Deconstructing Christianity's Monster God (eBook)

The Author

Background

I was born in Clearwater, Florida in 1935, My father John Chester Kilpatrick was the manager of the F.W. Woolworth store there. My mother, Myrtle Kinser, was working in Walgreen’s Drug Store when they met and married. After managing Woolworth stores in Knoxville and Nashville Tennessee we moved to Miami, Fla. where Dad began to manage his last Woolworth store. We arrived in Miami April 12, 1944, the newspaper boys on the corners shouting that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died. I remember being in Dad’s store as the crowds gathered downtown to celebrate America’s victories over Hitler’s Germany and the emperor’s Japan in 1945.

Music

In High School I was involved in the band and the orchestra. After graduation I went to study at the Julliard School of Music in NYC. After a year there I realized I could never achieve my dream of being a clarinetist in a major symphony orchestra. I left Julliard to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C.

Education & Military

After three years at UNC, I left to join the Marines. As a volunteer in the U.S. Marine Corp. I was first sent to boot camp at Parris Island, S.C. Then had infantry training at Camp Geiger, N.C. and was assigned thereafter to the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, N.C., famous for Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa. My last year in the USMC was at The Marine Corps Barracks in Washington D.C., home of the Commandant, his staff, the U.S.M.C. Band, Drum and Bugle Corp, Honor Guard and Silent Drill team.

After I was discharged I went to The University of Miami to study accounting. Then I discovered I had picked up an eye disease (toxoplasmosis) while in the deserts of Turkey with the Marines on a NATO exercise. Accounting, which requires strong eye work became out of the question. Ultimately, I graduated with a B.A. Degree in business from U. of Florida

Secular Work

My working career started off in Miami as a Dun and Bradstreet business credit reporter, analyzing financial statements and interviewing CEO’s. Then I became a commercial loan officer at various banks. From there I worked as a real estate loan analyst with two Real Estate Investment Trusts, financing tract housing, condos and income property.

Family Life

My marriage gave me three children: Lisa, Todd and John Charles; five grandchildren: Kelly, Erin, Myles and Jenna and four great grandchildren. My only sibling, my younger brother Gerry Kilpatrick, is a retired pediatrician. He served as a medical officer in Viet Nam during the war.

My Pentecost

I got saved when God revealed his Son to me at the Miami Shores Community Church. Back in those days a respectable businessman like

myself was expected to attend church for resume purposes. At a Sunday service in 1974 I looked up at the stain glass window of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane located back of the choir loft. Instantly something happened inside me! In that moment I knew Jesus was true, was regenerated and became changed forever. Like the example of Paul on the Damascus Road, I discovered that regeneration requires a personal revelation from God. I began to read the Bible. Okay, I thought, I am a Christian. What do I now do? My secular expertise was real estate financing.

Lakeland Florida

My sister-in-law got a vision that our families should start a Christian ministry in Lakeland, Florida. This city is east of Tampa and forty miles west of Disney World on route 4. On faith, I drove there. I found a large partially completed and bankrupt condominium project on Lake Parker. I visualized creating a senior citizens community there which would move residents from independent living to nursing home care on the same property. Southeastern Bank in Miami owned it through foreclosure. I asked them how much they would sell it for and began to look for financing.

I decided to go to Jimmy Hoffa and his Teamsters Union since I was not credit worthy and they were not very selective. I got a verbal commitment from them over the phone. I raced to Southeast bank immediately to negotiate. I arrived at their office. Their representative told me that they had sold the project the day before. The vision died. It was to be rekindled later, however, in a different way. Instead of serving seniors the new vision would be to serve orphans and the fatherless in a foreign country.

Agua Viva Children’s Home

Life went on. Our church now was the Good Shepherd Lutheran church, a charismatic church in Miami under Pastor Robert Barber. They were holding a missionary conference, having invited numerous missionaries to come and talk. I had previously learned about the Great Commission from the Bible and felt going to a foreign country as a missionary was the pinnacle of Christian service.

In 1984 my wife and I met Dr. Carl Heinlein there at the conference. We learned that on Feb 4,1976 a 7.5 earthquake hit Guatemala City, the capital. 23,000 were killed and 1,000,000 were left homeless. Dr. Heinlein gave up his medical practice in Indiana to form the Agua Viva orphanage in Guatemala City. At the conference we began sponsoring a child there. We began to do the printing work needed by the orphanage. Dr. Heinlein one day said I need you more in Guatemala than I need the printing. In 1986, we decided to move to Guatemala to help out as best we could. Our daughter and son-in-law would move into our house in Miami Shores and make the mortgage payments.

However before leaving Miami that year, Dr. Roy McKeown of World Opportunities Inc., the new sponsors of Agua Viva, informed us that Dr. Heinlein and family had left Guatemala and Agua Viva. We alone would be in charge and responsible. We fearfully agreed to fulfill our promise to go. Not knowing the Spanish language, we were totally unequip-ped for the challenge.

We arrived at the home on a weekend. Most of the staff were not there. There were 50 malnourished babies and 60 other children at the home. There was a shortage of everything. We had no diapers, no towels, no soap and no toilet paper. We had to wash old ragged cloth diapers and try to dry them in front of a log fire.

On top of that, the city was suffering from revolving power blackouts since the government couldn’t pay for the fuel for the generators. Also because of lack of electricity, Guatemala could only provide water 3 hours a day to different sectors. We would have to wake up at various hours of the night to get Agua Viva’s share of water in big barrels.

During all this, we were trying to learn Spanish. We spent two years at Agua Viva under WOI. During this time we did three projects. We raised funds to build a central kitchen so all the children could eat together. The kitchen also served as our auditorium since we had built a large stage at one end.

In 1987 we built a school adjacent to the central kitchen, K through 6. We hired a director and teaching staff. The school grew to 320 students. Our third project was a two-story A-Frame building for the director’s home.

The children’s days were well organized; morning devotionals where the children were taught to lead along with the adults; breakfast, school, sports, homework, baths and evening devotionals. We had fun activities on weekends or when short term mission groups were visiting.

After a couple of years we resigned and World Opportunities moved in another director who was not honest. Finances collapsed. World Opportunities withdrew their support. A new ministry took over. It was called Harvesting in Spanish.

Casa Juanita

We began working with another orphanage at this point. It was located three hours west from Guatemala City and near Quetzaltenango (Xela). It was called Casa Juanita and was located in the tiny village of Caprican. It was very isolated, high up in the mountains at 2,550 feet with a population of around 12,000. At the time, it had no telephone contact with the out-side world or local medical help. We got to Caprican by a dangerous bus ride up a narrow, precarious, mountainous dirt road. The air there was very thin and affected one’ s breathing at first arrival.

We brought in short-term missionary medical and construction groups from the U.S. to help, much as we had done at Agua Viva. Many became child sponsors. The Americans would learn to eat the simple diet of the poor Guatemalan indigenous people. It was a time of sweet fellowship between the natives and the Americans.

Agua Viva – 2.0

While working with Hogar Juanita, the Agua Viva ministry under Harvesting in Spanish was collapsing and out of money. They asked us to carry a choir of children from Guatemala to the U.S. on a fundraising tour. We brought eight children to Miami by air, rented two vans and led them around the U.S. for a month, visiting churches, seeking child sponsorship donors. The children, dressed in native attire, sang and gave testimonies at the church services. They would stay at various homes of the church members who provided wonderful hospitality. Once, they even sang at a Burger King restaurant!

In 1992, we officially took over the orphanage. We formed Agua Viva Children’s Mission, Inc and appointed a U.S. Board of Directors. We began to raise funds. We were not able to manage day-to-day operations, so we hired a...