Before I can post how the band’s women began considering believing on Christ, since their men were given ‘missions of God’ by God’s angels during the final singing note from a song those same angels gave them years before, I must remind the reader of the circumstances surrounding these missions given to the band members as well as how the singer of that note reacted to being given his mission during a conversation with pop culture pundits Jay Elliot (narrator of the first two novels of the trilogy, Battel of the Band and The Prophesied Band) and Lloyd Denholm, narrator of the third novel, The Prodigal Band. All snippets in this post are from The Prodigal Band, © 2018 by Deborah Lagarde.
The short snippet below, from Chapter Seven, relates to the local music festival finale early Sunday morning, July 16, 2000, when God’s angels, the Tooters, spoke to each prodigal band member what would become their individual ‘mission of God’ as singer Erik sang the mission song’s final note.
Approaching 5:30 a.m., as Erik sang the final song note
And so I cry, let the night down
For my sweet Love to wear a golden crown
He held each note of those final lines longer than the previous note, until ‘crown,’ which lasted as if he could hold it seemingly forever! His vocals were no longer under his control.
As the singer finished off the final note of the word ‘crown,’ a cappella, the spirits residing within The Tooters statue spoke to each of the six simultaneously giving them their ‘missions of God.’ Erik’s was simply to sing to the world’s youth about accepting Christ as Savior, to call on Him in His Name. Jack, the only band member to ever open a Bible, was told to teach God’s Word to the rest of the band. Keith and Bry were to reach ‘gang youth’ and ‘bikers,’ respectively. Tom, who hung out with celebrities and sons and daughters of the elites as well, was told to try to get them to give up their false gods and the evil ways of their parents. Mick, the occultist, was told to reach out to fellow occultists and pagan worshipers—in a Tooter voice that could spew brimstone, for first Pordengreau had to completely give up his ‘wicked ways.’
Later, the singer verified their missions in the snippet below, from the same chapter. He is conversing with pop culture pundits Jay Elliot and Lloyd Denholm, the novel’s narrator, inside the band’s tour bus.
Then Jay said, “… I did notice as you sang that note, that all the others just stood there, as if they were entranced or something.”
“Yeah, like you guys were possessed—”
Erik quickly answered, “We were possessed!”
“By—”
“The Tooters. Yeh, The Tooters, who as I was singing that note for a minute, eh, spoke to each of us, at the same time. Yeh,” he repeated to us two incredulous beings, “at the same time. Three angels speaking to six humans. I’m not making that up.”
“God’s angels, right?” Jay said. “That’s kinda what that song claims.”
“What they tell you?” I asked, kind of already suspecting what was told.
“They gave each of us a mission, like, from—well, God, eh?”
Jay immediately cut in. “Yeah, I spoke with Ger yesterday and she brought up some ‘mission of God.’ I hope you don’t mind if she—”
“No, that’s fine if she told you. The good thing is she believes it.”
“So, Erik,” I asked, “what is your particular mission?”
“Well, singing of course. But I have to do something—I still can’t believe it, that I could do such a thing. I have to sing to, well, the world I guess, about living by His Laws—”
“God’s Laws.”
“Yeh, and not only that—I mean, I don’t even live by God’s Laws—I don’t even know what God’s Laws are!” Agitated. “And then they said for me to call the youth to His Ways so that His Son—”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Yeh!” Still agitated. “So that Christ will save them, and for the youth to call upon Him in His name!”
He then stood up and paced nervously back and forth. “And naturally, they didn’t exactly say how the hell I was supposed to accomplish that! And it ain’t singing ‘Let the Night Down’, eh? And if I ever sang that again, after what I did, I could never do it justice again! So like I’m just supposed to come up with some freaking hymn or something—”
Then he crashed onto the couch again, holding his bent-down head as if in shame. “I told them—well, my mind told them—that they got the wrong guy! I said I wasn’t religious and I never would be. And then the Tooter said I didn’t have to be, or something!” Now his voice was really shaking in its boots, as he shouted. “What they think? Because I used to sing in pageants about Christ that I really know why I was singing about Christ? So I’m supposed to sing about Christ and I have no freaking clue about Christ! The only thing I know about Christ is—well, he existed. He was like a preacher or something, only not a bloody hypocrite like all the rest of ‘em are, and stuck it to the Pharisees. Because of that I always thought Christ was cool. Now I can sing about Christ being cool, eh? But the Son of God Savior? When I don’t even know if I believe it myself?”
Rocked himself back and forth, still heavy breathing and shaking.
“Well, Erik,” I finally said, not knowing if what I was about to say would console him, but I said it anyway, out of intuition. “If The Tooters gave you songs that would and have brought you six to this point, right, then how do you know they won’t help you figure this out?”
“Yeah,” Jay cut in, “Lloyd’s right. I am pretty sure that someone or something will come along soon and help you solve this issue. If you have been given this mission, I’m sure you won’t be made to fail it. I don’t think God sets people up for failure.”
“God gave each of you guys a mission, likely knowing only a band as great and talented as Sound Unltd could carry it out. He gave you this mission precisely so it would succeed!”
The singer then calmed down and cocked his head in consideration of what we told him. “Yeh, what you said makes sense.”
A year later, the band met with Bobby Jones, a former roadie who had recently accepted Christ. He himself was ‘given’ a message, about a song he was working on, by a woman named Morwenna—otherwise known as the spirit being called ‘the witch of the Hovels’ that received messages from the Tooters but was named Morwenna when in human form. Morwenna, inspired by the Tooters, had recently become the personal assistant to Erik’s wife, Ger. Bobby needed to know if the band was going to perform his song about Christ, called “He is the Way.” In the snippet below, from Chapter Nine of The Prodigal Band, Bobby reveals who ‘messaged’ him that song.
“I met a woman at the Walltown Trade Festival. I’m not gonna go into all the details about how I got to be there, okay, because it literally cost my life savings to go. Let’s just say I had it in me to go. So I met this woman who said she knew that I knew Sound Unltd, and she had a message for me to work out the song I was working on and pass it on to you. You know, ‘He is the Way’. Then she disappeared.”
“Really!” Jack shouted in wonder.
“B-but, not before she got me to give her my e-mail address. And I asked for hers and she said she didn’t have one but she would get in touch with me by e-mail.”
“Was this before or after the end of the show?”
“After, in fact it was on Monday after the gig. I didn’t get out of Walltown until nearly a week later. I just decided to hang around.”
“So she got in contact with you?”
“Yeah, starting about six months ago. I’d almost forgotten about it, but then one day about late last year ago I got an e-mail from Morwenna somebody.”
“Morwenna who?” Erik shouted. Ger’s Morwenna? Now that’s bloody odd!
“I don’t know her last name.”
“What’s the e-mail address?”
“Why? You think you know her?”
“Yeh, I think I do, eh? About seven months ago Ger hired a new personal assistant from Walltown named Morwenna. And I know for a fact she has her own e-mail connection.”
Keith said softly to the singer next to him, “You think, bro, the old witch of the Hovels is—you know?”
Erik turned to him, nodded several times. “Amazing!” he whispered. “Ger probably hired that bloody witch, who’s now young again. I mean it can’t just be coincidence. I always thought it was odd she just happened to be sent a woman from Walltown.”
In fact Morwenna was key also in aiding the band’s women to consider accepting Christ. To remind the reader, these are the band’s wives: Laurie, guitarist-band leader Jack’s wife; Ger, singer Eriks wife; Jarris, bassist Keith’s wife, and Mo, synthist Bryan’s wife. While their men were meeting with Bobby at Bobby’s house in rural northern California, these women met at Ger’s LA Hills estate, ‘the Manning residence,’ in the snippet below.
Meantime, at the Manning residence, LA Hills
None of the women of the six—long, tall blonde Laurie Koolig, large-boned yet thin red-head Mo McClellan, Jarris Mullock and Ger Manilow, nursing baby Jason— saw Morwenna carrying a thick, large-print King James Bible cradled in her arms as she walked clandestinely from one side of the atrium to the door on the other side leading to her office, nor heard her footfall.
Just how am I going to get Ger to even look at this book? It’s not like she’ll fire me, but I know how Hollywood folks feel about the Word of God.
She left the atrium behind her. No, I don’t think Ger is like that, yet she’s still too worldly. But that’s my problem.
And her mission.
Since Morwenna knew Ger often went over to her desk to look at her personal assistant’s calendar, the smartly dressed woman left the book where her employer wouldn’t be able to ignore it.
But what passage? Proverbs 31? The words describe a Godly woman. No. Something that will pique her long-dormant faith.
Morwenna opened the Bible to John 3:16.
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’
To make sure Ger noticed, she took a yellow highlighter and marked the verse.
Within the atrium—
“I guess the boys have arrived at Bobby’s place already,” Laurie, slouching on a couch of alpaca wool pillows, heaved a sigh.
Jarris spoke doubt. “And when they come back, they’ll be born-again Christian rockers! Did you hear that song that Bobby wrote for them? ‘He is the Way’ it’s called. ‘He’ being Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? That they’re going to sing about Jesus, and they don’t even believe in Him.”
Mo, who had been a disciple of the demonically-possessed Cole Blessing and saw many lying wonders, believed she had some wisdom to impart. “They won’t come back born-again Christian anything, Jarris. It took me about a year to really become committed to Blessing. And my dad’s a vicar of the Anglican Church. It took him years of divinity school, and even he has some doubts sometimes about his faith. Or he used to. Haven’t spoken to him in a while.” Sighed regret. “But you don’t go visiting a Christian and come back converted, eh?”
The skinny red-head, like her husband the most emotional of the group, sat up and barked back. “Well, fine if they do! What do you have against them becoming Christians? They can do whatever religion they want! Better than that stupid Circle of Unity bullshit!”
Mo dropped her jaw, dumbfounded. “That’s not what I said! Yes, they can become Christians! But what I said was that it doesn’t happen overnight. For one thing, it takes years of Bible study, and I’ve never seen Bry, for one, open up a Bible. Does Keith?”
“No.”
“Well, then he won’t be converted overnight.”
Laurie broke in. “So it takes reading the Bible to become a Christian?” She mock laughed. “If that’s true, Jack would’ve been a Christian for many years now!”
“You have to read it,” Mo answered, “not get beat over the head with it.”
“And I still can’t believe all you have to do is read the Bible,” Jarris whined. “And, oh yeh, go to church, which I know for a fact Keith hasn’t set foot into since he was a kid. He wouldn’t know what to do in a church if it hit him over the head.”
“Don’t you have to pray or something?” Laurie intoned incredulously. “I mean it can’t just be that easy—read the Bible and go to church and be a good person and give a couple o’ million dollars—”
“Yeh, Mo,” Jarris cut in, “the collection plate?”
Ger, who had been listening intently but had to pay attention to the baby until he fell asleep, which he appeared to be doing, added, “And let’s not forget bake sales and bingos.” Sarcastic snort.
Mo sneered, “Bake sales and bingos, Ger? Like when’s the last time you set foot into a kitchen, let alone a church?”
She placed Jason in his soft, snug baby carrier, got up and rolled her eyes at Mo. “I was joking, okay?” Moved toward the exit toward Morwenna’s office. “Like I think you all are missing the point. You don’t even need to go to church. Morwenna is the holiest person I know and she never goes to church. She says there’s not a church in this area she’d want to go to.”
Jarris said that she heard some famous actress goes to church.
“Well good for her,” Ger snorted. “I’m saying a real Christian like Morwenna doesn’t go to church, but I know she prays a lot and reads the Bible a lot. She’s always trying to get me to read the Bible. I look at it now and then.”
“Look,” Jarris wouldn’t relent, “I have no problem reading the Bible. When my mother was getting beat up by dad she’d always read it to comfort her. But it’s Keith and the guys that need to read it. They’re the ones on that mission of theirs.”
“Well,” Ger answered, heading out the doorway, “I’ll get Morwenna and maybe she can settle this argument.”
The others followed.
“Morwenna,” Ger called about to enter the office. “You there?”
Not seeing the personal assistant, Ger glanced at her desk and noticed the open Bible and the section yellowed-in. She read the highlighted section out loud.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The others entered the office as she read it.
“Oh my God,” Ger wondered. When she saw the others she read it aloud again.
“So like you’re all wrong. This says that all you have to do is believe in Jesus. That’s it.” She looked up at the others.
Mo looked at the Bible. “Yeh, and it’s in red letters. That means Jesus said it.”
“He said that? Then it must be true, because I know one thing about Jesus. He’s the only person who ever lived who never lied.”
Jarris looked at the Bible. “So all of that in red is what He said. So if we read the Bible, that’s mostly what we need to read.” She glanced at the red letters on the opposite page, which began with the story of the Pharisee Nicodemus. Verse 7 read, ‘Ye must be born again.’ She cried out, “Here it is! Born again! ‘Ye must be born again’.”
“But what does that mean?” Laurie wondered. She took the Bible from Ger and read it from the beginning of Chapter Three. “Nicodemus was a Pharisee, some kind of ruler.”
“Yeh,” Jarris broke in, “the hypocrites. That’s what Keith calls Torquay and them.”
“So Nicodemus says to Jesus he knows Jesus is a teacher sent by God, and Jesus says unless you’re born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. So Nicodemus says,” Laurie looked at the others, “he’s old, so how can he be born again? So Jesus replies that a man has to be born of the water— you know, be baptized—and of the spirit.”
“What spirit?” Ger wanted to know.
“The Holy Ghost,” Mo answered. “You know, Father, Son, Holy Ghost?”
“What does He do?”
Mo shrugged her shoulders. “I have no idea. My dad was a vicar and he tried to get me baptized, but I refused. I always thought all that religion stuff was just a load of dogma. In one ear, out the other.”
The next post, Part Three, to be posted soon, begins not only the band members’ journey to belief on Christ, but their women’s as well, which begins in Chapter Ten of The Prodigal Band, with Morwenna as the catalyst.
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