Flor Edwards is an author and lives in Los Angeles, California. By age twelve, Flor had lived in 24 different locations across three continents. Always on the move to escape the Antichrist and in preparation for the apocalypse supposedly arriving in 1993, her nomadic childhood prompted her to pen her memoir 'Apocalypse Child: A Life in End Times.
Flor Edwards, third from left, and with seven of her siblings in the rural Thai province of Udon Thani. Growing up in ― and leaving ― a cult is something from which a person never fully recovers.
Father David believed he needed a large army to prepare the world for the Great Apocalypse, which he claimed would come in 1993. In 1985, he ordered all of his followers to flee Western nations and head for developing countries in the East because he thought the West would be the first to burn in the fires of hell. I spent most of my childhood in Thailand, never knowing what was outside the walls of the compound I shared with my family and 30 other members of the Children of God.
The first difference I noticed about life in America was that the only protection we had from the outside world was a chain-link fence that reached to my waist. The second thing I noticed was how plentiful the food was. When we woke up on our first morning in the U.S., we found a bowl of sweet, thick-skinned oranges on the dining room table. We were allowed to eat even if it wasn’t mealtime ― even if we weren’t hungry ― something I’d never experienced before.On the morning of Feb.
We continued to try to keep the daily routine we’d followed when we lived communally in the Children of God’s compound. There were 11 kids in our family, plus Steven and Mary’s three children, and Mom divided up the chores amongst everyone. The women in the family took care of the children while Dad, my older brother and Uncle Steven were responsible for getting the money we needed for food and utilities by selling goods at local swap meets.
An avalanche of thoughts overwhelmed me as I began, for the very first time, to try to unravel the knots of my past. I had never chosen to join the Children of God ― it was a life I was born into and then forced to endure for 15 years. I was a victim and I suddenly saw my parents in a completely new light. At the same time, I knew they were also victims, both of Father David and of the mainstream world they were trying to escape by joining the Children of God.
The Children of God slowly disbanded. It still exists under the name The Family International, but it claims to be an independent group of missionaries with a few members scattered in various countries doing what is called “charity work” ― supposedly helping at orphanages, distributing food to those in need and helping with disaster relief.
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