When Rio was four, in accordance with the teachings of the Children of God, he began to experience sex with other young people. Husbands and wives had other partners and orgies were looked upon as acceptable behavior according to the cult leader, Moses David. Rio would later declare a second virginity from the ages of ten to fourteen.
In that same year, 1974, the Phoenixes were sent to South America to work as missionaries for the cult. They moved to Caracas, Venezuela. While in Caracas, their second daughter, Liberty Butterfly was born. They were very poor and River and his sister Rain had to sing and play the guitar in the streets to get money for the family. They took the name- Los niños rubios que cantan --the Blonde Children Who Sing.
Soon, John and Arlyn became very disillusioned with the cult, saying that the leader just got crazy. It seemed he was only interested in recruiting wealthy converts through sex. The Phoenixes had to move to a beach hut outside Caracas. River remembers it,
"It was disgusting, it was a shack. It had no toilet and was rat-infested".