I still cherish the books I found in the self-storage unit that day years ago. I'll never forget how it was your ministry that put me on the path to finding salvation through Christ our savior.
Hope all is well with you and yours. Do you still have your little chihuahuas? How is your lovely wife? Daughters?
I just ordered a copy of The God Makers video. My oldest daughter turns 12 this fall, and I think it's time she saw it. Of course, my husband and I have tried to teach her the difference between Mormonism and mainstream Christianity, but she is at the age where everything that comes out of Mom's mouth is pure idiocy. Especially since LDS Grandma works on her every time she has the chance.
I'm certain the video will get quite a bit of viewing, considering where we are now living. Brian recently left the Army (with just three years till retirement), and we have moved to Utah. I was very resentful of that decision at the time, but with all the action going on in the military right now, boy am I glad I listened to the message God was sending us! We had prayed mightily about what to do. . . seemed so stupid to get out of the Army with such a short time left till cash-in. Brian figured he would finish his last three years in the Reserves, but procrastinated on getting in. Well, we recently found out his unit has just deployed to Afghanistan. God has surely blessed our family!
How did we wind up behind the "Zion curtain"? We let God guide us... this government job just fell into our laps. He is a civilian working for security here at the Dugway Proving Ground, which is about a gazillion miles from anyplace civilized out near the Nevada state line. We live on post, in government housing. Brian feels like he is here to minister to the Mormons, and is doing a bang-up job of it. If nothing else, he has at least showed a lot of LDS people that Born-Again Christians are not the two-headed monsters they assume us to be. I remember as a devout Mormon, I was convinced that nobody outside the church ever read scriptures, prayed at mealtime, sent out missionaries, etc. I guess I figured they all sacrificed goats and danced naked under the moon. Sometimes I still wake up amazed that there is life after Mormonism... .and it is good. It's a blessing to know beyond a doubt exactly where you are going in the long term, if you know what I mean.
Jim, you would just crack up if you saw where we live. To get to Dugway, one must travel a long 45 mile road out through "Skull Valley". You cross the empty desert for an hour, and suddenly you see what you figure MUST be a mirage. It is an LDS church, huge and imposing, complete with manicured front lawn. There is a chain link fence surronding it to keep out the tumbleweeds, which are stacked 6 feet high all around. It services the Mormons who live here on the installation. I have got to send you a picture. You fully expect Clint Eastwood to come riding up on a mule. The Army allows the LDS church to put a seminary on post, but not a chapel.
Brian and I travel an hour to the town of Tooele to attend an Assembly of God church there, and also attend the non-denominational post chapel. There are only a couple dozen of us "gentiles", and boy howdy, is the pressure on! I feel like a white man in Harlem!
Living in Utah does have a bright side though.. .we don't get any rude comments about our family size out here. We have five children now, the two girls and then three boys since I last saw you. James (guess where that came from?), Benjamin, and Joel.
REPLY
Thanks for the letter. Glad our work here at Through the Maze helps
Jim