Lisa Miller, a sister in chains

 Here is the text of the latest letter from Lisa Miller, via Pablo:

Dear Brethren and Friends,

Greetings in the name of our Lord, the ONE Who is All-Knowing. I greet you today from the Florida Detention Center in Miami.  I arrived here on Jan 27 and I am still in quarantine -- day 21 (my bunkie tested positive for COVID, so instead of being released, today I took another swab COVID test and will wait for the results right where I am -- in quarantine.), in a 2 bunk, approximately 14 x 7 feet cell which is locked 24/7. 

My food is served through a 12 x 4 inch slot (within the main door) which is also kept shut and locked except when used to pass items such as mail, clothes and books from guard to inmate or when we needed to be handcuffed (we turn our back to the door, stoop a bit and thrust our hands through the opening).

I am so grateful that God knows all I need.  Even though I am in prison, God has blessed and spoiled me with rest and quietness after the experiences of being propelled through the realities of being handcuffed by marshals (I had 5 escorting me at one point!), patted down, strip searched, questioned endlessly, fingerprinted at every "station" of processing, and other such memorable actions before being placed in cell 31 of the Solitary Housing Unit (SHU) (in lieu of being brought directly into the women's unit).  My God knows just what I need.

Thank you to all who have written to me.  Words cannot express enough how I have been encouraged and built up in Christ by your kindness.  Even though you may not receive a personal thank you, (I am limited to how many stamps I can order per month and I am not permitted to receive stamps from the outside), please know that you have blessed me by your letters of encouragement and with your prayers for both my daughter and me.  THANK YOU!

Please continue to pray for my daughter.  Even though I believe God IS taking care of her she still needs the prayers of His people.  I miss her!  Even so, I feel comforted knowing that she has prayer coverage. 

Please continue also to pray for me.  Pray that I will "make myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them" (I Cor. 9:19b), and that I "give no offense to Jews or to Greek or to the church of God" ( I Cor 10:32).  Personally, I have prayed (for years) that God would put me in the places where He wants me to be; consequently, I know that I am to be here.  Please pray that I honor God in His choices for me.

In His Service,

Lisa Miller #27502-509 [note this number is different than provided on previous newsletter]

P.O. Box 019120

Miami, FL  33101

**Important:  Please note my current direct address. If you do not use this address with my correct prison inmate number of #27502-509, I may not receive my mail. :( 

Thank you!

Also, do not only put the name, address and prisoner's number on the envelope, but also directly on the letter or card you send.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And an update on Isabella:
https://www.eagletimes.com/ap/now-adult-in-same-sex-custody-battle-seeks-removal-from-suit/article_83fe3209-85e5-55c8-89e2-7c83a7061576.html

The now-18-year-old woman at the center of a yearslong, same-sex custody dispute that spanned Vermont to Nicaragua said in court documents filed Wednesday that she wants her name removed from a 2012 civil lawsuit filed in her name.

Lisa Miller is facing federal criminal charges in Buffalo for taking Isabella Miller to Nicaragua in 2009 rather than sharing custody with her former civil union partner, Janet Jenkins, of Fair Haven, Vermont.

In affidavits written and signed last month by Isabella Miller in Managua, Nicaragua, and filed in federal court in Burlington, Vermont, on Wednesday, the now-adult says she has been “happy, safe, healthy and I have been well cared for” since arriving in Nicaragua.

Isabella Miller said she remains outside the United States of her own free will.

“If (and when) I desire to return to the United States I will do so,” she said in the affidavit filed by Vermont attorney Deborah Bucknam.

Lisa Miller's Legal Battle Resumes

It's interesting that it was the very week in which an important deadline passed in the RICO suit against her, that Lisa Ann Miller surrendered to US authorities at the embassy in Mangua. And that this even did not register so much as a blip in the national news, formerly obsessed with the case. Not even when she was put on a plane to be rendered to the Miami Dade Detention Center for quarantine as she awaits trial for kidnapping her own daughter--the daughter who prayerfully accompanied her to the Managua airport. It's as if she is still surrounded by cloaking angels. And certainly she is being upheld in fervent prayer.

BREAKING NEWS in the Miller Kidnapping Case!

 Dear Brethren and Friends,

Greetings in the name of our Lord- the One who is All- Powerful and All- Knowing. I praise Him for providing for, protecting as in a cloud pillar, and sheltering my daughter, Isabella, and I these last over 11 years as I have been raising her for Christ in an undisclosed location. She is now 18 and free from the court rulings that I disregarded that stated that she was not to be taught the sacredness of marriage according to God:

Haven't you read that the Creator made them male and female... for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefor what God has joined together, let no one separate. (Gen. 2:24, Matthew 19:3-6, Gen 1:28, Eph. 5:31-32)

and from where I was put on the stand for the day concerning my Biblical conviction of how to raise my daughter due to being accused of “emotionally abusing” her with my belief of the two kingdoms- the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world.

Today, January 18, 2021, I am voluntarily surrendering myself to the U.S. Authorities by walking into the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua.

Isabella and I will be walking in together; however, we do not know what will occur, especially since neither one of us have current paperwork. We covet your prayers with our following concerns: that we could travel together to the US and that she could find a home that supports her convictions.

In addition, I ask you for prayer specifically for me to honor and to glorify God and for my health. Thank you in advance for your prayers. May our Lord be further glorified in this matter.

 

For His Honor and Glory,

Lisa Miller

Psalm 91

Editor adds:
Lisa forgot that Monday was a holiday back in the US, so the embassy was closed. She tried again Tuesday; Isabella was issued a temporary US Passport, and Lisa was taken into custody. They weren't sure what to do with her, but she begged them not to turn her over to the Nicaraguan authorities, who are known for their cruel treatment of Timo Miller for his part in this case (as recognized the the federal judge in Buffalo, who reduced his sentence to time served because of it). 

 I have not written about the Johannine Comma for some time, but new information has come available, especially regarding the Latin transmission thereof. Here are some preliminary results of my latest research.  

Different ways the Latin textual tradition renders “(they) bear record” in 1 John 5:7, followed by their distribution in the Stuttgart Vulgate

• testes (“are witnesses,“ 14x, none in Johannine literature)

• testificantur (“they testify,” 1x, none in Johannine literature)

• testimonium perhibent (“they provide testimony,” 3 of 4 are in Johannine literature )

• testimonium praebent (“they provide testimony,” none )

• Testimonium dicunt (“they speak testimony,” none)

• Testimonium dant (“they give testimony,” 1x, only in the Vulgate comma)

In his writings, John uses a form of the verb μαρτυρέω (testify) 44 times—a majority of all such uses in the entire NT. It is one of the major themes in Johannine literature. Now, when we look at the Vulgate text, we see that the majority of times the phrase “testimonium perhibent” (“they provide testimony”) is used in the NT are in the writings of John. And this remains the case regardless of what form of the expression is used. And this is, in fact, the common rendering in the Old Latin of μαρτυρέω in 1 John 5, including the several uses in the immediate context of verse 7. I have not yet determined how common it is in translating either half of the Comma, though. Nor where the first usage of testimonium dant is found.

A Petition from the Church to Donald Trump--or is it?

Here is the stunning transcript of a video available on Youtube. I provide the relevant part:

Hello everybody! Welcome back to another episode of Anabaptist Perspectives. We're here in Boston, Massachusetts at Sattler College. We're with Dean Taylor. You're the president of the college here. We're in your office, and you did a lecture on this earlier this year that really caught our attention, and we wanted to talk to you about that and and see if we can hit some of those high points. So, during that lecture you said—and it was obviously rhetorical just kind of make a point—you read a petition to our president Donald Trump. Can you just read that and then explain kind of what you're getting at there and then how that all ties in with with parts of our Mennonite history.

 Alright. Well excellent. OK. I'll start with a letter, and then I'll explain what I was thinking. Sure. OK. The idea was, it was bringing out that, you know, there's been a lot of, you know, negative things against the president, and, you know, we know we're supposed to pray for our president and pray and the government, and so the idea, you know, that all these attacks on the president that we should say something. But, in that, I wanted to make a point though because I was... what I was feeling was that too many of our people are imbibing—they're taking on this whole way of thinking of the current presidency, and that's very scary. So I wrote this petition. Here it goes.

To the president, Donald Trump:

We, the conference of Anabaptists, assembled today in Shipshewana and the free state

of Indiana, feel deep gratitude for the powerful revival that God has given our

nation's through your energy and promises joyful cooperation and the

upbuilding of our fatherland through the power of the Gospel, faithful to the

motto of our forefathers, "No other foundation can anyone lay than that

which is laid which is Jesus Christ." With greatest excitement, we are following the

events of our beloved country and experienced in spirit the national

revolution of the American people. We are happy that, in America, after a long time,

a government that freely and openly professes God as creator stands at the

head of the nation. With special sympathy, we hear that the

government takes seriously the realization of Christian principles in

social, economic, and cultural life, and especially emphasizes the protection of the family.

And signed the conference that I was with]. 

So, the point that I was

making is that, with just a couple words changed, that was a telegram—

that was sent from the Mennonites of Germany to Adolf Hitler.