It is hard to speak out, I find I'm almost impotent spiritually sometimes. I admire the way you just say it.

I read more of the evolution/creation threads and you and Russ were excellent. I got my father to have a read and he was chuckling at some of it, hard not to. But was really impressed amongst the bits of humour thrown in.

I just don't have the inclincation sometimes to bother arguing with them, it goes in circles and I am one of those people that tend to get a knot in my stomach really easily and I see where it's heading and often you feel like you're being drained.

Yes, it's God that will do the work. But if one can plant a seed? Even if it seems fruitless at the time, you never know if that seed will germinate! Sometimes surprising things happen. I think too that it strengthens and challenges the faith of those of us when we have those around us who are against our faith. Perhaps if this were not so, we might drift . I think in these times especially the battle seems to be increasing and it's reaching a stage where people will have to pick a side, (no more fence sitting).

Yes, tarot cards and astrology and all those things changed me also. They pull you into the spiritual but they exclude God, so it's a dangerous place to be. I believe personally that this may well have brought things into my family home. INterestingly enough around the time I was involved in this, my family began splitting up. Did I tell you the time I found the laundry wall covered in flies and blow flies? Out of the blue? IT happened twice. They were also deformed looking, some without wings, and none of them were flying. I sprayed them all and killed them, but they returned again a few days later. Just one wall, completely covered. No reason for it. They were not even interested in the rubbish!

how weird is that? But that doesn't even include other strange goings on in the house either. All which I now believe was likely caused by myself. However, our family was never that close to Christ. Nobody really prayed much if at all, and everybody fought continually at that time. God was only an A and E God (accident/emergency). No real conversions then.

It took disaster in our family and total separation to get a few of us back to God. Sometimes people have to hit rock bottom eh?

That is very eerie about the house your brother has heard voices and seen your Mum's ghost....Wow, I'd be praying and getting the house blessed/exorcised. We had one area of one house that was strange. It was always cold, even when the sunlight shone through it. Funnily enough it was a new part that we had been built on there, so we couldn't work out why it was that way. But I thought of the land itself, something may have happened there. Things were felt and seen sometimes. E.g. dark shadow, cold, a feeling of being watched. I would go into the lounge, which was just off that area and I would feel as though I was being watched. everybody did and they never stayed long there. It was a nice area too, but the feeling is what drove people away. I hated going down that end of the house alone and I was often told to go put a book back in the study (which was part of it) and I'd feel sick. I would sneak in and run out at top speed, never understanding why. Nobody spoke about it until many years later (after we moved) and soon people were all comparing similar stories.

Yes, the feeling of being pinned down. I have had a horrible experience once, I think I shared it with you on private message a while ago. I won't say it here, but you might remember it. Paralysis and unable to cry out for help. I managed to cry out to God and be freed of it, nothing else worked except that.

I love weird stories, feel free to share!