To All Concerned:
I was born and raised in the ministry, and have given all 39 years of my life to help to get the gospel to the world.
After the [government] raid in February of 1990 when hundreds of innocent men and women and children were all kicked out of their homes in the dead of winter with literally no place to go, my husband and I struggled to survive. We had nothing, and I was pregnant with my first baby. Slowly but surely we got on our feet, but it took a lot of hardships to do so. Members of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries were scattered across the United States. We all kept in communication with each other, and little by little, members of the ministry started moving back to the Fort Smith, Arkansas area to be able to gather together and worship the Lord. We started out gathering in people’s living rooms who had large houses. It became too crowded. Amongst ourselves we began looking for a church building to gather and hold services. Tony was not in Fort Smith at the time. All of us members who were in Fort Smith got together and figured out how much we would all have to pitch in if we rented a small church on 45th Street off Grand Ave. Every month we all put our money in and paid for that church. That contained our gatherings until more members of the ministry started coming back. After almost a year it too grew too small. Pastor Alamo would visit periodically and would preach. At this time with so many people we decided amongst ourselves who could be teachers to teach all these kids, and we started having school. One of the brothers found the church property for sale on Windsor Drive and brought it to the attention of Pastor Alamo and the rest of the congregation. I remember clearly going over and doing a walk through with a large group of the brothers and sisters in the ministry. It would be a big expense, but God had provided before and we all believed He would make a way again. And so it was purchased. It was not bought for any one person or by any one person; we jointly purchased it. All of our labors went into buying that church. The same went with each property we purchased; it was jointly purchased with the purpose of housing the members of the ministry who wanted to work within the ministry to cover all the needs of a rapidly growing ministry, and to have housing available for families in need.
We were working out of small hole-in-the-wall warehouses. This problem was discussed amongst the brothers and Pastor Alamo, and everyone started looking for a suitable warehouse within our financial means. One of the brothers, not Tony, found the warehouse on 4th Street. Again, several brothers, not Tony, did a walk through, and we purchased it. It was not purchased for Tony; he never stored anything in that warehouse. Members of the ministry always had their eyes open for a property that would help with homes for members in the area. I personally found the house on 11th Street that became the brothers’ dorm.
I personally did very little to make the finances in the ministry, but we all worked together to make it possible, and God gave the increase. We had the different business ventures that made the money, but some of them had children that needed babysitting and teaching. These children needed meals and rides, and I helped in many of these departments. We had the printing department; the mailing department, of which I helped with sometimes as well; the office that took care of the bills; the mechanic shop to be able to maintain our vehicles; we had to have watchmen watching the properties; landscapers keeping up on the maintenance of the lawns; carpenters to build and repair the homes.
You are willingly ignorant to believe all this was made possible by one man, and for one man. We all built this ministry, and our Pastor Tony Alamo preached the gospel and wrote the literature. When the church roof was leaking, I and a couple of other sisters in the ministry called around to companies and told them we needed a new roof for our church. They donated the materials, and our brothers in the ministry put the new roof on. This is how we functioned. We won’t allow you to do to us what you did before, and throw us out onto the streets. We have not committed any crimes. You cannot legally take anything away from us unless you knowingly steal it without conscience completely disregarding our rights and your obligation.
Jennifer Seago