Teaching Mission History

From Fred Harris

April 03, 1999

History of the Tallahassee Teaching Mission Group (to 1999)

     In September of 1991, I went to Woods Cross to investigate the Teaching Mission phenomenon. I had previously sent a question to Ham, the Woods Cross celestial teacher, inquiring about whether there was anything like that going on in Tallahassee. I was told to seek the couple on Greenbriar Road. I had looked around and couldn't locate a Greenbriar Road anywhere near Tallahassee. I went to the local Urantia Book group and told them about what I was told was going on in Utah, but I was advised that they were very conservative and that they weren't interested in such things. Still, when I told them the Greenbriar Road answer, a married couple got a shocked look on their face and told me that they had been given the Urantia Book immediately after moving into the Greenbriar apartments. That cinched it. I was going to Utah to check it out.

On the way to Utah, I devised a lot of tricky questions to ask Ham, but when I got to Woods Cross I was surprised when, before I could ask the first question, Ham introduced me to Will and she advised me that she was going to be our group teacher in Tallahassee. I told her that I was still not sure that I believed all this and that those people in Tallahassee were not open to it, so how was I supposed to interest them? She said, "You'll think of something!"

Well, after getting all my questions answered by Ham, I gathered up the transcripts that were available and headed back to Tallahassee. I handed them out to those people who I had met in the Urantia Book group right before I left for Utah and told them to read them before the next meeting. One of the members shook his finger in my face and said, "If they in any way contradict the Urantia Book, I'm out of here!" But when they had the next meeting, the number of people had doubled. I played Will's message to them and, surprisingly, they all agreed to meet weekly (instead of monthly) to see what would happen.

Now at this point, we had all read about the stillness practice and we were all trying to "hear" Will. I was afraid that I would be the one to hear her, and that would not have been appropriate in my view. But I didn't have to worry. I didn't hear anything. I assumed that no one else did either, as no one called me.

At the next meeting I said, "Well, I guess no one heard from Will, so what do we do now?" I almost fell out of my chair when one of the women (the one from the Greenbriar apartments) said, "I heard from her and she gave me the following lesson to read at this meeting" The lesson was as follows:

Will: God the Father surrounds us, God the Father supports us, the love of the Father protects us. Where ever we are, He is.

  The Universe is designed so that those will creatures who have chosen the path to the Father may have every opportunity for growth and development. It is necessary at times to place before them challenges that necessitate decisions that nurture the soul within them. They make decisions that make the soul grow if they decide to do the will of the Father in Heaven.

We watch urgently as one of you falters and then finds a firm footing on steady rock. It matters not that the footing was shaky at first. What does matter is the final outcome. Be patient with yourselves as we are patient with you. God only knows how long it will take for you to acknowledge your own weaknesses and turn to Him for support.

Some of you think you have the ability to tread the waters alone. Such is simply not the case. You must learn to rely upon the Father in all situations. Lean not to your own understanding, but call upon Him while He is near. He will be ever vigilant in helping you. Be not afraid, but rather confident in His love for you and His ability to see you through all problems you may face.

Once you are finally aware of the reliability of your heavenly Father, you will turn to Him first. There will be no need to spend even a moment in fear. Anxiety will pass you by and you will no longer be concerned about the future.          Be not anxious about tomorrow. Sufficient is today and the troubles thereof. He is with you always.

That was in October, 1991. We have met weekly ever since. We have had numerous transmitters and people have come and gone, but we are still a vibrant group. We sponsored the Fayetteville Teaching Mission conference in 1995 and the Celestial Nights gathering in 1998 and 1999 at Cape San Blas. We published The Center Within to assist us in our long time desire to develop a spiritual center and perhaps a community focused on spiritual seeking. We have often been told that we have bonded like a family and I think that is true. There is a lot of love between the members of our group. I am proud to have been associated with them. We have all been transformed by this experience and, while it is a little unusual for this world, it has been wonderful.

END