Colorado City Outreach!!

An UPDATE about the Colorado City Outreach!!

What a ~marvelous~ outreach. I'm hooked. Definitely hooked. These
people are precious, but unbelievably controlled. No one should call
them stupid or mindless. They are industrious, loyal to religion
(though misguided) and family and, from what I heard from one ex-FLDS
person, quite intelligent. They would have to be to run a city and
supply the needs of the people.

We arrived in the morning about 50 strong and went to work almost
immediately handing out invitations to a free BBQ that afternoon. A
group from Biola U and a group from another Christian school (sorry,
don't remember which school) drove for ~hours~ from California to
preach Jesus and show some love. We looked for people on the streets,
placed invitations on doors and gate posts of FLDS homes and visited
the local grocery store too.

Colorado City will leave you heartbroken if you go, but it's worth it.
Tri-Grace ministries has been building a bridge to that community for
five years with its yearly BBQ. These things take time. Trust is not
built overnight. Between the raid in 1953 and the more recent raid
that made the news, these people do NOT trust outsiders one bit.
As we drove around the neighborhood delivering invitations, the vast
majority of FLDS people would either go inside their homes or ignore
us altogether. I talked with a few that were friendly and they
politely accepted the invitation, but none dared show up to the BBQ
because to be seen with us would cause their immediate
ex-communication from the group. The BBQ is known to them as "The
Devil's BBQ."






Many of the homes are surrounded by high walls. Some very tall, around
16 feet, some with walls not so high - around six feet. The more
prominent the family, the higher the walls. Warren Jeffs' place has
the highest walls, of course, and his home is huge!

Most of the homes have "No Trespassing" signs on the walls and gates.
We didn't enter those properties but rather left an invitation on the
entrance. The homes that didn't have a sign received an invitation on
the door. I knocked on a few doors to see if anyone would come to the
door. One older lady did and we chatted for a minute. I told her about
the BBQ and that we were going to be talking about the love of Jesus
and throwing a football around. I asked her if she'd like to play
quarterback. She just laughed and asked me who I am and if I'm part of
the community. I smiled back and told her no, I'm just a guy asking if
she'd like to come join us. She said no, and that was that. On to the
next home.

As I passed by one home with a no trespassing sign, I peeked over the
six-foot wall and saw a girl about five or six years old. I told her
hello and asked if here parents were home. My voice startled her and
she snapped her head around to look at me. She was scared to death and
ran inside. I waited for about a minute and no one came out. On to the
next home.

"Chava" and I were walking down a street when a rickety old van passed
by us going the opposite direction. Just as the van passed us a very
loud BANG rang out from the direction of the van. We both jumped! It
sounded like a gun shot. I turned to Chava and said, "Do you think
that was a backfire or a gunshot?!" He said, "I don't know. Let's hope
for backfire!" We both laughed and continued on.

Pray for the children. They wear long pants and long sleeves even in
the summer because their FLDS undergarments are full lenth, down to
the wrist and down to the ankles. No part of the garment should be
seen by others so their clothes must cover the garment entirely.
So it went for all of us the whole morning and into early afternoon.
As we set up for the BBQ in the local park in the middle of town, SUVs
with darkened windows would continually circle the park looking for
any FLDS members in attendance. The fear that these people live under
is deplorable. The community as a whole desperately needs deliverance
from a demonic presence. The evil is palpable and is so thick it could
be cut with a knife. We approached their vehicles as they slowly
circled to invite them to the BBQ, but they wouldn't even roll down
their windows. The local law enforcement also circled the park just to
keep an eye on things. They were friendly enough.

Somewhere between 30 and 50 locals did come to the BBQ and a very good
time was had by all. Good food, good fun, ~great~ conversation. I
talked at length with a 23 year old woman and her husband. They asked
me not to use their names because the woman's mother is still in the
cult. I'll call her "Mary."

The conversation was fascinating and enlightening. I asked "Mary" if
she considered her mother to be part of a cult and she told me, "100%,
yes." She told me that her mother is very intelligent and simply knows
no other life as she and her parents before her were FLDS all their
life. I also asked "Mary" a question about FLDS theology in comparison
to Joseph Smith and she told me that there is no comparison. "Mary"
said that the FLDS are as far from Joseph Smith as night and day.
"Mary" said that everything that is considered spiritual comes from
the current prophet.

Mary has a large box full of theological statements by Warren Jeffs
and she agreed to mail them to me. Very excited about receiving that!
I talked with a man of about 30 years old who was born and raised FLDS
but was recently excommunicated over theological differences. We
talked about the biblical Jesus vs. the Jesus of Mormonism. He asked
me several questions about Christian beliefs (as he's rarely had
communication with Christians) and I gladly obliged. We talked for
about 30 minutes. I was amazed how the Holy Spirit brought to my
memory so many different verses from the Bible and I just laid the
gospel out in front of him. He listened intently and we exchanged
emails. Pray for Theron by name!! My impression of him is that he is
quite brilliant. He speaks eloquently and is very interested in
continuing our conversation, as am I!

Theron believes in Joseph as a prophet, the Book of Mormon as inspired
scripture, along the Pearl of Great Price. I forgot to ask him about
the D&C, but I assume he believes in that too. I didn't tell him what
I know about the PoGP and I don't know that telling him it's a proven
fraud is a good idea at this point. Pray for me regarding wisdom on
how to proceed.

A few people brought guitars and we sang praises to Jesus, loud and exuberant.
We played bocci ball (kind of a cross between horseshoes and croquet),
tossed a football around, played Frisbee and just generally enjoyed
the day talking with locals.

What an utterly fantastic day. Oh, that I could do it full time. Oh,
that I could spend every day talking with them. Where God guides, God
provides. If I'm only to go now and then, so be it.
A video will be put on YouTube this week that will present a much
better picture than words can ever do. I'll post a link when it's
done. Watch it and chuckle, watch it and cry, watch it and be very
concerned. Most importantly, watch it and PRAY.

-Russ