Freque Factory
Kings Mansion
It seemed like the next step in my spiritual journey, so I moved into the Christian House, Kings Mansion. It was, I think, 1973. Both of my parents were concerned that I was joining a cult.
Christian Houses were a phenomenon of the time. A lot of hippies were discovering Christianity. We (and I include myself) didn't really fit in with traditional Christian churches. We didn't feel comfortable with the rules. And frankly, many of us were still dealing with drug addiction and sexual stuff.
There was no set rule on what a Christian House was like. Some were limited to only one gender. Some were affiliated with a specific church. Some were almost cult like with strict rules and limits on communication with the outside world. But all required its members to have a love for Christ, to obey house rules, and forbade drug use and sex. Some of them were very much like Christian communes.
The house I moved in was called Kings Mansion. It was in the city next to my home. The house itself was a two story Victorian. The owner had divided it into two residences, but we worked on it and made the house look as much like it had originally. I'll describe it more later. The house held public meetings twice a week and they were well attended by local young people.
In charge of the house was a young married couple, P and M. They had real hearts of compassion for all of us. M fought a never ending battle with never enough money or help to keep us fed and the house running. She was our House Mother. P was "dad." He was loving and kind, but had the ability to be firm as needed. He was also ticklish. P had a day job. He was an avid student of the Bible. P had an interesting back story. Though he didn't talk about it much, he had briefly been a member of the Mansion Family.
T and F were best friends and brothers in Spirit. They met the Lord (Christian speak for initial experience when one chooses to become a follower of Jesus Christ) while on acid trips at a concert. It's a great story. T is an artist, F a drummer with a lot of charisma. F had a job as a vacuum cleaner salesman for a while-one of the few I knew who was somewhat successful. F was much happier helping people to choose Christ. Still is. The two of them, at first spent as much time as possible talking to others about Jesus, or reading the Bible, or other Christian stuff. Eventually they got jobs like the rest of us.
K was a young woman who became a good friend for many years. D was a young woman who had been part of our outside community. Eventually she chose to ignore her over controlling parents and moved in. D had a medical condition as a child, which had caused her parents to be so protective. Moving in with us was her first step towards her independence. Her parents blamed me (don't know why). Years later they realized how much I cared for her and protected their daughter back then.
One of the earliest residents was G. He was a close friend of D's. Soon after she moved in he moved up to Alaska to work with a missionary group up there.
We also had our more unusual residents. L was a man with lion-like hair. He had gotten a good job (through family connections) right out of high school. This gave him less patience with those who didn't have jobs. L has a strong rebellious streak. And somehow, for reasons I still don't understand, we had a young man who was seriously studying opera. He paid rent and wanted to be left alone to practice. Very disconnected with the rest of us.
Those were the residents. We also had several people who stayed with us briefly. I remember one girl who stayed a couple of months. She was strange. In retrospect, probably schizophrenic. Lots of hippie types who weren't quite ready to settle down. Too strung out and/or crazy.
We also had quite a few people who were over so much they might as well have been residents. Lori was a beautiful young woman who was truly in love with the Lord. She worked at the local Christian bookstore. Her best friend was Kat. Another amazing young woman with a great heart. Diana was full of life and in love with the Lord. But my favorite was Suzi. She was also tied in with a Christian House in Altadena, but was with us a lot too. I should mention here that many of the group attended the same high school as T and F, and were all friends. Diana and F had been friends for years.
Charlie was younger (still in high school). He was a musician and often led worship for our public services. Noel was F and T's friend from high school. It took a long time, but Noel finally found his way to the Lord. I think he did live with us for a while. His dad was a well respected teacher at my high school. Kieto was much older, a family friend of F's. Although Roman Catholic, he learned to love the Lord. I loved watching his face light up during worship.
Our House rules were pretty simple. No drugs or alcohol. All residents were expected to participate in House activities-including twice a week public meetings. Living there was not a free ride. Jobs were encouraged. If you did have a paying job you were expected to donate a certain percentage of your pay to the house. If you didn't have a job, M would find things for you to do-often household chores. Individual prayer and Bible study was encouraged. House members were to attend church on Sunday. And finally, there was to be peace among House members. If there were problems that we couldn't solve ourselves, P would moderate. We had a House council as well-everyone involved.
Physically, as I said, we live in a two story house. The front door led into the living room. That was the room we used for our public meetings. Old couches and comfortable. That room led into the kitchen area. We even had a walk in pantry. Off the kitchen was the downstairs bedroom and bath. I didn't make it back there much. I remember bunk beds. There was also a wrap-around porch that was used for storage until the opera student started using it.
Upstairs was the girls dorm, P and M's room, the bathroom and the bay room. I loved the bathroom. It had a stand alone old fashioned tub with claw feet. There was often 4 of us in the girls dorm and we were crowded. The bay window room was really small. It became our guest room.
I mentioned the Altadena Christian house. Due to Lori, Kat, and Susan we had a loose relationship with this group. It was a male only House with pretty strict rules. It was almost a monastery. Several of us would go there on Monday nights for their public meetings. Even though the meetings ran late, I still liked going there. It was there that I was first prayed for to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Both Houses believed in the power of the Holy Spirit, which was a common thing back then.
Hopefully next week I can write about my experiences there.
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