Hello... My name is al Hartman, and i'm a recovering Geftakysite. i was in fellowship with George and Betty Geftakys from 1969 until 1980. During most of that time i served among the workers and the leading brothers of the Fullerton assembly.
Presently, i live in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. i have a wife, four children, four grandchildren, two dogs, a house, two cars, and no concubines.
In 1980, i left the assembly because i was no longer able to maintain the pace required of a leader, and was so ashamed, and certain that i had failed the Lord, that i didn't want to be among the saints, to be reminded of my shortcomings. Only recently did i find out that if i hadn't left when i did, i would have shortly been asked to leave.
After leaving the assembly, i returned to my native Ohio with my wife Cathy, and our children, Hannah, Joshua, Esther and Phoebe. We have had over 20 years to examine and overcome our assembly experiences. We are still engaged in that process. It took several years for me to realize that i had not just left the assembly, i had ESCAPED it. Some years after that, i understood that i had SURVIVED my bondage, and finally i have come to see that
every day i stand before God and walk with him, i am OVERCOMING my past.
i had wanted with all my heart to serve the Lord, and had thought that i was doing so. i believe we all thought we were doing his will. The assembly was not at that time what it became in later years, but the seeds were sown and the garden tended during the years of my tenure, and i ask your forgiveness for what part i had in the establishing of that darkness.
How grateful i am that, while man looks at the outward appearance, God sees what is in ours hearts; how grateful for the forgiveness of sins, for our Advocate with the Father, for the Spirit of Truth to lead us into all Truth, that we may walk in the Light and have fellowship with one another.
It has taken distance and time for me to realize that my time in the assembly was not lost. (It seemed like a loss when i left, but i now regard it as an investment. It has even gathered interest.) Now i am convinced that God leads us down whatever paths we must travel to get us to the place he wants us to be. Something about each one of us must have needed the assembly experience, else why would he have allowed us to travel that road when we sought to follow him? There may have been something we could only learn the hard way? i don't pretend to understand his reasons, but i know whom i have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which i have committed unto him against that day.
i came away from the assembly with much good:
i learned how to study the bible there, and the lesson has served me in every aspect of my life. In every situation that requires conscious thought, i ask myself and God, (1.) What is happening here? (2.) What does it mean to me, in a practical way? (3.) What would You have me [What am i going to] do about it?
i also learned how to really listen effectively to ministry, and i learned how to preach and to teach. And i learned self discipline. Much i learned was in spite of, rather than because of, the assembly. Nonetheless, that is where i was when i learned it, or when the seeds were planted that would bear fruit later on.
It took time after i had left for me to "learn" what i had learned-- to winnow out the good grain from the chaff.
By the way, i don't despise George or Betty. Rather, i weep for them. They were born into this world the same way as you and i. At some point, they set out to follow Jesus and serve God. Somehow they were deceived, then blinded, and are perhaps now even mad. But my pain is abating and my anger has cooled, and i cannot hate them.
i pray God will humble them, and that they will humble themselves before him, and repent and find his forgiveness, and ask for yours. But for the grace of God, what became of them could have happened to any of us. Their salvation, as ours, is only in seeking, finding and clinging to the living God, and leaving the past behind us and the settling of accounts to him.
Any "old-timers" out there who remember us, we'd love to hear from you: OHio al
Hartman@aol.com ("Newbies" are welcome too!)
Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world... Be of good cheer, for he has overcome the world.
In his love,
brother al
