As most of you know, I started working at the church full time this week. As some of you are aware of, I leave next week for the branch of the national Women in Ministry conference (I've been on the committee since May of '05, and our chairs were gracious enough to allow me to remain on it even when I moved!) that is taking place in Minneapolis - my former home!
And let me tell you, all hell is starting to break loose! I know that God has amazing plans for me, and that I am dangerous to the kingdom of darkness, but DH and I are once again finding ourselves under attack.
I am thankful that this time we are strong enough and able enough to recognize the attacks for what they are - but I still need everyone I know to pray that they will be broken. I feel like I'm playing "Whack-a-Mole" this week - I'll take care of one issue and then another one pops up. It's nothing that God and me together can't handle, and that I have the victory in Jesus...but I could definitely use some prayer covering for the rest of this week, as well as next week when I'm delving back into the "old stomping grounds," so to speak!
Thanks in advance - I look forward to sharing with you the amazing things that I know God will do at the conference!
I will be praying for you and your dh. I completely understand playing "Whack-a-Mole". I've been playing the same game for some time now. Also, praying you have an AWESOME confernce next week.
Well, the first mole has popped back up, so to speak!
A girl in our former YP's new youth group happened to run across the scathing blog I mentioned earlier and told her about it. Her new SP is fighting mad (not at her or at us - at them!), and is wanting to take legal action to have the blog removed - I don't know if I agree with that, but I guess it's not my decision to make...
No problem there...we have the records to prove that everything that happened was above board. Other than that it is going to take more time out of our lives (our computer crashed between then and now, and we lost everything on it, so everything we have is in hard copies - and, of course, we've moved since then!). But CA is now threatening to come after us for money that she claims we stole from a fundraiser (we absolutely DID NOT - it was a sham fundraiser and we raised almost NO $$ from it - but every cent of that pitiful amount went to what we said it was going to!).
I know this is an attack of the enemy...but I am still absolutely sick over it! These people got what they wanted - we're gone from their church - out of their lives. So why the drama? We've all moved on...and now it's rearing its ugly head again.
I will continue to pray for your situation, but I wanted to let you know on the legal side what is being done can not be done. We recently went through a similar situation and was told that the person writing the things about us was in danger of Difimation of character (excuse spelling, please). Since we are ministers and they were making accusations that affected our ministry (DH's occupation) then we were allowed to seek out legal actions. Fortunately we did not have to do that the Lord took care of it, but I work with a gentleman who had to seek legal action. It resulted in him losing his job and he was unable to find another job in his field.
I'll be praying that this situation is resolved peacefully; that the Lord is able to "Whack-the-Mole" for you. Keep your chin up, remember you are pn the winning side. Isaiah 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
And this lingering issue is being stopped...the current SP of that church is fighting mad (and he is someone who will actually do something about it!). So praise God for that on behalf of the people who still attend there!!!
What we need prayer for now is that somehow, this blog will be removed. It has, thankfully, been buried far enough back in Google, so you would have to know exactly what you were looking for in order to find it - no more popping up as the first thing you see. But it needs to be removed - I have reported it to the moderators at the blog service she uses, and this young lady may also be receiving a letter from an attorney informing her of the legal definition of the word "libel," of which she is guilty and will be prosecuted for if she does not remove the offending material.
Former YP and I are heading back to the old stomping grounds next week, and have rented a room at a hotel with a pool and hot tub. Hot tubbing...shopping...coffee...as well as a great conference, of course!! My goodness - can Wednesday come soon enough!?!?!?
Hi, Puppetmaster: Just want you to know that I'm praying for you. You've made it through so much w/ the Lord's help & He's not about to let you down now. I know that going back this coming week may be difficult, but you CAN get through it. I'm praying that you have the time of your life, so that you have good memories to associate with "your old stomping grounds." Hold your head high & walk in victory!!
The enemy loves to dredge up the past. You see, that's really all that he has to hold on to, for when he thinks about his future .....
My dh says that if this is happening at this point he would threaten her with legal action - have an attorney write up a letter letting her know she is in danger of prosecution for defamation of character. But you have to be led by the Lord to do whatever you do. Sounds like you have all the documentation and besides that - you have the Lord on your side!
I'll be praying that the Lord will shut the mouth of the lions. No weapon formed against you will prosper!
Puppetmaster: I was on the way to work this morning (VEEEERY early) & I was thinking about you. I had the radio on & a song was playing that I felt was for you. (I'm sorry that I don't know the exact name of the song.... maybe, "I call your name"??)
Anyway, the words are "I call your name. Lord you reply. You bring Your Kingdom to stand by my side."
Wow, imagine... the Lord bringing everything HE has to stand by your side.
Our YP's new senior pastor is planning on doing just that (having an attorney send her a letter).
We have also buried the blog in the meantime by "flagging" it for objectionable content, as well as e-mailing them the name of the site and reporting it. This alerts the moderators to take a look and see if they need to remove it - and according to the legal definitions of libel and defamation of character, they really do! But in the meantime, flagging it also buries it so it's not "on the radar" for your average Joe surfing the Net to just stumble upon!!
(Ah, the advantages of having a husband who is a computer geek! I called YP yesterday and told her that he had me do that, and she said, "Wow, that's smart - it's so obvious, and I never would have thought of it!")
DH also called the new SP of that church and set him straight on the story, and was reassured that the church will NOT be taking legal action, and furthermore (and I almost cried when I found this out!), my favorite former CM worker has been making regular payments to Speed the Light out of her own pocket on behalf of the youth group, to donate what the scam artists at the fundraising company SAID we'd be able to make - because she thought the youth group deserved it! We weren't supposed to know about it - because we would have tried to talk her out of it...but for everything she has done over the years to support her church and her pastors (and that church has gone through quite a few!), her crown in heaven is going to be so big, she's not even going to be able to lift her head!
So either way, it's a done deal! The new SP is also furious that someone shared confidential church business with an outsider (an unbeliever, no less!), and will be taking action as far as that is concerned.
DH pointed out (and new SP agreed) that now that we all know the true story, we need to stop pointing fingers at each other and go after the person who wrote the libelous material on the Internet and get that to stop.
The two things I've learned in this situation:
1. Integrity works! If you do what's right, you have nothing to worry about!
2. Just because things are going well is NOT a reason to let up on my prayer time. I'd been praying daily, but mostly "nicey-nice" prayers and not really with power or authority. Just sort of going through the motions. No more!!
And....SIX MORE DAYS UNTIL I GET TO GO SOAK IN A HOT TUB!!!!! Oh, and receive good spiritual teaching and refreshment, too...LOL .
Well...the young lady in question has, for now at least, deleted the offending post on her blog. YP sent her an e-mail letting her know (without divulging any specific details!) how she had been lied to by CA. If she decides to repost anything, the attorney is still "on stand-by," ready to send her a letter.
Plainly put, this person is a hurting kid who was used as a pawn. CA saw that she was already hurting and bitter toward the church, and just fed it some more.
The new SP has been made aware of CA and the trouble she has caused (not by us...there were other members of the church who pulled him aside when he first got there and let him know all about us, and named the troublemakers by name - this situation was just a confirmation of what he had already been told!)
DH said he feels that maybe God has been using us this week to finish bringing down the tight grip that these families have had on that church...only He brought us all to safe and functional churches first. He said he had a picture in his mind (not sure if it was a "vision" or just a vivid word picture, but either way, it made me smile!) of a tentacle trying to reach out and grab us all, and drag us back into the cesspool, but behind us and YP were two large congregations praying for us and backing us...and all the angels looking at this thing saying, "You've got to be kidding...this is it?" and backhanding it!
(Yes, he read Frank Peretti's books during his formative years, lol!)
Anyway...in the words of the bard, "all's well that ends well," and now I need to concentrate on my ministry...and my conference next week!!!
