Blogs

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

Before continuing further with the meeting, I would like to present the email that Matt sent to Pastor Andrew Ray himself about Doug Stauffer’s actions that evening, considering that Matt was the one in the meeting while I was either in the nursery or outside with the children.

Email from Matthew Olds to Pastor Andrew Ray
Date: June 29, 2016 at 4:14 PM

Dear Pastor,

    After our meeting I realized how important it is that you know as many of the details of our trip as is possible due to you being the one who will decide to take it before the men of the church or not. I would also like to take the time to apologize for being so defensive during the meeting. As you may remember, Brother Stauffer mentioned telling me I did not do my homework and that “It was not very nice to say.” He had told me that just before meeting with you and I had just finished informing him otherwise. So when he mentioned it and didn’t tell the rest of the facts it left me defensive. I am sorry for my attitude while I was in there. I also feel that Brother Stauffer attempted to mislead you to believe that the missionaries I am conversing with are not from America, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. I do not know if he was attempting to cast more doubt upon their counsel in where I found safety or if he is just genuinely  being cautious, but I feel it is best to have you as thoroughly informed as possible. The missionaries I have been corresponding with are [The Dickens*]. They are missionaries specifically to the deaf in [Zambian city*] and they actually run a school for the deaf there. I learned about them my freshman year in college and have been keeping up with their prayer letter ever since. I have also been conversing with Brother Smith*. They minister in [Zambian city*] which is where we desire our flight to land. He tells me that the [Zambian city] is an open door for deaf workers. I have also been in contact with the Simmons* from a town [a certain distance from*] Lusaka. The latter two families Brother Colvis helped me find. They are all American missionaries, and [they*] have all suggested that I postpone the trip or at least change the destination to [Zambian city]. If the dates were kept the same, the additional costs would still be present even though it only involves a different destination. 

    The following is a concise timeline of all that has transpired as well as to our reasoning of it. None of it excuses the fact that we didn’t seek the Lord on the timing, but hopefully this will shed some additional light on the subject:

    As you know my wife, and I have been desiring to take our survey trip for quite some time now. To be honest, the desire to see the field that God has for us grows stronger with each passing moment. In the early part of February I began reaching out to missionaries that I actually knew, but there were no responses. I don’t know if the Prince of the Power of the Air was snatching them up, or if they were just being sent to their spam boxes. It is beyond me. At the same time, Crown has been pressuring me to take my internship, which is doubling as my survey trip. They are threatening to give me a failing grade and making me pay for the class/ opportunity again if it is not taken care of by the Fall.  This is mostly due to their becoming accredited and having to run things differently from how it was done before. Prior to their becoming accredited, the college had me pay for the class and told me to take it when it was possible. We have since then spoken to the college about what the previous counselor had said and he said that I could take it whenever the Lord allowed. As much of a blessing as that last part was and is, there is still an underlying pressure to get it done and I do want to do right by the college as well as the Lord.

We went ahead and purchased the tickets for later in the cool dry season so that the cost of the tickets would be lower, but still avoid the time when the mosquitoes would become worse. This was in March that we did this. We bought the insurance for them thinking it would cover emergency situations, so that we could change them if need be, but it turns out that it does not include civil unrest, only a documented medical emergency or death in the family. In the middle of May, missionaries began responding to me only to tell that they were on furlough. This was very disheartening. Finally a missionary said that they could host us only to change their mind two weeks later. At the end of May the Lord opened up the doors and several missionaries began saying that they would host us! This is a great blessing, but they are also asking that we postpone the flight anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks due to our flight being scheduled to land in Lusaka, the capitol, on the day of the elections. During the time of the purchase, there was no mention of this on the Embassy website. Now that the elections are a little over a month away, the website is filled with it. We do feel it would be best and that the Lord is leading for us to postpone the trip until September as well as change to destination to [Zambian city*]. This works out well because the missionary families live there and it is [several hours in a direction away from*] the capitol, away from the majority of the developing civil unrest. 

To make these changes, it will cost us $200/ person. (there are four of us.) plus the difference of the cost of the tickets which is currently about $400 per person. There are also the penalty fees that the airlines will not release the costs of until the changes are made. Thankfully the Lord has provided for a large portion of this within the last few days although the funds will not be available until July 1st. We are still seeking the Lord’s face and asking for wisdom in how best to spend it. 

In His Grip,

Matt Olds

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’s Motives Revealed” or click on the link below.

For a list of the complete series, click here.

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

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

Over the last several months of planning before the meeting between Pastor Andrew Ray, Douglas Stauffer, and Matthew Olds (Matt), we had asked Stauffer a few questions about his experiences, per the direction of our pastor, but we had never been significantly interested in Stauffer’s counsel. We answered his questions graciously every step of the way, including about the time we were waiting for responses from the missionaries, and we attempted to glean the meat off the bones from any advice he provided, but we never could have expected what we believe was a direct result of not exalting and depending on Stauffer’s knowledge. Stauffer essentially turned around and twisted the minuscule amount of information he had acquired from Matt about our trip and attempted to use it against us. This became blatantly obvious when Stauffer expressed his disagreement in the meeting about our family staying with a Zambian national, a decision that was never even on the table of possibilities! But who were we planning to stay with in Africa?

The Truth

During the winter and spring, as we were searching for possible missionaries to stay with who could show us the field while in Zambia, we had already had several in mind. The first was a sweet, elderly couple, the Johnsons*, who had established a deaf school where the children stayed throughout the school year. The second was the Desalegns*, a well-known missionary family that several Crown students had been approved to stay with during our time at Bible college. At Temple Baptist Church, where we went to Crown College, Matt and I had both had the privilege of getting to know the missionary to Ethiopia, who with his compassionate wife, had taken Brother Desalegn* and several other children in at an orphanage, and taught them about the saving grace of Jesus Christ!

Brother Desalegn* later graduated from Crown College of the Bible, and was sent out as a missionary, and became well-renowned for his work with the deaf in Zambia, Africa. When we had a chance to finally meet Brother Desalegn at the college one year, he had welcomed us to come visit and see the work that the Lord had been doing. Unfortunately, we were never able to make contact with Brother Desalegn*, but the Lord still blessed, connecting us with another sweet missionary family that had been in Zambia for nearly twenty years. And just to show God’s power and grace, we learned that that family lived within an hours’ travel of the Johnsons*!

These decisions had already been made before the meeting with Pastor Ray, Matt, and Stauffer, but had Stauffer merely asked for clarification- a truth he did not appear interested in- we would have readily explained that we were not planning on staying with a random, Zambian national, as Doug Stauffer had insinuated to Pastor Ray. Instead, Stauffer continued to present his viewpoints as reality, no matter the amount of explanation Matt provided in the meeting.

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: Matthew Olds’ Email to Pastor Andrew Ray” or click on the link below.

For a list of the complete series, click here.

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

Pacing in the empty nursery downstairs, my mind raced through the hundreds of hours of research, anxiously attempting to recall the very details around the time we finally ordered our tickets. “How could we have missed something as significant as an election?!” Nevertheless, we could not change the past, and Doug Stauffer had just announced his verdict about our ticket situation after returning from a supposed win at “The Great Rapture Debate” in Colorado. He told my husband, Matthew Olds (Matt), “You didn’t do your homework.”

The fire started boiling inside of me as I imagined the dissertation, but I believe it was the Holy Spirit that reminded me that we bought those tickets by faith. We bought them not knowing where our family would actually stay when we arrived, but we held firmly to the belief that the same God who had called us to Zambia was able to work out everything according to His good pleasure. The Lord continued to flood my mind with His countless miracles over the last several months, pivotal moments in which God had proved Himself faithful in our lives and worked in ways beyond our wildest imagine! And yet, at a time when our faith was being tested again, there was Douglas Stauffer, the man Pastor encouraged us to seek counsel from, now firmly purporting that our plans and our research were done in ignorance, and without appropriate investigation.

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

Ignoring the Proof

Despite the poor internet reception in the downstairs nursery (near the pastor’s office), we finally found our saved copy of the Zambian Embassy’s calendar, proving that the upcoming election was not listed even a few months’ back. Matt immediately raced out of the nursery doors and presented the document to Stauffer, but as Matt and Stauffer walked into Pastor Ray’s office just moments later- I was with the children in the nursery- Stauffer proceeded to announce first-thing, “I told Matt that he did not do his homework, but that wasn’t a nice thing to say.” We were essentially caught off guard, despite our belief that Stauffer was a prideful and arrogant man, because we never presumed that Stauffer’s ego would manifest into such an under-handed blow! Unfortunately, Stauffer’s purposeful misleading continued throughout the entirety of the meeting with Pastor Andrew Ray.

Matt followed by presenting our case, humbly admitting that we eagerly bought the tickets shortly after the Lord provided the funds. We had considered the calendar and the drastic season-changes in Zambia, but failed in specifically seeking the Lord’s direction about the exact dates to travel. Stauffer, of course, continued to attack our situation with his concerns, questioning if changing the dates of the trip would not still be futile considering the unknown duration of the rioting, while Matt simply presented what the missionaries in Zambia had advised us to do. Thankfully, Pastor Ray suggested that they call Mitchell Dickens*, a missionary our church supported in Zambia who was currently state-side, but Mitchell Dickens* was unavailable to answer at the time. Following the attempted phone call, Douglas Stauffer then instructed suggested that Matt email Mitchell Dickens* about the situation, as if it were Matt’s responsibility to verify his innocence, or rather, his assumed ignorance.

We understood Stauffer and Pastor Ray’s questions, particularly as we questioned ourselves as to how we could have missed the existence of an election, and why it was not listed on the Zambian Embassy calendar just a few months prior, but within a few days of the meeting, Brother Dickens* responded back, supporting the other missionaries’ advice to change the dates or land somewhere else other than the capital on election day. He further explained why the embassy did not provide prior notice about the elections on the Embassy website:

“With my experience with Zambian elections and being in Lusaka even around election time (not on the very day), I wouldn’t recommend to fly in there on Election Day. The reason there wasn’t prior notice about what day Election Day would be is because it’s not like the USA’s set date in November. Parliament votes on what day Election Day will be with each election and the ruling party sets the date at a time it feels would be most advantageous for them to stay in power (this is the British way of doing it and Zambia has kept that system).”

Matt and I were relieved after reading Brother Dickens’* response a few days later, but Stauffer’s deceitfulness in the meeting had not stopped there. His false allegations transitioned toward the missionaries with whom we planned to stay with during our trip.

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 Twists the Truth” or click on the link below.

For a list of the complete series, click here.

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

If Douglas Stauffer was as dangerous as I had internally questioned, would not our pastor or the men at our church have had the wisdom to discern such a froward spirit? Even if people did recognize his haughtiness, were we not not to be one body, working together in our respective strengths to accomplish God’s work? We were not each beset with our own weaknesses and sin nature, but still behooved by Scripture to be gracious, knowing that God looketh on the heart? It was not until 2016, at a time before my family had ever personally witnessed or experienced the vast extent of Stauffer’s destructive nature, that we realized Stauffer essentially camouflaged his true nature in plain sight for all to see.  Just two months before our Zambia trip that year, Douglas Stauffer showed his true colors after Pastor Andrew Ray sent us his direction, as head of missions, for his analysis of our flight situation with the upcoming election. Little did we know that Stauffer had no qualms with twisting the truth, and that my family was suddenly in the cross-hairs.

A Dire Situation

At the beginning of June when several missionaries responded back, they informed us of violent protests taking place across Zambia because of the upcoming election. Properties were being destroyed, lives were being lost, and our tickets landed us directly in the capital on election day. The missionaries strongly suggested that we either alter our trip dates, or change the final flight destination to a large city a few hours north of the capital. When we called the flight agency, however, the representatives informed us that the insurance we had paid for with our tickets only covered medical emergencies, not political unrest, and it would cost several hundred dollars per ticket to change either the location or the date, plus whatever additional fees the agency required in the process. We were suddenly looking at needing several thousand dollars more, on top of the original ticket costs, during the same month that we were paying for the vaccinations costs as well.

As we prayed, knowing that God had worked through every circumstance thus far, we remembered that Pastor Andrew Ray had said to let him know if we needed help with any expenses. My husband, Matthew Olds (Matt), humbly spoke with Pastor Andrew Ray, asking for financial assistance to protect our family. Looking back, it would have been disheartening if Pastor Ray had simply said our church was unable to help us, but we would have just continued to pray and wait for God to work. Much to our dismay, however, Pastor Ray directed us to go through Douglas Stauffer for his analysis on if our church could help our family or not, and to what extent.

Claws Beneath the Wool

Over the course of the next several weeks, Matt brought data and information to Stauffer about the situation and potential costs. Stauffer would then ask more questions, and Matt would return with the exact answers until one evening in late June, just prior to meeting with Pastor Ray and Stauffer about the financial situation, when Stauffer finally shared his opinion: “You didn’t do your homework.” As we frantically searched through our files for proof of our research, we had no idea what Stauffer had planned for the coming meeting with Pastor Andrew Ray.

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’s Deceitful Misleading” or click on the link below.

For a list of the complete series, click here.

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

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

When Doctor’s Shrug

Researching online today (2020), documents, studies and even recent evaluations about the yellow-fever vaccine and breastfeeding are readily available, likely because of the push toward “Breast is Best.” Four year ago, however, it was nigh impossible to find the details of documented cases with nurslings, but the Lord had already opened the door for contact with multiple International Board Lactation Consultants (IBCLC) and several doctors who were knowledgeable about breastfeeding because of those many years of struggling with breastfeeding that I NEVER thought I would be thankful for! Though the lack of published documentation about the transfer of the yellow-fever vaccine through breast milk yielded more questions than answers, each doctor was able to provide new pieces to the puzzle which aided us toward a clearer answer. We continued to research and pray, knowing that God already knew the answers, until one evening, while scouring the internet for any credible data, the Lord finally guided us to the very cases used as evidence to support not administering the yellow-fever vaccine to nursing mothers!

As it turns out, the only documented cases in nurslings that were adversely affected (yellow-fever encephalitis, etc.) by their mothers receiving the yellow-fever vaccine involved newborns who died within a month of the mother receiving the vaccine. Our little Annabelle*, though a nursling, was going to be nine-months-old by the time we went for our travel immunization appointment, the exact minimum age for receiving the yellow-fever vaccine. If Annabelle* was medically old enough to receive it herself, though not required yet in Zambia until age one, why would it be dangerous for the vaccine to pass through breast milk, except in the possible case of her dose, plus mine, overloading her system? We continued to work with the medical professionals until we all reached the safest conclusion: I would receive the yellow-fever vaccine, not Annabelle*, and my breast milk would provide her with the antibodies my body created in reaction to the yellow-fever vaccine. We were relieved, but we also knew we were not entirely out of the woods, yet.

Our Miraculous God

When we arrived at our travel immunization appointment, we respectfully showed the nurses the clearly-listed requirement for the yellow-fever vaccine on the Zambian Embassy’s website, but they still could not administer it to our family because it went against the recommendations of the Center for Disease Control (CDC). We followed up in the room by calling the Zambian Embassy, as we had already done over a month prior at home to verify the requirement, and then requested that the nurse come over and speak with the Zambian embassy in D.C. directly. Afterwards, she left for what felt like years, but then came back with the vaccinations and blank certificates we required for the trip! God was faithful, and once again, He answered our prayers in ways that we NEVER could have imagined.

Looking back, God’s hand was evident every step of the way, from finding out that most of the vaccination costs were covered, to keeping Brendon* safe when his neck spasmed up a week after receiving the yellow fever vaccine. The Lord miraculously corrected a prescription note mistake at no cost to us, and then provided just the right pediatrician before the trip to advise us about using jelly packets to help our children ingest their anti-malaria medication! This does not even begin to cover how he provided for the international medical insurance, the approval from a sleep doctor for my husband’s CPAP to be on the plane, or the process of getting my medication authorized for the plane in case of an allergic reaction!

God had been so good to us, and we rested in that knowledge as we continued to wait and pray for God to somehow work through the situation with our tickets and the dangerous protests erupting in Zambia with the upcoming election. Our faith had been tried, our resources spent, and we were exhausted already, but we encouraged each other to keep our eyes focused on the Lord, knowing that the God who parted the Red Sea and made dry bones talk could handle this situation, also. The last thing we expected, however, was for Douglas Stauffer to become the next major roadblock on our way to Africa.

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: Sent to the Wolf, Unaware” or click on the link below.

For a list of the complete series, click here.

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