One thing that this treatment solidified in me was a tendency toward anti-bigotry. I remember thinking at the time that while this persecution was horrible, I could convert to one of the mainstream churches and it would all stop, or I could move to the next town and no one would know that I was in a cult. A Black person on the other hand, couldn't un-Black himself in order to stop the racism. This lesson stayed with me. Although there was still work to do ridding myself of racist mindsets and habits, being the target of virulent prejudice made me think twice about engaging in it myself.
But when you're in a cult, your thinking tends to follow certain grooves. Just like the opposition from our families was seen as proof that we were angering "the adversary" (aka The Devil), and therefore doing God's work, the steady opposition from the townspeople put us in the company of the followers of Jesus in the Bible's Acts of The Apostles. We were being persecuted for speaking "The Word". Of course this widespread antipathy in such a small town meant that we had quickly worn out our welcome. Door knocking was out of the question, and there weren't many public venues where people hadn't made up their minds about us already. But we somehow found the energy to pat ourselves on the back for being such devoted and committed followers of The Way, Jesus Christ.
After the first of the year, after having to find a new place to live after being evicted, Ronnie, our state leader decided that we would be relocated halfway through the year, in February. Our witnessing wasn't without any results, we had two men signed up for the PFAL class, but since we needed seven to run a class, we hadn't been able to run one. Once we found out we were moving, both of our "new people" decided to move with us, to Kearney as it turned out. Although one of them was having sex with one of the WOW women and the other one had some serious mental issues, so they weren't quite as devoted to "The Word" as we thought.
Our time in Sidney ended on an amusing note. We had invited Rev. Jerry over for coffee to say goodbye. While in our home he made a big deal about how "The Lord" had informed him that two of us were staying in Sidney while the other two moved on. I still remember Gail laughing and telling him that The Lord must have thrown him a curve since we were all leaving. The next day, after selling or giving away our furniture and packing up the car, we headed for Kearney.
New problems awaited us there.
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