Assembly of God Church sells mobile home park from under missionaries and retired pastors.

madfloridian

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Fri Mar-30-07 01:01 PM
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Assembly of God Church sells mobile home park from under missionaries and retired pastors.

This just struck me as sad. It is nice park, well-kept. Many of the people here are retired missionaries of that church or retired pastors. It is not a large park. The Assembly of God academic arm, Southeastern University, is growing into a massive entity here. From a small bible college it is now host to such "illumaries" as Sean Hannity and Zell Miller.

The retirees from church positions tried to talk to the church leaders, but it made no difference. I think Southeastern could have let this be, built their entertainment center elsewhere. Those who devoted their lives to the church are disillusioned.

Church Sells Lakeland Mobile Home Park to University

DAVID MILLS/THE LEDGER
John Shelley, who moved from Canada to Lakeland with his wife, stands outside his home in Bethany Mobile Home Park on Friday. Residents have been told they have to vacate by Oct. 1 because the park has been sold to Southeastern University.

LAKELAND - There's nothing fancy about Bethany Mobile Home Park, a tiny enclave of about 50 aging homes snuggled on Lake Holloway. But it's paradise to its residents, many of them retired clergy and missionaries of the Assemblies of God church, like the Rev. Robert Curle, a winter resident from Michigan who purchased a Bethany home last March for $10,000.

A week ago, Curle and his neighbors were told the park is being sold to neighboring Southeastern University to make way for future expansion. Park residents have roughly six months to pack their bags and leave.

...."This lack of compassion from church hierarchy has only fueled outrage, said Harold Rutledge, 75, a retired executive from a Christian television station in Toronto.

...'"These people are devastated," said Linda Shelley, 57, of Lakeland, whose parents, Leah and John of Canada, have prepaid their lot rent for all of 2007.

"I cannot accept that people would be treated so badly by a so-called Christian organization," she said.

There was a meeting yesterday, and it did nothing to ease feelings. From another article:

But the 90-minute meeting left park resident Marvin Rinehart and many of his neighbors even more upset with church hierarchy for selling their scenic, lakeside enclave without warning and with little if any compensation for their losses.

Rinehart, 64, a retired design engineer from Michigan who has failing health, said he stands to lose virtually all of the $18,000 he has tied up in his home. Some of his neighbors stand to lose even more.

"The (Assemblies) District owes us and they've said they don't have anything else to say," said Rinehart, one of only a handful of Bethany residents who reside full time at the park, which sits on Lake Holloway on the north end of Southeastern University in Lakeland.