Born Again

toay is   jan 1     i go to get beer and there he is  he stops vlademier

 i turn in mmmmm  hes gone

he egoism of the jew        To be born again can take a moment to be a good Christian takes a life time.

Here's a mans dream... dreams and hopes and the methodical effort.

Make um big ... so to fall from great heights... or you could never fall, lucky you.

Best of all love tragedy especially your own.

Atem did the family misbehave ?

For Atmen did not know the chaos he came from .. nor the chaos he would create

How could he create something more than the nature were he came...

Truth and love is difficult as you know, and the enemy chaos is of them.

Will always be this chaos there, only truth and love can hush its rumble.    

Chile is a fine place and a bit of a refuge from the economic turmoil there is today in America. I had come down here in an attempt to change the world. I was going to build a clothing business, and ship the clothes to the states. High hopes employing people here in Chile giving them, education along with an cultural exchange exchange program with the States. Well they say the best laid plans of mice and men... well ten years later and I'm in Chile closing down the clothing business. This is a fine country and beautiful climate but overall these are sad times and events.   

I have a large two story house on the main street in the center of town. We are about ten minutes form the ocean five minutes outside of Viña Del Mar.     I  

I was sitting in the upstairs bedroom and flipped on the television. There is not much on down here mostly soaps about love stories or girls in short skirts acting silly.  I found this show about someone interviewing an Indian tribe in Colombia. These were river people, they lived in open huts that were built on stilts just above the water. They live away form cities and were still very close to the way they lived before western civilization came to them. They made canoes and fished. They had a very high infant mortality rate. The witch doctor was the most important man in the tribe. When children were sick he would be called to take the bad sprits out of them. He showed the reporter a small box full of small toy's and other plastic objects he said ''I have taken these evil spirits out of people ''  ....

Later he was call to visit a patient. There he pulled and tugged on the sick Childs skin. and after much wailing and theatrics he produced a small part of a toy a funny looking plastic children's head.    '' There ''  he said with satisfaction  ''this is the sprit I have taken from out of this child ''.

The tribes people looked on with satisfaction that the priest had done his work well.

I thought to myself... ''so this is the heritage of our priests .. heartless charlatans, liars and cheats.''

It made me think of Carlos the priest, he should have staid in the priesthood ... a bold face and a lie... or worse blind faith and ignorance. Wait I have not told you about Carlos. This is his story or rather my story of a small church here in Chile.

This story is true. It has to do with beer drinking, an ex-priest, a pub I closed, being born again, and the realization of some strange stories.        

To start with the beer drinking ... simply I have drank too much of it. The connection with this story is that the times that I would wake up in the morning hung over I would ask  ''God if you exist please prevent me from doing this again''       

2008 has been a very special year. Difficult as hell.  On December 25, of last year I discovered there was a God.

I decided to become a fervent believer in Christ. Although I went to Catholic schools I actually knew little of the faith. My family are Masonic and from what I know they either believe in nothing, or are secretly participants in some Babylonian mystical belief... who knows.

I initially developed a need to know about religion after going to my uncles funeral about two years ago. It was a Masonic funeral and although I am 54 years old and considered myself knowledgeable I had no idea the scope or history of masonry. I found myself consumed with curiosity and began to incessantly study  everything from the Templers to quantum mechanics. I could no longer pay full attention to my business, business seamed superfluous to these issues I had begun to discover. I suppose this is why Christ tells the wealthy man to leave all his money and follow him.  

On January 1 2008 my wife told me she wanted a divorce and told me to get out of the house. I then came to Chile in February to deal with the clothing business I had here.  I had a four year old son here in Chile that we had planed to bring back to the states. I had made planned to stay only a few weeks... I have been here a year.

Because the tailoring business failed I planed to use the property here to build a pizza place.

Several years ago, back when I had the tailoring business working here I had bought a pub that was next door to my business and home. I did this partially to have a place for the shop personnel to have lunch and a place close to home to drink beer. Well it cost me only six thousand dollars but it was to much trouble to keep up so I closed it about three years ago. It just so happened that about a year ago a Baptist Church rented this same pub and made it into a Church.  This pub was next to my house and in a direct line to my walk into town. I would walk past by this now Church each time I wanted to go to a bar in town.

Most of the times I had passed the Church there was a plump balding man at the door.  I would jab some questions to him like, "what do you know?", "do you know the Kabbalah ?"  ...

I was a bit disrespectful, I had just recently believed in God but still had great skepticism and distrust of religion.

About four months ago, I came to the conclusion that all I wanted to do was to leave Chile. I came up with the idea that if this Church was a good Church I would give them my house in exchange for them helping me with the care of it and  help with the sale of the land I have in the north. Oh, right, I have some land in the north of Chile.

Then on a Sunday morning I went to Church to see who they were. It turned out, not only did they appear genuine but they we a congregation that was dedicated to the restoration of the human condition.  As many know I could use some restoration, also known as rehabilitation.

The Church at the time consisted of about only fifteen persons, the building was of course the old pub I owned, which was  one main room about 25 x 15 feet a kitchen, bathroom and two smaller rooms.

 It was this plump balding man that would be my first contact with. He would pass by my house from time to time and would always say hello.  One of those times he passed my house I invited him to stop in. I offered him a cup of coffee and told him I had a proposition for his Church.  That I would give this house to the Church, for them to use, in exchange for them to care for it and work at selling the land I have in Los Choros. I told him this would help me get back to my wife and family.

For the remainder of this story we will call this man Carlos the priest because he had told me that he had gone to seminary to become a Catholic  Priest. That he had quit, a month before taking his final vows. His reason for quitting was that he was bothered too much by the pedophilia he had witnessed while he was there.             

I had originally thought that Carlos the priest was the pastor of this Church. In our conversation he told me about this Church, that the preacher was a man that worked as an optician. That they had begun just a short while ago at the pastors house and then they got together to rent the property next door.  I told him that I had been the owner of the pub that was there before the took the property.    

Carlos the priest was a bit effeminate, but coming from Atlanta it was normal to me. I did not grasp the homophobic nature of this culture, and paid his mannerisms little mind .

He left our conversation excited about my proposal and said he would tell the Church members.   

The following Monday, I went back to the Church and met the pastor for lunch. Still a bit skeptical of his intentions and beliefs I drilled him with questions about his beliefs and intentions. He explained to me his testimony in Christ. He had been a Baptist as a boy, and had worked as a church leader as a child and later had risen to treasurer for the national Baptist organization here in Chile.  While  in Santiago he received a calling to build a church that would rehabilitate people in Christ. He said that he had received this calling but that his wife had not. With time his wife also received this calling also and that they both had gone to seminary for five years to become Baptist pastors. 

I told him of my proposal, to give him my house. He looked at me in amazement and said, " this is astonishing, just yesterday my sermon was about ordering our house. When my wife had our first child the doctors found she had a serious heart problem, the medical cost for the heart surgery that was necessary financially ruined us. We live with my father in law in one room with our two daughters. My father in law is an alcoholic.  This past Saturday he came home and threatened to beat me and asked us to get out of the home.  We have for some time prayed for help."   I said," what a coincidence" He looked at me and said, "there are no coincidences, its all Gods work"

My coming to the Lord, came from the study of physics, and history. I had learned that the current understanding says that physical events are deterministic that there are no coincidences that reality is structured. My belief in God tells me that God is the creator of this reality.   

Well this was a good meeting, I felt that we both had come to a common solution to separate problems. He and his family would have a home and I would be able to come back to Atlanta and try to restore my marriage. 

After this Carlos the priest started coming over to my house almost on a daily basis. He would suggest how I should dress and how I should decorate my home. 

The coming Saturday a group of Church members came to see my house which is about three times the size of the building the Church rents. After the tour we all went to the Church to talk. I explained to them that I had only recently come to the Lord, that on  December 25 after months of study I had a profound turn of belief. That before I had not believed in God. I told them that I had made a life long effort to change the current social condition and that the work and ministry of the Church they had was very similar to the work I had attempted.  I explained to them that I would give them the house but that it was not just a gift. That I wanted them to help me as well, that I did not want money for the use of the property. What I did want from them is to continue the work they did, but to extend this work into economic activities, like the sale of real estate and possible other business activities. I told them that I expected nothing form them only that they make an effort in that direction and that they place the word of God into these activities.

I explained that I had a web site that detailed the methods I had come to for the development of society and moral understanding... if they would look into this ... translate this they would get a better idea of what this concept was. That if they would do this it would not only give them a better property for their church but also give me the opportunity to go back home to Atlanta and my family. 

They all looked at me as the strangest of all birds. Who gives away a big house on main street, 160 acres of beach property, and leave town ?  The devil ?  

They were divided, the pastor and his wife believed in what I offered to be a gift of God, an answer to their prayers. Others looked at me and said that such a gift would destroy the church and that the church was not about doing business. We ended the meeting, all prayed and agreed that we would see what God said about all this.

That Sunday the pastors sermon was about Isaa 49  12 See, my people will return from far away,
      from lands to the north and west, and from as far south as Egypt   and how here I had come from the north to bring blessings upon the church. Of course not all were so convinced of this ... after all I was the drunken man that once had a pub in the same space as they were in now.

That Sunday I had lunch with the pastor and his wife, we spoke of how I wanted to introduce business activities to the congregation. How for me economics was the vehicle that would give this church the opportunities to bless others. That we could build a mission in Los Choros, that the economic growth would give opportunities to instruct and to act the word of God, especially here in Chile where there existed such poverty and need. The pastors wife told a story of how she once made bread, and that her bread was truly loved by all because when she kneaded her bread she would pray over the dough and ask for blessings for those that would eat her bread. I explained that was exactly what I was trying to start, work, an economic base to the church a ministry that gave blessed fruit, work in Gods word. We agreed to make bread as part of the work that we would do in the new house the church would have.

One of the principal church members Freddy, a naval  officer , called me on the following Monday and invited me to lunch so that we may discuss the proposal I had given to the church. Since that day he had to travel into Santiago I drove him so that I may could give him more details of what I had in mind.

The following day Carlos the priest called in the morning and said, '' what are you doing?  I'm comming over to your house today and i will make lunch''

 He brought with him a stuffed toy for my son.  He came to make lunch and brought with him aprons that he left with me with the intention of coming back often. He would run around my home telling me how he would have things, "toothbrush in the kitchen .. no no no ... that will not do", he promptly put it in my bathroom. He staid through the day told me he did gardening jobs from time to time. Told me that he had been a worse person but this church had helped him a lot. Said that he had may good friend there at the Church but Freddy the naval officer was his best and closest friend.  Spoke of an Italian  priest in the seminary that had some special mysteries about Cain and Able. I told him that it's was all so strange having found that all my family were so Masonic, that how could I have not known about these people and their religious beliefs. How well they hid them form others. I supposed that was why they called it  "occult ".  Its was where that I began to tell him of the details of the Babylonian and Egyptian symbolism of both the Catholic Church and Masonry.. I continued to tell him of Christ and the possibility that he was Cessarious the son of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. I told him I believed in Christ although the bible had been change by people such as Titus, Constantine and more. I now think this was my fatal mistake.

I told him of my personal testimony, I said , ¨ I never paid attention to holidays so last year I was studying I had no Idea of what date it was at the time, and that day I noticed the correlation between Jesus Christ, the son of Caesar and the Pharos Cleopatra, the news that he boy was to be taken to India, and that the year 1 was always when a new Pharaoh became ruler .. the new Pharaoh in this case was Augustus Caesar. Not the birth of Christ. and all this came to happen on the 25th of December. I ran to see my aunts the following day and they did not deny my new found knowledge ¨  

He told me not to speak of these things to the church members especially the women. I had made a fatal mistake, I had forgotten this man had been a student to become a Catholic priest. 

I went to find my bible and I quoted first... thetruth will set you free    and then read

the end of john

I said, ¨ This last part of the New testament is not about that the bible is absolute truth its about what will occur to all those who will change the word. Its like making a statement the those that commit murder will be shot, you say this not because you believe no one will murder, you make such a statement because you know people will murder.

The day dragged on, it was almost 6:00. My beer drinking has a curious component, I do it mainly because most people bother me so much that I can't stand them unless I'm drinking a beer. I knew that Marcela, my sons mother, was coming to pick him up soon so I told Carlos the priest that I was going to run to the store and get beer.  I returned with a beer and we continued our conversation. He asked  what would I be offering him since I was offering the Church the house. I explained that I was not giving the house, it was only an exchange for the good work's of the congregation of the Church. He told me he cut grass and if he could have my lawnmower. I told him he could use it, but know that machines wear out. 

Finally Marcela shows up to get Thomas, I introduce her to Carlos the priest and he leaves shortly after that.  This would be the last time that Carlos would visit my house. 

Two days later, in the early morning  I receive an urgent call from the pastors wife, ¨Carlos the priest is in the hospital.¨  He has apparently been mugged. Since I'm one of the few who has a car I take people to the hospital and then take Carlos the priest to his house after they let him out of the hospital in the afternoon.     

Details about what had happened to her are few ... the evening of his assault was a cold and rainy one.. first we are told it occurred in one place then the location changes the details are never quite clear as to why or who attacked him that evening.

Freddy continued to come over to the house after his work to discuss working together and the ideas I had for the church. I told him that it would be good to start a real estate company, that could not only sell the land in the north and the lots there but also throughout Chile. I explained what multiple listing service was and that it would work wonderfully here in Chile as well.

One morning a couple of weeks after Carlos the priest was attacked the pastors wife, in a panic, comes to get me. I go to the church and they show me this note that someone had placed under the door. " We have given to the man that was with Claudio what he deserved ,and it appears that he will stay away, now its the turn of the other one that protects Claudio, we will take care of him as well. and we will deal with Claudio in our own way as he knows well.  Of our God which is not like yours."  What do you think it means I asked, "It means that those who attacked Carlos the priest plan now to attack Freddy, he's the one that is hanging out with you now ... and it looks like they are going to take care of you too." said the preachers wife.  The preaches name is Oscar and he came in about this time. we all sat and passed the note to one another and examined it. I said, " its from someone that knows me and I know very few people here and even less that know that I come to this Church."  The preacher Oscar looked at me quite seriously and said " have you made a pact with the devil ?".

I was astonished by the question, only a few months ago if you believed in God I would have thought you were a bit mentally off. For someone to think that there was a Devil was even more crazy than believing in God or sprits.  The only thing close to spirits I ever had anything to do with was beer.  I looked at Oscar and said, "of course not, I only recently believe in God, I have not even considered weather to believe in the devil or not much less make a pact with something that does not exist."

We were all left with many questions and no answers. We prayed for guidance and left the matter in Gods hands. Of course this letter only made more suspect others of the Church of who I was and what my intentions were.

Freddy called that evening and said that the letter looks as though it was written by someone that did not know Spanish well, indicating that maybe I wrote the letter. I said to him ,"why would I write the letter, this is what troubles me about this sort of thing everyone is suspect. But the fact is that I have no friends here, I know few people, and there are only a hand full that know the information related in the letter. There are no more than four of us, Carlos the priest, the pastor,  myself, and you. It could have been you that wrote the letter. This is too strange for words, whom ever would have done this has a serious problem."

I spoke with Oscar the pastor and told him I believed I would stop coming to Church, that all this had gotten much too strange. He said to me "no, you cant do that, this is the work of the enemy, the devil, you must continue to commune with us".     

Carlos never came back to visit after his beating. He never gave anyone information about what had happened to him that evening. Weeks passed by I continued to go to church. The pastor began a  series of sermons about the Moses and his people and the approach to the promise land. How may did not want to go, how only 2 were willing to follow the will of God. All this in direct comparison to the fact that only a few of the Church members wanted to go ahead with the move to the property I had offered.

Marcela

About the same time this is happing with the Church I am also having some challenges with the custody situation of my son.

The agreement I had made with Marcela regarding our child obligated me to give her a sum of money each month. I believed this money was for her to care for him when I was in Chile. After we made the agreement she stopped seeing the boy. I began asking her to care for him to come get him so he could spend evenings with her, bathe him, feed him, etc.  I would soon travel to the states with him and then she would have no responsibilities, and would continue to receive her monthly money.

She began to come get him, in the evenings and take him with her. Yet her behavior began to get strange. She had one last transaction to do to facilitate her sons ability to leave the country, but she would not do the task. Some times she would not show up with my son and would leave him with others when she went to work.

One of those times when she did not show up with my son, I went to her work. She worked in the center of town in a small kiosk that sold soft drinks, snacks and such. It opened onto the main street, and traffic backed up in front of the store.    

I went to her to find out what it was that was going on why she was doing the things she was doing. She told me that she could not trust me that she had been told I was irresponsible and a danger to my son. This was a surprise to me and it made little sense, I had thought I was trying to make her act in a more responsible manner to her son.  I still drank been but only when my son was not with me, and since she was getting him every night I was drinking a bit more. At that moment a car blows its horn and I hear my name called. "Claudio, come with us lets go have lunch."   It was Vladimir,  a church member. I stopped my conversation with Marcela and got into the car.        

Vladimir is of Russian decent, grew up in Uruguay, then lived in Canada, he had a mining business in Peru and was now starting one in Chile. At lunch we spoke of my difficulties with my son and his mother. I told him that I was new to Christianity and although I had never believed in God I had one prayer that I asked " God if you exist please stop me from drinking". I told him that my drinking has come to haunt me now with this situation with my son.

He looked at me and said .. "you may not accept this" he paused and looked at me with more intensity  and said  "this is a spiritual problem, they say that serial killers say they cant stop because there is something within them that compels them. This is the enemy, this is how the enemy works within us. The only way you can conquer this enemy that compels you to drink is through the grace of God. Only through prayer and faith. "

"In the fall of Lucifer he comes to earth with a third of all the angles of heaven, It is these that are the demons that cause the evil we have on earth they challenge the soul.                

 Carlos the priest would never again come to visit