" It is the glory of God to conceal a matter..."

A seasonal change in my life came in April 2000. This is when the various components of your life converge towards a new direction or way of thinking. At this time, I decided not to pursue secondary employment here in Las Vegas, while working my main job. More importantly, I decided to reach out and across the travesties which I had witnessed and experienced, and attempt to share my deepest concerns with some former acquaintances in California, and elsewhere. On my birthday in May 2000, then, I drove into California to speak with the directors of a camp for abused children near Idyllwild where I had done volunteer work about fifteen years earlier. A couple months later, while seeking others with whom I might share more deeply about consequential matters, I began attending the 6:30 A.M. Wednesday Men's Bible Study at a large church about ten miles from our house in Las Vegas. Thousands attend this church, but generally only about half a dozen men would show up for the Bible study. I had visited a couple times when the subject came up regarding a group of people (including pastors, music director and members, and others) who had split from this church. I had met some of them, and found them to be the most gifted and compassionate people there. One of the attendees at this study group mocked them for differing with the chief pastor, and for departing the church. Then he called them Satan's servants and wished them eternity in hell. I did not return to the Bible study, nor to the church. On my birthday the following year in May 2001, I arranged to meet with a former co-worker in California, to share deep concerns about the Government. He remained clueless, despite my best effort. That summer, I wrote a series of letters expressing my concerns. I wrote to Kathy Wilburn in Oklahoma City, who lost grandchildren to Timothy McVeigh's bombing (I wrote, "...perhaps you will discern the one letter out of many"), and to writer Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at the Telegraph Group in London (former Economist editor for Latin America Affairs, and author of a book on the Clinton years where Ms. Wilburn's story comprises Chapter 2). My final letter was written on August 11th 2001, to my former co-worker, Ron. I told him of the day in December 1988 when I arrived at our job site and encountered our Bangladeshi employee, Raj Chowdury. I had just heard the news of Pakistani President Zia-ul-haq's death in a plane explosion. I asked if he had heard the news. He smiled broadly and said, "Yes! And they killed all those with him as well!" Later, materiel was found in the lungs of the two pilots, which only a couple national intelligence agencies used. I wrote Ron, "They will build memorials for what will soon happen." Ron never contacted me to make further enquiry, and neither did anyone else - and I telephoned Ms. Wilburn twice, and Mr. Evans-Pritchard in London once..........I began occasionally visiting a smaller church nearer my home in fall 2001 and through them met the young pastor of a ministry to Las Vegas' homeless downtown. I became the cook for this group, preparing food for about 400 people each week on a volunteer basis. I had done this before, and knew what I was doing. I received high compliments for my cooking. I'll always remember the first sermon I heard this Pastor Mike deliver to hundreds of drug addicts, fugitives, and broken-hearted people. He preached on the subject of "The Circumcision Of The Jew In The Mosaic Law". I helped out with this group for six months, until May 2002.....Pastor Mike died of cancer at the age of 39 in early 2007. (The article title here derives from King Solomon's writings in the biblical book of Proverbs - "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. It is the glory of kings to search out a matter." At some point in looking back on the events of 2001, these words did occur to me.)