Sep 20
15
In The Beginning (14)
FOUR
I had learned the hard way to be careful about discussing spiritual topics with anyone without “checking in” first.
I heard the strangest words in answer to my silent “prayer.”
“Now what the dickens does that mean,” I thought silently, but I knew it was not just “all right” …I was supposed to tell him.
“It is ordained.”
“Let’s see,” I started hesitantly, realizing that I had interrupted his reading with my outburst and I looked meaningfully at the book still open on his lap, “Do you want the short or the long version …my name is Jeanne Stockwell, by the way.”
“Jeff Barrett,” he said, taking my offered hand and gently shaking it, “I’m open – we have another two hours before we land – and I can read or we can talk, your choice – but I really am interested.”
I gave him the long version going all the way back to the beginning of my odyssey. I told him about getting the idea for writing a series of articles about alternative religious experience – and how I happened to meet a man the day I got the idea while sitting and having an iced tea at a resort over on the Big Island about twelve years ago.
“I told him,” I said, “that I was anxious to get back to my home in Oregon because I needed to get back to work. I told him about my idea – and he asked me if I had ever heard of a man by the name of Brad Cullen …”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” Jeff almost exploded. I jerked in surprise. “I’m sorry, Jeanne,” putting his hand on my shoulder apologetically, “I thought your name rang a bell. This is unbelievable …both Roberta’s and my life were totally changed by Leapfrog. You’re the one that got all those e-mail addresses from that Canadian guy you met that day and started writing to a slew of people asking them what and how they felt about Brad Cullen. For crying out loud, do you want to hear our story?”
I laughed and mimicked his, “You’ve got to be kidding” …and, still giggling, said, “Besides, Jeff, it’s ordained.”
“Okay, wait a minute there’s a private little joke in there somewhere, with the ‘ordained’ bit, what’s going on?”
I told him lightly that I couldn’t resist the joke and about feeling hesitant about sharing the story with him and so had “checked in,” and then getting the “it is ordained” answer.
“Well, come to think of it, I’m almost positive that it is ordained, Jeanne, that I tell you our story. For years we had attended a little Pentecostal church over in Waimanalo on the back side of Oahu over the mountain from Honolulu …we live near there. A Japanese couple we knew quite well had invited us there and then, all of a sudden they just stopped coming to church.
“One Sunday after church the pastor caught up with us just as we were leaving and said something to the effect that it would be nice if we visited Jan and Walt because they had gotten all ‘fouled up,’ is the way he put it, and that they were closed to even talking to him. He knew that we were acquainted with the Hashimoto’s and that we should pray about paying them a visit and perhaps the Lord would lead us to helping them to get ‘straightened out.’
“So Roberta gave Jan a call and invited them over to dinner …and Jan insisted that it was our turn to come over to their place, we live only about fifteen minutes from one another.”
“After dinner we were sipping on a Japanese plum dessert wine and I finally got up the courage to ask how come we didn’t see them at church any more. Walt said something like, ‘we don’t think that way anymore.’ Frankly, Jeanne, I felt threatened, but Roberta, just as relaxed as can be, said: ‘A-ha, should we be thinking differently too?’
“Rather than talk about it,” Walt had replied, “how about we e-mail you something that started us on a new path …I’d give you a copy, but what the heck, you guys are richer than we are and if you don’t like it I’d hate to think you wasted our paper and ink.”
“It was all very light-hearted, Jeanne, and the subject got changed and we just visited for the rest of the evening with them. Jan and Roberta went into the kitchen and cleaned up the dinner things together and Walt and I talked about business. Walt grew up in Hawaii, but he still had close family ties in Japan and had been very helpful in my getting set up with contacts in both Japan and Taiwan. Walt and Jan are partners in a small chain of six grocery stores specializing in Japanese foods and imports …and are very well off.
“By now, you’ve guessed our story Jeanne, what they sent over was your Leapfrog Manuscript. This is so exciting. Please tell me you’ve got some time before going over to the Big Island. Roberta will kill me if I don’t invite you over …she’ll be meeting me at the airport.”
I had to tell him reluctantly that somebody was meeting me at the Kona airport and my connection to Hawaiian Air was barely legal – “so I have to hurry over to the other terminal, but please tell me the rest of the story …we’ll exchange e-mails and Brad is coming out from Jacksonville, so you can give me a rain check and maybe we’ll both come over, how does that sound?” He answered with an “unbelievable” and a slightly overwhelmed shaking of his head. We were both overwhelmed.
Jeff resumed the story – “on the way back home we talked about how we were both more comfortable with Jan and Walt than ever before. Rob, said that she thought we could actually become close friends. She asked me if Walt had said anything about the church and when I said no, she merely said that Jan didn’t say anything either and it was kind of strange because they had been much more heavily involved than we were.
“The e-mail was waiting for us when we got home and we decided to print out two copies then and there. We went to bed and both of us read it all the way through. We both finished about the same time. Jan said, ‘I don’t know about you, sweetie, but that’s a lot to chew on. I feel like getting on the phone, first thing in the morning and calling Walt and Jan and demanding they come over for dinner and a long talk.’ She did and they came over a couple nights later and we’ve been getting together fairly regularly ever since.
“We finally decided to do what you did Jeanne. It took awhile, but we were both determined and kept knocking and demanding until it happened …Roberta a few days before me.”
“What about church?” I asked.
“Walt made an interesting remark,” Jeff answered, “when I asked him why they had never gone back. He said they kept knocking and demanding just as you had done and both heard very clearly not to return to the church and not to share your paper with anybody without asking first. Jan had told Rob something similar over the phone when she had called her to talk about the Leapfrog Manuscript the next morning and had said they figured when we had first invited them over for dinner it was to ask about their absence …and they got the okay to share your paper with us if we asked about church and Jan told Rob that we did ask so they knew it was okay to send it to us.”
“So, in what ways has it changed your lives?”
“You know the answer to that one …we don’t do anything in business or in our personal lives without checking to make sure it is for our better good. Anytime we feel uncomfortable about anything we don’t try to figure it out …we ask and get direction. If we don’t feel clear we both knock and demand until we both get clarity and unity.”
I told Jeff about my trip to Jacksonville and all that had happened including the meeting with the group and we had an exciting conversation the rest of the way in to Honolulu International. Jeff checked his cell phone as soon as we got off the plane – there was a message that Roberta was running late. He talked me into waiting just a second while he called her before I rushed over to the Inter-Island Terminal … he dialed.
“Hey you, yeah I love you too, but listen quickly, guess who I met on the plane …the name Jeanne Stockwell ring any bells? Okay, listen …don’t park – come right to the curb outside baggage claim and I’ll be waiting outside for you – have I got bunches to tell you. Yeah, yeah, the trip was very successful, but it’s the last two hours I want to talk to you about. You’ll be blown away. Listen, Jeanne has to run to get her connection …just keep thinking about the name Jeanne Stockwell and see if it registers… yep, love you too, bye.”
He turned to me and said with a chuckle, “she didn’t have a clue.” He grabbed my hand into both of his, and said, “Listen, you had better promise me that we will all get together and soon, promise?”
“It is ordained,” I said solemnly, with a deep voice and managing to keep a straight face, until he burst out laughing and I joined him. He handed me his card which had his home phone and e-mail address on it. I promised to call the next day or so when I knew clearly what the plan was and told him to tell Roberta I couldn’t wait to meet her. With that we hurried off our separate ways.
In Freedom,
Brad