John Shrader Part 12: Empty Baptismal, Empty Brains

[SoybeanQueen]

Normally I refrain from commenting on people's looks, but if I had an outfit like that and did my hair in that style, I would fully expect my friends to call it my polygamist outfit.

As for looking older, I only have 5 kids and I think some days I look much older than 39. It happens!

[clearingthingsup]

On 6/6/2017 at 7:52 PM, PopRox said:

Is it me or does Isaiah look a little skinny for a one year old?

He probably is. Their other babies have been too. I swear Esther only feeds the bare minimum to keep them alive & she doesn't produce enough breast milk because she barely has a chance to sit down to ever breastfeed & refuses to put them on store bought formula. They use some crazy homemade goat's milk recipe to supplement. 

[Jellybean]

I think part of it is that Isaiah just looks very pale and a bit peaky in some of those pics. He is thin, but looks unwell on top of that. My personal theory is that the colour of the hat, or the way the camera picks up the light, makes him look extremely pale - I think he looks healthier and a bit more robust in the pics without the hat. Is that just me?

[Aine]

22 hours ago, Howl said:

Before retirement, I worked in an academic department at a large state university, providing administrative support (and sometimes a shoulder to cry on) for 100 grad students, 50 of whom were pursuing a doctorate.  It never failed to amaze me when I saw a student who had graduated a few years previous and gotten his/her academic job.  They all looked 10 years younger and so relaxed, although working one's way to tenure is no picnic.  And yes, they were sleep deprived in grad school, almost without exception.  I was especially amazed at the few women who managed to do it with one or more kids

Oh yeah...it's...something, that's for sure. I've also had multiple significant personal/family nightmares happen in my two years. My advisor looks at me every now and then and goes, "I don't know how you're still standing/alive/still in the program." It does depend on the doctoral program but mine involves equal amounts of research, clinical work, classwork, and teaching and most days I feel like I'm losing my mind! Summer is nice though because while I still need to wake up for clinical stuff at 4.30am 3 days a week, if I work my ass off at my research during the day- I can finish work by 6pm! It's like the greatest vacation when I don't need to teach or take my own classes  I try not to get too negative about it ever- I love what I do and I'm so fortunate to have the opportunity...but I am eternally grateful to the staff and faculty in my department who do provide a shoulder for me to break down and cry on occasionally. I'm sure the grad students were thankful for you!

[Carol]

Esther looks drawn in on herself, as if she's trying to hold back as much energy as she can to function.

This is how Christian Fundamentalism affects women.  They are the bearers of the children, the sex mate of their husband and the homekeepers of the family.  Their own desires, emotions, needs, etc. are sublimated while they act out their biblical role without complaint.

Jesu Christi!!  It's fucking disgusting.

[Freejin]

John has a new post up asking his Facebook followers which homeschool curriculum they use. Fast forward to two months from now when he posts about how God *miraculously* provided a full set of homeschool materials from a family who *felt led to donate them to his ministry*.  

[Howl]

Awwww, gentle hug to you, @Aine.  Glad that summer is a bit of a respite. 

[BlackberryGirl]

He does look peaky.. The first thing I noticed was how frail his little wrists are.  

When BlackBerryKid3 was a baby, he looked like that. Turns out he had a significant heart defect that took a while to show up.  After 2 months on meds I thought he was developing edema in his wrists and ankles, and took him to the pediatrician who took one look and said, "mom, that's baby fat!"

i hope he's ok.

[slickcat79]

John has grifted himself ANOTHER printer. What the actual fuck is wrong with people. Can you imagine the uses a printer like that could have for real education??

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The Lord graciously used one of our supporting churches to provide a copy-printer as we reached the field, but the vernacular tracts are twice as long, and entail making four separate Masters. It's very time consuming.

I've been talking to the Lord about it on and off for a couple years.

Well, God had another copy-printer, a Gestetner, exactly identical to ours, up in the Copperbelt. Another Missionary had it but was not using it. He had put less than 70,000 copies on it!

Long story short, God laid it on his heart to just GIVE it to us!! These printers sell for thousands of dollars! Unlike a copy machine, they make a physical Master sheet for each page, than can last more than 10,000 copies!

Having TWO copy-printers means I can be printing two sides at once on the two machines, cutting my time by more than HALF!

It has also (finally) occurred to him that he might benefit from producing materials in other languages besides English. Now they are only lacking FAITHFUL men!

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God has allowed us to undertake translation works with men in our ministry of our Gospel tract "Are You Ready To Be Judged By God" from English into Nyanja, Tonga, Lozi, and Kirundi. A Bemba translation is underway as well as a Portuguese translation. Plans are being made for Luvali and Shona to be done soon as well.

This will allow us to reach seven of the tribes here in Zambia, as well as reaching out into Zimbabwe, Angola, and Mozambique! (Also Burundi. We are trusting the Lord to raise up men with hearts to follow God's Word and plan for reaching Burundi one day. We may not have faithful men with Biblical hearts for Truth right now that can help us reach into Burundi, but that has not deminished our heart for this needy country!)

 

[Lurky]

Ugh, John - he can't even do a "the Lord has provided!  Now we can do more work!" post without throwing shade on his ex-disciples.  And just like Jeremy in the JinJer thread, thinks he has plausible deniability because he hasn't named them.... 

I'm cackling, imagining if Jesus' teachings had been as full of passive aggressive bullshit as our Fundies', what his sermons and parables would have looked like!

[sawasdee]

8 hours ago, slickcat79 said:

deminished

Spelling, John, spelling! If you are producing tracts, I hope someone else is copy editing....

[Howl]

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 translation works with men in our ministry of our Gospel tract "Are You Ready To Be Judged By God" from English into Nyanja, Tonga, Lozi, and Kirundi. A Bemba translation is underway as well as a Portuguese translation. Plans are being made for Luvali and Shona to be done soon as well.

Lawzamercy, JUDGEMENT!  Those poor people who will now know that their loved ones who have passed on are suffering endless torment in hell because they weren't the right kind of Christians.  Or maybe there will be more people who will come to know that John is full of shit.  One sincerely hopes it's the latter. 

And while I'm here, a few more things: 

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Well, God had another copy-printer, a Gestetner, exactly identical to ours, up in the Copperbelt. Another Missionary had it but was not using it. He had put less than 70,000 copies on it!

One would think that John would realize this missionary wasn't using it because printing tracts it's a terribly ineffective way to reach people. 

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It's very time consuming. I've been talking to the Lord about it on and off for a couple years.

I would imagine that talk went something like this: "Jesus H. Christ, you KNOW how much I hate to work!  Another big printer ! STAT!" 

[formergothardite]

So God gave John a printer but it required too much effort to actually use it, so John whined until God gave him another printer that requires less work from him? John is sounding like a spoiled child and I would be pissed if I was the supporting church that provided that printer  wasn't good enough for John. 

 

[sawasdee]

38 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

So God gave John a printer but it required too much effort to actually use it, so John whined until God gave John another printer that requires less work from him? John is sounding like a spoiled child and I would be pissed if I was the supporting church that provided that printer John wasn't good enough for John. 

I'd be pissed if I was God!

[CTRLZero]

So...John's current print ministry has "been seeing some wonderful responses lately," yet they "lack faithful men."  Something's not sticking, John, since we've been reading about all the turmoil created in Kafue for years now.

John mentions one of his "all time modern Missionary heroes, Bro. Milton Martin," and I decided to give myself a little history lesson.  Here's an article from Chick Tracts:

You call it scripture saturation, I call it litter
 

Spoiler

 

Missionary Reports 14,000 Responses a Year to Tract Blitz

Issue Date: May/June 1999

"The printed page is now the key to accomplishing Mark 16:15 (the great commission) in many countries of the world," writes veteran Missionary Milton Martin. Martin acknowledges that there are many methods of evangelism and that each field must be approached with prayer for God's specific plan.

When Martin arrived in Mexico in 1961, he prayed for God to show him what tool would be most effective. "God showed me the printed page as the key to fulfilling that verse in Mexico," recalls Martin.

Now, decades later, he remembers how it worked. Coupons and post cards were inserted into gospel tracts, which were distributed in every way they could think of. Entire towns were covered door-to-door.

"Anywhere great crowds gathered — parades, fairs, market-days, special events — were taken advantage of to the utmost. For example, when the pope came to Mexico in 1980, 550 thousand tracts were distributed," Martin says.

Tracts were thrown from cars and dropped out of airplanes over isolated towns, villages and ranches. What were the results? "For many years, one written response was received in the mail for every 120 tracts distributed. The response grew to 14,000 returned coupons or cards a year," he says.

Meanwhile, Martin's success inspired use of the strategy in other countries. He has statistics showing that: in Central America, one response came back for every 70 tracts; in Indonesia, one per 30; in 1993, in Chile, one in 26.

Martin remembers how they had to scramble to respond to the cards and coupons. A Gospel of John and a 12-lesson correspondence course was sent in reply. When the lessons were returned, they were graded and returned with a New Testament and a lesson course on the Gospel of Mark.

Many reported committing their lives to Christ during the lessons. "In fact, at one time in Mexico, there was an average of 10 a day writing saying they had trusted Christ as a result of the tracts and the courses," Martin recalls.

This method of applying the great commission entirely changed their approach to missionary work. Requests began to flood in inviting Martin to come and start a mission or church. When the people invite the missionary to come, from the very start the new congregation feels it is their mission and more quickly take responsibility for it.

This is much more efficient than the traditional way of a missionary settling in a single place and spending years building a congregation of believers that primarily looked to the missionary for everything. Martin says that this method more accurately reflects the New Testament pattern of missions work.

"The future of the expansion of Gospel work in a country depends on national laborers," Martin has found. Heavy saturation with gospel tracts find the ones who are interested, the correspondence courses train local leaders who can then carry on the ministry.

Martin reports that, "In some countries, 80 percent of those presently coming to Christ is through the printed page. The work of a missionary is threefold: 'every creature' evangelism, training national leaders, and establishing something that will remain until Christ returns, a New Testament church.

"Mass distribution of gospel literature, with a plan of follow-up, can be used by the missionary to do most of his work correctly," Martin concludes.

Martin is now involved in supplying several tons of literature at a time to missionaries throughout Latin America.

 

[Bolding is mine.]  Sounds like old-timey spam to me. Martin apparently had a greater success rate than John.  I wonder why that is?  Probably something to do with the printing equipment...

[FeministShrew]

John printing useless tracts that no one will ever read while calling himself a missionary is the equivalent of someone sitting at home sharing memes on Facebook and thinking that makes them a social activist.

[sawasdee]

25 minutes ago, CTRLZero said:

"Anywhere great crowds gathered — parades, fairs, market-days, special events — were taken advantage of to the utmost. For example, when the pope came to Mexico in 1980, 550 thousand tracts were distributed," Martin says

So he used THE POPE'S visit to proselytise for evangelists or baptists?

[slickcat79]

2 hours ago, CTRLZero said:

Sounds like old-timey spam to me. Martin apparently had a greater success rate than John.  I wonder why that is?  Probably something to do with the printing equipment...

As per usual, John's stuck in the twentieth century. I'm sure it helps with his impression of the Great White Hope to use some 1960s missionary tactics to drum up followers. 

[anjulibai]

4 hours ago, CTRLZero said:

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This is much more efficient than the traditional way of a missionary settling in a single place and spending years building a congregation of believers that primarily looked to the missionary for everything. Martin says that this method more accurately reflects the New Testament pattern of missions work.

 

What? In the New Testament, the apostles went from place to place preaching and setting up churches. Like, that's the only way they could do it, no one read. This makes no sense, but that really isn't that surprising. 

[formergothardite]

John posted a video of Rodrick's son stuck in a box that is a lot like the video Jill Rod. made. In both videos the children in the boxes don't look too thrilled. 

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we're serious about preaching at our church. The Sunday morning message is usually around two hours, following a full hour long Teaching time).

 

John mentioned that these long sermons are followed by a meal. I hope the food is worth sitting through three hours of what has to be pure hell. 

[apandaaries]

19 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

John posted a video of Rodrick's son stuck in a box that is a lot like the video Jill Rod. made. In both videos the children in the boxes don't look too thrilled. 

That video made me immediately think of Jill Rod.  Why are fundies always putting children in boxes? That's NOT how you treat a blessing! 

[Grimalkin]

     John gives long meaningless sermons that go nowhere, and are about nothing. It's all about quantity folks not quality. 

   I laughed at John's post about the second printer. God laid it on His own heart to give it to John. It's quite a riddle when you think about it. It's like trying to imagine space never ending, or pondering the question if God could create a rock so big that God could not lift it. John continues to baffle and amaze.

[Gobsmacked]

John likes to tell God how to do things.

[Pammy]

17 hours ago, Lurky said:

I'm cackling, imagining if Jesus' teachings had been as full of passive aggressive bullshit as our Fundies', what his sermons and parables would have looked like!

Especially considering how passive aggressive and massively sarcastic a bunch of his parables already are. The man knew how to use irony like a scalpel!

[SPHASH]

15 hours ago, sawasdee said:

Spelling, John, spelling! If you are producing tracts, I hope someone else is copy editing....

That's what happens when you attend SOTDRT.