In 2004, our family began to travel and minister in Russian speaking churches across the United States. We also spent the summer of 2006 in South Korea. I was able to travel to Israel and minister there.
Then in December of 2007, some family problems came to the surface. My wife went to the public courts (against our family’s commitment) to help resolve some of these issues. I judiciously began to share some of the problems on our family website where we had documented our life and travels. At that time, a Judge ordered me to not speak publicly about our family’s situation. So our family’s activities which had been very public through our ministry, our travels, and our website went silent.
Now through the leading of the Lord, I believe that God wants me to again take a public stand and begin ministering publicly. If you followed our life before, you may be wondering what has been happening in my life since 2008 when we took our family website down.
Let’s begin with a summary of some of the challenging things that have happened:
- In 2008, my wife of 25 years at the time, left the home and filed for divorce
- Several extended family members began assisting her in this process
- Several people I had not been in contact with for 10 – 15 years also came to her aid
- I lost my public ministry and my reputation was tarnished through several false accusations
- Experienced nine of my ten children eventually leave the home and choose to live differently than they were taught in our home
- Watched many people I have known over the years retreat from what they had believed
- Saw both my parents die from reactions to medically prescribed drugs
- Lost thousands of dollars defending myself and my younger children in court
Some of the positive things that have happened:
- Had friends support, help, and encourage me
- Granted full custody by the court of the minor children that wanted to live with me
- Provided a job by a friend that allowed me to: stay at home, work part time, employ my younger children, and continue to home educate my children
- Made new friends along the way
- Found God faithful to meet my physical, spiritual, and material needs
- Allowed by the Lord to continue to live in the home that we began building in 1993. I now am able to own it outright and still be debt free
- Learned so much more about myself, my wife and children, other people and most importantly about the Lord
I hope to share many of these lessons I learned through these pages in the coming years.
