Seven: Chapters 57-61 :: By Alice Childs

CHAPTER 57 

Journal Entry: Saturday, January 22, 2022

Okay Journal, this is my first entry as a married man; so before I recount any further Tribulation events, let me record what our wedding was like. I want to write about something other than death, destruction, and loss.

It wasn’t long after Wormwood hit that our weather, already colder than usual, got even colder. All the days are only half-light now. It snows a lot; much more than we usually get in the North Carolina Mountains this time of year. But this snowfall is not the beautiful white, pristine snow of a winter wonderland. The snow that falls now is a sickish, dirty gray – an ugly, contaminated landscape. The beautiful, white snows of the pre-Tribulation world that blanketed the mountains like a billowy white duvet would transform the mountain into a Norman Rockwell tableau. But this blighted, ugly snow makes the mountain look more like some alien moonscape; like something that might have been painted from the nightmares of a madman.

When I was a little boy, the guys and I lived for snow days. Those few days when it would snow and school would be called off were some of the best times we ever had. If our summers were wonderful, then the times when it snowed were magical.

One winter, the winter of our 12th year; the winter following the summer of the alien fish, as a matter of fact, was one such magical winter snow. We were on Christmas break. I had begged my parents to let me spend the entire Christmas break up at the cabin with Grandma and Grandpa. It wasn’t too hard to do. My parents were the kind who wanted to give the impression of having the all-American family, but who were in reality more interested in each other and their own agenda. A kid – especially an active boy who loved the mountains and hated city life like the plague – even small-town life, well let’s just say I cramped their style, so they only put up a token protest, as I knew they would.

That Christmas break, I begged Grandma and Grandpa to let the guys come up the day after Christmas and spend the rest of the Christmas break with me until school started back on the 3rd of January; eight whole days! Grandma was happy as a bee in clover to have a house full of rowdy boys, and Grandpa was glad to have some extra help around the shop and yard. Besides, during the summers, we spent about as much time in N’ville at either Mama B’s with Trail or at the store with Big Mike who was Jack’s grandpa, or at Mitch’s or David’s house. We were always together somewhere, but the cabin was our favorite place to be – bar none.

A couple of years before when I was nine, Grandpa had built me the coolest tree house. He’d built it in a huge old oak tree about 200 yards into the woods to the right of the cabin. We spent, oh I don’t know how many days and warm summer nights huddled together up in that tree house.

Sorry Journal, I’m rambling, off chasing rabbits again, I guess. 

Anyway, that winter, we had 8 whole days away from school up on the mountain. All the guys got to the cabin around 5:00 that afternoon the day after Christmas. That evening, it began to snow. It snowed all that night, all the next day, and that next night too. We ended up with almost 4 feet of snow that winter; unusual for us. Looking out the windows, it was like we had awoken in a different world – in some kind of foreign land like the Arctic or some alien frozen planet, or more in line with us boys, as if we’d gone back in time to another century – to pioneer times when these mountains were still wild and not yet settled. The whole mountain looked completely different covered in snow. Places that were as familiar to me as the back of my hand, in snow looked like a completely different place and time when the snow would come blanketing the mountain top in a quilt of downy white.

During those eight days, Grandma made us boys gallons of hot chocolate, mountains of pancakes, pots of homemade soup with hot biscuits or cornbread, and what seemed like tons of snow ice cream. We played endless games of chess and checkers, read reams of comic books, and played at being our favorite historical heroes: Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone in the woods as the sky spit snow into the trees around the cabin. On one fine day after the snow had stopped falling, Grandpa took us all out in the woods and taught us how to hunt wild turkeys and rabbits. It was my grandpa that taught all of us how to shoot; well him and Clyde and Big Mike over the years.

That winter day, we bagged two turkeys and three rabbits. Grandpa taught us how to dress the birds and skin the rabbits. That night, Grandma made a huge pot of rabbit stew; and on New Year’s Eve, she roasted one of those turkeys, made dressing, cooked black-eyed peas, turnip greens, candied yams, and creamed corn. We had a huge New Year’s Eve dinner. That was one of the best Christmases of my childhood – one of the best of my life, until this one. Even if we are smack dab in the middle (well almost in the middle) of the Tribulation, this Christmas is just as wonderful in a different way. How I wish David, Jack, Big Mike, and Eva were here to celebrate with us; Grandma and Grandpa too.

Although we do have snow now, it’s not the beautiful clean snow of the pre-rapture world. As I’ve said, what we have now looks dirty and unclean. Still, despite that, I am surrounded by my dearest friends in all the world; friends who really are my family both in my heart and in my spirit. So even though the ashen snow that lies on the ground looks strange and alien, inside our cabin was the most beautiful place in all the world that day.

The girls, Lilly, Byllie, and Izzy, had gone out and cut pine and fir boughs, gathered holly berries and mistletoe from the woods. They decorated the hearth above the fireplace which we now kept burning winter and summer. They rearranged the furniture so that there was an open area in the middle of the great room. They took greenery and red and green tartan ribbons and decorated the stair railing and banisters. The cabin smelled of fresh pine resin and the aromas of food cooking on the hearth. The room was softly bathed in golden tones by firelight and candlelight. Our two big oil lamps glowed mellowly atop the mantle.

Turns out that Chief Little-John is a gifted guitarist, something none of us knew! He brought his 12-string acoustic guitar and played Christmas carols and mountain ballads as the girls bustled around getting everything ready.

It was only 3:00 when everything was to their liking and they all went upstairs to get dressed, but the dark sky outside in addition to our blackout curtains made it seem much later than it was. Even if the outside did not, the cabin’s interior, aglow in firelight and candlelight, did make it look like a print from Currier and Ives.

Of course, I had no tux or even a suit to wear, and I wouldn’t have wanted to wear either one of those anyway if I did have one. I did find a nice pair of gray trousers that had belonged to David. I added a cream-colored, button-down shirt and a burgundy cable-knit pullover sweater to wear. If I wasn’t fancy, at least I looked seasonally festive.

Lilly and Byllie had found dresses, one green and one burgundy, that Lilly said they had worn in a cousin’s Christmas wedding the year before the rapture. Byllie told us laughingly that they still had these dresses because Lilly could never bear to get rid of any clothes. The dresses were not fancy or formal, but they were beautifully simple; and the cut of the dresses was the same even though the colors were different. The girls looked beautiful.

I stood with my back to the front door. The two girls stood to my right, with Mitch and Trail, both dressed as casually as I in dress jeans and winter pullover sweaters, stood to my left. From here, I had an unobstructed view of the staircase. When Sarah appeared at the top of the stairs, my breath literally stopped in my body. She was wearing an actual wedding gown, veil and all. Behind her, Izzy was arranging the train of her dress. Sarah was an ethereal vision.

Where on earth had she gotten a wedding dress? Where would they have even gotten the material to make one? But have I seen that dress before? Surely not. I never go to weddings. Still…  

Chief Little John began playing an old, old ballad called ‘Greensleeves’ as I looked up toward the landing.

She pauses at the top of the stairs for just a minute. Her hair is half up and half down her back in long curls dripping down her shoulders like a gentle waterfall; soft ringlets of curls frame her beautiful face. Those stunning blue eyes, enormous in her oval face, seem to shimmer. She is holding a bough of greenery filled with holly berries and mistletoe tied in a red and green tartan ribbon. As she reaches the last three steps, Clyde gives her an old world, courtly bow before taking her hand and escorting her the rest of the way down the stairs. He tucks her arm under his and walks her to me as Izzy takes her place on the couch next to Uri.

Clyde looks at Sarah, beaming as if she were his own daughter or granddaughter. Then he gently leans in and kisses her forehead. He says softly, “Yore beautiful, Little Lass.”

Clyde took his place before us with only his Bible in hand. He opened it and read these verses:

“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24, KJV).

“And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me” (Ruth 1:16-17, KJV).

“Marriage,” Clyde began in a dignified manner, “is a holy union. God don’t take these vows lightly, an’ neither should y’all. Knowin’ y’all both as I do, I know yore aware of how serious God takes vows. Iff’n yore ready, we’ll begin.

“Will you Robert James Thorpe take this woman Sarah Anne Arrowood to be yore wife?”

” I will,” I said firmly.

“Do ya vow b’fore God an’ these witnesses gathered here ta love her, honor her, an’ cherish her in sickness an’ in health; through good times, an’ through bad; ta stay faithful ta her till death alone shall part ye?”

“I do,” I said again; never meaning any words more except for my prayer of salvation.

“Lassie, I mean, Sarah Anne Arrowood,” Clyde said, grinning, “Will ya take Robert James Thorpe ta be yore husband?”

“I will,” said Sarah just as firmly as I did, smiling at me, those gorgeous dimples deepening as she smiled.

“Do you, Lass, vow b’fore God ta love him, honor him, an cherish him; in sickness an in health; through good times an’ through bad, and do ya vow b’fore God to remain faithful to him, till death alone shall part ye?”

“I do,” she said.

Bobby an’ Sarah. Ye’ve made yore vows ta each other an’ b’fore God. Ain’t no piece o’ paper ever married nobody, an’ that’s jest as well ’cause we ain’t got none ta sign noway. It’s your love fer each other an’ yer commitment ta each other; yore sacred vows b’fore God that binds y’all t’gether as man an’ wife, not sum piece o’ paper. So, in th’ sight o’ God and these here witnesses, I now pronounce that y’all are husban’ an’ wife. Bobby, kiss yer bride.”

And so we were married. Izzy had gone all out and had one of our hams cooking in the big iron kettle over the fireplace. She and the girls had made pones of cornbread, and served two vegetables tonight instead of our usual one: green beans and steamed carrots, for our wedding feast. She and Byllie had hoarded enough sugar, chocolate, and flour to make a cake. Even though we had no milk or icing for it. The day before, they had baked the cake, tending it carefully over the open fire. It was a wonderful wedding cake.

After dinner, I stepped back to look at my wife and to take another look at that wedding dress that looked so familiar to me. Smiling, seeming to know what I was thinking, Sarah walked over to the mantle and took down a picture. It was a photo of Grandpa and Grandma on their wedding day. Sarah’s dress was the same one Grandma was wearing in the photograph.

“I hope you don’t mind,” she said, smiling. “Izzy found it in a chest in the attic. It was wrapped in a muslin sheet; the dress and the veil. It’s a bit old fashioned and it’s yellowed with age, but I fell in love with it the moment I laid eyes on it. Izzy and Byllie snipped out the seams and took it in for me. It was just a little bit big on me, and a bit long, but they adjusted the seams and hemmed it to fit me. Was it okay to alter you grandmother’s dress and for me to wear it? I thought we should ask you first, but they said you wouldn’t mind. You don’t, do you? I mean it is – was your grandmother’s,” she asked, looking a bit doubtful.

“Of course, I don’t mind! I never even knew she had kept her wedding gown. In fact, your wearing it makes it feel like both Grandma and Grandpa are part of our wedding. Sarah, they would love you to pieces, and I love you more than my own life, Mrs. Thorpe. But, please, I do have one request. Promise me one thing: promise me that you will never, ever call me Robert,” I said, kissing the tip of her nose.

After dinner, I could tell that the guys were up to something. They were all huddled together like football players getting ready to form a line of scrimmage.

“Okay, out with it,” I said, “What are you goobers up to? I don’t have a car that runs, so you can’t tie tin cans to Big Bertha, so what are y’all planning?I asked, grinning.

“Well,” said Mitch, “we’ve been racking our brains trying to think of a wedding gift for you two. The girls put all this together as their gift to you, but we guys couldn’t think of anything at all. Then Uri gave us the perfect idea. We were outside the other day when Uri mentioned how good it felt to be somewhere else other than inside the cabin, so that got us to thinking. The Chief said he thought it might be nice for him to have some guests for Christmas,” Mitch said, grinning.

“Yup,” said Clyde, “he allowed as how he thought he might like a heap o’ friends over on Christmas. Said it’s been a spell since he had some comp’ny. A’course, even if we’us ta leave now, it’ll be dark pert soon, so’s iff’n we was ta go over ta spend part o’ Christmas with th’ Chief, we’d need ta stay overnight an’ head back up in th’ mornin,’ said Clyde, grinning like a possum eating sweet potatoes.

“So,” said Trail, “we’re going to go spend th’ rest of Christmas with the Chief. Can’t be hanging around here all the time. Mitch, you an’ Clyde got the flashlights and lanterns ready? Oh, and one more thing…” Turning to grin at Uri, Trail said, “We’re gonna stay in the middle of the road all the way till we get to the Chief’s teepee, right Uri?”

“Right as water,” said Uri.

“No man, right as rain,” said Trail. “We gotta work on these Southern idioms. Gonna be a pop quiz on ’em tomorrow morning,” teased Trail as Uri laughed and shook his head.

“Well, we are beat too,” said Lilly, smiling at Sarah. “After we help Izzy clear away dinner and clean the kitchen, we’re all gonna hit the hay too.

“Yup,” said Byllie, hugging Sarah, “now that you have a new room and ummm, roommate, I can stop bunking with Lilly and have a room of my own again. I’m going to go sleep in my new room just as soon as I finish up in the kitchen.”

“Bobby,” asked Clyde, giving me a wink as he donned his hat and headed out the door, “Would you like ta come join us at th’ Chief’s house an’ spend Christmas with th’ rest o’ us men t’nite?”

“Not on your life!” I said, laughing; “and thanks guys. Thanks to all of you.”

CHAPTER 58 

Journal Entry: Tuesday, February 22, 2022

“And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain” (Daniel 11:36-39, KJV).

“And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven” (Revelation 13:6, KJV).

DRAKEN SPEAKS AGAIN

Following the devastation of Wormwood, Lucius Draken called for a global press conference to be held at his Neo-Babylon commercial hub. His purpose for calling what amounts to a global cheerleading session was three-fold: the first purpose was to show off the newly built center. The second purpose was to prepare the world for the coming rollout of the biometric ‘marking’ system that the False Prophet, Jakkobah Gulden, will initiate in less than a year and a half. This program will be the infamous ‘mark of the Beast’ economic system we are warned of in Revelation 13. Draken wants to prepare the world for the coming mark system without which no one will be able to buy, sell, transact business, receive medical or financial aid or anything else. Draken is laying the groundwork for the coming ‘mark’ and is preparing and priming the world to receive it.

His third reason for calling this global presser was to allay the fears of a global citizenry who has been rocked by the judgments of our righteous God. The majority of the world has, for the most part, been given over completely to Draken’s great deception; so whatever he tells them they believe wholeheartedly. The deception of the reprobate ‘earth dwellers’ – as Jesus calls the lost during the Tribulation; those who continue to refuse to believe upon Him and accept His salvation – is fully complete. They have utterly fallen for the ‘great deception.’ The ‘earth dwellers’ are they who have already been ‘given over’ as per the passage in Romans:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;” (Romans 1:18-28, KJV).

The majority of people are completely sold out to Draken. Their deception is total. They are rabid followers of Draken and Gulden. Draken wanted to get ahead of the curve, so to speak, to promote the coming mark system and to quell fears about the catastrophic judgments of God that are occurring and ramping up in frequency and intensity the further along we go into these last seven years. Of course, as always, his method was through extreme demonic deception and lies.

In his grandiose suite of offices inside the Neo-Babylon Global E-commerce Hub called Trans-Global Enterprises, Draken met with reporters from the EP Global Media (the only sanctioned global media outlet and propaganda hub of Euro-Phoenicia). With an air of supreme confidence and command, Draken faced the cameras and addressed the world.

“My fellows, I want to address you today on two fronts. First, I want to give you a visual tour of Neo-Babylon’s Trans-Global Commercial Enterprises. At a later date, Prophet Gulden, aided by Pope Francis, will give you a tour of the beautiful Temple of the World.

Second, I want to address the global upheavals we have been experiencing. I want to explain to you what is happening and why. But first, let us take a closer look at the future of government and commerce!

Here in this center lies the hub of Euro-Phoenicia’s Trans-Global Enterprises. From this one governmental/economic center, the new world’s government and economic policies will be based. Now that all the world is at last merging under a truly global governmental body; a people with one voice, one goal, and one destiny, we do not need nor would we desire a multitude of governments, parliaments, or a multiplicity of governing bodies scattered all across the earth. Here in this one place, the ten kings of Euro-Phoenicia will gather with me to confer as I lead the world into the dawn of a new transcendent evolution.

No longer will the economies of the world be shackled and restrained by a multitude of differing currencies managed by a handful of banks and financial institutions run by greedy men and secret cabals. That way is old and outdated. It was also grossly unfair and misused. In this glorious New Dawn, the governance of all the people of the world as well as the marshalling and distribution of all commodities, services, goods and such – indeed, all needs will be routed and tracked through here. All people, goods, and services will be centrally managed and globally tracked from this central hub.

Once this system is fully functional, each individual on earth will carry within his/her own body his exact geolocation anywhere on earth; and his up-to-date financial, medical, personal, and familial information. All personal data will be instantly and always available. This information, stored in a biometric chip that interfaces with the human body, will be completely personalized. All of one’s personal information will henceforth never be able to be stolen, hacked, or hijacked. Within what will be a biotechnic integrated system, each person will be able to buy, sell, transact business, receive medical or housing assistance, grow approved produce or livestock, buy food, or transact commerce all without fear of having one’s personal information stolen or hacked. Our benevolent global government will be able to provide everything anyone could ever need, safely guaranteed and protected by our great global Euro-Phoenicia. This will be the epitome of pure global socialism at its best!

This center will be the brainstem, if you will, of the New Dawn. From here, ALL global governmental agencies of Euro-Phoenicia, whether local or global, along with all commercial digital information and e-commerce, will be tracked and handled. Think of this as a blending of government, banking and commerce – a kind of global seat of government, a centralized global banking system, coupled with the ease and efficiency of an Amazon Corporation times a thousand. This will be a melding – a streamlining of a single world government and all global commercial enterprises.

In addition, within the very near future, one will be able to demonstrate one’s allegiance to our New Order while having one’s every need met by a quick, simple biometric scan; all without the encumbrances of banks, credit or debit cards, or having to deal with other financial institutions; institutions that, under the old order, carried within themselves preferential treatment towards those gluttonous with wealth who gained that wealth at the expense of those who had little or none. The financial system of ALL will at last become a truly level playing field with everyone’s needs being met on an equal basis. This biometric system which will be a global identification mark called the ‘Mark of the Phoenix,’ or simply ‘The Phoenix: This biometric interface, will identify the bearer as a being an elite member of The Order of the Phoenix. All who bear this Mark will be becoming – evolving past mere humanity into a new godhood! When all the world belongs to the Order of the Phoenix, it will at long last ensure that we have truly reached the point of becoming a genuine “brotherhood of man.”

My fellows, once we are ready to fully implement The Phoenix, all who take it will be openly pledging their unequivocal devotion to Euro-Phoenicia and our Golden New Dawn. Accepting the Mark of the Phoenix will be a public commitment – a giant leap into the new universal spirituality; the first step into becoming beings that are more than mere humans. Taking The Phoenix will be the first step into changing – changing from being mere homo sapiens into advancing on to the next step of spiritual and genetic evolution; into becoming homo noeticus. It will be a merging, a singularity which will at last unite the human body with the technology of genetically enhanced Artificial Intelligence. Accepting the Mark will result in the merging of both which will initiate each recipient into becoming his/her own god!

There will be much more to say on this as the time for us to implement this new instantaneous Gestalt-leap into evolution arrives. But for now, know that the time of mankind’s next great evolutionary leap – this time a spiritual and genetic evolution, is close at hand. Be eager! Be aware! Be excited! People of this brave new Cosmic Brotherhood, you stand poised on the cusp of an evolutionary leap of such immense proportions that until humanity’s minds and bodies are fully initiated into it by receiving The Mark of the Phoenix, mankind cannot fully grasp the profundity of the changes this Mark will bring! Watch and prepare, my fellows! Your initiation via the coming mark into potential godhood will be made available very soon!

Now, before I take you on a tour of our beautiful global governmental and e-commerce facility, I need to address the monumental changes the earth herself is going through so that you will not be frightened.

Our planet is alive. It is not merely rocks, and earth, trees, water, and vegetation; no, my fellows, earth’s more! The planet has a soul. In truth, the entire universe is a living consciousness. This is an occulted truth to which you will become aware once you will have become fully initiated into the ancient universal mysteries when you receive The Phoenix.

Since our planet is alive, it too is going through great evolutionary changes and upheavals so that it, as a living being, can protect and produce for a fewer number of enlightened humanity; those who will make the evolutionary leap into the path to godhood. Not everyone will be allowed or able to remain here. Earth reborn needs a far fewer number of humans for her to sustain and preserve.

The earth herself is going through a process of rebirth. Just as man must evolve, so too must our mother earth evolve to meet our needs. Gaia is throwing off the fetters that have chained her – the very fetters that are destroying her. Through this great turmoil, she is beginning the process that will heal her from the damage done to her by the old “christian” God and those stubborn, unenlightened fools who follow him. Mother Gaia, indeed our entire cosmos, is in the process of being reborn; and with this new rebirth comes tremendous upheaval. As in all births, there is great pain, and even some danger. Our cosmic and geological rebirth is no different.

Expect there to be upheavals. Expect catastrophic change to continue for some time to come. The rebirth of a new earth and a new cosmos is emerging as well as a new humanity. Yes, there has been loss of life, and there will be more, but do not forget what I showed you!

You must learn this truth: there is no death, only a transference from one dimension to another; only an ever-upwards migration of consciousness, all occurring under the benevolent and watchful eye of the Great Overlord of the Universe – the illuminated Light Bringer of this world.

Do not grieve those who are chosen and called to move on from this place in this dimension into another. This earth needs to be cleansed. She needs to be unburdened of an overabundance of people, most of them nothing more than lower frequency parasites, whose greed and loyalty to an outdated, ‘god’ were killing her! Did we not see this process beginning long before, accelerating as she approached the event horizon of her cleansing?

Those of you chosen to remain here will become the new breed of mankind. It falls to us to help this transformation by continuing to be vigilant in rooting out and destroying all of those who refuse to follow us; those who still stubbornly cling to and follow the old ideas of national borders and national feily, and most especially those who willingly choose to cling to the christian god of their Bible. They are the true danger to our brotherhood of man!

Believe me, their god will not be dethroned without a fight. He will retaliate in fury. He will not go quietly, but we can and will defeat Him and install the rightful Overlord onto the throne of the universe! This is the time of Illumination!

There will be distress, devastation and great upheaval, but what will be reborn will be a planet, indeed, a cosmos cleansed of the old; a cosmos and world risen from the ashes of the old; the Phoenix rising into a glorious, golden age of neo demi-gods!

Embrace the upheaval! Destroy the followers of the old god who has restrained and thwarted mankind from achieving his full spiritual potential! When we will have been successful in doing that, then we will have at last succeeded in expelling the old trinitarian god from his throne! Then, at last, mankind will truly be free and on his way to his own godhood!”

Journal, the monumental arrogance and evil of this man literally takes our breath away. Very soon, in a little less than 16 months, we will be at the midpoint of these last seven years. God help and keep us.

CHAPTER 59 

Journal Entry: Monday, February 28, 2022

“And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.” (Revelation 11:3-6, KJV)

Three days after Draken’s monumental boasting speech was aired, the two witnesses in Israel, Moshe and Elias, speaking again from the steps of the Temple in Jerusalem, responded. Clad as always in those weird-looking shirts of hair and loose linen-like trousers, Moshe and Elias wasted no time responding to Draken’s latest pompous declarations. Raising his arms, his cloak thrown over one shoulder, Elias spoke:

“Hear us now, Remnant of Jacob! Turn aside from the boasting lies of the Idol Shepherd. Harken not to his boasting deceit! Remnant of Israel, recognize and follow your true Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth! Hear His words and call upon Him for salvation! These are the words of the Lord: hear Him!

‘The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee AM HE.’ (John 4:25-26, KJV)

‘I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I AM HE, ye shall die in your sins… Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I AM HE, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.’ (John 8:24, 28, KJV)

‘Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I AM HE.’ (John 13:19, KJV)

‘They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I AM HE. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I AM HE, they went backward, and fell to the ground. Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I HAVE TOLD YOU THAT I AM HE: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way.” (John 18:5-8 KJV)

‘I AM HE that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I AM alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Revelation 1:18, KJV).

“Hear these words oh Remnant of Jacob and repent, for the Kingdom is at hand!” Then Elias lifted his hands, and holding his arms stretched out before him, proclaimed in a mighty voice:

“We are messengers of the Most High God. He has granted unto us during the duration of our time here to demonstrate unto you, oh Israel, His great might and power so that you may know that He is God. In the might and power of the Ancient of Days, and in the name of Yeshua ha’Mashiach, I declare to you that from this day forward no more rain will fall in all the land of Persia or in city of Babylon until the whole of our ministry and sojourn here is complete!”

Moshe continued, his rod outstretched, “For three- and one-half days shall the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates become blood so that all may know the Lord of Sabaoth He is GOD! According to His will these things shall be done!”

Then the two Witnesses, as they so often did, walked down the steps of the Temple and disappeared into the crowd that always surrounded them. No one ever knew or saw from where they came or where they went.

Oh, how the followers of the Antichrist, both Jew and Gentile, hate these men! But like us, there are a great number of Gentiles who are already believers with more becoming believers every day. And, as Uri reminds us, there is a growing remnant in Israel who also believe in Yeshua. Although the unbelievers and God-haters far outnumber the believers, there are still those left, both Jew and Gentile, who are coming to salvation; those who will not bend their knee to the Antichrist or Satan who empowers him.

As Uri reminds us, in the end, one-third of Israel – all of Israel that will survive, will become believers.

As we knew would happen, immediately after Moshe’s proclamation, the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers turned to blood – instantly: not just red like blood, but into actual blood. Those who lived along the banks of those two ancient rivers reported that the fetid, coppery stench became at once overpowering as the fish in the rivers and other animals along their lengths died. A great number of people died from lack of drinkable water for the entire three- and one-half days that these two great rivers were polluted by blood. Also, since that day, not one single drop of rain has fallen in all of Babylon and the entire region of what was once ancient Persia.

CHAPTER 60 

Journal Entry: Saturday, March 26, 2022

“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

“And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.” (Revelation 9:1-12, KJV)

Sorry, Journal, it’s been a while. Our time is full from dawn to dusk, so to speak, although we really don’t have actual dawn or dusk anymore. Our skies now are a continual murky twilight. Around noon and for about a couple of hours most days, the skies lighten to the degree of an overcast day; enough light for us to go out hunting, fishing, or to check our traps; but by 4:00PM it is already beginning to grow dark, and by 5:00PM it might as well be midnight.

Overall, we’re holding out alright, considering. The water from our creek is still drinkable but we always filter and boil it. We keep the fireplace going all the time, both for heat and for cooking. Our stores of food are another matter. Although we are still well-stocked, nevertheless, they are dwindling at an alarming rate no matter how frugal and sparing we try to be. Vegetation is dying for lack of sunlight, and what we do have is sparse and anemic-looking. As a result, game animals are becoming more scarce, especially those that are foragers. We go out every day now hunting, fishing, and foraging ourselves.

We’ve used the hides of deer and made two more quivers. Chief and Clyde have fashioned us three more bows and made another two dozen arrows. When we go out to hunt now, the girls go with us. All of them are becoming good at bow hunting, but Sarah and Lilly have a genuine knack for it. Mitch and I are better with the bow than either Trail or Clyde, so we hunt with the girls. We try not to use our guns, although we always carry them with us just in case we should meet up with a bear or a cougar. The last thing we want is to attract attention to the fact that there are people living up here.

Every morning which, as I said, really begins around noon now, Sarah, Lilly, Mitch and I take the bows and hunt. Usually Clyde, and Uri fish, while Trail and the Chief check, set, and move our traps. Izzy and Byllie forage for any greens that might be found, or else they help fish. Izzy loves to fish. Food and warmth are our biggest needs – especially food. Every night we fall into bed exhausted and hungry, and awaken exhausted and hungry.

Sooner rather than later, we are going to have to make some decisions about our food situation. Still, we are so very grateful to God for what we do have. Despite our diminishing food reserves, we are still in better shape than are many of our brethren worldwide. We thank God and pray that the Holy Spirit will enable us to remain faithful and strong, especially now that the final trumpet judgments are in play. Day by day, we draw closer to the midpoint of these last seven years.

On the 3rd of March, God’s angel in heaven sounded the fifth trumpet and loosed upon the earth the terrifying judgment of demonic locusts written about in Revelation chapter 9. I’ve included a description of these things in this entry because the sight of them truly defies imagining. Their appearance is like something out of a lunatic’s nightmare.

Let me back up and tell you how and where this judgment began.

Situated atop a windblown mountain overlooking the coastline of the Aegean Sea is the modern Turkish city of Bergama. In ancient times, during the time when the Apostle John was being given the book of the Revelation by Jesus, Bergama was called Pergamos or sometimes Pergamum. The Church at Pergamos was one of the seven churches that Jesus instructed the Apostle John to address in a series of letters which can be found in chapters 2 and 3 in Revelation. This series of letters was addressed in a specific order to seven churches that existed then in Asia Minor, circa AD 96. Jesus had specific messages for these particular seven churches; these same churches and the order in which Jesus specified they be addressed, were also representative of the entire Church Age from her beginning to end, culminating with the rapture of the Church.

The city of Pergamos, described in the second chapter of Revelation, was called by Jesus “the place where Satan’s seat is” because located there was the Great Altar of the Temple of Zeus.

The ruins of this very temple remained in Pergamos until late in the waning era of the Ottoman Empire when the altar was dismantled and removed and transported to Germany, where it was restored and placed in Germany’s Pergamon Museum.

In this ancient Turkish city at the base of what was left of the ruined acropolis of the Temple of Zeus, on the third day of March, an earthquake of at least a magnitude 8.9 struck, destroying the entire city along with what remained of the ancient site where ‘Satan’s Seat’ was once located – one of many such pagan altars to Satan.

When this latest earthquake occurred, a tremendously long and deep crevasse opened in the earth. From its depths, great billows of smoke poured forth. Along with dark, dense clouds of brimstone-laden smoke that arose from the fissure, there also came a dense black horde of moving, flying entities – a swarm of winged creatures so extensive in size, so densely packed, that it covered the skies, blotting out all sunlight – such as there was. What people at first thought was just smoke was soon discovered to be this massive dark ‘cloud.’ Cloaked within the roiling vapors were visible manifestations of myriad demonic entities.

Revelation chapter nine describes their appearance and what their demonic mission was. In this fifth trumpet judgment, God granted permission for Satan to torment the ‘earth dwellers’ – those who worship and follow the Antichrist and refuse to repent – with great pain from the stings of these entities. These demonic locust-like creatures were granted permission to torment all those who were followers of the Antichrist, but not to kill them, not in this judgment; only to sting and torment them with excruciating, unrelievable pain for a period of five months.

These things spread out all across the earth in mere days; they could be found in every continent on earth, including Antarctica.

The Bible calls them ‘locusts’ but makes it abundantly clear that this description was only an analogy to show that, although these demonic beings swarm like real locusts and their destructive path is as vast as real locusts, that comparison is where any similarities to real locusts end. These things, although they swarm, travel en masse and leave desolation in their wake.

One huge difference from real locusts is that these demonic spawns of Hell do not devour vegetation. Their only purpose is to cause pain and torment.

Have you ever watched videos of how schools of krill in the ocean all swim together as though they were one single entity; how they move and turn, and bunch or spread in perfect synchronicity; or those little birds, starlings I think they are, that fly in absolute perfect synchronization, spiraling up and around in incredibly choreographed aerial acrobatics? Well, these demonic insectoid things moved like that – as if they had one mind which was being directed by a general; which scripture tells us they were. Whether Abaddon or Apollyon – the ‘Angel of the Abyss’ is Satan himself or some other very high-ranking fallen angel, I do not know. What I do know is that this swarm in its entirety was directed, dispatched, and controlled by a fallen angel of incredible power and satanic authority.

The strangest thing about these entities, outside of their looks, was that no one could hide from them. People who tried hiding indoors, thinking that they were safe from the sting of these demons in the form of flying Insects, quickly found out that neither walls, buildings, cars, nor any kind of solid structure could keep them out. There was no sanctuary from the demonic insects or whatever they were. Although obviously possessing actual physical bodies, they also appeared to be metaphysical in nature as well. These creatures just morphed or phased through any barrier! Wherever people were gathered, these locusts from the bowels of Hell found them, striking and stinging with lightning speed.

The poison and pain of the sting was apparently instantaneous and relentless. We watched online as people gathered inside a cafe in Berlin were overcome, the customers and staff quickly overwhelmed. Within seconds, the swarm, having stung, phased back through the plate glass window and exited as one collective unit, moving on to phase into parked cars, office buildings, individual homes – anywhere they were directed to go. Those stung were left writhing and screaming in pain that could not be relieved by any means. Nor were those stung able to die. We watched online, horrified as this same kind of thing happened all over the earth.

The only exceptions to the threat of these denizens of the abyss were the 144,000 Jews sealed by God and those who are believers in Jesus.

One evening in late March as we were all gathered in the great room of our home, getting ready to begin our daily Bible study, the ten of us came face to face with these things. That evening, we experienced our own ‘close encounter’ of the demonic kind.

We were gathered in the great room, our Bibles in hand. My back was to the front windows which were already covered in our blackout curtains. We keep the windows in the bedrooms and bathrooms covered all the time, and close the large front windows of the great room and those in the kitchen when the sky outside begins to darken from the soupy gray it always is in daylight into the inky darkness that falls like a theater curtain around 5:00 PM every evening now.

Anyway, as I said, my back was turned to the windows, but as the blackout curtains were already closed, we couldn’t have seen outside anyway. Suddenly Byllie screamed. I looked up in time to see Lilly, who was sitting next to Byllie; her face almost completely white, drained of all color. I spun around as I heard Byllie scream,

“Oh, merciful Lord, protect us!”

There, phasing in through the windows and walls of the great room, was a swarm of about thirty creatures that can only be called demons. They surrounded us in a semicircle, halting and hovering not five feet away from our faces. Instinctively, all of us jumped up, crowding together in the middle of the room. Without thinking about it or even consciously aware that we were doing it, we men encircled the four women, making a shield around them, even though we knew that we would be no barrier or protection whatsoever if these things intended to harm us.

I’ll do my best to describe what we came face to face with, but I can’t do any better than the Apostle John did when he described them. How does one describe the appearance of a creature that is utterly alien; entirely demonic; creatures that literally erupted from the bowels of the abyss?

They were about 6 inches long, their bodies entirely black and encased in a hard, shiny carapace like armor. On each side of their bodies, they had a set of transparent double wings, like dragonflies. The beating of those wings made a buzzing sound that was nearly deafening when they became frenzied or agitated. They had long, semi- transparent, segmented tails that curled back over their backs exactly like those of a scorpion. These tails could easily have been as long as their bodies if they had been stretched out. On the end of the tail was a barbed, sharply pointed stinger fully half an inch long.

The heads on these creatures were fascinating in a swooning horror kind of way. First off, their ‘faces,’ if that’s what they were, had the appearance of a man’s face – a human-like but demented, demonic visage. Their mouths, which were constantly opening and closing, looked almost as if they were hissing or snarling. Inside their mouths were rows of tiny but wickedly sharp fanged teeth. Their countenance, like the face of a crazed or raging human, was extremely disturbing to look at. Sprouting from atop their heads were long bristles that were a sickly yellow in color, sort of sticking up like hair that has been electrified and is standing on end. There was some kind of a horn-like protrusion on the top of their heads that was also that sickish yellow color. The shape of this protrusion was like a trident with a higher point in the center and two shorter ones on the side. It did somewhat resemble a crown or trident atop its head.

At first, I will admit we were all panicked, but within a minute, an indescribable peace descended over us all. Every single one of us could sense the presence and protection of God surrounding us. There could have been 30 thousand of these things instead of just thirty and we would have still felt that indescribable peace and calm.

Uri, who was out front, took a step forward, as incredibly, the entire swarm reacted as one, moving backwards. We sensed a palpable rage emanating from them; a hate and furor that was borne out of incredible evil; a satanic hatred because these things understood that they would not be permitted to harm us. Uri lifted up his hands, and with his face raised towards the ceiling, he began to pray. His prayer was in Hebrew so we could not understand but a few of his words. Amazingly, as he prayed, his face began to – how do I describe it – shine from within. As his voice grew in strength, his countenance shone brighter. The entities became extremely agitated, but they continued moving backwards, unable to stop as if there were a band of invisible angels standing between us and them, pushing them back towards the walls and windows. I got the strong impression then and still have it now that this was exactly what was happening, although we could see nothing or no one.

We watched as the swarm phased back through the windows and walls, disappearing completely. Slowly, the glow faded from Uri’s face. No one said a word but, one by one, we all knelt on the ground, faces and arms upraised as each one of us lifted our hearts in praise and worship of the Lord of all the earth. Our Bible study that night became a time of prayer and praise to God for protecting us from the sting of the denizens from Hell.

As we found out, those who were believers were protected. Those who were not believers were forced to endure the full measure of this torment, and still they did not repent. After a few weeks, hospitals refused to accept those afflicted. They moved those they had admitted out. There was nothing that could be done to either cure them or to alleviate or diminish their suffering or their agony one iota. In some countries, the afflicted were placed en masse into abandoned warehouses and other abandoned buildings. The video reports we watched on the deep web showed hundreds of thousands of people lying on makeshift pallets; some in filthy buildings, some in open outdoor spaces such as open-air stadiums. Their screams were the unending screams of the damned. This torment went on and on without a single one of them dying for five full months.

CHAPTER 61

Journal Entry: Wednesday, June 29, 2022

“And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

“By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.  And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (Revelation 9:13-21, KJV).

As so often seems to be the pattern, the judgments, once begun, usually rapidly increase in both frequency and intensity. After the demonic locusts, there was another demonic incursion into the earth from the bowels of Hell. The next invading demonic hordes came from the east, from the River Euphrates, the ancient dividing line between the east and the west. There, in the unseen spiritual realm, bound for millennia, four powerful, incredibly wicked angels were imprisoned. Bound by God for eons of time in the river Euphrates, four wicked, fallen angels were confined held captive in a spiritual dimension outside of the timeline of humanity, waiting; unable to free themselves until the set time in our dimension at last came around. God had, ages ago, prepared these four indomitable angels to be loosed upon the world at this specific hour, day, month, and year.

Also within the unseen (by us mortals) heavenly realm, within the throne room of God, the God of Heaven and Earth ordered one of the seven holy angels charged with carrying out His judgments upon earth to sound the sixth trumpet, which released the four bound fallen angels from their watery prison so that they were free to carry out their appointed destruction.

These four powerful angels that had been bound in the River Euphrates were not visible to us in our dimension; neither were the two-hundred million demonic entities who carried out the evil directives of the four fallen angels. The Apostle John, however, did see them and described their appearances in the ninth chapter of Revelation for our benefit.

It is always amazing to me to realize that we are in the midst of a raging war between the righteous forces of God and the demonic forces of Satan and his rebel angels; a battle that is being waged both in the spiritual realm and in the realm of mortal beings. This war is taking place in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld. We are participants in events occurring within the dimension of time; events visible to us and in other unseen spiritual dimensions outside of the dimension of time where we mortals reside! How incredible this is to contemplate!

This two-hundred million strong demonic army of the sixth trumpet judgment differed from the hellish locusts in three major ways. First, we were given the exact number. We are told in scripture that they are carrying out the directives of the once bound but now freed, four great evil angels. This two-hundred million horde were ‘foot soldiers’, as it were. The second way this invasion differed from the locusts was in the fact that the demons of the sixth trumpet were invisible to us, unlike the demonic locusts which could manifest physically and be seen in this dimension.

Finally, the most vital difference was that, while the stings of the demonic locusts caused unendurable pain, they were not granted permission to kill anyone they stung. These two-hundred million demonic entities however, were allowed to kill the full number of those they were allotted by God to kill – namely one third of all lost mankind.

Yet even this horrific chastisement did not make a dent in the rebellion, evil lifestyles, and God-hatred of these reprobates. Not one of the ‘earth dwellers’ repented or cried out to God for salvation. Not one of them. In fact, each progressively strengthening judgment only causes their hatred of God to harden and deepen; very much like the ancient Pharaoh of Egypt’s heart was hardened when he was confronted by Moses.

The division between those who choose to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and those who choose to worship and follow the Antichrist, Lucius Draken, is clearly and irrevocably drawn. Within a few months’ time, we will have reached the end of the first half of these last seven years. We are almost at the midpoint of the Tribulation. The prophesied events that face us from here on out are beyond horrifying. What lies just ahead is what Jesus called the ‘Great Tribulation.’

Sitting here by the fire, writing in this journal by lamp and firelight in our home on top of the mountain, I look around me at the nine people who make up the nexus of my life; nine people whom I love most in all the world. I look down and see my beautiful, uncomplaining wife whose body grows thinner by the day, but whose spirit shines brighter. I drink in her graceful beauty as she sits cross-legged on the floor huddled between Lilly and Byllie who have become her sisters, and I become undone; shaken, as the poet William Carlos Williams wrote; ‘shaken by her beauty.’ I watch as these three strong, beautiful, capable young women laugh, sharing a joke among themselves, surrounded by piles of clothes and sewing baskets as they mend and sew together.

I see Lilly and Byllie, sisters of my heart if not my blood, whom I love dearly; the sisters I have never had. I glance into the kitchen and see Izzy, our strong, calm, capable, and utterly devoted mother figure as she diligently cleans the kitchen counters then sits down at the table to plan and measure out with infinite care the little food we have left. Although she doesn’t know it, she is very much like my Grandma; so much so that sometimes my heart catches in my throat.

I look across the room at Clyde and Chief Little-John, both of whom are sitting together at a small table pulled up between them as they string yet another bow and nock more arrows for us to use for hunting. These two strong, silent men are like having two Grandpas, and mean the world to me. These men have no idea of the impact they’ve had on my life or how much I depend upon their quiet strength and wisdom.

I see Uri sitting in Grandma’s rocking chair, moving slowly back and forth, staring pensively into the fire; is he thinking of his home in Israel perhaps? Uri with his dark curls and smiling eyes; always laughing, ready to lend a hand in any situation; a friend whom we have all grown to love like a younger brother. I know that any one of us would give our lives for him just as we know he would do the same for us.

Then I glance over towards the front windows and observe my two best friends in all the world – friends who are and always have been my brothers in every way that counts. I watch them as they banter back and forth, playing a friendly game of checkers; Mitch with his kind face and laughing eyes, his quiet and introspective intelligence, serious and lighthearted all in one. And Trail, our gentle giant ‘teddy bear’ with the biggest, most tender heart of anyone I have ever known; a man, who as a boy, sat on the ground beneath a cottonwood tree weeping and holding tenderly in his cupped hands a dying bird, talking to it softly so it wouldn’t have to die alone and scared. Trail, a man with the heart and hands of a true healer.

I watch these brothers of mine with whom I’ve grown; brothers I’ve played with, fought with, fished with, gone to school with, gotten in trouble with, become believers with, and now with whom I have endured half of the Tribulation. I look closely at all these people whom I love beyond my own life, and I can’t help but wonder who, if any of us, will still be alive in the coming three- and one-half years of the Tribulation we are in? I think this and my heart squeezes in my chest.

I have to close this journal for now. I can’t bear to write or think anymore tonight. Oh Lord watch over us. Strengthen us. Carry us through whatever is to come. We cannot bear the coming days on our own. 

Seven: Chapters 52-56 :: By Alice Childs

CHAPTER 52 

Journal Entry: Friday, August 27, 2021

REMEMBERING ONE RELAXING DAY

Another two horrific trumpet judgments have just happened, and I need to write about them here, Journal. But first, I want to remember and record something good – something normal and nostalgic, because what happened later in this month of August has been another turning point in the worsening progression of judgments. So before I record the latest judgments and their consequences, allow me to tell about the last really relaxing day I spent with my two remaining best friends; a day we spent reminiscing about what happened over three days one summer in our sixth-grade year when we all learned a life lesson about the insidious nature of lying and deception.

Three days after we had finished planting our garden back in May of this year, Mitch, Trail, and I set out into the woods for another day of fishing and hunting. We had caught two feral hogs a couple of weeks before, and Clyde, the Chief, and us butchered the hogs. Earlier, the Chief and I had built a smokehouse in which to smoke the meat and fish we catch.

Each day we would go out to check and reset our traps. Our daily routine became to get ducks, pheasants, venison or anything else we could find to build up our meat stores. But today, we had planned to just fish – something we three have been doing together from the time we were knee-high to a duck.

Clyde, Chief, and the girls began going out every day gathering whatever herbs, wild greens, and edible mushrooms they could find. Uri was forbidden by Trail to go wandering around the woods on his still- healing leg, but he was able to tend to the hens and look after the home till everyone got back in the evenings. Trail had promised him that by the end of summer, he’d be good as new and could accompany us hunting and fishing. We’d promised to teach him how to fish like a Southern boy once Trail gave him the okay. Hunting and fishing have become our daily routine along with hauling water from the creek, weeding the garden, caring for the animals, and curing our meats. I was also teaching Sarah how to use her bow. I’ve found that she is a natural at bow hunting. She has a good, steady eye and arm. On several occasions, she and I went hunting together. Once she brought home a brace of rabbits. She has gotten quail, grouse, and once even a white-tailed deer.

This was our life from sunup to sundown. We all worked hard, but we were bonded into one tired though happy family.

Izzy strictly rations our salt, keeping it for curing purposes only; however, she and Byllie have become masters at flavoring our meats and stews with herbs and mountain greens so much so that we never miss the taste of salt with our food.

We were soon to realize again just how providential God is in looking after us and providing for our needs ahead of time.

That particular day, the three of us found our favorite fishing spot and settled in for a day of fishing. It was almost like old times.

As we fished on that almost warm day, we reminisced about our friendship since boyhood, and about one instance in particular. This was the time when I learned that lying comes in many forms. We all learned a life lesson that summer – one that none of us, especially I, ever forgot.

“Bobby,” said Mitch as he sat stretched out on the bank of the river baiting his hook, “do you remember that time when we were 12 years old in the 6th grade, I think it was, when you convinced that snotty kid from school that there were aliens living in this river mutating the fish? What was that kid’s name, Trail?” asked Mitch as he looked out over the water and grinned a wicked smile.

“Oh yeah! I remember that! Man, that was priceless! Mama sure was mad as a wet hen over that prank, but it was still priceless,” Trail said, laughing. Still snorting laughter, Trail looked at me and said,

“Bobby, you really got one over on old ‘I-know-everything’ Roger Rabbit.”

“We were all in on it,” I said, not able to keep the grin off my face.

“Yeah, but it was your idea, and it was brilliant,” said Mitch

“The kid’s name was Roger Ramis, but after the alien fishing excursion, we called him Roger Rabbit because he bolted just like a big old jack rabbit. You remember that, Bobby?” Trail asked, laughing.

“Roger Ramis, that’s it,” said Mitch.

” I remember,” I said, grinning.

Roger Ramis was a boy in our sixth-grade class. His dad was some big honcho at the Iverson Bank – the same bank where my Dad worked. Roger was insufferable. He was one of those kids who was a snob and a bully. He was always picking on kids who were poorer than he was or who were shy or had trouble in class or whatever. He made fun of everyone. His dad was a rude bully too. In Roger’s case, the rotten apple didn’t fall far from the blighted tree. Roger was one of those know-it-alls who thought he was the smartest person in the whole school or even the state; and he could lie like nobody’s business. I mean, the kid lied about everything.

My dad was always trying to get me to suck up to the little jerk because he wanted to stay in Jerry Ramis’ good graces. No matter how much I told my dad I couldn’t stand the kid, about how mean and cruel he was to others, my dad kept pushing me to spend time with the little snot. So that summer when I was staying with Grandpa, the five of us: me, Mitch, Trail, David, and Jack Harper, all decided we’d cut old Roger’s ego down to size. We decided that he needed to get back some of what he gave to others.

One week during the summer after we’d finished sixth grade, all the guys spent a week with me up at the cabin. We spent hours every day up in my treehouse laying our plans.

Finally, we got all the details worked out, and all five of us knew our parts well. We made plans to have a three-day, two-night campout in the woods on our property. We invited Roger to join us. Without telling Grandpa what we were really planning, we told him that we all wanted to include Roger in our campout since my dad was always wanting me to pal around with him.

Grandpa hadn’t fallen off a turnip truck yesterday though. He was immediately suspicious. He knew this kid and his dad too. Grandpa called me over and grilled me about what we were really up to. I didn’t outright lie (I knew better than that), so I answered him honestly – sorta. I told him we were just going to go fishing and spend a couple of nights in our tents, which was the truth; it just wasn’t the whole truth. He knew we were up to something, but all he said was,

“Well, you boys be careful out there. Be nice, and don’t you boys go tellin’ that Ramis kid no ghost stories or tales about Bigfoot, or no fake Indian burial grounds being in th’ woods, nor none o’ that kind o’ foolishness; ya hear me, Bobby?” he said, sternly.

“Yes sir, I hear you. I promise we aren’t going to tell him any ghost stories nor nuthin’ about Bigfoot,” I said, sincerely. And we weren’t going to tell him any such stories. The story we had planned to tell him was about aliens in the French Broad River.

The five of us had already concocted our plan and had it ironed out down to the nth degree. We weren’t going to lay one finger on old Roger. We were just going to give him a dose of his own medicine.

On the day of our campout, we got all our gear together, ready to go to our favorite camping spot. Around 4:00 that afternoon, Roger’s dad dropped Roger off at Grandpa’s with his fancy new tent and his brand-new rod and reel. As we got ready to go, Grandma handed me a sack with 2 packs of hotdogs, buns, a carton of Cokes and a bag of marshmallows. She and Grandpa knew that we boys knew how to make a safe campfire – something we did all the time during the summer. Besides, Grandpa knew exactly where we were. Our campsite was within shouting distance of the cabin anyway, so he wasn’t worried about us – not exactly. Grandma, just as suspicious as Grandpa, looked at me closely with her ‘Don’t-you-dare-lie-to me, Bobby’ gaze.

“Just exactly what are you boys really planning on doing out there?” she asked, looking at me pointedly.

“Sheesh, NOTHING, Grandma! We are going camping, going fishing, and making hot dogs!”

“Well alright,” she said, but not entirely trustingly. “But don’t sass me, Bobby. Don’t be takin’ that smart mouth tone o’ voice with me.”

“Yes’ um. I mean, no ma’am. I mean, I’m sorry, Grandma,” I said, ready to bust a gut to get out of the house. She kissed me on my forehead and told me to have fun and to ‘play nice.’ 

That early summer afternoon, we gathered all our gear and headed out to our campsite. We got our tents set up and spent the rest of the afternoon gathering sticks and wood for our campfire, clearing a safe space to build the fire.

Our plan was simple; we were going to catch old Roger telling one of his big whoppers, and then make him know how it felt to be teased, laughed at and ignorant. The plan was to set up camp, roast our hotdogs and marshmallows over a campfire, then spend the next morning fishing. After that, we’d go exploring after we ate our lunch of pb&j’s, homemade doughnuts, and lime green Kool-Aid that Grandma had packed for our lunch. Then we would fish a bit more. We planned to grill the fish we caught for dinner on our last night in the woods. And, if our plans went accordingly, we’d give old Roger a lesson about lying to boot.

We built our fire and made our hotdogs, and toasted our marshmallows. Then we got down to business. As we all sat around the campfire in the dark, Jack began.

“Hey Roger, nice fishing tackle you got there. Do you and your dad fish a lot?” Jack asked innocently.

Now, we knew already that Roger didn’t know a fishing pole from a flagpole, but we also knew he’d never admit to not knowing something – all the while bragging about being the best at whatever it was he didn’t know.

Jack – Harp, as we sometimes called him – was our set-up guy. Like I said, we already knew good and well that Roger had never so much as touched a fishing pole or rod and reel in his life. We knew this because Roger’s dad, Jerry, had once told my dad that he couldn’t stand the thought of touching a fish and that he’d never taken Roger fishing; he took him golfing instead. Can you believe it?

“I can’t stand that lyin’ little squid,” Jack said one day at recess the previous fall after Roger had gotten Jack in trouble with Old Lady Mac, our math teacher, by lying to her and telling her that Jack had tried to copy off of his paper when it was really Roger who’d been trying to cheat off of Jack’s. Of course, Old Lady Mac believed Roger. She always did.

Jack got a zero on the test, and his dad, Little Mike, had read him the riot act that night about cheating. Old Raymond was a squid alright.

“Of course I’ve fished before. I’ve done it lots of times. I’m really good at fishing,” said Roger in that smart-alec way of his that made your fists curl up just itching to pop him one right in his lying kisser; but we played it cool.

“So, Roger, what was the biggest catch y’all ever made?” asked David as if he thought this was the most interesting question in the world.

“We, uh, well that is, me and my dad, we caught a…a…a marlin one time. Yeah, it was a marlin.”

Roger, momentarily flummoxed, regained himself quickly, and of course, lied. This was such a blatant whopper, it was too much even for such an accomplished liar as Roger to attempt to get away with. I nearly jumped up right then. I was ready to go beat the ever-lovin’ daylights out of him right then and there, but Trail pinched my arm hard and gave me a warning look that said, “Don’t mess this up, Bobby!” 

Jack’s mouth dropped open. Mitch nearly burst out laughing, but pretended he was having a coughing fit till he could get himself under control. David, who never missed a beat, said in all appearance of genuine wonder, “Gee Roger, where did y’all catch a marlin?”

“Righ’chere in the French Broad, but not in this spot. We got a secret fishing spot that no one knows about but me and Dad,” the little liar said smugly.

I know now what a lonely and truly unhappy boy Roger Ramis must have been. As an adult, I can see clearly what kind of dad his father probably was, and how desperately Roger must have wanted to impress his father. Now, looking back, I can feel genuine pity for him; but at 12 years of age, all I could see was a pompous, bullying liar. At twelve, I wanted to flatten him.

“Wow,” said David wide-eyed in tones of great admiration,” was it one of the black-and-white striped ones or one of them really rare, shiny, red-and-black spotted ones?”

Now, my temper sometimes made me a wrecking ball; but David? He instinctively understood subtlety and the art of finesse.

“So, how big was this – red-and-black spotted marlin? Did y’all eat it or mount it like a sports trophy,” I asked, snidely.

Surely, I thought, he could tell by my voice which was dripping with sarcasm that I wouldn’t believe him if he said water was wet, but apparently the nuance of sarcasm went right over his head; because the next whopper he told was an even bigger lie, and he never missed a beat. 

“It was the rare, shiny, red and black one. It was huge! We, my dad, had it stuffed. He hung it on the wall in his office. It’s a’hangin’ there right now. He shows it to all his clients at the bank.”

I looked at him carefully, thinking that surely he was playing us; but, nope, he wasn’t mocking us. He was just outright lying again, assuming that we would be stupid enough to believe him. His sheer audacity stunned me. Before Roger, I had never met a genuine narcissist or a pathological liar. I didn’t know those terms at the time, but I understood the concept of them.

Now, what I knew was that his dad had no such thing in his office. I’d been to my dad’s bank plenty of times – not that I ever wanted to be there; but I’d been in both my dad’s office and Mr. Ramis’ office. What I knew was that there wasn’t so much as a minnow or even the picture of a fish on that wall in his office or anywhere else in that bank. There most certainly was no marlin, shiny-red or otherwise, anywhere else in that bank, in all of Norrisville, Iverson, America, or even Mars!

“Do tell,” said David solemnly, just as if he believed every word lying Roger said. David’s expression was so convincing that I looked at him stunned, thinking Roger was sucking David into believing his lie. But when Roger looked away for a second, David gave me a wink, so I knew it was cool.

“Well, since you know all about fishing, and since you’ve caught a marlin before, you might just be the man we need. Ain’t none of us has ever caught anything bigger than trout or big-mouth bass,” said Trail, preparing to reel him in.

Leaning forward and looking intently at Roger, Mitch said, “See Roger, there’s something we found out about some of the fish in this here part of the French Broad.” Dropping his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, Mitch continued. “Something happened here last year, and since then, we started seeing these really weird fish in the river. Now, nobody knows about what happened but us – and now you, Roger. We’ve seen these things, but until we can catch one of these alien fish and prove their existence, we’re worried that no grownup will believe us,” Mitch said, solemnly.

“That’s why we wanted to have this camping trip – to see if we can catch one of these things so the grownups will believe us. If we can catch one, then they might call in the rangers or the army or something. We might even be famous!” I said, laying it on thick.

The story we told him was the most outlandish tall tale we could come up with. Our plan worked far better than we could have ever imagined.

Around the campfire that first night, we threw out the lure. Strictly speaking, I hadn’t lied to Grandma and Grandpa. We didn’t say one word about ghosts, or Indian burial grounds, or Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster or anything stupid like that. The story I told was this:

“One night last summer we were all camping right’chere in this very spot after dark. It was a night just like this one. It was dark and we were sittin’ around our campfire roasting marshmallows, just like we’re doin’ tonight, when all of a sudden from out of nowhere, we saw this big green streak of light in the sky! It come a’shootin’ down out of the night sky, faster’n a rocket! It didn’t make no sound a’tall, but went woosh right into the river!” We was so scared, we put out our fire, packed up our tents, and went back to my Grandpa’s house, but we didn’t say nuthin’ about nuthin’. We knew the grownups wouldn’t believe us anyhow.”

Now, I never said that what we saw was an alien spaceship diving into the river. It was, in fact, a streak of lightning, and we were afraid to stay outdoors in a tent in a big storm. We hadn’t lied outright, but we hadn’t told the whole truth either. But that was the bait we threw out, and old lyin’ Roger swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. His imagination did the rest.

I told him that, after that night, we began to see these weird fish in the river; fish that looked different from the bass or trout that were in the river. I told him that most of the fish still looked like normal fish, but that these different ones came out mostly near dark. I told him we were planning on catching one of the different ones the next night. Then I said nothing else, and we all went to bed.

All the next day, he waffled between total disbelief and believing our story totally. I could never lie to Grandma, but I found out that I had the makings of being a perfidious storyteller by what I didn’t say – not a quality I am proud of now – but it worked on old Roger like a charm.

By the next evening, as it was just beginning to get dark, all five of us pretended to argue over who should be the one to try to catch one of these ‘alien’ fish. As we knew he would, Roger demanded that he should be the one to try to catch the fish – if it existed – which he doubted – and that we should stand by to identify it. “A’ course,” he said, “y’all are all prolly liars.”

He asked what this thing would look like, so we gave him a very detailed description.

“It will be real ugly,” I said, portentously. “These fish ain’t like no normal fish; not like, say, a rainbow trout that has sparkly colored scales. These here fish are ugly! First off, they ain’t got no scales like a normal fish does. These things are smooth and have this ugly, pukey green/brown color.” I kept going, ominously, but secretly gleeful.

“They got these wicked sharp spines on their dorsal and pectoral fins; and they got a flat, shovel-like head. The worst thing is that they got these nasty, long, whisker-lookin’ barbs on their mouths. They are long and skinny. They don’t have no big teeth like sharks, but them sharp fins might could cut ya to ribbons if ya ain’t careful. Some of them can grow really long! Some of ’em are as long as four feet, an’ look big enough to weigh a hunnert pounds! But they can’t live outta the water – we don’t think,” I finished, in the most foreboding tone of voice I could manage.

“Maybe you better let one of us try to catch one,” said Trail. “After all, you ain’t never seen one before, and we have.”

“Besides,” said Jack, “we don’t really know how one of them things might act if we get one. Your dad might get mad if you get hurt by one of these things.”

“NO!” shouted Roger, the great marlin angler. “I think y’all are all bald-face liars. I don’t really believe that a fish like that exists at all; but if there is one, I’m gon’ be the one to catch it,” he said, fixing us all with his mean, piggy, little eyes.

“I ain’t no liar,” I said flatly. “And there is too a fish that looks just like that. We’ve all seen ’em. They are right here in this river.”

So, we baited his hook with some live crayfish that we had caught earlier in the day and kept in a cooler full of river water for just this occasion.

As the sun began to go down, we offered one more time to try to catch the fish, but old Roger was not going to go for that. So we baited his hook and threw in his line. We honestly didn’t think we’d get a bite, but it wasn’t but about ten minutes before Roger started yelling and hopping up and down. Jack quickly grabbed his rod or else he’d have lost it. It took all of us together to pull it in. It was a big one; almost 4 feet long and well over 30 pounds. Even we were impressed.

When we got it on the bank, it was flopping around so much we were afraid we’d lose it back into the river. Jack found a river rock and smacked it on the head to kill it. Mitch shined the flashlight on it so Roger could get a good look. When old Roger saw what it was that he’d hooked, it scared him so bad he started screaming and yelling and crying – carrying on about aliens in the lake and mutant fish and invasions from Mars and I don’t know what all. He was so panicked that he was in tears. We couldn’t get him to shut up long enough for us to explain. The more we tried to calm him down, the worse he got. Finally, Grandpa heard all the ruckus and came running out to our campsite with his 30.06, thinking we were being attacked by a black bear or a cougar.

When he finally got the boy calmed down, he took a long look at the fish, then made me tell him the whole story.

“Shoot, Grandpa,” I said, aggravated, “he just caught a good-sized old mudcat, that’s all; just a big old flathead catfish. And didn’t none of us say nuthin’ about seein’ no spaceship. He made that up hisself.”

“No, you boys didn’t lie outright, but you did deceive by not telling the whole truth. That’s called lyin’ by omission, and it’s jest as deceitful as a outright lie. Plus, you boys meant fer him ta think it was a alien. That’s being deceiving, and deception is a dangerous, insidious thang,” said Grandpa.

We all had to go home and face the music from our families; but before the guys left, Grandma lined the five of us up, and old Roger too who was still sniveling and threatening that his dad was going to have us all locked up. Grandma lined us all up along the wall in the great room where she went down the line and gave us all a tongue lashing I’ll never forget. She also lowered the boom on old Roger about being a liar, a braggart, and a bully. I’ll bet that was the first time in his life that lying Roger had ever had his ears peeled by anyone; and Grandma was a master at it. We’d all rather have had a stroppin’ from Grandpa’s leather strap than suffer one of Grandma’s tongue lashings. After everyone left, from Grandpa I got a whack across the ‘seat of learnin’, as he called it, with his big leather strap – but I only got one.

He never knew I heard him; but as I was going up to my room, I stopped in the doorway listening as Grandpa spoke to Grandma. I heard him say,

“Ellen, iff’n you knew what a insufferable, boastin’ little liar that Ramis kid is, you’d know that it was really him that oughta’ve got a good stroppin’ – an’ with more’n one whack on his backside. I ain’t gon’ give those boys a pass fer bein’ deceivin’ or fer prankin’ that lyin’ little rattlesnake, but I git why they dun it.”

As I stood in my doorway eavesdropping and rubbing my stinging backside, I thought Grandpa’s voice sounded funny – kinda odd. It took me a minute to realize he was trying not to laugh out loud. I went to bed with a sore backside, but with a smile on my face. Grandpa ‘got it.’ He understood.

After Mitch, Trail, and I finished up our catch that day in May, and after reminiscing, we brought home a whole string of rainbow trout, three little-mouth bass, and one good sized ‘alien’ fish.

CHAPTER 53 

Same Journal Entry

“And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed” (Revelation 8:5-9, KJV).

Well, Journal, here’s the part I’ve been putting off writing about. Let me begin by first recounting how gracious God has been providing for us.

Our 150′ X 75′ garden area fared pretty well even with the diminished sunlight and cooler temps. From our side-yard garden, we planted half with corn and buckwheat. In the other half, we planted potatoes, carrots, turnips, several varieties of beans, summer squash, zucchini, lettuces, mixed greens, tomatoes, onions, cabbages, garlic, and various herbs. God was so gracious to give us a good yield. We now have food to can and dehydrate to put into the root cellar, corn to dry and grind into cornmeal, and buckwheat to use for bread. This, along with our wild fish and game, means that, for a while at least, we are well-set. Of course, we are more than aware that the majority of people worldwide are literally starving to death. We always pray for our suffering brethren and for the lost. We are careful to thank God for His provision, just as we are always mindful that eventually the ten of us too will soon be in their shoes.

On Sunday, August 22, without any warning, several formerly dormant and some fairly active volcanoes in diverse places across the earth erupted. Uri told us that he felt sure that these eruptions marked the first of the trumpet judgments of Revelation eight. The judgments from now on will come closer together and grow stronger in intensity. Here’s how the first of the trumpet judgments began.

In Tanzania, the Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano erupted without warning. In Iceland, several huge volcanoes erupted simultaneously, utterly devastating Iceland and rocketing ruptured ice, smoke and burning ash miles into the atmosphere. The Eyjafjallajökull volcano, a name I can’t begin to pronounce, explosively erupted. Within minutes, several other Icelandic volcanoes also erupted – all as if they had been set off like fireworks. Hekla, known as ‘the gateway to Hell,’ erupted, as did her sister volcano, Katla, just 90 miles north of Hekla.

In the Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland, Öraefajökull, the great ice-covered volcano that was Iceland’s largest mountain, also erupted with unprecedented explosive force. Iceland, as it was, exists no more.

On the island of Bali Indonesia, Mount Agung erupted, as did both Mauna Loa and Kilauea in Hawaii. According to the news sources on the dark web, scientists are clueless as to what could cause such a phenomenon. The aftermath of these eruptions is just what the Bible said they would be: fully a third part of the earth’s trees were burned up and all the grass died. We will likely be seeing the effects here too before long.

Oh Father, what are we going to do about poor old Balaam?

Within days, the next trumpet judgment slammed the earth. Will always speculated as to what the ‘burning mountain’ of Revelation 8:8-9 might be. Well, now we know. The Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, blew with such devastating force that the unthinkable happened. An enormous burning section of the western flank – almost the entire Western flank of the volcano – sheared off, slamming into the Atlantic Ocean with unimaginable force. This ‘burning mountain’ crashing into the sea created a massive mega-mega-tsunami that wiped out fully one-third of all ships in the Atlantic Ocean along with a tremendous loss of aquatic life. This unprecedented grand-tsunami also wiped out the coastline of the eastern United States and Canadian seaboard, killing an untold number of people and burying completely the Caribbean Islands and Cuba, along with most of the states of Florida and New York, the coasts of both North and South Carolina, and all the way inland from Charleston to Columbia, South Carolina – over 100 miles inland. The coasts of Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey, as well as what was left of the irradiated DC area, were further decimated with water coming inland as far as Richmond in Virginia.

The Canary Islands were obliterated, as was the west coast of Africa which was hit with waves over 300 feet high. The coastal parts of the UK and Spain took an enormous hit as well. The loss of human and aquatic life as well as shipping and sea-going vessels is incalculable.

As far as how these two trumpet judgments will affect us, we can’t yet know for sure, but one thing we do know; this was likely the last crop that we will ever be able to grow, and the fate of our dear Balaam and the hens is in grave jeopardy.

Oh, Father, please don’t let dear Balaam suffer. Show us what to do. Lord Jesus, help us. 

CHAPTER 54 

Journal Entry: Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Fall has come again to the North Carolina mountains. After a whole year, Uri is still with us. His leg has fully healed, although Trail says he will most likely always walk with a limp; well always being a relative term in these last few years of human history from creation. In truth, Uri reminds us that, either way, he will soon have a new resurrection body, so a few years or whatever time he has of limping is not that big a deal. Uri has such an upbeat personality; his infectious laugh and obvious joy in the Lord is a blessing and a boost to all of us.

It’s getting harder for old Balaam to forage now. We can’t stand to see him losing weight, and we aren’t sure he will survive a really cold winter which we are likely to have due to the tremendous amount of ash still in the air and what we know will be added to it with the coming of the next judgments. We’re going to have to make a hard decision soon, I fear. Clyde has already said that when he sees that poor Balaam has come to the place where he can no longer get enough to eat, that he will take him out into the woods and put him down. We can’t bear to think about doing that, but we can’t let this faithful friend starve or freeze to death either. What we’ve decided is that the day it’s to be done, we will give him as big a meal as we can of corn husks, corn and some of the barley, then Clyde will take him into the woods and put him down.

I truly hate this fallen world. How I long for Jesus’ kingdom! We all do. We are so tired of death and loss. At any rate, we are not to that place yet with Balaam, but we soon will be.

On a much happier note, Sarah and I have set a date for our wedding. We’ve thought long and hard about this because neither of us wants to bring a child into a world that’s deteriorating into the coming Great Tribulation. Oh, how we’ve agonized over this and prayed over it. Finally, yesterday, as we were out in the woods hunting rabbits with her bow, we knew we needed to make a final decision one way or the other. After she’d shot three good-sized rabbits and a couple of quail, we found a hollow log and sat down to talk. The air was brisk and cold, but we were warmly dressed. Besides, in the woods was the only place we could be alone to talk undisturbed.

“Bobby,” Sarah began, “you know the only thing keeping me from saying let’s get married tomorrow is the worry about children. I’ve wrestled with this for the past two years, ever since you proposed. I know that things are only going to get worse; but, Bobby, the truth that I keep coming back to is this: if I’m going to die, then I want to die as your wife. I want to face whatever comes from now on carrying your name. I know we won’t have a marriage license or a preacher now that Will’s gone, but do you think Clyde could marry us?” she asked, those stunning blue eyes holding me with her gaze.

“I know babylove. The last thing I want is to bring a baby into this hell on earth; but, like you, I’ve been praying and asking God for discernment. Sarah, my Sarah; I’ve loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you. I told you when I asked you to marry me that when I came home to Yellow Top, I wanted to make you my wife. Well, right after we got here, the great earthquake hit, then Will died and Uri was hurt and took a long time to recover, then we had to plant and hunt and then harvest, and it just seemed like everyday living kept getting in our way. We’re living in the apocalypse. There’s nothing we can do to change that. In fact, we’re heading into the third year….

“Within six months after that, we will be in the Great Tribulation. We can’t kid ourselves about how slim our chances are of surviving that. Still, I feel the same way you do. I want you to be my wife come what may; and as for children, we will be as careful as we can be and leave our worries and fears and whatever may happen in God’s hands. As for a marriage license, it’s not a piece of paper that makes a marriage, but the vows me make to each other before God. Besides, Clyde would be happier than a pig in mud to officiate our wedding; you know that. So, if you’re willing, let’s set a wedding date. Sarah Arrowood, when would you like to become Mrs. Bobby Thorpe,” I asked?

“I’d like a Christmas wedding,” Sarah immediately said, smiling and wiping tears from her eyes. I want to be married on Christmas Day – on the same date that you asked me to marry you,” she said, now laughing and crying all at once.

And we will be careful, but if God sends us a child, then we will protect it with our lives for as long as we can.

“Then, Lord willing, Christmas it will be, my love. Now stop crying before your eyes freeze shut,” I said and kissed her as I wiped her tears. “Come on, Dead Eye,” I teased, “let’s get these rabbits and quail home before they freeze solid.

Everyone was thrilled when we told them our news. The girls cried (of course), and Trail looked at me and said,

“Well, dang, Bobby, now I owe Mitch both drumsticks off of our next turkey. He said you’d be married before the end of the year, and I said old Mr. Cautious and Miss Slowpoke would still be single this time next year,” he said, slapping me on the back so hard, he nearly knocked me over. Then he picked Sarah up and danced her around the room, singing ‘Here Comes the Bride.’

“I’ll gladly give Mitch-man the whole turkey to be wrong in this friendly wager! I’m thrilled that y’all are going to finally tie the knot!” said Trail.

As the guys and I went outside to dress the rabbits and quail, Lilly, Byllie, and Izzy all huddled around Sarah, whisking her upstairs to start making wedding plans. Clyde was so touched to be asked to officiate that he was grinning like a possum. When she asked him if he’d also ‘walk her down the stairs’ to give her away since we don’t have an aisle or she a father, I thought I saw the gleam of moisture in his eyes. Both Trail and Mitch were to be my groomsmen, and Lilly and Byllie her bridesmaids. Chief Little-John, Izzy, and Uri were to be our witnesses.

This was a happy day. We don’t fool ourselves. We know the next judgments will happen anytime, but come what may, Lord willing, on Christmas Day, I am finally going to marry my Sarah.

CHAPTER 55 

Journal Entry: Sunday, November 14, 2021

Today was the day we’ve all been dreading. We found dear old Balaam down in his stall this morning. We finally got him up, but we could see he was very weak. Clyde told us that today would be the day to let him go with love and dignity. We made him as big a meal as we could, then we all came out and brushed his coat, loved on him and prayed over him, thanking God for him and asking God to somehow let him know how much we loved and appreciated him. Each one of us told Balaam how much we love him. We thanked him for being such a faithful friend. Even Uri spoke to him in Hebrew, petting his nose and thanking him for carrying him here to us.

I absolutely believe that Balaam understood that we were saying goodbye, and honestly? – it almost seemed that not only did he understand, but looked relieved. He nuzzled all of us, whinnying softly as if he were telling all of us goodbye too. After about an hour with him, Clyde led him out on wobbly legs and took him out into the woods to one of his favorite grazing spots. When we heard the shot, all the women were openly weeping, and the rest of us were wiping tears away. When Clyde came back in, he took off his hat, put the gun away, sat down in Grandpa’s chair, and putting his head in his hands, he wept.

Sorry, Journal, I can’t write anymore today.

Merciful Lord, thank You from the bottom of our hearts for dear Balaam. He was a gentle, faithful, hard- working fried. We loved him. He served us well. Thank You for the time You gave us with him. We will miss him. Father, these losses hurt so bad. 

CHAPTER 56 

Journal Entry: Thursday, December 9, 2021

“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!” (Revelation 8:10-13, KJV).

So often now, we can see in retrospect, the mercy of God in everything that happens, as difficult as it is to endure. Eleven days after we put down old Balaam, the next two trumpet judgments happened one right after the other. Of course, it was a few days until we found out exactly what happened. We’ve had to make some exceptions to our rule of staying off of the deep web as much as possible. We need to know what’s going on. Via Mitch’s dark or deep web internet connections, we monitored both the uncensored news we got from his contacts and the managed propaganda from Draken and the EP. After a few days, we pieced together what happened.

Even though we are not affected by the main event that occurred, the entire earth will be affected by the results of it. We were right in thinking that our garden this year will certainly be our last. God was so merciful in granting us a good harvest. He was also merciful in letting us know in time to let our Balaam go so that he will not have to suffer further hunger, cold, or not being able to breathe in the soot and ash-choked air. Even in our greatest heartbreaks, God’s mercy always shines through. Will and Mike and Vin and so many others we love, including old Balaam, have been spared all of these horrors. Even in pain, God is merciful. First, let me set down what happened.

It was an asteroid – well over a mile and a half wide. Even the pagan scientists unwittingly fulfilled Bible prophecy by naming it ‘Wormwood,’ which it absolutely was. It came seemingly out of nowhere and took the entire pagan world by surprise. We believers, though, knew that Wormwood, whatever it was to be, was coming. This over-a-mile-and-a half-wide behemoth traveling at speeds of over 50,000 miles per hour, bludgeoned its way into our atmosphere; a cosmic battering ram. Upon entry into earth’s atmosphere, it broke into three enormous pieces plus a multitude of smaller ones, the smallest piece being the size of a two-story house. Wormwood struck, slamming into the earth like a mighty hammer of God. It broke apart, striking the earth in three main places, causing indescribable damage where it hit, contaminating fresh water supplies over one-third of the earth’s freshwater sources.

The smallest of the three largest pieces of the asteroid, a piece of galactic rock that was the size of a 30- story building, landed in Hudson Bay, Canada. The impact nearly destroyed that huge bay, contaminating the waters of a lake so large that all of the Great Lakes could have fit inside that one body of water. It left a shockwave of destruction one and a half times the size of the city of Chicago. It was a tremendous impact. But it was the two biggest portions of Wormwood that caused the worst damage.

The second largest portion, the size of two football fields, struck earth in the northern Andes with a force great enough to cause an earthquake of nearly 8.9 magnitude. The shaking could be felt nearly 2,000 miles away. The headwaters of the Amazon were utterly befouled by the components of the asteroid itself and the resultant debris generated from the impact of this gigantic chunk of space rock. The result of was that the headwaters of the Amazon and its tributaries have become poisoned. The loss of aquatic life, animal life, and human life all along the Amazon River basin is beyond staggering.

If these first two gargantuan asteroid impacts were horrific, the annihilation caused by the largest portion of Wormwood was beyond description. What word is there to describe an event so overwhelmingly destructive that it impacts the topography and very lifeblood of an entire continent?

The biggest portion of Wormwood struck earth in Central Africa about five miles from Lake Victoria. The impact from this nearly mile-wide, burning asteroid tore a gash into the earth that shattered and pulverized bedrock for almost a hundred miles out from the point of impact. The impact gouged into Central Africa a crater equivalent in size to the states of Virginia and West Virginia combined. When the largest portion of Wormwood hit there, it set off an earthquake off the Richter scale that demolished nearly all of Kenya as well as Uganda and Tanzania. Mt. Kilimanjaro erupted, sending even more ash and debris into the earth’s already highly polluted atmosphere.

Lake Victoria was all but obliterated. The ‘White’ Nile which had its source near Lake Victoria and its multitude of tributaries, including the so called ‘Blue’ Nile, were completely polluted, their headwaters poisoned, as were hundreds of other lakes, rivers, and waterways throughout Africa. Lakes, rivers, streams, and tributaries fanning out from the point of impact were contaminated by asteroid debris along with the atomized remains of animals, humans, and vegetation. The effects of Wormwood on the freshwater sources in Canada, the Amazon, and most especially in Central Africa are beyond anything that could be called devastation. The rivers, lakes, and waterways corrupted by Wormwood will destroy most of Central Africa and the other African countries and areas that are dependent upon the Nile.

To give a picture of the absolute ruination of this event on central Africa alone, including the surrounding areas that will suffer long after the initial impact, perhaps a little geography lesson might help. When I began to look at the area of devastation in Africa, I took out Grandpa’s atlas and was stunned. The vastness of destruction the initial impact of Wormwood made in Canada, South America, and especially Africa is beyond my ability to comprehend, let alone explain. The effects from it will be even more far-reaching and calamitous than even the best scientific minds can have imagined; yet incredibly, according to Revelation, during the last half of the Tribulation, there is far worse destruction yet to come.

The so called ‘White Nile’ is the headwaters or prime stream of the entire Nile whose source was thought to begin near Lake Victoria. The ‘Blue Nile’ tributary which begins in Ethiopia at Lake Tana carries most of the volume of water because it has a greater depth. The ‘Blue Nile’ tributary carries two-thirds of the volume of water of the total Nile River. The two major tributaries – the White and Blue, form what some call the ‘Red Nile’ tributary in Khartoum, Sudan. In reality, all of these are part of the great Nile River which continues through Egypt, flowing northward to the Mediterranean Sea.

The Nile River is considered to be the longest river in the world, well over 4,000 miles long. It flows northward into eastern Africa, eventually emptying into the Mediterranean. The Nile flows through eleven countries whose inhabitants depend upon it for their very life. With the freshwater of the Nile and its tributaries poisoned by Wormwood; with Lake Victoria obliterated, corrupted with literally tons upon tons of ash and other biological contaminants from Wormwood’s impact that now covers the entire continent of Africa; the dead and rotting corpses of animal, fish, and human remains – nearly all freshwater sources in that entire region are now irreversibly blighted, and many more will become so once the immense cloud of pulverized, atomized rock, vegetation, and human/animal debris spreads across earth’s atmosphere.

Before long, the effects of Wormwood will be global, and nearly one-third of daylight, moonlight, and starlight will be darkened.

Even here in the mountains of North Carolina, we will soon be suffering the effects of Wormwood which will include much less sunlight, much more darkness, and much, much colder temperatures; and this just as we are going into winter. The darkness, dying vegetation, and further contaminated atmosphere will affect not only our ability to grow food next spring (if we will even have a spring, which seems unlikely), but it will also kill off many of our fish and other food animals that will be affected by the diminished light, less food for them to forage, and longer and deeper cold. Wormwood will affect one third of the world’s trees, vegetation, and available sunlight as well as one-third of the earth’s fresh water.

Very soon, we will be entering the second year of the Tribulation; moving ever closer to the midpoint of these last seven years. Day by day, we move closer to the time that Jesus Himself called the ‘Great Tribulation.’ God help us all.