Ghost,
I am sorry you have been suffering so many illnesses. Your positive attitude toward all these challenges seems to keep you going. I’m so glad you have found places that recognize and appreciate your gifts and give you opportunities to use them.
My mom also went to the Philippines on atleast two mission trips and loved the people. She had a generous heart, probably like you. She also, like you, encountered sharp rebuking when she confronted GCx elders with her very serious concerns. They spoke to her with much disdain and diminishing. She may never have forgotten the scornful, rude and arrogant treatment she received either.
We may not immediately get the results we want when we are wronged. God’s timing is “out of this world” and beyond our understanding, but it’s always perfect (later). Some of us on here may seem quiet or even unresponsive at times, but we’re trying to follow God’s lead, not our own. I may not always agree with every single little thing my faithful friends who supportively listen and encouragingly respond to those abused by GCx, but I don’t disrespect them. It makes it hard for me to listen to those who speak about them with undeserved rudeness. I definitely close my ears to unwarranted slander, and lies from others on here, because I will not submit to abuse all over again.
The indignant treatment so many encountered when approaching GCx leaders regarding their wrong actions was flat out defiant. What’s interesting is that you and others could have been instruments sent to them to point it out, so they might genuinely repent, ask forgiveness, and humbly change their behavior. But THEY WOULD HAVE NONE OF IT, just like their mentor, McCotter. It does seem there are a high number of complaints on here about the elder you saw problems with, so unfortunately you were in good company. Below is a scripture I happened to read again today which, I believe, speaks to this matter of being met with defiance and often hostility when pointing out wrong, when it is right to do so.
“Woe to the obstinate children, declares the LORD,
who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance not of my Spirit,
heaping sin upon sin...
These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction.
They say to the seers, “See no more visions!”
and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right!
...Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us...”
Isaiah 30:1,9,10,11
Underlining mine
When we point out wrong we SEE in order to do what is right, we are not the ones rebelling against biblical confrontation and ultimately God.
