Personal Testimony

PERSONAL TESTIMONY Story by Wilda Kruzinski Kathy Gilbert: From Flower Child at Woodstock to Jesus Freak The day after Kathy Gilbert graduated own eyes what she had been talking about. from high school in 1969, she moved to She prayed about everything.” a hippie commune in Virginia. While her parents in Baltimore worried about her Eileen Gross added, “When she left, her safety, she bounced all around the country eyes were dead; when she came back, they from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. were alive.” In August, she camped at Woodstock for a week with the rock group, Grateful Dead. Ed and Eileen were touched by the change Kathy recalls, “It was a week of brown rice, in Kathy, but they clung to their religion. mud, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. I was looking When Kathy returned to Shiloh, she asked to answer the big questions of life: ‘Who Kathy Gilbert, then and now the other believers to pray for her parents. am I? Why am I here?’” Nearly a year later, her parents saw a Gospel program on TV. “We knelt in the In Washington, D.C., she got tear-gassed “I was awed to living room, and God gave us new hearts in a march at the State Department. In San on Valentine’s Day 1972,” Ed said with a Francisco, she joined another commune realize that, all chuckle. “It was the intercessory prayer of where some creepy fellows visited from those 300 kids; God was working in us.” a group called “The Family” (a.k.a. the along, it was Jesus Charles Manson cult). Kathy had met Stephen Gilbert at Shiloh, who had all the and the two were married in the fall of By the spring of 1970, she was disgusted answers. I was 1972. Soon after, they moved to California with the hippie lifestyle and the emptiness and began attending CC Costa Mesa. she felt. “I was free, independent, fearless— longing for Him!” Serving at the church, Stephen started and utterly alone. But not for long.” Maranatha Printing, and Kathy worked if Jesus gathered me in His arms and held at the switchboard and then for the radio, Kathy headed north. Hitchhiking up me close. It was then that I was able to pour book, and teaching-tape ministry of Pastor Rattlesnake Road in Oregon on a warm out to Him all my sinfulness, longings, and Chuck Smith. June afternoon, she met two hippie- needs. I was awed to realize that, all along, looking fellows in an old Buick. The driver, it was Jesus who had all the answers. I was “Kay Smith became my spiritual mother,” John Higgins, invited her to eat dinner at longing for Him!” Kathy recounted. “She introduced all of a nearby ranch named Shiloh (Hebrew for us to Elisabeth Elliot, whose teaching “peace”)—a Christian ranch. She returned to Shiloh for the next few years has had a powerful influence on my life.” and worked the land with other believers. Stephen now teaches at Orange Coast “There I was, a very lost hippie girl amongst Kathy said, “I discovered the joy of having College, and Kathy is the administrator the most loving, peaceful, real, hippie- an intimate relationship with God.” for CC Publishing at CC Costa Mesa. The looking people I had ever met. I was told Gilberts have two grown children: Judah the Good News of salvation through Jesus Her salvation radically impacted her and Hosanna. Christ. I argued, and I disagreed, but I parents, who were staunchly devoted to a stayed and spent that night in the girl’s traditional religion that did not emphasize Ed and Eileen now serve the Lord full- dorm where a young woman named Debbi the Word of God or a personal relationship time with Institute for Creation Research. Bryson shared the love of Jesus with me.” with Christ. Her father, Ed Gross, “In 1995, the Lord led us to sell all our remembered, “When she left, she was … possessions in Maryland and serve Him.” The next day, Kathy fled to the coast. She untouchable, hating her parents and hating In 2006, Ed and Eileen, both in their 70s, got drunk but couldn’t drown out the the world. When she came back, we saw traveled to more than 30 Calvary Chapels words she had heard at Shiloh. In Florence, she was not the same person. She looked to share scientific evidence for creation. OR, she camped on a deserted beach. “As like an angel. There was a radiance—like They plan to head out again this summer. it grew dark, I began to pray, ‘Jesus, I know the Holy Spirit coming through her eyes, You must be real. Those people back on her face.” While Kathy was at Shiloh, she That early emptiness has been gone for “The Land” are real. And they say it’s You. had called and written her parents to tell years now. Kathy said her passion is “to Would You please accept me? I don’t have them about her salvation. “We couldn’t fall more in love with Jesus and that others anything to offer, but I give myself to You.’ relate to it; we didn’t understand,” Ed said. would come to know and love Him too.” I was overwhelmed with His love. It was as “But when she came back, we saw with our 59.

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