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A "Tea CAFE/CALM/JESUS CAMP THINGY"
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2008/2009 stuff...
Hey Family! I see that there are many of you checking out this site as you are scouting the web looking for info on what's happening down here in Florida this year. There are small groups of family arriving each week. Lately, they've been stopping in here at the church grounds looking for info and a little help. As I write this (Nov 16th) I know of only ONE very small camp staying near the 2005 gathering site. If you have specific questions about updates, you can email me (mark4yeshua AT Gmail DOT com) and I will get back to you with any updated information. Mostly, those who are down here are still running around looking for each other and a place to dig in. Yesterday, I took two family up to where that small camp was. I also picked one brother up who was tired and wanting to get off the road for a while and put him on a bus for home. He hopes to be back for the gathering. Unfortunatley, the forest authorities here think that you don't have the right to come here and camp and enjoy the beauty of YOUR National Forest. They have been hassling family to no end. Just a head's up. Remember, we are Lovin' You! And JESUS LOVES YA BEST! Pastor Mark What is OUR PART of the Rainbow
Family of Living Light?
Each year hundreds or thousands of members of the rainbow family from all over the United States gather in the National Forests for a "spiritual" event called a gathering. What is a rainbow gathering you might ask? Well according to Wikipedia, a gathering is a temporary intentional community, typically held in an outdoor setting, based upon espousing and practicing ideals of peace and love, harmony, freedom and community as a consciously expressed contrast to mainstream popular culture, comsumerism, capitalism and mass media. Did that make sense to you? To Quote another ministry that reaches out to this group... This
counter culture group, established in the early 70's, consists largely
of American nomads - an eclectic band of New Agers, Hare Krishnas,
Buddhists, hippies, gutter punks, and teenage runaways, - who have been
rejected by mainstream society, and are now finding acceptance in each
other. The group gathers in numbers from two hundred to over 40,000 in
national forests to worship many gods. Some of them are known to follow
tours of bands like The Other Ones (the remainder of the Grateful
Dead), Phish, Widespread Panic, etc.
Here is
a video that will show you a litte more about who they are.
OUR MISSION is to live among them and be Jesus. We set up a campsite with some tents and a bunch of other cool things and serve tea, coffee, snacks. We offer warm clothes, blankets, Bibles, and any other need that we can feasibly provide - all in the name of the Lord. Most importantly however, we share Jesus. At any given time, there is a warm fire going under a tarp where one can sit and just talk, sing along with the guitar players, read a book, and basically just be loved by brothers and sisters in Christ. We call our campsite "Yeshua Lodge". Yeshua as some will already know is the Hebrew name of Jesus. These pages are dedicated to showing you as best we can, what Yeshua Lodge is about. We covet your prayers as we reach out in love to this counter culture group called the Rainbow Family of Living Light.
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2008 Outreach
Journal and Photos
| January 01, 2008 Well, 2008 is here and the Rainbows are already arriving. On New Year's Eve, we drove up to Shanty Pond which seems to be the 'Holding Camp' again this year and brought up some blankets and things. Tonight and tomorrow night we are supposed to have record cold temperatures. Down into the 20's. I knew that many of these folks would not have warm enough sleeping bags or even coats or sweaters, so we wanted to get something up there to them before the freeze hits. Last night, Pastor Chris from Logos went up there and brought a mini DVD player and the 'Narnia' movie. We had thought about joining him, but decided to remain home and just enjoy our family together. It would be nice if we had one of those mini DVD players. I have wanted to get one for this very reason. It would be wonderful to show the Jesus Movie or some other family oriented films out in the woods once in a while. Show the movie, serve popcorn and just share Jesus afterward. We'll have to keep praying for one of those. I imagine we will be interacting with the rainbows a little more each week from now until the first of February when we will be setting up the Yeshua Lodge campsite for 'fulltime' ministry. On January 11- 13th, there will be what is called a 'Vision Council' camp. This is where everyone who wants to, comes and sits in the 'Circle' and helps to make the plans for the location of the Gathering and any other thing that might come up. There are Elders, but most of the time it is a group decision based on majority rule. So... we'll know where the Gathering location will be in about two weeks. Be blessed everyone! Pastor M January 17, 2008 More and more of the Family is arriving. They have been staying at the make shift, unofficial "Holding Camp" I guess up near Shanty Pond. This weekend they had what is called 'Vision Council' where they were supposed to decide where the gathering would be in the forest this year. January 24, 2008 Well, we've been wanting to go out and see where the "family" who are here have been staying and to pray over them and to see maybe if there would be anything that we could do for anyone. When we went up there last time, we were able to bring some first-aid supplies and things as well as tend to a burn on the hand of one of the young brothers. Today, Max and I drove out Forest Road 573 10.3 miles until we came to the intersection of FR 579. At that point, we had to turn north. We didn't go far and found two school buses parked where we were told we might find them. The intersection here was FR road 560. At first glance, you wouldn't know that this was where anyone would be camping, let alone 100 or so people.
We parked the truck and
started walking into the area and the first thing we saw was a detour
sign made out of card board. I assume someone put it there to be
funny because we just kept walking and got to where we needed to be
going. I met several 'A-Campers' at the front of where all the
people were camping. Sometimes these A campers will get to
drinking and act like they are toll collectors or something and try to
beg for booze money from the people coming and going. These
"A-Campers" are NOT in the spirit of the Rainbow and most rainbows
don't like their behavior. Alcohol is not supposed to be allowed
inside of a Gathering. This is why these 'A-campers' are at the
gate and not further inside the gathering site.
On our way out, a couple of these 'A-Campers' asked if I was going to town and if I would pick up some "yeast" for the " Booze Kitchen". They said that their motto was... "Make Booze, Not Bombs."
We met Rocky Racoon today. He said that he had just gotten in from the road. I had never met him before. He had this little "kiddie toy" one man tent and I have no idea how he is able to sleep in it. He didn't tell me much about himself other than that he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and had just gotten in from the road. He looked very tired. Sometimes, the 'A Campers' get all drunk and as I mentioned, they will set up road blocks to try and collect tolls and things. They only do this to try and get money for booze. There is never a charge to go to a Gathering. Never. The A Campers were drinking at their little camp, but there was a sign that said "No Alcohol Beyond This Point" as you walked further into the area. Today there would be no road block. However.... On the way out, there were three children who had drawn a line in the sand across the path. As Max and I approached, one of them jumped out and said... "If you want to pass the F&^%ing road, pay up or we will kick your A*%!!! They used language that I would have never dreamed a kid their age would have known. All I said was that if they tried to beat my butt, that my dog would bite their's. They replied that they needed to "kill the dog!" "Peace I leave with you, my
peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let
not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27
So we get ready for this year's gathering.
We are looking forward to meeting many wonderful new friends, and
sharing Jesus Christ with many of them. Hopefully, some of you
can come out and volunteer some of your time and be with us. Its
a great opportunity to make new friends and share the Lord.  A couple of Rainbow Campsites in a Temporary "Holding Camp."  The Brother who introduced himself as 'Rocky Racoon'. Thanks for your prayerful support! We love all of you! Will add more soon! Pastor Mark & the Team Feb 06, 2008 It has been a weird year. As much as the Rainbows say they have no leaders, there is an Elder group in place. Many of these Elders do most of the work and much of it is taken for granted by the younger people in the "family". The Elders have council meetings and decisions are made based on group concensus, etc. This year, the Elders have grown tired, have had zero to only a few council meetings and have done little to prepare for the gathering. Consequently, everything is in a mild state of caos. We scouted out a site for our camp today and might have even chosen one. I marked it with the GPS and a small sign, but we are not going to move out there until we feel the Lord release us to start setting up the camp. So far, the Holy Spirit has stopped us from setting up and I can only suspect it is because of the un-organized state of things. Oddly enough, I think that we are going to be included in an "inside" council metting this coming Friday. THAT is pretty amazing - having several "Jesus Campers" be in on the main decision making. I sense something really awesome that the Holy Spirit is doing and I am just listening and walking on the path that he is laying before me. I had the camera with me the last few times out there, but didn't take any photos. Therefore, nothing to show you there. We received some of the things we've been praying for the other day and I am meeting a brother from the part of the body south of here in the morning to get some more of the supplies we need. Update more soon! Lovin ya! Pastor M February 08, 2008 Well, after much prayer and some more invesitagation, we have decided to move our ministry campsite location to a different area. It's closer to home and we can go out and come home easier. The Gathering this year is split three ways. A main site, a secondary site, and then a third, completely different Gathering all together. We will be ministering at both the first and second location, with our campsite located at the second location. We did have a small council meeting of sorts last night, and determined that we do not want to be where a lot of lawlessness is and most of the drinking and such is taking place. We won't be where most of the action will be, but we feel this is the leading of the Holy Spirit. We will be able to offer a quiet, peaceful campsite, which is our goal anyway.   Tyler and Max on the left. Some "hippes" around their fire on right. We are planning on moving out
there tomorrow morning and setting up 'Yeshua Lodge'. The Lord
answered our prayers and supplied some snack items and tea, so we can
begin that part of the ministry. We also have a good amount of
first-aid supplies and toiletries. We were supposed to get some
more tea and coffee on Thursday, but that didn't arrive yet and we
think we are getting it this Sunday.
  We have some volunteers who
want to come up from Tampa, and we will probably call them back
sometime Saturday morning and let them know they can come up if they
want to. We appreciate all the prayer we can get, so the rest of
you who visit our web site on a regular basis, please bring us before
the Father and ask for direction, protection, wisdom and guidance as we
do our best to follow the Holy Ghost's leading in this year's ministry.
  Pastor Mark praying by the main fire on evening one. February 09, 2008
Well, we've started to set up camp today. As I think I mentioned, we are in the smaller, more quiet of the three gathering areas. We were welcomed with open arms and remembered by several of the folks that met us last year. We are set up in the very back of one of the campsites in a nice quiet spot. This will offer peace when needed. We are making signs when we get back out there later. "Yeshua Lodge" "CALM" (means first-aid) "Jesus Camp" and any number of other sayings written on cardboard.   Setting up the big over head tarp and the four-man tent used both for our housing AND storage this year. There are a few people who
are sick with colds already. We handed out some packages of soapy
wet-ones and some cold relief medicine and told them wash their hands
frequently. There is also a brother who is doing tatoo-ing with a
home-made machine that he powers with 9 volt batteries. This
can't be the safest of practices. I am going to make sure that we
have a lot of anti-septic and alcohol with us in the first aid kit and
hand it out liberally to those who get tatooed.
 LEFT: A rainbow brother getting his homemade tatoo machine ready. RIGHT: Just Hanging Out.  A tatoo artist using a home-made machine to do his art. Tyler and I are the only ones
on the team so far this year. We were hoping to have Lee come
home from California, but we haven't had the funds to get him a ticket
home. He is done with his programs out there and we wanted to
bring him home to work with us and maybe Teen Challenge - in
Orlando. But Tyler and I make a pretty good Father and Son
ministry team. We both know how to do deliverance if needed, and
we both certainly can pray! We prayed with 'Marie' for healing
this morning and she said that she actually felt way better when we
were done. She is one of those with a bad cold like virus.
  Some pictures of the campsite  Tyler taking a break from setting up the camp. 
 LEFT: A hippe neighbor RIGHT: Pastor Mark and 'Tree' our Rainbow friend Some of you reading this
might find this hard to believe... I did too at first. But the
local, state and Federal Authorities can do some pretty mean spirited
things to a group of people they don't like. Last year, the
Federal Gov't dropped bombs -LOUD BOMBS- at the bombing range in the
Ocala National Forest while the Gathering was going on. For two
days, off and on, there was deafening explosions that shook the ground
and everything connected to it. Why? I live here in the
forest and they had not done this at any other time of the year.
Yet they did it during the gathering. The Rainbows will tell you
that they did this on purpose just to hassle them. I am not
sure. And this year...?
Yesterday, when we were out there, there was not a single sign anywhere saying that there would be a controlled burn or anything. Yet this morning when we were arriving, there was a big sign on the main road that wasn't yet turned on, but was the kind that they use to warn drivers of 'Smoke' or 'Fog'. When we arrived at our camping area, the woods just across the road from the campsites was ablaze with fire and smoke! Only a hundred or so yards from where these people are camping in their tents. Was it a planned burn? Was it done to hassle the Rainbows? I am not sure. All I know, is that these Rainbows need the love of our Creator God, Jesus Christ. Lovin' you! Pastor Mark 
 The management burn just across the road from where the Rainbow Family is camping. February 10, 2008
We worked on setting up camp all day yesterday and spent our first night in the forest last night. Already some awesome things are taking place. After dark, it got really quiet. As I've mentioned, we are set up where the smallest group of rainbows are camped. I've been tempted to call it 'Gatheriing East'! LOL It has the least amount of people and is really the most peaceful and well behaved. There is a trail between both gathering locations and its about a 3 mile hike from one to the other. At our location, there are two "Main" fires and the little one by our campsite. Tyler and I were sitting by our fire and I noticed that it got very quiet by the main fire closest to us. I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to go and visit, bringing some Toosie Roll Pops. The hippies call sweets "ZU ZU's". They were a hit! I visited with them for a while and told some stories. All of my stories were faith based, mostly real life stories about things that the Lord had done in and around my life. Everyone was extremely open to talking about God and even more spicifically, Jesus. 
 Singing Jesus Songs around the fire at "Gathering East" Jesus really began to move
and I felt like I should go and get my guitar. The kids were
excited about this, so I got it and returned to do some singing.
I started out by telling them that I would sing them a song that the
hippies sang when I was one of the originals in the late
1960's. We sang, 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone'.
LOL I figured I would sing a few folk songs and then after they
got into the music, I would sing some Jesus Music. Whoa!...
The Lord moved! It was totally cool.
After about three songs, one of the kids asked me if I ever heard of the song 'Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord'! LOL Praise the Lord! I told him that I thought I did and started to play it. Before long, all of this hippies were singing the worship song. Some of them, you could tell that they had known the Lord or attended church when they were younger. Sure, some of them had beers in their hands, others a joint of pot... but that's ok. Sinners, sin. What else can you expect? I get irratated sometimes at those who get all upset because this person acted this way, or that person that way. They are SINNERS! Sinners act like sinners for the most part! So, if I am in a sinners camp, and they sin, or light up a joint, or drink a beer while I am telling them about Christ, or singing a Jesus song? I shouldn't be surprised. As long as they listen. We were at least getting the message across. Gods Word is getting out.   Heating tea & coffee on the fire at Yeshua Lodge -- Tyler stomping a log to burn.
We had worked pretty hard
most of the day, so Tyler and I were both pretty tired pretty
early. He went to bed really early for him, and I was only an
hour or so behind him. Max and I sat by the fire and enjoyed the
quiet of the night and the beautiful stars. The fires were still
burning just to the west of us a few hundred yards, but the breeze was
blowing the smoke away, so the night sky was relatively clear. I
finally started to nod off about 11:00 P.M. Before I could turn
in, one of hippie sisters came over really coughing from the bad
virus. I gave her some honey cough drops and a cup of chamomile
tea.
I am co-pastoring a small church right now, so I needed to get up and come in early this morning. When I opened the door of the tent I discovered to my shock, smoke everywhere. The smoldering fire across the road had really smoked us, causing suffering especially for those who have asthma or allergies. Tyler has a little of both, so I made sure that he had his inhaler with him. 
 Notice all the smoke from the Forest Service Burn. Early morning, staying warm around the fire. At the moment, we are getting
ready to head back out. Thanks every one of you who have been
praying for us!
In Jesus! Pastor Mark February 12, 2008 Wow! We've been able to update more than last year! On Sunday, some friends of ours from the Dade City area came up to brings some supplies and visit the mission site. We had a great time of fellowship. Joe and Susie were able to meet some of the "hippies" and even have a meal with them. We even had prayer together at the main circle. It was really nice having them come for a visit. 
 Pastor Mark, Susie, Joe and Kenny at the Main Circle Fire at the "Gathering East". We've had some good ministry
happen already and the 'official' Gathering doesn't start until the
14th. Most of you reading this know that we do not go to these
gatherings and interact in all the happenings of the actual
gathering. We go in and "live" in the midst so to speak, but set
up away from where most of the action happens. This allows us to
be in a peaceful place where we can minister un-hindered to those the
Holy Spirit sends to us.
Yesterday we had several come in, but three are especially worth mentioning and asking prayer for. 'Chelsea' is 5 months pregnant and very sick with some kind of cold virus. It sounds like something heavy going on with her lungs. Naturally, she can't take any medication. We talked about her spiritual background and fed her some chicken soup and stuff. Timmy also came in and asked for some soap and shampoo so he could wash up. He's been kicking heroin for several days and really needed a bath. He grew up with an Independent Baptist Pastor for a dad who was very strict in a very legalistic and over bearing way. Consequently, he and his siblings have all ran away from the church and to the world. Timmy is trying to find Jesus again. Thank God we found him, or he found us. Pray that we will be able to disciple him while he is with us. He will be going to a solid church in Miami when he goes home. So many children who grow up in the situation he grew up in leave the church for good. They equate Father God with thier earthly mean spirited, hard disciplining, un-loving dads. 
 Chelsea, Timmy and Pastor Mark
at the Campsite. - Oh and MAX too!
We would ask you to also pray
for Drew. Drew is 19 years old and has been in foster homes most
of his life. His birth family was messed up and apparantly the
family that adopted him at the age of 4 was also messed up. He
and a friend hopped on a bus in Oregon and headed to Florida because
they wanted to lay on a beach and try to find direction for thier
lives. A rainbow brother found them on the bus and invited them
to join the "Family" at the Rainbow Gathering. Searching for
love, acceptance and a place to belong, they were of course easily
persuaded to follow. Drew has been coming around our site and
asking about Jesus. We talked about the Heavenly Father who loves
him so very much and I sang him some Jesus songs. I feel that he
is one of the main reasons we are out in the woods this year.
Keep praying. We will keep you updated.
 Pastor Mark Singing Jesus Songs to 'Drew'. There are a couple of other
great Christian brothers out there - Cooper and Ray - who have been
living in their vans and ministering at festivals and gatherings and
concerts for over a decade. (I'll get some pictures and post them
soon) We have formed a prayer alliance. Tyler of course prays for
me when I am singing or talking, and I for Tyler if he happens to be
talking with someone. We are also doing the same with Ray and
Cooper. Whenever we see one of the 'Army' ministering to someone,
the rest of us back them up with heavy prayer.
We are expecting some rain and wind in the next few days, so we need to get back out there and batten down the hatches - tighten the ropes and put up a few more tarps and things. Thanks for all of your prayer and support. We are in a battle for the souls of these "kids". Satan will not give up without a fight. Your prayers are very much needed and we do not take them lightly. Just received a tornado watch... Loving you all! Pastor M "For Christ's love compels us..." 2 Corinthians 5:14 
 Brother Ray, a follower of Jesus and our Prayer Tree at the Lodge. February 16, 2008 What an amazing blessing. God is so wonderful. The TRUE body of Christ is so wonderful too. It has been a more difficult spiritual battle for me this year. We are not at the site where the main gathering has finally been located. As I mentioned, we felt the Holy Spirit lead us to one of the secondary sites where there is a smaller group of people. The other main site, where the gathering was supposed to be had the officials show up and arrest and ticket and tow away both people and vehicles. They came to where we are set up and told the group that they were in compliance and would not be hasseled. Those who were at the main site have since moved to an area about 30 miles north and have secured a permit for the gathering. The people here at the site where we are at have chosen to remain and have their own seperate gathering. Consequently, there has been more drinking. It seems that God often places us in the darkest places, places where the most hurting and the most outcast will be. I understand that. This part of the 2008 gathering is seems to be for sure where the most hurt are hanging out - where the ones who want to mask their pain with chemicals would rather be. I do need special prayer though. While I have a heart and a burden for the most broken, it is hard for me to minister to them and have patience when they are highly intoxicated on alcohol. I can not stand it! I try to stay away from them when they are really drunk and only deal with them when sober, but given the dynamics of this kind of event, this is not always possible. So.... pray for me that I will learn from this experience and love, love, LOVE.... and not say things I shouldn't. I am sure that part of the reason this is happening is for my personal growth. Thank you Daddy God. :) Naturally, because of the above, the needs are greater. I know that God has us right where we are supposed to be and the ministry is heavy. Thankfully, God has sent a group of wonderful volunteers to help us be the hands and feet of Jesus to broken people. Joe and Susie have been with us now for a few days and it has been such a wonderful blessing having them there. God has gifted them with a deep love for the lost and the outcast. They have been such a blessing and I am so thankful for them being there. Yesterday they took the sister (Chelsea) who is going to have a baby to the Hospital and ministered the Father's love on her all day long. Hopefully, the relationships formed on that trip will continue and they will be able to help her in the future. We are praying that maybe this young girl will feel like she wants to get off the road for a while and have her baby in a clean, warm environment where there isn't a lot of wood smoke and booze and stuff all over the place. Joe and Susie have invited her I think to a place like that, but she of course needs to want to come. It is available for her if she needs or wants it. Then she can return to the woods if she wants, or perhaps will feel like she fits in wherever the Lord would bring her. 
 Sitting around our fire and praising the Lord in Song. Another group of volunteers arrived yesterday. Six young people from all over the country came and joined the team for a few days. They have been a blessing too. During the day, they walk around and love on the hippies at the site, and durning the late night, we all sit around and worship the Lord with strings and other instruments. We were having a worship session last night and we could hear the rowdiness of the alcohol drenched crowd not too far away. Joe mentioned something about blowing the shofar. We all encouraged him to do so. Joe got it, stood up and blew a victory, call to arms blast on the rams horn and WOW..... The party was silenced and confusion came over the Alcohol camp. A little later, a couple of other Christians came in to tell us that the entire spirit of the gathering was changed the minute Joe blew the Shofar! PRAISE THE LORD. His presence was ever more apparant after that and we really began to sing and praise around our fire. Several of the lost hippies came over to sit with us after that.   We had a wonderful time in
Worship and the enemy was silenced!
I don't know how long God will have us our there, but we are trying to just be obedient. We might be out there the rest of this week.. we might be out there the rest of the month. Just keep praying for the seeds that we plant, the Word that we share and any souls we may harvest. Oh! Speaking of harvesting souls! Last year, we led Damon to Christ. You can read about him in the 2007 report. Well, he came looking for us yesterday. He drove down from New York, where he is living for and serving the Lord! Isn't that exciting?! Its because of results like Damon that we are our in some of these crummy places preaching the Gospel.  Pastor Mark and Damon Have to get back into the
woods. Thanks for your prayers!
We love you all! Pastor M February 17, 2008 - Sunday We are in today because we had church. Joe and Susie left yesterday, as well as the other six young people. Joe and Susie went back to home and church and the kids went up to the main part of the gathering in the northern most part of the forest. Some of the Rainbows here with us are thinking about going up to the main part of the Gathering now as well. The reports are that it is crazy and un-organized up there. We still feel that the Holy Spirit is leading us to remain where we are at the moment. We are praying however whether or not to move up to the main site, to remain where we are at, or to call it a year and come home. Until whatever happens, we will remain where we are and share Jesus with as many as we can.   Some pictures of the fire in the campsite - some campfire worship! I don't have a lot of time today to update. Just please keep up the prayers. It has been an unusually demanding battle this year. Max has freaked out at two people - something he usually only does when they are demon possessed or something. Praise the Lord for the Word of God! It will NEVER return void and will ALWAYS go out and fulfill its purpose! Loving ya! Pastor M February 18, 2008 We're calling it a day. Or should I say, calling it a "Year". I have mixed feelings about the ministry this year. We had some heavy ministry happen, but it was some of the deepest spiritual warfare I have ever experienced. Satan used every tactic he could muster to keep the souls he has claim to. We prayed through though and planted some seeds, watered some others and were able to disciple one of the souls we won last year. That was especially an exciting blessing. This morning I felt the Lord say to my heart that we were to tear down the camp immediately and take a load home. So, Tyler and I packed up a few things and drove it home. We stayed here at the house for a while, unloading and putting things away, checking the mail, etc. By the time we got back to the campsite, three hours had gone by. As soon as we drove back in, we were met by Damon and "Red", telling us that there were tons of well armed police on the property and that they had dogs and were ordering everyone off the property by morning. "WOW"... I had never heard anything of the sort before. We continued to drive back to our campsite and Damon followed. He then told us that about 10 minutes after we had left, an entire "army" of well armed S.W.A.T. team like police with drug dogs stormed our campsite and demanded to know who it belonged to. It was like they were especially interested in our site. We concluded that it was perhaps because we had two huge blue tarps overhead to protect us from the rain and from the air it might have appeared as if we were hiding something. The 'A-Campers' from the main site developed some sort of grudge against the 'hippies' at our location and had told the police that there was a 'Meth-Lab' there and that the people there were giving LSD like drugs to the young people. Anyway.... the cops were asking Damon who the owner of the site was.   LEFT: Chelsea, 5 months expecting. RIGHT: Some volunteers come to help minister. The police were still in the area when we returned, but never came looking for us. It was made very clear to all of us however, that we needed to get out of the forest or be arrested. It made no sense to me, but I wasn't about to argue with the authorities. As much as they can get my dander up at times, I still try to follow Romans chapter 13. Everyone must submit himself to
the governing authorities, for there is
no authority except that which God has established. The authorities
that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who
rebels against the authority is rebelling against
what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on
themselves. Romans 13: 1-2
We decided to finish tearing down most of the site and then
to pray about whether God would have us move up to the other area where
most of the Rainbows were moving, or to go home and concentrate our
energies on getting the church ready for the aftermath of the
gathering. There will be kids dropping in looking for food, money
and clothing on a regular basis for quite some time. Many of the
local churches have signs up telling people that they are broke and to
go away.As soon as we got home, we were met by a couple of brothers who were glad to see us and who told us about all the riotious trouble and police action that had been taking place up at the main part of the gathering. People being pulled from their cars and beat up, vehicles damaged, tons of un-believeable things. I just could not believe all the weirdness that was happening this year. I took this as an answer to prayer, that we were not supposed to go up to the main part of the gathering. As much as I really WANT to get up there and into the thick of things, I just do not feel like the Lord would have us be a part of all of that. I especially don't feel I could bring our son and any of our volunteer team into that kind of situation. Granted, most of the trouble is being done by a handful of the 'A-campers' (those who drink) and the majority of the rainbow family up there are trying to really have a good gathering, praying for peace and the healing of the earth, etc. Sadly, the A-Campers are at the main gate and there is no way to get into the gathering without having to deal with them, and they are much closer to the inside of the gathering that they should be. As long as there is drinking, with them being so close to the middle of everything, there is going to be trouble in my opinion. Here is the latest newspaper article from this morning: OCALA NATIONAL FOREST -
Authorities patrolling the annual Rainbow
Gathering in the forest released a series of reports Tuesday that
painted a darker portrait of this year's event, which purports to
revolve around peace, love and a nonviolent lifestyle.
So at the moment, we are not out there on a full time
basis. I do not know if we will be going back out there this year
or
not. We are ministering to some as they show up at our
door and at the church, and there are a couple of other camping sites
where handfuls of the ones who were beaten are staying. We are
trying to get to those places and bring the Love of Christ.
Please pray that the Spirit of God will move in their hearts.Marion County deputy sheriffs said they arrested Bernard Tully, 28, of Idaho on battery and other charges related to an attack on another camper Monday. According to a sheriff's report, Pamela Montanez, 46, of Leesburg reported that her son, Christopher Simmons, 22, was pulled from her car and beaten by a man with tattoos on his head and neck. The man also caused about $500 in damage to Montanez's vehicle, the report said. Tully's arrest stemmed from one of several recent incidents blamed on participants of the gathering. According to a Web site dedicated to the Rainbow Family, the gathering claims to bring together a "non-organization of non-members" for a two-week celebration of love and peace. But U.S. Forest Service law-enforcement officer Chris Crain said authorities have made more arrests of gathering participants this year -- 14 to date -- than they had in the past two years combined. He said officers have investigated several assaults, burglaries, thefts and drug offenses in the area of the gathering. Marion County deputies also said in a news release that another member of the Rainbow Family, Russell Sickler, 41, was arrested on a burglary charge Feb. 3, accused of breaking into an unoccupied RV to watch the Super Bowl. Pray that the small body of believers at the little church we are pastoring will be able to love on these kids somehow. I hate to call it a year, because I wanted to spend every spare minute of the month of February out among them, but God has a different plan for now. I think it has to do with me getting the church up and running and ready for the work ahead as well as the possible fall-out from the gatherings. Kids? Family? Just remember... we are really LOVIN' YOU! But JESUS LOVES YOU BEST! Get in touch with us if you need help or need anything. We will do what we can! More later! In Christ, Pastor Mark |
Loving you!
Jesus loves you best!
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