8 p.m. Sunday evening.  Jim was in the library showing a movie to some guests when the doorbell rang.  Joseph went to the gate to see who it was.  Talking to the person through the one inch gap between the metal gate and the cement block wall, he learned it was a pastor who had a reservation to stay at Shiloh.  The problem was, Joseph already knew that there was nobody new coming in that night.  He left the man outside the locked gate and went looking for us.  

I went to the gate with Joseph and took his flashlight from him.  Shining it directly in the man's eyes I said "Good evening."  From then on I spoke only when he said something that needed to be responded to.  He was the one needing to convince me he had the right to come inside our gate.  The flashlight remained aimed at his eyes for several reasons.  I wanted to blind him so he could not see into our yard, or worse yet, through the patio front door and down the hallway.  I didn't want him to be able to see me.  And furthermore, I wanted to intimidate him and help him understand that he could not get inside Shiloh through force of his will.  After a pause, he told me his name, said he was a pastor, and that he had a room reserved.  Well that one I could respond to. "No you do not!" I emphatically stated.  He acted shocked and repeated that he did have a reservation.  So I repeated myself.  Two can play this game, I thought.  He then tried to convince me that his friend had phoned at 1 p.m. on that day to make the reservation for him.  Even gave me the name of his friend.  "Nobody phoned.  You do not have a reservation," I replied.  Suddenly he realized the gig was up.  His voice dropped to just above a whisper as he said "What am I supposed to do now?"  I sweetly informed him he could come back tomorrow anytime after 8 a.m.  He turned and walked off into the night.  And we have never heard from him again.  

By Monday evening we were all convinced this alleged pastor had robbery on his mind, not a spiritual retreat.  Joseph even said he may have intended to kill us.  Sounds melodramatic, doesn't it?  Unless you realize that just 15 months earlier, three older women arrived at Shiloh in much the same fashion, and at the same time of night, pretending to be pastor's wives. Those women had robbery and murder on their minds.  They very nearly succeeded in killing both Joseph our guard, and Doris, who was in charge of Shiloh that night in our absence. And they did succeeded in taking a number of our things.  We learned the hard way that we cannot be too careful.