—Tape 1 from Europe—MOOctober 10, 1970DO No.1

1. PRAISE THE LORD! THIS IS YOURS TRULY, you know where or maybe you don't know where, here we are back in Paris again, just passing through this time to pick up our mail‚ on October 9th and 10th, 1970‚ and the night is Saturday. We're checking out the little tape recorder that you sent us, Brother Joshua and Sister Faith, and the one that you, Hosea, helped me learn how to use, and I hope we're using rightly because this is the first time we really had the chance to try it. I hope it's coming through a little clearer now and a little bit better. Amen. Praise the Lord, amen, amen.

2. FIRST OF ALL I WANT TO THANK YOU, BROTHER JOSHUA AND SISTER FAITH AND ALL YOU FOLKS THERE IN CALIFORNIA who helped supply this little portable tape recorder for this purpose in order that we might be able to talk to you even in our absence for the Lord's glory. I'm reducing the volume a little bit here to try to save batteries and because I have an idea this tape is going to take a little while, so if there's a change in volume it's because we're testing here to get the right volume level for the recording. God bless you. You'll probably be able to adjust the volume anyhow and bring it up on your P.A. system if you should choose to play it for everyone, and I'm going to try to make it as much for everybody as possible, at least for the leadership and I'll let you use your own judgment as to what it would be most acceptable for. I'm going to have to speak rather softly so I hope you'll be able to use your volume on this because we're in a hotel room and it's late at night and I don't want to disturb our neighbours.

3. PLEASE FORGIVE US IN BEING SO LONG IN GETTING THIS TAPE TO YOU BUT WE HAVE BEEN SO BUSY: you have no idea how busy we have been, sometimes travelling continuously all day and night for two and three days and nights in a row, and in order to cover as much territory as possible to survey as many situations as we can in the short time that we have to do it in. Well, praise the Lord! Where shall I begin? God bless you all, we love you all and miss you terribly.

4. THIS HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT THINGS I BELIEVE I HAVE HAD TO DO IN MY WHOLE LIFE‚ TO LEAVE THE FAMILY GROUP BACK THERE‚ MEANING ALL OF YOU, and go almost alone to a far country and another world almost and to be away from you folks and away from that sweet fellowship, to be out there in the midst of wickedness in the pit, but there are many precious gems here, many precious souls which the Lord wants us to rescue‚ and as you will hear we have already had some very interesting experiences along that line, and the Lord has really led us and has worked wonderfully, even miracles in causing us to be able to accomplish the task!

5. SO WE'RE VERY THANKFUL THAT HE HAS BROUGHT US HERE TO SEE THE NEED AND TO SEE THE TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY WHICH CAN BE MET IF WE'RE WILLING. So praise the Lord! Thank you all for the part you had in making it possible, may God bless you for the sacrifices which you have made and may the Lord be with us as we continue that we might finish the task.

6. WE HAVE BECOME ALMOST SOMETIMES SO HOMESICK WE HAVE BEEN TEMPTED TO COME HOME BEFORE THE TASK WAS DONE BUT WE'RE DOING A GREAT WORK AND WE CAN NOT COME DOWN." (Neh.6:3) That Scripture has come to use often when we were sometimes discouraged and sometimes have felt that we are not accomplishing as much as we had liked and sometimes the hardships of the road were very rigorous and strenuous and very tiresome, sometimes we felt that we could hardly drag another foot, as you know we haven't been accustomed to travelling like this for some years now. We're had the comfort and convenience of the Cruiser and our same little cubbyhole, though small, it was home and convenient and we were not having to lug around luggage and run from train to station and station to train and so on‚ but the Lord has been with us and given us the strength.

7. SOMETIMES IT'S BEEN AMUSING IF YOU COULD HAVE SEEN IT, TRYING TO RUN WITH ALL OUR MIGHT TO CATCH A TRAIN LUGGING OUR LUGGAGE with us even though we've got it down to the absolute minimum, we still have problems in making it, but the Lord has strengthened us and I would say that if anything I'm in better health now even than when we started the trip because the Lord has given us lots of good exercise‚ we know we're in His will, we know that He's with us and we know that He's blessing and we know that He has ordained this ministry and He is going to accomplish His purpose through us before we are finished‚ and we know that your prayers are with us and we know that you're with us in heart and we know that God is in it and that it will be done; thanks to Him, praise the Lord!

8. IT HAS BEEN VERY DIFFICULT TO FIND THE TIME AND THE PLACE WHERE WE COULD GET ALONE AND QUIET AND IN THE SPIRIT IN ORDER TO BE SURE THAT WE PASS ON TO YOU OUR STORY as the Lord would have it and since we've been so busy travelling all day, sometimes all night in the midst of confusion and many people and the cities and the busy places and the market places it's very difficult to get alone with the Lord and with you that we might talk with you confidentially and that we might be able to pass on what the Lord has revealed to us in our sojourn in these strange lands. But we're going to try anyhow and let's hope we don't disturb our neighbours. God bless you!

9. WELL, PRAISE THE LORD, IT'S BEEN NEARLY TWO MONTHS, THINK OF THAT, SINCE WE LEFT HOME on the night of August 13, Thursday, that we drove into Dallas with you, Hosea, Maria and Martha, to meet Faith at the airport, and spent the night at our dear Sister Ingersoll's there, God bless her for her hospitality. In case you're listening we appreciate all you've done for His Children and I know God is going to bless you for it, Sister Ingersoll. We had some very important conference there, Faithy‚ with you and Hosea and Mom, regarding our plans. After getting the information as much as we could there in Dallas knowing that it was virtually impossible to make the proper arrangements there since all the planes and the information offices‚ the officials that we needed to contact were all in New York, we prayed earnestly for the Lord to lead us and all felt it best that we should make that journey to New York and make it immediately. There was no time to waste.

10. WE HAD LEFT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE AFTER SAUL'S DEPARTURE FROM THE RANCH, as soon as our business with him was complete and he had gone and returned to Los Angeles, we felt it was time to be about our Father's business and the vision He had given us for the journey that He had ordained in order that we might accomplish our mission. So the week had not ended before we were gone, the week that he left. And we decided there after much prayer, in fact it was an all night prayer in Dallas that we decided after much prayer and consultation, without even having gone to bed or to sleep that night on Friday night‚ for three, four, five of us to get together and drive right straight through to Kentucky, for you folks to go along and inspect the property there which dear friends had offered for our use, and then for us to drive on from there, some of us, those that were going, to New York to make our arrangements. I'm going back a little bit to fill you in on some of the details that perhaps you may not know about‚ so we're going to try to describe the entire trip and the preparations and the arrangement which preceded it so you understand exactly what happened.

11. WE DROVE STRAIGHT THROUGH, AND I DROVE ALL THE WAY ALL THAT NIGHT and all for a good deal, some of the following night. Saturday night we slept in the filling station and I'll never forget waking up in the morning seeing you, Mom and Faithy draped over the hood of the car, having apparently gotten too cramped inside because we were unable to find a room that we could really afford.

12. WE WENT OUT THEN ON SUNDAY TO INSPECT THE ACREAGE, and had a difficult time finding it. Finally we thought we had found it and looked it over so that we could give our report and then drove on to Frankfurt, Kentucky to visit Mom's brother, and there some of the relatives had gathered to visit with us but having been told apparently by some that their Uncle was now a hippy, in fact, we talked to some of Mom's relatives the night before and found that they seemed to consider that we were all hippies for sure, so I didn't mind leaving them that impression at all and I was very thankful not to be classed with the rest of the System! Well‚ anyhow, Mom's brother-in-law snatched his family away as quickly as possible so he wouldn't have to meet us, and then Mom's other brother-in-law stayed and did try to visit with us for a while but we got into quite a controversy with over the System and so on and we found that you just cannot pour new wine into old bottles‚ and man's foes shall be they of his own household.

13. AND SO IT WAS, EXCEPT FOR MOM'S DEAR BROTHER, WHO RECEIVED US VERY HOSPITABLY AND WAS VERY KIND TO US AND GAVE US ROOMS over the whole basement of his house which is very well furnished and very comfortable and warm with a nice little living room and bedroom and so on and we were very thankful after a very difficult and long journey and not much rest, our first chance to get to bed for a couple of days, in fact‚ for three days.

14. IT'S WONDERFUL THE STRENGTH THAT THE LORD HAS GIVEN US TO ENDURE SOME OF THESE DIFFICULT HARDSHIPS‚ particularly at my age when I have not been feeling too well on occasions back at the Ranch, and yet the Lord has given me supernatural, unusual strength to endure these very long drives and flights and trains trips, up all night, night after night and then sometimes all the next day, and yet the Lord has continued to keep me in good health.

15. I'VE HAD VERY LITTLE SICKNESS AT ALL, only one day since I left home that I was really sick at all and that was after we had arrived in London and I think I must have just been worn out from the whole journey and weeks on the way and I had a little touch of the runs and was so exhausted and decided to stay in bed and rest for the day. I wasn't really that sick but just took the day off and that's the only day we've really taken off like that and the only day that we really have had to take time out due to any weakness of the flesh. So we have had to catch up a little occasionally now and then, here or there, but we have not had any real sickness at all, in fact, we've only gotten car sick or train sick or sea sick about one time and that was the time we wrote you about in that last little letter on the way from London to Harwich to catch the ferry when we rode in the end of that Toonerville trolley and bounced up and down and all around and gave us a good shaking up and I don't think it would have made us sick then if we hadn't been trying to write those letters, but we knew it was our last chance to get them in the mail before leaving England and the stamps would not be good anywhere else. So praise the Lord.

16. ANYHOW, AFTER THESE GOOD VISITS I WAS THINKING OF MOM'S BROTHER'S HOSPITALITY AND HOW I THANKED HIM and showed him the verse of scripture is true, "Cast thy bread upon the waters and in due season it shall return to you" (Ecc.11:1), because having done a good deed to someone, sooner or later God will see that it is returned and you're rewarded for it, if not through them through someone else. In this case it came through God Himself and I had even forgotten what we had done for him in the past, but when I thanked him so profusely for his kindness and the fact that he'd taken these poor travel-weary worn hippies from Texas and shown such kindness and hospitality without any complaint and with a wonderfully sweet spirit, as I was thanking him for all his goodness to us he looked at me and said.

17. "WELL‚ I'VE NEVER FORGOTTEN HOW WHEN I NEEDED HELP YOU TOOK ME IN" and it then came back to me that when he had been out of work‚ he and his family with six children, we had taken them into our home and kept them for a couple of months while he was looking for a job in California!

18. SO THE LORD DOES RETURN AND REWARD AND COMPENSATE ANY SACRIFICES YOU MAKE FOR OTHERS IN TRYING TO HELP THEM. Look what God has done for us! Look what the Lord has done! We started taking a few people into our home to try to help them and then a few young people and then in the Cruiser we took in Joshua, the first real member of the youth group and it increased from there as you recall, a few more in California, a few more in Arizona and then more in Texas and more and more and more and more and now look around how many of us there are! Look at our big family, going on four hundred now! Isn't that something!

19. SO YOU SEE, IF WE ARE WILLING TO OBEY AND WILLING TO DO HIS WILL AND CARRY ON HIS WORK HE NEVER FAILS. He has never failed, as Martin Luther said when somebody complained that he was taking too many people in to his home and he had about 25 people living with him then, he said, "Never fear, with every additional mouth, God will supply." And so it's been, amen? He's not only supplied but He has abundantly supplied and He has lavished on us many blessings and good grace has been upon us all and with boldness the disciples have given witness because we have obeyed His commandments and obeyed His example in living simply and humbly and sharing what we have with others.

20. AND SO THE LORD HAS BLESSED AND INCREASED IT AS OUR BREAD WAS BROKEN. IT HAS INCREASED UNTIL IT HAS LITERALLY FED THE MULTITUDES AND GOD HAS BEEN WITH US AND KEPT US AND PROTECTED US AND SUPPLIED EVERY NEED, has increased our accommodations as we had need of shelter for more of His Children and has spread us abroad throughout the land, as He once commanded us in a prophecy before this began, through Grandmother in California just before we really learned what God was about to do. The Lord said to "enlarge our tents and to lengthen our cords and to strengthen the stakes for He was going to increase us and cause us to be spread abroad throughout the land. " Surely He has fulfilled that prophecy! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Amen?!

21. SO IT HAS BEEN BY STARTING OUT WITH BEING KIND TO A FEW, THE LORD HAS BEEN KIND TO US IN RETURN AND CAUSED MANY OTHERS TO BE KIND TO US AND TO CARE FOR US IN OUR NEEDS AS WE HAVE ENDEAVOURED TO BRING HAPPINESS TO OTHERS AND TO YOU, and to some of you young ones and babes.

22. I WANT YOU TO REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN NEVER OUTGIVE GOD. Look how good He has been to us all. We have tried to give and to share and to sacrifice but as the great David Livingstone, the great pioneer missionary to Africa said when he was even facing death in the heart of so called darkest Africa, he said when asked by the newspaper man, "Hasn't it been a terrible sacrifice for you to leave a Baronial mansion in England and the wealth of the fine home and family to come to this dark land amongst strangers and savages and enduring hardships and privations and malaria and all of these things‚ hasn't this been a terrible sacrifice for you?" And he said‚ "I have enjoyed life, I have been happy, I have been healthy, I have done a great work for the Lord, and I have never made a sacrifice!" What he was saying was that he couldn't possibly sacrifice for the Lord. It was impossible to outgive God! The more you give the more He gives back in return.

23. WHO WOULD HAVE EVEN DREAMED THAT THIS SOON, THE DREAMS WHICH WE HAVE HAD IN THE PAST, WOULD BE SO MARVELLOUSLY AND ABUNDANTLY FULFILLED, both in our household of faith and the Children of God spread abroad throughout the land, but now here we are, we can sometimes hardly believe it. We've turned to each other and we've said. "Are we dreaming or are we really here, are we here far across the sea in these strange lands of Europe surveying the need, talking to the young people; seeing the tremendous opportunities? Are we actually here? Is this true? It's all like a dream!" And knowing that God is going to do the same here that He has done there! Amen? Hallelujah! Praise God! God bless you!

24. IT HAS BEEN YOUR PRAYERS AND YOUR FAITH AND YOUR SACRIFICE if you want to call it that, but you're giving to God, and you'll never be able to outgive Him because the Lord has given back abundantly in return. Even when we made our last little sacrifice that we thought was a sacrifice for us to give up our little home on wheels only 26 feet long and 8 feet wide, but it was home, our little rolling tent‚ it was still home, but yet God asked us even to give that up that we might go out as Abraham did, from our own land and from our own country and from our own kindred and into the land, another land amongst strangers and into lands which He promised to him that He would give unto him, hallelujah! (Tongues) Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus! Praise You, Lord! Thank You, Lord!

25. (PROPHECY: ) "EVEN AS UNTO ABRAHAM WHOM I HAVE CALLED OUT OF HIS OWN LAND AND FROM HIS OWN KINDRED INTO A STRANGE LAND AND AMONGST STRANGERS that I promised that I would give unto him and to his children, so have I called thee out from thine own country and from thine own kindred and into strange lands amongst strange people with strange tongues, and I shall give them unto thee for an inheritance, even unto the uttermost parts of the Earth!" Hallelujah! Thank You, Jesus‚ praise You, Lord! Isn't the Lord wonderful! Isn't He wonderful!

26. WELL, I WASN'T EXPECTING THAT BUT THERE IT IS, THANK YOU‚ LORD, AND AGAIN GOD IS ENCOURAGING US AND REVEALING HIS WILL AND HIS FUTURE FOR US! Oh, thank You, Jesus! Praise You, Lord! Praise the Lord! Lift up holy hands unto the Lord! Clap you hands unto the Lord O all ye people! Lift up your hands unto the Lord, lift up your voices unto the Lord all ye lands! For the Lord He is good! He is God and it is He that has made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture! Hallelujah! Amen?

27. WE HAVEN'T MADE OURSELVES GREAT, WE'RE NOTHING, BUT GOD HAS INCREASED US AND STRENGTHENED US AND PROSPERED US AND GIVEN US MANY SOULS. Surely as the promise even unto Abraham, He shall increase our seed as the sands of the sea and the stars of the heavens for multitude shall He give them unto us! Hallelujah! Praise Thy precious Name, thank You, Lord! Oh, I feel so in the Spirit I could go on talking in tongues for the rest of this tape but I must speak with my understanding also, in order for the church to be edified.

28. OH, WE'VE HAD SOME AMAZING REVELATIONS FROM THE LORD we just can't begin to tell you all about it. God has been speaking on this trip and he has been revealing more things to us, more about the past, more about our origins, more about how God has been working through the centuries preparing us for this day‚ more about what He is doing now and what He is planning for us! So it has been wonderful, just glorious.

29. I MUST SAY THAT IT HAS BEEN THE MOST GLORIOUS, PERHAPS THE MOST MARVELOUS AND THE MOST WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE‚ WITH THESE REVELATIONS WHICH GOD HAS BEEN GIVING US OF LATE WITH THIS MARVELLOUS LANGUAGE THAT HE'S BEEN GIVING US and how we've been trying it out on different people to see if they can understand us, because you remember the Lord promised us that the day would come when there would be those that would understand, that the Lord would use it as a witness, and not only to edify us now and to thrill us now and to enjoy the luxury of speaking in it, in the Spirit and even to each other. We've even learned to hold conversations with each other in it now, when we get in the Spirit to just talk to each other in the Spirit, so much richer and fuller than we could possibly speak in our own or at least in the English language.

30. TO US THIS IS MORE OF OUR OWN LANGUAGE NOW AND IT SEEMS THAT GOD HAS GIVEN IT TO US BOTH. I'll tell you later how we even had a conversation with a man in London in this language. I know that God was disputing with him and reasoning with him and debating with him in the Park in the Spirit, witnessing to him, a Jewish man and I'll tell you all about that as we get to it. So God is using it and it's thrilling as well as the interpretation that He often gives from the message that we were given. God has really been wonderful to us in all of this.

31. SO GOD IS DOING WONDERS, CONSIDERING THE MIRACLES HE HAS DONE, HOW THAT HE IS ABLE TO DO ANYTHING. Nothing is impossible with God and all things are possible to him that believeth! So God is a God of miracles, so we thank Him for it! I get so enthused with this that I could be shouting here, but I'm having to ask God to give me control to keep my voice down so we won't disturb our neighbours. I'm hopeful and thankful that they probably can't understand the language at least, but even if they could, praise God, it should be a witness to them.

32. WELL‚ TO GET BACK TO THE STORY‚ WE MUST TELL YOU ABOUT HOW IT ALL CAME TO BE. We went off to Virginia and unable to find a motel room we slept again in a filling station overnight. The next day we heard about the farm there and went out to see it and it was a miracle how the real estate man, when we were unable to contact the various relatives that had to be consulted about paying for the use of the farm, offered to put us up in a motel at his own expense, which he did for two nights which tided us over and rested us up and gave us an opportunity to catch up on several things to see the farm and to do some witnessing and to prepare and consult and pray about what we were to do for the future.

33. THAT NIGHT, FOR WANT OF ANY BETTER IDEA OR IDEA OF WHERE WE WERE GOING TO STAY and tired of sleeping in the car being unwilling to give the System 20 dollars or more for a hotel room, the Lord's good money that His children have shared with us, we wanted to be good stewards and waste nothing, and how could we be sleeping in luxury when the Children of God were encamped in tents in many other places and in little cabins and in cramped rooms and so on, so we surely could not waste His funds on expensive hotel or motel rooms.

34. SO WE HAD A SUDDEN INSPIRATION JUST BEFORE SEARS CLOSED TO RUN DOWNSTAIRS AND FIND A LITTLE CAMP TENT which was one of the smartest ideas the Lord ever gave us because it certainly came in handy later as you'll hear. That first night it housed us all even in the rain! I woke up lying in a puddle of water and I said, "I haven't done that since I was a little boy!" Well, I hadn't done it but the rain had, and nevertheless that was the worst night we ever spent in the tent.

35. I THINK THE LORD WAS REALLY TESTING US AND MAYBE THE DEVIL TEMPTING US TO SEE IF WE WOULD ABANDON THE WHOLE IDEA JUST BECAUSE WE HAD A LITTLE INCONVENIENCE AND DISCOMFORT on that cold night winding up in the water. But I tell you, children, what I thought of, I thought of how some of you wound up in the same condition in the bitter cold of Houston so how could I complain. We just praised the Lord‚ thanked Him for the tent, thanked Him for the place to camp overnight and that had been by a miracle also.

36. WE COULDN'T FIND THE ENTRANCE TO THE PARK AND WE THOUGHT IT WAS CLOSED AND WE CAME IN A BACK WAY‚ a place where you were not even supposed to camp and discovered the next day they wanted over 3 dollars for even a campsite in that expensive place and we went in the back door and camped in a place you weren't even supposed to camp and camped for nothing! And the Lord even sent along a policeman that night, about midnight to check us out to see if everything was all right and said "Sure, go right ahead" and even gave us two flares and said‚ "These will come in handy in case you might need help." He asked if we had any weapons and we said‚ "No," and said, "Take these two flares, you can use them like this if you need to" and he raised it like a club and said "They can really deliver quite a wallop!" So thank the Lord we didn't have to use them although during the night a car or two drove in and drove out. Well, we did manage to get some rest. So praise the Lord!

37. THE NEXT DAY WE FINALLY LET MOTHER USE HER FAITH AND SHE WAS DETERMINED TO CALL MRS. PIZZUTO, Larry's mother‚ and see what the Lord would do, and as you recall, the Lord did! We hadn't been able to get her before, we had tried all day on Saturday and that's why we had at the last moment decided to buy the tent because the Lord had not opened any other door and the Lord forced us to that emergency so that we would get the tent so that it would came in very handy later.

38. BUT WHEN WE CALLED MRS PIZZUTO SHE GAVE US A WARM INVITATION TO COME OVER‚ and her daughter as well was there at the time and came and met us and just treated us royally, they were so good to us, gave us a delicious dinner every night that we were there, put us in her own bedroom, that beautiful bed and we were just absolutely welcomed so warmly and so beautifully with such loving care and we had such a good visit with your mother, Larry, she was so kind to His Children and I know the Lord will bless her for it.

39. SO WE SPENT THAT WEEK THERE, MAKING THE OFFICIAL ARRANGEMENTS IN WASHINGTON FOR OUR PASSPORTS AND SO ON and repacking our things so that we would not have too much to carry.

40. THE LORD WAS WITH US AND WE GOT OUR BUSINESS DONE UNUSUALLY QUICKLY and with great help from the Lord and then we drove on to New York, or at least New Jersey on the night of Thursday, only two weeks since we had left.

41. ON THURSDAY NIGHT WE STOPPED ON THE FREEWAY AND SLEPT IN THE PLAZA, and I tell you, the Lord was allowing the Enemy to test us and to tempt us because I think that was really the sickest I got on the whole trip, and I was so tired. I was so tired I was even sick and my heart was paining me and I think it was just an attack of the Enemy because I was discouraged in heart and I was down in body.

42. BEING SO HORRIBLY AND TERRIBLY SICK THAT NIGHT I HAD TO HAVE DESPERATE PRAYER AND HAD TO WAKE SOMEONE TO PRAY FOR ME AND I THANK THE LORD, I GOT THE VICTORY. I was so sick and so tired and so homesick. I think that was most of it, it was just plain homesick and I think I was almost scared to death of what was in the future, the devil was trying to scare me out of the trip entirely and bluff me out and get me to turn around and quit before we even got started.

43. YOU SEE IF THE DEVIL CAN JUST SCARE YOU OUT BEFORE YOU BEGIN THEN YOU'LL NEVER GET STARTED AND YOU'LL NEVER ACCOMPLISH WHAT GOD WANTS YOU TO DO. So for God's sake and the sake of others and you own sake, don't let the Devil frighten you or bluff you out of what the Lord wants you to do before you even get started. That's when he attacks you the worst and that's when the Lord allows him to attack you the worst because the Lord is testing you to see if you really mean business and to see if you're really willing to even die trying.

44. I'VE FOUND ALMOST ALWAYS, THAT THE LORD GIVES ME, OR US, THE MOST SEVERE TEST AT THE VERY BEGINNING, JUST AS IT WAS WITH SOME OF YOU when you first came to camp or when you first joined the group, you had your worst test then, the most difficult test because God was putting you through an examination, an entrance exam to see if you really had what it takes and to see if you were really willing to die to self and cry out to Him because otherwise what's the use of even wasting anything on you—any time or any of His goods or the strength of His leaders on you at all if you just haven't got what it takes.

45. SO I FOUND THAT GOD USUALLY GIVES ME THE MOST SEVERE TEST‚ ALLOWS THE ENEMY TO TEMPT AND TEST ME THE WORST JUST AS I'M CONSIDERING OR ABOUT TO BEGIN A NEW TASK FOR HIM OR A NEW PROJECT. WE HAVE THE MOST DIFFICULT TIMES AND THE MOST DIFFICULT TRIALS AND THE MOST SEVERE TESTINGS BECAUSE GOD WANTS TO KNOW IF YOU'RE REALLY GOING TO GO THROUGH WITH IT‚ LIVE OR DIE, SINK OR SWIM, WHETHER YOU REALLY MEAN BUSINESS, whether you're really going to trust Him or not and whether you have really got what it takes to see it through, because usually if you pass those first severe hard tests the Lord stamps your passport with His stamp and says, "OK, buddy, go to it, you're free to go on into the Promised Land that I have offered you if you're willing to forsake all and to follow and to die if need be to do the job I want you to do!"

46. AFTER THAT IT'S NOT REALLY AS HARD AS WE WERE AFRAID IT WAS GOING TO BE, as Mark Twain said, "I'm an old man and I've had many troubles, most of which never happened!"

47. MOST OF THE THINGS WHICH WE FEAR, MOST OF THE THINGS WHICH WE WORRY ABOUT, MOST OF THE PROBLEMS THAT WE THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO ENCOUNTER NEVER EVEN HAPPENED‚ they just never happened, God didn't let them happen. But the Lord allowed the Enemy to make us think they might happen and to even worry about them a little bit and even be willing to go ahead thinking that it's possible that they might happen to see if we were willing to go at any cost‚ pay any price, make any sacrifice, to die any death in order to obey Him. So praise the Lord!

48. "THE COWARD DIES A THOUSAND DEATHS‚ THE BRAVE, BUT ONE," and I'm afraid most of us are cowards, because most of us seem to have to die a thousand deaths before the one real one, and many deaths that we think we're going to die, and go through all the hell and the agony of dying them before they even happen and worry about them and fear them and even to the point of making us sick‚ as it did me that night, nearly killing us.

49. WORRY CAN KILL YOU. "Fear hath torment," His Word says, and lack of faith is a terrible frightening thing, but I thank God He brought me through that terrible test the Enemy put me through that night in which he almost killed me. I'm telling you, I nearly died and I believe it was mostly spiritual, not even physical due to fear that the Enemy tried to place upon me.

50. WE RESISTED IT IN JESUS' NAME, WE RESISTED THE OPPRESSION, the horrible pressure that came down upon us, the darkness that enveloped us, the sinking feeling, the pain in our heart, the gasping for breath, I mean it was horrible. I've never been through it so severe almost in my whole life‚ and the Enemy was trying to knock me out for a complete loop before we even got started, but thank God for loved ones who will stand by you in prayer and hold on and pray earnestly and desperately as they did that night and it was wonderful!

51. WE KEPT THE VICTORY‚ I SURVIVED AND I HAVEN'T BEEN THAT SICK SINCE; in fact I've hardly been sick at all, I just had one little time in London. Many times we've been very weary, felt we could hardly drag another step.

52. I'LL NEVER FORGET ONE NIGHT I RAN WITH THE SUITCASES A LONG DISTANCE AND I THOUGHT THAT WE WERE GOING TO GET SEPARATED, one of us on the train and one of us left behind because I'd gone back to get the luggage. I thought the train was about to pull out, and I'd prayed that the Lord would stop the train until I got on it, but my faith wasn't apparently as strong as it should have been that God was going to do it but He did. He stopped the train and it didn't leave, and we sat there on the train after I got on huffing and puffing and gasping for breath thinking the train was due to pull out, ant they're very punctual over here, they leave right on the button, right on the point almost without fail, and I'll never forget how we sat there waiting and waiting and waiting for the train to leave and it went on and on past the time it was supposed to leave. I sat there and sat there wondering why in the world the train wouldn't go after it was already way late, and here I'd been afraid it was going to pull out without me, and all of a sudden it came to me, "Well you prayed for Me to stop the train, and you haven't prayed that it would go again!" I said, "OK, Lord, I'm on it, forgive me. OK, Lord let it go now‚" and right away the train started!

53. YOU TELL ME GOD CAN'T DO MIRACLES? YOU TELL ME THE LORD CAN'T DO WHATEVER YOU ASK HIM TO? YOU BETTER BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK THE LORD TO DO BECAUSE HE'LL TAKE YOU LITERALLY! I said, "Lord, stop the train, stop the train, don't let it go, I've to catch the train" but I never told the Lord to let it go. So then I had to tell the Lord to let the train go and right away it started. Well, some of you may think it was just an accident but I know it was the Lord‚ and God had done so many little miracles like that for us besides the big ones. So we survived that terrific test and God brought us through and we were much better the next day.

54. WE PRAYED EARNESTLY WHAT GOD WOULD HAVE US TO DO AND IT CAME TO US, THE TENT! We were wondering, what could we do. Oh Lord, to go into New York city, we have to see officials‚ we have to see representatives‚ we have to get information‚ we have to make arrangements‚ we have to make plans, we have so much to do, we have a week or two of work to do in this great and expensive city where rooms are so high and almost impossible to find and we don't want to waste Your money, Lord, what should we do? And it came to us just as clearly as anything, "Well, what do you think I gave the little tent for? And right here you are just a few miles from a nice park where you've camped before with all of My Children and where you can camp again. They camped there, why can't you? They camped there in tents, slept on the ground, why can't you?"

55. SO I SAID‚ "AMEN‚ LORD! PRAISE THE LORD! LET'S GO! WE'LL CAMP OUT AT CHEESEQUAKE PARK!" And so we did! Right back to the same Park where we first all united together to start on our monumental year's tour last year where we united, you remember? We went back to that very same Park and we camped in a spot just a few yards away from where all of you folks camped and I tell you, it made me real homesick every time I passed that little sign, pointing to that field I said, "Oh, I wish they were all here again, I wish we were together again, boohoo, sniff, sniff" and I would shed a few tears and be homesick for you all and miss you so terribly.

56. YOU THINK YOU MISS HOME OR FAMILY OR LOVE ONES, BUT WHEN YOU'VE GOT A FAMILY OF NEARLY FOUR HUNDRED YOU REALLY MISS 'EM AND I NEVER GET ENOUGH OF ALL YOU KIDS! We never could be with you enough so we really miss you. If there was something to sacrifice, we're sacrificing, we felt it was a real sacrifice to leave you and leave home. So we pitched our little tent, not in Canaanland‚ sad to say, I fear it was Egypt's land but the Lord can make even a little bit of Egypt to be a little bit of heaven if Jesus is there with you, amen? And at least the spot we were parked on, we claimed for the Lord and Jesus was there‚ and where Jesus is heaven, so you can carry heaven in you heart, amen? You can have the Promised Land of Canaan in your heart and so we did!

57. WE PITCHED OUR LITTLE TENT AND WE FIXED OUR LITTLE PADS ON THE GROUND and we wondered how we were going to get along. Well, I'll tell you: We just got along wonderfully! Absolutely beautifully!

58. WE SPENT TWO WHOLE WEEKS THERE, CAMPED IN THAT LITTLE TENT AND IT WAS JUST HEAVEN ON EARTH AND AS BEAUTIFUL AND WONDERFUL because after our long hard journey and our severe trials and testings and many nights without sleep and driving all night and the various hardships we had undergone we were just utterly exhausted. I had said‚ "I've just got to get somewhere" after even the difficult period of the time before we left home and the visitor we had there, and the trials we were going through there being somewhat on out toes. We had not then the preparations for the trip and the packing and the having to make the break and to pull out and leave and all this had been very wearing and tearing both on our nerves and our bodies and our spirit‚ mind, heart and in every way. This was the first chance we'd had to stop, to sit down and to really sort of let everything catch up with us, and God gave us this two weeks of operation and rest and some relaxation to prepare for the new trials to come.

59. AND SO WE WERE SO THANKFUL WE WERE ABLE TO CAMP: We would cook our meals over the open fire, believe it or not, I got to be a pretty good camper‚ cooking out over the open fire and we got to rest up there and we got to even go swimming. It was still warm enough to go swimming which was the best most convenient way to take a bath and we just enjoyed it to the full‚ while we were also accomplishing all the Lord's business, the other business as well, making trips into town and studying the materials we had in preparation and making the arrangements in the city, we would go back and forth by train and so on to accomplish all of these things.

60. SO IT TURNED OUT IT MADE AN IDEAL BASE FOR OUR NEW YORK OPERATION just as it did before and we would stay there and camp and sleep at night. Sometimes swim in the morning after cooking our meals on the open fire and then go into town about the Lord's business. And we got to meet many young people and had some very interesting experiences there.

61. ONE OF THE FIRST WAS THAT A HIPPY COUPLE HAD CAMPED RIGHT NEXT TO US AND WE GOT TO WITNESS TO THEM. We also go to see the film "Woodstock" which we thought was very important, one of the events of the century which one of our teams almost missed, and since we had missed it ourselves, we felt that was worthwhile to see what this thing was that everybody was talking about and the Woodstock Nation as they call it, and so we did.

62. WE ALSO SPENT A GREAT DEAL OF TIME STUDYING THE BOOKS ABOUT TRAVEL IN EUROPE trying to pick out the best routes. We finally planned to try to save the Lord's money to fly on the very cheapest airline, Icelandic‚ across to Luxembourg and then to travel by train across Europe, finally arriving in Israel as being the most reasonable, the cheapest way financially as well as the most interesting and the most profitable, or perhaps I should say edifying so that we would be able to survey the needs of Europe and the youth of Europe on our way as we journey toward the Holy Land. So this is what we got out of our time of preparation, two weeks of study and enquiry and discussion with those who had been there‚ travel agents and airlines and so on.

63. IT TOOK A GREAT DEAL OF PLANNING, A GREAT DEAL OF WORK AND THE LORD WORKED IT ALL OUT BEAUTIFULLY. Sometimes we drove into the city, sometimes we went by train, but it was very convenient and we often ate sandwiches, cheese sandwiches in the Park to save His money or we stopped in a MacDonalds and we got by extremely reasonably this way and the Lord was good to us and you were good to us, God bless you that contributed towards this journey for His Kingdom. Well, finally I'm telling all about how and what we went through to get started to begin to commence to go!

64. BUT THIS WAS A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF THE WHOLE THING, THE PREPARATION, GETTING A START, BECAUSE IF YOU CAN GET STARTED THAT'S WHAT THE DEVIL ATTACKS THE MOST, IF YOU GET OVER THAT HUMP‚ THEN THANK THE LORD YOU CAN USUALLY MAKE THE REST OF THE JOURNEY! None of the other trials ever seem as great as those in the beginning, isn't that what you've usually found? Haven't you had greater strength, haven't you had greater victory as you went along even though perhaps the trials in some ways might have actually later been more severe and bigger problems‚ bigger trials, greater testings you were much stronger to meet them and they were not nearly as difficult to overcome as even those little trials in the beginning? How true that is. Praise the Lord! Well. I might just go over some of these little details day by day, it might interest you.

65. ON FRIDAY THE 4th OF SEPTEMBER THE LORD DID ANOTHER MIRACLE! Do you remember the check that you sent us, a sizeable check to help finance the journey? We found that it was going to take cashing it, in order to make the trip, so this was one of the first tests. We asked the Lord time and again, "Lord, if you don't want us to go, block it, if You do want us to go, You're going to have to do some miracles."

66. AND IT WAS ONE MIRACLE AFTER ANOTHER, ONE FLEECE AFTER ANOTHER THAT THE LORD HONOURED, TIME AND AGAIN THE LORD DID THE MIRACLE, and every time, sometimes when I even wanted it to stop I was so homesick and so discouraged occasionally that I wanted to go home so bad, I miss you folks so much‚ I actually really wanted the Lord to stop us‚ and I said, "Lord if you want us to go now I can cash this check‚ if not Lord, don't let them cash it." And almost hoping they wouldn't so we would have an excuse to quit and go home.

67. I WONDER HOW MANY TIMES YOU'VE DONE THAT, HUH? YOU PUT OUT A CONDITION TO THE LORD FOR SOMETHING AND KINDA HOPING MAYBE HE WOULDN'T DO IT SO YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO DO IT‚ AND THE LORD JUST KNOCKED THE PROPS OUT FROM UNDER YOU AND JERKED THE RUG OUT FROM UNDER YOU AND TOOK AWAY ALL YOUR EXCUSES AND DID ALL THE MIRACLES AND EVERYTHING SO THAT THE DECISION STILL HAD TO BE UP TO YOU AND YOU HAD NO EXCUSES AND NO REASONS FOR NOT GOING ON WITH THE LORD BECAUSE HE'D OPENED THE DOOR, HE'D PROVIDED THE WAY AND MADE EVERYTHING POSSIBLE! That's exactly the way the Lord did in all of these preparations. In every little thing it was just miracle after miracle after miracle.

68. I'LL NOT FORGET THE NEXT DAY ON SATURDAY WE WERE GOING THROUGH SEARS TO SEE IF THERE WAS ANYTHING WE NEEDED FOR THE JOURNEY and I saw some nice shoes on sale, it turned out they were about 20-dollar shoes and they were on sale for I think it was a little over 5 or 6 dollars or something. Apparently the style was going out but these have turned out to be my European shoes, my seven-league boots that I have tromped all over Europe in, so comfortable and so necessary, and I'm really thankful for them, and thanks to you who made them possible. They are really about the only thing I've got on that wasn't given to me, and these were given to me too‚ because you gave the funds and the Lord gave them to you so God did it all, amen?

69. FINALLY ON THE SUNDAY BEFORE LABOR DAY WE DID OUR FINAL REPACKING according to the directions in the various travel books we'd read, what you need and what you don't need and so on, having never made a trip to Europe‚ and then we had to weigh our bags, we wondered, "Lord how in the world, we don't know if we've got too much weight, are we overweight, are we underweight, could we add a little more or are we going to have to take out some, what'll we do, Lord?"

70. AND WE ENQUIRED AROUND SEVERAL PLACES ON MONDAY, IT WAS LABOR DAY AND THERE WAS NO PLACE WHERE WE COULD GET OUR BAGS WEIGHED, and it was miles and miles and miles to the nearest airport to try weigh them, so suddenly we got the inspiration to go down to a little market that we had remembered. We had seen the sign, the Lord's so faithful in little things. I had stood there reading the sign the week before as we shopped for some groceries and I'd noticed, the Lord had called my attention to the fact that it said, "Open Labor Day," and so I thought‚ "So what, that's not important to me, and we'll probably never be back here again."

71. BUT IT TURNED OUT TO BE ABOUT THE ONLY STORE IN ALL THE COAST AREA OF NEW JERSEY THAT WAS OPEN THAT LABOR DAY and it was a big enough store that believe it or not, they had some little bathroom scales on which we were able to weight our bags! What a miracle! The Lord really did a miracle and guess what we found out? Together our bags added up to almost exactly the weight limit we were supposed to have combined and one of them I remember, the bag luggage for one of us was a little bit more and the other was a little bit under. I had been told by the airline that it was 3 dollars a pound overweight, so I thought, "Oh, Lord, we can't afford any overweight," so I timidly called the airline long distance before we were to leave and forsake all and the car and any overweight, and I asked them if it was possible to combine the baggage allowance of two together to the total allowed for that many and they said yes‚ they were not particular about that. So thank the Lord!

72. THESE LITTLE THINGS, THE REASON I'M TELLING YOU THESE LITTLE THINGS IS BECAUSE IT'S SO WONDERFUL TO ME! You can expect it. Of course God was going to do the big things that have to be done, but the little tiny thoughtfulnesses of the Lord, a market that's open, to find a bathroom scale, to find that your bags weigh just the right weight is so wonderful how the Lord thinks of every little thing!

73. THERE'S NOTHING TOO SMALL FOR THE LORD OR TOO HARD FOR HIM, EVERY LITTLE THING! WHY DO YOU WORRY, WHY DO YOU FRET? GOD'S GOING TO TAKE CARE OF EVERY LITTLE DETAIL! Each time I thought, "Well, maybe this is it maybe we just can't make it because surely this is going to be the door that's going to be closed, this is going to be the impossible situation. Well, yes, Lord You brought us this far but now here's where we can't make it any further, it's impossible."

74. BUT EVERYTHING I ASKED GOD TO DO, THE LORD DID EVERY LITTLE THING. When I asked the Lord, "Now, Lord if You want us to buy these tickets You'll get them to take our check and that was almost unheard of. The travel agency had never seen me before, they didn't know me from Adam, they took the check without question and when they said‚ "What is your address?" (When they cash a check they usually want to know where you are locally.) I gulped and I thought, "Oh Lord‚ surely if they find out we're camping out, temporary campers in a campground here in town, they won't cash the check."

75. I WAS TEMPTED TO ALMOST LIE ABOUT IT AND TRY TO AVOID THE ANSWER SOMEHOW BUT IT CAME TO ME, WELL HERE'S ANOTHER IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION‚ HERE'S A FLEECE, I'M GOING TO THROW WATER ON THE SACRIFICE‚ I'M GOING TO POUR IT ON THE SACRIFICE, BECAUSE IF IT'S GOING TO BE DONE, GOD'S GOING TO HAVE TO DO IT! So I said, "We're just camped out in a little tent over here in the Park." It just rolled like water off a duck's back, they just took it without question just like we were registered at the Waldorf Astoria and it was amazing what the Lord did! So many little miracles like that!

76. THIS WAS NOW THE DAY BEFORE THE GREAT EVENT, THE DAY OF OUR DEPARTURE. For two weeks we had been in that little tent in the Park, and we'd prayed, "Lord, Lord, please keep the weather good, keep it nice and warm and sunny like you've had it till we have to go." Well, I guess we forgot to tell the Lord to keep it that way till after we left because He kept it that way till the very day we had to go, and it rained! But this time we didn't get wet thank the Lord, and He brought the sun out bright and shining the next morning so that the tent got all nice and dried out so that we could pack it up and roll it up and tuck it in the trunk of the car.

77. I FORGOT TO TELL YOU, THE DAY BEFORE WE HAD GONE INTO TOWN, WE PICKED UP THE MAIL AND ONCE AGAIN WE ASKED GOD FOR THE MIRACLE THAT THEY WOULD TAKE OUR CHECK AGAIN FOR TICKETS, and again they took our check for tickets! They didn't know us from Adam, and in fact I'm sure they didn't know us as well as they knew Adam, but God did a miracle. We also walked into the little office, the youth office where you get youth I.D. cards so that we could get special rates in some places, and they took our identifications, those little I.D. cards you made up, Hosea, student I.D. cards, they took it without question and the Lord did that miracle‚ and everything God did—it was just so wonderful. So that night I'll never forget, we were so desperate because we wanted to get in touch with you because we knew we were going to have to leave the next day and we finally got through to Dallas so we were thankful for that.

78. CAME THE DAWN OF THE 10th OF SEPTEMBER, 1970 ON THURSDAY MORNING, THE DAY OF OUR EPICAL DEPARTURE FOR EUROPE. We broke camp, we rolled up our tent for the last time and tucked it into the trunk of the car‚ and drove to New York, picked up the mail and due to someone's faith, there was mail there the last day, those things which you sent us, Hosea and Jeth and Joshua and various folks who sent us letters and packages and the reprints and all the various things that we needed.

79. OH, I FORGOT TO TELL YOU! ORDINARILY THEY TOLD US THAT IT TOOK FROM TWO WEEKS TO A MONTH TO GET YOUR PASSPORT, and the lady in Washington at the passport office looked kind of shocked when I gave the General Delivery for our address to send anything so valuable as a passport. "General Delivery, New York?" she said. "Don't you have any other address than that?" We said, "No, we're going there and that's where we're leaving from and we have to get our passports there," and she said, "Well, alright." And I said‚ "Besides that, we're leaving very soon and we need 'em right away." Well they said, "It usually takes a couple weeks to a month." Guess what?

80. WHEN WE GOT TO NEW YORK EXACTLY ONE WEEK LATER THE PASSPORTS WERE WAITING FOR US AT THE POST OFFICE, believe it or not! Now that is the most unheard of to get your passports within one week's time, but they were both there and waiting for us and the Lord had done another miracle‚ so that encouraged us to go ahead with all of our other plans, because if our passports hadn't arrived we might have gotten discouraged, "Well‚ what's the use of trying these other things."

81. BUT GOD DIDN'T GIVE US A SINGLE EXCUSE‚ HE JUST KNOCKED AWAY THE EXCUSES AND KNOCKED DOWN THE DOORS AND MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO REFUSE TO GO! Praise the Lord! Oh, yes, I was just reminded that when we went into the Post Office to pick up our mail at General Delivery, we went there for the first time, Hosea, guess who was there? Your old friend from the Post Office at the World's Fair in New York, and he was just thrilled to see us and wanted to know where you kids were, what you were doing now and remembered your names, remembered about your exhibit at the Protestant Center, remembered all those things.

82. IT'S AMAZING WHAT EFFECT YOUR WITNESS HAS AMONG SOME OF THE PEOPLE YOU SOMETIMES THINK MIGHT BE THE LEAST LIKELY TO BE IMPRESSED OR TO REMEMBER YOU. Hosea, the postman from the little Post Office at the World's Fair in New York‚ remembered us and your name and wanted to know all about you and how you were doing and he was just absolutely thrilled that he was seeing some of us again, so praise the Lord. I think we got his name and address, so that we'll be able to perhaps write him again.

83. THANK YOU SO MUCH BROTHER JOSHUA AND HOSEA FOR THOSE THINGS WE REQUESTED THAT YOU SENT US. We got just in time the album that you sent to Maria and all the pictures which have been such a blessing. We have pulled them out and showed them to scores and scores of people all over Europe and the Lord had really used them. That was so thoughtful of you. Thank you so much for that little watch that you sent and the other thoughtful things; the reprints have been such a blessing, we've been passing them out everywhere we go to everyone who was interested, and the Lord was certainly in that mail arriving the very day we left and we got there just in time to pick it up, praise the Lord! Isn't it wonderful! Jesus never fails! Amen? Thank You‚ Lord! Hallelujah! Amen! That came as another miracle.

84. WE HAVE DEBATED AND DEBATED ABOUT GETTING WHAT ARE KNOWN AS EURRAIL PASSES, a new bargain which Europe is offering travelers visiting from other parts of the world (you can't buy them in Europe) to encourage tourism and travel in Europe on the trains, a very cheap pass which entitles you to travel anywhere in Western Europe, except Britain, as far as you want as long as you want in a certain specified period of time, and to go anywhere on the first-class train, the best trains too, including the reservation without charge, which we found out later you have to usually pay for. The tickets were such a bargain, because as extensively as we planned to travel in Europe, on our way to Israel to do this missionary surveying for our invasion of Europe, in the various capitals of Europe, we planned to travel so extensively that we knew it was going to cost a good deal more than the cost of the EurRail Pass.

85. IF YOU TRAVEL A GREAT DEAL IT'S REALLY WORTH IT, IT'S A REAL BARGAIN FINANCIALLY GREAT SAVING OF THE LORD'S MONEY. But we didn't realise what a convenience they were going to be because you're treated almost like royalty over here on the trains if you produce the EurRail Pass. Not only that, you don't have to stand in long queues as they call them here, or lines, waiting to buy tickets, you don't have to change your money‚ and that's one of our biggest problems in Europe, changing money from one country to another, one coinage to another, it is headache, but thank God we survived.

86. BUT WITH THE PASS YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY TICKETS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR MONEY, to get reservations you don't have to pay. They give you special preference when you're on the train, they just almost ignore you as far as immigrations or customs and so on are concerned‚ they're trying to be extra good and extra hospitable to tourists and to give you as little inconvenience as possible, and sometimes they haven't even asked us for our passports. Sometimes we just produce them and they only look at the covers, just look at the outside and saw that we had passports, they didn't even look inside to make sure they were ours. We have yet to be asked to open our luggage, believe it or not, they haven't even asked to look at our luggage and most borders we've crossed they haven't even seen that we have any or how much and certainly not what we had inside. Well, we had nothing to hide, nothing to declare and so we wouldn't have been afraid to open them anyhow. But it would have been the delay and the inconvenience, and I'm telling you, the way some of our bags are packed I said that, "Hey if they ever open that suitcase I'm going to make them pack it again because I have a terrible time even getting it shut!" So I was thankful they didn't ask me to even open it. At our first customs, our first customs as we landed in Luxembourg was really about the only one where they even looked at the suitcase and then they didn't even ask us to open them, so the Lord has been good to us in that respect as well.

87. WELL I WAS GOING TO TELL YOU ABOUT HOW WE LANDED IN NEW YORK LATE THAT DAY AS USUAL, got the mail and it was going on 5:00, I think we had about 10 minutes to make it after debating two weeks as to whether to buy these EurRail Passes or not and the last minute we prayed desperately and we felt definitely led to get them, so we rushed in the car to the Rockefeller Center where the office of the French national Railroad was located and where we could buy them in Rockefeller Plaza. We dashed in and parked the car and it was a miracle, almost before the rush hour there that we even found a place to park and we dashed, parked the car, rushed to the office just as they were closing the door, in fact they had already locked one door and we had to rush around to the other one and barge our way in, one girl was ready to come to the door and lock it. ...

(End of Tape One)