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* The Investigation Begins *

As most of you may have expected, curiosity surrounding my St. Matthew's rant has not abated. This reader has taken it upon himself to look into the ministry.

Subject: Hi

I couldn't make a lot of sense from your page. I just wondered what you knew about St. Matthew's Church ministry. I got my seed harvest plan book today, and all I did was send them 5 bucks when I got their first correspondence. The thing is, right after doing that, my wife won a grand playing bingo, and I got a raise at work. Coincidence? Maybe, but I choose to believe Jesus and God have something to do with every good thing that happens.

I have no idea where the St. Matthew's money goes. Whatever you know about this organization would be helpful. I have no local church at this time to support financially, but don't want to support a scam, either.

Thanks,
Gary Miller

Subject: Follow-up

Francis...

Just paged down and received the poor rant you laid on this lady. You don't have to ridicule me on your page...I'm saving the info for my wife. I believe we'll just find a local church to give our cash to.

They do seem legit...but, then again, no pastor's name and no idea where the money goes. I've written to aask them...I will see what transpires. They were very lucky the coincidences happened that did in my life, or I wouldn't have given them a second thought. I don't mind throwing 5 bucks away, but to keep doing it....

Thanks again for the insight,
Gary

Thanks,
Gary

Thanks, Gary. I appreciate your e-mail. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d be very interested in whatever information you receive from St. Matthews. As you may have read on my page, this whole thing started out as an innocent rant, but now I am genuinely curious as to the legitimacy of their church. The information available online was very limited (I quoted much of it throughout my correspondences on the page) so anything I can add will be great.

Currently, I am in the process of “resurrecting” my site after a catastrophic hard-drive failure; perhaps once I have recovered it, I will add your e-mail to the St. Matthew’s page—ridicule free. =)

I look forward to hearing from you.

Subject: In case you missed it...

Here’s a link to the best source of information I found on the ministry, as I quoted in my e-mail to Edie:

http://loper.org/%7Egeorge/trends/2001/Apr/56.html

After reading what you say, I believe I am going to use their postage paid envelope to request a pastor's name and what they do with their money before I send them any more. I'll let you know if I get a response, and what happens. I, too, am interested in exposing scams that are religiously based...if that's what this is. As Is aid, it's a pretty amazing coincidence that I got all that good luck after I sent them 5 bucks. I wouldn't have given it a second thought if all that hadn't happened.

Nothing makes me any madder than using the Lord for a scam. Please keep me informed of your project, and I'll let you know if they answer me.

Thanks again,

Gary

I am enclosing the following note in St. Matthew's "no postage necessary" return address envelope;

"I would like to support your ministry, but I need to know two things. Who is your pastor, and where exactly does the money that I send you go? Please specify to me in a letter how you money goes towards God's work. I anxiously await you response." And I signed it.

I'll be happy to send you their response.

Are you going to try to take action against them? Are you a writer who wants to "expose" them? Just curious...

Take care...thanks for the info...

Gary Miller
Huntington, West Virginia

Thanks for the update, I anxiously await their reply.

Will I take action against them? That depends; I’m not a notable writer with an internet following, I’m merely a high-school student who keeps a website for fun. However, I have become rather interested in the myriad of responses I have received from readers like you. If they provide a flaky response, perhaps I will send them a few letters of my own, and see if I can’t take some action against them. Local news teams are itching for exposé opportunities like these (Fox “Problem Solvers,” anyone?) We’ll see how it all plays out.

Cheers, Francis.

Well, I sent the message as I dictated it to you this morning...in their own postage free envelope! I shall keep you informed.

Good to know you're still in high school...exposing this group might be your first (or one of your first) steps toward national recognition (of some sort or the other).

By the way...I dropped off a $50 check to one of my local churches...and my wife was fortunate enough to win $300 bingoing Saturday. I guess "St. Matthews" doesn't have a lock on financial partnership with God. :) LOL!

Take care...I'll let you know what my next correspondence (and I'm sure there will be) from them is.

Gary

Subject: The Latest

I believe the last I wrote to you....I sent a request for information, like a pastor's name, and the worship times, to St. Matthew's. I sent it back to them in their postage paid envelope.

Today, I received a letter, along with an "angel shaped prayer cloth". Again, there was no mention of the ministry....just a letter "personalized to me" giving me instructions on how to place the prayer cloth on a bible along with the enclosed prayer request list, on which I'm supposed to write my deepest needs and prayers. Then, I'm supposed to return the prayer cloth, the letter, and, of course, they urge me to "plant a seed" in the form of some sort of financial offering by tomorrow.

They do assure me the bible ministry was estabblished in 1951, but no names are written...no name of a pastor, not even the name of the person who wrote this letter.

I will probably return the angel and the letter tomorrow, asking that I be contacted by a minister or pastor and that then, I shall possibly begin to support their ministry financially.

I'm sure I won't be contacted by anyone pesronally, and that i won't get anyone's name. It'll be fun to try....and since he postage is paid for...why not?

Keep in touch,

Gary Miller

Subject: Follow-up

Here's what I wrote under the category of "my most urgent need":

"I need a pastor's name, a church service time, or at least the name of the person writing me, along with evidence of how the money is being used for God's work."

We'll see how they respond...I'm sure it will be with another form letter.

Gary

That's all so far... we'll see how it all pans out.