Waco Siege Series – Part Six

Jane Hoffman

The goose bumps really began the moment Trinity stepped her foot onto the earthen clay floor of Mount Carmel Center built in 1957.  A shrouded mindset of belief-driven purpose designed to exalt one man,  not the impending Messiah. Land had been parceled off and it was now down to 77 acres.  It was crowded but a gaelic tempo of women and children were present, designed to serve one master.  Was it room to grow or to retreat into the hidden hills of Waco disguised as Palestine or the new temple mount for the self-identified sacred?  What transition did David think would take place in this God forsaken cactus studded state? The gulf did not lie between her voluntary surrender and the door.  It lay between the minds she communed with and her intention to disrupt it.  She did not fear the master.  She engaged with him on her terms, in her spiritual language with her contextual undertone to get to the root of the issue to find out his aim.  He walked up to her after the lecture and laid his finger over her scar that covered her inner forearm to the crease near her elbow.  “Where did you get that?”  he asked.  “It was a rite of passage” she stated but did not elaborate.  “Mount Carmel does not have a full open door policy, I sense you are searching and came to the right place.” Koresh said.  “We are a body of believers.” “I know that.  I am from the Ephesus 7th Day Adventist Church in New Orleans. I heard about your ministry and wanted to see what it was about.  I’m actually Lois Roden’s niece.”  She threw that in there as some sort of birthright but knew she might be busted for her lie.  “We don’t allow window shoppers.  You either choose to join the group in full or disperse quietly.”  He didn’t seem to wince at the idea that she was related to one of the Davidian nobility.  “I need a room to stay in tonight.”  Koresh hesitated.  “Evan will show you” and he cupped his hands while motioning his fingers and Evan came.  She crawled up a small tower to the third floor where there was a little room that resembled an attic.  There was a small, twin bed with white paint on the wooden frame.  A saggy mattress crouched in the middle of the frame.  The floor was creaky.  The room looked fragile and unsettling.  She reached in her bag and felt the bottom.  The eight skeleton keys were still on a ring and the gun receipts were still in a back pocket of jeans she forgot to wash.  What if David or someone would find them?  She gasped.  She lay in her bed a brief period.  She decided to walk around the compound.  There were long hallways with children running.  There were women making dinner in mini kitchen areas.  She gazed upon the layout of the place and found three closets that could use some inspecting.  Two were in main areas and one was off near the end of one hall and it looked unlocked.  She put her hand on the knob and she felt a presence behind her who spoke.  “I hate to do this to you but we have another guest coming after dinner and he will have to sleep in your room on the floor.  We have a foam bed for him.”  She winced and then said, “I am looking for a broom for the bedroom.  The floor could use sweeping.”  Evan swiftly opened the closet.  When he did, she saw 6 or 7 rifles locked in against the back of the closet.  He grabbed a broom for her, leaving it open.  Trinity was starting to feel down about the enormous prospects of calling a preacher on his own shit, one who thought he was the messenger of the divine.  She could sneak around and look for things or challenge a preacher on his own message with hopes of deflating him.  Dinner was at six followed by evening Bible study.  She helped cleared the dishes with Esther and sat next to her.  She put her gun receipts in her front pocket and had slid her bag under her bed.  She listened in a fidgety fashion to the Bible study.  Koresh was going on about the Jewish lineage of David and the chosen race held out for greater glory.  She raised her hand with wrought and commanded a verse from memory.  “In Acts 18 it says that Paul attempted to convert the Jews who were of Jesus’ lineage but they rejected him.  This opened the door to the Gentiles receiving the faith.  After Paul testified to the Jews and Greeks that Jesus was the Christ, the savior, they opposed him.  In verse 6 it says ‘Paul shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood will be upon your own heads; I am clean: henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.’  He condemned those who would not accept Christ with his own mouth and with their own blood.”  There was silence and shock  “In other words, Christ wanted to broaden the fellowship of believers not isolate them into a chosen elect. Isaiah says that the outcasts of Israel will be gathered with the sons of the strangers and serve him.  You need to increase the fold, not single it out.”  One of the deacons jumped in:“It’s time for healing and prayer.”  People began to walk up.  Their heads were anointed with holy water and they were prayed over silently.  Trinity was about to get up and walk towards the back when she saw a figure of man bent over walking slowly to the altar call.  He held a Black oil skinned cowboy hat upon his chest and he reached the front.  He appeared solemn.  He was waiting for a special anointment.  From his lips he burst out “Praise be to God who give us life and freedom from sin, liberates us from the oppression of men.”  People were rustling in conversation about the man.  He turned his head.  It was Jedda Diah, here to assist her.  They started towards each other.  Evan came between them.  “This is the man I told you about.”  He turned his head to him.  “Your name again?”  “Paul Silas.”  Trinity acted like she had never met him.  “Paul, let me show you to your room.”  They rushed upstairs to the tiny bedroom.  She sat on the bed.  “What was that about?  Shouting in the middle of the service?”  Jedda whispered under his breath.  “There are four federal agents outside.  I am sorry I didn’t have time to warn you.  We are going to raid the building tonight.”  “Why?  We are already on the inside.” she exclaimed.  “Leon said gun sales have gone up and the list of dates you got was examined.  Koresh refused to accept the search warrant on the guns and told them they would not cooperate.  The reason he let us in here is because he knows we are bait.  But he thinks we are his bait.”  Trinity sighed.  When she sighed, they was a knock on the door.  She shouted “Only gentiles here.”  She walked to the door.  David Koresh was in the doorway with a gun.  “Get out, get out now. You have trespassed on our property.”  (finale on janessaconquers.blogspot.com)