Chapter Six: Old House in Addison……Page

CHAPTER SIX OLD HOUSE IN ADDISON

I will add at this time that there were some other events happening on the sidelines. It took a full year to finally connect the place we now lived to some visualizing that was done several years before. A few years before when we lived in Cornwall, we had these aspirations of doing some good for the under-privileged children. Margie and I were very intense with our prayers and our desires always came to the same picture. If we could just have an old house in the country, with a few acres of good land, and a few outbuildings we could do so much. This was our heart’s desire at that time, because we sincerely wanted to help people especially children.

One day as I was remodeling the kitchen of the old house, I got thinking back a few years and it just dawned on me that this is exactly what we had envisioned several years ago. It was here just as we wanted. An old house for sure, when I first checked it out the age was estimated at about one hundred and sixty five years old. It was old and had a great assortment of old ghosts within the walls. Everything was old including all the outbuildings. There was an attached carriage house and a small barn. There was the newer building that was to be my shop and my experimental room for meditation and seeing if witchcraft really worked. The whole hidden world of secrecy mystery and magic now opened up before me. This was to be a learning process that I was to have. It was

I was quite comfortable now with Bible scriptures and belonged to the church spokesman group of men. We attended Bible study classes every week. We had gone through several Passovers. We both had been baptized by immersion. The three musketeers were completely under my control and there were just no giggle boners by that time. My thoughts were pure and as far as I was concerned the women in front of me at Sabbath services had no bum crack to get my attention. Smoking and pork eating were out of the question. Giving to the Church was a sure way to be blessed and to attain that heavenly crown. That throne was for us. The unchosen were our footstools and the rest were to have coals of fire heaped on their heads. And I bought it. That same story as the Catholics, but twisted through the minds of Herbert W. Armstrong. Decisions had to be made. I was struggling within with lacking spiritual fulfillment. I was treading water with my thoughts. I was, again, treading the water of other people’s thoughts. The layers of religion were now controlling my thinking. The doctrine that accompanies each sect was what I thought was right. But it was not my thoughts at all. I didn’t believe it or at least most of it. I had fit myself into a religion that was close enough to the truth for me. I stretched myself into their belief system and tried to become comfortable in it. There were a lot of questions not answered.

The minister called me aside one Sabbath and said, “Wayne we want

you to become a Deacon in the church”. As I look back at this now I think they knew that they would soon lose me. I was asking too many questions and getting to few answers. They were bribing me into a position within the Church. If I stayed, then my monthly contribution of about a thousand dollars would keep coming. Several times I gave lump sum contributions as much as five thousand dollars at a time. They were parasites at my wallet and I was stupid enough to let them. A new minister was assigned to the church and all God’s chosen were quick to impress him. We were asked to make the lunch for the minister on the Sabbath because he had to be at two churches on that day. He was busy on the Sabbath, but after all, we only had to get four children ready for church and drive the fifty miles to the church in Kingston. But different people were selected to do this little extra so it was only once every month or so for us. Margie, bless her, thought they were just too lazy to make their own lunches so when it came to her turn, she made pork sandwiches. That’ll teach them she said and never said a word. She just smiled at me while they munched away on their lunch.

Finally, I opened up a business and had one of the church brethren as a partner with me. He was a good mechanic and was excellent with farm machinery. I stuck with the lift trucks and he did the tractors. He read the Bible on his knees at five in the morning every day, so he said. I was close behind with a sense of righteousness that was to be desired. All I could see was that he was like a saint. I kind of secretly idolized him. Yes and I wanted to be good like him. I took him in as a partner but he

did not have to put up any money. I was going to out-righteous them all. But Margie was the one that soon saw a pattern that was not very good. She said he is not bringing in any money and the bills were mounting. The farmers were waiting for their tractors and, as earlier stated, we did not work the Sabbath day. We paid his wages and got a truck for him, paid the insurance and we treated him the very best. I knew deep down that a big decision had to be made. Margie was the wise one now. She saw it all, because she did the books.

The company now was getting into quite a debt. The shoe was now on the other foot and I had to get rid of this man. He was my partner but I was paying him. I let him go and all hell broke loose in the church. I was like Judas. I was called to see the minister to sort things out but it was done. He was fired and that was it. There was a debt accumulated by him that mounted to thousands of dollars. I had to pay off this debt and it took us a long time. He said that he was not a real partner as nothing legal was drawn up. The two ministers sided in with that man and I was the loser. I was a loser two fold now, because I was losing the support of the church and my business also. The decision had been made but months too slow. If I had listened to Margie then things would have worked out sooner.

But I was blinded to the truth. Yes, the Plain Truth about this Church was coming out.

The scandal started months before with Herbert wanting to get married again. A divorce neither was just not allowed nor ever heard of then.

He married a young woman. About fifty years younger. He was in his eighties and she was in her thirties. The church was visibly shaken up and there was a schism being formed. There was a split coming in the Church that would be bigger than the crack in the ladies bum in the Catholic Church years ago. It was Saturday morning and we were sitting by the cedar trees out back. I was in shock as I was out of the Church and my salvation now was doubtful. We were dis-fellow-shipped. We were shunned and outcasts in the eyes of the Church. I cried a lot then. There was no way for me to turn. Margie kept saying, “Wayne I don’t believe we were in the wrong.”

They are. Our salvation is not in their hands, it’s in God’s hands. We’re okay. It’s just that now we have nobody to talk to. No friends. That’s where the feeling of loss is.”

There’s a comic strip, “The Born Loser.” I really felt that I was that poor sap. Yep, the born loser, it seemed to me I had lost out on whatever I had tried to accomplish. I would work so hard but I kept losing out. The born loser — that was me. Another man previously left the Church and this caused quite a stir among the Brethren. He came to visit me one evening as he had learned that I also had left it. He told me that there was another group of people that were on the “right track.” He was

going to find out about them and let me know. We were lonely indeed but I read the Bible and kept my sanity as much as I could. Soon there was weekend camping again and, yes, on the Sabbath and we had fun and we were happy doing it. We checked out the Seventh Day Adventists and attended a couple of their services. They were very similar to the World Wide Church of God. The first time we went there was an offering envelope given to us, and that was okay by me because I didn’t mind contributing at all. I was used to it. On the back of the envelope there was some writing about giving over your estate to the church when we died. Now that little written message struck terror in my heart. I thought that these bastards were even worse than the WWCOG and they were not going to use my wallet as intravenous for a sick church. I was out of there and fast. Time has a way of making you feel better and in time we adjusted to no church.

There was something from within that was starting to come out. Witchcraft was fascinating and it was not uncommon to see a bar of soap full of needles tucked up somewhere in the shop. It was a lot of fun and we experimented with it. About this time I heard a little voice chanting out in the dark of the night. “Darksome night and shining moon, hearken to the witch’s rune”. It was just too bad that that person my wife experimented on was admitted to the hospital with severe headaches. Only coincidental I thought. My dear wife even went to the hospital to visit this person and when she came home she was so excited. It worked she said, “That’ll teach her to tell one of my kids that she wasn’t

to play with hers and not to come over there any more!” I think that was the end of those experiments. We read, we experimented and then moved onto something else. No better way to learn than to try. They worked and that’s all we needed to know so we then moved on to other things. Always looking. Always thinking. Our minds never seemed to stop. There IS a force out there, we would say but we just didn’t know what it was. We laugh about all this even to this day. It’s a wonder our children ever grew up normal but we sure had fun and an interesting life. Even now my wife’s laughing as I write this. I think she’s a little embarrassed but the things you do when you’re young.

THROUGH THE FLAMES

One day I got the courage But not without much strife To face this fact of wisdom That was given to me for life Now I am not a very smart person But what the pastor said Was not many wise Are now called To do this work of God Now deep down inside me

A little voice was heard Be cautious now because Deep is where you tread But the voice of God was louder And from pulpits it was read And I made by others To bow my humble head The Pastor said the lord loves a cheerful giver But these words made my wallet quiver Then I said, well ten percent That is not a big price to be heaven sent But then he searched the scriptures And found another verse That said a second tithe is even better That made it quiver worse Trust the Lord he said And you will be well blessed You will escape the lake of fire And will not be distressed But now to Jesus you must turn And learn for us to trust

Then he read me Matthew twenty-four And then my chin touched the floor Now that my eyes were open

I shed a little tear But he said don’t fret my child No need to have fear For Jesus is the Sheppard And He is always here He sent me then on my way Back to work to earn more pay But now to go to church My car was hard to start The Pastor though drove a Buick big Skylark When looking at the parking lot That little voice came to the top The parking lot was the key for thought It made me think of this That the pastor was the Sheppard And his ass do we kiss Does not the Sheppard tend his flock? And give them what they need? Again that little voice within Came up to the top And this is what it said to me This nonsense must now stop In the pulpit was a culprit And I plainly told him so I was now in hot water

And it was very deep For the devil now had my soul And it was his to keep But now I didn’t really care I was wearing fireproof underwear The parking lot is where these things Came in to light When one is preaching God And living on others wages And then when they are caught It is time for wisdom to take hold And leave that untrue flock I leave you a message and it is very true That what you do for others Will be done for you Now that is the message to be preached But practiced it is not But now I have to leave you For your own most inner thought Wayne Anthony Sturgeon

My psychic abilities now were unfolding and there was something new happening. A realm was opening to me that very few people want to see or believe. It was a God send because it gave me the stability that I needed, to see that there were real spirit beings that were helping me

with my clairvoyance. This filled the vacuum created by leaving the church.

Religion now was a past part of my life. It was not that the people were really mean or different but it was the burden of the book that was held over my head. By this, everything had to be done according to either the Creed of the Catholic Church, the book of Mormon, the Bible, the Plain Truth writing, or other scriptures that were given as The Law and Best for All. Somehow the religions have taken these scriptures and made them into “The word of God.” An all-powerful God was admonished but left to the mortals on the earth to tell us what to believe and what each scripture means. If the Bible were the word of God there would only be one religion. If Jesus was God, then He couldn’t die on the cross because God cannot die. If the Bible was the all-highest word of God then God was somewhat stupid because the Bible says that the earth was flat. Somehow the priests, the pastors and ministers were beyond any reason in their thoughts and it was this way or Hell Fire. That book was placed over everybody’s head and it sucked them of their very minds.

At one of the picnics there was a little girl that had gone into the swimming area and stepped into a hole. I was back quite a bit and I heard a woman screaming for help. I looked and I saw that a little girl was going under the water. Immediately, I ran and jumped into the water and grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out. She was choking

and coughing up water so I knew she was going to be all right. It seemed that about twenty people only a few feet from this child all seemed frozen. My wife included.

They were all dumbstruck at the side of the swimming area like a bunch of zombies. They were waiting for the minister to do something to help. They were so used to having any decisions made for them that they all just stood there. What the hell was wrong, I thought, did they not see what was happening to that little girl? Mind you, when I ran in, I made sure my camera, which I had in my hand, was well out of the water. I mean, after all, first things first. (A little humor goes a long way.)