I arrived in Kuwait expecting that every Arab had a dagger in his belt, but soon developed the opposite view. Eventually, I put on Arab gowns and headgear and walked among the local people speaking Arabic; I spent every evening socializing to make contacts. I fell in love with the romantic and caring-heart culture. I got inspired to write a book on Divine Principle from the Islamic mindset and supported 90 percent by the Qur'an. My growing number of "spiritual children" heavily edited the manuscript to reach a "correct" Islamic expression. Soon thereafter, about 100 Kuwaiti women students were reading the self-printed chapters and the Kuwaiti Parliament was discussing what they were going to do about me. Later, I understood that I was in effect starting a women's rights movement.
At 2 a.m., one morning, muscular secret police arrived at my apartment and carted me off barefoot and without my glasses, warning fellow police that I was "dangerous, and an expert in martial arts." Twenty-one days after being tortured and enduring solitary confinement, during which time I cleaned my teeth with steel wool, and began a 40-day fast, I was allowed to leave the country. I realized that my life up to that point had become organized around the "providential" restoration-time-period numerology, and I then understood I could not just go to the Philippines, but had to make a 40-day "spiritual-prayer" condition before moving on; I traveled over land across many nations to reach the Philippines, which was my "original nation'' and arrived there on the 4lst day.
Nanette, my wife, and I spent the next 40 days in the Philippines making lecture charts. We then made back-to-back witnessing conditions, then back-to-back workshop conditions for the following five years, bringing in the first 225 members and opening 12 centers. Nanette and I were the National Leaders of the Philippines, and I became the Regional Leader of Southeast Asia. One cause of the explosive growth was our requiring all members to become expert lecturers; even our guests had to practice teaching chapter one before they could move on to hear chapter two. One of the last activities was hosting the First International 40-Day Workshop.
From Tribute, 78-80