Notes 122-124 - Fostering Division
122Setting Up Separate Meetings
Statement re: Chicago's Experience, William Barker, John Kan and James Reetzke, October 29, 2007:
With Anibal's involvement with the Spanish speaking work in the Metro Area he created further difficulty by using Bill Barker's name to further his view on how to raise up more churches after the model of South America, and this was done without the clear and appropriate fellowship with the elders/leading ones in neighboring churches involved. This required remedial fellowship and caused issues to be raised. The location in this instance was Elgin, Illinois and involved trying to set up a Lord's Table comprised mainly of saints from the nearby church in Streamwood.
Anibal, withdrew from helping that church and focused his attention in a new town where he alone had raised up a few saints that he could in a manner "lord over" and model after the South American work.
Interview with brothers from the Washington, DC, area (Bob Little, Jeson Lee, Paulmon Kwang, Ozzie Rivers, and Francisco Fernandes), October 4, 2007:
Cesar Menegucci and his wife would come to Beltsville and have their own meetings separate from the other saints. These meetings had a particular flavor that they were with it and others were not. They were promoting conferences of Dong Yu Lan and his workers. When they came to Beltsville, they would stay in the homes of these two sisters promoting the Brazilian work.
They were doing their own work with the home meetings of the church. It was reported that one of them said, "Now we can have our own church."
Letter from Ron Madore and Richard Annese, the church in Miami, Florida, November 1, 2007:
There is also an independent work among the Brazilians in Deerfield Beach, Port St. Lucie and Stuart, all communities north of Miami and near Boca Raton. Both Cesar and Emerson are involved. In Stuart, the Brazilians refer to themselves as the 'church in Stuart' although they do not fellowship with any of the other Florida churches.
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Letter of warning to the saints in the churches in the Lord's recovery in Canada, March, 17, 2009:
- In Cambridge, a city neighbouring Kitchener, Dong Yu Lan's workers surreptitiously drew saints away from the church in Kitchener, where they had been meeting, and established a separate meeting. Fellowship between these saints and the church in Kitchener was cut off.
- In Guelph, another city near Kitchener, workers from London set up a separate meeting despite
efforts to blend the saints in their meeting with saints already meeting in Guelph and being cared for by the church in
Kitchener.
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Letter of warning to the saints in the churches throughout Spain, February 8, 2009:
Brother Dong's workers have also set up meetings apart from the fellowship of the churches already established in Spain...
While he was in Barcelona, Fernando continued Brother Dong's work in Madrid without fellowship with or the knowledge of the brothers in the church in Madrid. He is reported to have established a second, rival "table" meeting in Madrid, although he himself has denied it. What is indisputable is that he has pressured saints to leave the churches in Spain and to attend his separate meetings. To gain sympathy, he has told saints that he was "thrown out" of the church in Madrid, a charge that is false.
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123Misusing the Ground of Locality to Set Up Separate Meetings in a Nearby Town
Letter from Tito Gutierrez and Levi Salvador, the church in Boca Raton, Florida, October 30, 2007:
There is also a Brazilian work using Dong Yu Lan's publications in the Stuart/Port St. Lucie area under the leadership of Cesar and Emerson. They have recruited some who used to meet with the churches in Boca Raton, Miami and Orlando for this work, in each case without fellowship with the respective leading brothers of the churches.
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Letter from Ron Madore and Richard Annese, the church in Miami, Florida, November 1, 2007:
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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Interview with Daniel Ferriera, December 25, 2008
The meetings with Ezra [in Framingham, Massachusetts] started at 4:00 PM. There were lots of new ones there. Bob Prosser and I go there often but they were not told of Ezra's visit and did not know about it until David Franco told them about it. The meetings in Framingham normally start about 7:30 P.M. so we missed much of Ezra's sharing. Nobody involved said anything to me but they had changed the meeting place from a home to a hotel room and the start time to 4:00. Finally a brother called about the new location. When they arrived at the hotel, I saw a sign that said the meetings had started at 4:00... I do not know who but someone coordinated the meetings [ in Framingham during Ezra's recent visit] and made all the arrangements ahead of time... There were close to 70 saints there, some English speaking as well as Spanish and Portuguese. There was a lot of effort required to gather that many saints, change the time, and change the location all the while not informing either Bob Prosser or myself about any of it.
124Sowing Divisions Through Cultural Mistrust
Letter from Tito Gutierrez and Levi Salvador, the church in Boca Raton, Florida, October 30, 2007:
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.
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Ezra Ma also made this false claim in an e-mail to Paul Hon in response to the letter from the co-workers in Mexico to Brother Dong and his co-workers asking them not to carry out an independent work in Mexico. He said that Emerson Dias and the other Brazilians in south Florida had been "kicked out" of the church:
Last Thanksgiving conference brother Emerson, from Boca Raton, joined us in the fellowship we had with the co-workers in Boston. By that time he explained the situation of the Brazilian brothers in Florida, how they have been "kicked out" of the church, not being welcome...
Emerson's claim is not true. Neither Emerson nor any of the Brazilian saints have been "kicked out" of any of the churches in Florida. Many attempts were made, both in Miami and in Boca Raton, to include Emerson and those with him in the fellowship of the churches but they refused, preferring their own work. Ezra's characterization of the situation is false and plays upon the Brazilian ethnicity to excuse their work. (See also note 123).
