Bill Says: We're having a beautiful summer day here in Moose Pass, with a cloudless sky, a nice breeze and temps in the high 70's. Today, we've learned we have a family of coyotes living up on the bluff above us. They start yapping when the state trooper's race by with sirens blaring. Mona chased off one coyote last night that was coming down the driveway. Thankfully, the brown bear hasn't returned, but we keep an eye out for him or her anyway.
Between working in Dillingham and Skagway I learned a lot about police work and how in small departments, the patrolman was also the investigator, CSI tech and once in a while, even the district attorney. I worked homicides, sexual assaults and drug cases, whatever happened on my shift I was responsible for. In Skagway, I got to try two misdemeanor cases because the DA couldn't fly in from Juneau due to weather conditions. One was a DWI case and the other was an assault, and I won them both. But admittedly, the judge gave me a lot of leeway and the suspects couldn't keep their mouths shut..
But coming into Skagway a brand new Christian really didn't prepare me for the spiritual warfare Mona and I would enter into. Now I look back and believe it was in fact my brand new faith that carried me through those strange days. I wasn't an old Christian, struggling with pester some doubts over life's situations, "Why doesn't God do this for me!?", and was much like a young soldier ready to charge in with my new shiny armor on and not afraid to use it. I see so many older Christians, myself included at times, that get set in our ways and have little room for growth, or bother to listen to new ideas. Cracks begin to form in our armor, a little tarnish here and there. But new Christians, they're ready to swing that sword and take on the enemy with the zest of a high school football player going against the team rival. Yes, sometimes we do enter a little too quickly, but we sure are excited! And hey, we've got God behind us. Sadly, some are not ready for this kind of battle and the injured sometimes do not recover or they begin to look at the Lord in an off kilter way, giving birth to new age beliefs. The strong, with the help of other believers, make it through and in our case it was a lot of prayers from family and friends.
Our church had requested and been given the town's old library building to transform into a Christian coffee house to work with all the summer tourists and boat crew members. It took a lot of effort by some gifted carpenters to transform that building into a real comfortable place. I was too busy working 12-hour shifts to help much. It was nice. But then, things turned sour. The church decided to transform the coffee house into a haunted house for Halloween. Mona and I were upset and we objected, but we were the only ones. Even the pastor was behind it. Here we were in a town under the thumb of the enemy, where everyone knew of the haunts and yet, the church was going to join in with the Halloween craziness. Mona and I didn't attend the festivities and the church ended up losing the coffee house soon afterward.
The following Fall, after a very busy summer of rowdy Canadians and tourists, I was called by Chief Ranger Ray, National Park Service, and he needed my assistance. He needed to file a police report on a vandalism of a National Park cemetery and wanted me to go out there to investigate it. I said sure and didn't know it at the time I was about to open a real huge can of worms that nearly cost me my job- again. I often right on the edge with all my zest and vigor to do the right thing and heck with the politics.
Tourists season was over, all the fall leaves were on the ground and it was beginning to turn chilly at night. This cemetery was located out in the Dyea area, about 8-miles from downtown Skagway. Our radio phone still worked out that far, so I drove out and parked in the dirt parking area. This cemetery was used to place 88-miners killed in a 1898 avalanche on the Chilkoot Trail. It was supposed to be a temporary cemetery, but for some unexplained reason the miners were never moved. During my investigation, I learned this was an unsanctified cemetery; never having been blessed by any church because it was supposed to be temporary.This would end up being a key piece of info to my investigation. A much larger cemetery was located about a quarter-mile away; lots of men and women died along the trail to the gold fields.
Ranger Ray didn't tell me exactly what was vandalized and I expected some headstones were damaged by teens. So, having my briefcase and camera in hand I walked toward the pathway leading to the cemetery and almost immediately, I ran smack into a barrier/wall of ice. I find it hard to explain exactly what I felt, for I could clearly see everything around me. But I had this icy, almost burning to the touch resistance, preventing me from my going any further. Freaked out, I stepped back and then tried once more and found the same invisible barrier. No one was around, I was all alone out there. So, I hustled back to my car and locked the doors. I was honestly afraid. Now, I'd encountered some strange things in Viet Nam, but this was different and I really didn't like feeling this scared. Then I felt a gentle nudge to pray and I began to pray, quietly at first in almost a whisper and as I prayed my courage returned and my voice grew louder. Then I was outside my car calling out the Name of the Lord to send the enemy fleeing. After a few moments of this, I walked back down the path and the barrier was gone.
When I reached the cemetery I discovered that three of the graves were dug up and the bones removed. Someone had belt an alter with the human bones. I also observed a rope hanging down from a tree right over the alter, burning and blood evidence. I found small animal bones, suspected of being a dog or cat and possibly more than one. We'd had a lot of reports this last summer of missing pet animals. The alter also showed melted wax of different colors. Someone had been practicing their witchcraft out here and had desecrated three graves. Apparently, using an unsanctified cemetery was quite an opening for a witch's coven.
While out there, my old combat antenna was up and working as I felt like a thousand eyes were on me and not one was friendly, but at the same time I felt the Lord's covering and continued on with my on scene investigation until I was completely satisfied I was done.
I took lots of photos and filed my report, giving a copy to Ranger Ray. He filed it with his main office. Then the explosion came. My Chief, who was a high ranking mason, became quite upset with me for doing this report and wanted me to pull it and get the copy back from Ray. He later tried, but Ray had already faxed his on. Well, I refused to pull the case and the words from his mouth were not sweet to my ears. He thought about firing me but knew it would come back on him unfavorably once it was learned why he was firing me.I made a lot of friends and quite a few of the business owners liked me because of my walking patrol and inspecting their places. He ordered me to cease any further investigation of this matter and again, I refused. I felt inside that I just couldn't stop. The cemetery was within our city limits and this desecration needed to be further investigated. He ended up getting sick later and had to quit working, eventually quitting and moving on to North Pole.
Mona helped me greatly with my investigation. Her occult background and knowledge assisted me and over the winter I had learned the identities of about half of the coven- mostly lead city people and this included my city manager and editor of the local paper. I learned how the coven had been formed during the gold rush, some of the people moving up from Seattle with a demonic purpose in mind. This made the coven of 13-members 83 years old. Articles were put out in the paper to make fun of my investigation and even some of the church people were laughing at me for even bothering with this. I had really stirred something up.
Dennis was made the new chief and our friendship pretty much ended, as I had supported Ed for the job. Dennis knew how I knew he had lied in his application for the job, but I decided not to inform on him. But he would prefer me gone. I had angered something in town as the haunts seemed to have increased. Our pastor had resigned and left town. We were asking God what to do and within weeks we got the answer.
I got a call from Seward Police Department and they actually hired me over the phone, something Seward had never done before. They normally had a lengthy hiring process; oral boards and polygraph. So, both Mona and I felt it was a God appointment. It was an advance in pay for us and a larger department. Mona had just given birth to Joshua, our second son together. We had Elizabeth, our eldest child from her previous marriage and I had John & Micheal from my previous marriage, but only our two new sons were living with us for the moment. Dennis, he was really relieved to see me leaving. By now he had hired a new officer named Jerry, a good man. He later resigned to move to Washington and open a knife business. I have the first Bowie knife he ever made... gave it to Joshua, but currently on my wall for now. So, I flew out as the Seward PD needed me ASAP. They were having union problems with local labor and Mona would follow in our car, with older brother- Chuck's help.
Much later, I wrote a Christian fiction manuscript about Skagway. I used fictional characters, but all my actual police cases and the activities of the enemy are detailed. It is named "Stronghold". About a young police officer who through his investigations uncovers the existence of a coven and is now targeted for assassination. On Halloween night he is stabbed and severely wounded by a misdirected older teen and airlifted out of Skagway. Years later, he returns to Skagway as the new pastor and ready to go to war for his community.
I have always found it so strange how so many Christians loved to here stories of angelic happenings, but when you begin to speak about the enemy existence... they shrug you off as a fool. Weird!
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