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Colorado United Pentecostal Sex Abuse Cases Part 4

After reading my last post about the unreported sexual abuse of several minor boys involving a former Youth Pastor at a United Pentecostal Church in Colorado, one person shared with me the following:

I came to this church right after this youth pastor left. No one said anything even to this day. Yes, this person still is a pastor and is friends with former members of this church. I met them once at the church in May 2000 and by at least in September 2000 they were gone and new youth pastors were in. Something happened with him as well, and he left and became a pastor in California for awhile and he is currently a UPCI minister in another state.

The history of youth pastors is true and the list continues on. What I witnessed there was that most sins went unannounced and were swept under the rug. It’s not only sexual abuse at this church, but emotional/verbal abuse from the senior pastor’s wife and the present pastor’s wife.

This is part 35 of a series of articles and part four involving a United Pentecostal Church in Colorado that allegedly failed to report cases of child sexual abuse. (Some statements in this article are what have been alleged by more than one individual. There have been no convictions as the cases mentioned were not reported to the police at the time and to my knowledge, the alleged perpetrator has not admitted guilt.)

In the last article, it was shared how the United Pentecostal Church has had a long-standing rule that any minister who has committed sexual sins/crimes is to forfeit their ministerial license. This is nothing new and is printed every January in their yearly Manual which is distributed to every licensed minister. District officials are supposed to uphold this rule. If a minister is suspected of sexual wrongdoing, it should be reported to their District and the officials should investigate, abiding by their Judicial Procedures. The District has the authority to rescind their license if charges are proven guilty, whether it be a sin or criminal act. Any licensed minister should be well aware that any sexual crime, or suspected sexual crime, is to be reported to the police.

[2024 Note: Since this article was written, the UPCI added a new policy in their judicial procedure where the districts will no longer handle sexual abuse cases of a minor as these will be handled at the regional level.]

It is reprehensible that this doesn’t always occur in the United Pentecostal Church and there are men licensed today who should not hold license based upon the UPCI stand against sexual sins/crimes. Unfortunately, if a case even reaches a District Board and isn’t covered up or handled ‘in house’ by individual pastors, District Superintendents are granted some wiggle room in following UPCI written policies. I don’t know how many cases I have heard over the years where the son, or other relative, of a UPCI minister has been sexually immoral and yet gone on to be granted license. Written policies have no real meaning when things like this happen. They are empty words and quite hurtful to victims and their families.

Last fall, at the UPCI’s annual General Conference, almost two years after I started this series about sexual abuse and five years after our first individual article, the General Board adopted a new position paper regarding Abuse and Sexual Misconduct. While we applaud them for making a more detailed stand, we are also hesitant in believing it will make a difference. Actions always speak louder than words. If they are now committed to doing what is right, they need to look into the cases we, and others, have already documented and remove the licenses of ministers who are guilty. (You may want to read what I previously wrote about this position paper and what I feel the organization needs to do in my coverage of UPCI pastor Howard Wayne Geck failing to report child sexual abuse committed by Dexter Hensley.)

In addition, we believe that they should also revoke the licenses of those ministers who fail to report any alleged or known instances of child sexual abuse to the proper authorities. It is my firm opinion that any minister who handles instances of sexual abuse ‘in house’ is negligent, irresponsible and unethical, and should the perpetrator assault anyone in the future because they chose to not report it to police, that they are partly to blame.

Thankfully, one man who had been licensed in Wisconsin, Glenn Uselmann, who never should have been considered to be a minister, either had his license revoked or he turned it in sometime last year.

I have a collection of UPCI Directories, which are released in January of each year and the following information comes from them. Unfortunately, I only have some of the 1980s and 1990s. I believe the licensed Youth Pastor I wrote about in the last article might first appear in the 1988 and 1989 editions under his first name instead of how he was later listed by his middle name. He is noted as holding a general license in 1988 in a Northwestern state, followed by Colorado in 1989. There is no listing for him in the 1987 or 1981 editions. (I do not have Directories from 1982-1986 or 1993-1998.)

Starting in 1990, he is seen listed by his middle name and is likewise seen in 1992 and 1993. By the 1999 edition or before, he is no longer listed, but is seen once again in the 2000 Directory, still in Colorado with a general license. The 2001 Directory is the last one showing him as being in Colorado.

It is important to understand that because these directories were compiled near the end of the previous year, they are more reflective of the year prior to their publication. Because of this, it shows that he was in Colorado for at least some of 2000 but could have left the state prior to 2001. According to one witness quoted above, he was no longer the Youth Pastor by at least September 2000. He continued to hold license until either 2010 or 2011. He was not listed in the 2012 edition.

Let’s look at what happens in a case like this, when a licensed minister, who had also been the Colorado District Youth Secretary and then the District Youth President the following year, is alleged to have sexually abused multiple minor boys. Instead of taking appropriate action, where he should have been made to forfeit his license and been reported to the police, he is permitted to retain his UPCI license for at least ten more years.

He gets to move to an unsuspecting state in the north Midwest followed by another in the Gulf Coast.
By 2003, he rises from a general license to being an ordained minister in the UPCI. This is their highest level of licensing. (To learn about the levels of licensing see this article.)
By 2004, or possibly 2003, he establishes a new non-affiliated UPCI church in New Jersey. (Any church whose pastor is licensed by the UPCI is considered a UPCI church. They can go a step further and have a legal affiliation with the organization. He did not.)
By 2006, he gets elected to serve as a District Presbyter, a position he holds until 2009 or 2010. He and the church are last seen in the 2011 edition, which could mean he was still UPC that year or may have left the prior year.
As of the writing of this article in June 2020, he is yet a pastor, approximately two decades after leaving Colorado. Are there other victims? How many could there be over a twenty year period and three states?

Now read what another former member of this church shared with me near the beginning of last November. It has been edited to remove names and the edits are in brackets.

I was a member of [a UPCI church in] Denver, Colorado. A few years ago there was a church break up and chaos. Many old members were told they were going Hell by the Bishop and Pastor [last name removed] as well as [the pastor’s wife], who was the cause of much chaos and lies. I left the church awhile after the 1st break up. There have been three as of today. We left due to a cover up of several young boys being sexually abused. It was covered up and the Youth Pastor was then asked to leave. During that time [the pastor’s wife] never spoke to us, but continued to tell people to stay away from us, don’t talk to them. Even a few months ago one of her entourage told a good friend she wasn’t to speak to me… it’s been almost two years. But she continues… Last night I attended a District event with friends where [the Bishop’s wife] was speaking. She had [the pastor’s wife] and [her granddaughter] testify. They both quoted this scripture, Psalms 119:165. When the event ended [the pastor’s wife] grabbed me by the arm. I thought she was going to be genuine and talk BUT… I hugged her and told her we need to talk. She then turned vicious, angry and pointed a finger and said, “If you ever speak of my father, the man of God he is, or ruin his integrity you will pay! You will pay! Stay away from my people!” Really her people, in my mind, her cult. Her daughter [who testified] came in and chimed in Psalm 119:165, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Really. Really. As we stood in the church. I am so furious upset and last night [was] my breaking point of [these leaders and this church]!! The ABUSE, ACCUSATIONS, THREATS OF GOING TO HELL has to STOP !!!

[Because there may be other sexual abuse victims from Colorado reading this, some may wish to review this PDF document, which covers the law, statutes of limitations and potential sentences and was valid as of at least 2015. In 2020 Colorado officials have been working on eliminating the statute of limitation for civil lawsuits for sexual abuse crimes. The bill was postponed in June 2020. You may also wish to read this article of why it is important to report possible cases of sexual assault. Never assume a pastor has reported child sexual abuse, especially in a state like Colorado or Wisconsin where children are not fully protected by the law due to clergy privilege.]

You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.

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Blindsided: Planning on a Prayer

As if hand-sewing were not already the bane of all existence, the inventor of the sewing needle must laugh in his grave, watching the hours of torture people endure attempting to get an ever-fraying piece of thread through a minuscule hole barely chiseled out at the top of a needle! To make matters worse, certain projects require various sizes of needles, while thread seems to come in as many widths as it does colors, resulting in the need for a different sized needle depending on the thread! Several years back, however, a man visited at my church in Maryland and preached a message I have never forgotten: “God knows how to thread your needle. He knows how to supply your need.” That one phrase has stuck with me for more than a decade, especially considering I am one of those people that is extremely grateful for the self-threading option on sewing machines and I avoid hand-sewing like the plague! In the midst of uncertain trials, the Lord has often reminded me that God already knew exactly what I needed, exactly how to take of it, and how to use it to make me more like Him. As we encountered obstacles along the journey of finally visiting Zambia, I reminded myself of that truth often, repeating multiple times along the way, “God knows how to thread my needle. He knows how to supply my need.”

**Names marked with an asterisk (*) have been changed for the privacy of individuals and their families**

Moving Forward By Faith

Just before the spring of 2016, Matthew Olds and I were elated to see the Lord work out the finances for our survey trip to Zambia, Africa after several years of waiting and praying, but we also knew that the time-frame for purchasing tickets at a decent rate for during the cool-dry season was closing fast. According to several missionaries, as well as the Zambian embassy and travel sites, the long cool-wet season was often crippled by flooding, and the hot-dry season would be nearly unbearable, if not dangerous, considering the ages of our young children. We also knew that if we did not order tickets soon, we risked postponing our survey trip another year, or possibly needing to start deputation without a survey trip under our belts. Therefore, after looking at the Zambian calendar to avoid major holidays and events, we ordered tickets for our little growing family in March of 2016 for near the end of Zambia’s cool-dry season, trusting God to work out the details.

Twenty-Seven-Year-Old Lap-Baby

In late April, as I went online to send off copies of the flight itineraries to both of our parents as a safety precaution for going overseas, I noticed something peculiar about the tickets. The tickets listed Annabelle*, our youngest at the time, as a twenty-seven-year-old male, and my husband as the eight-month-old, female lap-baby attached to my ticket. My two-year-old son, Brendon*, was also listed as the head person to reference on the tickets! While ordering the actual tickets online, I had to call the travel site because I was struggling to add Annabelle* as a lap baby- one that is young enough to sit on a passenger’s lap and usually does not require a full-price airline ticket- but the website lacked clear directions on how to purchase her ticket. Over the phone, almost a month prior by this point, the customer service representative confirmed that Annabelle* was not listed and added her to my ticket, but he must have mixed up our family’s personal information in the process!

As comical as it was to imagine my husband as a lap-baby and my daughter as a twenty-seven-year-old male, I feared this technical error could delay us in customs or prevent us from boarding a flight. Unfortunately, calling multiple times a week for months and dealing with conflicting information even between representatives, accomplished absolutely nothing besides wasted time and stressful days. As the dilemma continued, never resolving until shortly before the trip, it tried our faith as an underlying current throughout the entire preparation process. We held-fast to God’s declaration that He held the entirety of the world in the palm of His hand.

Letters Through the Internet Abyss

Even though we had a few missionary contacts in the country, the internet in Zambia was entirely unreliable, and snail mail could circulate around the globe for months. After working through several drafts, we sent out emails, Facebook messages, and any form of contact we could think of to find a missionary to host our family, but even after a month, there were no responses. We continued to wait and pray, keeping in mind that several people who had visited Zambia before had already warned us that emails seemed to get lost in the abyss of Zambian internet. In the meantime, we researched the possibility of needing to stay in a Zambian hotel by ourselves. Disheartened, we admitted what we already knew, that learning the culture and seeing the ministry work of an already established missionary was wiser, and not to mention safer.

Right On Time

As we worked through the process of passports and visas, and the dilemma of my infant’s ticket, we waited prayerfully, yet anxiously, for a response. Finally, after what felt like years, the Lord answered in HIS timing- not ours- and a missionary responded back near the end of May. They could not host us at the time, but they were able to get in contact with another missionary. Then another responded. And another. And another. We witnessed God working miraculously until a point in time when we had several missionaries that were graciously willing to host our family during our survey trip!

Just two months before our scheduled trip, the Lord worked out the locations our family would stay in Zambia, and we were excited to stay with a missionary family to the Deaf that Matt had been praying for and keeping up with throughout college, as well as another missionary family nearby that had been in Zambia for almost twenty years! Reading their responses, however, we also learned that political unrest had recently started in Zambia because of the upcoming election, and we were set to land in the capital on election day. The missionaries suggested changing where we were set to land or adjusting the dates of the trip entirely. While my head started spinning and I anxiously called the travel site on multiple occasions, my husband bathed this new dilemma in prayer and encouraged me to continue planning and preparing as we had been for months, resting in the knowledge that God was able to do abundantly more than we could ever ask or think.

In this series I share my thoughts and opinions concerning these ministers and the events which led to my departure. Click here to continue reading: “Blindsided: Crossing I’s and Dotting T’s” or click on the link below.

For a list of the complete series, click here.

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Blindsided: Douglas Stauffer- Clouds Without Rain

“Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain.” Proverbs 25:14

My husband and I had always questioned the rational behind Douglas Stauffer leading the missions department at our church considering his lack of experience as a missionary, but what difference did it make when we could inquire from other people around us about the realities of deputation and the mission field? Besides, maybe he did have bits of wisdom from his time as an assistant pastor, and considering he was a supposed evangelist, he would have already had experience and knowledge about deputation and how to get one’s name out to churches. We hesitantly tested the waters, keeping our eyes on Zambia, but instead of wells of wisdom, we found a perpetual drought.

Straining at a Gnat

“”Ye Blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” Matthew 23:24

Peter Ruckman, an Independent Baptist scholar and founder of Pensacola Bible Institute in Pensacola, Florida, is well known for his outlandish claims about the “Authorized King James Bible” correcting the so-called errors of the Textus Receptus and the Greek and Hebrew texts. Ruckman’s followers, commonly referred to as “Ruckmanites,” have continued to perpetuate these teachings even after Ruckman’s death in 2016. Despite Pastor Andrew Ray telling us initially that Antioch Baptist Church was not a Ruckmanite church, we heard often from the pulpit about the fallacies of using the Greek and Hebrew, and how missionaries are Bible-corrupters [correctors] if they do not translate from the King James Version on the field. What did this have to do with Douglas Stauffer? Stauffer was a strong Ruckmanite and as far as we could tell, a major part of his job description was scrutinizing potential missionaries against this standard.

Stauffer’s personal view can be summed up with his statement that if one uses the modern version, he has no authority, and if one uses the Greek or the Hebrew, he is his own authority. (For a more detailed response from Stauffer himself about referencing the Greek and Hebrew, click here.) When it came to those of us surrendered to the mission field, rather than advising on how to find churches for deputation, he asked us to make a database of churches for him that were not only King James Only, but also did not use the Greek or the Hebrew. Essentially, he taught us how to limit our resources to a legalistic, Ruckmanite standard, making us thankful for being able to fall back on the insight we were given from experienced missionaries at Crown College of the Bible.

Seeing the Forest for Trees

The second part of Stauffer’s job description as head of missions was visiting the missionaries our church supported to make sure they were doing what our church felt they were supposed to be doing with our monthly support. But how did he view them? As equal brothers in Christ in the ministry? As one body working together for the cause of Christ? No, not in the slightest, because interestingly enough, Douglas Stauffer stated repeatedly that pastoring in the United States, a job he supposedly did not want to do, was significantly more difficult than being a missionary on the foreign field. The irony though, considering his previous position as an assistant pastor, is that he stated repeatedly that he, personally, would never go to Africa.

Guiding Future Missionaries

While we were not looking for a close mentor or someone to hold our hands, we were longing for hands-on experience in the ministry to prepare for the field. In contrast, when it came to our calling to work with the Deaf in Africa, Stauffer purposefully limited- and eventually eliminated- the amount of times we were interpreting in the service despite that the set-up was established in case any Deaf showed up at the church. What was his reasoning behind the decision? It was supposedly so we could receive more of the actual preaching.

Additionally, his lack of encouragement for anyone in their personal walks with the Lord and failure to point anyone to Christ for direction and guidance spoke volumes. Instead, he was a detriment to those God had called to the mission field and even later excused his behavior by equating one’s ability to deal with his discouragement with how successful one would be on the mission field. Stauffer was, admittedly, a purposeful stumbling block to my family, but God had already proved Himself faithful in our lives multiple times over, and thankfully, we were not dependent on Douglas Stauffer to get us to the field.

In this series I share my thoughts and opinions concerning these ministers and the events which led to my departure. Click here to continue reading: “Blindsided: Planning on a Prayer” or click on the link below.

For a list of the complete series, click here.

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Colorado United Pentecostal Sex Abuse Cases Part 3

This is part 34 of a series of articles and part three involving a United Pentecostal Church in Colorado.

(Some statements in this article are what have been alleged by one witness, though there are several others which have corroborated various aspects of the account given below. There have been no convictions as the cases mentioned were not reported to the police at the time and to my knowledge, the alleged perpetrator has not admitted guilt.)

In writing these articles, people have contacted me about additional instances of both proven and alleged sexual abuse in the United Pentecostal Church. This installment will cover a second alleged situation that involves this same well-known church in Colorado. (See Part 1 and Part 2 for information.) Between the two sets of asterisks below is one person’s account of cases that involve the alleged sexual assault of minor boys- yes, plural- by a man who was given the position of Youth Pastor. It appears these crimes may have occurred between 1999 and 2000. During 1999 the alleged perpetrator would have turned 35. He is currently the pastor at a church in New Jersey, where he has been since the early 2000s, and no longer holds license with the UPCI.

In looking into this situation, I conversed with several people, including eyewitnesses to the service described in this report, and based upon their accounts I do not doubt this meeting took place, nor do I doubt that more than one boy was sexually abused. There will be at least one additional article about this.

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For a few months, we didn’t have a youth pastor. Numbers dropped, many young people stopped coming to youth services altogether. Our pastor and his wife took on the role of youth pastor for awhile until things started dwindling down and we rarely had a youth service anymore.

Then one Sunday it was announced that we had a new youth pastor and family coming in! I was so excited, this was the BEST news. They weren’t as smooth or polished as the previous youth pastor, but the guy, whom I will call Youth Pastor Z, was so down to earth and genuine. From the moment I met him and his wife, I was smitten. They were charismatic and instantly made you feel like family. Their adorable baby girl was so sweet and full of life and laughter. What a refreshment!

Nearly a year went by and I couldn’t imagine ever having been without these amazing people. Youth Pastor Z was an incredible mentor and he seemed to really take it upon himself to reach out to the “unpopular” young men that other youth pastors never paid any attention to. He included the ones from single mother homes, those who came to church without parents, etc. He was known for having youth sleepovers with some of the boys in the group and then taking them all fishing or camping or hiking.

As a young girl, I was a little jealous of this, because I didn’t know why he seemed to only cater to the boys. Why didn’t his wife do a girls sleepover once in awhile?

Then…it happened again. It almost felt like a horrible déjà vu. A Sunday night service came and went without Youth Pastor Z one Sunday…and again the visitors were asked to leave the service because of an “all church meeting.”

Youth Pastor Z was asked to resign and we were not allowed to have any contact with them. They were also leaving the state immediately. No details were given.

I was so sick to my stomach. What happened this time? Why is our youth group cursed?

This time, I didn’t hear for years whatever happened with Youth Pastor Z. This story was kept under wraps for a long time. He moved away and has since pastored a church in another state.

The Truth Comes Out
About a year or so ago, I reconnected with someone I had grown up with in this UPC church via Facebook. As we talked and complained about the PTSD we still experienced from time to time after being a part of this cult, it came out that he had been molested by Youth Pastor Z.

As it turns out, Youth Pastor Z was asked to leave his position and the state of Colorado because he had been molesting young boys in the church. Instantly, those youth sleepovers came to my mind and I wanted to vomit.

Yet again, no charges were filed. Youth Pastor Z was allowed to leave with his reputation intact.

I have found out from a couple of the victims that after everything came out, the church pastor asked to meet with them and their parent/guardians. They were instructed not to involve the authorities in both of these cases because it wasn’t “biblical.” The pastor said that he wanted to allow God to deal with them and that God’s punishment would be far greater than anything the law could ever do to them.

You may be shaking your head at this and saying, “what parent in their right mind would agree to this?” A church member never went against the pastor. Ever.

I cannot fathom how a pastor would ever think that not reporting sexual abuse under his own roof is acceptable.

Wait. Yes, I can.

Why Weren’t the Victims Protected?
I have asked myself over and over…why wasn’t anyone protected? What was the reasoning?

The only conclusion I can come to is that this prominent and well-known pastor didn’t want his name dragged through the mud. He didn’t want to lose church members. He didn’t want the UPC to think less of him. So, he hid it. He allowed sex offenders to go free. He never defended the innocent children. He even allowed them to take blame. To save his name and his reputation.

I wonder if this had happened to one of his grandchildren if he would have allowed the child molester to go free? Me thinks not.

As I mentioned in both above stories [NOTE: See Part 1 for the first story], each youth pastor has moved on to pastor churches in other states. Which begs me to wonder, how many others have there been? How many more children were subjected to sexual abuse because these men were allowed to go free “in the name of the LORD” and His justice?

How many more?

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The rules in the UPCI Manual are clear- if one has been sexually immoral, they are not qualified to hold license, nor to minister in a United Pentecostal Church. It appears that at the time of these alleged crimes, this Youth Pastor held license and was able to retain it after leaving this church. Meanwhile, the victims received no justice and were made to suffer in silence. Their lives would be forever changed, while the pastor of this church gave the pedophile his freedom, and with that freedom enabled him to potentially harm others.

You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.

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Blindsided: A Missionary’s Dream

Pastors and church members alike stand in grateful awe of an innocent young man who daily longs for a closer walk with his Heavenly Father, and desires nothing more than to follow God to ends of the earth, no matter the sickness, storms, or trials that may come, even if it means he loses his life. On the other hand, there are wolves and serpents who desire to destroy them or at the very least, tear them down, leaving them to pick up the pieces. Why is this? Is it jealousy? It is a bitterness toward God? Is it because man wrongfully tends to esteem the missionary calling above the work of an evangelist in the states? Or is it the future missionary’s child-like faith that stings and convicts the heart of men like Douglas Stauffer?

Just a Little Boy in Michigan

The spunky little boy elbows his brother as the missionary wife teaching the rambunctious Sunday preschool class is asking for the hands of those who want to accept Christ as their Savior. His older brother tries to pull his arm down until his side is met by the pointed corner of the little boy’s elbow. As the blonde preschooler proceeds to go to another room with a few other children, he does not come to a saving knowledge of Christ until the very moment he is repeating back, and simultaneously grasping, the points of a sinner’s prayer.

A Call to Missions

At the age of seven, he surrenders to be a missionary, and at the age of twelve, specifically to the lost and dying souls in Africa. As a teenager, the young man fervently studies the word of God and prays with such personal intimacy that God can be felt nearby with every word. During his first year of Bible college, after a heavy influence on the country of Zambia, Africa (two countries north of South Africa), he yields himself yet again to the tugging of the Holy Spirit to reach the Deaf in Zambia, a people group often without even a basic language structure, almost completely unreached for Christ.

Moving Forward by Faith

That same year, that Christian young man and I meet, myself just a young Christian girl also surrendered to missions, but completely entrenched in the troughs of a legalistic, Independent Fundamental Baptist mini-cult situation. We begin courting as the situation unravels, and we begin to plan our lives together through deputation and serving God on the mission field. A couple years after getting married, we leave the pastor-worshiping church at the college and find a quaint little church in the Knoxville area: Antioch Baptist Church. We join knowing full-well that my husband, Matthew Olds, will likely never receive his bachelor’s degree because we were initially from out-of-state and will no longer be members, per the enforced rules at our Bible college. We press-on through education at Antioch Bible Institute in preparation for the mission field. Just a few months later in 2014, the Lord works a miracle, placing Matt on the list to walk at graduation, opening the door for him to complete his classes and officially complete his degree. All he needs are a couple more classes and his mission’s internship, a trip that he has been planning for years to use as his survey trip to the mission field.

An Opportunity to Visit the Mission Field

Later in the fall, an opportunity arises to go to Zambia through a missionary the church supports, but because of timing, Matt will have to get his passport and visa within two weeks, leaving me and our infant nursling at home in order to visit the field. This may be our only opportunity to see the field before deputation, but the largest Ebola outbreak in history recently emerged and is spreading rapidly, killing thousands of people, even within the Congo, one of Zambia’s neighboring countries. Even though I am a mess and trying to support him, Matt trusts the Lord, by faith, that if God desires for him to go on the trip that month, that God will work it out. Evangelist Doug Stauffer, on the other hand, strongly points out the logical flaws in expecting God to come through on such short notice and with the hectic circumstances. Individually, Matt and I see a stark difference in Stauffer’s view versus the spirit of faith so evident in our pastor, Andrew Ray. In the end, the trip does not come together, but we continue to pray that God will open the doors for us to visit the field before starting deputation.

Looking back, I can see the discernment in not going to Africa during the Ebola outbreak, but we had been taught repeatedly to “count the cost.” Even before surrendering to the field, we knew of missionaries that God protected when they ended up being swept down the Amazon river, literally watching the piranhas as they went, as well as countless other missionaries who lost their lives for cause of Christ. But Matt kept his eyes “set like a flint” (Isaiah 50:7) with a tunnel-vision on the precious Deaf he had prayed for already for years. This was our first true interaction with Douglas Stauffer beyond casual conversations about the King James Bible and the end times, and what we saw very vividly was Stauffer’s rapid shifting to relying on sight instead of faith. We questioned Stauffer’s mindset in the coming months, but when Pastor Andrew Ray encouraged us to garner wisdom from Stauffer as the head of missions, we attempted to trust our pastor despite our hesitations. But was Stauffer a man from whom it would be prudent to seek wise counsel and understanding?

In this series I share my thoughts and opinions concerning these ministers and the events which led to my departure. Click here to continue reading: “Blindsided: Douglas Stauffer- Clouds Without Rain” or click on the link below.

For a list of the complete series, click here.

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Shop at our Amazon store! As an Amazon Influencer, this website earns from qualifying purchases.