Hi, well I thought I tell you about my experience with one of the cults.

I was a member of the Christian Assemblies International (CAI). I met them last year in spring when I was doing a traineeship in a company abroad. So it was not my home country where I got to know them. In the company where I worked I met a member of CAI. He was really friendly, he soon invited me to his house, I got to know his wife and his friends ( all of them were in the CAI). They were all really nice people and I was glad that I had found these people so I was not alone at the weekends but could meet with somebody.

It did not take long time when they started to inform m eabout their church.

Soon I was invited to their meetings. And well, I found it very interesting, I liked the songs they were singing and yes I was impressed by the testimonies. And after some weeks I made the decision to "get saved" as they call it. That means to get baptized and to "receive the Holy Spirit" and the sign that you have received is- guess what? Yes, to speak in tongues.

From that day on I went to all the meetings. Well, the meetings were okay, but the assembly life became stricter and stricter. Something that I had not noticed before I became a member.

But now when I was in, I realized that you had a lot of tasks to fulfill so that the life in the assembly was stressful! The women always had to cook a lot and everything had to be cooked exactly the same way as in the recipe!. There was a meeting every wednesday and sunday and saturday there we also met for working at the assembly? house. And sometimes on Fridays there was a women? and a men? night so again you had to spend your time with the other members, prepare food and everything. Assembly life was really time consuming! And then everything had to be done exactly, no mistakes were allowed. I caught myself thinking oh god hopefully I make everything in the right way.

And people often got rebuked, sometimes heavily! I remember one incident, when one member did not tell the truth and then he was rebuked in front of all other members! And the words they used were not nice!

And in the TSPF ( that is the assembly? letter which everybody has to read) ASW wrote who of the members behaved in the right way and who not. And he complained about the child of XY ( the teaching of the CAI says that the heart of a child is evil!). Well the treatment of the children is a topic of its own, there could be said a lot about it. They always have to be quiet and if somebody is not he is removed or beaten.

I don't think that children's hearts are evil, I think they become evil because of the treatment in the CAI. Can these children really be children within the CAI? I don? think so.

And then all this British Israel stuff... I never really believed it, I did not know ( even when I was in the assembly) what is that about, why is it so important to them, and the scriptures they showed me they did not convince me, in my opinion you could not derive these British Israel stuff from scriptures.

And also the tithes,in my opinion 10% is really a lot of money! And what does CAI do with the money I ask myself? As far as I got to know they have a penthouse somewhere in Australia and loads of other houses around the globe. And you are also asked to make donations two or three times a year, you have to donate money!!

ASW really made to me the impression that he knows everything. You have to do this or that and the Lord wants this or that..( better say Scotty wants this or that...) Well, I stayed in the Assembly for two months there, then my traineeship was finished and I returned home. When I was at home I met one time with people from my home country assembly, but there were too many question marks for me. In the end I ended up that I could not follow their teachings, I considered them to be wrong, thanx to god's grace that he showed me this.

I met with other people, I got several different opinions, I found out that tongues are not necessary for salvation and loads of other things of their teaching which is not right. I went back to my former church, and am now really happy that I am there and I try to follow Jesus as good as I can, it's not easy always, but the belief in God, his everlasting love is so wonderful.

Well without being in the CAI I think I would not have experienced this, it really showed me that it is important to let God into your life. But their teachings are wrong, they don't preach the love of God.

Well I was only in the Assembly for a bit more than 2 months. So I just know a few members and of course don't know all the things behind the scenes of CAI. I think there is a lot more to say about the things going on in CAI. There are members I am sure could tell more than me due to the fact that I was in only a short time, but long enough that I realized that it is not good. I am so glad that I don't suffer from any psychological damage, but I can imagine how hard it must be for people who have been in the Assembly for years to leave. I could not believe that this is a cult at first either. I thought that I have to obey God? word and stay in the Assembly but luckily I got out!

Well, this is my story...lots of greetings,
Freelady