I met Elder Mordakhai Joseph in Jerusalem during my first Feast of Tabernacles in 1980. Later, when I attended Sukkot/Tabernacles again with the Worldwide Church of God in 1982 in Jerusalem, I stayed as a volunteer in Kibbutz Ramat Yochanan near Haifa for another five months. Right next door, in Kiryat Ata, lived our only member in Israel, Simcha Gombo, with her deaf daughter, Michal.
During my initial search for Simcha’s house on Hannah Senesh Street, I “casually” asked a young Israeli reporter for directions who helped me find her place. Once there, he started talking to her and revealed that he was a reporter and wanted to write an article about her as he found our beliefs fascinating as he sat and listened to us talk. He was kindly waiting for me to help me find my way back to the kibbutz. She told him to write about me.
Ilan Itzhayek wrote a comprehensive article that was published throughout the Galilee region. It was about my old drug addiction, wandering in different religions in search of the truth, and how for a miracle series God brought me to the Worldwide Church of God, mentioning some of our beliefs about Europe, and how we view Herbert W. Armstrong in the spirit of Elijah.
I was later interviewed by the local high school principal and Bible teacher about our beliefs, especially why we keep Jewish holy days and believe we are Israelites. (I have since discovered Brit-Am Israel, a Jewish organization, which also teaches Western Israelite origins.)
That same article was posted in the kibbutz communal dining room for all to see and read and led me to be invited to speak out against drugs. I resisted, feeling that most people have to learn for themselves, but when Ofrah, the volunteer leader, insisted that maybe she could help someone, I relented on the condition that she give glory to God and mention him as the reason for my release. She agreed and I spoke to over twenty young people from all over the world and mentioned how we all lack something and we try to fill it with this and that and only God and his Holy Spirit are the answer.
When Richard Frankel, a minister living in Israel and serving as the Party’s regular coordinator for the Middle East, discovered that this little “shepherd” in the field was “making waves,” he basically demanded that he come back. to America ever since “he trusts that God will get his message to the Jews through his apostle…” and how Mr. Armstrong had carefully built bridges with Israel over the years. (Acts 7:25, 35 flashed through my mind). He said that there is no way Ilan (the reporter) would consider himself a spokesman for the Church or for me a representative of that! (The Worldwide Church of God has always taught that we are representatives of the Church and Kingdom of God.)
I wondered why Mr. Frankel didn’t trust God to see that nothing could be done to undermine those bridge that God through Mr. Armstrong had built, besides Mr. Armstrong NEVER he went to the average Israeli but only addressed the leaders in Jerusalem. However, I complied.
However, Ilan had submitted another article for possible publication that I received permission from Mr. Armstrong through Aaron Dean to move on. Obviously Mr. Armstrong No feel threatened! Mr. Richard Paige, then in charge of the excavations of the Ambassador College in Jerusalem, met Ilan and me in Haifa for a pleasant visit, during his trip to make arrangements for the next archaeological dig. I humbly presented him with some grapefruits that he had picked from our kibbutz garden. He said he loves grapefruits and then reported that they were the best!
I wanted to return to Israel to live, fulfilling a goal I had to live throughout Israel, study Hebrew, learn the culture, etc., (which I have done ever since) objective Mr. Frankel’s influence required that I Wait until I could have a minister there to “supervise” my activities. (God had supervised them very well, thank you!).
When Raymond Clore, a US Consul General, was assigned by our government to work there for four years (and with whom I had a brief correspondence), I appealed to Headquarters again to move there and was denied permission because they hadn’t sent Mr. Clore, the US government had! So I was met with petty policies from ministers who I allowed to have power over my personal life. A local elder questioned if they were setting an unusual precedent with me in deciding where a member can live!
During that time, Mr. George Kackos (the wonderful minister from Toledo, Ohio who was in the refresher program at Ambassador College) and Mordakhai Joseph met the attitude that “we don’t need it, we have plenty of AC students to send if we want.” In fact, a female graduate of Ambassador College in Oregon, Sylvia Owens (top of her class, Mr. Paige informed me), was allowed to stay and live in Jerusalem (with whom Ilan and I had met and visited in the past!) Biblical Zoo)!
Mark Joseph encouraged me to say that the disciples of Jesus also tried to prevent anyone from casting out demons in the name of Jesus because he was not from their clique. Later they basically told him to stay out of this situation! I still fondly remember him and the correspondence we have shared and wish him all the best with his new book on the Middle East. In the meantime, I long to return to Zion.
