Missionary Support Raising Training: Stories to Inspire - Con Artists

(Coach Curt shares some real memories from his life, and his favorite sermon illustrations. He hopes you are more than entertained, but inspired and built up in your faith as you pursue your support raising.)

When she confessed to me that she had beaten herself bloody with a lead pipe, it actually didn’t surprise me, in fact - I had accused her of that several weeks earlier. Before we back up and unveil Lynn’s story, please know two things:

#1. This story is 100% true. I know because I was first hand witness or participant to the details in this story.

#2. Even though Lynn was a seasoned and professional scam artist, I am not resentful or cynical. (This article is a brief version with highlights. The complete story with all of her activities would be a very long story.)

We first met Lynn when she showed up with her 4 year old son at our church where I was the pastor to the single adults. The first few weeks my wife and I had a caution in our heart about her, but couldn’t put our finger on it. Fortunately we trust in the Holy Spirit’s gift of discernment, and would soon learn to what extent we can and should. The only thing not right at first was Lynn’s ability to engage members of the church to baby sit her son, Jake. For single parents this was not unusual as the need for a break is needed, but sometimes hard to come by.

One of her first mistakes involved a single guy she started to see. To make a long story short, she had taken his ATM card and got cash. He wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, and somehow she got his pin number. He came to me, and she denied it of course, but eventually the video at the ATM machine proved him right. She even denied the video was of her as a hood covered most of her face. I knew it was her. She left our singles group and got involved in the choir. Our church had thousands of people, and she was going from group to group, as she had gone church to church before. I tried to warn the staff at church, but she had deceived them. Some church members were even mad at me for a while thinking I was being hard on this poor young mother.

A few days later we got a call at home that Lynn was in the hospital emergency room and she wanted us to come. The story was sketchy but something about her mom attacking her and getting in an accident as she fled the scene. Of course we prayed on the way to the hospital, but felt again something was askew. We arrived at the hospital and several people from our church were already there, as were doctors and nurses attending to her.

Real blood.

Real bruises.

I stood back a few feet in the small room with my arms crossed. I knew then just how far she would go. She looked over a few times checking to see if I was buying the story. As the doctors were attending to her, she finally looked over and screamed - “What do you think I did Pastor, hit myself with a pipe?” The doctors, nurses, and church people all looked at me and I said: “Yes, Lynn, that is exactly what I think you did.” Oh my.

After my wife and I were escorted from the room and the hospital, you might have thought we would have had doubts, but we didn’t. We knew we blew her scam wide open.

She didn’t come back to the church after that, until a few weeks later. She showed up at my office. I still really don’t know why she came, other than it was a gift from the Lord for me. She simply told me she was a professional scam artist. She said she had a great thing going at our church and had everyone duped - except me. (Which wasn’t quite true - others “saw” her also, but weren’t in the position to stand up to her evil ways.)

It was not fun or easy dealing with someone like her. God loved her, and she desperately needed help. One of the many lessons I learned in dealing with Lynn was just the simple reality of how depraved people can be - and not want help.

Insight to apply to your Missionary support raising training and activities:

One possible application to raising support: