Jesus Christians Newsletter #117, November 2009THE UNITED STATES
Tensions in the U.S. continue to dominate the news, although there are hopes that things will mellow a bit with Joe out of the country.
At Reinhard and Jeremy's restraining order hearing against Jared, Sheila turned up (hardly a surprise) but she had a team from Fox News in tow as well. The same team had done the controversial report on the mock trial in Long Beach back in 2006. You can see the original transcript of that and some comments from us here:
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cust.idl.net.au]
When they found that Joe was not there, Fox News disappeared. But they surfaced again later with a request for Dave to "respond" to claims that "younger members" think he is "God". Dave is seeking counsel from anyone posting on our forum about what to say to Fox in response to such a ridiculous claim. You can read that thread here:
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www.jesus-teachings.com]
At the hearing, the judge seemed to be under Sheila's spell too, as he refused to even look at the video of the vicious attack by Jared and John against Reinhard, saying that he had read what Sheila gave him prior to coming to court, and his mind was already made up that we are a dangerous cult, and that there was no need for Reinhard to be protected from Jared.
You can see what the judge refused to look at here:
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www.youtube.com]
The corruption that comes into play as soon as the "cult" card is played is astonishing, especially when you see how it can even bias trained judges, who are supposed to be experts at overlooking sensationalism in order to rationally examine the evidence. The judge gave Sheila detailed information on how she could have Joe declared insane and get him committed to a mental institution as one way to force him away from the rest of the community! This adds a whole new
dimension to the risks involved in Joe having any contact with Sheila.
Nevertheless, Joe made one final attempt to meet with his parents over dinner at a restaurant before flying out of the country, only to be rejected once again by Sheila and Jared. Sheila said she regarded the predominantly White suburb where Joe asked to meet as "hostile" and said she would only meet him at a police station, court house, or a restaurant in close proximity to the sheriff's office. All indications were that she intended to get the sheriff to use such a meeting to issue
papers to have Joe committed. Each time we think that Sheila has sunk as low as she can get, she goes one notch lower!
There was a short visit from Dave and Cherry, who squeezed in an evening with Grace and Eric, some time with Jesse's parents, and a visit to the Long Beach Quakers in their two-day stopover on the way to the U.K.
The L.A. team attended another freegan movie potluck hosted by Grace and Eric, featuring the film "Homelessness Is Not A Crime". The producer, Ernest Savage, was there and provided some stimulating conversation before he presented the film. The homeless in L.A. consistently have their belongings confiscated and destroyed as part of the county police efforts to "keep the streets clean". Our guys were able to empathize with Ernest's frustration about the lack of concern for the poor here in the US, while they were also able to share with him a broader perspective of poverty from a global perspective, making mention of their eye-opening experiences in Kenya earlier this year, which gave them a new understanding of what it means to be really poor.
Bin-raiding yielded several shopping cart loads of yogurt, meat, salads, and more from some of the usual haunts, and some new ones around the LA area.
While visiting a friend in Orange County, our team was surprised to hear that she actually sat next to Tim LaHaye, co-author of the famed "Left Behind" series (which helped to inspire "Survivors", because it made Dave so angry to read what "Left Behind" was saying) at a recent church event. At that meeting (according to our friend) LaHaye took offense that she did not give him the kind of "praise" that he felt he deserved. It's a shame that such perceived "prophets" are really just
con-men, only interested in prostituting the gospel for selfish reasons. This woman said she was sick of seeing so many souls being led astray by the diabolical prosperity gospel, which is so much a part of the entire "Left Behind" series.
AUSTRALIA
Ross and Baz had the privilege of hearing a song about themselves, composed and sung by one of their long-term contacts, whom they visited this month. They visited several towns west of Sydney, over the Blue Mountains: Katoomba, Lithgow, Bathurst, Cowra, and Orange. They shared in a birthday party in Katoomba, and helped with building a dam and fencing for an afternoon on the property of a music teacher in Cowra who is hoping to develop his land as a health retreat. The friendly atmosphere in the country towns was refreshing, as were the 50 chocolate bars, 100 packets of dried apricots, and 10kg of rice that they found in some of their better bin raiding hauls for the month.
IRELAND
Paul and Ulrike are still enjoying their stint in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. They continue to find new suburbs and universities in Dublin, and have taken to distributing with an umbrella in one hand because of the rain, something they learned from Ross many years ago when he visited rainy Scotland.
UNITED KINGDOM
Alan and Alf found a mountain of food while being filmed when making a student freegan documentary. A store manager came out and exclaimed on camera that they were stealing food, even when it was pointed out that it was being thrown away. It made for some great footage and probably embarrassed the manager more than it did Alan and Alf!
They also attended the screening of a documentary made by an old friend of Alf's. Called 'The Volunteer', it featured the friend's efforts to re-vamp a medical centre in Nairobi's Kibera slum on a shoe-string budget, showing that even independent individuals can make a significant difference in the world.
Rols, Sue and Dann enjoyed a half-term break from school by surfing in Cornwall.
Dave and Cherry got the royal treatment in London, with a very nice hotel for the night (at just 30 pounds, believe it or not) and everything from flowers and chocolates to drinks and hot meals, all derived from bin-raiding. And the fellowship? That was priceless too!
KENYA
There were still enough chocolates when Dave and Cherry arrived back in Kenya to provide some indulgences for our Kenya sweet tooths. As usual, there are plenty of jobs to keep everyone busy, including a new paint job for the compound.
An influx of volunteers from Germany (two sisters), the UK, Netherlands, and South Africa is turning into a big help with the reading program, which has been dramatically altered for an experimental period of five weeks. The emphasis is on training teachers as much as students. Dave brought huge A2-sized colour laminated pages from the Easy Readers, which are big enough to teach the entire class with. They are proving very popular. Bob is in charge of the Easy English program.
Evenings are often taken up with games, including everyone's (new) favorite, "Werewolf" which is similar to the old "Mafia" game. One of the volunteers from the UK (another David) organised a trivia quiz night, and our Dave has invented a new version of sudoku which uses letters instead of numbers.
Volunteers have been keen about repairing badly battered reading books, which they then take to town and sell for 20ksh (40 cents) per set of five books. In one afternoon they sold more than 200 sets.
Karl had an operation to remove a non-cancerous growth on his jaw. He was in hospital for a week, as the surgery proved to be more complicated than expected. He is back home now and doing fine. Simon stayed with Karl during his hospital stay, and used free time to continue with artwork for six new Easy Readers that are in the pipeline.
Unfortunately we have had another outbreak of typhoid, but thankfully not as intense as the previous round. We have not been able to identify the source this time, but to be safe, everyone has taken antibiotics to eliminate it. One of our volunteers also developed malaria during his second week here. After a few days of medication he was fit enough to make a 12km jog to town with no ill effects!
Our shipment of Easy English books arrived this month, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Invisible Man. Fran and a couple of our volunteers helped unload the shipment and organise it in a warehouse.
Simon and Fran had a fantastic day distributing in Eldoret this month, when they got out almost six hundred books in just under three hours! That must be some
kind of community record!
A school in Australia sponsored the construction of a block of toilets, and a water pump for a local school, so Dave and Fran attended a ceremony on behalf of the Australian school, to present a plaque to be embedded in the cement work. Dave and Kim visited the same school another day to present gifts of pens, pencils and other prizes to the whole school. These too were gifts from the Australian school. After each visit we were loaded down with sugar cane, fruit and vegetables, and
treated to dance performances from some of the students.
Kim was appointed official administrative leader of the team here towards the end of the month. Please pray for her to keep inspired, and on the ball!