Chapter 37

     A friend of mine who was at the hardware store was talking to a man whom I did not know.  As I waited for them to finish, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, “You will do business with this man” just like he had said to me about the guy back in Springfield after the concert.

     This being the second time this had ever happened to me, it caused me to wonder about myself, that maybe I was losing it.

     After he left, I asked the friend who the man was.  He said his name was John, and that he was about to move to Seattle.

     I had not been in Bozeman for very long but for a moment I had the thought, “Should I be going to Seattle too”.

     I quickly dismissed it but wondered whether I would ever see the man again.

     It would be twelve years before I did.

     The Church Universal and Triumphant moved into Livingston, about thirty miles east of Bozeman.  It was also known as “C.U.T.” but to the orthodox Christian point of view, it was a cult.  They advertised a meeting to be held on MSU campus and we decided to go and hand out tracks warning others of their true nature.

     A few of us from Maranatha, along with Rod the assistant pastor, a few other students and campus leaders from other Christian groups, decided to meet up for a prayer meeting ahead of the CUT meeting.  We prayed and shared what we knew from the research we had done of the group for a couple of hours and armed with tracks, took off for the meeting.

     A few hundred students had come to see the presentation which was presented as a talk on their view of the universe but not on C.U.T.’s beliefs specifically.  During the meeting they introduced a meditation mantra that they said over and over again, faster, and faster as they went.  When I saw that the last words of the mantra matched with the first words spoken quickly, sounding like “Satan is God”; it startled me.

     I got up and left to go to the restroom to get away from it all and pray.  Finally getting a release and calm, I returned to the meeting. The meeting was coming to an end, and I was talking with a few students sitting behind us.  I was expressing my views on what Jesus testified to and how C.U.T.'s teachings contradicted what he taught.

     The Holy Spirit fell on them and a couple started to tear up, clearly under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  Just then, a couple of guys came up on my right but as they approached, the Holy Spirit told me to ignore them and keep talking to the students.

     Despite this instruction, I made a quick decision to try to include these two guys in our conversation.  They turned out to be members of C.U.T. and they immediately pushed into our conversation with an explanation of their beliefs.

     We left and went outside to hand out anti-C.U.T. tracks and address what questions students were having.  Another C.U.T. member saw what we were doing and came up to us.  We confronted him on his belief stating some basic beliefs of the Christian Faith, and how they were twisting the scriptures and misusing some of basic Christian doctrines.  

     He started to speak when his eyes rolled back in his head; we could only see the whites of his eyes.  After five or so seconds he blinked and came around, looking puzzled as to what had just happened to him and went away.  

     They had announced an additional meeting for those interested in their organization to be held in a classroom the next day on campus.  A few of us decided to go.  

     The next evening, we went to the meeting only to find out we were not going to be allowed in and in fact, they had called campus security to prevent our attendance.  Several of us gathered there were trying to decide what to do but soon retreated to outside the building and after a short bit decided to call it quits and go home.

     Rod and I decided to pray and march around the building seven times while doing so.  On our third lap around the guy from the group whose eyes had rolled back in his head the night before, stuck his head out the door and shouted, “Are you marching around us seven times?”  We yelled back telling him we were.  

     On our fifth lap around he stuck his head out again and shouted, “Are you still marching around seven times?”  We confirmed that we were but were almost done.  He seemed distressed.

     We had just completed our seventh lap by literally the last step when every door to the building burst open, and students came running out.  They were moving so fast, no one would stop to tell us what was going on.  Finally, the traffic slowed them down and we were able to catch a student asking him to tell us what happened.

     He stated that the speaker had lost his voice.  He had put his hand to his throat and tried to speak but nothing would come out. Then another guy went up to take his place.  The same thing happened to him.  Someone stood up and left and everyone followed very quickly.

     Needless to say, we were grateful for the results and thanked God for answering our prayers.

     Rod asked me to share our experience at the next Maranatha meeting.  I went over the basics of the meeting, and it was a faith builder for all of us.  Two students came up to me after the meeting.  Sonja introduced herself and then her friend Lori.  They invited me to come over to their apartment to continue our conversation.  They shared their experiences of the Holy Spirit and Angels, and I shared mine.

     The next morning a little before 5 a.m., I got a call from Lori.  She had overslept and asked if there was any way I could give her a ride to work as she was running late. I agreed.  The next morning, I got the same call.  In fact, I ended up giving her a ride on a semi-regular basis. 

     We became fast friends, spent Thanksgiving together, and even decided to go to an Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship youth conference in Urbana, Illinois over the New Year’s break.  She got a ride with friends,  I drove to Springfield to spend time with my family, and we met up in Urbana.

     The big deal for both of us was to be able to see Billy Graham live.  It was an awesome experience.  It was there that I realized she was the girl from my “The Room” dream.  I had suspected it before, but it was confirmed at Urbana.  If this was true though, I would know her for at least thirteen years.  What should I do?  Should I run or go with the flow?  I went with the flow.