'Blue Jay' Grew up in the Omaha Assembly
I was involved with the Assembly in Omaha, Neb.
from the time I was two years old.
My mother started attending there sometime around 1976.
I was the oldest of three children who attended the Assembly
every Sunday, Wednesday and probably 75% of the extra cirricular
Assembly events, i.e. fellowships, special meetings, brothers
meetings, etc. My
saving grace was that my dad allowed my mom, myself and my siblings
to be a part of the Assembly, but did not attend himself.
I was one of the oldest children growing up in the
Assembly. I detested attending,
but realized this was not a battle I was going to win, as my dad backed my
mom up. Therefore, I tried to
make the best of this situation.
Don't get me wrong, there were many nice people in the Assembly, but
I can remember being 5 years old and realizing that this was definitely a
lot more weird than anything else my fellow classmates were involved in.
My whole outlook changed on Assembly life about the end
of my junior year in high school.
At the Midwest Seminar in Champaign I decided that I needed God and
wanted to walk with the Lord. I
am sure that it was just a situation of surrendering to being beaten over
the head with something for so long.
Anyway, I began to have a strong "walk" until about the end of my
senior year, when for whatever reason I got distracted and left fellowship
for about two months. The
following August, the month before I was to leave before my freshman year in
college, I got scared and decided to jump back on board with the Assembly.
This time, though, I dived head first into it.
At the urging of Omaha's leaders, I cut all ties with my lifelong
buddies outside of the Assembly.
I was encouraged/told that the only time I needed to see them was at
Assembly functions or if it were an oppurtunity where I was going to witness
to them.
The college I attended my freshmen year was about 20
minutes away from the Assembly in Norfolk, Ne.
When I had left the Assembly for that two month period I had changed
my college choice to get as far away from the Assembly as possible...I
apparently had forgotten about Norfolk.
Anyway, at this point, being all gung ho about Assembly life and my
walk with the Lord, I was thankful that Norfolk was there.
Charlie Mather and his family were exceptionally good to me, and I
will never, ever forget that! I
was the only Assemblyite on campus, but in a short period we had a campus
Chapter Summary Bible Study going, had guest speakers such as Mike Zach
coming to talk, had groups of people driving down to Omaha to here George
speak, people attending the campus conference...The whole works!!!
I was on fire for the Lord and life was just dandy.
All fall I had saved every penny I had to be able to attend the
Winter Seminar in Fullerton.
Between a plane ticket and a few weeks out there, it was going to be a hefty
penny for a college student!
Before I go into
my "why Tim Geftakys is
synomyous with Satan" phase, I need to make a few remarks about my dad.
I mentioned that my parents are married, however my mom was involved
with the Assembly but my dad was not.
My dad and I were always and still are the best of friends and vey
close. I think my dad thought I
was half nuts for becoming an Assembly clone, but for the most part, it
really didn't change our relationship.
At this point in my life, I was a freshman away from home,
scared to death of making friends on campus based on the fact that I
was the only Assemblyite there, and very lonely.
I was probably dependent on the friendship of my parents at this time
more than any time in my life.
My dad was not and never was an evil man.
He simply was just highly educated and chose not to get involved with
the ways of the Assembly.
So anyway, I saved every penny I has that fall and
went to California (Dec 1992) to attend the Fullerton Winter seminar,
very excited about the fact that a few of my close Assembly friends my age
were going to be there and excited to "be amongst God's people" for a week.
It was here I had my first real experience with the ever so "godly"
Tim Geftakys.
For whatever reason, a few of us took a trip to visit the Assembly in San Diego. I think Tim must have been preaching down there. I think it was the week before the midwest seminar...Anyway, I got invited to go down there with a group and thought that would be great! We got down there, and I can't remember how it happened...All I know is that I ended up in a room alone with Tim Geftakys and he told me that he would never have any respect for me as a Christian until I severed my relationship with my dad. "Sometimes we have to take a stand" he told me. Now, if my dad were to come into fellowship, that would be a different story.
I was devastated.
Here I am, x number of miles away from home, and the heir to the
Geftakys throne is telling me to sever my relationship with my dad.
I didn't argue with him, but I could tell that he was less than
thrilled with my response. I
left San Diego 120% confused and distressed.
Meanwhile, while on this trip to California, the people
my age whom I was the closest to began to treat me like I was the black
plague. The fact
that my friends, my brothers and sisters whom I was so close to, were treating me in this manner was very
upsetting and hurtful. I was too naive to put
two and two together. I would
find out years later that Tim Geftakys questioned my motives as a person and
as a Christian, and told these people
to be careful of me.
To this day I don't know what exactly was said, but I have at least
one witness that will verify this account.
It was the most bizarre and hurtful experience of my life.
I went back to Omaha a broken young man: My close Assembly friends wanted no part of me, and I
was supposed to sever my relationship with my dad.
I left fellowship for good shortly thereafter. I was back in Omaha
for a Sunday worship, and just got up in the middle and left. I felt so
guilty. I truly felt like I was
choosing my dad over the Lord.
It took me over a year to clear my head.
The bottom line is this, Tim Geftakys is not a man of God. Think about it, when talking to this poor excuse of a human being, what about him reflects the Joy of God. Is God arrogant? Is God divisive? It took me about six months (for fear of ramifications) to talk to my dad about Tim's counsel. My dad told me about an incident he had with Tim aboutten years prior when Tim was in Omaha to preach and my mom talked my dad into coming out. In brief, Tim asked my dad what he was up to. My dad informed Tim that he was busy working on his Ph.D. Tim then informed my dad that he would be nothing but "Phenomanally Dumb" until he got involved with "this ministry"....Yet another example of Tim's "tactfulness".
The fact of the matter is this, I am over the
friendships that Tim sabotaged...It took about six months to get over
that...However, one does not mess with my family.
It is an extrmely important thing to me. I value my family in a huge
way. I shudder when I think of what would have happened if I had taken Tim's
counsel....How devastated my dad would have been, how devastating it would
have been for me, how it would have torn apart my family...Let's face the
fact, my little brother who was in high school had dropped out of fellowship,
so I guess I would have had to sever ties with him too.
There was really no sense in talking to anyone about this. If I were to tell my old friends outside the Assembly, they would have said, "We told you that place was a nuthouse. If I had told any of the saints, I would have been hammered for speaking out against a leading brother. The flip side is that after being involved for so long, it was impossible for me to be involved with other churches. The feelings of guilt that attending a church would bring would make me physically ill.
So in my postings, if it seems that I have personally attacked Tim, it's because I have. It's ten years of frustration and being extremely confused spiritually. I spent 17 years of my life in that place, and knew no other way. I always suspected the ministry was a sham, but until this website exposed the truth, I always just gave them the benefit of the doubt as far as their sincerity.
The reality of the situation is that Tim Geftakys is not about God; Tim Geftakys is about power. Tim liked the fact that he had the authority to potentially wreck families and peoples lives. It made him feel like a man. He gave counsel that in turn wrecked peoples lives, so they had no one to turn to but the Assembly...This in turn feeds his own, his brother's, and his dad's pocket books. He claims he knew nothing of his brother's abusive ways, he tried to wreck families, and he laughed all the way to the bank. Come on people....wake up!!!
As far as I am concerned, there should be
a tremendous uprising against the Geftakys's.
They need to be punished.
Exposure is not enough.
If Tim were truly sorry, he would pay back every penny he took from this
ministry, even if it meant selling his house and giving up his
cush lifestyle. The short of it is, they have committed the crime and
they should do the time! Aside
from being a family of adulters, they are thieves and should be dealt with
accordingly.
