Promise Land Ministry

Joshua Tree California

   We headed out from the Grand Canyon May the sixth and arrived in 29 Palms just in time to go to bed.  On the way to Joshua Tree California we came into an area where Joshua Trees were growing.  I noticed something in general about most of them.  They all seemed to be pointing in the westerly direction.  As the traditional story goes, the Mormons called it the Joshua Tree because it seemed to point toward the Promise Land, as they were making an exodus heading west.

   The next day brother John Vega met up with us to help pass out the 11, 000 Joshua flyers to be distributed to the homes of Twenty-nine Palms (headquarters of Joshua Tree National Park) Joshua Tree, and Yucca Valley (so names because of all the Yucca brevifolia or Giant Yuccas called Joshua Trees).

   Brother John was a real blessing to have on the team, his car enabled us to travel around well without the bus, which we parked at Joshua Tree National Park for the one week which cost only $10.00, and went into town to pass out literature each day.  There was a lot of experiences to tell, but because of space, we shall touch on just some of the highlights. 

   John Vega had a couple of neat experiences, one of the early ones was when he met a man that had a speech impediment, and he came running out of the house all excited and telling John how he really liked the flyer and wanted more, so John gave him more.

   Another man was at his mothers house with his son and told John that he was just praying now because of the divorce that he was going through.  His son came up and gave John a long big hug.  John gave the man the flyer, he was all excited about it and said it was just what he needed right now.  John asked if he could pray with him, so they prayed, after the prayer the man was crying and excited all at the same time.  He gave us his name and address to stay in touch.

   Another man that John met was about fifty, wore a beard, he wrote back and asked for more information on the name.

   One denomination was studying the book of Joshua (divine providence of YAHUSHUA, I was told this in Los Lunas NM & 29 Palms CA), I gave one to a pastor's wife, she said, thank you, my husband will enjoy this, we're studying the book of Joshua and my husband is the minister.   I can't help but think that YAHUSHUA gave this out at such a time as this, so that folks in Sunday school could talk and share what they learned about the name  "Joshua", right around these  "Joshua Trees".  I believe this understanding could go far and wide.

I've heard it said that when a message hits the west coast it goes around the world.  YAHUWAH will have to water the Joshua seeds and make them grow, all we did was plant the seed.

   One elderly lady was watering her cactus plants one evening just before sundown, and I walked up and asked her how she was, she said fine, and I told her that I was in the neighborhood handing out a little flyer telling what the name Joshua meant.  She took it and looked at it, there was a moment of silence.  Then she said, how do you say Y-A-H-U-S-H-U-A, I said YAHUSHUA, she said, say that again. So I said, YAHUSHUA!  She then said, "that’s our Lord's name!"  I said, "Thats right!"  She was so respectful about it, and you could see on her face that it was precious to her.  She received the love of it so simply like a little child, because she loved the Saviour and it was His name.  Such a shame that the leaders of the historic Adventists will not receive the love this truth as this old lady did.

   Another lady asked for more so she could mail them to her son and daughter and friends.  So many of the people responded "May God Bless you".  They wanted us in their area passing out these flyers.

   On Wednesday still working in 29 Palms we ran across the 7th Day Adventist Church.  I told John maybe we should go to their prayer meeting.  At this point I was developing blisters on my feet and had to walk in bare footed.  I suppose I looked a little odd.  One of the elders was leading out in a Revelation or Prophecy Seminar.  He asked about us.  So John told him we were Adventists passing out a flyer that tells about the name "Joshua" (this was in front of everybody) he asked to see it, so I gave him one, he looked at it and pushed it aside and said I know about your kind, you believe the only name we should use is YAHSHUA.  He was closed right away.  We could have helped him pack the church with sacred name believers who received our flyer, but from the way he responded, we wouldn't want them to go there lest they should become two fold the child of hell than they were before.

They could have bulk mailed the town the page from the Adult Sabbath School Quarterly entitled The Two Joshuas from April 1995.  And bring in quite a harvest.  We gave the pastor one, he didn't comment, he wisely tucked it away to study later.  A few others wanted to see the flyer.  Meanwhile this elder started arguing with John about the beard, the statutes, and anything else he could think of.  We can only pray for the best.

   Brother Tom was passing out flyers at some duplexes in Joshua Tree and put one on the first door.  The place was playing loud rocki'n'roll music, but they heard Tom put the flyer on the door as the resident was headed to the door, and so noticed Tom.  Tom told the man  "I have some information on the name Joshua, and how it relates in the Bible, I think you'll find it very interesting."  Then the man said, "OK, thank you."  Then Tom proceeded on getting the rest of the duplexes in that section.  As Tom was leaving, he noticed the music had stopped and the man came out, and waved his hand and shouted to Tom,  "Amen! brother,  Amen!"

   Another man that  Tom met was a Jehovah's Witness, at first the man wouldn't take the flyer, then the man and Tom got into a conversation.  The man was trying to share with Tom his view about the kingdom etc., and Tom said I need to get going, but I can come back and share more about this later if you would like and bring my friends back with me.  The man then took the flyer and actually did read and study it, seeing it was on the name issue, which the man said he was familiar with the Savior's name but said he was unclear on the issue. 

   So later all three of us came back and paid him a visit.  Tom perceived he might be a Jehovah Witness, as we visited it came clear as to what we all were.  We shared with the man from his own Watchtower books that some scholars prefer Yahuwa.  It kind'a shocked him for a little bit because he didn't know his own books that well.  The conversation was fruitful, until we got to the Sabbath issue, and there we had to let him have it. (You know how Jehovah Witnesses are, they love to argue their point, they could argue all day if you let them.)

    We covered all of 29 Palms and Joshua Tree which took about 6,000. Then we started working on Yucca Valley, we only covered about 1/3 of the city, and we had to stop. We all had blisters from the heat and from walking so much, but my feet were the worst. I had blisters (I mean big bubbles of water) on every toe, not mention the foot itself. My feet were fast becoming one big blister and it was very painful walking. But I tried my best to be cheerful when I met the folks. Also, time had run out. Tom had to get back to Arkansas, his boss was biting the bit for him to get back. Plus we were running out of food and money fast. So we stopped, having passed out about 7,300 JOSHUA flyers.

	Tres Hombres Tom Nelson, John Vega, & Brian Allen
Brian Allen

John Vega

Brian Allen

UPDATE, OCTOBER, 2006

This fall, I teamed up with John Vega in Yucca Valley to pass out "JOSHUA" flyers. In 2001, Tom Nelson and John Vega helped me pass out 7,300 flyers to all of Twenty-Nine Palms, Joshua Tree and a third of Yucca Valley. After a week of hot sun and blisters on our feet we had to quit. So we wanted to finish Yucca Valley. John Vega helped me pas out the flyers for three days, which was all the time I had. We passed out about 3,200 flyers. altogether that makes about 10,500. We had some good experiences.

Yucca Valley was so named because of all the Giant Yucca, called Joshua Trees, standing in the valley. I found this quote in a library that I had written down in my notes, but do not have the source.

"Some authorities regard the chief of the Taino gods, the son of the great First-in-Being, as a yucca spirit; and indeed, the name of the plant appears to enter into such forms as Iocauna, Jocakuvague, Yocahugama."

The word Yucca, just looking at it, to me looks like a corruption of the Savior's original name, who was in the First-in-Being. The Yu is a corruption of "Yahu", example, Yahudah got reduced to Iuda in Latin. Also the "cc" is an old Greek way of trying to express the "sh" in Hebrew. The Word "Messiah" is the Greek way of expressing the Hebrew "Mashiach"

The Two Friends

John Vega the Californian and Brain Allen, the Texan