Minor update. Last night my wife randomly encountered the younger sister the accusation of grooming has been made about. Reminder that neither of us sees this situation as resulting from her or her testimony, it is a result of their older sister who is my age.
This was two hours from our home as she was on the highway. It was a random dollar store within modest distance of their home.
It was an aloof and disconnected encounter. They did make eye contact, said hi, she held the door for my wife. She did not snub her. My wife reports that the energy was off. She feels that the girl has been coached against her.
Quite coincidentally, my wife reported to me that she felt very strongly that their hearts had been hardened against us, and she thought of Pharoah.
I say coincidentally because at almost the same time, three hours away, I was taking a Hebrew dance class with a married woman we take classes from. She is the main instructor to that girl Elle from months back. I haven't mentioned her because she isn't relevant in general. She is not easily connected to our church, being probably four steps removed or something.
We spoke about Israelite history for a bit. She mentioned social stigma and brought up Pharaoh and the hardening of his heart by Yahweh. I don't know if the high school drama with Elle ever reached her. I assumed that it had obviously been something she heard since I was asked not to come back to her classes at Elle's boss' house. We have continued taking instruction with us at her studio a handful of times.
My assumption has just been that she heard about the polygyny angle and is cool with it. Maybe those folks aren't gossips. She's on the same Messianic path we are - mostly - even though the rest of that crowd isn't.
The point is the Pharaoh mention, separately and hundreds of miles apart. And if I go back to a week and a half ago, the only male friend from my church I've been in contact with ALSO brought up Pharaoh and the hardening of hearts.
This is a three witnesses situation now.
Quite separate from all this, my wife - as a part of the emotional recovery process from this drama - has leaned hard into her female support groups. It has been really incredibly emotionally taxing on us. In the last few weeks a new older woman has come to her attention as someone who needs mentorship, guidance and support. Not a wifely candidate, just a hurting lady. So, my wife may be mentoring her on emotional recovery perhaps. Here's the funny thing - we have just established in the last few days that she is now going to Elle's boss' home and taking dance instruction from this same instructor. And she's a Sabbath keeper too so we may try invite her to an SDA church in that town next week. We aren't SDA and don't agree with their doctrine but they're everywhere if we ever need a random Sabbath service.
So that lady has invited us to come dance with Elle. And she's taken direction from a woman who is connected to our pastor. Part of moving here was to get away from the affects of being a public figure but it's happening again.
Separate aside - going back to the accusations. The older sister, my age, who threatened to ban my wife then immediately circulated false testimony about us. Before she married two years back I had been seriously considering approaching her about being a second wife to me. She and I had a ton of chemistry, and she has always been very attracted to me. She is aces at domestic housekeeping and cooking but very embittered from her first marriage. She's a "men are pigs" feminist with a lot of misandry. I have always teased her and maintained my masculine frame, and refused her emasculation attempts. Marrying her would be like putting a hornet's nest in the living room. She's a lovely hornet. But, in her first marriage she was with an openly polygynous FLDS dude. We didn't realize that she knew in advance before that marriage that he was polygyny-minded, but in the final discussion with her in the kitchen - the one which she used to accuse us of grooming her sister (an adult woman who wasn't present for half that conversation) she admitted that it was true. She thought she could "fix" him, but she was already going to their huge FLDS polygynous family reunions. She KNEW in advance yet has been using that failed marriage as a poor-me victimhood scenario since we met her almost five years ago. So that and her being attracted to me has something to do with this character attack. That's my wife's point.
I hope you all had your popcorn ready. If anyone established here wants to help us by having a video meeting next week, we could certainly use some support, just pm me. There are other things happening. We are experiencing spiritual attacks from various non-poly drama angles.