From Fight Clubs to Anabaptist - Daniel Willis

Guide me on the bridge of Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining Hope for Wondering Amish today. We're glad that you're all on, and we have Brother Daniel on this morning to share, or this afternoon, I should say, to share his testimony and journey through his his Christian walk.

And we're greatly appreciate him as a brother, and we really like to have him on to share that. And also, Jesus wants us. Also, um, if you have a, if you're calling him with a phone, mute yourself so that you don't pop up on the screen. And we would also, um, like you to unmute yourself when you're, when you want to talk at the end. If we have to mute you, then you won't be able to get back on by yourself that easily. So let's just pray, and then the time will be yours, uh, Daniel. Let's pray.

Lord in heaven, thank you for this day. Thank you for Daniel. Thank you for having him come on and just giving us his testimony and help our hearts to be opened and help us to learn from this. And we want to just pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. The time is yours. Hey, thanks a lot, Atlee and Elam and Levi for having me on. Um, I just want to start off with, uh, I'm guessing most of the listeners here have an idea of the word non-resistance. Uh, growing up and in the churches that I came from, there was no such thing as non-resistance. I never heard of it. Uh, going to war was normal and was our Christian duty if we were called to go to war. And, um, my life, we weren't, we were priests. I don't know if you know priests, but it's, uh, we went to church basically Christmas and Easter and very rare growing up. And, uh, I started, uh, fight clubs and sent people to hospital.

There was a time where I put a sword down my pants to go cut up a man who kissed my girlfriend, um, who I had never kissed. Uh, I was a young boy. I was stole from people's houses. I was into pornography.

Um, there, I, I bullied, I was known as the bully in school. And eventually, whenever I was invited to a Christian, uh, it was called the Starlight Crusades. It was this big Christian event trying to bring people to Christ. And I had already gotten a felony and by throwing logs in the road. And I was doing my community service as a 13-year-old boy. And the, the preachers during that service basically had a hellfire and brimstone kind of meet meeting. And it, the guy described me to a T. And so I went down to the altar and gave my life to Christ and was baptized, but I knew nothing about God. I, they, I only knew what I've learned a little bit here and there.

And, um, the, so the only thing I did know is I'm not supposed to do drugs. I'm not supposed to have premarital sex. And I probably shouldn't be a bully anymore. And I shouldn't cuss anymore. So I cleaned up my cussing.

Um, I stopped bullying people, but it was still in me. So I thought I would be a bully of bullies. I'd be a vigilante. So anybody who was fighting anybody else or hurting anybody else who was smaller than them, I'd beat them up.

And there's, for example, uh, at in my high school locker room, there's Edward Norton was beating up another boy and, or actually not beating him up, just picking on him. And I said, if you keep picking on him, I'll kick you in the teeth. And he kept picking on him. And so I kicked him in the teeth. And, um, that I was just a violent guy. Um, and then when I turned 16, I, this whole time I could barely read.

I went to Central Christian Church once I got my driver's license because we didn't really go to church. And, uh, as a family before then, and at that church was like a church of Christ, they really did follow, they really did believe in obedience, at least, uh, for a good, uh, a good amount compared to all the other things I knew about Christianity.

And they learned that I couldn't read very well. And so they gave me an, uh, the Bible, an NLT Bible, New Living Translation, and they realized I couldn't read that. And so my elder either gave me the CDs or somehow I got a whole Bible of CDs where you can listen to the Bible as you read.

And I learned how to read basically with listening to these CDs and following along. And so through high school, I went around just teaching people about the Bible and reading the Bible everywhere I went. And, uh, at public supermarkets where I worked part-time, and I had like five or six people believe and come to my church and be baptized. And some of them went to Bible college before me.

When I graduated, I went to, uh, Johnson University of Bible College. And I still didn't know a whole lot about Christianity. I mean, I've read the Bible multiple times at this point, but I didn't know all the different denominations and how, how crazy, I mean, how far apart certain groups were from each other.

And the, the Bible college I went to was the same, uh, Christian church, Church of Christ Bible College. And anyway, I'm going to fast forward through college and my wife and I, we got, we got, we met in college.

And, uh, then we went to China together. I was called to the mission field. And I know that's a story in itself that I'm going to skip through unless, uh, it's something that's desired I could talk about at the end. Um, but in China, we ran into, first we got there, we started witnessing, uh, to everybody and having big groups in our homes. And everybody was very receptive to the gospel. And we had lots of people believe and be baptized.

And, uh, the missionaries, the mission organization told us that we're having, our groups are too big. You're going to get kicked out of the country. You're going to get all these Chinese Christians in trouble and blacklisted. And they were telling us to calm things down. And they took us to this training in Cambodia.

And basically this training was teaching us to, telling us to not use the Bible to spread the gospel. And just to memorize these stories and from creation to Christ, like a few little two, three-minute stories and use that. And that's basically everything everybody needs. You don't really need to go through the whole Bible.

And it didn't make any sense, but we were under their organization. So we stopped with all these college students that we were working with and told them that we're not supposed to be working with you guys anymore. And we memorized these stories and started teaching them. And for a year had zero fruit. And I was like, this doesn't make any sense. Like we're having all these people read the Bible and believe. And now we're doing this method that's not working at all.

And then I found this guy, a Baptist guy who wasn't afraid to preach. And all the other missionaries were too afraid to really do anything because they didn't want to get kicked out. And, uh, uh, I said, I want to do what you're doing. You're starting this church. He had a church of like just two, two Chinese people in his family, but he called it a church, which is fine.

And I said, I want to do what you're doing. And, um, and we decided to work together. And it grew and grew with lots of people. But the, every time Mark preached, this missionary, this Baptist missionary, he would say, if you believe this, you're going to hell. And I was thinking, well, I believe that.

And if you believe this, you're going to hell. And for example, if you believe you can please the Lord, you're going to hell. If you believe that, uh, that baptism does anything but assemble, you're going to hell. And he just had so many things. And so eventually I read, like he didn't believe that women, uh, should teach on Sunday. And his, his girls wore dresses and were, were very modest.

And my wife wore pants and wasn't extremely modest. And I believed women could teach, have a place to teach. And so whenever he would teach against that, I would go home and read. And I realized he's right about that. Like women aren't supposed to be teaching on Sunday. And women aren't supposed to be modest.

And I'm like thinking, I wonder if he's right about everything. Am I going to hell about this and that? All these things I'm going to hell for. And then, so I kept going home and kept studying. And I'm like, I graduated from Johnson University, had a missions and a Bible degree and a TESOL degree, a triple major. And I don't know half the things about faith that I'm supposed to know.

Um, and didn't realize how different that people would be condemning me to hell. And so the other missionaries. And we went to the countryside and there was a whole, this countryside in China had the, this whole group of people, all of them believed in Christ. And their faith put my faith to shame.

Uh, there was a lady in the countryside that supposedly memorized the whole Bible. And they would spend all these long hours on their knees praying. And they took everything very serious. Like I said a joke, uh, a few jokes. And I kept getting reprimanded for joking. And I didn't quite get it. And they're like, you see this, this verse in Ephesians that says you can't joke.

And I was like, well, in my Bible it says no coarse joking. Like I was saying very innocent jokes. Uh, and, but they, their Bible I realized that didn't say coarse. It just said no joking. It's not for us or whatever. And so they took the word really simply and literally. And I'd never experienced that. But then after a while of having sleepless nights of about two or three years of planting this church with Mark, uh, we, the guy who's condemning me, he didn't know he was condemning me. Uh, he didn't know that the things he was preaching against were things I believed.

Um, and we were training these pastors. And when I would train them, I would just use the Bible. And when he'd train them, he used this thing that he created called the Liu and Gungi, which was the firm foundations book.

And when I would teach them something, they would say, well, that's not true to the pastors we were training. And I was like, well, why do you think that's not true? And they said, well, uh, Mark said it's not true. And if you believe that way, you're going to hell or whatever. And I said, well, what am I giving you this information from? And they're like, the Bible. And I said, well, what is he giving you information from? And they said, the firm foundations book. And I was like, well, it's your choice. I mean, like you can believe the Bible or the God's word or the firm foundations book.

So after a while, we started the second church plant. We decided to divorce ourselves from Mark and, uh, go to a little bit further out of the city. Um, and so every day I would walk from my house to school where I taught, I taught, uh, military school. Well, it's a maritime university. It's a, a lot of the students, all the students were, or have to be involved in the military at some, in one way or another at that school. But some of them were in, like when they graduated, they might be people who drive boats, you know, who come to the States bringing cargo or whatever. So they weren't all necessarily going to be military.

But all that to say is that I taught, uh, seven classes each semester and had about 30 to 60 students per class. And I taught all of them all the time about Jesus and tried to convince them that God is real. And it was not that hard actually to convince them God was real.

But it was very hard to get any of them to believe that Jesus and God our Father are the, and the Holy Spirit are God. And all the missionaries were like, how do you do that? How do you get away with it? And I really thought the persecution in China was baloney. Like I had done all this, I'd spent all this time in these classes teaching about God and never got in trouble for it. Anyway, when I walked back and forth to school, I didn't have any converts, but I kept meeting people on the road and, uh, introducing myself and becoming friends with random people. And I met this group of, uh, mechanics. And I kept like every, every day talking to them and then going over there and learning how to weld and do some things with them.

And then I found a Bible in their shop and I was like, whose Bible is this? And they're like, oh, that's, uh, his mother's Bible. And I was like, well, let's read this thing. And so we started a Bible study and, uh, um, eventually we had this, there's a, uh, I'm getting to a point here, but we had, uh, what we call a vacation Bible school. I don't know if Anabaptists do anything like that, but we invited all of the really young children in our neighborhood to our house. And we taught them every day for three hours for a week, uh, the Bible. And after we were done, right as the children left, we had a knock on the door.

And it was these two older ladies. And they were, they at first seemed kind of upset, but then when we sat down, they were like, we're so thankful you've been teaching our son about God. And, uh, we really want him to change. And we're like, okay, it's one of these little children we've been teaching. And, uh, she just kept going on and on. And eventually she's like, um, yeah, he's a drunkard and he gambles and does all this stuff. I'm like, what are you talking about? The oldest child that came was maybe like 13 years old. I mean, your child, who was it that was, who's your child? And she's like, 13 years old. What are you talking about?

And then she's like, no, you've been going to that mechanic shop down the street and you've been preaching there and reading the Bible. And, uh, that, that Bible that I found was her Bible of this mechanic. And anyway, they, they, these two ladies and then two other ladies that were their friends became like the backbone of the second church plant.

And the, we started, I was really afraid to teach now because I had learned that, uh, all of these, all these things that I used to believe were true were false. And there's all these things that I do believe that are true that other preachers are saying that are false. And I'm supposed to be a teacher and I'm not sure what's true anymore. And I was digging, I was every day digging in the scriptures, trying to figure out what, what was truth. How can there be so many different denominations? I was rubbing shoulders with all these missionaries and I had Calvinists and Pentecostals. And like the Pentecostals were like, you, if you don't speak in tongues, you're not going to heaven.

And the Calvinists were like talking about basically if you didn't believe in the sovereignty of the Lord the way they believed it, you weren't going to heaven. And, and because there wasn't, they don't send a bunch of missionaries from one type of church. You have all these different groups telling you different things. And so I was very confused.

And, uh, so I decided with the second church plant, we're just going to read the scriptures. And so, um, we started and we, we didn't just read the scriptures. We did, uh, mostly do that, but we, I had learned from a, a guy that named David Pawson that it's the best way to read each book and the Bible is to read it from beginning to end in one sitting. So I told the Chinese that we're meeting, how about we just pick up the Bible and we start with Matthew. We actually, yeah, start with Matthew and read from the beginning of Matthew to the end. And I underestimated how long it would take. And we started kind of late after dinner and we read till one the first time.

And then afterwards, these ladies and a few guys that had joined us, um, were like, hey, let's read Luke. And I was like, oh great, let's do it. And I got up and we're packing up and they're like, what are you doing? We're going to read Luke. And I was like, now it's like one o'clock in the morning. I got to go home. I got work tomorrow.

Like we'll read it next time. Um, and they're like so excited to read the, read the word of God. And we kept doing it. We started doing it with all the smaller books first after that. And then we'd every once in a while just announce it, hey, we're going to do one of the bigger books of the Bible. And we went through the New Testament and then we started going through the Old Testament. More and more people are coming. People are being baptized. And one of the things I would ask all the Chinese people is what do, like, what does it say about God? What does it say about man? These weren't my questions. These are questions I found.

And if this stuff is true, what do we do with it? And their explanations of everything was always the most literal, literal interpretation of the scriptures. And so we all, like one of the examples I often give is they, when we got to Philippians four and they, there's this part that says, and, and the don't no matter what in all things don't complain or argue.

Um, and that's how theirs read. And they, I remember after we read that, anytime, at least for a few weeks, maybe a few months, anytime somebody would have even a slight complaint, they'd be like, hey, that's not of us. We're Christians. We don't do that. We can't complain or argue. And I was thinking, wow, if this continues, this church will never divide. I mean, if like, if you never have anybody complaining or arguing, we're, this is going to go somewhere.

And it continued that way until, um, we were already starting to be looked at as weird by all the other missionaries because we're starting to take Christianity more serious and we're not doing as much entertainment. And, um, not that entertainment's wrong, but we're, we're doing a lot of different things in our church that others wouldn't do. And we're teaching obedience because we're just reading the word and trying to live it.

And so then we got to First Corinthians and then we read the whole book. And then the ladies not long after brought me to the side and said, are we supposed to be wearing head coverings? And I was like, you know, in Bible college, it was the pro, it was because they said they taught, taught me because it was the prostitutes and it was the long hair.

And then I told them, I'm not really satisfied with that because I don't really want to teach it. Let's just see what, let's, let me search it out. And so I went home and I'm reading it over and over without that information about that I got from Bible college.

And then my wife asked me the same thing. And she wasn't at that Bible study, but I think she stayed home and read it because it was late at night and we had just had children. Uh, and we had a baby at the time. And, uh, she said, uh, am I supposed to be wearing a head covering? And I'm like, I'm actually trying to look into that. And so we read it together a few times. And I read the portion that said, you have to choose for yourself, kind of, that's a paraphrase of my spot. And from my paraphrase. And so the next day or so, she came out wearing a beanie on her head.

And I looked at her and I was thinking, is this it? Like, is this, are you starting to wear head covering? And she's like, yeah. And then so I was like, okay, we got to do this. And so when we, we made a decision, like if we find out after lots of study that this isn't what we're supposed to do, she doesn't, she won't wear it. But if we can't find out, and then she's going to wear a head covering.

And so then, uh, so then I'm trying to find who, what other people actually believe the Sermon on the Mount is for today, actually follow the words of Jesus and the apostles and wear head coverings. And I came across, uh, Kingdom Fellowship Weekend and the Followers of the Way and realized that there's a lot of people who are trying to do this and that we're not some kind of cult leader because I was really afraid to be leading some kind of cult. And, uh, the, the Chinese church kept growing and there was some, there's this guy who started reading fortunes to everybody and he'd bring this big book. He didn't do it in front of me, but he had this big book of fortunes and he would tell everybody their future and, and, uh, make it.

He caused a lot of trouble and he would say, you see this book? It's, it's just as important as the Bible. This book was given by God too. And, and he claimed he can heal anything. And then when I heard about it, I had, there wasn't any elders in the church yet. So I said, I need to get two elders, like see if I can get appoint two elders. And I appointed two guys. And then we had this, I never experienced church discipline.

Uh, the church I came from had divorce and remarriage. They would go to war, like things that I now didn't believe. Like I didn't believe we can fight. I believed in non-resistance. I believed that you can't get remarried. And, and, uh, and then I'm reading all these things about church discipline and I've never seen it done or didn't know how to do it. So we decided to have a meeting with this guy and to, uh, tell him he needs to stop saying this stuff and be quiet at church and not bring that book or he needs to leave. And, um, after the meeting, he, I didn't tell you this part, I had gotten shingles. I couldn't sleep.

I was so stressed. There's a lot of people coming and I didn't, I definitely didn't feel qualified to lead this group of people. And I had like shingles all over my face. And the doctors were like, you're way too young to get shingles. I don't, we don't know why you have shingles.

And then after we got this guy, the guy decided he was, he cussed me out and the Chinese had never heard anybody cuss so amazingly is kind of how they put it. They never heard, they weren't like impressed by it, but they, they just never heard anybody cuss like that before. And him and his wife left our church. And then like the next day, my shingles were gone. I mean, like it had like, it wasn't completely gone, but it like had healed. It wasn't hurting. It was, became like all this flakiness and it was like just very, it sounds very Pentecostal to me, but, um, it was quite miraculous. I think that the whole thing was, uh, you know, Satan was using this guy or demons or whatever.

And it was having some kind of physical influence on me. And we didn't teach the Chinese that they had to wear head covering. We didn't know what to do about it ourselves, although my wife was wearing it. And we were talking about teaching them, but then because of this problem of, uh, this guy who was actually baptized, not by me, but by another missionary in the South that we just kicked out of the church, or he left thankfully on his own. Um, I knew the guy who baptized him. He was my professor at Bible College, one of them. And he moved back to China in the South. And I invited him. I actually told him, I need you to move up here because I can't run this church by myself and I need more help.

Um, and so he moved up and that was probably not the right thing to do because pretty quickly he said, you can't teach these people. They need to wear head coverings and, um, stuff like that. Not long after, I'll skip ahead a little bit, but the police, uh, captured and beat the Chinese that we had trained to be pastors. Um, and they had done it multiple times, but the second time they called me and we had just had my, uh, daughter Chloe and we were at the Chinese embassy in Shenyang.

And they said, um, we were trying to get her passport. She didn't have a passport. They called and said, hey, the Chinese know you. They know your Chinese name. They know where you planted these two churches and they're looking for you.

And so around that time, uh, we took off. We, all the missionaries there said that, um, that we really need to get out of town, that it's, uh, if we get caught, they're going to get in trouble because they're going to ask us all these questions and we're going to give them up. And then all the missionaries are going to have to leave. And so we decided it's best to go, uh, go home. So we went home and, uh, right away we had resistance from my in-laws and with the head covering and my wife's change in dress. And, um, we started looking for these Mennonite churches that we had heard about. And we went to one and it was, uh, the, the, we went in and the, we sat down and we started the Bible study they were having.

And my wife was the only one in a dress and my wife was the only one without jewelry on. And, uh, the lady then reached out and shook my hand and said, I'm the elder of this church. And she started teaching and she said her name. I don't remember her name. She had short hair and, and I was like, well, this is weird. It's like, I thought this was a Mennonite church. I'm like, it is a Mennonite church. I didn't say this is weird, but I did ask him. I thought, so I thought we were coming to Mennonite church. And the only thing I knew was what I saw online with KFW and the Followers of the Way and a few little things I found after that.

And, um, so then we went, we went to another one and then we, anyway, their first, the sermon we heard was basically they condoned homosexuality as a brother in Christ church or something, but it said it was Anabaptist and we were looking for Anabaptist churches near us.

And then I was like, okay, Casey, I don't know where these churches are. And my father-in-law was saying he can send me down to Haiti to be a missionary there. And then when I found out that the Haitian Christians wore head coverings, I was like, hey, maybe this is a good spot we can go blend in and we can try to be missionaries there. So I went to Haiti for a little while and not very long, like 10 days.

And that mission organization, uh, didn't want anything to do with me because my desire was to start Bible studies and then eventually develop churches and their mission program. I mean, they were heavy drinkers and I, I then finally realized eventually that their church believes in homosexual marriage and all kinds of stuff. And that's why they didn't really want me to, uh, do the things that I was planning on doing.

And so I came back and the church that we were attending with my wife, uh, with my father and mother-in-law, they, there was so many that we went to a Bible study and so we had changed. We had become desensitized to the, uh, disobedient Christianity of America. We were now very sensitive to everything that we were hearing. Before, we didn't see the sin that was just on everybody in the American churches.

And we were in this Bible study. Well, just me and my, it was a men's Bible study. Uh, and the men were talking about like, you can't please the Lord. And they were talking about baptism. And they said, well, what is baptism today?

And the first guy said, well, baptism is like the new circumcision or like circumcision was. And he's like, if you think you can do anything to please the Lord, you're basically going to hell. And he's like, yeah, if you think that looking at less pornography is going to make you closer to God, you're going to hell. And if, if you think you can't, the next guy has talked, literally talked about orgies and saying like, if you stop doing orgies to try to please God, you're going to hell. And, and I was just so appalled. I was like, what in the world? And I was like, look at the next few verses in Galatians. It talks about the, the, if you follow this life of, if you follow the simple nature, your lives will produce these evil results.

And it lists all these evil things, including the things you're talking about. And it says, anyone living this sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. How are you saying that, that, uh, baptism will send you to hell if you think it does anything? And if you try to please the Lord in any way, you're going to hell. And my wife didn't really believe me because it seemed way out there. Um, and she wasn't a part of the men's group. But then when I was in Haiti, there was a sermon from that church basically saying, uh, divorce, not only is divorce okay, but a lot of you maybe should get a divorce.

And my wife called me and said, I think you're right. I think what you're saying is right because this sermon was like, I can't believe this would come out in a sermon. And then we came back and we were trying to go back to China, figure out a way to get back to China.

And then I was like, we really need to find these obedient churches. And so we called Followers of the Way, called Matthew Miliani. First, we couldn't get a hold of them, their Facebook group. They were like, we just want you to write a letter. And I was like, I'm not really good at writing and I would like to express it. I would like you to hear my voice to see that I'm sincere, you know? And eventually I get a call, I called Matthew and then he's like, you're living in a trailer and you're making like 12 grand a year. Boston's probably not the place you're going to need to be. You're not going to be able to afford it.

He's like, how about go to KFW that you mentioned and check out those people. And so Casey and I, I said trailer, camper. We, uh, bought a camper and a little, uh, truck to pull it, uh, Tahoe. And so we, uh, traveled up, uh, to KFW. And, uh, that's kind of our story. We, at KFW, we met the people, a ton of amazing people. At first it was odd. We thought this is really weird. The way everybody's dressed, everybody seems to match and, and the sense of having a lot of the same patterns. And we thought that Roxbury Holiness Camp, if y'all are all familiar with it, we thought that's where they lived. We didn't know that that was just a campground that they rented.

And so we see all these homes right next to each other and there's people all pouring out and the children run around and it was so intimidating. And then I met a guy named Marvin Dolly and I had called him multiple times and I was trying to figure out the dress code. And I was like, I don't even own khakis or anything. I only wear jeans. And he's like, oh, you'll fit in. Come on up. We'll figure it out. And I was like, my wife wears head coverings, but she doesn't wear the kind. We see the head coverings on there. We don't, on your videos, we don't even know where to get them. Um, and they're like, oh, it's fine.

And, and, uh, then when I got there, that Patrick on, on this call actually, um, that he, they realized how nervous we were. And then they're like, I have someone. He called me and said, do you have a minute? And I was like, yeah. And he's like, come to the office. I have someone you should meet. And I come and there's this burly tattooed up guy with short sleeves on and jeans on and shakes, you know, about crushes my hand when he shakes it. And I'm like, okay, if, if he's acceptable in this group, we'll, we'll surely fit in. Sorry, Patrick. I wasn't trying to put you down or anything if that sounded bad, but he made us feel right at home.

And he joked around with us and I was like, okay, maybe, maybe there, maybe we're in a good spot. I don't really know, but, um, then by the end of it, it was like heaven on earth. Like we're, we're walking around with all these families who think the same way we do and believe the same things we do and are living holy and are dressing the way God wanted his people to dress and, and, um, and just so many things. It was just so wonderful. And then my wife called me and she was kind of sounded like she was crying or upset. I couldn't tell. She was in the camper and she's like, can you come back to the camper?

And I was pretty, I was because of her tone of voice, I was like, oh no, something weird happened. This isn't what we thought. Maybe I'm not, maybe it's not like all it's cracked up to be. Maybe some, you know, someone tried to give her Kool-Aid or whatever. I'm walking back to the camper just wondering what's going on. And, uh, if you don't know the Kool-Aid thing, the cults that they got Kool-Aid and they all drank it and killed themselves. Um, so I didn't know if some strange thing happened that was cultish. And I got back to the camper and she's kind of, kind of crying. And she said, I think we need to move here.

And I was like, yes, this is awesome. Like, uh, this is where we need to be. And so we went back home for a little bit, but then moved back up here. And, um, then we found during that time we had met, uh, Chambersburg Christian Fellowship through Patrick. And then, uh, they had me speak on that Sunday, which was very intimidating. I had to go buy some khaki pants because I didn't own any. And I thought that was dressed up, but then I come to find out khakis aren't dressed up at all. But anyway, um, then we moved up here and, uh, yeah, life's been great. And I started the editing different ministries videos like Elam's Hope, Wanting Amish and All Nations Bible Translators, The Historic Faith, Strength of Strength, uh, Sound Faith, Followers of the Way videos.

I used to Saddler College. And that became my job because I feel like it's so important. It was so hard to find people who were living out all the principles of scriptures in their most simple form that when I moved here, it became my passion to try to get this stuff out to the rest of the world. Um, and then it, yeah. So that's it, I guess. Um, hope that's what you wanted, Elam.

Or Atley. Yeah. Well, thanks so much for sharing, Daniel. Um, I always appreciate you. And it's like very fun to have you as a brother. Um, I've heard this story before, but it was interesting to hear it again. It's just like amazing to me how some people can endure. Like I, I think I would have had a burnout in China not knowing how to navigate through some of that stuff. And I probably would have flew up and, and, uh, barked at people. So yeah, some people do that a lot better than I would.

So is there anybody else out there that wants to talk? Uh, if you have questions or comments, um, the guy was the, there was a guy on here with a phone. He, I muted him. I don't know if he can unmute himself if he wants to, but, uh, if he doesn't want to, that's fine too.

But anybody else can go ahead.

Well, Daniel, I really appreciate you as a brother. Um, I have learned a lot from you and the Anabaptist community needs you. Um, um, one perspective could be that you need it, the Anabaptist community, but I'm going to say we need it. You, I need you. I've learned so much from you.

Um, and I really appreciate you. Thank you so much for sharing your, uh, testimony. And thank you for being faithful through the many trials you faced. Um, yeah, I, I guess I see patience in you. You've gone through a lot of difficulties and I just appreciate your response to the difficulties that you've faced.

Um, maybe you could clarify something you mentioned about KFW, but I don't think you mentioned what it is. I think it would be good for you to let people know what KFW is. And I found it kind of interesting. I did chuckle when, when you, when you said that you thought everybody lived there in these little cabins. That was kind of interesting.

And so maybe clarify what KFW is. And then my other two questions I have for you, maybe to kind of go together. Um, you, you went to Johnson Bible College and, and maybe clarify that they didn't teach obedience as far as obeying Christ and his teachings. Um, and they explained a way to head covering. So my question for you, is there any college, Bible college out there that would teach obedience as far as obeying the teachings of Christ? So I ask you a few questions there. So hope that's all right. Yeah. Um, KFW is Kingdom Fellowship Weekend. It's, uh, in August, the last weekend of August, I believe. I believe, um, it's just a bunch of people trying to live out and being sojourners, living out the kingdom of God today, uh, where they, where, wherever they live, but they come together and they listen to many great sermons and network.

And some people are coming into, uh, Kingdom Christianity or an obedient, uh, love faith relationship with Christ. And some people might be teetering on, uh, they, they're not sure about their church that they're in and they're trying to figure out, they're on a journey themselves. Uh, some maybe Amish and some other people trying to figure out what they need to do in, in life and what's right with Christianity. And, um, it's a wonderful time. It's, uh, it's a lot of people now. It's quite intimidating, but it's not, once you get to know people, it's not intimidating at all. Um, and the Johnson Bible College is now Johnson University. When we graduated, it was Johnson University.

They had, uh, switched over. And originally they were, they would have, when it was first started, they would have wore head coverings. They'd have been non-resistant. Uh, they wouldn't have believed in divorce and remarriage. And after World War II, they then gave that up. Or because of World War II, they were convinced that to be a true Christian, they needed to go fight. And, but in World War I, not this college, but the same group, uh, they were willing to take a bullet instead of fight. And they were actually lined up at a college, not, not this one again, but, um, I forget the name of the college. They were lined up and had guns pointed at them and they said they're going to shoot them if they don't, you know, go to war and be resistant, I guess, if that's the word.

And they, they counted down, but they did not shoot them, but they counted all the way to the point that they would have shot them. And so they were obviously faithful unto death. Um, and so any college is, and any group of people are capable of losing this, of losing the, that all of Jesus's teachings are for today.

And so it's hard for me to point out a specific college. Um, I know Saddler College and maybe, um, what's the one, Zelichin College with Dean Taylor would probably be the only two that I know that, uh, would be following the teach, the sermon on the mountain and the, the teachings. Um, but you never know what they'll be later. I mean, like Harvard and all the schools that the big Ivy League schools of today were all Christian schools at one point. And now they're the most secular. So, uh, if you're in the future and you look at, make sure you look at those schools and see if they're actually living for Christ before you choose to go to one of them.

Um, because the chances are, uh, history has shown that they won't be, but I'm not saying that's going to be true for every college. Um, but it has been so far, it seems. So you all, we also talked a little bit about the historic faith or that you edit that. Would you give a little bit more on that as well?

Yeah, the historic faith, um, so sound faith and scroll publishing and the historic faith are all similar. They're all kind of, uh, under one umbrella, but sound faith is more digestible. It's more for everybody. Uh, uh, it's Christians who are on a journey or who see that, like what a good analogy would be, uh, like if you're a trailer salesman and you're selling, uh, you're giving away trailers, but if you only gave away a 40 foot trailer, um, not many people would be able to handle it or be able to use it. It wouldn't be any good. So sound faith is more of like all the easier trailers to pull, the little dump, the little trailers and the, the box trailers and the utility trailers.

And the historic faith are people who really want to be teachers and want to dig deep and to go further. It's more like the 40 foot trailer. And that there is a cost with the historic faith. There's a $10 subscription. People can get on it for free. Um, they just have to email and say that, uh, they want it, but they can't pay for it. But, uh, because we're trying to grow it and make it, uh, reach a lot of people and help train, uh, eventually we're going to have a teaching trainers, trainers program. That's part of our vision.

Train people how to read the early Christian writings and understand. That's another part of the journey that I didn't mention. Actually, I forgot about it. Uh, what solidified me knowing that this is the right place is reading the first 300 years of Christianity. Not all, I haven't read all of their writings, but here, let me grab this book.

When I read this book, um, is it inverted to you guys or is it just for me? It's the early Christian commentary on the Sermon on the Mount. And it's just all from the beginning, the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, like at the very beginning, it's the Beatitudes.

And it's all the early Christians' quotes on what they believed on every part of the Sermon on the Mount. And it's not a small book. And it's what they wrote about. The majority of the writings, um, had this in it. Like you can't go very far through their writings and not find things from the Sermon on the Mount. And a lot of the places and teachers that I was under would have believed it for, it's a, for a different dispensation. And it's not for us. And it made it very clear that from the faith that was once delivered to the saints was these were the first 300 years of Christianity and what they believed that faith was.