Fate, Fire and a Teenage Girl:Part 3-The Breath of God

I visited the Gardeners again the next day and we sat around and discussed the Bible and how Christ was coming back soon and how we would all be going up in the Rapture. Aileen said there would be another meeting tomorrow night at a different house and you guessed it, Win would be there. I decided to observe him more carefully, since the Gardeners fully believed that he was a modern day apostle.

So Monday night came and this time Luu drove me to a Spanish-style house that looked a little haunted. The sky was dark and thunder was rumbling in the distance. I thought to myself: “Oh boy, this night’s going to be a strange one!” And it was! The first bit of news was that Lee who was the big doubting Thomas of our previous meeting wasn’t going to be here tonight because his car broke down a few days ago. "Mmmm," I thought. "That's interesting."

The meeting didn’t start until 8:30. Steve was there but where was Win?? Most of the same people from last time came but there was an older man there this time with a tape recorder.

We soon started singing and in the middle of: “…they’ll know we are Christians by our love…” I turned around and there he was! This time he came with a fellow girl disciple. He recognized me by a nod and I said “Hi.” We sang a few more songs after that. Then we shared, but I didn’t get time to say anything.

 Next, Win started a half hour discussion of the power of Christ. One girl asked him a question. “I knew of a boy who was filled with the Spirit but he fell out and went back to grass, acid and drugs. What can I do for him?” He replied: “All those who accept Christ and fall out, Christ will bring back. I, around a year ago, was prayed over, but I continued taking drugs and partying. But God got back at me. I worked in construction and I would carry these huge beams on my shoulders. One day I was carrying one when I felt the presence of Jesus behind me and he told me ‘Now you know how it feels to carry a cross.’ On February 28, 1971, I came back to the Lord.”

“Yeah,” she said, “My friends think I’m straight, but when they offer me temptations like drugs, and I admit I don’t want them, I feel silly.”

“Well, you shouldn’t! I’m as straight now as you can get. Everyone in this room should be straight. Christ said “Straight and narrow is the way of the Lord.”

He also said “Evil is growing by leaps and bounds. Why I could go into a small store in downtown Tampa and buy a package of human fingernails or bones or the blood of animals. Yes, the middle ground is fast disappearing. There used to be some people who could go to church, guarantee they were saved and forget about God. Well, that in between state is falling apart fast. Either you’re for Christ or you're against Him.”

He spoke a little more and told us some more stories about the power of God. Then the man with the tape recorder was introduced as a priest from Biafra who told us about what he had gone through.

Next, Winn prayed over everyone there. Then Bobby who was a guy wearing steel-rimmed glasses, got up from a sitting position. Win got in front of him and held out his hands and they pressed their palms together. Win demonstrated the breath of God. He blew on him. As soon as he did, the other guy fell peacefully backwards and two other boys caught him and laid him down. Everyone laughed quietly, although why it was so funny, I cannot put into words. In fact after this happened we were all in a much happier and united mood than we were at the previous meeting except for Steve who was very quiet and did not talk as much as he had the last time…(to be continued....)