From Fight Clubs to Anabaptist — Daniel Willis

Daniel Willis shares how God brought him from a violent, nominally Christian youth into serious discipleship through Scripture, mission work in China, and repeated encounters with conflicting church traditions. His testimony traces how simple obedience to Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, nonresistance, head covering, church discipline, and the early Christian witness reshaped his understanding of the faith. He also describes the trials of planting churches in China, returning to America, finding fellowship among Anabaptist believers, and using media work to help others discover historic, obedient Christianity.

Key Points: – Daniel grew up with little church involvement and a violent past before responding to a Christian altar call as a young teenager. – Learning to read through Bible audio helped him become serious about Scripture and evangelism. – Mission work in China exposed him to both fruitful Bible-centered discipleship and deep confusion caused by competing denominational claims. – Reading Scripture with Chinese believers pushed him toward a more literal, obedient practice of Jesus’ teachings. – Questions about nonresistance, head covering, church discipline, divorce and remarriage, and the Sermon on the Mount led Daniel and his wife toward Anabaptist convictions. – Fellowship at Kingdom Fellowship Weekend and Chambersburg Christian Fellowship helped them find a community committed to historic, obedient Christianity. – Daniel explains his burden for Sound Faith, The Historic Faith, and media work as tools to help others see the faith once delivered to the saints.

Scripture References: – Ephesians – Philippians 4 – 1 Corinthians – Galatians – The Sermon on the Mount

Well, 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 Christian walk. And we greatly appreciate him as a brother, and we really like to have him on to share that. And also, if you’re calling him with the phone, mute yourself so that you don’t pop up on the screen. And we would also like you to unmute yourself when you want to talk at the end. And if you have to mute you, then you won’t be able to get back on by yourselves that easily. So let’s just pray. And then the time will be yours, 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. Thanks a lot, Atlee and Elam and Levi for having me on. I just want to start off with, I’m guessing most of the listeners here have an idea of the word non-resistance. Growing up and in the churches that I came from, there was no such thing as non-resistance. I never heard of it. Going to war was normal and was our Christian duty if we were called to go to war. We weren’t, we were Christers. I don’t know if you know Christers, but it’s, we went to church basically Christmas and Easter and very rare growing up. And I started 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, who I had never kissed. I was a young boy. I was a, stole from people’s houses. I was into pornography. There, I bullied, I was known as the bully in school. And eventually whenever I was invited to a Christian, 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 by throwing logs in the road. I seemed to be serviced as a 13-year-old boy. And the preachers during that service basically had a hellfire and brimstone kind of meeting. And 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 only knew what I’ve learned a little bit here and there. 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. 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. In my high school locker room, Edward Norton was beating up another boy. 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 I was just a violent guy. And then when I turned 16, 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 as a family before then. And that church was like a church of Christ. They really did believe in obedience. At least for 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 the Bible, an NLT Bible. New Living Translation. And they realized I couldn’t read that. They 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 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. And when I graduated, I went to Johnson University, a 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 crazy, I mean, how far apart certain groups were from each other. And the Bible college I went to was the same Christian church, Church of Christ Bible college. And my wife and I, we met in college. And 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 it’s something that’s desired I could talk about at the end. But in China, we ran into, first we got there, we started witnessing to everybody and having big groups in our homes and everybody’s very receptive to the gospel. And we had lots of people believe and be baptized. And 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. Then 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. 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 I said, I want to do what you’re doing. You’re starting this church. He had a church of like just two Chinese people in his family. He was fine. And I said, I want to do what you’re doing. And we decided to work together and it grew and grew with lots of people. But 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. That baptism does anything but assemble. You’re going to hell. And he just had so many things. And so eventually, he didn’t believe that women should teach on Sunday. And his girls wore dresses and 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’m like, I wonder if 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 admissions 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. 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 this whole group of people, all of them believed in Christ. And their faith put my faith to shame. 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. Everything very serious. Like, I said a joke, a few jokes, and I kept getting reprimanded for joking. And I didn’t quite get it. And they’re like, you see 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. But their Bible, I realized, it 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, about two or three years of planting this church with Mark, the guy who was condemning me, he didn’t know he was condemning me. He didn’t know that the things he was preaching against were things I believed. And we were training these pastors. And when I would train them, I would just use the Bible. 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, 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 this information from? And they said, the Firm Foundations book. And I was like, well, it’s your choice. And believe the Bible, 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 go to a little bit further out of the city. And so every day I would walk from my house to school where I taught military school. Well, it’s a maritime university. Some students have to be involved in the military in one way or another at that school. But some of them were, 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. They needed 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 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 introducing myself and becoming friends with random people. And I met this group of mechanics, and I kept every day talking to them and then going over there and learning how to weld and do some things with them. And I was like, whose Bible is this? And they’re like, oh, that’s his mother’s Bible. And I was like, well, let’s read this thing. And so we started a Bible study. And eventually we had this, there’s a, I’m getting to a point here, but we had 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. Every day for three hours for a week, 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 we really want them to change. And we’re like, okay, it’s one of these little children we’ve been teaching. And she just kept going on and on. And eventually she’s like, 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 that Bible that I found was her Bible of this mechanic. And anyway, they, these two ladies and then two other ladies that were their friends became like the backbone of the second church plant. And then we started, I was really afraid to teach now because I had learned that 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 they’re 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, 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 so I decided with the second church plant, we’re just going to read the scriptures. And so we started and we, we didn’t just read the scriptures. We did mostly do that, but we, I had learned from 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 situation. 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 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? 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. And they’re like, so excited to 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, 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 I was going to ask all the Chinese people is, what does this say about God? What does this 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 interpretation of the scriptures. And so we all, like, one of the examples I often give is they, when we got to Philippians 4, and there’s this part that says, and the don’t, no matter what, in all things, don’t complain or argue. 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. If you never have anybody complaining or arguing, this is going to go somewhere. And it continued that way until 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. Not that entertainment’s wrong, but we’re doing a lot of different things in our church that others wouldn’t do. We’re trying to live it. And so then we got to 1 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 because they 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 me search it out. 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 and we had a baby at the time. And she said, 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, herself kind of, that’s a paraphrase of my spot, 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 a head covering? And she’s like, yeah. And then, so I was like, okay, we got to do this. And so when 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. If we can’t find out, and then she’s going to wear a head covering. And so then, 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 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. And really afraid to be leading some kind of cult. And 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 make it. He caused a lot of trouble and he would say, you see this book, it’s just as important as the Bible. This book was given by God too. 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. 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 then I was reading all these things about church discipline and I’d never seen it done or didn’t know how to do it. So we decided to have a meeting with this guy and to 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 after the meeting, I didn’t tell you this part, I had gotten shingles. I couldn’t sleep. I was so stressed. A lot of people coming and I definitely didn’t feel qualified to lead this group of people. And I had shingles all over my face and the doctors were like, you’re way too young to get shingles. We don’t know why you have shingles. And then after we got this guy, the guy decided he cussed me out and the Chinese had never heard anybody cuss so amazingly is kind of how they put it. They weren’t impressed by it, but they just never heard anybody cuss like that before. And him and his wife left our church. And then the next day my shingles were gone. It wasn’t completely gone, but it had healed. It wasn’t hurting. It became all this flakiness. It sounds very Pentecostal of me, but it was quite miraculous. I think that the whole thing was 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 a 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 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. I knew the guy who baptized him. I went to the 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. 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 stuff like that. Not long after, I’ll skip ahead a little bit, but the police captured and beat the Chinese that we had trained to be pastors. And they had done it multiple times, but the second time they called me, and we had just had my daughter Chloe, and we were at the Chinese embassy in Shenyang. And they said, 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, we took off. And the police there said that we really need to get out of town, that 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 home. So we went home, and right away, we had resistance from my in-laws with the head covering. Change in dress. And we started looking for these Mennonite churches that we had heard about. And we went to one, and we went in, and 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 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 I was like, well, this is weird. It’s like, I thought this was a Mennonite church. And like, it is a Mennonite church. I didn’t say this is weird, but I did ask them. 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 so then we went to another one. Homosexuality is a brethren 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 were 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. And that mission organization didn’t want anything to do with me because my desire was to start Bible studies and then eventually develop churches and their missions program. I mean, they were heavy drinkers. And 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 do the things that I was planning on doing. Like in the church that we were attending with my wife, with my father and mother-in-law, we went to a Bible study. And so we had changed. We had become desensitized to the 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. It was a men’s Bible study. 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 you think you can’t, the next guy literally talked about orgies and saying, like, if you stop doing orgies to try to please God, you’re going to hell. 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 if you follow the sinful 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. That 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. 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, 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 Milioni. First, we couldn’t get ahold 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. 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 bought a camper and a little truck to pull it, a 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 running 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 shake, 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, uh, and just so many things. It was just so wonderful. And then my wife called me and she’s 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, uh, 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. And I came 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 cause I didn’t own any. And I thought that was dress up, but then I come to find out khakis aren’t dress up at all. But anyway, um, then we moved up here and, uh, yeah, life’s been great. I started, uh, editing different ministries videos like Elam’s Hope For Wondering Amish and All Nations Bible Translators, the Historic Faith, Strength of Strength, uh, Sound Faith, Followers of the Way videos I used to, Sattler 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, I hope that’s what you wanted, Elam. Or Atlee. 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 you can unmute him. He wants to, but, uh, if he doesn’t want to, that’s fine too. But anyone, 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 needed the Anabaptist community, but I’m going to say, we needed 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’ve 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 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 the 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 asked 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, 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, 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 and 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 that have been non-resistant. Uh, they wouldn’t have believed in divorce and remarriage. And after world war two, they then gave that up or because of world war two, they were convinced that to be a true Christian, they needed to go fight. And, but in world war one, 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, 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 and to 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 Sattler College, and maybe, um, what’s the one Zolikin college with Dean Taylor would probably be the only two that I know that, uh, would be following the T the sermon on the mountain, the bit, 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 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 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, 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, uh, go further. It’s more like the 40 foot trailer and that there is a cost with 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. Eventually we’re going to have a teaching training 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 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, 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. I mean, 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. And they definitely 100% believe the Sermon on the Mount was for today. And it was God’s law, Christ’s law, and what we’re supposed to follow now. And, um, anyway, that’s the Historic Faith is that faith trying to show people through the early Christian writings. It’s not the Bible. It’s not, um, we don’t consider it scripture whatsoever, the early Christian writings. And it is, so it’s, they’re fallible men, Christian men, but there was a faith that was once for all delivered to the saints that we’re supposed to contend and fight earnestly for. And if you want to know what that faith is, that we basically go topic by topic in different courses to teach what the early Christians believed about baptism, what they believed about salvation, what they believed about war, the head covering, um, all different types of topics, but people, normal everyday Christians who haven’t grown up in an Anabaptist church would find the Historic Faith hard to swallow. It would be way out there for them. Um, that’s what Sound Faith is for. It’s more of a, in my opinion, it’s more easy to swallow and it helps people get ready to be able to, to be able to accept, uh, the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Faith has been so perverted in, uh, most churches around the world or what people call churches that, um, it’s hard to, when you read these, you auto, you automatically, if you came from where I came from, you read this, you automatically call them heretics. It’s so hard to swallow whenever you believe that you can fight and divorce and that if you can’t please God and you, you look at this and you’re like, well, they’re going to hell right away. But whenever you go on a journey and, God breaks down those walls that Satan has made. So there’s a thing I say all the time. Uh, the greatest lie is the lie that lies closest to the truth. I’ll say it again. The greatest lie is a lie that lies closest to the truth. Satan takes the truth and just moves it a little, a few degrees off and gets people to believe that. And he does that with so many things that these people think they’re following Christ. They think they don’t need anything. They, they, uh, they, they’re saved. They’re once saved. They’re always saved. They can’t please the Lord. And so what greater power is it for Satan to have, to make all these people think they’re friends of God, but yet they’re enemies. And so they don’t even know that they need to change. And so Satan has them right where they want them. They think they’re right with God. They’re going to be, get to, get to the judgment day and realize, that they were not right. And, um, so the Satan uses this truth, twists it just enough to where people think they’re following God when they’re actually not, when they’re following Satan. Um, I went on a rant there, but yeah, so, uh, that’s the Historic Faith. And, um, and any other questions? Yeah. I appreciate what you, uh, had shared. I love your testimony. I think I, I can sort of feel for you. And one question I have is you talked about the Mennonites, uh, trying to find a Mennonite church. And I don’t know if you did or not, if you, if you mentioned the church that you’re settled with now, or could you expound a little bit more on that? Yeah. Chambersburg Christian Fellowship, uh, on Google would say it was a Mennonite church, but it’s a church. That, uh, would be, I don’t know. I’m not very good at describing these things, but it’s a mix of a lot of people. And we have Elam. Well, Elam attends there regularly and Atlee. And we have ex-Amish. We have people that used to be Baptists, people that used to be, uh, I don’t know. There’s lots of different ex-evangelicals. And, uh, so I don’t know what you really call it. We, we, we often will say we’re Anabaptists, but the only reason we’re Anabaptists is because we baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Otherwise we’re not really baptized again. And in the sense of that word of Anabaptist, um, uh, and so, uh, we, some people might call it a Mennonite church, but I know some of the members wouldn’t. So I don’t know what you want to call it, but we’re a church that’s trying to, uh, follow Christ and his precepts together as a community as best we can. And, um, and we’re extremely fallible and make lots of mistakes. And we do ride the edge. Like it seems like a lot of the Mennonites may look at us and think, I wonder where they’re going to go. Uh, I think one thing that’s different is that we have a foundation, a glue of the, the Historic Faith. That we all, when we, we can see for sure that we’re supposed to live obedient lives and that because of the early Christians, we read the early Christians and we see, oh, so the early Christians, what I didn’t say is that they’re the best commentary we have for the Bible today, but that’s all they are is a commentary. They’re not scripture, but we can see what was handed down at first, uh, to the, to the saints by reading their writings. I mean, a lot of them are from bishops that John himself made bishops. Um, and so, uh, all that to say is that I don’t know what kind of church it is. Elam might be able to tell us or Atlee, um, but it, but it’s one that I think is in God’s favor, I should say. All right. Thank you for that. Appreciate that. Hey, Daniel. Yeah. We, I used to tell people we were Swiss brethren because most of the, um, people that were originally there came out of the Swiss, uh, lineage, but you know, I used to be a member at Chambersburg Christian fellowship also, and I came out of a, a gang mentality. So if they would take me, they would take anyone as long as you submit. Please don’t get in a wreck, Patrick. Huh? Don’t get in a wreck. No, I’m not. I’m going to hang curtains at a church right now. So, yeah, so it was an eclectic group of people that was spawned out of the Shippensburg Christian fellowship lineage, but it’s taken its own direction. I would say that we’re the Mennonites. What follows a way we’re trying to achieve Chambersburg Christian fellowship is achieving. Does that sound about correct? I’m not sure, but possibly. Hey, Dan Weeks. He must not have a speaker on. I’m going to shut up now. Thank you. Is there anybody else? Levi, were you going to say something? Yeah, I just wanted to comment on the comment that Daniel made on the closest lie or the worst lie. I was thinking about if an airplane takes off in L.A. and he’s headed for New York City, they only have to, I think it’s one degrees, they have to be off course and they’ll end up in Florida instead. I think that is similar to the faith. Sometimes it’s so close to the truth that we can’t even tell that we’re not on the truth when we start out, but it doesn’t put us in the same place at the end that we wanted to go. Yeah, I was really inspired. You talked about different denominations or different preachers that you interacted with in China and Haiti and I guess here in America as well. And they didn’t want to hear what you had to say or what you were believing. And I was thinking about us as an Anabaptist people. We need that as well, just as much as they do. And God help us that we are open to people that find the truth on their own. Sometimes they’re good to, maybe to help us see where we’re at. So yeah, I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, so Dan Weeks is on here. That is great. He always has something really, really good to say. Atlee, is he able to unmute himself? It looks like he is unmuted. You can go ahead, Dan. Can you all hear me? Yes. Oh, okay. Well, I just joined and I’ve just been desperately trying to get on. I had a link and I think I saw it this morning and said, oh boy, I’m going to join that. And I got on today and the link disappeared. And so I’ve been trying for 45 minutes to get on. So I wouldn’t have an intelligent comment to anything anybody said because I haven’t been on. Well, I miss you, Dan Weeks. Well, I miss you too. Appreciate you all. I think about you frequently. You and everybody else. Don’t be a stranger. All right. Well, I’m hoping to come and visit during the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Blau Rocks. Yeah. Very good. In January. Okay. Well, is there anybody else that wants to comment on something? And if not, can I ask you, Levi, to close us in prayer? You’re muted. Levi, you’re muted. Okay, let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you this afternoon. We thank you for this talk that we had. We thank you for the brotherhood. Father, we thank you for your son, Jesus, for the gift of salvation. And that through your word, we can come to the truth and we can be saved from our sins. And we thank you for the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us. There’s many questions, many confusing questions. Different opinions. And through that, sometimes it’s confusing to know what is the truth. And Father, we thank you that you still continue guiding us and teaching us through your word and other brothers in the church. Father, we just pray that this message could reach souls that are seeking you and that they would be drawn to continue seeking truth and you. And thank you, brothers, into your hands. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thanks so much, guys. Yeah, blessings to you all.