John Shrader 20: The Little Plane that Dared

[Ozlsn]

11 hours ago, NoneIsEnough said:

They are even succeeding, most recently just a few weeks ago a church dropped us after supporting us for around a decade. The pastor even told my dad, "I've never dropped a missionary that was still on the field." Well, as they say, "there's a first time for everything." We were the first.

Do you think cost of living crisis plus no discernible results apart from having yet more children contributed? I think John is overselling the influence of his former friends compared to the hip pocket nerves likely being triggered at home.

8 hours ago, Xan said:

As for Mears, he's about as nutty as John.  The problem I see is that both of them have huge egos. 

Oh... good. Should we start a pool on how long they stay in Zambia?

[Botkinetti]

This is what I think will happen.

1. The Mears arrive. Everything is happy and they all feel sure they will bring many souls to God.

2. Things roll along for awhile.

3. There is a disagreement over a bizarre tiny point of doctrine. Neither man gives way.

4. John takes to his bed in anguish.

5. If Mears proves to be more popular as a speaker and soul winner John rises from his bed to wrest control and denounce Mears.

6. Mears either returns home or tries to get financial backing and start his own church.

7. Popcorn sales go up as we read and follow along.

[Gobsmacked]

53 minutes ago, Botkinetti said:

This is what I think will happen.

1. The Mears arrive. Everything is happy and they all feel sure they will bring many souls to God.

2. Things roll along for awhile.

3. There is a disagreement over a bizarre tiny point of doctrine. Neither man gives way.

4. John takes to his bed in anguish.

5. If Mears proves to be more popular as a speaker and soul winner John rises from his bed to wrest control and denounce Mears.

6. Mears either returns home or tries to get financial backing and start his own church.

7. Popcorn sales go up as we read and follow along.

You have nailed it. Well put. I’m off to buy popcorn later. 

[Giraffe]

On 2/25/2023 at 4:46 AM, Gobsmacked said:

You have nailed it. Well put. I’m off to buy popcorn later. 

I’ll do the same. No matter how much is in the prayer closet it won’t be enough, lol. 

[Xan]

New post up by John.  He's coming up on 9 years of being in Zambia but he still just appears to be brow-beating two or three at a time to win their souls.  He also talks about how he hopes he and Esther can talk to a couple tomorrow and get them "over their self righteousness".  This is a man who doesn't understand irony.  The only really interesting part of this was the sign off.  Now it says that they are solely supported by his dad's church. Has it always said that?  I wonder how long that congregation will be willing to pony up the money to keep Johnny in Africa?

Spoiler

 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Xan said:

  John’s father will knock himself out to assure John gets the financial support he requires so he never in his dad’s lifetime returns to the US.  He knows what a screw up his son is and he doesn’t want to be within a thousand miles of John again when things go south as they so frequently do. 
  It will be interesting to see what happens when his father is no more. 
( I messed up here.  I wrote this in response to Xan.)

 

Edited February 28, 2023 by Bastet

[formergothardite]

John’s life is going to implode big time once his father can no longer work overtime to keep him in Zambia. Johm’s brothers don’t seem like the type who will support his little missionary fantasy. I imagine John will show up at his dad’s church expecting to be made lead pastor and that everyone will give him whatever he wants whenever he wants it. Reality is going to hit John extremely hard. 

[Gobsmacked]

I do wonder about the future for his kids.moving back to the US will be a shock for them. The younger boys have only know Zambia.  Esther will be pregnant again by the end of this year poor soul. 

[Gobsmacked]

Johns natural pomposity really shines through in the above post. He talks about other peoples self righteousness with no clue about his own. No wonder he new ‘converts’ don’t stay around for long.  John’s Dad isn’t going to be around forever.  John is in for a huge shock unless he can find some more churches willing to sponsor him. That hasn’t happened yet/ he has lost churches.  Maybe Poop will hit the fan on his 10 year anniversary.  One year to find more  folks willing to hand him their hard earned money for him to continue doing nothing.  Should be fun to watch once the new folk arrive. Either they are as daft as John or will soon  be reeling in horror at his antics in real life and get out of his madness  asap. They may be as daft as John and decide on a take over of his wee corner of Kafue. 
 

[Xan]

I've just spent some time reading about Wade Mears and his wife, Vicky, on their Facebook page.  The good news is that he seems to be a worker bee.  As best I can figure, Rick (John's dad), agreed to send the Mears to Zambia in exchange for actual labor in fixing up things in some of his church structures.  Before that, the Mears traveled around and presented their Zambia table to different churches to drum up support.  They also visited family members (who they appear to be willing to leave in order to fulfill John's vision of a Bible believing Zambia).  Every trip they drove took longer than it should because they stopped at every rest stop and left tracts in the bathrooms.

Spoiler

There are a lot of long posts about loading up the shipping container for Zambia and about all the work done at Bro Rick's church.  I'd like to think Rick is smart to at least get work out of someone before he hands over church money but mostly I'm disgusted that he had this older couple doing so much hard work.  Mrs. Mears falls down some stairs and, although injured, doesn't break anything.  Even Rick broke his wrist while helping load boxes into the shipping container.  The only one to get out unscathed was Wade.  I do think he's more physically fit since he was a Marine for years.

Mears is having his motorcycle shipped over and has run into a snag with that.  He, of course, is asking for prayers.  They're supposed to fly to Zambia in early June and, by that time, the shipped boxes ought to be there.  

I think Rick believes that he's finally found some real help for John and that maybe this will spur John on to get more results.  All I can say to that is:  Rick doesn't know his son that well.  I can see Wade doing a lot of physical labor for John but, at some point, Wade is going to want to preach and John is going to make him submit sermons beforehand to be sure they're doctrinally correct.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Xan

[Gobsmacked]

Wade Mears thinks that Satan has pinched his Motorcycle papers. Is it possible that he is receiving frantic signs from all the angels that he should not go and work with John boy the great??  He does sound as nutty as John though.  Right dear interwebz sisters me thinks that Popcorn Season is most definitely beginning!!😇.

Reserve your space on the roof of the prayer closet ( for a better view) pull up a chair and cozy down. 

[NoneIsEnough]

@Xan I had both Wade & Vicky's individual pages bookmarked, I didn't realize they had one together to document their Africa adventures. Thanks for pointing that out. I'm going to have to catch up on that over the weekend. 

 

 

[Tangy Bee]

Somebody please help me calculate the amount of money they will need to fly back to the U.S. This includes passports that I'm sure his younger kids don't have. I'm picturing them piling up at the Keller's trailer until they afford a place to live🤔

[NoneIsEnough]

3 hours ago, Tangy Bee said:

Somebody please help me calculate the amount of money they will need to fly back to the U.S. This includes passports that I'm sure his younger kids don't have. I'm picturing them piling up at the Keller's trailer until they afford a place to live🤔

I searched on Expedia for Lusaka to Houston and picked random Friday about 6 weeks in the future. It did give listing for other days of the week and the prices varied between 900-1200. There are 14 of them that are over age 2 (assuming the infant is free on a lap), so just taking a $1000 average, that's 14,000 at a very minimum, and I'm being generous. More likely the cost would be much closer to $20,000 for all of them for tickets and fees and luggage, etc. Unless they could get some kind of group discount through a travel agent. 

Edited March 2, 2023 by NoneIsEnough

[Gobsmacked]

4 hours ago, NoneIsEnough said:

I searched on Expedia for Lusaka to Houston and picked random Friday about 6 weeks in the future. It did give listing for other days of the week and the prices varied between 900-1200. There are 14 of them that are over age 2 (assuming the infant is free on a lap), so just taking a $1000 average, that's 14,000 at a very minimum, and I'm being generous. More likely the cost would be much closer to $20,000 for all of them for tickets and fees and luggage, etc. Unless they could get some kind of group discount through a travel agent. 

Would Daddy’s church stump up one last time to bring them home? It would be the cheapest option in the end? I just cannot imagine the Katy congregation being willing to send funds forever. Daddy will not last forever, the original sending congregation will not be there forever. Would a new Pastor and younger congregation be willing to keep shilling for John? I suspect not. 

[Xan]

I have my doubts that any church without Rick holding the purse strings would pay to have John come back to the USA.  There is no upside.  No one would want to hire him here and it's admitting that thousands of dollars have been spent on a fruitless endeavor.  I think, after Rick, they'll just cut John loose.

If I were one of Rick's congregation, I would be asking why John hasn't gotten enough support from his own church in Zambia to provide his family's support.  I don't imagine it was ever set up to be open-ended with John never needing to worry about incoming funds.  At this point, some of the little Shraders are really Zambians and the older ones have been there long enough that they seem comfortable.  And we all know that the Kellers won't be out there raising money to get Esther and the kids back.  Nope.  I think there's a good chance they'll just be stuck in Zambia.

[Gobsmacked]

14 minutes ago, Xan said:

I have my doubts that any church without Rick holding the purse strings would pay to have John come back to the USA.  There is no upside.  No one would want to hire him here and it's admitting that thousands of dollars have been spent on a fruitless endeavor.  I think, after Rick, they'll just cut John loose.

If I were one of Rick's congregation, I would be asking why John hasn't gotten enough support from his own church in Zambia to provide his family's support.  I don't imagine it was ever set up to be open-ended with John never needing to worry about incoming funds.  At this point, some of the little Shraders are really Zambians and the older ones have been there long enough that they seem comfortable.  And we all know that the Kellers won't be out there raising money to get Esther and the kids back.  Nope.  I think there's a good chance they'll just be stuck in Zambia.

Poor poor Zambia. In this scenario all we can do is hope that the Mears family can   keep John out of his bed  and do some good for the wee corner of Kafue they have chosen to grace with their white missionary presence. 

[Xan]

The infuriating thing about John is the way he's set up his ministry to make everything as complicated as he possibly can.  I suppose it makes him believe that he's the only one with the super-secret keys to Heaven.  When I was growing up in my church, all you had to do was say something along the lines of, "I take Jesus into my heart.  I commit to living a Christian life.  I ask Jesus to cleanse me of my sins."  It's a bit like wanting to go into a room and all you have to do is know how to open the door.

In John's Christianity, the poor convert goes to the door, opens it, and finds a maze.  Is your heart "broken" of sin?  Are you too self-righteous?  Are you praying for genuine Godly sorrow?  Are you a converted man who has a burden to convert others?  Can you show the "fruits of repentance" so that we can see you are truly Biblically converted?  Are you seeking a rapid, empty profession of faith or are you willing to spend years searching for a true relationship with God?  Are you willing to study God's words in the KJV of the Bible so that you'll know all of the principles and precepts?

Even typing all that made me want to flee from whatever deity John worships.

[Giraffe]

On 2/28/2023 at 7:44 PM, Gobsmacked said:

I do wonder about the future for his kids.moving back to the US will be a shock for them. The younger boys have only know Zambia.  Esther will be pregnant again by the end of this year poor soul. 

Fortunately age is catching up with her and there’s a larger gap between the second youngest and youngest. I doubt she’ll be pregnant again before late 2024. Fingers crossed!

[Howl]

It's horrible that John holds up his lack of converts, losing converts, or people leaving and calling him out  as a fraud (as in the early days) as proof of his theological rigor.

Have the Mears visited John and Esther and know what they are getting themselves into?  Loading a shipping container and shipping a motorcycle is total commitment.  I hope they haven't done crazy stuff, like selling their home/property. 

Also, the Mears are self supporting -- if he's a retired Marine he has retirement income at a minimum, and they may also receive Social Security and may have substantial savings.   

Maybe the Mears will acculturate, learn the local language and start their own church. 

[FiveAcres]

5 minutes ago, Howl said:

It's horrible that John holds up his lack of converts, losing converts, or people leaving and calling him out  as a fraud (as in the early days) as proof of his theological rigor.

Have the Mears visited John and Esther and know what they are getting themselves into?  Loading a shipping container and shipping a motorcycle is total commitment.  I hope they haven't done crazy stuff, like selling their home/property. 

Also, the Mears are self supporting -- if he's a retired Marine he has retirement income at a minimum, and they may also receive Social Security and may have substantial savings.   

Maybe the Mears will acculturate, learn the local language and start their own church. 

A schism!

[Hane]

How old is Rick Shrader? If he retires, John will most likely be SOL.

[NoneIsEnough]

John is 45, will turn 46 in June. 

Esther is 41, will turn 42 in May. Her last 5 kids were born in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 so she's on the same every other year schedule as Priscilla & Anna*. That would mean another kid in 2024 but by that time she'll be 43. Hopefully no more for her, but it's not out of the question. 

The Mears did visit John in June of 2022, I think they spent a few weeks to a month there. 

*obviously Anna is off her schedule now. Oh well!

**oops, I just realized you asked how old Rick was, not John. Sorry, I don't know that. But I'm sure at least in his late 60's - early 70's

Edited March 2, 2023 by NoneIsEnough

[postscript]

John just posted a prayer request from the Mears, they are shipping Wade’s motorcycle to Zambia and needed to send title documents to the shipping company for customs purposes. The post office apparently can’t locate the package containing the title documents, which the Mearses are attributing to Satan wanting to keep them out of Zambia. 

First of all, why ship a motorcycle to Zambia? Why not sell it and buy one there that’s more compatible with local roads and driving regulations? Second, if you’re going to send something as valuable as a vehicle title, use FedEx or UPS, not the US Postal Service. They are faster, more reliable, and have better tracking. At least pay extra for next day delivery which will insure more careful handling. Third, Satan is attacking you? Satan really cares that much about one tiny. Independent mission to an alt ready Heavily Christian country? 

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, Hane said:

How old is Rick Shrader? If he retires, John will most likely be SOL.

What is SOL? If this has anything to do with John becoming pastor, I think Rick might get some resistance from his congregation. They probably remember John all too well. (There are good reasons why Esther cried for days when her father betrothed her to John. He was already infamous.)