Difference between revisions of "GN 337"

From XFamily - Children of God
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My former mate was a leader of one of the early Family bands, a musician & very naturally talented person who could do almost anything, as well as "reason out" anything in his mind. He was a real Ed Flash with lots of potential, & because he was a good inspirationalist, he was often put in roles of responsibility or stuck "up front". He liked the leadership role & was very independent.
 
My former mate was a leader of one of the early Family bands, a musician & very naturally talented person who could do almost anything, as well as "reason out" anything in his mind. He was a real Ed Flash with lots of potential, & because he was a good inspirationalist, he was often put in roles of responsibility or stuck "up front". He liked the leadership role & was very independent.
  
We were amongst some of the first pioneers to an Eastern field, & at one Home, my husband had a run-in with the shepherd, standing up to him in front of all the sheep, trying to get everyone lo mutiny & side against the shepherd! After the intervention of the main shepherds of the area, my ex-husband did apologise to the shepherd, but deep inside he haled to submit. I believe he always resented any form of correction or anything that would humiliate him. After a few months our visas were up & it was suggested we go back to the States. At that point I had received from the Lord that the Lord was giving him "an opportunity to return" to the System he loved still. (Heb.ll:15). Had I been stronger & had more faith & a clearer channel & felt more open to communicate with my leadership, I see I should have spoken up & asked to separate from him & stayed on the field, & let him go back to the States. But I was weak & felt it was my duty to stay by him & help him make it, LHM.
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We were amongst some of the first pioneers to an Eastern field, & at one Home, my husband had a run-in with the shepherd, standing up to him in front of all the sheep, trying to get everyone to mutiny & side against the shepherd! After the intervention of the main shepherds of the area, my ex-husband did apologise to the shepherd, but deep inside he hated to submit. I believe he always resented any form of correction or anything that would humiliate him. After a few months our visas were up & it was suggested we go back to the States. At that point I had received from the Lord that the Lord was giving him "an opportunity to return" to the System he loved still. (Heb.ll:15). Had I been stronger & had more faith & a clearer channel & felt more open to communicate with my leadership, I see I should have spoken up & asked to separate from him & stayed on the field, & let him go back to the States. But I was weak & felt it was my duty to stay by him & help him make it, LHM.
  
After two years in the States where we mostly litnesscd, he had a visit from his brother whom he hadn't seen in a long time. His brother saw our old beat-up station wagon & began to kid my husband about our lifestyle, which really got to him, as he was "tired of being poor & looked down upon". He was bitter against the Family for not allowing any form of birth control, because he said he didn't want so many kids, that they cost too much & made life difficult because of the expense involved in raising them.
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After two years in the States where we mostly litnessed, he had a visit from his brother whom he hadn't seen in a long time. His brother saw our old beat-up station wagon & began to kid my husband about our lifestyle, which really got to him, as he was "tired of being poor & looked down upon". He was bitter against the Family for not allowing any form of birth control, because he said he didn't want so many kids, that they cost too much & made life difficult because of the expense involved in raising them.
  
 
The RNR then happened & we were free to go on our own faith, so we went to Texas & he got a job. We got our own place, received food stamps & were living in a comfortable position with a set income, company car etc. Although we technically weren't out of the Family, he began liking the life he was living more & more. He refused to ever fitness "like a beggar" again. One day I asked him why he joined the Family & he said, "Because of the way of life"—he had been a roving hippie—but not because of Jesus & lost souls. We then decided to separate.
 
The RNR then happened & we were free to go on our own faith, so we went to Texas & he got a job. We got our own place, received food stamps & were living in a comfortable position with a set income, company car etc. Although we technically weren't out of the Family, he began liking the life he was living more & more. He refused to ever fitness "like a beggar" again. One day I asked him why he joined the Family & he said, "Because of the way of life"—he had been a roving hippie—but not because of Jesus & lost souls. We then decided to separate.
  
After a few months apart I met my present mate, & although the Lord told me to slay with him, I felt it was my duly lo return to my backslidden husband & try to gain him back! It only took one month before I wanted to leave, as I wasn't allowed to serve the Lord or tithe, & he wanted me to take birth control etc.—But due to my weakness for him I gave him two of the children & I kept two & returned to Texas!
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After a few months apart I met my present mate, & although the Lord told me to syay with him, I felt it was my duty yo return to my backslidden husband & try to gain him back! It only took one month before I wanted to leave, as I wasn't allowed to serve the Lord or tithe, & he wanted me to take birth control etc.—But due to my weakness for him I gave him two of the children & I kept two & returned to Texas!
  
 
However, in 3 months time he returned the two children to me because he was having a hard time paying for their upkeep, & this put the pressure on. After this we got a legal divorce & 1 got custody of all four kids. I didn't hold him to child support but he usually sent $50-1 (X) a month. Before heading to Latin America, I allowed him to visit the children while we were on the road, & sad to say, it was a turning point where my eldest daughter was then to be reminded of "her sweet Daddy she loved", & thus began turning away from my new mate, D.
 
However, in 3 months time he returned the two children to me because he was having a hard time paying for their upkeep, & this put the pressure on. After this we got a legal divorce & 1 got custody of all four kids. I didn't hold him to child support but he usually sent $50-1 (X) a month. Before heading to Latin America, I allowed him to visit the children while we were on the road, & sad to say, it was a turning point where my eldest daughter was then to be reminded of "her sweet Daddy she loved", & thus began turning away from my new mate, D.
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Once he wrote & said he was "beginning to get into the Letters again", & since he had several ML Volumes but was missing a couple, he asked if I could possibly send them to him. He offered a donation & all. (One of them was the FF Volume!) I didn't send him any Volumes, but I did send him some GP lit & newsletters with pictures of our kids to show him how happy they were, how they were attending summer camp with other kids their age etc.—My backslidden husband later used these Family newsletters & lit as proof against us that we were still in the Family, as the courts had to have proof that the kids were involved in the COG overseas before they would grant him the custody papers he was seeking.
 
Once he wrote & said he was "beginning to get into the Letters again", & since he had several ML Volumes but was missing a couple, he asked if I could possibly send them to him. He offered a donation & all. (One of them was the FF Volume!) I didn't send him any Volumes, but I did send him some GP lit & newsletters with pictures of our kids to show him how happy they were, how they were attending summer camp with other kids their age etc.—My backslidden husband later used these Family newsletters & lit as proof against us that we were still in the Family, as the courts had to have proof that the kids were involved in the COG overseas before they would grant him the custody papers he was seeking.
  
Unbeknownst to us, he had been building up quite a case against us. We had no idea that the courts would legally grant him custody overruling our permanent custody—but they did so because of the extremity of the case. In other words, it is against the U.S. laws to grant custody to one parent without [he other parent's notification, so that both parties can present themselves in court. But in the case of "the welfare of the children being at stake as victims of a dangerous cult", they will obviously stop at nothing to help "save" the children, even if it means illegally failing to notify the other parent so that they don't run away with the children. My ex-husband obviously had a lot of counsel about how to play the whole thing very low-key so as not to alarm us or cause us to flee with the kids.
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Unbeknownst to us, he had been building up quite a case against us. We had no idea that the courts would legally grant him custody overruling our permanent custody—but they did so because of the extremity of the case. In other words, it is against the U.S. laws to grant custody to one parent without the other parent's notification, so that both parties can present themselves in court. But in the case of "the welfare of the children being at stake as victims of a dangerous cult", they will obviously stop at nothing to help "save" the children, even if it means illegally failing to notify the other parent so that they don't run away with the children. My ex-husband obviously had a lot of counsel about how to play the whole thing very low-key so as not to alarm us or cause us to flee with the kids.
  
 
He had petitioned the court in his state for custody of the four kids on the ridiculous grounds that we practice group sex with our children, & that we were not feeding or clothing them properly.—He used persona! letters that we had written him, where we had thanked him for sending clothes or funds to help with the care of the children, against us in court! He also used the kids' letters to show they were not as good in spelling or handwriting as they should be, & therefore their education must be poor etc.
 
He had petitioned the court in his state for custody of the four kids on the ridiculous grounds that we practice group sex with our children, & that we were not feeding or clothing them properly.—He used persona! letters that we had written him, where we had thanked him for sending clothes or funds to help with the care of the children, against us in court! He also used the kids' letters to show they were not as good in spelling or handwriting as they should be, & therefore their education must be poor etc.
  
Little did the courts know that he was not paying any child support.—The real epitome of selfishness! In their eyes he was a successful businessman, married, with a suburban house, two cars & a very stable life. He was from a well-known Air Force family & his Dad flew for the senator of the stale, plus he had a good lawyer. It seems the courts gladly gave him his request & even wrote in his custody papers that he would be obtaining the children from Latin America & returning to the U.S. to live!
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Little did the courts know that he was not paying any child support.—The real epitome of selfishness! In their eyes he was a successful businessman, married, with a suburban house, two cars & a very stable life. He was from a well-known Air Force family & his Dad flew for the senator of the state, plus he had a good lawyer. It seems the courts gladly gave him his request & even wrote in his custody papers that he would be obtaining the children from Latin America & returning to the U.S. to live!
  
All this time we didn't believe he could get the kids out of the country if he wanted to, because we thought he had no custody papers & therefore would not be able to obtain passports, which we now know any. backslidden mate can get if he plays his cards right in front of the courts! Anyway, when he informed us of his visit, we were not so worried, & were somewhat confident that he could never pull anything like this off.
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All this time we didn't believe he could get the kids out of the country if he wanted to, because we thought he had no custody papers & therefore would not be able to obtain passports, which we now know any backslidden mate can get if he plays his cards right in front of the courts! Anyway, when he informed us of his visit, we were not so worried, & were somewhat confident that he could never pull anything like this off.
  
He was on the attack right away, arriving early to throw us off, & called us from the capital city & said he'd be arriving at our place in a couple of hours! We knew that if they stayed at a hotel then they would want the kids to go & stay with them, & we didn' t want to let them out of our sight. So we had them come to our Home & set them up in a room adjacent to our house. We went with them everywhere, & they did all they could to gain our trust & to prove to us that they were not any danger to us. They ate several meals with us, but later we found out they were appalled that we didn't cat higher-priced & more fancy food, have better breakfasts etc. We had a very nice Home, as well as a maid who helped with domestic duties, but we didn't have bunkbeds for our kids, & some slept on mattresses on the floor. We later discovered that he had gone around & taken pictures of the house & food cupboards which showed that we didn't have much food on hand, as well as showing that not all the children had their own beds etc.
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He was on the attack right away, arriving early to throw us off, & called us from the capital city & said he'd be arriving at our place in a couple of hours! We knew that if they stayed at a hotel then they would want the kids to go & stay with them, & we didn't want to let them out of our sight. So we had them come to our Home & set them up in a room adjacent to our house. We went with them everywhere, & they did all they could to gain our trust & to prove to us that they were not any danger to us. They ate several meals with us, but later we found out they were appalled that we didn't eat higher-priced & more fancy food, have better breakfasts etc. We had a very nice Home, as well as a maid who helped with domestic duties, but we didn't have bunkbeds for our kids, & some slept on mattresses on the floor. We later discovered that he had gone around & taken pictures of the house & food cupboards which showed that we didn't have much food on hand, as well as showing that not all the children had their own beds etc.
  
Meanwhile, my ex-husband & his wife showered the kids with material things, food & fun, & as much as we had tried to talk to them about these things, they were still excited about all the "goodies" they were receiving. Since everything was seemingly going so well, my ex- husband asked us after four or five days if he could take the kids on a shopping trip to the capital before he returned back to the States. When we turned him down, he began to cry. & begged us to trust him & allow him just to spend a couple of days alone with the kids! He & his new wife promised not to take them away but to be back on time. They gave us all their plans as to where they would slay & what they would do & invited us to call them at their hotel any time. We prayed about it & felt that they simply could not take the kids out of the country so felt it would probably be okay.
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Meanwhile, my ex-husband & his wife showered the kids with material things, food & fun, & as much as we had tried to talk to them about these things, they were still excited about all the "goodies" they were receiving. Since everything was seemingly going so well, my ex-husband asked us after four or five days if he could take the kids on a shopping trip to the capital before he returned back to the States. When we turned him down, he began to cry & begged us to trust him & allow him just to spend a couple of days alone with the kids! He & his new wife promised not to take them away but to be back on time. They gave us all their plans as to where they would slay & what they would do & invited us to call them at their hotel any time. We prayed about it & felt that they simply could not take the kids out of the country so felt it would probably be okay.
  
 
My ex-mate & his wife even left half of their stuff there in the house in order to show us that they would be returning & acted so very grateful & excited. They checked into the hotel they'd told us they'd be staying at in the main city, as we had some Family members place a call to the children to confirm this. We should have called ourselves, but instead we had someone else call for us who was very close to the children. They all seemed to be doing fine, but our eldest daughter was already detecting that it seemed like they were going on a trip, as we later found out she'd told a girl at the hotel reception desk that she thought she would be going to the Slates. LHU, we were just too confident that everything was going all right.
 
My ex-mate & his wife even left half of their stuff there in the house in order to show us that they would be returning & acted so very grateful & excited. They checked into the hotel they'd told us they'd be staying at in the main city, as we had some Family members place a call to the children to confirm this. We should have called ourselves, but instead we had someone else call for us who was very close to the children. They all seemed to be doing fine, but our eldest daughter was already detecting that it seemed like they were going on a trip, as we later found out she'd told a girl at the hotel reception desk that she thought she would be going to the Slates. LHU, we were just too confident that everything was going all right.
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In realising that new passports had been issued to the children by this time, I immediately flew to the capital to obtain legal papers through the country's Juvenile Courts to forbid the departure of our four children from the country, Upon arriving at the airport to stop the flight & catch the kidnappers, I was informed that they had already departed on an evening flight the day before.—I was devastated!
 
In realising that new passports had been issued to the children by this time, I immediately flew to the capital to obtain legal papers through the country's Juvenile Courts to forbid the departure of our four children from the country, Upon arriving at the airport to stop the flight & catch the kidnappers, I was informed that they had already departed on an evening flight the day before.—I was devastated!
  
After the kidnapping we prayed &. received that the Lord was going to give us back the children & even help us to head on to a new mission field through our endeavours to go back & rescue them! We began our attack by gathering official recommendations from government officials stating their appreciation for our contributions to the people of their country. We also gathered letters from kings & people of our community who gladly wrote beautiful reports on our behalf, sharing that the kidnapping of our children was an injustice. We even had doctor's reports saying the kids were getting medical attention & were all healthy etc.
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After the kidnapping we prayed & received that the Lord was going to give us back the children & even help us to head on to a new mission field through our endeavours to go back & rescue them! We began our attack by gathering official recommendations from government officials stating their appreciation for our contributions to the people of their country. We also gathered letters from kings & people of our community who gladly wrote beautiful reports on our behalf, sharing that the kidnapping of our children was an injustice. We even had doctor's reports saying the kids were getting medical attention & were all healthy etc.
  
 
We then filed charges of extradition against my ex-husband & his wife for them to face charges of kidnapping! After a month of gathering all this info we left for the States.
 
We then filed charges of extradition against my ex-husband & his wife for them to face charges of kidnapping! After a month of gathering all this info we left for the States.
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From the legal point of view we knew that we were going to have to have something tangible to hold up in court against my ex-husband to make him relinquish his hold on the kids, as he seemingly had everything going for him & had no reason to be afraid of us. The Lord showed us that he had committed several crimes that we could use against him: (1) Defrauding the IRS by claiming the children as his dependents through our divorced years. (2) He had failed to pay his child support. (3) We had charges of extradition & kidnapping against him issued abroad.
 
From the legal point of view we knew that we were going to have to have something tangible to hold up in court against my ex-husband to make him relinquish his hold on the kids, as he seemingly had everything going for him & had no reason to be afraid of us. The Lord showed us that he had committed several crimes that we could use against him: (1) Defrauding the IRS by claiming the children as his dependents through our divorced years. (2) He had failed to pay his child support. (3) We had charges of extradition & kidnapping against him issued abroad.
  
When the court date actually arrived, my ex- husband's lawyer presented their whole side to the court following the basic explanation that they had "obtained" the kids from Latin America in order to offer them a better life! Our lawyer wasn't even allowed to tell our story once the prosecutor brought up that we were members of the COG & we were being accused of practicing group sex with the children etc. The court moved that we had to go through an individual psychoanalysis discussion to see if we were fit parents & could even be allowed to see our children under surveillance! We took turns that day spending time with a doctor & a report was given to the court. The court moved that we could visit them two limes a week but only under surveillance, where we had almost no opportunity to speak with the kids, but they were nevertheless so precious & happy to be with us.
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When the court date actually arrived, my ex-husband's lawyer presented their whole side to the court following the basic explanation that they had "obtained" the kids from Latin America in order to offer them a better life! Our lawyer wasn't even allowed to tell our story once the prosecutor brought up that we were members of the COG & we were being accused of practicing group sex with the children etc. The court moved that we had to go through an individual psychoanalysis discussion to see if we were fit parents & could even be allowed to see our children under surveillance! We took turns that day spending time with a doctor & a report was given to the court. The court moved that we could visit them two times a week but only under surveillance, where we had almost no opportunity to speak with the kids, but they were nevertheless so precious & happy to be with us.
  
 
We found out my ex-husband had taken the first month off work after they returned to begin "retraining" them & getting them "readjusted". I don't know all the doubts he told them, but he spent a lot of time deprogramming them as he went along, undermining our lifestyle to the kids & filling them with thoughts about how we didn't really love them but were just using them to sing & make money for us. He said he would never allow them to live like that again & they could be normal kids now.
 
We found out my ex-husband had taken the first month off work after they returned to begin "retraining" them & getting them "readjusted". I don't know all the doubts he told them, but he spent a lot of time deprogramming them as he went along, undermining our lifestyle to the kids & filling them with thoughts about how we didn't really love them but were just using them to sing & make money for us. He said he would never allow them to live like that again & they could be normal kids now.
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At that time our oldest daughter told us that she didn't want to come back to be with us, & although two of them had talked about coming back, my ex-husband was fighting to keep them & wasn't going to give them up easily. Thank the Lord, our 10-year-old stayed most faithful to the Lord during our 8 months apart, despite the threats from my ex-husband. Had all the kids joined together & stood up in court & to the doctors & told them that they wanted to return to be with us, then possibly the court would have granted us custody, as the courts are apparently supposed to be swayed by the children's personal desires.
 
At that time our oldest daughter told us that she didn't want to come back to be with us, & although two of them had talked about coming back, my ex-husband was fighting to keep them & wasn't going to give them up easily. Thank the Lord, our 10-year-old stayed most faithful to the Lord during our 8 months apart, despite the threats from my ex-husband. Had all the kids joined together & stood up in court & to the doctors & told them that they wanted to return to be with us, then possibly the court would have granted us custody, as the courts are apparently supposed to be swayed by the children's personal desires.
  
At that point the court requested Lo put all the children through the same kind of psychoanalysis we went through in order lo sec how their past life affected them, & if they were abused or mistreated or unhappy or were well cared- for etc. They wanted lo put them through this before even considering giving us custody of them, so we decided it wasn't the best thing for the children & it would probably just cause them more confusion, &, in the long run they'd just be rewarded to my ex-husband anyway.
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At that point the court requested to put all the children through the same kind of psychoanalysis we went through in order to sec how their past life affected them, & if they were abused or mistreated or unhappy or were well cared- for etc. They wanted lo put them through this before even considering giving us custody of them, so we decided it wasn't the best thing for the children & it would probably just cause them more confusion, &, in the long run they'd just be rewarded to my ex-husband anyway.
  
So at this point we felt that perhaps we could only get our ten-year-old back, since she was the one who had the faith, & was also causing my ex-husband the most trouble. We told him that if he would give her back to us & allow her name to be changed to ours, then we would drop the charges we had against him & settle it out of court, & he finally consented. We took her & committed the other three into the Lord's hands for the lime being.
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So at this point we felt that perhaps we could only get our ten-year-old back, since she was the one who had the faith, & was also causing my ex-husband the most trouble. We told him that if he would give her back to us & allow her name to be changed to ours, then we would drop the charges we had against him & settle it out of court, & he finally consented. We took her & committed the other three into the Lord's hands for the time being.
  
While in the States, we discussed the matter with the Latin American Consulate people in our State, who were so upset that the policemen in our former mission field had allowed it to happen, that they said we should file suit against the police department & sue! It could have caused a big uproar had we pursued it & forced them lo take action on our behalf, but we decided not to do it as our relations with the government were very good & we felt God would do it a different way. (Dad: Wise!)
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While in the States, we discussed the matter with the Latin American Consulate people in our State, who were so upset that the policemen in our former mission field had allowed it to happen, that they said we should file suit against the police department & sue! It could have caused a big uproar had we pursued it & forced them to take action on our behalf, but we decided not to do it as our relations with the government were very good & we felt God would do it a different way. (Dad: Wise!)
  
 
After getting ourfirst child back & leaving for our new mission field, 3 to 4 months later, we received very encouraging news from my mother! (By this time the other three children had been in the System for a full year now.) My Mom, who gets all of our mail for us in order not to reveal our location, informed us that she received a letter for us saying that my ex-husband & his wife were having troubles with our oldest daughter & were thinking of her coming to see us for the summer! We sent off a letter by faith right away saying that if our daughter was having problems that we insisted that she be sent back to us. It was a gamble, but we put the Lord on the spot! At this time they indicated that the other two children were doing great. Within a month's time, though, we received a phone call from my Mom who informed us that they wanted to give back our son, too, as it said he'd become very unhappy, crying a lot & missing us, so they also wanted to give us back custody of him!
 
After getting ourfirst child back & leaving for our new mission field, 3 to 4 months later, we received very encouraging news from my mother! (By this time the other three children had been in the System for a full year now.) My Mom, who gets all of our mail for us in order not to reveal our location, informed us that she received a letter for us saying that my ex-husband & his wife were having troubles with our oldest daughter & were thinking of her coming to see us for the summer! We sent off a letter by faith right away saying that if our daughter was having problems that we insisted that she be sent back to us. It was a gamble, but we put the Lord on the spot! At this time they indicated that the other two children were doing great. Within a month's time, though, we received a phone call from my Mom who informed us that they wanted to give back our son, too, as it said he'd become very unhappy, crying a lot & missing us, so they also wanted to give us back custody of him!
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She had loved her flesh father a lot when she was little, & she had lost him & gotten a new Dad who was a disciplinarian, which she felt was a bad deal. My new mate had seen the kids needed discipline & he was basically right in his judgements, but because he had a bad temper during those years & threatened the children harshly at times, she didn't like him. So she felt alone & like she had no one to turn to.
 
She had loved her flesh father a lot when she was little, & she had lost him & gotten a new Dad who was a disciplinarian, which she felt was a bad deal. My new mate had seen the kids needed discipline & he was basically right in his judgements, but because he had a bad temper during those years & threatened the children harshly at times, she didn't like him. So she felt alone & like she had no one to turn to.
  
When she had first come to rejoin me, she was really into all her clothes, jewelry, having money & going out alone to buy whatever she
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When she had first come to rejoin me, she was really into all her clothes, jewelry, having money & going out alone to buy whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She'd had her own room, own television in her room & her walls were plastered with pictures of rock stars, & she knew & loved all the System music. She was into boys & cars & wishing she had a Porsche & diamonds, wanting to go to all the rock concerts & loved TV so much that she knew the TV Guide by heart, so it was quite an adjustment for her!
wanted, whenever she wanted. She'd had her own room, own television in her room & her walls were plastered with pictures of rock stars, & she knew & loved all the System music. She was into boys & cars & wishing she had a Porsche & diamonds, wanting to go to all the rock concerts & loved TV so much that she knew the TV Guide by heart, so it was quite an adjustment for her!
 
  
One time she had become bored & wanted to go back so she wrote her flesh father a letter secretly & asked him to bring her back. But he wrote back & told her that he had planned on her living with me for about a year so she could get straightened out before he would consider taking her back! This letter really devastated her. At the same lime we showed her letters that he had written us during the time of the kidnapping when he attacked her grandmother, as well as myself & the Family. My Mom & I really socked it to her & told her the whole truth about her father, & it was pretty hard for her to take. But she got really angry at him & decided she didn't want to be with him if he attacked her grandmother like that, because she knew her grandmother was innocent.
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One time she had become bored & wanted to go back so she wrote her flesh father a letter secretly & asked him to bring her back. But he wrote back & told her that he had planned on her living with me for about a year so she could get straightened out before he would consider taking her back! This letter really devastated her. At the same time we showed her letters that he had written us during the time of the kidnapping when he attacked her grandmother, as well as myself & the Family. My Mom & I really socked it to her & told her the whole truth about her father, & it was pretty hard for her to take. But she got really angry at him & decided she didn't want to be with him if he attacked her grandmother like that, because she knew her grandmother was innocent.
  
She could sec that he stopped at nothing to be vengeful & to get his way. I also pointed out to her the time when he originally gave her two sisters back to us, when they were little, because he found them too expensive to keep, & they'd caused him trouble, so he just wanted to get rid of them, pointing out that that was again what he was doing with her & her brother now.—That any time any of the kids became a burden to him, he just got rid of them & didn't care what pain it caused in their lives.
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She could see that he stopped at nothing to be vengeful & to get his way. I also pointed out to her the time when he originally gave her two sisters back to us, when they were little, because he found them too expensive to keep, & they'd caused him trouble, so he just wanted to get rid of them, pointing out that that was again what he was doing with her & her brother now.—That any time any of the kids became a burden to him, he just got rid of them & didn't care what pain it caused in their lives.
  
 
As time went on, she began to read & love the Heaven's Girl Letters, & she said that that was what helped pull her through because they were so exciting & challenging.
 
As time went on, she began to read & love the Heaven's Girl Letters, & she said that that was what helped pull her through because they were so exciting & challenging.
  
So my daughter was faced with a big decision about her future. I needed to return to the field & was trying to raise money to live, postering some days, working with the lawyer to gel custody of the children, & meanwhile my oldest daughter's going through these big changes, deciding whether she wanted to be in the Family or not! I needed money to return to the field so I wanted to visit our supporters to raise money, but at this time I couldn't risk them telling my daughter where we lived & thus blow our security, so I did a lot of our communication by mail. I postered & also managed to get food stamps to survive. My Mom loaned us her car, & I went to garage sales to buy the kids' needs to return to the field. We prepared to leave to the field & reserved our flight by faith. TTL we got a S5000 donation from a church the night before our departure!
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So my daughter was faced with a big decision about her future. I needed to return to the field & was trying to raise money to live, postering some days, working with the lawyer to get custody of the children, & meanwhile my oldest daughter's going through these big changes, deciding whether she wanted to be in the Family or not! I needed money to return to the field so I wanted to visit our supporters to raise money, but at this time I couldn't risk them telling my daughter where we lived & thus blow our security, so I did a lot of our communication by mail. I postered & also managed to get food stamps to survive. My Mom loaned us her car, & I went to garage sales to buy the kids' needs to return to the field. We prepared to leave to the field & reserved our flight by faith. TTL we got a $5000 donation from a church the night before our departure!
  
 
When the time of decision arrived as far as booking our return to our field, I sat down with my oldest daughter alone one night. It was then that she began to murmur & complain about the situation. The Spirit of God exploded in me & I just let her have it with both barrels! I told her that her little brother & sister had had to stay in the System all the longer because of her lack of conviction to stand up in court & tell the courts that we were not guilty of their accusations! I told her the Lord had gone to great lengths the second time around to get her out of the System & to save her life, & that we were laying down our lives to try to help her, & that she needed to get her eyes on Jesus & stop thinking about herself & her problems!
 
When the time of decision arrived as far as booking our return to our field, I sat down with my oldest daughter alone one night. It was then that she began to murmur & complain about the situation. The Spirit of God exploded in me & I just let her have it with both barrels! I told her that her little brother & sister had had to stay in the System all the longer because of her lack of conviction to stand up in court & tell the courts that we were not guilty of their accusations! I told her the Lord had gone to great lengths the second time around to get her out of the System & to save her life, & that we were laying down our lives to try to help her, & that she needed to get her eyes on Jesus & stop thinking about herself & her problems!
  
I told her that if she didn't gel the victory right then & there & choose to rejoin the Family, that I was going to be putting her back on a plane to her System father in two days, & I wouldn't be coming back to rescue her, it was her last chance! I told her unless she stood up to her System father & told him that she wanted lo live with me permanently, & insist that he give me full custody of her, that she was going back to the System pronto, & she would have to face her future alone without parents who really loved her!
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I told her that if she didn't get the victory right then & there & choose to rejoin the Family, that I was going to be putting her back on a plane to her System father in two days, & I wouldn't be coming back to rescue her, it was her last chance! I told her unless she stood up to her System father & told him that she wanted lo live with me permanently, & insist that he give me full custody of her, that she was going back to the System pronto, & she would have to face her future alone without parents who really loved her!
  
 
She was crying but I didn't let her tears sway me as it was a serious situation & I couldn'tpussyfoot around with her any more. I had come through 3 months of waiting, helping, explaining, feeding & putting up with all her doubts & rebellious ways, & it was time that she saw that she wasn't so righteous & she needed to beg God to forgive her & desperately cry out to Him to save her. (Dad: Amen! GBY!) I gave her the Letter "Taking the Blame" to read.
 
She was crying but I didn't let her tears sway me as it was a serious situation & I couldn'tpussyfoot around with her any more. I had come through 3 months of waiting, helping, explaining, feeding & putting up with all her doubts & rebellious ways, & it was time that she saw that she wasn't so righteous & she needed to beg God to forgive her & desperately cry out to Him to save her. (Dad: Amen! GBY!) I gave her the Letter "Taking the Blame" to read.
  
So after that blasting session together, I left her to make up her mind. She stayed outside & cried a lot, but she finally came & told me that she'd decided she wanted to forsake all & do it God's way! Hallelujah! So the next day we called her father & she confronted him & told him she no longer wanted to stay with him. She told him that in order for me to lake her, that he had to consent to giving me full custody & she even requested her name be changed.
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So after that blasting session together, I left her to make up her mind. She stayed outside & cried a lot, but she finally came & told me that she'd decided she wanted to forsake all & do it God's way! Hallelujah! So the next day we called her father & she confronted him & told him she no longer wanted to stay with him. She told him that in order for me to take her, that he had to consent to giving me full custody & she even requested her name be changed.
  
One very key point in all this, thank the Lord, is that my ex-husband was a super-proud, selfish Systemite! If his children didn't present themselves to be fine upstanding students, kids with a real future & not "uneducated problem cases", then he preferred to get rid of them, & so he showed them very little affection. So this is basically why he agreed lo return the three of them, because they didn't match up to being sold-out systemites like he had hoped.
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One very key point in all this, thank the Lord, is that my ex-husband was a super-proud, selfish Systemite! If his children didn't present themselves to be fine upstanding students, kids with a real future & not "uneducated problem cases", then he preferred to get rid of them, & so he showed them very little affection. So this is basically why he agreed to return the three of them, because they didn't match up to being sold-out systemites like he had hoped.
  
 
He always got rid of any pressures on himself.— Anything that cost him too much money that would cause his leisurely standard to go down, or anyone who would damage his reputation in the community or humble him in any way, including children who were not real Systemites like him. So his love was very thin & the kids saw through this. (I might add that at the time they decided Lo send the two other kids back to us, my ex-husband had just found out that his new wife was pregnant, thus pulling more financial & emotional stress on their family, TTL!)
 
He always got rid of any pressures on himself.— Anything that cost him too much money that would cause his leisurely standard to go down, or anyone who would damage his reputation in the community or humble him in any way, including children who were not real Systemites like him. So his love was very thin & the kids saw through this. (I might add that at the time they decided Lo send the two other kids back to us, my ex-husband had just found out that his new wife was pregnant, thus pulling more financial & emotional stress on their family, TTL!)
  
My ex-husband's mother—who's a pretty tough character—even began siding with us when she found out the whole story of what had happened! She has presently disowned my ex- husband as her son because of his ways & has sided with us, even knowing that we are with the COG, but have proven our love for the kids by coming back for them & fighting for them & caring for them & retraining them even after all the damage done to them by the System. She was a mother of six children herself & knows that we arc the real parents with real love, not like her son whom she is ashamed of. It's such a testimony because she really was against us at first!
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My ex-husband's mother—who's a pretty tough character—even began siding with us when she found out the whole story of what had happened! She has presently disowned my ex- husband as her son because of his ways & has sided with us, even knowing that we are with the COG, but have proven our love for the kids by coming back for them & fighting for them & caring for them & retraining them even after all the damage done to them by the System. She was a mother of six children herself & knows that we are the real parents with real love, not like her son whom she is ashamed of. It's such a testimony because she really was against us at first!
  
 
We had asked the Lord to help us wind everything up within a year after our arrival in the Stales, & we were now on the plane to our new mission field 11-1/2 months later, with three of our four children rescued! TYJ! As for the legal work when regaining the other two kids, we had the same lawyer simply write up the papers & had my ex-husband & his lawyer sign them. Then after I signed them, she took them to court & had them approved. From the time the papers were filed until they were approved was only two weeks, & after gaining these papers we obtained new passports.
 
We had asked the Lord to help us wind everything up within a year after our arrival in the Stales, & we were now on the plane to our new mission field 11-1/2 months later, with three of our four children rescued! TYJ! As for the legal work when regaining the other two kids, we had the same lawyer simply write up the papers & had my ex-husband & his lawyer sign them. Then after I signed them, she took them to court & had them approved. From the time the papers were filed until they were approved was only two weeks, & after gaining these papers we obtained new passports.

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Icon pdf.gifGN 337(16 pages, 3.9MB)
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GN 337 DO OCT. 1988

WARNING OF DOZENS OF DEADLY DANGERS!

Defend Your Kids!
August 1988, by Paul P.

GBY! From re-reading different Family accounts of kidnapping & deprogramming attempts, a number of similar circumstances emerge in these stories, indicating that many of these things happen simply because we were too naive, sheep in the midst of wolves but not as wise as serpents!—Mat.10:16. Many wolves are dressed up in sheepskin & motivated by the Devil to try & rip off our little lambs!

Listed below are some life-saving lessons as well as some attitudes that we need to overcome, dangers of which you need to be warned & to be on guard against. Also included are a number of valuable tips that different Family members have learned through these experiences.

PLEASE REALISE THAT:

1. Almost all those who testify of kidnapping & deprogramming attempts had the attitude of "it could never happen to us!", or "My parents aren't wealthy or unfavorable enough to hire deprogrammers!"—All links with the System are potentially suspect!

2. If backsliders, System parents or relatives have proven critical & disagreeable after years of being ministered to, possibly they just "don't want the books"—so why keep writing them regularly & continue to feed them more information that could be used against you?

3. The miscellaneous ten-Dollar birthday gifts & trinkets from grandparents & System relatives can actually be a harmful influence & create a very dangerous bridge back to the System for your children.

4. It's actually FreeCOG advice to relatives of cult members interested in getting their "children" back, that they help financially from time to time with small gifts in order to "keep cult members on the line" & thus give the impression they are favourable & supportive, rather than running the risk of cutting off contact entirely.—- While we arc missionaries who need the financial support, we can also easily fall prey to compromise for financial gain.—So beware!

5. Through this rather compromising position we can get ourselves into, we could easily become pressured into a decision of moral or financial obligation to visit our parents with the children or receive them in our Homes when they visit etc.

BEWARE OF BACKSLIDERS:

6. When a mate has made a definite decision & backslid, it's not your duty to stay by them or to return to them & go to great lengths to help gain them back. "Let the unbelieving depart!"— 1 Cor.7:15. Although you may have many pleasant & loving memories of them as your mate, once someone begins to reject the Truth, God begins sending them strong delusion & they'll soon be believing a lie (2Thes.2:10,11), & they could potentially become one of your worst enemies!

7. Under no circumstances should you allow your children to visit backslidden ex-mates as it's a potential opening for the Enemy to get in to pollute the kids or turn them against Family ways.

8. Even though a backslidden mate remains outwardly friendly & passive, don't forget that others who later kidnapped their children back into the System used this same tactic & approach!

9. Don't send videos or photos of your children to a backslidden mate, & if any of your very favourable relatives do take photos or videos of your children when they visit etc., discourage them from showing these to anyone else.

10. The odds are much more likely that backsliders' attitudes have "waxed worse & worse" as a result of the DDDB principle (see #759), rather than becoming more sold-out to the cause of Christ.—So beware of such "false brethren unawares brought in, who come in privily to spy out our liberty that they might bring us into bondage!"—Gal.2:4. Paul even said of such troublemakers, "I would that they were cut off which trouble you!"—Gal.5:ll.

CONSIDER THAT:

11. The clue that led to a Family member along with his two children being located & extradited back to the U.S. from a mission field, resulting in himself being thrown into prison, was a photo he had sent to his backslidden ex- mate!—The authorities that his ex-wife turned to, to try to locate her "kidnapped children", were able to trace them from the foliage in the photo's background, plants which were only found in a certain country, thereby pinpointing their location!

12. Newsletters sent to a backslidden ex-mate showing the children witnessing in the System, using Family methods & name, were used as proof in court that the children were "misused" in the Family, "evidence" which the courts must have in order to grant the ex-mate custody papers so they can come & rip off your children.

13. When backsliders write to give you a big spiel about how they "really want to get in the Word again" & request DO material, including ML Volumes—Beware! They're probably stacking up further "evidence" against you!

14. Even letters sent to an ex-mate thanking them for sending clothes or funds for the kids can be used in court against you, showing that their needs arc not being met otherwise. Also, if your kids aren't up to par in spelling or handwriting, they can also use the children's letters as "proof" that the children's education standard is inadequate.

15. If you let your System relatives know in advance of your move to another country, especially if you're in the supposedly "safe" Western World & moving to a "dangerous strife-torn" Third World mission field, their reaction may be that it's time to strike before you're half a World away!

FRIENDLY VISITS?

16. A number of these kidnapping incidents happened as a result of relatives visiting on the mission field, & those involved failed to make red alert preparations, & in the meantime a carefully calculated, American government-backed conspiracy was already underway!

17. The NOs or NASs of every country should make it their responsibility to see that a favourable lawyer is available in each city or area for immediate counsel on any legal problems that may arise.—Don't wait until you actually have problems to start work on getting a lawyer—By that time it may be too late! The darker & the more anti-Christ this World's system gets, the more we may have need of good lawyers!

18. When you hear that "passive" backsliders or certainly somewhat unfavorable relatives or ex-mates are planning to visit you, seriously pray about moving & changing cities, if not countries!

19. If you're aware that a questionable relative is on your mission field looking for you, don't go near Immigrations or get involved in any unnecessary legal matters where your passport or visa or residence papers need to be shown to officials.—If someone's after you, those are the places they're going to be staking out & probably have done some legwork or payoffs to have people there on the look-out for you.

20. Even if your visa is up for renewal, in most cases it's much better to chance a minor fine or other penalty rather than having your children ripped off & never seeing them again!

21. The longer you can stay hidden out & stall your would-be abductors from catching up with you, this is working to their disadvantage.— As l0:36ers, film crews or reporters are usually operating on an assigned budget & limited visa, so the longer you can hold out, the greater the chances that they' 11 reach their financial or visa limitations & will have to call off the manhunt.

22. When a backslidden ex-mate or unfavorable relative visits with the intent of kidnapping the children, they go all out to gain your trust & prove that they are not any threat or danger to you. However, all the time they arc taking mental note of your so-called poor living standard or anything that doesn't measure up to selfish Western standards, such as "only having oatmeal for breakfast", children not having their own beds and/or bedrooms, your food cupboards not being stockpiled with lots of food etc.

23. They may even go around & take photos of these so-called hardships to use as proof against you in court that the children are being raised in a low-standard lifestyle.

24. They will often shower the kids with material things, food & fun, to try to win their favour & trust.

25. A supposedly "sweet, sheepy & receptive" relative usually attempts to maneuver to take the children/victim out alone, offering some sort of financial temptation such as buying them summer/winter clothes or simply making promises of financial help for upcoming moves etc.!

26. If met with any opposition they will go to great lengths to prove their "sincerity", with emotional outbursts, crying & begging you to trust them, that their intentions are good. They are willing to sacrifice even their material possessions to throw out a red herring so you will trust them, such as leaving half of their belongings at your house to indicate that they're definitely returning to pick them up.

27. In one case, even with accommodating the children with shopping, meals & otherwise, it took a backslidden ex-mate only 3 days to discreetly get new passports, all needed papers, residence papers etc. in order & to get on an airplane out of the country with the children, lying to them that they were taking a special vacation to a nearby country & that the Family mate knew all about the change in plans.

28. When these System relatives visited, the Family members allowed them to call the shots, rather than doing all they could to keep the upper hand themselves, by taking their relatives only to places that they had scouted out, knew the routes to & from etc., in order to avoid a trap or set-up!

29. Even though some of these Family members did have a buddy & were going two by two at the crucial time of confrontation, the partner was either not old enough or wise enough or briefed enough to be able to handle the situation, or in some cases they didn't stick close enough together, nor were thorough contingency plans worked out in the event of an emergency!

WHAT TO DO IF SEPARATED:

30. If for some reason you are cornered or somehow forced into being separated from your children for a brief period while they're in the care of System relatives, find out exactly where they're staying & personally check in by phone to try to feel out what's going on. Of course, do everything you can to avoid falling into such terribly dangerous circumstances, but if for some reason you & your kids are separated like this, try to keep in touch with your children by phone. Ask them if they've noticed anything unusual going on or it looks like they're preparing for a trip etc., & let them know that you don't know anything about it, so if any plans change to please let you know right away. Encourage. them to feel free to ask any questions they want by phone. 31. Find out if your ex-mate is with them all the time or off alone part of the time "doing business"; if so, get suspicious, because he or she could be at your embassy or consulate getting new passports issued for the kids in order to steal them!

32. Regularly check with the front desk of the hotel that they are staying at, to monitor if they have checked out of the hotel yet or are still there.

33. Make a few calls to your embassy or consulate with some story to doublechcck from time to time that your ex-mate hasn't come in trying to get new paperwork done without your knowledge.

34. If you have any suspicions, check for reservations on different airlines leaving your country heading in the direction of your ex- mate's home country. If you do discover reservations made in the name of your children, don' t stop there, because they could possibly have made reservations on two or more flights in order to throw you off, as has happened!

35. At the first hint of trouble, contact your lawyer for legal advice & plan your attack. Especially if the abductors are planning to leave the country with kidnapped children, a lawyer can help you place a Hold Order making it illegal for your children to leave the country, & the case would have to be handled in that country's courts rather than your backslidden ex- mate's home country.

36. If you are a resident of the country & hear of such a plot to kidnap your children, immediately approach the Juvenile Court to issue papers to forbid the departure of your children from the country.

37. Realise too that only inside their home country's embassy or consulate is your ex-mate on their own soil.—The rest of the time they're under the laws of the land you abide on, so you can file kidnapping charges against them, even if you are just a temporary resident in the country. You can also file papers to extradite them back there to face kidnapping charges should that be necessary.

38. If caught in a situation where it's life & death, to save your sheep from non-official abductors, don't allow yourself to be intimidated!— A good shepherd is willing to lay down his own life if necessary! "Might is right" at a time like that, & sometimes all the World understands is force or a threat! Go on the attack to do whatever is necessary to save your little ones.

39. If a backslidden ex-mate has kidnapped your children, you should by all means count them as an enemy & "hate them with a perfect hatred."—Psa. 139:22.—If you don't, maybe you need specific prayer to take a stand against them & their evil spirit so you'll not in any way be duped or under their influence.—Curse them that curse you!

CUSTODY LAWS:

40. Family members have frequently thought that they were safe because they kept all the children's passports & identification, but in at least a couple of instances it was already worked out beforehand for the Embassy to issue new passports for the abducted victims on the spot, even in the middle of the night!

41. Even though you may have a stack of legal papers, are bona fide residents of the country and/or even have "permanent custody" of the children, American judges are only too glad to issue what is known as "temporary custody", which is apparently grounds enough for Embassy officials abroad to offer cooperation in smuggling your children out of the country!

42. Although it is against U.S. laws to grant custody to one parent without the other parent's notification, since both parties are supposed to be able to present themselves in court, in the case of children judged "victims of a dangerous cult", they will stop at nothing to "save" the children, even if it means not notifying the other parent so they can't run away with the children, or issuing "temporary custody" to at least give the backslidden mate enough credence to get official government help in abducting your child.

UNDERSTAND THAT:

43. With this new "20/20" attack, & so many of our Family back in North America & Europe where our enemies are stronger & more organised, & where we are more subject to the laws & ordinances of Man in our home countries, the chances of these sorts of attacks increasing is much higher than ever before!

44. Be sure to re-read & heed the warning in "Caesar's Pound of Flesh". (#936) Some Family members in Europe have reported that when they made use of welfare services, such as government aid for hospital bills, or housing loans or subsidies, that they suddenly found themselves being declared "unfit" parents & the System tried to take their children away from them!

45. There are five major areas of "abuse" that "Child Protective Services" can try to get you on, based solely on random reports from ex- mates, neighbours, relatives etc. These include: SEXUAL ABUSE (i.e. any kind of sex or foreplay that a child under 16 years old engages in!), PHYSICAL ABUSE (i.e. any spanking which leaves a mark or bruise!), PHYSICAL NEGLECT (i.e. not feeding, dressing, bathing children adequately), MEDICAL NEGLECT & EDUCATIONAL NEGLECT (i.e. keeping children out of System school!)

46.Reports from neighbours, relatives etc.— those phoning the abuse hotline do not even have to leave their name!—Are investigated within 24 hours, & neighbours, schools & the children themselves arc usually contacted before the parent even knows he or she has been reported!

47. If any of your children go to a System school, you might prayerfully want to consider whether they could straightforwardly answer questions like, "What docs your Daddy do when you're bad?", "Does Mommy ever hurt you?", "Do you know what this (points to doll's penis) is for?", "Docs Daddy have one?—How do you know?", etc.!

48. This is the reason Dad has advised that any spankings be done out of sight & hearing of neighbours, & he's constantly reminding us to be on guard, especially on Western Home fields!

49. In the event of being summoned to appear before officials, or you encounter a situation you arc dubious about, where there is a good possibility of a kidnapping attempt or "abuse" charge, have your lawyer accompany you or represent you! Not only do they know the proper legal angles, but the System is most inclined to listen to its own.

THE DAYS OF DEPROGRAMMING AREN'T OVER!

50. Deprogramming is more on the rise than ever, & is a very lucrative business, with the methods refined a lot over the years so that those being deprogrammed arc usually not even aware that Ted Patrick & his ilk are involved until several days into it, as usually only near relatives, former friends & neighbours are involved at first so as not to overly alert or frighten the potential deprogramee.

51. Those involved in deprogramming situations later found out that all of their incoming & outgoing mail had been read & pilfered during the time of their stay with their relatives, so all such information was used against them.—In this day & age, staying with System parents on their home turf is dangerous business for God's children!

52. Beware of other various "traps" that System relatives may use to try to get you back on their home ground, & therefore within their grasp: Such as by playing on your emotions to come visit a "sick" or "dying" relative; or to attend a funeral to comfort the bereaved; or in using both an emotional & financial enticement such as asking you to help settle a will, or an inheritance— such matters are much more safely handled by appointing a trustworthy lawyer or banker to act in your behalf.

53. When actually apprehended by deprogrammers, those who followed the Scriptural advice of "agreeing with their adversary quickly" (Mat.5:25) were the ones that the deprogrammers let up on first & relaxed their at- lacks, letting down their guards, thus allowing them sufficient freedom of movement so they managed to escape.

54. If your children are kidnapped & separated from you, do all that you can to communicate with them by whatever means possible. Although they may initially be bitter at your ex-mate for taking them away from you, they usually eventually begin to give in, & this will lead to a low morale of the kids if they don't hear from you & feel that you don't care.—And all the while your letters may be withheld from them by your ex-mate with this very purpose in mind. Use sympathetic relatives or friends who could perhaps visit or phone them or even supply you with their phone number so you can call them direct (You can often get unlisted numbers, addresses etc. through a private investigator.) Do all you can to stay in touch & enccourage your children during this time of crisis!

55. When you do call your children either from your Home Field or when you are actually back there to launch your attack to get them back, try to call them in the afternoon or at a time when you think their parents would be at work so you can talk as privately as possible.

PREPARING TO GO TO COURT:

56. If you are planning on taking it to court, prepare as much paperwork to back your cause as you possibly can before you leave the mission field you've been living in. Approach different individuals having them give their name, address, rank or position, basic history about themselves & their relationship with you, as well as their personal recommendation for you, &. how they feel that your children being taken was an injustice & would testify in court on your behalf. Papers should be on official letterhead or with government stamps of government translators. (When approaching these contacts about getting these letters written, have some good sample letters or paragraphs these individuals could use or modify as desired.)

57. Some different individuals who could possibly write on your behalf could include: (a) A maid stating you have a very high sanitary standard, (b) A pharmacist saying you've gotten vitamins for the children & that they're in good health, (c) A doctor stating the children have been checked with him & are all in good health, (d) University officials stating how you sang for them & are a real service to the students, (e) Community servants, testifying how you sang in prisons, correctional institutes etc. (f) School teachers & music teachers, defending the good academic training the children are getting, (g) Government officials, about any services you've offered to the poor etc., as well as (h) favourable relatives who will back you & help give you a financially stable appearance or testify that you're good, upright, outstanding citizens of the community.

58. Not only can you get letters of recommendation from local supporters, but it's also an ideal time to present your heart-felt emotional appeal for financial help towards your roundtrip tickets, lawyer costs etc.

59. Also take pictures of your house, the children's sleeping quarters, bathrooms etc.. showing that your living conditions are up to par, as well as a picture of your maid etc., if you have one.

60. If at any time your now backslidden ex-mate signed a notarised custody paper giving you custody of the children, this could turn out to be a real trump card in court, proving there was no kidnapping on your part.

61. In order to be "wise as serpents" you might consider hiring a private investigator who could slink around & come up with as much inside information that would help you find out not only your ex-mate's whereabouts, but also means of operation. These facts could be a big factor in helping you pray & plan out your approach.— Also, any incriminating evidence about your ex-mate's background since they left the Family—such as their inability to support themselves, any vices they engage in such as drug-taking or alcohol-abuse, unsavory sexual liaisons of their own etc.—could be used in court to show that you're more "fit" a parent than they are!

62. Find a lawyer dealing in international law. Some can start out very expensive with a retainer fee beginning at $15,000! Ask around & look for a younger lawyer with a lot of spunk & fight, whose retainer might start as low as $500. But be prepared to spend a couple thousand at least Get as much help as you can from sympathetic friends or relatives, even your parents who may feel cheated out of their grandchildren by your backslidden mate.

OTHER POINTS TO CONSIDER:

63. On the subject of custody papers, as aforementioned, the court will grant "temporary custody" to the Svstemite parent requesting this, valid until both parents come to court. Likewise in a divorce, the Judge usually decides on child custody in favour of the System-backed spouse.

64. Regarding divorce prompted by an ex-mate who goes back, you could lose your rights to the children by this same reasoning. If you stay married on paper, you at least still have a right to some of the children.

65. As a general rule, the American courts frown on either party that is living outside of the United States & one of the stipulations for the custody papers is that you don't leave the country, so don't broadcast your plans to leave! —As if you did have to go to court again, they would take the children out of your custody, considering you the offending party.

66. Watch out about lawyers who are in it just for the money, as they know that these cases over children are quite tricky & cost a lot of money for their services rendered. Just calling them at night to talk about a certain situation can run you $50-200 an hour!

67. If the children are regained legally, it should be stated that visitation rights will be worked out between the two parties themselves so as not to be bound by law on this point.

FURTHER FACTS & ADVICE:

68. Be prepared to spend some time working on it, if you use legal channels, as you're not considered a resident of most states until you've resided there for six months.

69. As a way of getting around having to reside in the state for six months before being eligible to take legal action, you might consider what your parents could help with. For example, if you have favourable parents, possibly they can act as co-plaintiffs along with you, which also may act to your advantage in that they are more likely to be judged acceptable members of the community than you!—Even if grandparents are not particularly favourable toward your beliefs, they still might be driven to a decision to help in order to rescue their grandchildren. "Children's children are the crown of old men."—Pro.l7:6.

70. Read up all the Letters on fighting for our rights & not letting the Devil intimidate us, facing our fears etc. The Word is full of testimonies & examples of what a fighter you should be, & it will give you a lot of faith to keep going & not give up! (See Nos. 168,171, 597, 1180,1548,1718,1862, etc.!)

71. Stay in the Word & constantly desperate! Family members have testified that they've never had such insistent desperate prayer life before or since that time, & they can honestly say that their desperate prayer is what constantly turned the tide for them. 72. Try to see if your ex-mate has obviously done anything illegal on paper in taking action against you. For example, call the passport agency in Washington D.C. to see if [he information they wrote on kids' passport application forms was falsified or deceptive etc.

73. See if there are any legal things that you could get your ex-mate on, to hold against them in court to make them relinquish whatever they might have going for them. For example, defrauding the IRS by claiming the children as their dependents throughout your divorced years, failing to pay child support, charges of extradition & kidnapping abroad against them.—In some cases, you might be able to bluff & possibly settle out of court with your exmate, threatening some of these legal charges against them. If it doesn't have to go to court, all the better.

WHAT YOU MIGHT ENCOUNTER:

74. Selfishness can work in your favour! Keep in mind that any mates that have backslid have probably done so partially due to their selfishness— wanting to do their own thing, not accepting the high calling of parenthood, etc. So eventually the novelty will wear off, or the great pride of having all the children in their possession is going to take its day-to-day toll as soon as the kids start infringing on their selfish way of life & thus become problems to them. Thus your bargaining power to get the kids back will increase.

75. If they do agree to an out-of-court settlement, your lawyer can simply write up papers, & have your ex-mate & lawyer sign them & these can then be approved in court & legally binding.

76. Expect that your kids might be Quite worldly when you do get them back, & really into clothes, jewelry, having money, doing their own thing, buying whatever they want, if they've been living the typical American lifestyle. They've probably had their own room, own TV, & were into System music, cars, boys/girls, parties & independence etc. Be ready to help them face all of their fears, doubts & bad influences that they've been fed during their timeaway from you, & address it with the Word.

77. It's going to take a lot of time & patience & love on your part to pull them through. Pubs geared to teens like "Heaven's Girl", "Taking the Blame" etc., can help provide them with the excitement, challenge & responsible attitude they're going to need as they make their own decision to serve the Lord again. Be ready to encounter System "virtues" such as foolishness, pride, murmuring, laziness, lying, stealing, desire for material possessions, etc. Remember, Love never fails!

78. During this time, have pow-wow material ready, including letters that your backslidden ex-mate has written you over the years where they have probably attacked different things in the Family, & expose these lies, as well as any other lies & doubts that they've been fed during this time out of the Family. Especially if the ex- mate has attacked any neutral parlies such as a grandmother or other individuals you know the kids love, really use this to expose your exmate's devilish attitude & malicious spirit.

79. Remember that although they may resent correction at first, inside they'll begin to fee! more secure when they know where their boundaries lie. Everyone wants love & to feel special to someone!

STOP & THINK!

80. Are you continuing to stay on guard yourself about any past or present influences that might snuff out your or your children's relationship with the Lord & the Family? Particularly, are you trusting any Systemites or falling prey to the deceiving & corrupting spirit of compromise, which can get you into a real mess?

81. Some cautious Family members have made it a point now to not even allow backslidden mates to know where they live or send any recent photos or anything that they could potentially use against them. Even having their children write their brothers or sisters who might still be in the System, they pre-read all this mail to make sure it only dwells on positive things about how school is great, summer vacation is fun & things that normal Systemites do rather than using strong Family vocabulary. All such mail is routed through another Family member's or even a favourable relative's address, & for all the unfavourable relatives know, they're still living in the same old country, not abroad, or vice versa.

82. Please realise though that too abrupt of a change in cutting off communications with neutral or not unfavourable System relatives could cause them to panic & alert the Embassy or other officials in your country to search for you, possibly resulting in your Home receiving a knock on the door etc.—Thus the best approach might be to more gradually lessen your communications with System relatives, especially if they are used to hearing from you regularly. For example, you could write & explain you'll be busier than usual these next few months "so don't worry if I don't write as often" etc., & then continue to gradually decrease your communications.— Of course, serious 10:36ers don't necessarily warrant any explanations as to why you're discontinuing communication with them!

83. "A strong man armed keepeth his goods in peace" (Luk.ll:21), but alternatively, "obvious weakness only invites attack"! 84. We really are the greatest threat to the Devil's forces on the face of the Earth today, therefore he hates us & will do anything to try to stop us!—Don't let down your guard! GBAKY close to Him! May God forbid that you should ever lose your loved ones to the System & thus need all of this counsel, as some have!—Rather we pray that this stitch in time will save nine, & help avoid this sad, sad situation ever happening in your life! PTL! WLY! GBAKY & yours! BEWARE!

AS BRANDS SNATCHED FROM THE FIRE!

—By D&M —How We Got Our Kidnapped Children Back!

(See FSM 13, Page 188, for the initial account which took place four years ago, when D&M's four children were illegally kidnapped by her backslidden ex-mate. Read on for the exciting sequel in which the Lord miraculously delivered the children back to their rightful parents & Family. PTL!)

My former mate was a leader of one of the early Family bands, a musician & very naturally talented person who could do almost anything, as well as "reason out" anything in his mind. He was a real Ed Flash with lots of potential, & because he was a good inspirationalist, he was often put in roles of responsibility or stuck "up front". He liked the leadership role & was very independent.

We were amongst some of the first pioneers to an Eastern field, & at one Home, my husband had a run-in with the shepherd, standing up to him in front of all the sheep, trying to get everyone to mutiny & side against the shepherd! After the intervention of the main shepherds of the area, my ex-husband did apologise to the shepherd, but deep inside he hated to submit. I believe he always resented any form of correction or anything that would humiliate him. After a few months our visas were up & it was suggested we go back to the States. At that point I had received from the Lord that the Lord was giving him "an opportunity to return" to the System he loved still. (Heb.ll:15). Had I been stronger & had more faith & a clearer channel & felt more open to communicate with my leadership, I see I should have spoken up & asked to separate from him & stayed on the field, & let him go back to the States. But I was weak & felt it was my duty to stay by him & help him make it, LHM.

After two years in the States where we mostly litnessed, he had a visit from his brother whom he hadn't seen in a long time. His brother saw our old beat-up station wagon & began to kid my husband about our lifestyle, which really got to him, as he was "tired of being poor & looked down upon". He was bitter against the Family for not allowing any form of birth control, because he said he didn't want so many kids, that they cost too much & made life difficult because of the expense involved in raising them.

The RNR then happened & we were free to go on our own faith, so we went to Texas & he got a job. We got our own place, received food stamps & were living in a comfortable position with a set income, company car etc. Although we technically weren't out of the Family, he began liking the life he was living more & more. He refused to ever fitness "like a beggar" again. One day I asked him why he joined the Family & he said, "Because of the way of life"—he had been a roving hippie—but not because of Jesus & lost souls. We then decided to separate.

After a few months apart I met my present mate, & although the Lord told me to syay with him, I felt it was my duty yo return to my backslidden husband & try to gain him back! It only took one month before I wanted to leave, as I wasn't allowed to serve the Lord or tithe, & he wanted me to take birth control etc.—But due to my weakness for him I gave him two of the children & I kept two & returned to Texas!

However, in 3 months time he returned the two children to me because he was having a hard time paying for their upkeep, & this put the pressure on. After this we got a legal divorce & 1 got custody of all four kids. I didn't hold him to child support but he usually sent $50-1 (X) a month. Before heading to Latin America, I allowed him to visit the children while we were on the road, & sad to say, it was a turning point where my eldest daughter was then to be reminded of "her sweet Daddy she loved", & thus began turning away from my new mate, D.

During this time my ex-husband remained friendly & passive. In thinking back over all the things I did in compromising with him & allowing his intimidating spirit to influence me, it seems I should have learned to just cut him off out of our lives, but I didn't, LHM. Had I not played footsie with the Devil & realised what it could all be leading up to, maybe things would have turned out differently. But I'd always known him as my mate, & for some reason I didn't realise what he was turning into, & I just had this trust in him that he wouldn't do anything bad to us! But he's proven at every turn of the coin that he's out to get his own selfish way, not flinching at the pain it costs others—not even the children. He's selfishly insane! (Dad:—Probably got possessed!)

One day he wrote us & informed us that he had a new wife & he hoped the kids could come & visit him sometime. My mother, who's very favourable, had just visited us & sent him a video of the children, & he seemed very proud of his beautiful children. After hearing from him we began to detect that he might want the children again. At this point, had we been more on guard, we should have moved & left the country & dropped contact altogether to protect our kids. But instead, we didn't sec the upcoming danger, & we stayed there & continued to keep in touch with him.

Once he wrote & said he was "beginning to get into the Letters again", & since he had several ML Volumes but was missing a couple, he asked if I could possibly send them to him. He offered a donation & all. (One of them was the FF Volume!) I didn't send him any Volumes, but I did send him some GP lit & newsletters with pictures of our kids to show him how happy they were, how they were attending summer camp with other kids their age etc.—My backslidden husband later used these Family newsletters & lit as proof against us that we were still in the Family, as the courts had to have proof that the kids were involved in the COG overseas before they would grant him the custody papers he was seeking.

Unbeknownst to us, he had been building up quite a case against us. We had no idea that the courts would legally grant him custody overruling our permanent custody—but they did so because of the extremity of the case. In other words, it is against the U.S. laws to grant custody to one parent without the other parent's notification, so that both parties can present themselves in court. But in the case of "the welfare of the children being at stake as victims of a dangerous cult", they will obviously stop at nothing to help "save" the children, even if it means illegally failing to notify the other parent so that they don't run away with the children. My ex-husband obviously had a lot of counsel about how to play the whole thing very low-key so as not to alarm us or cause us to flee with the kids.

He had petitioned the court in his state for custody of the four kids on the ridiculous grounds that we practice group sex with our children, & that we were not feeding or clothing them properly.—He used persona! letters that we had written him, where we had thanked him for sending clothes or funds to help with the care of the children, against us in court! He also used the kids' letters to show they were not as good in spelling or handwriting as they should be, & therefore their education must be poor etc.

Little did the courts know that he was not paying any child support.—The real epitome of selfishness! In their eyes he was a successful businessman, married, with a suburban house, two cars & a very stable life. He was from a well-known Air Force family & his Dad flew for the senator of the state, plus he had a good lawyer. It seems the courts gladly gave him his request & even wrote in his custody papers that he would be obtaining the children from Latin America & returning to the U.S. to live!

All this time we didn't believe he could get the kids out of the country if he wanted to, because we thought he had no custody papers & therefore would not be able to obtain passports, which we now know any backslidden mate can get if he plays his cards right in front of the courts! Anyway, when he informed us of his visit, we were not so worried, & were somewhat confident that he could never pull anything like this off.

He was on the attack right away, arriving early to throw us off, & called us from the capital city & said he'd be arriving at our place in a couple of hours! We knew that if they stayed at a hotel then they would want the kids to go & stay with them, & we didn't want to let them out of our sight. So we had them come to our Home & set them up in a room adjacent to our house. We went with them everywhere, & they did all they could to gain our trust & to prove to us that they were not any danger to us. They ate several meals with us, but later we found out they were appalled that we didn't eat higher-priced & more fancy food, have better breakfasts etc. We had a very nice Home, as well as a maid who helped with domestic duties, but we didn't have bunkbeds for our kids, & some slept on mattresses on the floor. We later discovered that he had gone around & taken pictures of the house & food cupboards which showed that we didn't have much food on hand, as well as showing that not all the children had their own beds etc.

Meanwhile, my ex-husband & his wife showered the kids with material things, food & fun, & as much as we had tried to talk to them about these things, they were still excited about all the "goodies" they were receiving. Since everything was seemingly going so well, my ex-husband asked us after four or five days if he could take the kids on a shopping trip to the capital before he returned back to the States. When we turned him down, he began to cry & begged us to trust him & allow him just to spend a couple of days alone with the kids! He & his new wife promised not to take them away but to be back on time. They gave us all their plans as to where they would slay & what they would do & invited us to call them at their hotel any time. We prayed about it & felt that they simply could not take the kids out of the country so felt it would probably be okay.

My ex-mate & his wife even left half of their stuff there in the house in order to show us that they would be returning & acted so very grateful & excited. They checked into the hotel they'd told us they'd be staying at in the main city, as we had some Family members place a call to the children to confirm this. We should have called ourselves, but instead we had someone else call for us who was very close to the children. They all seemed to be doing fine, but our eldest daughter was already detecting that it seemed like they were going on a trip, as we later found out she'd told a girl at the hotel reception desk that she thought she would be going to the Slates. LHU, we were just too confident that everything was going all right.

Besides going out shopping for clothes, my ex-mate left them alone in the hotel while he was out "doing business". He went to the American Consulate, told them that he'd lost the kids' passports & that he was there to obtain his children & return to the States with them, & he was issued passports right away. He then discovered that he couldn't gel the children out of the country without their residence cards, so he went to Interpol & told them he wanted to leave the country & intimidated them into getting the proper clearance, showing that all his paperwork was in line & he had legal custody. Soon afterward, they left back to the States on an evening flight, with him telling the kids they were going to take a special vacation to Argentina. And as the flight lasted all night, they woke up in the morning to the stewardess welcoming them to Miami! The children were all told that Mommy knew all about the change in plans & so they were eager to go with him on this fun excursion. (Dad:—Liars!)

In fact, he even made a fake reservation on another flight too with all the kids' names, so when we discovered that they had checked out of the hotel but not returned to our house, we assumed they would be leaving on this particular flight & so tried to stop them! By this time we had called the Consulate who right away told us that they'd issued new passports to the father since he had all the proper paperwork. Had we checked with the Consulate each day to sec if they'd come in there, this could have been another way we could have kept the situation in check, but we were all too blinded & out of tune. All in all, it had only taken him three days to get all the needed papers done & fly out!

(The very night our children were being flown out of the country we got a very serious "knock on the door", & seven policemen barged in, & after an interrogation they seized all of our passports!)

In realising that new passports had been issued to the children by this time, I immediately flew to the capital to obtain legal papers through the country's Juvenile Courts to forbid the departure of our four children from the country, Upon arriving at the airport to stop the flight & catch the kidnappers, I was informed that they had already departed on an evening flight the day before.—I was devastated!

After the kidnapping we prayed & received that the Lord was going to give us back the children & even help us to head on to a new mission field through our endeavours to go back & rescue them! We began our attack by gathering official recommendations from government officials stating their appreciation for our contributions to the people of their country. We also gathered letters from kings & people of our community who gladly wrote beautiful reports on our behalf, sharing that the kidnapping of our children was an injustice. We even had doctor's reports saying the kids were getting medical attention & were all healthy etc.

We then filed charges of extradition against my ex-husband & his wife for them to face charges of kidnapping! After a month of gathering all this info we left for the States.

We were penniless, but the Lord raised up $2,000 from my mate's grandmother to help us return! My mate's parents helped to nurture us back to health after becoming weak from anxiety, lack of rest & food. It was then that we hired a private investigator in my ex-husband's home state to help us locate the children & find out all the information about him he could. He informed us that we had been given a false address & then proceeded to tell us where the children really were located. We had to pay him in advance—all transactions require retainer fees in advance.

We obtained the unlisted phone number through the private investigator & called the children on the phone in the afternoon when we felt the parents would be at work. The children were so happy to hear from us, jumping up & down telling us that my ex-mate had said we'd never come back for them.

We began looking for a lawyer & we found a very prominent one who could deal with our case of international law, but his fees were going to start at $15,000! So I spoke with a personal friend who recommended a young lawyer who we decided to use who had a lot of spunk & fight. Her retainer started at $500 & before it was all over we had paid nearly $2000 to her. We had tried calling many lawyers in other States to find out certain answers to our questions, but it seems that dealing in international law made our case rather complicated as it involved the laws of the U.S. as well as a foreign country. Also, we were not considered a resident of a State until we had resided in that State for 6 months, so it slowed down our plan of attack.

In order to try to gain any evidence against my ex-husband that we could use to prove his illegal & wrong actions, we called the Passport Agency in Washington D.C. to see if the information he wrote on the kids' passport application forms while abroad was deceptive.

We found out that the courts in my ex-husband's home State issued him custody papers, the core of it stemming from the fact that the American courts recognised his plea for help to regain his children from the COG, & therein, fore granted him his petition, thus allowing him to do as he pleased, as far as applying for new passports. The courts & judges hold a lot of power, & if given enough proof to go on against a cult, they just seem to be ready & eager LO give their full assistance lo the situation. And many lawyers love cases like this too because it can go on for a long lime & thus stretch out the cost of money for their services rendered.—Just calling them at night to gel a bit of legal counsel can run you $50-200 an hour!

We knew it was necessary to raise a lot of money, so we made a slideshow of our past work in Latin America, as well as of our goal of going to a new mission field, & we hit the road. We witnessed a lot & almost doubled our tithe, & while we were fund-raising & getting out the message we prayed more desperately every day than we had in our entire lives. The Lord provided us with a van, through my mate's parents, & within a total of 7 months we had raised $10,000 cash. One man, a doctor with 12 children, gave us $1000 after we witnessed to him for 2 hours. This same man later saw our slideshow & we told him the truth about our kids being kidnapped & how we needed $6000 for all the legal transactions, travel expenses etc. He decided to call five of his friends & asked for $1000 from each of them, & then he handed us the $6000 as a gift to help us get our kids back!

During this time we read all the Letters on fighting for our rights & not letting the Devil intimidate us. There was so much in the Word about what a fighter Dad is, which really gave us a lot of faith to keep going & not give up! We knew that due to our personal problems of pride & lack of love toward one another, compromising with the Enemy, that all this had caused our trouble, so we tried to stay in the Word & stay constantly desperate.—We have never had such a consistent desperate prayer life before or since that time! We can honestly say this is what turned the tide for us. We had to be super militant in prayer about our every move, as the Devil was always there to try lo discourage us or make us give up, or even freak us out with worry over the children & what they were going through. We had to put them on the altar & trust God for them & keep doing what we could & letting God work it out as we went along by faith.

From the legal point of view we knew that we were going to have to have something tangible to hold up in court against my ex-husband to make him relinquish his hold on the kids, as he seemingly had everything going for him & had no reason to be afraid of us. The Lord showed us that he had committed several crimes that we could use against him: (1) Defrauding the IRS by claiming the children as his dependents through our divorced years. (2) He had failed to pay his child support. (3) We had charges of extradition & kidnapping against him issued abroad.

When the court date actually arrived, my ex-husband's lawyer presented their whole side to the court following the basic explanation that they had "obtained" the kids from Latin America in order to offer them a better life! Our lawyer wasn't even allowed to tell our story once the prosecutor brought up that we were members of the COG & we were being accused of practicing group sex with the children etc. The court moved that we had to go through an individual psychoanalysis discussion to see if we were fit parents & could even be allowed to see our children under surveillance! We took turns that day spending time with a doctor & a report was given to the court. The court moved that we could visit them two times a week but only under surveillance, where we had almost no opportunity to speak with the kids, but they were nevertheless so precious & happy to be with us.

We found out my ex-husband had taken the first month off work after they returned to begin "retraining" them & getting them "readjusted". I don't know all the doubts he told them, but he spent a lot of time deprogramming them as he went along, undermining our lifestyle to the kids & filling them with thoughts about how we didn't really love them but were just using them to sing & make money for us. He said he would never allow them to live like that again & they could be normal kids now.

The kids were bitter against him at first, but after awhile, when they never heard from us, they just began to give in & make the most of their situation. They always hoped we'd come back, & we of course were writing them &. sending things to the kids but they never received one of our letters, as my ex-husband & his wife withheld all of our letters & completely cut us off, which led to the morale of the kids being quite low.

At that time our oldest daughter told us that she didn't want to come back to be with us, & although two of them had talked about coming back, my ex-husband was fighting to keep them & wasn't going to give them up easily. Thank the Lord, our 10-year-old stayed most faithful to the Lord during our 8 months apart, despite the threats from my ex-husband. Had all the kids joined together & stood up in court & to the doctors & told them that they wanted to return to be with us, then possibly the court would have granted us custody, as the courts are apparently supposed to be swayed by the children's personal desires.

At that point the court requested to put all the children through the same kind of psychoanalysis we went through in order to sec how their past life affected them, & if they were abused or mistreated or unhappy or were well cared- for etc. They wanted lo put them through this before even considering giving us custody of them, so we decided it wasn't the best thing for the children & it would probably just cause them more confusion, &, in the long run they'd just be rewarded to my ex-husband anyway.

So at this point we felt that perhaps we could only get our ten-year-old back, since she was the one who had the faith, & was also causing my ex-husband the most trouble. We told him that if he would give her back to us & allow her name to be changed to ours, then we would drop the charges we had against him & settle it out of court, & he finally consented. We took her & committed the other three into the Lord's hands for the time being.

While in the States, we discussed the matter with the Latin American Consulate people in our State, who were so upset that the policemen in our former mission field had allowed it to happen, that they said we should file suit against the police department & sue! It could have caused a big uproar had we pursued it & forced them to take action on our behalf, but we decided not to do it as our relations with the government were very good & we felt God would do it a different way. (Dad: Wise!)

After getting ourfirst child back & leaving for our new mission field, 3 to 4 months later, we received very encouraging news from my mother! (By this time the other three children had been in the System for a full year now.) My Mom, who gets all of our mail for us in order not to reveal our location, informed us that she received a letter for us saying that my ex-husband & his wife were having troubles with our oldest daughter & were thinking of her coming to see us for the summer! We sent off a letter by faith right away saying that if our daughter was having problems that we insisted that she be sent back to us. It was a gamble, but we put the Lord on the spot! At this time they indicated that the other two children were doing great. Within a month's time, though, we received a phone call from my Mom who informed us that they wanted to give back our son, too, as it said he'd become very unhappy, crying a lot & missing us, so they also wanted to give us back custody of him!

By this time I was already making plans to return to the States from our new mission field, & although after purchasing my ticket to Los Angeles I arrived broke, my Mom was a big help, acting as a middleman who picked up the kids. It took me 3 months to regain custody of them, & during this time they were under the impression that we lived in Los Angeles for security reasons. Until we actually had the custody papers in hand, we never told them where I really came from because I knew if my oldest daughter didn' t really forsake all & want to stay with us, that she could tell her flesh father where we were & blow our chance of getting her back, & even keeping the others. It was a very difficult situation because I had to live with my mother & slowly try to win my oldest daughter back into the Family.

I thought that she had wanted to come back to be with us because she was unhappy with her System life, & although this was partially true in that she was very unhappy & confused, she hadn't yet made a full decision to return to the Family. I had to patiently listen to her as she unleashed all of her emotions & frustrations & blasted me on many points she didn't agree with. It took awhile to win her confidence at all, & rather than throw the whole spiritual life of faith in her lap all at once, we had to mix it with pow-wows on various subjects, as well as letting her watch TV & drink Coca-Cola for awhile. But little by little she began to convert over to the Lord's way of doing things, & began to see they were for her own good. She was hungry for real love & had been tossed around so much in her life that her little Cancer heart didn't want to be crushed any more, & it was hard for her to trust anyone.

She had loved her flesh father a lot when she was little, & she had lost him & gotten a new Dad who was a disciplinarian, which she felt was a bad deal. My new mate had seen the kids needed discipline & he was basically right in his judgements, but because he had a bad temper during those years & threatened the children harshly at times, she didn't like him. So she felt alone & like she had no one to turn to.

When she had first come to rejoin me, she was really into all her clothes, jewelry, having money & going out alone to buy whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She'd had her own room, own television in her room & her walls were plastered with pictures of rock stars, & she knew & loved all the System music. She was into boys & cars & wishing she had a Porsche & diamonds, wanting to go to all the rock concerts & loved TV so much that she knew the TV Guide by heart, so it was quite an adjustment for her!

One time she had become bored & wanted to go back so she wrote her flesh father a letter secretly & asked him to bring her back. But he wrote back & told her that he had planned on her living with me for about a year so she could get straightened out before he would consider taking her back! This letter really devastated her. At the same time we showed her letters that he had written us during the time of the kidnapping when he attacked her grandmother, as well as myself & the Family. My Mom & I really socked it to her & told her the whole truth about her father, & it was pretty hard for her to take. But she got really angry at him & decided she didn't want to be with him if he attacked her grandmother like that, because she knew her grandmother was innocent.

She could see that he stopped at nothing to be vengeful & to get his way. I also pointed out to her the time when he originally gave her two sisters back to us, when they were little, because he found them too expensive to keep, & they'd caused him trouble, so he just wanted to get rid of them, pointing out that that was again what he was doing with her & her brother now.—That any time any of the kids became a burden to him, he just got rid of them & didn't care what pain it caused in their lives.

As time went on, she began to read & love the Heaven's Girl Letters, & she said that that was what helped pull her through because they were so exciting & challenging.

So my daughter was faced with a big decision about her future. I needed to return to the field & was trying to raise money to live, postering some days, working with the lawyer to get custody of the children, & meanwhile my oldest daughter's going through these big changes, deciding whether she wanted to be in the Family or not! I needed money to return to the field so I wanted to visit our supporters to raise money, but at this time I couldn't risk them telling my daughter where we lived & thus blow our security, so I did a lot of our communication by mail. I postered & also managed to get food stamps to survive. My Mom loaned us her car, & I went to garage sales to buy the kids' needs to return to the field. We prepared to leave to the field & reserved our flight by faith. TTL we got a $5000 donation from a church the night before our departure!

When the time of decision arrived as far as booking our return to our field, I sat down with my oldest daughter alone one night. It was then that she began to murmur & complain about the situation. The Spirit of God exploded in me & I just let her have it with both barrels! I told her that her little brother & sister had had to stay in the System all the longer because of her lack of conviction to stand up in court & tell the courts that we were not guilty of their accusations! I told her the Lord had gone to great lengths the second time around to get her out of the System & to save her life, & that we were laying down our lives to try to help her, & that she needed to get her eyes on Jesus & stop thinking about herself & her problems!

I told her that if she didn't get the victory right then & there & choose to rejoin the Family, that I was going to be putting her back on a plane to her System father in two days, & I wouldn't be coming back to rescue her, it was her last chance! I told her unless she stood up to her System father & told him that she wanted lo live with me permanently, & insist that he give me full custody of her, that she was going back to the System pronto, & she would have to face her future alone without parents who really loved her!

She was crying but I didn't let her tears sway me as it was a serious situation & I couldn'tpussyfoot around with her any more. I had come through 3 months of waiting, helping, explaining, feeding & putting up with all her doubts & rebellious ways, & it was time that she saw that she wasn't so righteous & she needed to beg God to forgive her & desperately cry out to Him to save her. (Dad: Amen! GBY!) I gave her the Letter "Taking the Blame" to read.

So after that blasting session together, I left her to make up her mind. She stayed outside & cried a lot, but she finally came & told me that she'd decided she wanted to forsake all & do it God's way! Hallelujah! So the next day we called her father & she confronted him & told him she no longer wanted to stay with him. She told him that in order for me to take her, that he had to consent to giving me full custody & she even requested her name be changed.

One very key point in all this, thank the Lord, is that my ex-husband was a super-proud, selfish Systemite! If his children didn't present themselves to be fine upstanding students, kids with a real future & not "uneducated problem cases", then he preferred to get rid of them, & so he showed them very little affection. So this is basically why he agreed to return the three of them, because they didn't match up to being sold-out systemites like he had hoped.

He always got rid of any pressures on himself.— Anything that cost him too much money that would cause his leisurely standard to go down, or anyone who would damage his reputation in the community or humble him in any way, including children who were not real Systemites like him. So his love was very thin & the kids saw through this. (I might add that at the time they decided Lo send the two other kids back to us, my ex-husband had just found out that his new wife was pregnant, thus pulling more financial & emotional stress on their family, TTL!)

My ex-husband's mother—who's a pretty tough character—even began siding with us when she found out the whole story of what had happened! She has presently disowned my ex- husband as her son because of his ways & has sided with us, even knowing that we are with the COG, but have proven our love for the kids by coming back for them & fighting for them & caring for them & retraining them even after all the damage done to them by the System. She was a mother of six children herself & knows that we are the real parents with real love, not like her son whom she is ashamed of. It's such a testimony because she really was against us at first!

We had asked the Lord to help us wind everything up within a year after our arrival in the Stales, & we were now on the plane to our new mission field 11-1/2 months later, with three of our four children rescued! TYJ! As for the legal work when regaining the other two kids, we had the same lawyer simply write up the papers & had my ex-husband & his lawyer sign them. Then after I signed them, she took them to court & had them approved. From the time the papers were filed until they were approved was only two weeks, & after gaining these papers we obtained new passports.

As for why my ex-husband & his wife still have our other daughter, they fought very hard to keep her. She was the weakest member & really fell hard for the whole System way of life.

She gets straight A's on her report card & has become someone they can be proud of. She never gave them any problems & was a pretty girl, so they wanted her. All the other kids were "problems" to them, so it was easy for them to get rid of them. We have often felt the Lord will still bring her back to us one day & we've really committed her life to the Lord. We never give up hope but we are trying not to stir up anything with them in order to preserve the three we have, thank the Lord.

One major lesson we have learned through all of this is to never let our guard down again! We still don't allow my ex-husband to know where we live or send photos or anything that would give them something to use against us again. Occasionally the kids write their sister who is still there, but all mail goes through my mother's house. We read all the kids' mail beforehand & make sure they always say good positive things about how school is going, that summer vacation is fun & things that Systemites would talk about. We don't use Family vocabulary, & we intentionally give the impression that we still live in the States.

We were so thankful to have our children back, even though as time went on we saw all kinds of further System influences that needed to be overcome. All the kids had their own bikes & were used to doing their own things & going to school & buying whatever they wanted. They watched TV & were alone in the house by themselves in the afternoon while their parents worked, & ate tons of sweets, were into computers & System games, had a fascination for stealing & would cover up anything they thought they were in trouble for. My 7-year-old son had learned that being foolish would win him friends in the System & make him "cool". So we had to spend countless hours with him in the Word to completely turn his life around, dealing with his foolishness, pride, murmuring, laziness, stealing & love for material things, playing with matches & doing dangerous things.

They've all needed a lot of Word & guidance to help relay their foundation, but are proving to be real fighters & passing their tests of forsaking their System ways. Although correction was difficult for them at first, they began to see that correction docs help [hem & deep inside they began to feel more .secure when they knew where their boundaries lie. My eldest daughter later confided in us that she didn't care what kind of a place she lived in or how heavy things ever got on her, as long as she felt she was loved & special to someone. She cried & told me that is why she came back, because she wanted to be loved.

We too are trying to always stay on guard about the past & any influences that might snuff out our children's relationship with the Lord & the Family. We're working on having the mind of Christ & seeing things according to the Word & not trying to reason things out in our minds or judging them according to our own emotions, the way the System judges things. Another little wedge we deal with occasionally is not letting our guard down & trusting any Systemites, as that spirit of compromise is what got us into that mess in the first place. Thank the Lord for delivering us & our children from the System's grip. PTL!

(Dad: TTL!—GBY! Whatta fight! PTL you won! Whatta miracle! God bless you for not quitting! What a testimony to the Family! It'll be an inspiration!—Tx!—ILY!—P.)

FAITH DAVID'S REBUTTAL!

This is Faith David, the daughter of my Father Moses David and sister of Linda Davis. "Deborah" is a "Bible" or "Family" name, which she should no longer use, or even wish to use publicly since she is no longer a member of our great Worldwide Missionary Family. She was in fact excommunicated 10 years ago from our fellowship when she & her husband, Bill Davis, persisted in abusing children & their positions of leadership to the detriment & harm of our members in Latin America.

Bill Davis was an insane child-abuser & schizophrenic violent psychopath, whose word should not be taken by anybody, but who actually deserves to be prosecuted & locked up as true justice for the crimes I was an eyewitness of when living in their home in Peru! His crimes of abuse of his own children & others' children arc too numerous to list here and for which he was excommunicated from our Family!

I am personally insulted & furious about their accusations against my father, knowing that it is they who are the guilty ones, guilty of the very things they accuse him of, which makes their story so preposterous!

No, we do not believe in or practice incest! But I know for a fact that Bill Davis docs, be cause he personally confessed to me about his sexual relationship with his daughter Joyanne. She was the age of 12 at the time. Why doesn't he confess his own sins, including how he got my sister Linda addicted to drugs & under his complete control, for which he was also excommunicated, as drug-taking & violence arc absolutely forbidden in our Family!

To say that my father would ever abuse or hurt one of his own children, or for that matter anyone, is the most outrageous lie that can be told about him! And he certainly never molested or abused nor hurt me or anyone else! I'm a 37 year- old woman with 20 years of fulltime missionary work behind me, and I don't appreciate being used as a scapegoat for my sister's tremendous drug-induced psychological problems, which is proven by the fact that she cannot any longer tell what is truth & what is a lie, what are fantasies & what is reality!

I challenge & deny any & every false accusation she has made against my father or myself or our Family of missionaries, who are giving their lives in sacrificial service daily to obey Jesus* command to "Go ye into all the World & preach the Gospel to every creature", "making disciples of all nations" & have the "good fruit" to prove we are indeed the "Children of God" & not the "children of the Devil" that she has depicted in her book!—A book for which she was well-paid by our jealous, hypocritical, religious enemies, just like Judas of old was paid by Jesus' religious enemies!

Just remember, you can't always believe what you read! Just because my sister Linda wrote a book doesn't mean that what she wrote is true! Many people have written books which were complete fabrications motivated by vengeance, revenge or financial gain. You probably remember the supposed autobiography of Howard Hughes which later was proven to be a total falsification, actually written by a man who never even met him! So just because my sister's lies are in print, doesn't mean the lies are true!

And speaking of "children of the Devil", the bad fruit of Linda herself & that insane maniac Bill Davis, who was the one who actually wrote most of the book, can be seen in her own children that I talked to personally on my last visit to the U.S. The oldest son has been in jail serving a sentence for armed robbery, two of her other children are confirmed drug addicts, & her 15-year-old daughter was in a correctional institution for violent assault! This is the actual rotten fruit of Linda & Bill Davis!

Jesus said in His famous Sermon on the Mount that you could know if someone was of God or was good by their fruit or their deeds, actions & the results of their lives. "Every good tree brings forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit; for by their fruits you shall know them!"—Matthew 7:15-20.

By contrast look at our children who are the direct "fruit" of Father David's teachings & life ministry as a true man of God and Prophet of our time, and Founder of our Family of over 12,000 fulltime missionaries who are preaching the Gospel in over 80 countries, & who have now won over ten million eternal souls to Jesus Christ in only 20 years by preaching God's Word in 60 languages to 120 nationalities! The children of our Family, now numbering in the thousands, including hundreds of our own teenagers, are also sincerely dedicated to a life of service to others because of their own love for Jesus &, His Word, and because of the true sample of the Life of Christ that they have seen lived by our Father David.

Therefore this false testimony of hers makes my pitiful sister Linda an outrageous liar of the worst kind! The Bible says, "Whatever we sow we shall also reap!"—Gal.6:7. And the destruction she has tried to sow against her own father and God's Work & His Family & our children is now being reaped by her in her own children who are not serving God, but we could even say are now serving the Devil and suffering the tragic consequences, sad to say!

Anyone can write a book & accuse anyone of anything, but who can live such a Godly & totally unselfish, lovingly-motivated life of service to God & helping all those in need as my father has done! And in the Words of Jesus, so fitting for my father now, "For which of these good works do ye stone me?" As the lawyer Gamaliel in the Bible said, and even our enemies & critics must admit: "If this work be of Man it will come to naught. But if it be of God, no man can stand against it, lest they be found to fight against God!"—Acts 5:38,39.

—Sincerely in Jesus' Name, Faith David, Father Moses David's True Daughter!

This Statement is Copyrighted June, 1988 & can only be used by permission of the Author & Publisher in its entirety without changes, deletions or omissions!