Note 116 - Visiting Secretly to Entice Saints to Follow Dong Yu Lan's Ministry
E-mail from Salomon Ma to Pedro Dong, Andre Dong, Ezra Ma, Ildeu Rodrigues, Roberto Graner, Miguel Ma, Roderick Wilson, Cezar Menegucci, and others, December 18, 2008:I pass on, in confidentiality, solely for the knowledge of brother Dong and ourselves, the encouraging report enclosed which I received today, regarding the incursion in Cuba made by a team of brothers from Venezuela, led by Silfredo and Wilbardo. We praise the Lord for the work of the Spirit and of life, for the organic ministry, for the gospel of the kingdom!...
Letter of warning to all the church and saints in South Africa, May 10, 2009:
The work of the Lord's recovery began in Johannesburg in late 1996. Dong Yu Lan's workers first came to Johannesburg around the year 2000 and became more active throughout South Africa in 2005, when Helcio Almeida, a close co-worker of Brother Dong, began to work in South Africa. Since then, Helcio and others with him have contacted many saints and have drawn some of the saints out of the church in Johannesburg to build up their separate work....
The church in Pretoria began to meet in the mid-1970s as the first church in South Africa. It has recently suffered from the confusion wrought by the different teachings and practices of Brother Dong's work. Helcio Almeida, Brother Dong's leading co-worker in all of Africa, falsely claimed to be an elder of the church in Pretoria and used this pretext to address delicate personal matters involving some of the saints. Some of Brother Dong's workers verbally disparaged the church in Pretoria and the Living Stream Ministry to some of the saints in the church there. They attempted to recruit some from the church for Brother Dong's work and made many attempts to secretly promote his work.
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Letter of warning to all the churches and saints in South Africa, May 10, 2009:
Dong Yu Lan's workers first came to Johannesburg around the year 2000 and became more active throughout South Africa in 2005, when Helcio Almeida, a close co-worker of Brother Dong, began to work in South Africa. Since then, Helcio and others with him have contacted many saints and have drawn some of the saints out of the church in Johannesburg to build up their separate work. They promoted and distributed "Daily Food," a published series of Brother Dong's teachings.
They have held conferences and trainings in Johannesburg completely apart from the fellowship of the churches. They started meeting separately, calling their meetings "the church in Johannesburg" and establishing a separate "table" meeting. The attached pictures, which were posted on the Internet, show one of Dong Yu Lan's followers with a sign proclaiming their meetings as "the church in Johannesburg."...
They gathered together a small number of local people and began to meet separately from the church in Roodepoort, including having a separate "table" meeting. They did so without regard for the longstanding Lord's table of the church there...
Because the brothers in the churches in South Africa thought Dong Yu Lan's workers were one with the Lord's recovery, they freely gave these workers contact information for the saints in Zambia. Using this information Brother Dong's workers contacted many of the Zambian saints and drew about half of them away from the churches and into Brother Dong's work.
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Letter from Joe Davis to Salomon Ma and Joao Antonelli, October 19, 2006:
I was disappointed and saddened that you had traveled extensively in Europe and established churches in Rome, Milan, Lisbon, and other places without having any fellowship with us at all. I was also saddened that you had waited for such a long time to begin fellowship with us.
As you put it, you had decided to postpone fellowship to a later date due to activities carried out by some brothers in South America. I then asked you if you had ever had any difficulty fellowshipping with me, and you admitted that you had not. This being the case, it was difficult to understand why you would then decide not to fellowship with us based on your perception of others' actions in another continent.
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Letter from David Martinez, Hector Aponte, and Cristaldo Ceveriano, November 1, 2007:
Fernando Aguera distributed Dong Yu-lan's literature to the saints in the church in Madrid without prior fellowship from and without the knowledge of the leading brothers there.
On February 14, 2007, when Hector Aponte, David Martinez and Cristaldo Ceveriano confronted Fernando about his activities, Fernando claimed that Joe Davis had fellowshipped with Solomon Ma about the Brazilian work, was aware of what Fernando and other Brazilian workers were doing in Europe and approved of it.
Then Hector informed Fernando that he had a copy of an October 19, 2006 letter from Joe Davis to Solomon Ma and Joao Antonelli after their meeting in London, the meeting during which Fernando claimed Joe Davis approved their work. Hector summarized the letter for Fernando. In the letter, rather than approval, Joe Davis expressed surprise and concern upon learning of the independent work of the Brazilians in Europe. Reluctantly, Fernando admitted that he was already familiar with that letter.
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Email from Hector Aponte, Re: Update on Spain, April 29, 2008):
Since our last update last year, the Brazilian workers have stopped all contact with us and anyone who is unsympathetic to their cause. Therefore, short of confronting those brothers and sisters that are involved in the Brazilian work directly, it is very difficult for us to substantiate any of the things that people are saying. But then we also know they would rather that we knew nothing of their activities....
We do know however, that just last month he [Fernando Aguerra] personally tried to get some of the saints who meet with the church in Madrid to abandon our meetings in exchange for theirs. During this last discourse, Fernando again claimed that we, the brothers in Madrid, had "thrown" him out of the church; a false claim he consistently makes to acquire sympathy.
Letter from Sherman Robertson, Victor Molina, and Paul Hon, October 30, 2007:
Fernando and Rueben began their work without any fellowship with or acknowledgement of these saints and the existing church in Barcelona. They began a separate "Table" meeting on their own without consideration for the existing situation and, in effect, rejecting those saints thereby forming a sect.
On June 18, 2007, Sherman Robertson, Paul Hon and Victor Molina visited Barcelona and met for fellowship with Fernando and Rueben. Paul Hon warned Fernando and Rueben that their table may be "illegal" because of their exclusion of the existing Spanish saints and the nearby Chinese speaking saints. Paul further related to them the rejection of Dong Yu-lan's books by the church in Mexico City to illustrate that their publication work was not accepted by the churches in the Lord's recovery outside of Dong Yu-lan's work. Fernando claimed that Joe Davis had been included in the fellowship about their work, knew what they were doing, and approved of it.
Sherman, Paul and Victor went to Madrid on June 21st. There, Hector Aponte related to them the incidents involving Fernando and the letter from Joe Davis to Solomon Ma and Joao Antonelli that he summarized to Fernando. That letter said clearly that Joe Davis was both surprised and concerned to learn about the Brazilian work in Europe. Hector told them that Fernando admitted that he was familiar with the contents of this letter while still in Madrid. This was before he moved to Barcelona and long before he told the three brothers that Joe Davis knew about and approved of his work.
One week after the meeting with Sherman, Paul and Victor in Barcelona, Fernando and Rueben went to Valencia where the saints were meeting but not yet taking the Lord's Table. In Valencia, Fernando and Rueben represented to the local brothers that they had fellowship with those three brothers in Barcelona and were carrying out their work in coordination with them. This was a total misrepresentation of the meeting in Barcelona. While in Valencia, Fernando and Rueben distributed Dong Yu-lan's literature to the saints and caused confusion and trouble. The brothers from Valencia relayed this information to the brothers in Madrid and to the visiting brothers.
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Letter from Tito Gutierrez and Levi Salvador, the church in Boca Raton, Florida, October 30, 2007:
Concerning the activities of the Brazilian workers in the Boca Raton, Florida, area, we want you to know that Emerson Diaz has been active here over the last two years or so. Emerson moved from Brazil to Miami and then to Boca Raton. He is contacting as many Portuguese and Spanish speaking saints as he can in the area and gathering them under his independent work. They refer to themselves as the 'church in Boca Raton' but are not in fellowship with the church that has been established here since the late 1990s. In fact, they ignore the church in Boca Raton and act as if it were not here. When saints come to Boca Raton from Brazil or other parts of South America, Emerson's work often receives them as if it was the church....
Rumors have been spread by the Brazilian workers and those in Stuart against the church in Boca Raton to excuse their divisive work. It is falsely alleged that the Brazilians meet in Stuart because if they came to Boca Raton, the leading brothers here would turn them in to the immigration authorities. This unfounded rumor illustrates the things that are being said by Dong Yu Lan's workers concerning the saints and churches in Florida.
One positive brother from Brazil who meets with the church in Boca Raton, Levi Salvador, has also been the target of rumors. Some of the saints coming from Brazil, who are absorbed by the Brazilian work, are surprised when they learn that Levi meets with the church in Boca Raton and is pursuing the Lord Jesus. This is contrary to what they have been told. In some cases, they have been told that Levi only meets with the church in Boca Raton because the church pays his bills. This is untrue on two accounts. First, the church in Boca Raton does not pay Levi's bills. Second, Levi meets with the church in Boca Raton because the church receives all believers based upon God's receiving (Romans 14:1-3) not upon national origin, ethnicity (Colossians 3:10) or any preference for a worker or that worker's ministry (1 Corinthians 1:10-13).
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Letter from Ron Madore and Richard Annese, the church in Miami, November 1, 2007:
For a time, things went well. Solomon Ma visited Emerson frequently, perhaps three times a year, and also visited the church in Miami. The Brazilians made strong and repeated efforts to introduce Dong Yu Lan's literature to the church in Miami. The leading brothers in this area – Tito Gutierrez, Vince Laviano, Richard Annese, Freddie Perez and Ron Madore – met with Cesar Menegucci (a Brazilian worker active in this area) and Solomon Ma several times about this issue. We brothers took a firm stand not to compromise the ministry of the age. We told the Brazilians firmly and lovingly that we did not want the literature from Brazil in Miami. In spite of this, there were other attempts to distribute Dong's literature, including Alemiento Diario and some publications relating to the children's work to the church in Miami....
Emerson and Cesar have been instrumental in causing three couples who were meeting with the church in Orlando to leave Orlando and begin to meet in Stuart with the Brazilian work. A young brother and a sister have been recruited to leave the church in Miami. The sister suddenly left Miami without fellowship. The leading brothers eventually learned that she was asked by Brazilian workers to move to Boston to cook for the Brazilian work there. The brother was likewise recruited by the Brazilians without any fellowship with the brothers in Miami.
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