Needed Prayer!

[Joe Sperling]

An update on Orissa since 8-29-08 post:
 
From Valson Abraham, India Gospel Outreach:

Yesterday (September 1), I talked to John Mathai, who is director of IGO's work in the state of Orissa, and he has told me the following news which updates you through August 31:
1. The central Indian government has finally sent the army (24 Platoons) to the cities to maintain peace. Praise the Lord for answered prayers.

2. Yesterday, one of our churches in Jeypore village was burnt, and Pastor Elijah Bagh's house was completely destroyed.   Pastor Shaji Xavier (graduate of India Bible College) is in charge of this Koraput District, and he reports much destruction of Christian homes. A Christian mission school with 1,500 students has been burnt. 

3. Yesterday, more than 500 Christian homes were destroyed in Gajpathi district.

4. On August 25, in Khundapali village, Bergardha district, five Pentecostal pastors were taken. The radicals poured kerosene over them and burned them alive.

5. We heard today that radicals burned the home of Evangelist Kesvo Naik, a 2006 graduate from Orissa Bible Training Center, and his family has fled to the forest.

6. A leprosarium run by Christians was completely destroyed, and the lady in charge of the women was burnt alive. (All leprosariums in Orissa are run by Christians. There is NOT a single leprosarium run by Hindus or the government in Orissa).

As of August 31, over 300 villages have been burned, 4,000 homes destroyed, and 50,000 Christians have fled into the forests (these are conservative figures). This has affected every district of Orissa. Now, violence from the persecution is beginning to spill over into other states, most notably Madhya Pradesh. The situation is much worse than the persecution that struck Christians in late December and early January. Orissa police are either helping the rioters or are nowhere in sight.

Conditions in Orissa have mobilized a committee to approach the President of India, calling for federal intervention into that state to protect the integrity of India. This committee is made up, not only of Christians, but also Muslims and a major Indian filmmaker who see the present violence as a threat against the secular constitution of India. The Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, a non-Christian, has called the violence in Orissa "a national disgrace." 

These are signs that pressure is building for a peaceful resolution. Not only the Christians, but the entire population, economy, political system and reputation of India are at stake. As a whole, India will suffer if it loses its reputation for religious tolerance, and investments will decline.

The violence began on August 23, after Maoists attacked and killed radical Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, who masterminded the December-January persecution against Christians. Though the Maoists have claimed responsibility for the killing, and evidence points to them, the radical Hindus insist that Christians did it in revenge for the earlier persecution. 

I ask for your fervent intercession for our brothers and sisters in Orissa. Let us pray as the early apostles prayed in Acts 4:29 and 30. "Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your Word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your Holy servant Jesus."

Until All Have Heard,
Pastor T. Valson Abraham


 


 


 


 

 


 


 


 

[vernecarty]

The time frame of 73 to 77 is interesting as it was before my own time under the influence of the false teacher George Geftakys.
The account of Beth confirms something I have long concluded about my involvement with George Geftakys, namely that my own deception about his true spiritual state was first and foremost testimony to my own spiritual immaturity.
Sadly, the fact that many of his close associates knew exactly what he was is inescapable.
Does anyone still hold the theory that George Geftakys was really a godly man who strayed from the path, or can we now with great confidence assert that he was a devil from the beginning?
Closely observe the course of the lives of those who enabled him to destroy the flock of God. Millstones would indeed have been far more preferable for this pitiable lot...the gaze of the Chief Shepherd will for them be a time of unspeakable sorrow and loss...
Verne

[outdeep]

I personally don't find it very helpful for me to ask if George was a godly man or a devil.  I don't find either of these categories helpful because I don't think either really describe him in my mind.  I see George as a very sick man who grew more comfortable with his denial over the years.  I think there was probably a part of George at one time that truly aspired to be a godly man.  I don't think George sat down at the kitchen table one day with Betty and said, "Cruella, let's start a cult.  I can really screw over people and make lots of money."

In my experience with recovery from addiction, I met lots of folks that truly wanted to follow Jesus on the one hand yet would repeatedly fall into snares that completely contradict their desires.  This is the insanity of it.  Those who get better generally realized like the prodigal son that the pain isn't worth it and began to take steps to come out of denial, become accountable to a group and more towards healing.  George, of course, didn't do this.  He isolated himself and thus grew more comfortable with his insane, illusory world causing his acting out to became more brazen, daring and insane.  His addiction to power became his friend.  The more he got away with it, the deeper and more sophisticated his denial got.  My guess is that to this day he still feels he has a walk with the Lord and he holds those "little slip-ups" in a compartment called denial.  He probably truly believes that the accusations against him are overblown and an act of the enemy to destroy his god-annointed ministry.  In his mind, I think he really believes that he was simply trying to be faithful to His Lord and is suffering the enemy's persecution as a result.  In short, he probably believes that he did nothing wrong but simply walk faithfully with this savior.

How much is sheer, willful evil and how much is just pathological delusion, I don't know and I don't plan to waste my time trying to figure this question out.  I just know that addiction of any type is cunning, baffling and powerful and there is no hope for George if he has lost any capacity to be honest.

[Joe Sperling]

I'm more prone to believe that George did "start" on the right path, but was drawn off of
it.

"Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion" (Jude 11 ESV)

In Jude it talks of those who forsake the right path, and it says they abandoned the path "for the sake of
gain". I don't think the "gain" has to be monetary----it could be power, adoration, or even a "self-appointment"
to ministry arising from a delusion that he was "specially annointed" of God. That's my take on it, but in reality only the Lord knows that answer.

[vernecarty]

What promted me to pose the question I did was not merely idle speculation about George Geftakys.
I posed the question in an attempt to explain how I came to understand my own delusion.
Like so many others, I once thought that a man who was obviously involved in gross sins of the flesh, was a Godly individual.
At the time I concluded he was a man of God, he was engaging in gross immorality, and had been for many years before I ever heard him.
True freedom from the devastation of the Geftakys years will only come to those who humbly and fully accept their own complicity, and lack of spiritual discernment in what took place.
I followed Geftakys and his henchmen because I was too spiritually immature, (or disobedient) to be led by the Spirit of God.
Verne


P.S. It took me a long time but I also finally began to understand why Betty Geftakys treated all the men in the assembly with such incredible contempt.
Her attitude is entirely understandable.
She was fully aware of what a lecher her husband was.
Nonetheless, here were all these supposedly spiritual and Godly men George had surrounded himself with.
Not only in Fullerton, but throughout the Midwest, Canada, and even places abroad- all dotishly putting George Geftakys on a pedestal.
She must have concluded that anyone involved with her philandering husband was either incredibly stupid and weak, or incredibly corrupt, or possibly all of the above.
Whatever the case was, these individuals in her view, and rightly so in mine, merited nothing but her profoundest disdain and that is exactly what they got. It all now makes perfect sense in hindsight.

[Mark C.]

Sadly, the fact that many of his close associates knew exactly what he was is inescapable.

Closely observe the course of the lives of those who enabled him to destroy the flock of God. Millstones would indeed have been far more preferable for this pitiable lot...the gaze of the Chief Shepherd will for them be a time of unspeakable sorrow and loss...
Verne

Hi Verne!

  It was a very good and courageous act of Beth to tell her story and I also thank her for doing so.  I'll tell you why I think it is so important:  We all know GG is not going to repent, nor is it important to understand his psycho/spiritual state, but hearing her story is for the benefit of the Enablers that Verne talks about above.

  As in the "former leader" that is telling folks not to read the Reflections site because "it is full of lies", or those other former members who want to place all the blame for what went on there with GG and Betty alone.

  We as former members enabled GG to do what he did!  The real soul searching needs to be directed at our own inner life---- and this means an honest assessment of how we turned a blind eye toward what we saw. True, not all of us like Gay (Walker) Mau saw GG's immorality and covered it up, but all of us who were around for any length of time at all certainly saw something --but we chose to be a coward in an effort to save our own skin.

  Those who courageously exposed and spoke out were the real servants of Jesus Christ and these were those truly "going the way of the cross."  Yet, we still have many former members who won't own up to their own culpability and wish to "get on with their own lives" without admitting how opposed they were to God and how much damage they have caused others.

  This attitude is comparable to a passenger in a vehicle that hits and runs from an accident.  He wasn't the driver, but he saw what happened and obstructed justice being done.  Then this driver continues to drive drunk and kills some more innocent people----- This demonstrates how this passenger now has become an enabler to allow more havoc to be wreaked!

  "But GG has been exposed and brought to account", some may say.  "Why make such a big deal about it now as it's beating a dead horse?"   Now that "the drunk driver" has been finally caught and stopped why worry about admitting that I was a passenger in that car and remained silent?  The only answer is to recover your own soul. When a person takes the path of cowardice they injure their own humanity and the only way to get right is to repent--- they are living a lie!

   Enablers of GG will indeed have to stand before God one day.  Yes, there are many different levels of culpability, but this BB provides an opportunity to get it all clear before that day.  There is no such thing as a private repentance and the clarity of soul achieved by making confession publicly will reap a blessed healing.

                                                                           God Bless,  Mark C.   

[vernecarty]

   Enablers of GG will indeed have to stand before God one day.  Yes, there are many different levels of culpability, but this BB provides an opportunity to get it all clear before that day.  There is no such thing as a private repentance and the clarity of soul achieved by making confession publicly will reap a blessed healing.

                                                                           God Bless,  Mark C.   

A sobering prospect indeed Mark.
So far as the leadershp around Geftakys is concerned there were basically two kinds of people.
Those who stayed, and those who left.
I have argued strenuously on this BB over the years ( and some have accused me of being far too harsh on the leadership in the assemblies) that no godly person could serve with this man for any length of time and not see the darkness of his soul.

Samuel Ochenjele after the fact tried to convince me that he and Roger Grant on many occasions would entreat George about his ungodly conduct; while making a show of repentance, Geftakys would always repeat his sin.
I must admit I felt some sympathy at the time of the conversation, but I doubt that that is an excuse the Lord will find compelling.

Elders are charged with upholding a godly standard in the body of Christ and must be faithful - whatever the cost!

For whatever reason, some good men who should have known better continued with him and have paid, are now paying, and will ultimately pay the price for that choice.
Former leaders who do anything other than repent in dust and ashes ought to be given a wide berth in my humble opinion
The Scriptural injuction against being partakers of other men's  sins powerfully applies here I think.
Only the Spirit of God has the power to enable these men to really appreciate what they did.
I suspect they resisted His admonition during the time they enabled Geftakys. Ongoing hard-heartedness should come as no surprise. May God have mercy on them.

[Margaret]

Prayer request  Dr.  PaulMartin, the founder and director of Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, was hospitalized recently for pneumonia, and was discovered to have leukemia. Chemo has begun and he will remain hospitalized for at least six weeks. Dr. Martin has helped so many people. Please uphold him and his family in prayer, and perhaps those of you who have benefited from Wellspring might send him some pix and reports of how you are doing now. Send mail to P. O. Box 67, Albany, OH 45710. 

Wellspring will continue in its capacity to help survivors, and here's a heads-up to all you who have wished you could afford to attend the two-week in-house recovery program:  Wellspring is currently offering a reduced rate for those in need. A "scholarship" reduction of 65% is now available every month for those who qualify.

Advent blessings to you all!

Margaret

[Flora]

I would like to ask prayer for Lenore. Some of you know her a bit because she used to post on this site. She fellowshipped in the Ottawa Assembly for a short while.

Lenore's Dad died on Saturday from cancer. He died only a few weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. The family is quite shaken by it. Lenore told me that he had accepted the Lord a couple of years ago.

Lenore is my cousin and today I went to the Funeral Home for Visitation. Lenore and her mother are taking the death very, very hard. I'm sure they would deeply appreciate your prayers. The funeral is tomorrow.

Thanks,

Flora