Strange incantations, death threats, curses, a towering dragon, a hidden garden located in a sea of burnt ashes, soul- grabbing owls with talons razor sharp, a secret world of dark-winged creatures tearing at the sky, and a screeching Dark Prince ordering the dark-winged creatures to kill and destroy the souls of all the members of Sarah’s family.
This is the strange story about the dark world that Sarah, who ordinarily lived a normal, non- eventful life, suddenly found herself in, on a cold winter day, after her young adult daughter called her to say that she could no longer be a part of Sarah’s life. Ever. After that phone call, darkness descended immediately on and around Sarah. And Sarah wondered if she would ever be, as she was before.

How would Sarah exist in a dark world filled with all manner of strange creatures, including soul grabbing owls? How would Sarah rescue her daughter? How would Sarah battle the winged creatures she saw in her dreams? How would Sarah live in the darkness of her strange new world and find God in the midst of it?

Would it be possible for Sarah to live in both worlds? Both in the strange world of darkness and in her ordinarily world of light? Could she build a bridge between these two worlds? And if so, would she be able to go back and forth between them? Find and rescue her daughter? And her daughter’s children? Two worlds. One of Darkness. The other of Light. But how could she bridge them? She did not know how. Still, might it somehow be possible after all? In order to take back her daughter, and the children?

It wasn’t until much later, years later, that Sarah realized she could not help her daughter. No human could. Not lawyers, or police detectives, or undercover agents, or private detectives, or the Department of Child and Family Services, or a judge, or former cult members, or the FBI. No human could help her daughter. Most of the people Sarah called on for help did not want anything to do with the situation. Only God could make it happen. Only God could rescue her daughter. Nothing was impossible for God. And in God’s time, finally, after nearly 20 years, Sarah and her daughter were reunited, when one sunny day her daughter just walked out, along with her husband and their 5 children. And it was God alone, whispering in my daughter’s ear, that finally brought them all out.

Curiouser and Curiouser. Divorce proceedings between my daughter and her husband. My daughter’s lawyer, wearing the Face of a Wolf. A missing $5,000. “It is just gone! It just disappeared”, said my daughter’s lawyer. Lies from both the court’s witness stand and from the floor of the court. A refusal from the court judge to hear my daughter’s 20 year story of some of her experiences inside of the cult such as abuse of the children. (The judge stated that she did not want to hear anything at all about my daughter’s experiences in the cult. Nothing at all. She would only listen to what took place after they left the cult. A period of one year. One year after 21 years of marriage.}

And my daughter’s husband’s lawyer with curled lips and a crooked smile must have known that her client, my daughter’s soon to be ex- husband, would win the dispute .That her client would be granted custody of the children,( even though he had been one of the leaders of the cult, and therefore one of the abusers.)

The Dark Angel was also present in the courtroom. Relentless. Wanting to destroy souls. She had been whispering to the judge. She would not allow the judge to hear anything about the cult. About the dead baby, killed by the cult leaders. About the enemy list. About the worship services held in semi-darkness. About the adult worshippers in trans- like states. About the crying children, terrified at what was going on. About the punishment of the children during worship. About the constant screaming from the preacher. About the condemning words from the preacher. About the photos of families with their heads cut off. (The children had been forced to cut off all of the heads of family members that they had pictures of.)
The wolves had been running rampant during the Worship Spaces.

And now the wolves were running rampant in the courtroom. The judge had ears that could not hear the skittering of the wolves feet. Or hear the wolves howling. Or see the spiders spinning their sticky webs of deceit.
A fixed outcome perhaps? A payoff? The truth was to be hidden away forever.

And where was God? Where was the “ Peace that passeth all understanding?” Where was God? I did not know. Perhaps I had not suffered enough to know. Perhaps more suffering had to come for my daughter and me. For the children. And after more suffering perhaps more grief. Then anger. Then unbelief. Then finding that God was near after all. That God had been near all along. And then the repentance. Then the forgiveness. And then finally, the full Understanding. The Understanding that had at one time not been Understandable to me. Perhaps it all had to come before the rest could come. Before the revelation. Before The Light. Before my daughter and her Children could come Home. Before everything else.
God had to come before everything else. Everything.