Ed Hoderek

1978.4.2

Today my legs went out the worst they have been for a long time. They still hurt even now.

I went to the doctor last month and he diagnosed hypoglycemia and severe whiplash in my neck, probably from my horseback riding accident years ago. Hopefully in a couple weeks I can get some adjustments. My neck doesn't bother me so much itself, but I have a feeling it is the cause of my other physical problems.

Michiyo called me the other day and told me a brother named Ed Hoderek has joined the family in Houston. He came to the church center in Houston, which is a different place than the MFT center, and he couldn't remember my name. He said he thought I might be an angel. When Michiyo showed him a photograph of our small MFT team in Houston -- me, Howie, Roger and Carolyn -- he pointed me out.

What happened was last winter when we were fundraising down along the coast -- the most fertile fundraising area with the highest results -- I had dropped off Roger, Carolyn and Howie to fundraise around Galveston. We had a Chevy Malibu station wagon that I really liked. It had a big engine with a lot of power, but the shocks were shot. It rocked and swayed over every bump and curve. So I spent a couple hundred bucks to get new shocks and was driving along a back road in the bayou on my way back to where Howie, Roger and Carolyn were.

And on the shoulder in the middle of nowhere were a guy and a girl hitchhiking. As a rule I would just keep going. We often had thousands of dollars in cash and it would be stupid to pick up a stranger. But they looked like a couple kids who just needed a ride, and unless I gave them one, they probably wouldn't see another car for a long time. So I pulled over.

I think the guy said they were from Canada and staying with friends and trying to get back to somebody's house. Anyway, where they were going was on the way.

I was in a rare mood where I was so depressed about everything that I just didn't care what happened. So, having nothing better to do, I started witnessing to this guy in the front seat, who turned out to be Ed. I explained everything -- the Principle of Creation, the Fall of Man, the Providence of Restoration, the Mission of Jesus and the tragedy of the crucifixion, and finally the Second Coming. By this time we were at the place where Ed and his girlfriend were staying and she got out and went inside. But Ed wanted to hear the rest.

Normally I wouldn't say any more. People hear Father's name and they automatically get negative. It's better if someone can listen to the entire Principle over the course of several days, and then they can have the proper context to accept Father as the messiah. But Ed had to go and I had to go, so I figured what the hell and I let it all out. I told him the second coming had already happened, that the messiah was on the Earth now, and his name was Sun Myung Moon. I gave Ed a pamphlet that had the church address on it and we said goodbye. I assumed that would be the last I'd ever see or hear from him. The odds of him actually acting on anything I had told him were extremely remote at best. It just never happened.

I guess Ed showing up in Houston and joining the family was God's way of telling me He loved me even though I was deep in my own personal hell. I have been so low and negative, and still God blessed me with a spiritual son.