MK forum

Dear Dad,

Long time no speak, long time no hear. I'm doing fine. Got a couple of answers for you, not that you've ever actually answered them, but others have on your behalf.

You wonder how someone who has been exposed to so much truth and good and wonderful explanations of what the Bible really means, can have so much doubt that any of it is true. Don't worry you are not alone, for I'm a proverbial piggy in the middle. Here I sit pretty much a lone voice of doubt amongst a sea of ships with much faith and those who's faith has been knocked out of their sails rarely venture here.

In a way I'm racked with guilt and puzzlement about my teenage years. A bit of guilt in that I was there and puzzlement as to why others were there. For we went on a great mission to save the poor natives from their evil ways and enligten them. Yet when we got there, fences were erected to keep them away from us and apart from those who worked in the houses, they rarely came into our homes. The lectures on the evils of Catholosism, Seventh Day Adventists, Pentecostals and everyone else who didn't share the narrow viewpoints espoused by "our" lot, still ring hauntingly in my head.
And yet in the last few years I have worked with many of the Catholic faith from a country where "our" mission served. They are my friends, for they accept me for who I am, which rarely happened as a teenager. I'm not their mission field to change to their way, as I have been for much of my life to many others. I'm just another colleague who does a difficult job with them, so that others might live or die with more comfort and humanity.
Perhaps if you to stop putting labels on people and stuffing them into convenient little boxes, you'll also come to realise that good people come in many shapes and sizes. You see I had to deprogramme myself when I left the narrowminded, hatred ridden environment that was my teenage years. Like the proverbial leopard I had to change my spots and I think I'm a better human for having done so. My life will never be one of telling others how to live, but more a life of hopefully making us all think outside the narrow confines of our own cosy boxes, so that we can be better human beings for it.

So getting back to the original question, I have no answer to give. But just a rhetorical question to ask, "How, after all you saw and experienced and knew that MKs like I went through, expect me to have turned out any other way and still lived with myself"? For the God that was manufactured cannot have been real and manufactured He was. Yes God may well love the whole world, but I don't think He loved some of it more than others. The truth was economical, the good came with strings attached and the explanations of the Bible were often distorted.

Back to the Humble Pie discussion:

"And those who walk in pride He is able to humble."

I know. I know. Refers to all of us-----
And this one refers to Nebuchadnezzar and his stint out in the field with the animals
Until he admitted something---

But I just thought it interesting......
In light of the discussion.......

I had a dream
That I was "The Late"
And so I journeyed
To Heaven's Gate

And St. Peter
Met me there
Asked if I'd been good
And for others care

I said I did
And that I was a nurse
Had even written
Lovely verse

He bade me enter
Friends to greet
And I hugged each one
As we did meet

Then I realized
My fears had gone
And through past pain
The sun now shone

And theology
It mattered not
For what one sowed
One now got

At the Pearly Gate
I heard a shout
"Let us in
For we had no doubt"

But St Peter
His head did shake
Saying "doubts o.k.
Honesty we take"

And so I wandered
Meeting friends anew
Enjoying their company
And Celestial view

Then I woke
And was back in bed
Loved the dream
And thankful I'm not dead

Excerpts from a letter I wrote in 5th grade to my parents (to my knowledge our letters were not censored):

Dear Mommy, daddy, and Josh,
I love you sooo much and I miss you alot.
Yesterday was kite day we had a good time. On my kite I had a picture of cat in the hat. Joanne C. drew the picture and I painted it. I will take it's picture even though it's tore-up and wreced. Mr. Hodge took a picture of it before it was wrecked. Caleb had a picture of Mop Top it flew pretty good. He's in bed now crying because he thinks you guy's are going to die. Mrs. Jepma is talking to him. Poor Gye! Caleb's had this problem before. He loves you gyes so much. SO DO I! .............
Caleb's o.k. Now. .......
We made cardboard fingernail's today, and put nailpolish on it. I love you lot.

Love,
Aimee

Simple words from a small person.

A small person subjected to unbelievable hardship, all "for the sake of the Gospel".

The sacrifices we adults made were as chaff in the wind, compared to the sacrifices our little ones made. And they made them involuntarily.

My heart breaks once again, and tears fill my eyes. My God, my God! What have we done???

"Caleb ... 's in bed now crying because he thinks you guy's are going to die. Mrs. Jepma is talking to him. Poor Gye! Caleb's had this problem before. He loves you gyes so much. SO DO I! .............
Caleb's o.k. Now. ......."

NO HE WASN'T!!! CALEB WAS NOT O.K.!!!

I feel nauseous.

Just wondering have any of you tried to write down what you actually believe. I went to Moody and studied Systematic Theology. Every thing of doctrine all set in order. I had a good teacher who would at times not teach the subject but just talk about what was happening in our lives. He said theology didn't matter if if had no results in our live. So just recently I have been writing down what I believe. So much of the systematic theology has nothing to do with me so I can set it aside. But what I believe does control my life and I am writing it down to see if it is true. I have found I believe so many lies that I wondered if there was anything left. I am finding some very wonderful things I believe. We are all at so many different places it might be interesting to compare.

Bemused Perhaps if you to stop putting labels on people and stuffing them into convenient little boxes, you'll also come to realise that good people come in many shapes and sizes. You see I had to deprogramme myself when I left the narrowminded, hatred ridden environment that was my teenage years. Like the proverbial leopard I had to change my spots and I think I'm a better human for having done so. My life will never be one of telling others how to live, but more a life of hopefully making us all think outside the narrow confines of our own cosy boxes, so that we can be better human beings for it.
I agree

"Caleb's o.k. Now"

No Celeb was not OK then and probably is not OK now.

This is why we still cry when we read this. We are not OK either.