Welcome to the Horns of Light Chronicles. Peter Berbalis chronicles his family story, prophecy, and testimony. God's story unfolds, from his grandfather in Lithuania, Nazi Germany, the Russian Revolution, to Ronald Reagan in the fall of the Berlin Wall, the gospel spreading across Eastern Europe, how God called Peter to Petra, Jordan, and so much more as prophecy and testimonies unfold.
And now, the Horns of Light Chronicles. Welcome to Horns of Light and, you know, Pete's journey onto Petra, Jordan, as we talked about many times in the Horn of Light adventure, but oh my goodness, what God is doing in the many strings of all our lives. And so, you know, unfortunately, there was some abuse of the church that was going on that obviously taught some deep, hard lessons that we can learn, and kind of digging into Hebrews 12.27 today, everything that can be shaken will be shaken.
And so I'm excited to hear what you got today, Pete. Sure, so just kind of picking up where we left off last week was a bit of a side note in this story, but kind of still going back to, oh, this is somewhere around 2006, have that call, you know, there's a scandal going on. We had already left that church and having to go before the board that didn't want me to go before them and that whole scenario, but the other thing that's kind of interesting for people who may be in the middle or headed into these situations, oftentimes, you know, you can kind of see when a cover up starts to begin. And in this situation, not only, what they ended up doing was the pastor ended up standing before the church, and they brought in, I think it was Rob Stearns, who was a friend of that church, and who that church perceived to have a lot of integrity. So that seems to be a pattern that comes.
They bring in somebody from the outside who has integrity to try and get that person to stand while the cover up is kind of going on. You know, I don't know how much knowledge this individual had or didn't have, but basically, in this situation, the person, the pastor, basically pulled kind of a bolt up Bill Clinton and said the relationship wasn't physical and in the end it was. And so it was just a big mess.
And after kind of that scenario coming to a close in 2006, 2007, somewhere around there, it went into a deep kind of 12 year desert. And I guess maybe for people going through this or having going through this, one thing that I just encourage is to stay connected to some believers that you can trust, and to find a church that will help nurture you back. And what's kind of hard oftentimes, especially when there's very charismatic leaders, that leader can play a much larger role in your relationship with Christ than that should.
And that's something that oftentimes, you know, we allow. But anyway, however that situation happens, for me, what ended up happening is that it just left me very skeptical. So as we were looking for a church, every church that we walked into, I could see something wrong, and then I'd not want to be a part of it.
And that pattern just kept kind of repeating, unable to find a place really to call home. And what really helped me was one church that we found. The pastor was just such a humble guy and I had a brother that was disabled that was coming to live with us, and he just helped. He was going to charge me pretty much nothing and help me refurbish a living area in our basement, so that my brother could stay there. So anyway, it was seeing a pastor who truly had a servant's heart that brought me back into a place of trust, once again.
And of course, you know, I, for me, paid him what he was worth, not what he was willing to do it for. But it was kind of through that process that started to see hope once again in church leadership and in leaders. And I think that's just so important to remember that we're supposed to lead as Christ leads and we're supposed to wash feet and all those things that oftentimes very charismatic leaders don't want to do. It almost becomes kind of a rock star lifestyle of Christianity. So then, um, that leads probably into this 12 year desert end up experiencing just a very brutal time, personally. And it was just kind of, you know, walking through the lowest of lows.
And then in 2006, so that would be around 2018, a close friend gets cancer. And that's kind of the marking points for coming out of this desert. And I think I mentioned this before, go to meet a pastor friend who a friend just keeps encouraging me to go meet. He anoints with oil, the next morning I can't get up off the couch. And the Lord really places Jonah 2. Basically, the Lord told me to pray for that pastor who had fallen.
As I'm face down on the floor in my basement, made it to the basement at this time, and just start praying for him and the Lord gives Jonah 2. And says, you know, this is what I had the impression that was given with it was that these are Christ's thoughts as he's dying on the cross and descending down into Hades after his death. So that was just kind of the start of that awakening. And then I run into that pastor again and we're having a meal and he ended up getting a telephone call at that meal. And a girl, a friend, has been struck by a car.
I think she went to Northern Illinois University. And the parents are having to make that decision as to whether or not to pull the plug that I think that very day. So he leaves and goes get the lady that has seen many people heal and it's kind of got that gift of healing that the Bible talks about. And they go to the hospital and they just start interceding. And I think they might have stayed through the night.
At least one of them. I don't remember the full story. But anyway, a week later from being asked, the parents being asked to pull the plug, the girl was discharged from the hospital. So I talked to him and he's kind of and I just kind of say, hey, you know, I'd like to learn learn more about this. So he just encourages me to she does a teaching on Saturday. So I already live kind of out in the country in Illinois.
And this is way out in the country in Illinois. So start driving on the weekend to to just go to her study and and meet and listen to her teachings. And it's just, you know, really a very kind of interesting time. But what's really interesting is that I realized one of the Saturdays is I kind of get online and just start looking at this church and trying to find out a little bit more about it. And the pastor that ended up falling at the first church, he's now the associate pastor at this church that's way out in the country, a couple hours away that I'm going to meet on Saturdays.
And so that just starts to freak me out a little bit. You know, I don't really want to want to see him again. And so anyway, just ended up with me praying for him some more. And then he's the head pastor resign.
And then he becomes the head pastor of that church and ends up kind of the same. I don't know about the cheating stuff, but it ends up failing and falling. And some of my dear friends are hurt. And so I guess maybe the lesson to learn from that is I had to make a decision.
I've gone to focus on the family. This is going back to 2006 and gone before the board, gone to the district, to the state council and talk to them. Talk to the head of that about the scenario and they were already involved in it. And then the only recourse left for me was to go to the state's attorney's office because money had been embezzled from another pastor that was on staff there. And that was the hardest decision for me because these were people that I vacationed with.
Our kids played together. And in the end, I just felt like I kind of did everything I could do. But I couldn't go to the state's attorney and maybe looking back, who knows if the state's attorney would have even gotten involved in a situation like that at that point in time. But, you know, it's one of those things that I look back on and say, could I have done more and had I done more? And that's why it's just so important to stop those and not just let them go on to the next congregation. And, you know, they're messed up people and they need God's touch in their lives also, but messed up people continue to create messes. And so in that scenario, it's just one of those things.
Could I have pushed it pushed it as far as I could have? And if I did everything that I could do going to the state's attorney, maybe that situation wouldn't have happened again. Maybe all my close friends wouldn't have been hurt as a result of another failure from this individual.
So and by failure, I'm not saying that he had another moral failure, but just his actions and his treatment of people from what I understood in this situation was just not good and caused the church to really decline. So those are the decisions that we have to make. And the encouragement to me would be do what you can do to keep and prevent these situations from happening again.
And affecting a whole other body and a whole other herd of sheep, I guess, is what I would recommend for anybody going through this type of situation. So take us, if you wouldn't mind, back, Pete, into that whole situation. Did you get a word from the Lord? Were you instructed by him on some of the steps, or where do you feel he was in your relationship during those difficult times? Are you talking about kind of when I was in the heat of the situation?
Right. I would imagine you're deep, and I just picture you knowing you as I do, that you're on your knees like, God, what's my next step? What were you sensing from him? Did you have a real sense of direction?
I guess for me, my world is very black and white. And so when you see what should be and what is actually going on, and looking back, would I have potentially did something differently? Yeah, I wouldn't have been, you know, I guess I would have done my best to handle the situation more graciously. But to me, you know, even on the private side, I got a letter from a consultant, and they basically, it was kind of an encouragement.
It was, hey, Pete's a pit bull, and he's not going to stop till he gets the information that's necessary to move the move the job forward. So that's kind of the nature of who I am. So I'd say once a situation is presented, and once I received that call of, there's a cover up going on at church from this, you know, the associate pastor's son, from that point for me, it's just full on, go at it and go hard until this situation comes to an end. Should I have been more in prayer about that? I was looking back now, absolutely.
But that's just kind of the nature of who I am, I guess. And, you know, you end up with some discussions and many board members had resigned as a result of the way the situation was being handled in the midst of the crisis. And I'd say, I remember one board member talking to me, and then I said I, you know, I wasn't going to not go and meet with the board. And I don't believe he had resigned yet at the time and he talked to the board and he just kind of said he's not going to stop until until this, you know, until there's some resolution to this situation.
So for me, it was really just looking at, you know, what should be in Paul's letters, I think it's to Timothy, where he described the qualifications for a leader, and those qualifications weren't being met. And then seeing that, you know, I guess in this situation, all that's known really is of that one individual, but I'd say typically in these types of situations, it's not going to be just one individual, it's going to be typically many more. And so, so it was just a keep on going till you get to the end. And for me that end was the state attorney's office and whether or not to go in or not go in. And in the end, it was just really difficult to do, knowing that the person who added bezel the money was an associate pastor's wife, and they had very young children, and what would that be like if the, you know, nth degree happened and she had to spend her life in prison. Now that was disclosed to the church, as far as the amount was never disclosed, but hey, this money had been embezzled and we had made an agreement that this individual, that this family had to pay back that money, but it was all handled in a very, very kind of half truth, half truth manner.
And I guess, I guess the other best thing that I would advise for people going through this situation is be as honest as possible to the body. And that was when I got a call from one of the leaders at the church, as I was going through this and he just called me up and just said, well, just, you know, something to think about, you know, how much money have you given to this church. And so it was just, but he wasn't doing it in a negative really way. It was just, Hey, you know, this is, this is an investment and it's something that, that, you know, his encouragement was don't, don't give up on trying to pursue justice. Cause he had, he was seeing everything that was being covered up and I'm not saying that's the right way, but I will say in his discussion with me, it was, it was an encouragement to keep going. Well, we will be back as this, Oh, the story is far from over as you will find out. So we appreciate you listening today and we'll be back with more. Thanks Pete. Thank you.
