15 Children Freed from the FLDS

On June 9th I took part in an operation to extract 15 children from the FLDS (a polygamist offshoot of the Latter-Day Saints) and reunite them with their mothers. These three mothers were excommunicated about three years ago and hadn’t seen their children since. All 15 children were successfully returned to their mothers. One of the mothers needed to go into hiding from the FLDS. We were able to provide our home as a temporary safe house for one mom and her children.

This experience led to a variety of emotions for me. I was overcome with joy to witness the reunion of moms and children. I was encouraged to see these women stand up to the FLDS. On the other hand, I was greatly grieved to discover the level of brainwashing the children had encountered. They have been taught that reuniting with their apostate mothers would seal their damnation in hell. It was also sad to watch four-year-old and five-year-old boys that had no memories of their mother. They were only one and two the last time they saw their mother.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case and there are potentially thousands of parentless children in the custody of the FLDS. The FLDS, in a lot of situations, requires parents relinquish their children to the FLDS “church”. The children then become property of the FLDS. The boys are shipped off to work on construction crews and the girls trained up to be servants to the prophet.

Transitional Housing

May/June Mission Trip

Thanks to our dear friends Jerome and Diana from Dittmer, MO, we were able to complete all the shelving in our garage. This shelving space was needed to provide enough storage to clear out the space that is dedicated to the transitional housing unit. This unit will provide a bedroom, a full bath, a living room, and a dine-in kitchenette for people leaving or being excommunicated from any of the eleven polygamist groups in Utah.

Project Update

Even though we had only two people inquire about our summer mission trip opportunities, God is still providing! A group from Salt Lake City called the Local 3:16 has offered to bring a team down on July 18th to complete the bulk of the construction for this project. These are tradesmen that volunteer for projects like this in their spare time. They also offered to pay for half of the remaining materials and successfully challenged another organization to match their donation. So, all of the materials have been donated and the bulk of the construction should be completed by the end of July! Pray that our building permit is approved soon.

Not Too Late

We need help doing some framing anytime before July 18th. Also, do you have any experience taping drywall, installing trim or painting? We will need help adding the finishing touches to this project throughout the month of August. Please contact us ASAP if you’d like to get involved. We need you!

Utah Valley Church

We’ve been blessed to have Roger and Luke help out with the preaching lately. It is a little overwhelming to work multiple jobs then preach and lead worship every Sunday, so their help is greatly appreciated! Attendance in our weekly gathering has definitely been down since school let out, but I’m encouraged that we’ve remained in contact with each other throughout the week.

We are talking about adding a morning worship gathering in the fall. To make this a reality, we really need some more help. Would you be willing to pray for the Lord to provide the manpower to make this outreach a possibility? We really need people that are gifted in leading worship and or hospitality. Maybe that’s you. If so, send us an email if you’re interested.

This weekend our team is attending a training event for LDS Transitions. Transitions is a curriculum for people making the migration from the Mormon religion to Biblical Christianity. We’ve used this curriculum before and it is very helpful.

God continues to provide amazing opportunities to share with our neighbors and others who don’t even attend our gatherings. The bulk of our ministry time is spent walking life with the people God has placed in our path. Thank you for your prayers concerning our connections with the “natives”. God has really blessed these relationships.

Visitors from the UK

We were blessed to spend half a day this past Tuesday with three Christian men from England who are in Utah on a mission trip. These guys are committed to reaching Mormons, Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses with the gospel of grace. To find out more about the ministry they are a part of, please visit their website at: http://mormonisminvestigated.co.uk/

For the sake of the Gospel,

Matthew & Chandra