The single fellow that had been meeting with us rode back with another family from our trip to North Carolina. We found out later that the couple he was riding with had questioned him about what we believed.
The wife of the couple that we all had visited in North Carolina appeared to be an open-minded woman, who was always searching for the truth. She sent us a lengthy email after our visit, asking questions on various doctrinal issues. The sincerity of her request prompted me to respond, taking each of her points and addressing what we believe regarding them. I wrote my responses from the heart, with little to no reference to George MacDonald throughout.
It appeared that I had been set up, because a couple of days later I received a call from C--k, the man of the house who had been getting together with us. He said that they were going to "take a break from meeting." I did not ask him why, but I suspected the reason. One or two days later he sent an email to us, saying that they could not continue with us because we were followers of George MacDonald. I replied by email that I was sorry that he felt that way and that, if they ever wanted to discuss it, we would love to meet them. They didn't.
The couple in North Carolina then sent us an email, bemoaning our apostasy. They attached an article on servants of the Devil, creating a New World Order by challenging the established Christian faith. We didn't reply.
I need to note at this point that at no time do we ever reference George MacDonald. We do love his writing, but we feel that the greatest thing we learned from him is that God loves us dearly and that we should trust His Holy Spirit to teach us. We have also come to realize that God uses instruments in all of his creation to speak to us and that we should never fear to ask questions. We can never go wrong if we earnestly love him and our neighbor, and we should seek and speak the truth in love. It is not for us to attempt to change anyone's mind; that is the work of the Holy Spirit, in God's time. MacDonald also strongly urged that we should never believe him or anyone just because they said it.
We continued to join weekly with the single fellow and an older widow who lived in our neighborhood. We shared a meal and had great discussions on all things spiritual. I believe that we were an encouragement to her. She has since died, and the single fellow is now behind bars (another story).
So on we go to the next part of our adventure.
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