Recanting Holzhof

Chapter 2: A Sojourner’s Compromise: School Abroad

A Life Altering Change Of Course

”After they had gone, Joseph had another dream. An angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Get up now and flee to Egypt. Take Mary and the little child and stay there until I tell you to leave, for Herod intends to search for the child to kill him.”“

Matthew 2:13

”saying, “Go back to the land of Israel and take the child and his mother with you, for those who sought to kill the child are dead.”“

Matthew 2:20

After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends

Luke 2:43,44

We would prepare brunch on Wednesdays and had to sit in the corner and not be seen until the meeting was over. The janitors would do a play by play narration of all that was going on. They’d saw “now watch this rich old white woman do this” and amazingly she’d do whatever they predicted. We’d spend the event passing our time that way the. They explained to me acknowledging that I was raised black in Papua New Guinea they explained reverse racism to me which I concluded was probably not outright racism but definitely some form of prejudice that I had never seen before.

The maintenance crew stand in the exit just before the room emptied and strike up a conversation with passers by. And as predicted they would start acting special, and you cold see they liked that the help was paying attention to them but as they walked off you would hear something along the the lines of “did you hear what that black guy said to me” the janitors would laugh and ask me why they always had to remark on the color of their skin if they were the only two black guys in the room.

They were full of stories and jokes and made chores fun and time pass so quickly that I have to say I enjoyed doing my community service and would look forward to hanging out with that church maintenance crew.

Boundaries Explored

“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

Ultimately I was very fortunate that the law took mercy on me and shows me grace. after attending several state mandated classes, doing a tour of prison, court appearances and serving community service hours my records were expunged.

My parents took me out public high school and put me in a Christian School which I graduated from.

I thought doing community service would exhaust me, but I was very fortunate. I had to work with the janitorial team at a church downtown Orlando. The two black janitors I worked for were easy going non Christian comical geniuses they explained to me with humor that most of the stuff I thought was weird about living in the States was just white people being white.

colors of the Burger King building and listened. Eventually I was asked if I would be willing to say the salvation prayer, I was out of it and totally chill by this point and would have gone along with pretty much anything asked of me so I agreed to say the sinners prayer. Almost immediately I saw something that looked like heat waves coming to attack me and one of us said the word demons. I’ve got to smile thinking about it, logic dictates that I was high on a hallucinogenic and in the middle of a significant religious experience open to suggestion but there is a part of me that that I don’t really explore says maybe it was real demons.

Hallucination or Demon the entity visions were rebuked by the pastor and we finished the prayer. We didn’t say much after that, he drove me home and left. That in a nutshell is my testimony and salvation story.

If it was really demons I was freed from that day it is because of God’s grace and reminds of the lyrics

“How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.”

I am convinced I am going to heaven since the moment I finished praying with that pastor. And I wholeheartedly believe that.

I was blissfully unaware and distinctly ignorant about what a narc is. So like a sore thumb I turned into a space case and drew attention and one day between class I was approached by a guy who asked me specifically if I wanted to buy some tabs of acid, I’d never seen him before and this should have been a major red flag of suspicion but. I didn’t watch cop shows, had only been in America for about two and a half years and couldn’t conceive of betraying someone out of some sense of duty or obligation to a higher authority. I was so uninformed and on the brink of learning a lesson when it comes to trusting strangers.

Pr

I was taken from school to a prescient, my parents were called and I endured a speech from two officers who implied I had violated some code of morality and trust with society. I get what they were talking about now, as the years passed several members of FAYD died as a result of how they chose to live.

When I got home that afternoon I was tripping, apparently the narc sold real drugs which is something I’ve always marveled at. My parents weren’t aware of this and called the pastor of the church we were attending.

The pastor showed up pretty quickly and decide to take me to Burger King, just before we walked in I started having a bad trip and he sat me down on the drive thru curb. I just listened while he talked and tried to figure out what to say, one thing led to the other as I paid attention to the bright

an honorary member but never fully a part of them, the closest way it felt like would be being Keanu Reeves in Point Break, he was just a little too clean cut and not relaxed to fully fit in and become accepted by the surfers. I wasn’t able to skate, didn’t do drugs and wasn’t invited to play hooky. I was accepted by them but wasn’t a part of them. Like the guys in Jackass they came up with a name for themselves: F.A.Y.D. Short for Fun American Young Dudes a name they all agreed upon because their soul objective in life was to have fun.

Now this is not an inspirational story I’m telling to try to inspire you like a jock giving a motivational speech about how he was hanging out with the wrong crowd found Jesus and scores touchdowns and builds biceps for the Lord. It’s along the same line but not my objective I’m just stating the facts not looking to convert anyone to my religion.

I was given a bunch of mix tapes of punk and ska music and started skipping school to go to the record store or the movies no major rebellion as I look back on it, they kept telling me how fun it is to drop acid and do stuff which peaked my curiosity to the point I eventually bought some several times, and yeah. I enjoyed it. Saw the walls crawl, was amazed by different types of music and was amazed at how boring classes passed by as though I was a time lord. What the FAYD people didn’t let me in on was that they didn’t do drugs on school grounds, that there are students with criminal records or a goal of becoming a police officer and they tell the authorities on lawbreakers and turn their peers into the cops.

Looking back I consider it a cultural form of mass Predictive Programming to get the American culture comfortable with always carrying recording devices such as smartphones regardless of where they went.

Looking back I consider it a cultural form of mass Predictive Programming to get the American culture comfortable with always carrying recording devices such as smartphones regardless of where they went.

I found the incessant need to quote someone to be a form of culture shock and more than a little pompous, eventually I decided to go along to get along and realized that I could get people to laugh if I quoted movies and commercials when I timed the quote right.

F.A.Y.D: Fun American Young Dudes

when I was fifteen my path crossed with a group of high schoolers who were into anarchy, punk rock, dropping acid

F.A.Y.D: Fun American Young Dudes

when I was fifteen my path crossed with a group of high schoolers who were into anarchy, punk rock, dropping acid and skateboarding. This was the late nineties pre Jackass days but the click reminds me a lot of the guys from Jackass. I was always celebrated when they saw me at school and they’d call me over to hang out. I became

As a teenager, I was endowed with gobs of perseverance. I mowed lawns, washed cars and RVs, had a maintenance job at a large church building, worked at Chick-Fil-A, participated in a church youth program every Wednesday night, and did Taekwondo. My daily schedule and routine were so full that there was times I would pass out on the couch. My sister, Jessica was much the same and kept a busy schedule that exhausted her.

The Holzhof realitY:

Dedication

Originally the title of this book was going to be Rediscovering Perseverance, but I am open to suggestion adamant about not going so niche that I’m trapped with being typecast as a motivational speaker.

I consider myself to be a disciple of christ and cannot in good conscience dedicate this book to my family as the words of Yeshuah in Luke 14:26 are “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.”

Actually as a matter fact I’ll dedicate this book to the Holy Spirit Rauch Ha Kodesh aka Death Box and the men who fought alongside Him.

lol