Kay Griggs

Kay Griggs, Former Marine Colonel’s Wife, Talks About Military Assassin Squads, Drug Running, Illegal Weapon Deals And Sexual Perversion Deep Within The Highest Levels Of U.S. Military And Government

An interview with Kay Griggs in 1998

“The war in Bosnia is simply a stage to train assassins to be a market for, and new weapons to be a marketplace so the drugs can be used. And the (U.S.) Army runs the whole show. It’s totally run by the Army. The CIA is a bogus thing. It’s training and doctrine command. It’s NATO, It’s SHAPE – Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe started by Eisenhower. It’s a totally independent corporation. Its main function is to buy and sell weapons and to launder money. … The CIA is kinda bogus. It’s just to confuse use to get us off the track. It’s all being done by Army people.” — Kay Griggs

The following information is from the book, “Caffeine Blues” by Stephen Cherniske, M.S. and specifically from Chapter 5, “Specific Health Disorders: The Caffeine Connection” and chapter 6 “Caffeine and Women’s Health”

Habitual caffeine intake is linked to:

• Cardiovascular disease (heart attacks, stroke)
• Gastrointestinal disease (Irritable Bowel Syndrome, ulcers, etc.)
• Migraine headache
• Diabetes
• Osteoporosis
• Anemia
• Premenstrual Syndrome
• Fibrocystic Breast Disease
• Breast cancer
• Birth defects
• Adrenal dysfunction disorders such as allergies, asthma, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and autoimmune disease
• Urinary and prostrate problems
• Gout

“Compared to men, research shows that caffeine is much more damaging to women, producing adverse effects at lower intake.” – From Caffeine Blues Chapter 6 p. 225

Also see:

http://www.naturalnews.com/012352_caffeine_coffee.html

Is Coffee The Most Caffeinated Drink?

This may seem like a strange lesson on the subject of daily practical living–to jump off the deep end by diving first into the realm of the spirit and spirits–the spirit world, that mysterious dimension of eternal realities, the living world of forever rather than the dying world of Now–the everlasting realm of Eternity rather than the temporary space of Time–that fascinating dimension which is largely unseen by us in mortal flesh rather than this mundane plane which is so temporary. Wherefore, brethren, “set your affections on things above not on things on the earth, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”…”For by faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter”–he could have been the king of Egypt–“but choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith, he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible!”

All God’s children of faith since the beginning of time have been looking for an unseen world, “a City which hath Foundations,” Eternal Foundations, ” whose Builder and Maker is God.–Not having received the promises but having seem them afar off, confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth that seek a country–a better country–that is, an Heavenly! Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for He hath prepared for them a City, just such a place, the Heavenly City, which will come down from God out of Heaven and dwell with men. This is the hope of all ages: that now-unseen Eternal World where we shall dwell with Him forever–the Heavenly City described in Revelation 21 and 22 and mentioned many other places. That’s what we’re all looking forward to: not pie in the sky but Heaven on earth–a new Heaven and a new earth with its Eternal City.

But even now, His invisible Heavenly Kingdom is already in operation and existence! It not only surrounds us, but is within us. As Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you”…”for if My Kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight; but My Kingdom is not of this world. “In other words, not after the fashion of this world with its earthly, carnal, flesh and blood kingdoms of evil men and evil spirits, but a now invisible Kingdom of His Spirit which is already within us and which “now we see only through a glass darkly, then face to face. Now we only know in part but then we shall know even as also we are known;” the amazing realm of the Spirit, the Kingdom of God, where everything is much clearer, more real and everlasting. For the fashion of this world passeth away, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever!

I could hardly begin to describe this spiritual kingdom of the Now, much less the Future, for all we know about it is what we read in the Bible, have heard from the testimony of others, and witnessed in our own experience which is still very limited. But I have told you a few things and it may be that the Lord will permit me to tell you more and try to help you to understand!

To make it very simple perhaps we could take a very childlike little so-called scientific approach with our tiny little finite minds to attempt some comprehension of this almost incomprehensible realm–not the one of the Future, but the one in which we are now living; not in the flesh, but in the Spirit–the Fifth Dimension. As you know, science tells us that there are four dimensions comprising the existence of matter; all material objects in order to exist must have length, breadth, depth–which comprise space–and one more which is called time. Einstein’s theories brought this out very clearly–that time and space are definitely related in his theory of relatively, that nothing can occupy material space without time. It must have time to exist!

I hold in my hand an amazing little postcard, a beautiful underwater scene of God’s gorgeous and colorful Creation. Now the strange thing about this little postcard is that as I look at it edge-on I can really only see about two dimensions-length and breadth, and I am in the land of the Flatlander who can only understand his own little world of distance in two directions with actually no thickness whatsoever. He can’t see anything else! And as I look at this card edge-on I can’t see anything else either; and if I were a Flatlander I would insist that there was no other world beyond my two dimensions, just because I can’t see it.

But we are now going to move in a new and strange direction unknown to the Flatlander–the direction of height! We’re going to go up into a new world of the Third Dimension! We’re now looking down on this little postcard from above–and we find that it’s a very amazing world indeed, because this little two-dimensional postcard of the Flatlanders is a very unusual postcard known as a three-dimensional postcard, which when looked at edge-on seems to have only two dimensions, length and breadth, but suddenly when looked at from above, from height, seems to have an altogether new dimension known as depth–and I actually seem to be able to see into the picture, some objects in front of others! A reed is growing in front of a lovely red coral, and fish are swimming in between, and the pebbled bottom fades away into the distance, even beyond my new three-dimensional vision!

So now we have entered a new world, beyond the scope of the poor Flatlander who can only see two directions, if he could exist at all, and we are looking in a new direction which gives height and depth and a whole new beautiful world to explore! “O, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His Judgments, and His Ways past finding out!” We have become like a god to the Flatlander, a being entirely beyond his comprehension. Since we are now above his lowly plane of only two dimensions, we have passed completely out of his sight, because he can neither look up nor down, and unless we condescend to stoop to his lowly level he cannot see us at all, much less understand our new dimension. To reach his level at all we have to get on an exact plane with him, completely in tune with his two dimensions in an extremely limited area, for him to even be able to see us–if this were possible. But the moment we vary the slightest fraction out of his limited orbit we are truly “out of sight!” Isn’t this “outta sight!” And our three-dimensional world becomes one of almost unlimited space, so much larger and greater than his, so vast, so deep, and so high that he could not possibly begin to understand it or us. It’s simply out of his sphere, out of his depth, of which he has none, and beyond his tiny plane. A whole new world marvelous and magnificent, that he does not even know exists, simply because he cannot see it, and in which we live and have our being–because of the Fourth Dimension, Time. And although the Flatlander cannot see us unless we stoop momentarily to his narrow plane into his very limited line of vision, we can nearly always see him from almost any direction–in or out of his dimension –from above, beneath, or on his own level!

But his little flat brain having never seen anything else but his own dimension and since our dimension is completely beyond his realm of Flatland science, he doesn’t understand it, knows nothing about it, has never seen it much less ever been there, and he simply brushes such nonsense all aside and says that we and our dimension just don’t exist! Even if it were possible to show it to him it would be so beyond his two dimension understanding that he would probably be like the farmer the first time he saw a giraffe and say, “There just ain’t no such thing”! Or just like my kids when they were little and we tried to get them to eat some new food: I remember Hosea saying at about the age of four or five, “But I know I don’t like it, Daddy, because I never had any before!”… “The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit for they are foolishness unto him!” There just ain’t no such thing because he never saw it before, and he knows he wouldn’t like it because he never had any before!

The fact of the matter is that our dear little flatlander, in his pride, since he personally can only operate on one plane, hates to admit that there’s anything beyond his level where he hasn’t been; and in fact where he cannot go, unless he is given third-dimensional wings and time to explore it. Poor fellow! How limited his vision, how narrow his realm, how restricted his scope of operation! Since he can’t go anywhere else, he just hates to admit that there is anywhere else!–And he is particularly furious with any other Flatlander who claims that at sometime or other he has been lifted up into that other world by some third-dimensional creature to give him a glimpse of what is beyond his own little domain. Since he never saw it, it doesn’t exist! He refuses to acknowledge anything that does not exist or he cannot see on his own little plane in his two little directions. He’s strictly a plane geometrist, and cubic measurements just don’t exist for him! To hell with the cubist, he says, let’s send them back where they came from!

O, foolish flatlander; how can he do this when he doesn’t even know where it’s at! But just because he doesn’t believe in it doesn’t make it not so!

And so it is with also the “4-D” natural cubic man! He’s a square-head, a block-head who refuses to believe that anything else exists such as a Fifth Dimension, a Spirit World, simply because he’s never seen it or been there, and he’s furious at anyone who claims they have because this really puts him down below their level, their Fifth Dimension–the Spirit World, the Heavenly, which he says doesn’t exist simply because he hasn’t seen it or been there.

This is just as stupid as if you were to say, “I don’t believe that New York or London exists because i’ve never seen them or been there!–And though you travelers in time and space claim that New York and London do exist because you say you’ve been out of my realm and visited these cities, seen them with your own eyes, I flatly refuse to believe you because I’ve never seen them or been there myself!” How ridiculous can you get? This is just as silly as the natural man who refuses to acknowledge the realm of the Spirit. You can even read him stories about it in God’s Word! You can tell him personal experiences of your own visits there and what you have seen in the land of the Fifth Dimension, the world of the wonders of the Spirit, but he will refuse to believe you because he hates to admit you have a vision and a dimension that he hasn’t got, a spiritual perception which he lacks–the Dimension of Eternity, which his tiny temporal mind cannot grasp, and does not want to grasp because it puts him down on a lower level, and he hates to admit there’s anything beyond him! Poor narrow-minded Flatlander! He just can’t face it!

But, brother, I want to tell you something! I’ve not only heard about it, read about it, seen pictures of it in vision–but i’ve been there, so I know it exists whether you believe it or not! And unless you’re willing to admit that I’ve got something you just haven’t got and that you’d like to have it too, and humbly ask for the truth, confess your limitations, and ask the spiritual men to help you find a whole new world, you’ll never know the joys, the beautiful scenes, the gorgeous sounds, and the ecstatic feelings of that marvelous and Heavenly realm! God in His mercy may even give you personally a glimpse of it through the window of the Spirit; but if you refuse to receive it or believe it and reject it, you’ll probably never see it again! It’s that certain something you see in our eyes that you don’t understand, that light on our faces you can’t comprehend, that almost tangible happy atmosphere that pervades our presence, that you can almost feel but find it hard to believe. You’re like a fish out of water, a Flatlander out of Flatland; and you either have to receive new life and new vision by the Spirit or you’ll die! You’ll go back to your natural realm and be as spiritually dead as you were before! Poor fellow! Too bad! You may never know what you missed! Almost…But lost!

Well, I haven’t even begun to tell you about my experiences in this field, and I’ll never be able to tell you everything. We’re almost to the end of this little lesson, but just let me give you a little preview of a few samples: That’s the way this whole thing started out, with a Spirit–God! “For God is Spirit, and they which worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.” … “In the beginning He created the Heavens and the Earth, and His Spirit moved upon the face of the waters.” This is such a limitless subject, we cannot possibly cover it all here!–But just read your Bible, you’ll find evidences, stories, and positive declarations of the existence of this Fifth Dimensional Spirit World throughout the whole Book! Some of its immortal characters having passed on into it through the glorious gate of Death even came back to tell us about it. Others were lifted up into the realm of the spirit to get a brief glimpse or vision of it, and many received messages from it…and some of us have been there!

“He is no fool who trades what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose!”–Have you?

Nebuchadnezzar King Babylon

A Dramatised Account of Daniel Chapter 4

Nebuchadnezzar, King of the Babylonian Empire, stood amongst the rooftop gardens of his Imperial Palace, looking out over the capital of Babylon. The sun was setting, casting a golden light on the tops of the buildings and temples in the distance. His face beaming, Nebuchadnezzar said, “Ah!–It’s SO good to be back home!”

His Queen looked at him with adoring, worshipping eyes and said, “It’s wonderful to have you BACK, my lord! You were gone for so many months on your last conquest!”

“Yes!” he exclaimed. “And such GREAT conquests they were! You should have been there to see me lead my Imperial armies as we swept into Palestine and the nations of Jordan! NOTHING could withstand me! We absolutely CRUSHED their armies! We battered their city walls down and burned their palaces! NEVER has there been an Empire as GREAT as mine or a conquering King as GLORIOUS and MIGHTY as I!”

“You brought back SO much WEALTH and RICHES this time!” his Queen exclaimed.

“And SLAVES!” the King said. “I brought back THOUSANDS of slaves also! I am going to put several THOUSAND of them to work in the slave-labour gangs to beautify BABYLON!”

The Queen looked out over the mighty city, marvelling, “How absolutely WONDERFUL it looks! Never has there been a greater or more magnificent city in all the World!”

His chest swelling with pride, Nebuchadnezzar replied, “And I intend to see that it becomes even MORE glorious! With all the new slaves I brought back, I can push the work even FASTER now!”

After several glasses of wine, Nebuchadnezzar and his Queen went to bed, and the great Monarch, ruler of Babylon and the World, drifted off to sleep beneath his shimmering sheets of silk. Elsewhere in the city, men and women of a hundred nationalities, shivering from the cold, exhausted from their day’s labour, fell asleep on rough straw mats in bare stone courtyards.

How quickly the night passed for them! At the crack of a whip, early the next morning before the sun rose, they struggled sleepily to their feet. After eating a poor meal of bread and soup, they were herded out to the streets to labour. By their sweat, their tears and their blood, they built Babylon, the most magnificent city on Earth!

Just after sunrise that morning, a lone figure walked down the wide streets of Babylon, then turned right onto the famous “Processional Way”, the main avenue of the city. He was in his late 40’s and obviously an important official. He strode down the broad avenue towards the great Ishtar Gate. Suddenly, as he was passing through the Gate, he heard the clatter of a chariot up ahead, driving furiously down the great roadway toward him. As they went racing by, one of the riders cried out, “STOP! There he is!” The horses were abruptly reined in and the chariot came racing back down the avenue and stopped!

“DANIEL!–Quickly!–Get in!” an aged Jewish nobleman called out. “King Nebuchadnezzar wants to see you right away!” Lord Belteshazzar–known to his Hebrew friends as Daniel–quickly climbed up in the chariot beside his friend Abednego, and the chariot raced back down the long avenue towards the Royal Palace in the distance. As soon as he arrived at the Palace steps, a dozen guards escorted him into the King’s throne room!

Around the throne was a group of muttering magicians and astrologers, but when Daniel entered, King Nebuchadnezzar immediately had them all put out of the chamber. “Come! Come here, Belteshazzar!” he summoned.

Daniel bowed and approached the throne. “What is it, O King?” he asked.

With a look of almost wide-eyed fear, the King explained: “I had an incredible dream–a NIGHTMARE!–early this morning! As I was lying in my bed, the visions that passed through my head TERRIFIED me!”

He held his head wearily in his hands, saying, “But I don’t even understand what it MEANT! I told my dream to all the wise men of Babylon–all the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners–but they could NOT INTERPRET it!

“But you, O Belteshazzar, are MASTER of the Magicians!! I know that the spirit of the HOLY GOD is in you, and NO mystery is too difficult for YOU! Many years ago, you were able to tell me the meaning of my dream of the great shining image! (See Daniel 2.) So here then is my dream:

“I was standing on a great plain and I looked, and there before me stood a TREE! It was absolutely ENORMOUS! It grew LARGE and STRONG!–SO high that its top touched the SKY; and it was visible to the very ENDS of the EARTH! It had beautiful leaves and abundant fruit! The beasts of the field found shelter under it, and the birds of the air built nests in its great branches, and every creature on Earth was fed by its fruit!”

Then Nebuchadnezzar’s face grew pale and sweat beaded on his face as he relived the experience: “Then in my vision, I looked, and a WATCHER stood before me!–Not a normal watchman such as guards a city wall, but…” In awe he whispered, “It was a HOLY ONE, an ANGEL descending from HEAVEN!

“The Watcher cried out in a loud voice: ‘Cut DOWN the tree and CHOP OFF its branches; STRIP off its leaves and SCATTER its fruit! Let the animals FLEE from under it and the birds FLY from its branches!–But let the STUMP and its ROOTS be bound with IRON and BRONZE and remain in the ground, in the grass of the field!'”

Trembling, Nebuchadnezzar paused, took a deep breath and continued: “Then the Watcher commanded, ‘Let his MIND be changed from that of a MAN and let him be given the mind of a BEAST, till SEVEN YEARS pass over him! The decision is announced by the WATCHERS; the HOLY ONES declare the verdict, so that the living may know that the Most High GOD is Sovereign over the kingdoms of Men and gives them to WHOMEVER He WISHES and sets over them the LOWEST and BASEST of men!’

“That is my dream! Now, Belteshazzar, tell me what it MEANS!”

Daniel sat down on a golden bench, deep in prayer and thought! “O God,” he prayed, “what COULD this mean?” Then slowly, clearly, the meaning of the King’s dream came to him. As the full truth dawned on him, Daniel was astonished, and his thoughts greatly troubled him, for he knew that the King would surely not be pleased with his answer!–But he knew that he must tell him the truth for his own good!

Seeing the troubled look on Daniel’s face, Nebuchadnezzar said, “Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its meaning trouble you. TELL me what it means!”

Respectfully, Daniel answered, “My lord, if only the dream applied to your ENEMIES and its meaning to your ADVERSARIES! The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole Earth…is YOU! YOU, O king, are that tree! You have become great and strong; your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to distant parts of the Earth, from Persia all the way to the border of Egypt!

“Here then is the INTERPRETATION of the words of the Watcher, O king, the decree the Most High God has issued against you:

“You will be DRIVEN away from people and will live with the wild beasts; you will eat grass like CATTLE and be drenched with the dew of heaven for seven years, until you acknowledge that the Most High GOD is ruler over the Kingdoms of Men and gives them to anyone He WISHES!

“The command to leave the STUMP of the tree with its ROOTS means that your Kingdom will be RESTORED to you when you acknowledge that HEAVEN rules over the EARTH!”

Stunned, Nebuchadnezzar stared at Daniel, hardly able to believe what he had just heard! Daniel knew only too well the REASON that this message had been given to the King: For his great pride of thinking he alone had built the City of Babylon and the Babylonian Empire; for his oppression and merciless treatment of the poor while he lived in dazzling luxury!

Hoping that King Nebuchadnezzar would somehow CHANGE or REPENT so that he WOULDN’T have to go through such an ordeal, Daniel said, “O king, be pleased to accept my advice: FORSAKE your sins by doing what is RIGHT, and RENOUNCE your WICKEDNESS! Be kind to the OPPRESSED and the poor! Maybe THEN your peace and prosperity will CONTINUE!”

The stunned King Nebuchadnezzar sat for a long time quietly pondering what Daniel had said. These were very bold words for ANY man alive to say to the ruler of the World!–EVEN someone whom he respected as much as Daniel.

Daniel spoke up once again, “O King, if you will FORSAKE your sins, the Lord may YET have mercy, and none of this need happen….”

Nebuchadnezzar abruptly and coldly said, “You are EXCUSED, Belteshazzar!”

It became apparent during the next weeks that Nebuchadnezzar was NOT PLEASED with Daniel’s advice, for Daniel was not summoned to the King’s side again. For a long time, Nebuchadnezzar was sullen and sulking, still in fear of his ominous dream but unwilling to change. But after several months had passed, the fear that the dream had given him faded, and he began to become even MORE haughty, proud, cruel and tyrannical! As the building continued, hundreds more slaves fell under their burdens, never to rise again!

Twelve months passed, and one morning as he was strolling on the roof of his royal Palace, Nebuchadnezzar looked out over the great city that he had built. NEVER had there been–and never WOULD there be–a city as magnificent and glorious as Babylon, he thought! Why, it was the LARGEST city in the entire World, its massive 300-feet-high and 80-feet-thick walls running 60 miles around it!

He thought of the great golden temple to his god, Marduk, and of the 53 different temples and 😯 altars to the gods that he had spent so much time and money building and decorating. Proudly he thought of his Imperial Palace, the most magnificent building on Earth, and how he lived in extravagance and luxury beyond imagination, unsurpassed by any King on Earth!

Filled with pride, Nebuchadnezzar spread his hands over the city and exclaimed aloud, “Is not this the GREAT BABYLON that I have built as my royal residence, by MY mighty power and for the GLORY of MY majesty?”

The words were still on his lips when an audible Voice boomed from Heaven, “This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been TAKEN from you! The Kingdom is DEPARTED from you! “You will be DRIVEN AWAY from people and will live with the wild beasts! You will eat grass like cattle! Seven years will pass over you until you acknowledge that the Most High GOD is ruler over the Kingdoms of Men and gives them to ANYONE He PLEASES to!”

Nebuchadnezzar shook with fear, mixed with a desperate rage! “No! No! NO!” he shouted arrogantly, “I will NOT…” Suddenly he staggered dizzily and fell to the floor! The Palace guards raced forward to help him, but to their shock, he got up on all fours like a dog, and fled away from them on his hands and knees. Whimpering, he hid himself fearfully in the rooftop Garden.

When his nobles and counsellors assembled that afternoon, they were shocked at the sight that met their eyes. Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty King of the World, his face covered with dirt, was down on his hands and knees, digging amongst the flower-beds. He had gone mad! Daniel gave one last sad look at the fallen Monarch, and, together with the other officials, they eventually signed a decree to have him sent off to a country estate outside of Babylon.

Slowly, slowly, seven long years passed; summers and winters came and went. In the city of Babylon, the sound of building came to a stop and the slave-driver’s whip was not heard; no roads or temples were built, no canals were dug. In the seventh year, early one morning, an important official came riding up to the gate of the heavily-guarded country estate. Once inside, Daniel was greeted by the Captain of the Guard.

“I’ve come to see King Nebuchadnezzar,” Daniel said. “Where IS he?”

“The Captain laughed, “‘The Beast’ is over THERE! In fact, you are just in time for his morning meal!” he said, pointing to a slave carrying an armful of grass across the yard. Daniel and the Captain followed the slave across the yard, and there, curled up asleep amongst the tall grass was the most miserable WRETCH Daniel had ever seen in his life! He had never even seen the lowest slave in such a pitiful condition!

“The Beast” lay there asleep, his naked, hairy body wet with the morning dew. His long hair and beard were so indescribably filthy that they had matted together and looked like bird’s feathers instead of hair! His fingernails and toenails had grown so long and curved that they looked like bird’s claws. As the men approached, he woke up startled! But seeing the fresh tender grass, he raced up on his hands and knees and began eagerly eating it, grunting as he shoved it into his mouth!

The old man burst into tears! “Leave me alone with him!” he ordered. When they had gone, he began to pour out his heart in prayer to the Lord, pleading for Him to restore the King now that the seven years was over. “The Beast” paused in his eating and looked up at the man standing there praying. Then SUDDENLY, something SNAPPED inside his mind and his sanity was RESTORED!

Nebuchadnezzar raised his eyes toward Heaven, and realising all that had happened to him, began to praise the Most High God and glorify Him! With tears streaming down his face, he said: “His Dominion is an Eternal Dominion; His Kingdom endures from generation to generation! All the peoples of the Earth are esteemed as NOTHING in His sight! He does as He pleases with the powers of Heaven and the peoples of the Earth! NO one can hold back His hand or say to Him: ‘What have You done?'”

Within a day, all his advisers and nobles had come to the estate, and seeing the King in his right mind, clean and dressed in his royal robes, they restored him to his throne! His honour and splendor were given back to him and he became even GREATER than before!

Nebuchadnezzar had learned his lesson and had a change of heart and became the MAN OF GOD that the Lord intended him to be! He had, in fact, become CONVERTED to faith in the one true God! He was SO changed that he wrote a letter to the ENTIRE WORLD, and had it translated into every language in his Empire, confessing his sin and proclaiming his faith in God! So amazing was this official letter of public apology, that it is PRESERVED in the BIBLE in the fourth Chapter of the Book of Daniel!

His letter ends with this proclamation: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, PRAISE and EXALT and GLORIFY the King of Heaven, because everything He does is right and all His ways are just! And those who walk in PRIDE He is able to ABASE and HUMBLE!”

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

(1) Apart from his harsh, cruel treatment of the poor, Nebuchadnezzar’s GREATEST sin was PRIDE! He may seem like a very EXTREME case, yet there are people in the World today who are JUST as proud over much SMALLER accomplishments! You don’t have to be the King of a World Empire and live in extravagant luxury to be proud! Some people just practically ooze with pride over the way they look, or their house or their position in society!–Or the fact that they do their job so well! Let’s face it, ALL of us are guilty of the sin of pride in one area or another and have our little “idols” that the Lord has to keep smashing!

(2) Like Nebuchadnezzar, ALL of us can be guilty of forgetting that it is GOD that has given us our position in life, or made us great in some way, and begin to take the credit to ourSELVES! “An high look and a proud heart is SIN” (Proverbs 21:4), and when we get too big a shot of our own EGO, then we’re in TROUBLE! The minute you start patting yourself on the back, you’re finished, because “PRIDE goes before DESTRUCTION, and an HAUGHTY SPIRIT before a FALL! When PRIDE comes, then comes SHAME.”–Proverbs 16:18; 11:2.

(3) As the Bible and history show us over and over again, few people seem to be able to take power, prosperity, or popularity without being corrupted by it!–And the reason that King Nebuchadnezzar’s pride stands out so MUCH is because he had GREAT power, prosperity and popularity and was GREATLY corrupted by it!

But WE can be just as guilty of letting these things corrupt US on our OWN personal level if we don’t stay mighty close to the Lord and constantly acknowledge Him in ALL we do, and remind ourselves that WHATEVER blessings we have, have been given to us by the Lord! “Every GOOD and PERFECT gift comes down from the Father! What do you have that you did not RECEIVE from GOD?–For a man can receive NOTHING, except it be given him from HEAVEN!”–James 1:17; 1Corinthians 4:7; John 3:27.

(4) Once the Lord reveals our sins to us by the WORD, or someone points them out to us, we have to make a CHOICE: Either humble ourselves and RECEIVE it and repent and change, or else harden ourselves in pride like Nebuchadnezzar did! And when you start to resist the Lord’s SPIRIT, then the LORD starts to resist YOU! As James 4:6 says, “God RESISTS the PROUD! He gives GRACE (mercy) only to the HUMBLE!”

(5) When people REJECT God’s Word regarding specific problems in their lives, such as pride, they usually become even WORSE!–Even HARDER, haughtier and more defiant than ever!–Which is a VERY spiritually dangerous state to be in, because people who are proud and selfish lay themselves wide open for the Devil! Pride in Satan was the BEGINNING of all evil, and is STILL the root of all evil today, and if you allow it to dominate your heart, and resist the Lord’s attempts to chasten and humble you, you are creating a foothold for the Enemy in your life!

(6) In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, the tree was cut down until only the STUMP remained in the GRASS! The only thing that could finally CHANGE Nebuchadnezzar’s heart was for him to have to be “cut down” right to the “grassroots” level with the poor, to see what it was LIKE!–And the Lord has had to do this to MANY proud, exalted people to teach them the same lesson! As Nebuchadnezzar confessed, “Them that walk in PRIDE He IS able to ABASE!”

(7) It took great COURAGE for Daniel to tell Nebuchadnezzar to repent and change. We ALSO should have the courage and the conviction to humbly, and in love, point out people’s errors to them, even if it hurts.–Proverbs 27:6, 28:23; Galatians 4:16. But use WISDOM!–Proverbs 9:7-8; Matthew 7:6.

PRAYER: Lord, please help me not to think of myself more highly than I ought to think, but help me to realise that it’s YOU Who has given me WHATEVER good I enjoy: whether riches, position or talents! Please help me not to get lifted up in pride about my accomplishments, but help me to humble myself under Your mighty hand and remain an obedient servant, a mere useful tool for Your Kingdom! In Jesus’ name I pray! Amen.

Everything was perfect for Adam in the Garden of Eden! Everything except…what it was he couldn’t quite find words to describe. He certainly had no complaints. God had lovingly provided everything for him in this heavenly paradise. Everything was beautiful, wonderful, except…there was this strange empty aching feeling deep inside.

The Lord understood that deep emotion. And He had allowed it to show Adam that he was never going to be truly happy with these beautiful things that the Lord had created until he had someone like himself with whom he could SHARE them. And so God decreed that “It is NOT GOOD that man should be alone; I will make him a companion.”–Genesis 2:18. And not long after that, Adam got his Eve!

So God didn’t intend for people to be lonely or to live alone. He intended for us to live, love and share our lives TOGETHER with OTHERS in FAMILIES. “God sets the lonely in families.”–Psalm 68:6. So, with the great fragmentation of family life that has taken place in modern-day culture, it is hardly surprising that loneliness is a greater problem than it has ever been since the beginning of history!

With “the love of many growing cold”, as Jesus predicted it would in the Last Days (Matthew 24:12), loneliness is on the increase. And it is no longer just a problem confined primarily to the aged. It is also a serious concern among children and teenagers. In the U.S., a recent study showed that the main complaint among urban elementary school children was LONELINESS! The medical profession can attest that more and more doctors now view loneliness as actually being DANGEROUS to one’s health! Research shows that people who live alone require medical treatment much more frequently than do married people.

Loneliness also can bring on self-destructive behaviour such as increased smoking and drinking, and can make people more prone to risk-taking behaviour such as reckless driving. The suicide rate of people who live alone is FIVE TIMES HIGHER than “the norm”.

But the cure for loneliness is not a pill, & certainly not suicide, but rather another PERSON! The lonely need companionship, someone with whom he can share his life. No one has trouble understanding why Adam couldn’t live alone in Paradise, but in today’s World people somehow tell themselves they can make it alone!

This myth of independence, which we see exalted every day in advertising and other media, makes it appear that to admit we need each other is a sign of weakness. We are told that individuals should look out for THEMSELVES first and foremost, and, above all else, live for “ME FIRST”, not caring about others.

So, is it any wonder that so many people today are lonely?–Especially in cities, where city life has been aptly described as, “Millions of people being lonesome together”. Just having a lot of people living

AROUND you won’t necessarily relieve loneliness, because loneliness comes from being INSULATED from others, not only ISOLATED. Loneliness, sad to say, is often self-inflicted.–People build walls around themselves and then complain of their loneli ness. They build WALLS instead of BRIDGES! How do we “cure” loneliness? The solution is simply summed up in this little proverb: “To love others makes us happy; to love ourselves makes us lonely.” Consider this true story:

There was a very lonely woman once who was always seeking a new lover, a new love, but never finding one that satisfied or lasted or that relieved her loneliness. Why? Because she was always seeking to GET love, to RECEIVE love, to BE loved! But when it was suggested to her that perhaps she needed to learn how to GIVE love, and to love UNSELFISHLY for the benefit and happiness of ANOTHER, after years of searching, this struck her as an entirely new idea that had never occurred to her before! She went out and soon found what she was looking for all the time–true love!–By trying to find someone SHE could make happy by GIVING her love to THEM!

So there’s the key, the simple solution to loneliness!–The same as it’s been since Man was first created: If you GIVE love, you’ll GET love! If you’re sincerely concerned about OTHERS and show THEM love, they’ll be concerned about YOU and show YOU love! Of course, as Christians we can share with them the Love of ALL loves from the Lover of all lovers, Jesus Himself!–And as Christians, that is HOW we should love and reach out and help others, by telling them about JESUS, Who alone can satisfy that DEEPEST yearning of every human heart for TOTAL love and COMPLETE understanding! For we know that only in JESUS will anyone find COMPLETE and PERMANENT fulfillment, as HE is the ONLY One Who can truly satisfy that empty lonely feeling that we ALL sometimes feel, no matter HOW many friends or loved ones surround us.

The Lord has created a special place in our hearts that only HE can fill. For although the BODY is of this EARTH and is satisfied with the THINGS of this Earth, the human SPIRIT, that intangible personality of the real you that dwells in that body, can never be completely satisfied with anything but utter union with the great and loving SPIRIT Who created it.

Of course, Jesus wants us to love and be close to others, but that first place in our hearts must be reserved for HIM! As the old song says, “Only Jesus, only Jesus! Only He can satisfy!”–And even when we have someone dear and close to us physically, there will always be that certain deep feeling inside that can only be satisfied by giving HIM our whole heart and drawing closer to HIM!
14. Actually, this is another side to loneliness!–There are times when it may even be good for us to feel somewhat lonely. There are times when the Lord allows us, His children, to feel a little lonesome in order to enrich and deepen our relationship with Him!

It reminds me of the story of the famous Christian songwriter, George Matheson. He was deeply in love and soon to be married, when he was told by his doctor that he was losing his sight and would be a blind man within six months! He was heartbroken of course, but he didn’t think it fair to his sweetheart not to tell her and give her the choice whether she still wished to go ahead with the marriage or not. He felt that if she really loved him she would still want to live with him and take care of him.

So he went to her house that night and they sat on the couch holding hands and chatting about this and that, until finally he plucked up the courage to tell her, “Honey, I have some very, very sad news. The doctor tells me that by our wedding date I will be completely blind!” All of a sudden he felt her hand quiver and loosen its grasp. Then icily, coldly, it was withdrawn from his as she turned away and burst into tears and said, “Oh, I’m so sorry, George… but I COULDN’T be married to a BLIND man!”

Crushed, and heartsick, his whole world falling apart, he walked despondently back to his home where he sat down alone at his desk and thought about how the only thing that he had left in the whole World now was JESUS. Then he took a piece of paper and his old quill pen and he wrote the famous hymn that has since been a comfort to millions, “Oh Love that will not let me go”–JESUS!

	"Oh Love that will not let me go, 
	I rest my weary soul in Thee,
	I give Thee back the life I owe, 
	That in Thine ocean depths its flow 
	May richer, fuller be!"

That’s the wonderful thing about being a Christian!–You’ll never again be completely alone because you’ll ALWAYS have JESUS! Even when everything else is passed away, you’ll STILL have JESUS! When all others forsake you, there’ll STILL be JESUS! When the loves of this World and your friends or lovers desert you because they’re not willing to become Christians, you’ll still have JESUS! Jesus promised, “I am with you ALWAYS, even unto to the END of the World!”–Matthew 28:20. When the WORLD has nothing left for you, you’ll still have JESUS!–And Jesus is ALL you really NEED!

So there are two main reasons why the Lord allows Christians to be lonely: Number One, so you will look to JESUS for your DEEPEST satisfaction and companionship. And number Two, so you will reach out to OTHER lonely hearts with Jesus’ Love and comfort! There are so many OTHERS around you who are just as lonely and longing for love as YOU once were, and just waiting for you to make the first move!

So step out by faith and talk to someone today about Jesus and God’s Love and help THEM to be FULLY satisfied and COMPLETELY happy FOREVER, not just with HUMAN love and companionship, but with the Love of GOD, because God IS Love and He will satisfy your & their need for love FOREVER!–1John 4:8.

So love someone TODAY! Find out what wonders love can do! You’ll find a whole new World of love you have only dreamed of! There are wonders of love that you yourself can enjoy along with other lonely hearts-if you will only try!

Remember, however, the purpose in showing the Lord’s Love to others is NOT just to win them to YOURSELF so that they can merely satisfy YOUR personal needs for companionship, but to win THEM to the LORD, Who is the ONLY One Who can TRULY satisfy the DEEPEST longings of their hearts! So let them know clearly that it is the LORD’S Love IN you that makes you show such love and outgo ing concern for them; otherwise, they may be tempted to put all their emphasis on their relationship with YOU and leave the Lord OUT of the picture. The result: They will STILL be lonely when you’re not around and not find TRUE fulfilment.–And if you are not strong in the Lord and in His Word, and you ALLOW them to do so, it could even eventually cause YOU to fall away from putting the Lord first in YOUR life!

So make sure that YOU put the LORD first in your life, and then THEY will TOO!–Otherwise, your relationship could wind up being just another case of two lonely people trying to fulfil their selfish desires and needs in each other, and will end in disappointment. 2Corinthians 6:14 warns us, “Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers.”–In other words, don’t allow yourself to get into a relationship with someone who only loves you physically, but wants nothing to do with the Lord. Make it CLEAR that the LORD and His WORD are FIRST in YOUR life-that they can’t pull you away from HIM!

The KEY is to get them hooked on the LORD and on the WORD like YOU are, if you want them to keep things in their proper perspective. TRUE happiness–yours AND theirs–comes from sharing the Word and the Lord with others. So if you truly want to help someone, make sure to ground their life on the right foundation. Amen?

We hope these words of love will help you find the love YOU need to make YOU happy and no longer lonely, and that OTHERS will find happiness through your love too! God bless and keep you and make you a blessing with His Love! Remember:

All the BEST things in life are SHARED!–LOVE isn’t put in your heart to STAY, Love isn’t LOVE till you GIVE it away!

It can happen to you too!

Introduction – World War II

Teiko with her husband from England, Steven

I was born on the 7th January 1934 in the prefecture of Hiroshima, Western Japan, on one of the Setonaikai islands. When the Second World War started, I was 7 years old and had to take care of my brother and sisters while my father and mother were doing farm work. Previously my parents ran a shop, but due to war rationing and great shortages their business closed and they had to look for any work they could find in order to survive.

One day, when I was 10 years old, helping my mother pick oranges in a mountain field, I saw the first blue-eyed person I had ever seen in my life. This was when an American fighter plane broke away from a squadron which was flying past our island towards a Japanese Naval port close to Hiroshima. The plane came directly towards us as if to attack us. My mother cried out, “It’s coming for us!” We started to run for protection behind large trees alongside the field, but we could not make it in time and so definitely thought that we were going to be shot at. My mother embraced me as we looked up in terror into the blue eyes of the young pilot who gazed down upon us. Fortunately he did not open fire, and he had to pull his plane up over the mountain to avoid crashing into it. He saw that we were only a mother and child. This experience was very horrifying for me as a child.

August 6, 1999 at Peace Park Hiroshima in front of the building that was directly under the atomic bomb when it exploded. The force of the impact went outward and flattened everything within a 2 kilometer radius except the building just below it.

Later when I was 11 years old, at 8:15 AM on the 6th August, 1945, everything suddenly went dark and then there was a brilliantly blindingly violet brightness, which was followed by a tremendously terrifying resounding boom with an earthshaking tremor from the USA’s first Atomic bomb on the nearby city of Hiroshima. Later the local public warning sirens sounded and we all had to quietly take cover and disperse from the small school. Some of the older school children and workers from our town were living in the nearby city of Hiroshima, and some older men from our town, who had just been summoned as fresh conscripts for the army, had just gone into Hiroshima earlier that day when this bomb mushroomed above us.

This sudden happening caused great concern in our town amongst the relatives of those that were in Hiroshima, so that they quickly went to the city of Hiroshima to find out what had happened only to find that the bomb had killed almost everyone within a two kilometer radius from the city’s center and others were in torturous pain. The relatives returned back to town totally heartbroken, only to find after awhile, that they themselves were now suffering from some kind of aliment that they knew nothing about, nor how to overcome it. Of course now that ailment is known to be cause by atomic radiation, which eventually brought about some of their deaths and suffering from long term sicknesses.

Bitterness and an “Ugly Duckling” fear complex

As you can imagine, this caused me to develop a strong bitterness towards Americans without realizing what it was that was bothering me. But also, before the war started, when I was only 7 years old, I had developed a strong “Ugly Duckling”fear complex while growing up. This was because all of my brothers and sisters were considered to be beautiful or handsome by everyone, while visitors to our family commented that I was not so good-looking. This caused me to develop an inferiority complex, so that when going to school I would make every effort to avoid meeting people,and rather than go the direct route, I would go by surrounding paths. Then as I grew up as a teen in defeated Japan and later trained as a nurse in the Osaka University Hospital Nursing School, it was only then that I began to realize that I was not the only “Ugly Duckling” on this planet.

The reason I started this nurse training in Osaka was because my mother realized that I did not have the special beauty of the rest of my family, so she very sweetly wanted to assist me through my life by helping me to develop a professional occupation.

I worked for 30 years and became what many would consider a proficient and diligent chief nurse in the highly respected government hospital of Osaka. If any foreigners were admitted to my ward, I would instinctively keep my distance from them and automatically designate another nurse to take care of them. I did not realize that this was due to a very strong, deep-seated, sense of bitterness in my heart towards Americans due to the War.

My extreme shyness because of a homeliness complex, caused me not to be able to discuss things with more than just a few people at a time. Only once around the age of 45, after I had become a chief nurse, was I asked to address a large audience. This totally terrified me and caused me to be trembling all through the speech. It was such a horrendous experience for me.

In my early twenties I developed heart problems. As I reached the age of 50 this condition was growing worse so I decided to retire from hospital work. The whole of life was becoming a big money game so I moved to the beautiful Pacific seacoast of Shionomisaki, southeast of Osaka, where I lived with my longtime friend who had also just retired from his work. Living in such a natural environment by the sea surrounded by nature and fishing, was a paradise for me for the first 2 or 3 years. However, soon my enjoyment with a free and natural life by the sea started to fade to a lack of any real fulfillment in my life. I became forlorn and depressed by the futility of life and the sorrows of this world.

It was at this time that I briefly visited my older sister who was living in Tokyo. My sister suggested to me, that if I would simply ask Jesus Christ to come into my heart, He would give me the love, truth and happiness that I so badly needed as well as give me a sense of fulfillment. I could not see how this would help me, as I personally had no interest in God nor any religious matters. However, I prayed with my sister and asked Jesus into my heart more out of courtesy and respect for my older sister’s desire to be helpful to me, and not because I thought it would do anything for me.

After leaving Tokyo and returning back to life with my friend by the seacoast, I totally rejected the whole idea of Jesus in my mind and did not feel that this was any solution to my problems at all. I later phoned my sister in Tokyo and told her while laughing that I was not interested in her "mind control". I think this must have deeply hurt her feelings, but my male companion and I had no interest at all in religion. Yet as we were living in Shionomisaki totally immersed in nature, we could not help but feel that there was definitely some greater power that controlled all the beautiful things of nature.

Great Hope found through tragedy – Miracles start to happen

One day as were setting off to go fishing, my dear boy friend suddenly had a cerebral hemorrhage right in front of me in our boat! It really shook me up. He then went into a coma and I became totally heartbroken. Thankfully my concerned older sister from Tokyo came down to the coast at Shionomisaki to comfort me. Two days later he died in the hospital. After his cremation all my friends and acquaintances departed for home but my sweet sister stayed on with me for a while more. She was concerned that I might decide to commit suicide. She could feel in the spirit that my beloved friend and I had made plans to die together. My sister opened her Bible and showed me a scripture verse of hope, but I could not understand it at all.

During the night my sister spent many hours telling me about Jesus’ love and His healing balm. Suddenly she noticed a total transformation had taken place in my facial appearance. She suggested to me that I should look at myself in the mirror. In the mirror I saw that my whole face had changed into the face of a 4 or 5-year-old child! My sister continued telling me more about Jesus and His sweet love, life and power, so that my continence became more like that of a baby, with a big and happy smile. This was such a surprise to me because in my own thinking I had been so sad and I had felt so hopeless on the death of my beloved friend that I just wanted to join him by taking my own life.

After a very happy night’s sleep, the next morning I awoke to find that my usual reading glasses had become too strong for me and if I used the much weaker medium range pair of glasses that my deceased friend had used I could read with no problem. This showed me that my eyesight had greatly improved. It was a total miracle! Also for the previous 30 years I had suffered from heart problems, which was one of the reasons that I had had to retire early from Hospital service, but that morning when I awoke, I was also fully recovered from that problem. Also that morning all my body swellings totally disappeared and I found that I was now 10 kilograms lighter to the point that the neighbors did not even recognize me! I had also suffered for a long time from a severe backbone problem, as well as a continual ringing sound in my left ear for many years, but now all of these problems too were also completely gone! This was a complete surprise to me as I had been so medically aware of all my ailments from a scientific point of view.

The awareness of the spirit world started to become so real to me that my dear companion’s departure from this world was no longer the main problem anymore for me. Because my sister had talked with him and helped him to receive Jesus into his heart while he was in his comatose state just before he passed on, I knew that he had merely gone on ahead of me to be with Jesus. Of course sometimes I would feel strong remorseful and cold heart pains about my friend’s departure, but whenever I cried out desperately to Jesus my tears would stop and I knew that my friend was being well taken care of and I could actually feel Jesus’ loving arms around me.

Before Salvation!

After salvation!

It was not so much an articulate understanding in my mind, that I could understand these things, but rather it was an amazingly deep awareness of Jesus’ closeness and presence and supernatural help to me in every detail of my life which totally obliterated any thoughts of suicide and hopelessness. I had previously totally rejected any religious ideas and so never have touched a Bible before. However because of experiencing so many miracles at this time, when I did get a chance to actually read the Bible for myself, I was amazed to see that the physical and spiritual experiences that I had had at this time were all written about in the Bible. Thank You Jesus!

My move to Tokyo – a New Life Begins!

My older sister closed up my living quarters in Shionomisaki for me in such a miraculous way! I felt so incapable and was unable to do anything to help her. This demonstrated to both my sister and me that Jesus was doing all these miracles for us, as my older sister was also not so healthy or physically strong either. She was such a good example of being a dedicated witness of Jesus’ love to everyone we met while helping me, so this really taught me the importance of just forgetting my own self- pity and sorrow as I saw the great need and joy of just witnessing about Jesus’ love and His care in every situation and opportunity that I had. To do so was yet another miracle. I was totally set free from my previous fear of man that I had been under all of my life in speaking to groups of people!

Summer 1992, Harajuku, Tokyo. Harajuku is the fashion center of Tokyo where all the young people like to go.

I moved up to Tokyo to be closer to my sister along with other Christian disciples who really love Jesus and call themselves, “The Family International.” Some of them are foreigners. I then became aware of another miraculous transformation that had occurred: My strong bitterness towards foreigners had completely vanished!

In Tokyo I opened up an apartment to be near my sister. After experiencing so many miracles after my friend’s decease, I became deeply interested in the Bible and began reading it. Then I started reading the words of David Brandt Berg, the founder of the Family, which I found so simple and marvelous in helping me to understand the mysteries of life, so that I just wanted to read everything that David Berg had written about God and life and the life to come.

I had never before been aware how deep and immeasurable the spirit world is but I could now feel Jesus’ exploding Love from within stimulating me and a great hunger for the Word of God and Truth. I now wanted to be totally part of this Family.

August 1995 meeting homeless children in Vladivostok, Russia

Basically I just could not seem to get enough of God’s Word from the Bible and the deep guidance from David Berg’s literature of encouragement, as to how God’s love was so relevant to not only myself, but to everyone in the world today and all that is happening these days. This gave me such a strong spiritual thirst and desire to grow as close as I could to Jesus in spirit and in truth in every area of my life. The Scripture, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) became a reality to me. I just wanted to witness about Jesus and the End Time warning message and Jesus’ Love, which can be experienced right now. I would go out on my own to tell others this truth, which I found difficult at first until I realized more and more that I just had to claim Jesus’ power to do anything.

“Paul Theodore Hellyer (born 6 August 1923) is a Canadian engineer, politician, writer and commentator who has had a long and varied career. He is the longest serving current member of the Privy Council, just ahead of Prince Philip.”–Quoted from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hellyer

Quotes from video

“UFOs are as real as the airplanes flying overhead. “ That gave me the dubious distinction of being the first person of cabinet rank in the G8 group of countries to say so unequivocally. (Applause) …An investigation was launched into this whole subject, and a document was prepared which concluded that at least 4 species (of aliens) have been visiting earth for thousands of years. And this is my own view at this stage as well. “

Who really are these so-called ETs? I believe they are the fallen angels, the ones who followed Lucifer.

Revelation 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven (the angels who followed Lucifer, the Devil), and did cast them to the earth:

They are the “sons of God” of Genesis 6:2:

Genesis 6:2  That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

But like the Devil they follow, they are known to tell lies and half-truths. Those who do not know Jesus Christ as their savior will someday be deceived to think the seemingly highly intelligent ETs will help save humans from self-destruction. Just the opposite will be true!

Mr. Yasutake Natsukasa from Fukuyama City HIroshima Prefecture. Atsumi Onsen to Tsuruoka. He’s retired and travels around Japan living in his car.

From May 10 to 12 I traveled 870 kilometers from Niigata Murakami City to Aomori City and back in 22 vehicles.

The first driver, a lady, took me from Majima station to Nezegaseki near the Yamagata border line. She was on her way to help oversee a group of elementary children (which including her son) climb Mt. Nihonkoku, a small mountain of 300 meters high. From there a van took me to Atsumi Onsen, just 5 kilometers further.

At Atsumi Onsen a man on foot approached me asking if I can speak English. His name is Yasutaka Nakatsukasa, a retired businessman from Fukuyama City in Hiroshima Prefecture. He was living in his car touring the Tohoku area for a month. Yasutaka’s hobby is water painting. He showed me drawings of the local scenery. He took me to Tsuruoka City which is where he had just come from that day.

View from Sakata of Mt. Chokai

From Tsuuoka a lady who attends Hawaiian dance classes took me to me to the next city of Sakata. She said she has been a widow from 17 years ago. Her husband was a policeman investigating an accident and was hit by a driver who wasn’t watching where he was going! Her husband died immediately. “Was the driver arrested and put in prison? I asked. “No,” the lady replied, “But he was an irresponsible man with bad eyesight who never should have had a driver’s license in the first place. “

Single couple who took me from Sakata to Omagari to Konoura

The lady dropped me off in the middle of Sataka city. I would rather have been further down the road closer to the edge of the city from where there would be less city traffic, and so I walked. After about 10 minutes I got to a bridge. It’s not likely that anyone would stop for me in the middle of a bridge but a car suddenly stopped in the lane it was it. Usually a driver will pull over to the side and so I thought it rather odd.. But because there was no traffic behind the car the driver was blocking anybody. It was a young single couple, Shunta and Mizuki, both 20 years old, high school dropouts on their way to Magari in Akita Prefecture, their home. They were debating with each other whether to pick me up or not. After questioning me and being satisfied with my answers, they took me to Konoura Interchange of the Akita Expressway. There are no tolls for the first 40 kilometers of that expressway which made it a good place to hitchhike to catch traffic going some distance. Expressway tolls in Japan are probably the highest in the world. It costs 7000 yen to travel 300 kilometers.

A car transport lorry took me to Honjo City from Konoura. From Honjo another 20 year old man, Mr. Suzuki, took me as far as Akita Station, some 40 kilometers further. He’s a seaman who works on a fishing vessel 10 months out of the year. Mr. Suzuki said he has to work 18 hour days for weeks on end. The only days off are when they aren’t fishing. The boat goes as far as Peru in S.A. He was on his way to see his girlfriend. The pay, he said, is good, earning enough to easily save to buy a house.

I got to Akita Station just in time to catch a train going to Noshiro City, but took it only a distance of 240 yen to Oiwake Station from where I again hitchhiked. A mother and her daughter who were going to their home in Noshiro went a few kilometers out of their way for me to take me to Futsui, the end of the expressway.

It was hot and I was thirsty. Though it was fine weather in Futatui, unlike previous times standing in Futatsu, I waited a relatively long time for a ride. I decided to walk further up the road. After walking nearly a kilometer, I came close to a tunnel and knew I wouldn’t be able to walk through it safely. Just then a car pulled over. It was truck driver on his way home in a regular car. He not only took me a good distance up the road to Takanosu, but he even found the next ride for me a man going all the way to Aomori city, my destination!

Photos from Aomori back to Niigata

Newly wed couple to Hirosaki from Aomori Chuo

Toru who took me from Odate City to Takanosuke in Akita Prefecture

Road sign in Takanosu.

Miss Yoshimi who took me to Yurihonjo City from Noshiro City in Akita Prefecture. She was very interested in the Biblical account of Creation and said she wants to believe and accept God’s Son Jesus into her life.

A family who took me to Nezugasaki in Niigata Prefecture from Atsumi Onsen in Yamagata Prefecture

新潟市まで送ってくれた家族 A single couple who took me to a train station near home where I had my bicycle parked.

Toward the end of Golden Week, I again went to Aomori Prefecture and back. Six vehicles took me 431 kilometers to Aomori City, and 5 cars took me 632 kilometers back to Niigata via the Tohoku and Banetsu Expressways. Though I expected sunny weather, there again was slight precipitation from time to time.

Three of the drivers offered to treat me to coffee but I politely declined. I’ve been reading Caffeine Blues by Stephen Cherniske, M.S. and have finally woken up to the hidden dangers of the world’s #1 drug! An older man who took me 300 kilometers to Fukushima handed me a can of coffee which he bought for me without asking me. I accepted it but didn’t drink it. I gave it to the next driver, a lady who took me toward Aizuwakamatsu. I explained why I don’t drink any caffeine containing beverages anymore, and told her that coffee is especially bad for women. “Better not drink it!” I told her. I had mixed feelings about offering her the coffee, but she told me she loves the stuff. Hopefully it’ll be her last fix.

Mr. & Mrs. Kobayashi from Amagasaki City. They took me from Murakami City in Niigata to Sakata City in Yamagata.

Lady who took me to Katagami City just past Akita City. She went a bit out of her way from me.

Satoh Maki from Toyosaki in Niigata Prefecture. She and her parents took me from Katagami City to a point close to Odate City. They were on their way to Lake Towada.

Kazumasa Hikita who took me to Hirosaki.

Family who took me to my destination in Aomori City. They went a bit out of their way for me.

May 4: Hirosaki to Aomori City

Two couples on their way to Hachinohe went a bit out of their way to take me to my destination. They work for a pharmaceutical company. I told them I stay away from all drugs, including caffeine. Drugs only treat symptoms, not the basic causes of illness. Only lifestyle changes can correct the causes. One man agreed with me but said that most people find it difficult to change their lifestyle. “We sometimes need a coach”, I told him. A coach could be a loved one, a church pastor, or a professional therapist. If you ever seek professional help for personal problems such as an addiction, it’s best to consult with a person who has had the same problem you have, and have overcome it.

Setting sun over Mt. Iwaki. Cherry tree in foreground.

Mr. & Mrs. Manabe and their friends who took me back to Aomori city from Hirosaki.

May 5: Aomori City to Niigata City

Today was supposed to be sunny according to the weather forcast, but again there was a slight rain. I waited over 2 hours at the Aomori Chuo interchange! Though there was much traffic and a long line of cars, nearly everyone of the drivers avoided making eye contact with me. The few who offered me a ride were going only a short distance. I was hoping for the first ride to get me at least as far as Morioka City in Iwate.

Finally, a lady who spoke English said she would be going to Fukushima that evening, but she would stop at Goshogawara first to see her elderly mother. Goshogawara is a good hour out of my way. It would take at least two and a half hours for her to get back on the expressway going the direction I needed to go. Normally I would not have accepted a ride in such circumstances. But because the lady was quite fluent in English, and because I wanted to move on, I went with her. But after considering the matter further, I decided not to go with her all the way but to get off only 10 minutes later when she would arrive at Route 7 between Aomori City and Hirosaki. The point is rather desolate with little traffic.

I didn’t consider myself in a good situation but within a few minutes a car stopped for me. It was a man with his Chinese wife. At first I though the Chinese wife was deaf because she was moving her hands when trying to communicate with her husband as if she was using sign language. But I realized later she cannot speak Japanese, and he doesn’t speak Chinese! Sometimes she would write down words in Chinese characters, the ones Japanese can understand. They took me to Hirosaki. I still had an opportunity to get back on the Tohoku Expressway from that point. Another option was to take Route 7 back all the way if I could catch a car going far enough.

An older couple with Tokyo license plates stopped for me. I rejoiced because I knew they would be going at least as far as Fukushima. But the driver said he may going only up to Sendai which is still a good distance. I accepted. The Golden Week traffic was heavy and there were traffic jams at the beginning of slopes and before tunnels where many drivers unconsciously slow down. The couple decided not to spend the night in Sendai after all and therefore took me to Adatara in Fukushima. I arrived around 6:30 p.m. just before dark. From there it was a relatively short wait for the next two cars that took me home.

Ohtake Chio, daughter Noe and son Satoi. They took me from Adatara SA of the Tohoku Expressway to Bandaisan SA on the Banetsu Expressway

Mr. & Mrs. Kasiwagi and their son. Sosuke. who were on their way to Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku. They took me to Niigata City.

Almost 2 years exactly to the date of the 3/11 attack on Japan, Bloomberg News publishes an article by Robert Peter Gale & Eric Lax that vindicates the insights first brought forth by ZS Livingstone in a position held by this web site exclusively in the immediate aftermath of the orchestrated sabotage operations launched against Japan on March 11, 2011, that stated emphatically that the wildly exaggerated radiation scare stories being promoted by mainstream media outlets worldwide, Leftist anti-nuclear energy advocates (including Amy Goodman of Democracy Now), Energy News, and the most sensationalist of them all, Jeff Rense of rense.com and the entire Radiation Fear Mongering Psyops Team featured there including Leuren Moret, Arnie Gundersen, and Yoichi Shimatsu, among many others, were unsubstantiated, unproven, and largely fabricated out of whole cloth by anti-nuclear energy zealots with a propaganda agenda and zero respect for facts or truth telling in reporting the “news.” — Quote from http://educate-yourself.org/lte/fukushimaradiationoverblownsaysbloomberg10mar13.shtml

This is what I’ve been telling my friends from America who have been expressing their fears to me. People like Jeff Rense and his friends are supposed to represent truth telling alternative news! If you think the alternative news people are all legit, think again. I always question the big names of well funded people.

The Tohoku area of Northern Honshu, Japan. The red light shows my usual route to Aomori City, and the blue line shows the route I took back via the Tohoku and Banestsu Expressways. It is 130 kilometers longer than the Sea of Japan route, but potentially faster.

From April 27th to April 29th I hitchhiked 986 kilometers in 12 vehicles From Niigata to Aomori Prefecture and back. (See map) This time is the beginning of what is called “Golden Week” in Japan, a string of holidays which includes Emperor Showa’s birthday.

It rained hard the night before I left but by morning, the rain had stopped in Niigata. I caught an immediate ride at my starting point on Route 345 near Majima station, the first car that came! The driver took me to Tsuruoka City in Yamagata Prefecture, a good 1.5 hour distance of about 100 kilometers. It was raining heavily when I arrived and so I sought for shelter at a store for some 30 minutes. The rain subsided by then but there were strong gusts of wind. My umbrella strained against at it but survived.

The second car also came very quickly, a man who took me to Sakata City about 20 kilometers up the road. He offered me a can of coffee to drink but I politely declined. I explained to him that I quit all caffeine intake only 4 days before. I shared with him the physiological and psychological harm caffeine does to my body, things I read from “Caffeine Blues.”

The final car that day was a mother and her one and a half year old daughter.

Mr. and Mrs. Kamimoto who took me from Iwate to Fukushima

The longest ride on the way back was from Iwatesan Service Area in Iwate Prefecture just before Morioka City to Adatara in Fukushima, 310 kilometers. The driver, Mr. Kamimoto and his wife were one of the sweetest couples as well. They treated me to lunch at Kunimi Service Area in Fukushima Prefecture. It turns out Mr. Kamimoto served some 34 years in the Japanese Self Defense Force! I knew from my own military experience as an Airman in the USAF that he must have rose fairly high in rank to be in the military so long, and I learned he retired as a Lt. General! I think Mr. Kamimoto must be the highest ranking officer who ever befriended me. I’ve only known colonels before.

The Kamimotos took me to Adatara SA which is just before the Banestsu Expressway junction. From experience I know this is the hardest point to catch a ride toward my destination of Niigata. Nearly all of the traffic is heading south toward Tokyo. However today, I got an immediate ride! A high school science teacher and his elderly mother saw my sign and stopped for me. I asked him if he believes in evolution. “Of course!”, the teacher replied. I explained why I reject it as false science. They took me to Bandaisan Service Area. At that point a good percentage of the traffic is going to Niigata.

Mr. and Mrs. Satoh who took me to Niigata City

The final ride to Niigata City was a couple from the Unification Church, Mr. and Mrs. Satoh. He’s also a nuclear power plant engineer at the power plant at Kashiwazawi-Kariwa, the largest nuclear power plant in the world. We talked about his job for a while, and then he switched to biblical doctrinal matters. For some reason, these dear people do not think that Jesus’ death on the Cross of Calvary was necessary or good! They think that Jesus failed! I told them Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, and His blood shed on the cross cleans us from all sin.

Colossians 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

Jack Chick is an artist. He is known for his comic-style tracts (informally known as Chick Tracts) and larger comic books for the purpose of Christian evangelism from a fundamentalist point of view. (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Chick

CHICK PUBLICATIONS June 16, 1978
PO Box 662
Chino, California 91710

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is in regard to my association with John Todd.

I first met John in 1973. I found his information on the occult facinating. We worked together on a Crusaders story entitled, “The Broken Cross.” Since its publication I know of witches coming to Christ through this story. A police captain visited a friend of mine and told him the book was the most factual he had ever read on the subject.

John Todd began winning young people out of the occult. His ministry started growing. When John took these young people to a church called “Melodyland” in Southern California, I was told they announced from the platform that no witch could be saved. That was disaster to John’s ministry. He was involved with churches and Full Godpel Businessmen and all of them were of the charismatic persuasion. John was promised support that never came.

When attempts were made on John’s life, the Christians shied away from him. In those years witchcraft was avoided like the plague. Everything turned sour. No Christian would touch John, so he went back to the only thing he knew, the occult. He and his wife, Sheila, opened up an occult bookstore.

I kept calling John, telling him he was saved, but he believed the Armenian doctrine that once he went back to sin he was lost forever. I kept at him. He pushed the occult religion at me, but I wouldn’t give up and I told him he still belonged to Jesus. I called him my brother and he told me to stop calling him that. When I almost gave up, John called me and told me that he and Sheila had come back to Christ.

John remembered when he was training for the position of a Grand Druid priest that a hugh sum of money supposedly was passed from the Illuminati to the organization called “Melodyland,” and John believes that is why his ministry was hit.

Since coming back into Christian work, John has had many attempts on his life, verified by his wife. John is exposing Masonry which has infiltrated our churches. It’s an unseen enemy. John has given me valuable information on 2 new publications, “Angel of Light” and “Spellbound”. The latter on rock music will have a devastating effect on Christian rock music. I thank God John is risking his neck to warn us of the dangers and techniques used by the Illuminati.

John was attending Faith Baptist Church in Canoga Park, California. On my word, Pastor Roland Rasmusson helped John get speaking engagements. John has made mistakes from the platform. It’s understandable. He is in a new line of work. Both John and his wife have used extensive drugs and are still suffering from the effects. Some of the mistakes were deliberately fed to John to make him look bad. I can verify that through his wife, Sheila.

Pastor Rasmusson was caught in a hard place when John quoted the wrong input from the platform. Then, one of his church members was given an old tape to re-use. On it was a message John had made while instructing classes in the occult when he had backslidden. The tape was played to the deacons, and I believe pressure was put on Dr. Rasmusson to disassociate himself from John. They knew John had been backslidden because he told them that. I got the same material from John on the phone when I was trying to win him back to Christ.
I was assured the tape would only be played to the deacons, but since then, copies have fallen into various hands, and this is now being used as a club. Pastor Rasmusson still calls John his brother and he told me he believes John is saved. When John preaches, pastors tell me of revival and the most difficult to reach came to Christ, including Masons.

My question is: Who is behind John’s attackers? I know the Masons are delighted. So is the Illuminati. Are the ones attacking John winning souls? Why is it aired publicly? If John goes down because of the pressures from Christians, it will be a day of rejoicing for the occult.

I back John up 100% with all his faults. I know this brother is doing his best to advance the kingdom of God. We must keep one fact in mind. John is not a minister, but a Christian layman sharing what he knows about a very explosive subject. We should be eager to know about what is going on in the enemy’s camp, and to my knowledge, John Todd is the only one qualified to give us that information. I encourage you to stand with him in the face of this onslaught.

JACK T. CHICK, PRESIDENT, Chick Publications, Inc.

Next: Chick’s letter about Todd written Oct. 26, 1978

I read on a friend’s blog that since she stopped drinking coffee, her energy level increased. I did a Google search with the words, “evils of coffee” and found: Coffee: The Great Energy Sapper
By Frédéric Patenaude. I also found, Caffeine Blues: Ten Ways Caffeine Harms Your Health and How To Kick The Habit These two articles inspired me to stop drinking all caffeinated drinks cold turkey from Tuesday, April 23rd.

In order to break a life long habit of drinking a cup of coffee the first thing after waking up in the morning, I used a method known as “behavior modification.” I took the dog out on for a walk and enjoy some fresh air and scenes of God’s beautiful creation (I live in the country). I hear behavior modification doesn’t work in the long term for addictions that come from natural desires, but like drinking alcohol, the desire for caffeine is not natural.Both are addictive mood changing chemicals the body does better without.

I felt depressed and uninspired the first three days after putting an end to a daily caffeine intake which spanned decades, but from the fourth day, Friday, I felt much better and was inspired enough to write this post!

Yesterday during my bi-monthly Thursday evening English teaching class, a perfect opportunity presented itself to tell my students about the evils of caffeine: There wasn’t any coffee on hand for the students as there usually is. In the two years I’ve been teaching this class, there has always been coffee available for the students and the teacher. I told the class that I quit drinking coffee and all drinks and substances that contain caffeine including black and green tea and even chocolate. “Why?” a lady asked. “Because,” I replied, “caffeine is an addictive poisonous drug that does me no good whatsoever!” It’s hard to describe their negative reaction to that statement. It was as if I told them they were all drug addicts! None of the 9 students present agreed with me about the benefits of stopping caffeine. But they thought it was interesting when I told them the “energy” we get from caffeine is the same energy as a horse feels when you whip it!

Did you know 80% of the world is addicted to caffeine? Did you know that coffee is the number one money making crop in the world? Did you know coffee companies have a vested interest in getting and keeping you addicted to caffeine? If you didn’t know that, check out the book, Caffeine Blues. I just ordered it myself from Amazon.

Somebody said, “Change begins with knowledge.” I certainly find that true in my life.

Caffeine consumption is dangerous for health

The following information is from the book, “Caffeine Blues” by Stephen Cherniske, M.S. and specifically from Chapter 5, “Specific Health Disorders: The Caffeine Connection” and chapter 6 “Caffeine and Women’s Health”

Habitual caffeine intake is linked to:

• Cardiovascular disease (heart attacks, stroke)
• Gastrointestinal disease (Irritable Bowel Syndrome, ulcers, etc.)
• Migraine headache
• Diabetes
• Osteoporosis
• Anemia
• Premenstrual Syndrome
• Fibrocystic Breast Disease
• Breast cancer
• Birth defects
• Adrenal dysfunction disorders such as allergies, asthma, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and autoimmune disease
• Urinary and prostrate problems
• Gout

“Compared to men, research shows that caffeine is much more damaging to women, producing adverse effects at lower intake.” – From Caffeine Blues Chapter 6 p. 225

Also see: http://www.naturalnews.com/012352_caffeine_coffee.html

May 7th update: It’s been 2 weeks since I quit drinking coffee and all caffeine containing beverages. I feel better. I rejoice to face life without the caffeine drug. I feel I found a key to answers to my problems, something that has been eluding me for the past 3 decades!

Today I found a good resource that says the same things as Caffeine Blues It’s concise and short: http://www.hflsolutions.com/ne/free_articles/CaffeineProblems_Top10.pdf I printed it out to share with a Japanese friend, a 20 year old lady in medical school studying to be a doctor. I know she drinks coffee.

October 10 update: I’m still “off the bean” and feeling better than ever! The morning coffee habit is now a distant memory.

January 13, 2014 update: While hitchhiking back home standing at an expressway service area in Fukushima Prefecture, a driver offered me a can of strong black coffee, the kind I used to like to drink. It had been 9 months since I quit coffee. Because I was cold and the coffee was warm and because I thought to experiment to see what effect it would have on me, I drank it. Within a few minutes I felt that caffeine “high” I hadn’t felt in a very long time, even when I was drinking coffee! But after about an hour when the high wore off, I was left with an uncomfortable and uneasily jittery type of feeling. Next time I’m offered coffee, I will not drink it.

According to the Bible, we know that Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week, a Sunday.

Mark 16:9a  ¶Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week,

We also know that Jesus’ body lay in the tomb for three days:
J
Mark 8:31  And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

And His body lay in the tomb for three nights:

Matthew 12:40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Where does this so called “Good Friday” come from? Did Jesus really die on a Friday? If He did, His body would have been in the tomb only two nights, Friday night and Saturday night, not three! Church tradition which says us that Jesus was crucified on a Friday must therefore be wrong!

A good external link that proves this point better:

http://www.tedmontgomery.com/bblovrvw/goodthursday/

The inspiration for this Bible class is from the teachings of David Brandt Berg.

Every year Christians celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. His cruel death by crucifixion took place at the same time as the Jewish holy celebration of Passover. What they had been symbolizing for over one thousand years with the killing of sacrificial lambs and the Passover supper was now happening to the Lamb of God. On the very evening and at the very hour that people throughout the land were selecting and slaughtering Passover lambs, Jesus was crucified.

The way Jesus died also fulfilled many other Old Testament prophecies in amazing detail.

“He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). When Jesus stood trial for His life before the governor, Pontius Pilate, Jesus didn’t speak in His own defense (Matthew 27:12-14).

About one thousand years before crucifixion became a usual means of execution in the Roman Empire, King David wrote of the Messiah: “All my bones are out of joint. … They pierced My hands and My feet” (Psalm 22:14, 16). In death by crucifixion, the weight of the victim’s body pulls his arms out of their sockets. Most of the condemned were tied to their crosses, but Jesus was nailed to His-through the hands and feet.

It was also customary for the Romans to break the legs of those who had been hanging on their crosses for hours but hadn’t died yet. The lack of support for the body caused the windpipe and lungs to collapse, and hastened their deaths. But when the Roman executioners came to do this to Jesus, they found that He was already dead. Thus another Bible prophecy was fulfilled: “[God] guards all His bones; not one of them is broken” (Psalm 34:20).

God had to temporarily turn His back on His own Son so Jesus might die the death of the sinner.

Instead, just to make sure Jesus was dead, one of the Romans thrust a spear into Jesus’ side, piercing His heart. “And immediately blood and water came out” (John 19:34). This fulfilled the scripture, “I am poured out like water … My heart has melted within Me” (Psalm 22:14). One would expect blood to flow from a spear wound, but not water. Where did that come from? Medical science has found that people who die in great anguish of heart often have an accumulation of water around the heart. Jesus died of a broken heart-for you and me.

Jesus also died feeling like the lost sinner. He went through an experience that, thank God, we will never have to go through-not just crucifixion, not just agony of body, but agony of mind and spirit, feeling that God had deserted Him. As He died, “Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matthew 27:46).

Had God forsaken Him? Yes, momentarily He had. He had to, that Jesus might die like a sinner dies, without God. Think of it: Jesus died the death of the unsaved, in agony! God had to temporarily turn His back on His own Son so Jesus might die the death of the sinner.

Did God answer Jesus on the cross? There’s no record of an answer. Jesus felt that God had deserted Him at that moment when He needed Him most.

Jesus suffered the spiritual agony of the dying sinner-lost, without salvation, without God, dying for his sins. Only in Jesus’ case He was dying for our sins, the sins of the whole world. He was willing to go through all that so we could be forgiven and have eternal life. Such love!

“And they made His grave with the wicked-but with the rich at His death” (Isaiah 53:9). Jesus was unjustly condemned and crucified between two common criminals (Matthew 27:38). Yet after His death, a rich man who was among Jesus’ followers, Joseph of Arimathea, laid Jesus’ body in his own new tomb (Matthew 27:57-60).

After Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb, to make sure His disciples didn’t steal His body and claim He’d risen from the dead, the tomb was sealed and some Roman soldiers stood guard (Matthew 27:62-66).

Three days later, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came at dawn to the tomb, and an angel appeared and rolled the stone away. When the Roman guards saw the angel, “they shook for fear of him, and became as dead men.” But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid. … Jesus is not here; for He is risen, as He said.” And the angel showed the women where Jesus’ body had lain (Matthew 28:1-8). Jesus had risen from the dead!

Shinsaku Okuchi

From March 16th to the 19th I traveled to and around the Kanto area of central Honshu in 15 vehicles, a distance of 698 kilometers. “Kanto” literally means “Eastern Barrier” of which Tokyo is the center. Osaka is the center of “Kansai” which means “Western Barrier.” There are historical reasons for these names. You historians can correct me if I’m wrong, but if I remember correctly, only those with permission from the Tokugawa government were allowed to travel.

Besides Tokyo, Kanto also holds the prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama, Gunma, Ibaragi, Tochigi, and Chiba. This trip I hitchhiked through everyone of them except for Kanagawa.

At the Sakae Parking area from where I always get on the Hokuriku / Kanetsu expressways, I saw a young man hitchhiking on his way to Toyama. He was standing in my favorite spot! I pulled out my Tokyo sign to show him I was also intending to hitchhike. Boy, was he surprised! His name is Shinsaku Okuchi. We took photos together. He’s now my Facebook friend.

The Kanetsu Expressway approaching Yuzawa Ski Resort

I told Shinsaku that because our destinations differ, I would stand in a different place in the parking area. After about 15 minutes or so, I saw an older man walk up to Shinsaku and begin talking to him. It turned out the man was heading toward Tokyo and Shinsaku directed him to me. He man took me all the way to Kawagoe city in Saitama Prefecture, about 280 kilometers from home and only 10 kilometers away from my destination that day. From the Kawagoe IC it was just a short walk and two stop train ride to get to Sayama city where I spent the night with a friend.

The man with his car who took me to Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture.

The next day I hitchhiked 30 more kilometers to the center of Tokyo and took trains the rest of that day to three different locations. By evening I arrived at Noda City, Chiba Prefecture, very near where I used to live from 1980 – 1982. I know the place quite well. It was convenient to live there for it’s close to Route 16, the national highway which circles Tokyo.

Route 4 on the way to Oyama City

The following day I hitchhiked from Noda city to Oyama City in Tochigi Prefecture, first on Route 16 and then up Route 4 just after Kasukabe city. This route passes through parts of Saitama and Ibaragi Prefectures on the way to Oyama. It was a very windy day with dust blowing and clouding the atmosphere. A couple times gusts of wind nearly knocked me off balance! Though routes 16 and 4 are relatively much slower than traveling on an expressway, my destination was only 56 kilometers away and I was in no hurry. It took 6 vehicles to get to Oyama city. The most interesting and sweetest people I met were a young couple from Bangladesh. They are both students at Tsukuba University. The man is working on his P.H.D in computer science, and the lady her degree in business. Though they were heading in the opposite direction and preparing to travel later that day far south to Tokushima, they turned around and went out of their way taking me approximately 15 kilometers toward my destination! And not only that, after we first parted they immediately returned insisting to take me a bit further down the road! “It is our duty,” the man said. I assume they were referring to Islamic teachings. Jesus also taught His followers to go the extra mile. Do most Christians follow that teaching? Those who love Jesus, do.

The Bangladeshi man seemed to be well aware of political realities. He smiled when I told him I didn’t believe in the “left right paradigm” anymore. I believe instead in the Hegelian Dialectic And I believe all political events, both good and bad, are engineered.

“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” –Franklin D. Roosevelt

Couple from Bangladesh

Family to Oyama

The Kanetsu Expressway approaching The Kanetsu Tunnel, the longest car tunnel in Japan, 11 kilometers long.

Man who took me to Echigo Kawaguchi from Akagi Kougen in Gunma

Yuzawa Ski Resort

View from Akagi Kougen

The next day I hitchhiked back to Niigata in 6 vehicles. The final car was an off duty policeman. We talked about how low crime is in Japan compared to other countries. One reason is Japan doesn’t have much of a drug problem. There are some burglaries but low compared to America or the U.K. The greatest amount of theft is bicycle theft! The culprits are often teenagers and drunken businessman on their way home after getting off the train and seeing an unlocked bicycle near the train station.

Mountains bordering Niigata and Gunma