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I am an old christian with a young heart. I got saved when I was 6 years old. I am now 39 years old, recovering from a very long battle with an entire country, just about. I am a Bahamian & on my island there are no strangers. Every time you walk down a narrow street, the occupants have 10 times more gossip on you than the last time. You see people stopping & waving hello every where you turn. I loved to see the tourist react to this, "Boy, everyone knows everyone around here!"
I said that to give you an idea of how bad it could get when the town turns against you. Everywhere you walk, the talk is not good. I experienced this. I talked to few people who said they had to go to one of the less populated family islands (as we call them) to live with relatives until things cooled down. My whole family turned against me. I tried going to Andros where I knew of no family. I did not last two weeks before friends from Nassau got involved & the people actually , bought me a ticket on a small 3 seater plane back to New Providence. The pastors main armor bearer came with her muscular husband & her even more muscular daughter & got me packed & out to the small airport. A few police officers from the island showed up to watch & make sure everything went alright. It was one of the most unbelievable experiences I had.
I recall Paul writing, to the Corinthians in chapter 11 verses 32 to the end. 'God is my witness, I'm not lying; they actually had the whole city surrounded to arrest me! For what??!! He spoke. He said the wrong things. How many times have I said, God please do not let me go crazy because this is crazy. All I said was you can not live in fornication, adultery. steal off the job, be involved in selling drugs & go to heaven. I almost starved.
To put it as short & simple as possible. In this small & very connected island, people depend on pastors & who know many people & have influence to get jobs, loans, out of jail etc.. It is not what you know but who you know & pastors know everyone. I went to one of the larges most influential charismatic churches for over 15 years. They turned against me , the pastors called other pastors & they talked to everyone they knew. I could not get a job, but nearly got arrested a couple times. The police picked me up on false charges once to try to have me committed to an insane asylum. I went through too many things to mention, it would take a few weeks to write it all.
I've been writing this on every new site I join to introduce myself & I'm waiting for the day when this is so far behind me it no longer defines who I am. I just got to Florida from Nassau on Christmas day.
I said that to give you an idea of how bad it could get when the town turns against you. Everywhere you walk, the talk is not good. I experienced this. I talked to few people who said they had to go to one of the less populated family islands (as we call them) to live with relatives until things cooled down. My whole family turned against me. I tried going to Andros where I knew of no family. I did not last two weeks before friends from Nassau got involved & the people actually , bought me a ticket on a small 3 seater plane back to New Providence. The pastors main armor bearer came with her muscular husband & her even more muscular daughter & got me packed & out to the small airport. A few police officers from the island showed up to watch & make sure everything went alright. It was one of the most unbelievable experiences I had.
I recall Paul writing, to the Corinthians in chapter 11 verses 32 to the end. 'God is my witness, I'm not lying; they actually had the whole city surrounded to arrest me! For what??!! He spoke. He said the wrong things. How many times have I said, God please do not let me go crazy because this is crazy. All I said was you can not live in fornication, adultery. steal off the job, be involved in selling drugs & go to heaven. I almost starved.
To put it as short & simple as possible. In this small & very connected island, people depend on pastors & who know many people & have influence to get jobs, loans, out of jail etc.. It is not what you know but who you know & pastors know everyone. I went to one of the larges most influential charismatic churches for over 15 years. They turned against me , the pastors called other pastors & they talked to everyone they knew. I could not get a job, but nearly got arrested a couple times. The police picked me up on false charges once to try to have me committed to an insane asylum. I went through too many things to mention, it would take a few weeks to write it all.
I've been writing this on every new site I join to introduce myself & I'm waiting for the day when this is so far behind me it no longer defines who I am. I just got to Florida from Nassau on Christmas day.