USUALLY, HOWEVER, THEY GIVE YOU A MINIMUM OF APPROXIMATELY 48 HOURS TO A WEEK OR TWO TO LEAVE A COUNTRY if they feel that you're violating your tourist status and that you have sacrificed & forfeited your privilege as a tourist, & they therefore give you a time limit to leave as they did us from Malta, 72 hours, three days & nights, which gave us plenty of time, as they suggested, to catch the ferry to Sicily. They even recommended the boat, however, they didn't buy us a ticket! But they made sure we were on that boat & leaving within the time limit set, which at that time was 72 hours.
102. USUALLY IT'S THREE DAYS UNLESS THEY'RE VERY ANGRY & VERY MAD AT YOU & they might give you 24 or 48 hours to get out of the country, which is a bit difficult. Some can hardly get packed & loaded up & everything tended to & cleared up & finished up & wound up & bills paid & friends notified, etc., within 24 hours--even 48 hours may be a bit difficult.
103. BUT 72 HOURS, I WOULD SAY, IS ABOUT THE NORM, they give you three days & three nights in other words, to get out if they feel that you have forfeited your tourist status & that it's a sufficiently serious infraction that you are being virtually deported from the country. This is what you might call voluntary deportation or requested deportation, voluntary inasmuch as it's done under your own steam & you pack yourself up & get yourself out of the country at your own expense.
104. OF COURSE IF THEY CONSIDER IT QUITE SERIOUS THEY MAY ACTUALLY TAKE YOU TO THE STATION, question you, detain you for a few hours or even days, until they order you out of the country, as they did us. They may even levy a certain fine on you for breaking the rules or overstaying your visa or whatever it may be & then order you out of the country.
105. IN A FEW RARE CASES THEY HAVE IMPRISONED PEOPLE FOR A FEW WEEKS or even months for breaking their immigration laws & overstaying their visas, etc., but the penalties for such visa infractions are not usually severe, & usually amount to just a small fine, if any penalty at all, more than asking you to leave to deporting you. It's usually just a small fine, a little slap on the wrist for being naughty, & an order to leave the country.
106. HOWEVER IN SOME CASES WHERE THEY'RE ANGRY OR WE HAVE BITTER ENEMIES, they may be more severe, & they have held some of the Family in jail for months under various trumped-up charges by enemies inspired by the Devil, criminal charges which of course were eventually proven untrue & the cases were dismissed.
107. MEANWHILE FAMILY MEMBERS HAVE REMAINED IN JAIL FOR MONTHS AT A TIME CREATING NO SMALL STIR in the jails or prisons themselves, a real revival in prison with many of the inmates getting saved & many of the officials & wardens & nurses & caretakers, etc., also getting saved & a very good impression being made. It's very important to do PR even in a prison until they also recommend that you're good people & they don't understand why you've been put in jail, as has happened a number of times in some countries!
108. EVENTUALLY YOUR LAWYER, IF YOU WERE BLESSED ENOUGH TO GET ONE OR HAVE ONE COME TO BAT FOR YOU, argues with the officials that you are guiltless & committed no crime & they let you go. Frequently this is done without even bringing it to court or before a judge & the officials just detain you for awhile & then as a sort of a little punishment, if not a slap on the wrist, a little slap on the rear, a good hard one if not a kick, and then finally let you go with a warning to not do any more of that & to get out of the country, which has happened a few times in various countries with the Family.
109. SO DON'T BE SURPRISED IF IT HAPPENS TO YOU because the Enemy loves to stir up trouble & persecution, particularly if you've done a good thorough job to the point that the enemies are stirred up against you & therefore turn & stir up the authorities against you. So that's way that you should be prepared for the knock at the door. Some who have gone through this experience could give better information & advice even than I, I'm sure, what to always be prepared with.
110. I RECALL IN OUR EARLY DAYS IN HUNTINGTON BEACH where we first got started with the Light Club & the hippies & where we did a lot of picketing & demonstrating & were frequently thrown in jail for it--especially if it was school grounds where the Devil really protects the young from the Lord--a number of our early folks were thrown in jail there.
111. IT GOT TO BE A JOKE TO BE SURE TO ALWAYS KEEP YOUR TOOTHBRUSH IN YOUR POCKET, because that is one of the things that you really desire when you're separated from Home. Most prisons or jails either don't furnish them at all, or furnish a poor substitute. So it got to be a saying & a habit with the Family that everybody carried their own toothbrush in their pocket all the time just in case they got separated from the conveniences & comforts of Home.
112. SO IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO BE READY FOR THAT KNOCK AT THE DOOR! Whatever happens, be ready with your hospitality & cheerfulness & cooperation & answers to questions. Be sure that you always have the answers ready & that they are honest as can be & everybody tells the same story. You know that way if you're honest you don't get your stories twisted & contradicting each other.--Tell the truth!
113. HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY & HONESTLY PAYS. It's better to tell the truth. Of course, you don't always have to tell the whole truth, you don't have to tell all the truth, you don't have to tell them any more than they insist on knowing & no more than you really care to tell them if necessary.
114. THEY MAY BE SATISFIED BY THEIR QUESTIONING & STAND & BID YOU GOODBYE & thank you & even shake hands & smile having been favourably & cheerfully impressed by your sweet little family & pretty girls & sweet children [DELETED] & their humble service in furnishing drinks, etc. We've had some of these officers, according to Family reports, get quite warmed up to the subject in their visits until finally they left laughing & very friendly & very favourable, promising to come back some other time for a more friendly visit, not official.
115. SO IT PAYS TO MAKE A GOOD IMPRESSION IN THESE CASES & DO GOOD P.R. so as to make a favourable impression with the authorities. Hopefully having gone back and delivered their favourable report to the authorities, the decision will be made not to bother you any more & allow you to stay & continue your activities. Or that whatever the decision, you part friends & you part kindly & lovingly, cheerfully, having made a good impression for the Lord if nothing else, even if you're asked to leave the country or whatever.
116. BUT ALWAYS BE SURE YOU ARE READY. Peter tells us to "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the faith that is in you" (1Pe. 3:15)--as well as the reason for a lot of other things, why you're here & how come you've been here so long & what are you doing passing out literature & asking for money, etc. You'd better always have an answer ready for all these things & be prepared that if your answers don't satisfy them or if they don't like the answers, they may ask you at least to leave.
117. IN SOME CASES IF THE AUTHORITIES ARE QUITE ANGERED BY YOUR ACTIVITIES & your identity or something, they may not only give you a deadline to leave within 48-72 hours, they may even help you leave & make take you into immigration detention & ship you out themselves to make sure you do leave!--Ship you out under police escort in either one of their cars or on a train with a police escort, sometimes handcuffed to the policeman or at least accompanied by him to make sure you get out & cross the border & bid you farewell at the border when he sees you're for sure leaving the country. This is enforced deportation.
118. WHEN THEY ONLY REQUEST YOU TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY & MERELY ASK YOU TO LEAVE, THERE'S NO RECORD USUALLY MADE OF IT, they don't stamp you passport that way, as a rule, or anything, so there's nothing bad that shows up in your passport. However if you've really made'm mad & they deport you forcibly, they may put a bad stamp in your passport so that you'll never be able to come back to that country again & it'll look bad to other immigration authorities, passport inspectors in other countries as well. So try to avoid that if you possibly can.
119. IN SOME CASES, THEY WILL NOT ONLY ASK YOU TO LEAVE, BUT THEY WILL FORCIBLY DEPORT YOU with an official escort & see you across the border, or at least to the border. In a few cases if you so desire or if no other country will take you, then if you're going to be forcibly deported you have to be deported to your own home country, & if you do not have the fare or the money to pay your own ticket home, the government itself will be compelled to buy you a ticket & pay for your fare home with your promise or some kind of assurance from you home authorities that they will be repaid; in which case they don't like it very much that you're causing them so much trouble & expense & they may manifest their distaste!
120. SO IT'S FAR BETTER NOT TO LET THE MATTER GO THAT FAR, but at the first hint that they want you to stop your litnessing or give you such orders, requests or even to leave the country, you had better cooperate & do so & try to please them & keep them happy, for if you don't & they should run into you again they won't be so happy you didn't do what you were told & get tougher with you & possibly take you to the station & imprison you awhile or fine you or forcibly deport you!
121. IN ANY CASE, WHATEVER YOU DO, TRY TO PROTECT THE FAMILY AT HOME & not involve them if you can, & if they have it in for you to take it out on you personally, you'll have to comply. Even if they separate you from your family for a time & ship you out of the country, your family will have to join you later. But anyway, always be prepared to give an answer to any man that asketh thee, if he should be that knock at the door!
122. WHICH IS ALSO A REASON WHY WE SHOULD BE SUITCASE MISSIONARIES OR MOBILE MINISTERS, always ready to move at a moment's notice in case we feel the atmosphere is getting tight & the persecution is beginning [DELETED] or we get rumours & wind that the enemies are stirring up trouble for us or very bad publicity which turns the people [DELETED] against us.
123. IN ANY EVENT, ALWAYS BE READY FOR THAT KNOCK AT THE DOOR & pray earnestly that the Lord will help you be prepared for it & whatever it may require. It also may come at a very inconvenient time of day or night as it did for us this morning, or whatever it was, even if I was dreaming.
124. BE SURE THAT IF YOU'RE AWAKENED OUT OF BED IN EARLY MORNING, THROW YOUR BATHROBE ABOUT YOU if it's a cold climate so that you don't get chilled standing in an open door talking to some officer through the wide open door. If it's cold weather you'd better invite him quickly inside where it's warm & I'm sure he'll appreciate your openness & hospitality in that case, the rest of the Family being in bed.
125. THINGS SHOULD HAVE BEEN PUT AWAY [DELETED] DEFINITELY BEFORE EVERY ONE WENT TO BED so that in case that should happen during the night you'll always be prepared. Be prepared also with instructions for what your wife & the rest of the family should do in case they haul you off to the station or the jail.
126. YOU SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR SUCH AN EVENTUALITY WHICH FREQUENTLY HAPPENS with our families as strangers in a strange country engaged in strange activities, compared to the rest of the System & the other tourists. Maria was just mentioning how we always make sure that no member of our family ever leaves the houses & goes anywhere, shopping or for mail or anything, without carrying sufficient funds in case we should have an emergency.
127. IN SPAIN WE USUALLY INSISTED THAT EACH MEMBER OF THE FAMILY HAVE AT LEAST ONE OR TWO THOUSAND PESETAS ON THEIR PERSON WHEREVER THEY WENT. This is sufficient to cover any expenses or purchases or whatever you're doing as well as if you should be stopped on the street by the authorities & asked to show how much money you have on hand, so you'll have sufficient.
128. NORMALLY THEY WON'T DO THIS IF YOU'RE DRESSED NICELY & LOOK SYSTEM & don't look like a bedraggled hippy bum, they won't stop you & won't ask you any questions & won't ask you how much money you've got. The authorities of a country are always worried about bums & hippies getting stranded at their expense in their jails & having to ship them out at their expense, so they don't like people that don't have enough money & don't have an onward ticket & can't show sufficient funds for self-support.
129. SO YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE AS MUCH MONEY ON YOU AS IS CONVENIENT & PRACTICAL to show that you have a normal amount of funds such as the average tourist would have, & one of the safest things to carry, of course, is traveller's cheques. Which means that each member of the Family should have a small sum of traveller's cheques in their own name in case they should be taken away & imprisoned & maybe even have to be left behind. They will not be completely stranded totally destitute but will have sufficient funds to see them out of the country to join you when their term is ended & to buy their own tickets & meals & take care of themselves until you see them again.
130. THIS IS TRUE OF THE ONES YOU LEAVE BEHIND IN THE HOME AS WELL, as they usually take the father of the family or the head of the home as the one most responsible. Frequently members of the family will be left behind in the Home with a warning to leave the country or something, & they should have sufficient funds to do so with some kind of preparation as to future contact or communication, where to meet or whom to phone to find out where they have gone & what's happened to you, etc.
131. YOU NEED A CENTRAL COMMUNICATION POINT somewhere else perhaps, even in some other country, some phone number you know to call of some other Home where you can contact each other again & find out what happened. If he's taken off to jail & not told anything about what's happened to you & you're shipped out of the country, he may be quite shook up to find when he gets back to the house that you're all gone, he knows not where, if they had no opportunity to communicate with you!
132. THEREBY HE NEEDS A PHONE NUMBER OF CALL SOMEWHERE WHERE THEY MAY HAVE SOME INFORMATION FOR HIM, some other Home in the vicinity or even out of the country. And the one taken in should definitely have sufficient funds to carry on when he is released, especially if the Home is no longer there.
133. THE ONES LEFT BEHIND IN THE HOME SHOULD DEFINITELY HAVE SUFFICIENT FUNDS TO CARE FOR THEMSELVES while he is absent, or even to leave the country if necessary. So we always make sure that every member of our Home has a small book of a few traveller's cheques sufficient for his fare out of the country if necessary, & his food & even some lodging on the way if required.
134. WE MAKE SURE EACH MEMBER OF OUR FAMILY HAS THE EQUIVALENT OF AT LEAST ABOUT $50-$100 IN POCKET FUNDS wherever they go in a strange country, in a strange land amongst strange people, in case they should be stopped or police should enquire & they should be commanded to show funds or they should be taken in & released at a later date when they need the funds to either get back to the Home or out of the country or whatever. Thereby each member of the Family should have a small sum on their person at all times, particularly when leaving the house & going to town or out on the streets or in public so that they always have this money for any emergency that my occur.
135. AND THE HOME FOLKS, SINCE EACH ONE HAS A LITTLE, THEIR COMBINED FUNDS SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT if the entire Home has to vacate & has to leave the country or the area, they have combined sufficient funds to do so. They have enough money to pay their bills & wind things up & pack up & enough for their transportation or gasoline or whatever to leave the area if they've been commanded to do so.
136. IF THEY SEE THAT THE ATMOSPHERE IS SUFFICIENTLY THREATENING, they had better do so before something worse happens & they're all taken in & all put in detention or all forcibly deported, which is bad. If you can possibly avoid it, try not to let it happen to you. Because when forcibly deported usually you're given a bad stamp in your passport & you can never return to that country & it looks a little questionable even to other countries. There are other countries who may hesitate to take you if you've had immigration problems in another country.
137. ANYHOW, IN MY DREAM THEY DIDN'T SEEM TO HAVE ANYTHING PERSONAL AGAINST US except we had apparently attracted some curiosity or aroused some other suspicion having so many people & vehicles in one place--which is quite possible in a number of our Homes which may arouse their interest--& in this case for the sake of security of this important person, we were requested to leave.
138. THIS HAPPENED ONCE BEFORE, AS YOU RECALL THE MALTA STORY, in which oddly enough we had rented an apartment in this very nice apartment hotel in Catania, Sicily, & it turned out that it was either right beneath or right above the apartment of a very important minister of the government who was coming for a weekend vacation visit with very tight security & lots of guards & police around!
139. THE PLACE WAS SUDDENLY SWARMING WITH POLICE INVESTIGATING EVERYTHING, including knocking on our door & asking who lived there. They wanted to know who lived right above him or below him, whatever it was, & we were quite sure they were tapping our phone & phone calls, all a matter of just normal routine security for a visiting VIP!
140. SO YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BE PREPARED FOR THESE POSSIBILITIES & EVENTUALITIES, your Home tight & secure & nothing that's going to blow in the wind & get you in trouble. Everyone's papers & passports & visas should be in order, stamps in order & up-to-date so that even one careless neglectful member of the Home does not get the others in trouble because of his negligence & failure to renew his passport in time or to get his proper stamp or whatever it may be.
141. IN OUR HOME WE ALWAYS MAKE SOMEONE WHO HAS SOME MANAGERIAL ABILITY & A LITTLE AUTHORITY to frequently have at least a monthly passport check, check the expiration date of your passport itself, check your stamps, make sure they are in order & you're not overdue for a visa trip, & also to check & make sure each time you leave the house that you have sufficient funds in case you're stopped to show money.
142. YOU SHOULD BE WELL & NEATLY DRESSED & LOOK AS SYSTEMITE AS POSSIBLE so that you're not classed with those ugly detestable filthy hippies, & even worse, one of those cults or sects! So try to [DELETED] look as much like the System as possible, neat, well-dressed, formally or even casually, sport dress, whatever's common for tourists in that area, tourist attire.
143. SOMEPLACES YOU CAN EVEN WEAR A BIKINI, at least on the beach, & even some areas you could wear them in the streets or the shops. But normally most countries confine that type of attire to the beach, & certainly anything topless is not tolerated anywhere but the beach as a rule, & at that only in a very few countries. So watch out for your dress, your attire, & look as much like a tourist as possible, & a tourist that has a little money & is innocent, harmless, guiltless, casual & normal, unthreatening & engaged in some normal tourist activity as a rule!
144. OF COURSE, IN SOME COUNTRIES YOU MAY BE PERMITTED & BE ABLE TO GET AWAY WITH LITNESSING EVEN THOUGH A TOURIST OR A FOREIGNER, but the heaviest litnessing normally in many countries can only be done by the natives themselves, the nationals who have a right to do so. There are frequently restrictions against tourists passing out literature & the tourists may have some problems with the authorities if they're caught distributing literature on the street or asking for alms in public places.
145. SO IN COUNTRIES WHERE THEY ARE TIGHT IN THIS RESPECT IN WOULD BE WISE TO HAVE MOSTLY THE NATIONALS DOING THIS TYPE OF PUBLIC WORK, open litnessing & witnessing, if possible. According to our previous rules & suggestions, foreigners are to comprise less than half of the personnel of your Home anyhow & maybe they can be the personnel who stays home & keeps house & takes care of the children & the books & the letters & the correspondence & the paperwork & management of things, financial management & particularly the leadership especially so that you do not get involved in any problems on the street.
146. MOST HOMES HAVE JUST ONE OR TWO OR THREE VERY GOOD LITNESSERS who spend most or nearly all of their time out litnessing & that is their primary job, & if possible, this should be the nationals who are natives & citizens of the country & therefore have a right to do so & can get away with it, or at least try to. Except in countries where there is a great deal of freedom & liberty & even foreigners are not stopped, I would advise your foreign personnel to stay a bit more [DELETED] at home, housekeeping, childcaring, business managing, etc.
147. [DELETED] [EDITED: "Y"]ou don't want the head or husband of the home, if possible, to be incarcerated from the street or something because of some illegal public activity which could cause a great deal of trouble or inconvenience with the Home if he happens to be the one who knows all the combinations & has the keys, the chequebook, etc.
148. THAT'S ANOTHER IMPORTANT ITEM TO REMEMBER, that if someone is taken into custody that he make sure that he leaves all this pocket materials if possible & any important papers, diaries, monies, chequebooks, anything but his essential ID that he has to take to the station with him & perhaps a little pocket money that he may need when released.
149. BE VERY WISE THAT THIS IS ALL ARRANGED IN ADVANCE WITH THE WIFE OF THE HOME WHO'S NOT NORMALLY TAKEN, it's usually the man that's taken in, that all of these preparations are made in advance & you know exactly what to do if & when it happens. It's better to have it & not need it, than need it & not have it!
150. SO IT'S WISE TO MAKE THESE PREPARATIONS, discuss them & have Godly counsel & advice on it & be prepared for such a knock on the door, so that when it comes you are all ready for it & you'll know exactly what to do. You've already discussed it & decided what preparations you're going to make and what consequently you're going to do in the event there is such a knock on the door & the head or husband of the Home is taken away, as usual, into custody or for questioning & may be gone for some time so that the wife & other members of the Home still have sufficient funds, the chequebook for the bank account, etc.
151. WHICH IS WHY IT'S ALWAYS WISE TO HAVE TWO PEOPLE'S NAMES ON THE BANK ACCOUNT in case something should happen to either one of them; normally it doesn't happen to both at the same time. If the husband's taken in, then the wife can still write checks, pay the bills & take care of expenses, even [EDITED: "the move"] if necessary. We already mentioned how all members should have some money on them so that the combined funds in case of a mass move would be sufficient [EDITED: "for"] all of you & take care of the necessary transportation, food, lodging, etc.
152. IN THE CASE OF OUR MOBILE FAMILIES who have vans, campers, trucks & trailers, etc., it would be very wise to make sure you have at least two drivers in the Home. You may have a handyman or gardener or even a childcare helper who drives, male or female. In case the principle driver is taken in & the rest have to leave [DELETED], then there is someone left behind who can drive the car or drive the vehicle & chauffeur you out of the area.
153. SO IF YOU'RE A SINGLE FAMILY, SON, YOU'D BETTER MAKE SURE YOUR WIFE CAN DRIVE, or even an older teenage child can drive & has proper license, training, etc. Most of our families are single Homes, a couple with children & a few helpers, so make sure if you have a vehicle & need a driver that someone else can drive in your absence.
154. EVEN FOR NORMAL LIVING AND SHOPPING & TRANSPORTATION TO TOWN OR WHATEVER MAY BE NECESSARY WHILE YOU'RE GONE, & much more so to facilitate their [EDITED: "move"] escape if they should have to [EDITED: "go"] without you & with the care & camper or trailer, etc. You want to make sure they're not stuck there & [DELETED] unable to go mobile & in jeopardy & danger of further persecution [DELETED], if they push it further.
155. IN [EDITED: "ONE COUNTRY"] WHEN SOME OF US WERE UNDER QUESTIONING & IN DANGER, SOME OF THE HOME WERE ABLE TO [EDITED: "MOVE"] ALMOST IMMEDIATELY & others had to follow later. And if you see that it's a serious thing and it looks like it's going to be serious & serious opposition & persecution & they may extend it, increase it to other members of the Home, then I suggest that if one is taken in & the report from them sounds pretty serious like they're really out to get you & all the Homes in the area, when you're sure of this you're all prepared to pack up & go & get out of there before it gets worse[DELETED]!
156. TRY TO HAVE THE DIFFICULTY INVOLVE AS FEW MEMBERS OF THE HOME AS POSSIBLE. Usually they'll only take one in for questioning, as they did with us, took in poor Alfred & kept him cooling his heels in a jail cell for long hours clear into the dark hours of the night, wondering what was happening, not having the faintest idea what they were going to do with him or whether he was going to have to be in jail overnight or for the rest of the year or what!--With no means or method of communication with the Home, they wouldn't even let him telephone!
157. TILL AT LAST THEY DID LET HIM MAKE A PHONE CALL HOME & he at least did persuade the authorities that his little baby girl would be very upset if he didn't come home for the night. So they finally released him with eventually the warning to get out of the country within 72 hours, for all of us to get out. Well, thank God, some of us got out early & were already gone by this time, as we saw that it was going to be serious & they were going to get tough.
158. SO IT'S WISE FOR SOME TO [EDITED: "GO"] AS SOON AS THEY CAN, particularly if [DELETED] it's going to be a general persecution--which you should know by this time, have some inkling of from the way things are leading & going as to whether it's serious enough. [DELETED]
[DELETED]
160. SOME OF THESE FOREIGN JAILS CAN REALLY BE PRETTY MISERABLE, varmint-infested demonic places, very uncomfortable, sometimes very very cold or some kind of insane idiots in the same cell with you as well as bugs & disease & excrement & whatnot! So it's a very good idea to try to avoid detention if you possibly can.
161. IN THE MORE CIVILISED COUNTRIES THERE ARE USUALLY MORE CIVILISED QUARTERS. We used to minister at the Immigration Detention Hall in the U.S. & it was like a hotel, it was very comfortable & clean & nice hotel-motel type rooms, beds, & virtually hotel service--but that's the United States!
162. IN SOME OF THE RICHER CIVILISED COUNTRIES OF EUROPE you'll find fairly good detention facilities & clean, at least, & fairly good fair decent humane treatment & food & bed clothing & sanitation facilities, etc., but in some of the poorer countries & Third World countries & the more antagonistic countries the prison conditions can be horrible!
163. EVEN IN SUCH A SUPPOSEDLY CIVILISED COUNTRY AS ITALY, at least in Sicily, the jail cell that dear Tim was put in was filthy & inhabited also by an insane murderer as well as ice cold, open air, no heat, barred window open to the outdoors courtyard, virtually sleeping outdoors with a slanted table only to sleep on, apparently the drunk tank. The table slanted so that in case he should urinate while on the table asleep or whatever it would run off the table.
164. NO BED CLOTHING, NO SHEETS, MATTRESS PADS, NOTHING, except they were extra kind to Timothy & gave him two or three heavy blankets to wrap around him, but he said they didn't look too clean & smelled like they weren't washed, & he was almost more afraid of the blankets than he was of the cold! He had to stay under those conditions for the night & slept very little, not knowing what was even going to happen to him in the morning!
165. BUT THANK GOD, HE WAS RELEASED THE NEXT MORNING. [DELETED]
166. HE PROVED THAT HE HAD NOT OVERSTAYED HIS VISA, THAT HE'D BEEN OUT OF THE COUNTRY SEVERAL TIMES & they took his word for it. He described his various trips [DELETED] & he had left the country, but apparently they had no record that he had left.
167. SOMETIMES IT'S GOOD THAT YOU GET A STAMP WHEN YOU LEAVE TO PROVE THAT YOU DID LEAVE THE COUNTRY. Sometimes it's good to get a stamp in your passport as you enter to prove what date you came in, but of course then you are bound to leave by a certain date, usually within three months, & so be sure that you get another stamp to show that you left the country. And if you should re-enter, to then either get a stamp to prove when you came in. [DELETED]
168. MOST OF THE EUROPEAN COMMON MARKET COUNTRIES DO NOT STAMP YOUR PASSPORTS as you pass from one to the other & are even annoyed if you ask for a stamp. So perhaps it's better just not to even ask for one & not get one. [DELETED]
169. BUT IT'S WISE TO KEEP ALL THESE THINGS IN MIND regarding your always having your proper documents & paper, particularly your passport & proper stamps or no stamps or whatever is best & to be sure that your passport is good & has not expired. It 's very simple to get a new passport at your local consulate of your home country within only usually a few minutes or a few hours, just simply fill out the application & pay.
170. BE CAREFUL HOW YOU ANSWER QUESTIONS, be sure they're true & be sure that if you're in a foreign country, give your home address back in your home country, your native country of which you're a citizen, give that as your permanent address, otherwise they don't consider you a tourist. Then they may request a local address [DELETED] in case they want to follow it up for some reason.
171. BE SURE THAT YOU ALWAYS PUT DOWN AS YOUR OCCUPATION "TOURIST" OR "STUDENT," IF YOU ARE ONE, OR "BUSINESSMAN" IF YOU ARE, whatever--you're in the Lord's business--& make sure that if it's visa questions you're there just temporarily as a tourist, unless you have a very good right or excuse to be there for some other reason with paper or documents to prove it.
172. AND IN APPLYING FOR A NEW PASSPORT, BE SURE YOU DON'T GIVE THEM THE IMPRESSION YOU INTEND TO BE GONE FROM YOUR HOME COUNTRY FOREVER '[DELETED] or they may just get snotty & decide not to renew it so that you'll have to go home if you act too snotty about them or toward them. You'd better be very nice & very cooperative & answer the questions & "agree with thine adversary whilst thou art in the way with him" lest he cause you more trouble! (Mt.5:25.).
173. BE SURE THAT YOUR VEHICLE PAPERS ARE ALSO KEPT UP-TO-DATE IN PROPER ORDER & proper insurance & all rest so that doesn't cause you trouble. And that every driver has a bona fide license. [DELETED] And be sure you keep yourselves & your vehicles very clean & tidy & nice-looking so that they won't be ashamed to have you in their country.
174. MOST COUNTRIES ARE VERY HOSPITABLE TO TOURISTS & they like you to be there to spend money & keep their country green, but they don't like hippy-type bums who look like they are panhandling, begging & going to be possibly a burden on them financially, either to jail as vagrants or deport at Government expense!
175. PLEASE LET'S TRY TO MAKE OURSELVES AS POPULAR WITH GOVERNMENTS AS POSSIBLE--not as unpopular as you can! Agree with'm, obey'm, keep their laws as best you can, don't make yourself a nuisance, dress well, be quiet, don't annoy your neighbours, keep a nice house & yard without too many vehicles, visitors or nose or late hours & wild parties or loud meetings!
176. TRY NOT TO BEG ON THE STREETS WHERE IT'S NOT PERMITTED, in poor countries give the lit free & get your support from home by mail, pledges, Prayer Letters, faithful correspondence with supporters, etc., or get a job if necessary & possible. Most countries won't even allow that without a work permit, including selling lit!--Don't sell it! Give it away!--Then hint for a donation if you can, if you're in a place where they can afford it.
177. --AND LET'S TRY TO LEAVE THE DOOR OPEN FOR OTHERS TO COME, & not have it slammed shut through some knock on yours for foolish violations of these simple rules!--Amen? But always be prepared for that knock, if & whenever it may come!--Amen? GBAKY always ready! TYJ! ILY!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
