The last midnight event we had, was when the school bus was burning, and all the men were out in the dark, battling the fire. The next midnight meeting, was a planned prayer time at the dome. It was time to go into battle, for the souls of those, who lived in the hills around us. We didn’t know what was going on in those hippie communes, except for sure there were drugs, and an excess of alcohol being consumed. Between the fire they set, killing the chickens, and sneaking around on the property stealing things, we never knew what could happen next. Sadly, they were folks like we used to be, drop outs from the normal society.
Living Waters was known to be a Christian community, and that big cross by the road, was probably an object of provocation for them. Other folks who lived in the nearby towns, referred to us as Jesus Freaks, or Jesus People, but that didn’t necessarily have a negative connotation.
There had been back in June, of 1971, a title article in Time magazine, called The Jesus Revolution. It was depicting the psychedelic hippies who had turned to Jesus. I think normal people, didn’t feel as threatened by those converted hippies, as they did by the drug addicts, who lived in the parks and communes. Thomas and I, had never even heard of that name before, the so-called Jesus People.
Anyway, we thought it was a great idea to have a special time of prayer. In the latest Bible study, we had been reading about this subject. We read stories of people who prayed in the Old Testament, and what they experienced. And in the New Testament, we read Jesus’ teachings, and particularly his example, of how he prayed at night.
We decided to meet on a Friday evening, so we would have the freedom, to stay up as long as we wanted to. Some of us, also chose to fast, that day before the prayer meeting. Thomas and I, were always eager, to put into practice what we read in the Bible. If Jesus fasted, and prayed at night, then that’s what we wanted to do!
After a few days, we came to the conclusion, that our life in the tipi was coming to an end. We decided, since it was originally, a big part of our old life, we should make a clean break, and move out.
At the beginning of the year, when I was pregnant, the idea of moving to the mountains with a tipi, had begun. We had just spent, the past 9 months dedicating our lives to making, and living in the tipi. But now everything had changed.
Through Gods leading, we had been given a new purpose for life. It was not only an outward purpose, but most importantly, he had changed us inwardly. We were not, who we used to be, as strange as that might sound.
Our first major lessons, in learning a new foundation as believers, had taken place in our tipi home. It was apparent to us, that we had arrived as baby Christians, and now it was time to learn to walk. We were looking forward to the next steps, for our little family.
