THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
KEITH MALCOM HUNT
Heading back to Florida, after stopping in New Orleans for a day, was uneventful, all went smooth.
Arriving back was mainly to sell our property and the lovely four person Jacuzzi would have bought.
I still had about $70 left from the $1,000 given to me from The Church of the Great God, to attend the Feast of Tabernacles with them in Texas. I decided to go to a Bible Book Store, and see what they have in the way of the New King James Version. There was a number of them, and I spent time looking at all editions. I finally decided which one I would buy with the $70. It was “The Holy Bible - New King James Version - Personal Study Edition.” It further states —— “With Study Notes, Maps, Charts, Book Introductions, Centre-Column References, Study Articles, Concordance. Words of Christ in Red.” Thomas Nelson Publishers.
I wrote on the first white blank page inside—
“The 1994 Feast of Tabernacles at San Antonio, Texas; was made possible by the brethren of the Church of the Great God, who supplied our financial needs to attend. This Bible was purchased to remember their kindness.”
So it was time now to pack up all we would take back to Canada; had to rent a U-haul.
We took our time, about 3 days before we hit the Canadian border at Maine and New Brunswick.
Maine became the 23 State of the USA in 1820.
At that time in December 1994, the border was easy to pass through; there is a small town on either side of the border and USA and Canadians pass over from one side to the other as if all was one town. Today of course I’m sure that is not as simple as it was in 1994.
We had one of our one-bedroom-apartments available to live in, below the main level of the “income” house. We arrived there the last week of 1994.
It was still winter so the re-shingling of the roof had to wait for a few months. And also our planned outside painting.
I have not mentioned that we had two small dogs through these years of 1989 to our coming home to our house in New Brunswick. They were both very nice dogs, but certainly differed in personality; one quiet and very lady-like, while the other was an older dog, and she had a brashy-boisterous nature. But they got along with each real good.
It was now January of 1995; the computer age was just getting going for the average person. And in this little village of Hampton, there was a “computer shop”—— the owner, he would put together a computer for you as specified for your needs. And not very expensive. I went to talk to him, and said, “I’d like you to build for me a computer with only four things—— good memory, able to compose and write studies, access the Internet, and receive email. That was all. I said I did not want any fancy stuff, just a nice uncomplicated computer. And that is exactly what he built for me. It was “Windows 3.6” I think, wow….from Naoh’s ark thinking back on it. But it was a smooth running computer and I had it for many years. Of course updating the “Windows” as time went on. Some years later after moving to Calgary, people were astonished that my computer had never “crashed.” Once I told them how it was built they said, “Ah, a clean simple computer, now I understand why it’s never crashed on you.” Yes were those the days of moving into the personal computers for everyone and the trials and frustrations for many people—— except me.
I was now on two or three forums especially for one time Worldwide Church of God people. The debates on Bible topics were never ending….. I was a busy man. As of that date there was little to none “websites” and that would not come to me until the winter of 1997/98. More on that part of my life later.
One day when I arrived home, the older dog came out in no-hair blotches; it was strange, so I took her to the local veterinarian, who was only a literal stone-throw away. They took a sample and would send it off to see if it was cancer. Then only three days later the dog could not lift up its back-end. I knew it was life over for her. I called the vet and brought her down to be euthanized. They did what they do, and brought her out to me, as I said I would bury her. They told me her blotches were not cancer. I had dug a hole in the back yard. I was crying as I put her into the ground; this was all new to me. I had never owned a dog I had to euthanize. The only other dog I had ever owned I gave to my parents eventually, and they had to go through the heartache of saying goodbye to her.
So we were left now with only one dog, our little black Toy Poodle, our very lady-like girl, who loved to run like a greyhound; she lived for many more years, and was in many ways different than most Toy Poodles. Poodle means “water dog” and the big Standard-bred are the original, used in France and other Europe countries to retrieve shot down fouls that land in water ponds. But our Poodle hated water. But she could sure run fast for 2 miles, with her tongue hanging out; just loved to run.
It was Spring time and so the guys we hired to re-shingle the roof and the ones to paint outside, arrived and within a few days they finished; it certainly looked nice.
We had an experience at Passover time that Spring. The group that had left the Radio Church of God, under Rod Meredith being kicked out of that organization, had a small group of people meeting in a house for Passover services. We went to the service. They naturally had our names, made us welcome. It was the next day that the man of that house called us. He had been in touch with the “minister man” out in Edmonton, Alberta, who was “over” their Canadian “work.” I knew this minister from way way back when I lived in Saskatoon, when we were just members of the Radio Church of God. He told the man to tells us we could only attend “….if Keith Hunt becomes a member of Rod Meredith’s Global Church of God.”
I said to the man giving us the message, “Thanks but no thanks.”
That was the end of having anything to do with Rod Meredith and his Global Church of God. Meredith and company had gone into being a cult as much as the Worldwide Church of God had done a few decades before.
We now knew there was nobody of our theology to fellowship with in New Brunswick.
There was a little SDA [Seventh Day Adventist] church in the village of Hampton. We decided to fellowship with them, as long as they did not constantly bring up Ellen G. White. And to our surprise they did not. They were a very loving church people, down-to-earth, and we had some fine Sabbath Bible studies before the main service; it was overall a good atmosphere, and for the next two years was our fellowship church on the Sabbath.
I taught guitar and banjo for those two years; had some fine students. I well remember this middle teenager coming to me for advanced banjo lessons; he wanted to play more efficiently in his church he attended. It was great to teach him how to use the whole neck of his banjo.
I also well remember an incident that I had never seen in my life before. A SDA minister about middle age, had two sons in their older teens, who deeply got mixed up with drugs— I mean serious mixing with the drug scene. He could not get them out of this life they had chosen. The minister finally had to say to the SDA organization, that he had to step away from the ministry while his boys were into that drug life. He was not able to rule his household [see 1 Timothy 3: 4] as Paul gave for qualifications for Elders.
I was very impressed with that minister, and respected him deeply. All the cult stuff that I had seen happening in the Worldwide Church of God, and its now many off-shoots, made this act of this SDA minister, even more of an impression in my mind—— I was respectful indeed of this minister.
A few years had now gone by; it was 1977.
My Dad had for years, always gone back to England for a month or two in the summer. He called me from Kelowna, B.C. where he continued to live after the death of my mother.
“Keith, as you do not have a regular secular job, how about coming with me to England; this time for 3 months? I will pay your air-fare.”
I talked it over with my wife; she said it would be good to do it; so I told Dad I would go with him.
Now I found out later, after we arrived, this was going to be a special type of visit to England.
He always stayed with his niece; she and her husband had room for both of us.
It was set; I would fly out of Saint John, New Brunswick, to Toronto and Toronto to Manchester, England. Dad would fly from Kelowna to Manchester. We would meet on the same day, at Manchester, just hours apart. I was there first and so greeted my Dad as he came to collect his luggage.
He was at his age still allowed to rent a car for the 3 months. After a certain age you can not rent a car, insurance policy does not allow it.
We were off to his nieces home. I had brought by Bible and plans to write some studies during our long stay in Yorkshire, England.
………………..
To be continued
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