John Shrader 21: Nine Years in Zambia and Still Failing

[Xan]

John continues to be persecuted by the devil.  Apparently, some of the people he convinced to come to church don't come anymore so he copied something that he thought was relevant.

Spoiler

He also has a new newsletter.  I enlarged the pic of the family as much as possible.  Hopefully, he'll put that on his page before long.  I hadn't realized that he made Esther go to Zambia when she was six months pregnant.  What an ass.

Spoiler

And, finally, this one.  I notice that he's now thanking people for their "time, treasure, and ... prayer".  I figure what he really wants is that treasure part because he used to particularly say that he wasn't asking for money.  Things must be getting tight in Zambia.  And no, John.  You're not sacrificing yourself and going in our place to Zambia.  We think you should keep your miserable self here in the United States and quit bothering those nice people.

Spoiler

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by Xan

[Gobsmacked]

John back in serious plonker mode before taking to his bed……

[postscript]

It's about time they took a new family photo, since the one on their social media is outdated by a couple of babies (unlike Jill Rod, who does new family photoshoots on an average of every couple of months). Boy, the older kids are really grown up!  And daughter #2 bears a strong resemblance to her cousin, Mackynzie Duggar.

I wish he would allocate a sentence or two in his rambling screeds to the family. What do the older kids plan to do, now that they're through with school? Do any of them have thoughts of higher education or trade school? Do any of them want to come back to the US, either temporarily or permanently? What about spouses? They can't all want to stay together forever, and Daddy Rick's church can't support a bunch of healthy grown-ups indefinitely. 

[Xan]

Reading over John's newsletter, I've picked out one of the things that bothers me so much about him.  He says that Peter now believes that God is real so John is praying for his salvation.  He also says that Sharon has shared her testimony and that they are "praying to see her come to the Savior soon".  What the heck takes so long?  Exactly what hoops does John make them jump through before he declares them "saved"?  Over here, even in FundieLand, most pastors are happy if you just confess your sins and ask to be saved or born again or whatever.  Super-missionary John makes his flock listen to him preach 2 and 3 hour sermons and meet with him over and over again until they parrot back exactly what he wants to hear.  Does he think any of his congregation is saved?  Has he appointed himself Gatekeeper to Heaven?  

Never mind that last one.  The answer is yes.  John thinks he's the Gatekeeper.

A minor issue I have with him is his overuse of alliteration.  "Time, treasure, truly" & "astound, amaze, absolutely".  John thinks he's gifted with words.  He isn't.

[NoneIsEnough]

Thanks for posting.

His prayer letter is lacking in any real substance. He spends half of it talking about the Mears, and then mentions a few people he's praying for. 

As mentioned above, I want to know what's going on with the kids and the family and what they all are doing. The kids are getting so grown up. 

[Howl]

This sign off: "Bro. John Shrader for Esther and the kids"  seems a little odd. 

And yes, "We have been dealing with some serious warfare lately" means yet again John has seriously alienated someone. 

It also seems odd to have Zambians attending a church led by a white guy and his monster family, who never seem to have really integrated with Zambians or the Zambian culture. 

Change of topic.  Do John and Esther do physical discipline with their kids? Zambia, along with so many other countries,  outlawed/beating/caning  children recently. 

Mixed Reactions As Zimbabwe Outlaws Spanking of Children  

"Christian and traditional leaders have slammed the recent High Court decision outlawing the beating of children at school and in homes, saying it had an effect of spoiling the children and promoting indiscipline in the country."

I couldn't find anything else online for Zambia, but South Africa banned the corporal punishment of children in 2017 and apparently it caused quite the furor among traditional and Christian groups. This is an excellent article.  

Churches are outraged by the decision to ban smacking your child in SA

Snips: 

There’s been a flurry of negative responses to the court ruling by some vocal faith groups. They promote a conservative and contested understanding of religious freedom in post-apartheid South Africa that reinforces biblical literalism, hierarchical family structures and the right of parents to discipline children in a so-called “godly way”.

...Other local Christian organisations such as The Warehouse have offered a more constructive response. This recognises a need to rethink tradition and scriptures in the light of new knowledge.

...One uses sacred texts in a literal way to legitimise certain forms of hierarchical violence as God-ordained. The other seeks to transform these texts by adopting a contextual approach to the same traditions...

...South Africa has a long history of using Christian sacred texts to underpin ideologies of superiority and domination. This includes justifying slavery, colonialism, apartheid, homophobia and patriarchy...

The article goes on to discuss how a patriarchal hierarchy works.  Excellent read. 

 

[Xan]

I once read an article about the "spare the rod" concept.  The author stated that shepherds used rods to direct the sheep and to corral them into going in the right direction.  A good shepherd doesn't go out there and beat his sheep with a rod.  

I can totally see John running afoul of government rules about this.  It appears that most of our fundies are totally on board with beating their children into submission.  I suppose John thinks this ban on physically abusing children is the devil at work.

[gustava]

Pastor Jonny says Christ died for the Church....Uh no, Christ died for Jonny's sins.

[Xan]

John posted the new prayer card.

Spoiler

Composing it was an "arduous" task.  He was editing, cutting, pasting, uploading, etc.  He might have to take to his bed after all this stressful work.  I sense that he probably didn't sew the outfits and I imagine Esther was the one making sure the kids were are dressed, clean, and had their hair combed for the picture.  

Poor John is just working his fingers to the bone on a prayer card.  He has to have something to send to those supporting churches so they'll remember that old sub-Saharan John and his brood need money.  Of course, I bet there's some teenager in Rick's church who could have downloaded the files and composed that all in an hour or two but then Johnny wouldn't be able to complain about it.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Xan

[formergothardite]

20 hours ago, Xan said:

Reading over John's newsletter, I've picked out one of the things that bothers me so much about him.  He says that Peter now believes that God is real so John is praying for his salvation.  He also says that Sharon has shared her testimony and that they are "praying to see her come to the Savior soon".  What the heck takes so long?  Exactly what hoops does John make them jump through before he declares them "saved"?  Over here, even in FundieLand, most pastors are happy if you just confess your sins and ask to be saved or born again or whatever.  Super-missionary John makes his flock listen to him preach 2 and 3 hour sermons and meet with him over and over again until they parrot back exactly what he wants to hear.  Does he think any of his congregation is saved?  Has he appointed himself Gatekeeper to Heaven?  

Never mind that last one.  The answer is yes.  John thinks he's the Gatekeeper.

A minor issue I have with him is his overuse of alliteration.  "Time, treasure, truly" & "astound, amaze, absolutely".  John thinks he's gifted with words.  He isn't.

I feel like John has become increasingly fanatical about salvation because his one true requirement to be saved is that the person mindlessly worships John. He has had entirely too many people he declared saved only to have to later declare them heathens because they disagreed with him in some way. John wants a cult so he needs to way to try and weed out people who have the potential to question him. 

[Jasmar]

I started singing in the local community college choir this term, and one of the songs were singing is a spiritual/hymn. I got a painful case of the giggles when the choir director told us it’s from Zambia, wondering if Bro John had gotten around to “translating” Bonse Aba yet! And the worst part was that there was no way to explain why I was cracking up without going into a long, convoluted explanation, trying to describe the saga of Bro John.

[MomKB]

What on earth is "Historic Unaffiliated Church-Sent Biblical Baptist Missionary?" 😂

[Xan]

13 minutes ago, MomKB said:

What on earth is "Historic Unaffiliated Church-Sent Biblical Baptist Missionary?" 😂

He's used:

Historic Biblical Baptist Local-Church Sent Missionary

Historic Biblical Baptist Church Planting Missionary

Historic Unaffiliated Biblical Baptist Local-Church Sent Missionaries

All I can guess is that someone explained to him that he wasn't really part of the Baptist Church anymore so he's removed that part.  Daddy Rick is still under the Baptist Church umbrella but the Baptists must not have approved John's missionary endeavors.

 

[thoughtful]

I kept seeing this thread pop to the top of my unread posts, and not getting around to looking at it, for almost a month.

But, this week, something kept reminding me, several times a day, of John, and all that John truly cares about. So I came to read the thread. 

What made me think of John and his priorities, you ask?

Spoiler

The ice maker in my refrigerator broke.

I think I must take to my bed for a few weeks now.
 

[GreenBeans]

2 hours ago, thoughtful said:

But, this week, something kept reminding me, several times a day, of John, and all that John truly cares about. So I came to read the thread. 

What made me think of John and his priorities, you ask?

It’s the Lord working your heart!

[thoughtful]

4 minutes ago, GreenBeans said:

It’s the Lord working your heart!

I thought it was Satan working in my freezer.

[NoneIsEnough]

Were you perhaps storing any leftover green beans in your refrigerator? I heard sa-un likes green beans. 

[Howl]

No updates on the John Esther Shrader fb page re: arrival of the Mears. 

John also approves of someone's facebook post from back in 2011: "If you stand on absolute truth, you will have more enemies than friends."  Could this be an end run to totally avoid personal accountability/insight? 

Also, why is John chronically late with...everything related to the prayer grifting letters?

[NoneIsEnough]

The Mears don't get there until June. I can't remember the exact date, but I think it was in the early part of the month that they would be leaving Texas.  They shipped their container in March since it would take around 3 months to get there. 

I'm sure they'll update their fb once they leave Texas. Then I'm sure there will be some drama with the container. It's held up in customs or they can't find a truck to move it to their housing or no crane to unload it. 

John is chronically late because he's busy being persecuted and fighting off the devil's attacks.  

[Botkinetti]

19 hours ago, Howl said:

No updates on the John Esther Shrader fb page re: arrival of the Mears. 

John also approves of someone's facebook post from back in 2011: "If you stand on absolute truth, you will have more enemies than friends."  Could this be an end run to totally avoid personal accountability/insight? 

Also, why is John chronically late with...everything related to the prayer grifting letters?

I think people like John find it so comforting to believe that you have enemies due to your “truth” instead of thinking of yourself as an obnoxious blowhard with no ability to have a conversation that doesn’t showcase how brilliant you think you are.

[Howl]

On 5/4/2023 at 5:24 AM, Botkinetti said:

an obnoxious blowhard with no ability to have a conversation that doesn’t showcase how brilliant you think you are.

Indeed.  John's sermons can go on for HOURS. No compassion for his audience. Zero.  John is all like Lyle Lovett's "Church" song: 

I went to a baptism/church service at a relative's Lutheran church 7 or 8 years ago.  The preacher baptized, gathered children at the front and gave a little children's sermon which the kids didn't really get so pastor laughed and sent them along to activities and Sunday school.  He preached a very short, to the point,  sermon, we all sang and then adjourned to a pot luck in the meeting hall!  

[Xan]

I just checked on Daddy Rick's church services and, apparently, some of the Shraders are visiting.  He said that he was enjoying the grandchildren visiting "from the states" but then he corrected it to saying they'd come from Africa.  Daniel, Esther's brother was also in the congregation.  I have no idea how many children have come over but I think Esther is with them.  I do hope that all of them came over without John.  Let him manage on his own for a while.  

Wade Mears preached at the church on Sunday.  Part of the message was that people -- particularly young people -- don't like the hard truth preached to them.  It was a Bro Gary message but in actual English.

Rick also announced that there would be a ladies' tea this past week and that Priscilla Waller would be joining them.  It sounded like Esther and Priscilla were making the rounds with some of the kids (at least Alatheia) and visiting the "supporting churches".  I thought that Rick's church was the only one that was truly supporting them.

[Bluebirdbluebell]

@Xan Did Daniel Keller seem okay? He had an accident of some kind in 2019/2020? He had a cane or something at Nurie's wedding.

[Howl]

I noticed on John's family photo letter thing that he lists the Katy church, his dad's name and further down his "field" address in Kafue, like he's out in some remote area in the "bush" and not in the suburbs of a metroplex of almost a quarter million people. 

 

[postscript]

1 hour ago, Xan said:

I just checked on Daddy Rick's church services and, apparently, some of the Shraders are visiting.  He said that he was enjoying the grandchildren visiting "from the states" but then he corrected it to saying they'd come from Africa.  Daniel, Esther's brother was also in the congregation.  I have no idea how many children have come over but I think Esther is with them.  I do hope that all of them came over without John.  Let him manage on his own for a while.  

Wade Mears preached at the church on Sunday.  Part of the message was that people -- particularly young people -- don't like the hard truth preached to them.  It was a Bro Gary message but in actual English.

Rick also announced that there would be a ladies' tea this past week and that Priscilla Waller would be joining them.  It sounded like Esther and Priscilla were making the rounds with some of the kids (at least Alatheia) and visiting the "supporting churches".  I thought that Rick's church was the only one that was truly supporting them.

Unfortunately, they probably left at least one son and one daughter behind to do the grunt work while John thinks deep thinky thoughts, writes horrible poetry, and pontificates for hours on end to the patient Zambians. I wish some of the kids had come over with the goal of staying in he US for a while. I would like to see the older kids get some higher education, even if it’s only unaccredited Bible college. Starting a career other than preaching would be good, too. This family is every bit as enmeshed and isolated as the Rodrigui. 

“Bro Gary message but in actual English” would be a perfect thread title.