Phoenix Journal 197 - Four Winds 10

and meeting room. She even bought her own cleaning supplies, etc. This, she did gladly and lovingly, until
she was duped into thinking otherwise by the hangers-on. Unfortunately for Betty, she bought the lies
being fed to her. And when she sank to contacting George, it’s been all downhill for her from there.
Saddest of all for me has been the parting of the ways with the Ence (Enz?) family. Unfortunately, Rod was
a complete failure as a farmer. He will tell you that it was everybody else’s fault but his own, of course. I
recall Rod telling us how badly his father treated him as a child and that nothing he would ever do would be
quite good enough in his father’s eyes. It was obvious that Rod, a man in his forties, was still carrying a
heavy emotional burden from childhood which greatly affected him, even to the present day.
As a result of this load, Rod greatly resented anyone who appeared as an authority. This rancor extended
to E.J. and Charles who tried their best to salvage three years of failed spelt crops on the farm. Rod was
offered other work (more in-line with his expressed pleasure of the perfect job) several months before he
was asked to leave the farm, but he declined. We found out later that, more than a year before Rod was
fired, he had decided he didn’t like our mission and most of us. Apparently, he wanted to milk the job for
all he could get before moving on. With free rent and utilities, a good salary, free gas, a free vehicle and all
the Welfare he could whip up, I guess he figured, “Why not?”
He had been meeting for years with Mike Blinston and Ed Cleary who promised to put Rod in charge of
all their farming when they got their big funding from the Philippines. So, Rod felt very comfortable in
kissing all of us off. When it became known that Rod had solicited funds from Phoenix Institute supporters
($23,000.00) and then turned around and kept it for himself, I believe that was the last straw for most of
us who knew him. These dear friends thought that they were sending funds to buy equipment in support of
the Phoenix Institute and stated as much in an affidavit. Rod would never have known about these people
except for the fact that he was President of the Phoenix Institute at that time. Rod not only lied to everyone
about it, but originally he told everyone that the money came from his family.
Somewhere around September of 1995, Rod publicly announced at a meeting his enmity for Hatonn and
all of us so-called misguided ones. I suppose in his mind he thought he was confronting the ones who
mistreated him so terribly. Actually, Rod stood there at the meeting, yelling as loud as he could about what
a fake and liar Hatonn was. It was a pathetic display because Rod was shaking all over and he made a
total fool of himself. Hatonn waited until the tirade was over before he calmly responded to Rod’s deaf
ears. It was obvious to me that this was the boy who still could not gain the approval of his father. Rod’s
family members have since toed the line and blindly followed Rod’s specious justifications. In the case of
his children, that is totally understandable, but still sad. In the very same meeting Ed Cleary got up and
announced that all the trips that he and Mike Blinston made to the Philippines and other places, which the
Phoenix Institute sponsored in hopes of getting funding for Institute projects, was for their own benefit and
no one else. This was no surprise at that moment, given the obvious collaboration of these pretenders.
The next day I asked Cleary for his office key. I saw no reason for CONTACT, Inc. to furnish office space
and a free telephone for his use any longer. He said, “You can’t tell me what to do, Sonny!” I told him that
his attitude was fine with me because I had already ordered a new lock for that afternoon.
Recently, I attended a court hearing regarding the Ekker house case in Bakersfield. After the attorney for
the Ekkers made a compelling argument and showed how opposition attorney Steven Horn had deliberately
lied to the court, Judge Chapin simply ignored the whole issue and once again ruled against the
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