THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 29, 1996 TAG: 9604270053
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 149 lines
IT WAS April 10, 1982, and David Ricks, a senior at the University of Texas in Austin, was watching ``The 700 Club'' when he heard Pat Robertson announce that his Christian Broadcasting Network had, that day, begun spreading the word of God throughout the embattled Middle East via a new television station.
Ricks, an Episcopalian who'd only the year before been ``born again,'' prayed, saying ``Lord, if you want me to go and work at that station in the Middle East, I'll go.''
God was silent. But about two years later, Ricks was awakened in the wee hours of the morning by a voice he believed to be the Lord's. It told him: ``Quit your job. Sell your car. Go to CBN.''
After the voice awoke him again two and four nights later with the same order, Ricks obeyed.
He gave up his lucrative job as a car salesman, sold his new car and sublet his duplex. He bought an old clunker and set out for Virginia Beach, pulling his few belongings behind in a trailer.
As Ricks drove east from Texas, he'd no idea what God had in store for him. He had only those staccato directions from God reverberating in his head.
In 1982 Kevin Todeschi was Virginia Beach bound. The graduate of the University of Colorado at Denver had grown weary of wrestling with a question he couldn't get out of his head. He'd found no answers in the small Colorado town of his childhood, nor had his traditional Catholic upbringing given him enough insight to resolve the query.
Todeschi wanted to know, ``If God is omniscient and knows in advance whether we'll make it to heaven, why does He have us waste time coming to Earth?''
Todeschi had begun to suspect the answer might just lie in the archives of The Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach. He'd read enough of founder Edgar Cayce's teachings to want to know more - much more. When the 24-year-old pulled up his western roots and headed east he'd no idea what the future held.
Ricks and Todeschi, two intelligent and curious young men. Two journeys east. Two separate spiritual quests.
Today, Ricks is in charge of production for CBN's Middle East Television, the same department he asked God about joining years ago.
And Todeschi is no longer plagued by questions about God's purpose. He's found his answers. He also oversees A.R.E. activities worldwide.
The two men were drawn to Virginia Beach by institutions on opposite sides of the city - CBN on the west and A.R.E. on the east -that attract tens of thousands of visitors from around the world each year. At the same time, CBN and A.R.E. beam out their messages of hope and help to millions around the globe by way of telephone, television and mail.
The two organizations seem, on the surface, to have little in common. Their origins are as disparate as their philosophies and their methodologies appear to be. Yet they are linked by a common goal of helping to bring people closer to God.
CBN founder Pat Robertson broadcast his first interdenominational message of hope-through-Christ in 1960 from a Portsmouth television station with barely enough power to reach beyond the city limits. Now one of the largest TV ministries in the world, CBN this year launched WorldReach, which aims to convert 500 million to Christianity by the 2000.
Also, CBN's Operation Blessing, an offshoot humanitarian organization, will begin its airborne outreach mission in May, flying doctors and medical supplies to third-world countries.
A.R.E. was founded in 1931 to preserve and research the voluminous written material produced by psychic healer Edgar Cayce, who was born in Kentucky in 1877, moved to Virginia Beach in 1928 and died in 1945.
Cayce's ``readings,'' as they are called, are the verbatim diagnoses and suggested remedies he gave while in a self-induced sleep state to individuals both in his presence and far distant.
The bulk of the Cayce readings concern medical conditions, but Cayce dealt with thousands of other topics, including the human relationship with God.
Practitioners among all the world's major religions - Hindus, Muslims, Jews and Christians among them - adhere to Cayce's philosophy.
Mailrooms at both CBN and A.R.E. bustle.
CBN receives so much mail - more than 2 million pieces a year - that the Post Office has assigned it its own ZIP code.
The volume of incoming mail at A.R.E. tops 1 million pieces a year, and that number is matched by outgoing letters and packages. A.R.E.'s bookstore each year fills orders for thousands of copies of the more than 300 books that have been written about Cayce and his work.
CBN has its own television station with state of the art technology, including a garden of gargantuan satellite dishes, to broadcast the religiously-oriented daily news and entertainment show, ``The 700 Club,'' to more than one million viewers in the United States. Two hundred and seventy five television stations in 60 foreign countries enable millions more to watch a 30-minute, dubbed or subtitled segment of the show.
Those who man the phone lines at headquarters of the two institutions are busy as well. CBN and A.R.E. both maintain 24-hour, toll-free lines.
CBN phone counselors, who fielded nearly 2 million calls in 1995, pray with callers and help them find biblical advice to cope with minor and major crises. At A.R.E., telephone counselors give advice on health-related problems, dream interpretation and spiritual and family issues.
Most days, it takes 200 employees and volunteers to answer the calls at CBN, but during the three-times-a-year telethon, 400 are needed.
Elsewhere, CBN has 55 staffed ministry centers, and A.R.E. operates centers and holds activities in 22 countries.
Both organizations have spawned universities, attracting students from all parts of the globe. CBN's Regent University offers its student body of degrees in government, business, education, counseling, divinity, communications and law.
A.R.E.'s Atlantic University offers degrees in Transpersonal Studies to the several hundred who are enrolled at any given time. The Harold J. Reilly School of Massotherapy is also based at A.R.E.
It was Regent that drew Nigerian Victor Oladokun to Hampton Roads. He came in 1988 to do graduate work in communications, and now works for CBN World News.
It was the massage school that brought Asato Maehata to A.R.E., also in 1988. She had been a jazz singer in her native Japan and developed her own massage technique based on Cayce's teachings. She is now engaged in creating her own relaxing music tapes to go with the body therapy.
When David Ricks arrived at CBN 11 years ago, he went to work as a teleminister and, after a nine-month stint on the phone lines, he found out why God had called him to CBN.
Nervous about his upcoming interview for a position at Middle East Television, Ricks visited CBN's chapel to pray and put himself in God's hands. Then he began to read from Ecclesiastes, Chapter 10. When he reached Verse 10, Ricks knew even before he read the words that the Lord was speaking to him. The verse just ``jumped off the page,'' he remembers.
When he read, ``If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened,'' his heart sank, for he knew that he was competing with graduate students.
But then he continued reading, ``more strength is needed but skill will bring success.'' He landed the job that day.
Kevin Todeschi finally found the answer to the question that had bothered him for many years.
As he pored over the thick volumes of Cayce readings in A.R.E.'s library, Todeschi began to realize why inhabiting earth is a necessary passage. It's not just a test to prove oneself worthy of Heaven, he says.
Rather, God wants people to engage in ``creative endeavors to bring Him into the Earth.'' The real purpose of living, he finally surmised, is to seek a true relationship with God through interactions with other people. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
STEVE EARLEY
The Virginian-Pilot
STEVE EARLEY
The Virginian-Pilot
Asato Maehata came to A.R.E. for the massage school. She has
developed a massage technique based on Cayce's teachings.
by CNB