It turns out that the many demonstrations around the country against the Indonesian failure to honour the East Timor
independence vote were attracting crowds of between 500 and 1500 people in this country, Australia.....the media reports for
this particular rally however put the crowd variously at 20,000 , 30,000 and 100,000 with no particular explanation.It
was just stated as a matter of fact.The true number was 30,000.
This story occurred on 11th September 1999...you can look it up on the net under East Timor Rally
Sydney.
At that time Indonesian soldiers were on a deliberately planned rampage to destroy East Timor after the overwhelmingly
sucessful Independence vote.... whilst the rest of the world including politicians stood by allowing it to happen expecting
and accepting the worst.
This is what happened.
1200 people, certainly no more, gathered in Sydney for a protest march. Like the previous marches in Sydney, Melbourne,
Brisbane and other capital cities of Australia, the numbers reflected also the apathy of the community generally to this
vile injustice which seemed to be crowning the twenty five year, 300,000 martyr cost, of East Timor's struggle for independence.
I was in the crowd.
The march did an almost complete circle through the city. On the
third leg, the widest street in the city an extraordinarily large contingent, given the size of the march which
was similar to the others held around the country, of the international and national media was present with their
cameras spread out almost across the full width of the street, a third of the way up the hill, preventing our
progress temporarily -presumeably for a panoramic photo shoot, including video film of the marchers as they first descended
then ascended Bridge St according to the lay of the street.
The streets were deserted on that weekend and there were no bystanders....no one to join in the march.
I reached the cameras and came to a halt like everyone else...I was very near the cameras. I looked around - and was
in awe of what I was seeing.....from wall to wall, this extensive street was packed with 'people' all the way back to the
end... and still they kept coming around the corner....in waves.... walking casually and with ease and casually dressed,
not even looking at each other, one row at a time as they came around the corner, but managing to keep a perfectly straight
line as they did so, seemingly without any effort on their part whatsoever....wave after wave of these perfectly straight
lines like the second hand of a clock tracing a 90 degree arc...and there was a power, a spiritual power which you could feel
with each wave, it was powerful, yet measured, which overcame you, with each wave. As I turned away they were still coming. A
figure of thirty thousand came to mind. (Years later I did an estimate using the estimated width of the road, wall to wall
of the buildings either side of it, the distance back to the start of the street and allowing so much for each person and
the result was exactly 30,000!
I did not see any females, from memory. I say from memory because I did not specifically think about it at the time.
Where did they come from?
Where did they go?
At the end of the march where more speeches were given in a mall there were even less than the original estimated 1500
that we started with, (about half). Amazingly, no one seemed to notice that the 30,000 had now disappeared!
Back to the beginning of the story - I checked the reaction of others near me at the first sight. The person
standing next to me first, near the cameras, one of the original marchers, and when he turned his jaw dropped in total awe;
and yet seeming acceptance, despite incomprehension. And so likewise others, they were overcome at the sight.
These people appeared only for the cameras ....whose pictures went out across the globe with lightning effect -
sparking a reaction which cannot be explained.
The Australian Prime Minister who had heretofore said the relationship with Indonesia was very important and must be
preserved, had a complete turnaround - saying words to the effect "to hell with the relationship". or "bugger the relationship"
- or some such expression; and began mobilizing Australian troops to head to East Timor, which led and composed
most of a UN force onto the island, again, at vitually lightening speed. They met with NO resistence from the rampagers
and pillagers who suddenly withdrew.
Bill Clinton , the then President of the United States threatened to collapse the Indonesian economy through a withdrawal
of International loans if they did not back off.....this was unprecedented in International relations.
Meanwhile back at the march I knew these 30 thousand did not come from nowhere and immediately suspected they were angels.
To test this I immediately decided to zero in on just one to find his reaction. An angel even in a crowd of 30,000 becomes
immediately aware when some has focussed on them - I found this out from experience.
At the front of the 'battalian', peaceful as it was, right near me were roughly, although I didn't count
them seven obviously superior beings ( I am speaking in a spiritual sense and cannot elaborate much further ) to the rest,
and of equal rank amongst themselves. They were in a row and in front of the rest but not separated from them by any distance..
I could see with my minds eye or spiritual eye that they were deprived temporarily of their normal glory....and wings.
I decided to pick someone else out of the crowd to look at and as my eyes were heading in his direction the Spirit
of God asked me to look at some else instead so I cast my eyes in the other direction as led by the Spirit and they alighted
on another.
The response was instantaneous,full of love, wholehearted and true. He looked at me, after a very short time of
appraisal as to who I was, and there was an exchange of a personal nature.
Years later I was to discover that it had been St Michael. He was not near and he was not with one of the seven,
but he was obviously superior to the whole assembly, spiritually in power, in strength and energy. He looked to be in intense
prayer with some angels around him, who seemed very happy, joyful at this, when my eyes first alighted on him. This was
unusual as the others were not so engaged, indeed there was a 'rumble' of indiscernable but enthusiastic and intriguing chatter,
although again it seemed subdued and/or measured.
I also temporarily caught the attention of one of the seven who were very near. I believe they were archangels and
they were very similar to each other and I have little clue which was which.
I am guessing not without reason that the one whose attention I had caught was St Raphael. This has been
since pretty well confirmed as he is a healing angel.
I had prayed at the beginning of the march for God's intervention to save East Timor,and with all my heart,
and several people who I didn't know heard my prayer and joined me, repeating the very same prayer; I knew then
that God would save East Timor as I quite distinctly remembered Christ's words to his Apostles " "Amen again I say to
you , if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they ask, it shall be done for them by My Father in the Heavens."
( Mathew 18; 19.)
I knew that this was also dependant on that prayer being wholehearted.
I would like somehow for East Timor to know at whose hand they were saved in that time - the angels.
That they may give thanks to God, and invite the hand of God to once again take control of their nation - and
for it to become a great nation, as the people so deserve.
I would like a shrine in East Timor to be built to honour the angels.
And I would like America to seize the moment and know that .... whenever two or more are gathered to
pray, whatever they ask, will be granted.
Footnote. It is interesting to note that there is mention in the Old Testament somewhere, of 30,000 angels
who fought a battle for the Israelites.
I am sorry for the less than satisfactory narration. It is the best I can do in a state of shock!
