April 26, 2007

Dear Friends and State Leaders,

Most of you have met and remember Gavino and me from over 17 years of attending national conferences. We have been in leadership for 20 years this year, with FEAST in San Antonio, a regional organization serving Central and South Texas.

I would like you to add a situation to your prayer list. About 5 months ago a disgruntled family, named Epstein, that was attending a church led by Doug Phillips, pres. of Vision Forum, decided to aggressively attack their work in the church, Vision Forum, and also the Phillips family personally.

We had all prayed that it would be short lived and never expected it to grow. We now hear that many of the email lies have found their way to leaders around the country.

In January of this year I personally talked to Mike Smith with HSLDA about this issue when Jennifer Epstein made a blog post that insinuated that she had talked to HSLDA and that HSLDA was also critical of Doug. Jennifer would not say who at HSLDA was critical but said that it was an attorney. Mike Smith assured me that he could speak for HSLDA, and their organization has the highest regard for the Phillips family and the work that Doug is doing. Mike said that he would put his staff on alert for her name and phone calls, and that they would all be in prayer over this situation.

It has come to my attention that Jennifer Epstein has once again launched an all out internet/email war to destroy our good friends Doug and Beall Phillips. The Epsteins have begun contacting home school leaders in other states. As leaders in San Antonio, and as individuals intimately familiar with the Phillips family and Vision Forum, I am writing to encourage you to not believe these terrible accusations against our friends and the respected leader of Vision Forum.

The Epsteins are living in our area and we believe that Jennifer Epstein has engaged in unethical practices toward our own organization during the years of 2005 - 2006, and is therefore not welcome to participate as a vendor at our conferences because of past offences dealing with deception. Jennifer's deceptive character was not unknown to us when we heard about the attacks on Doug.

Jennifer Epstein's carefully worded self-appointment as a home school leader is misleading. She home schools her children and has a Charlotte Mason business. Her leadership as far as I know consists only of her customers. She had placed her name on our support group leaders contact list and also as a contact for tutoring. We have removed her from those lists.

The character of Doug and Beall Phillips is beyond question. I have known them for more than a decade and can personally testify to their good character. Please pray for their family as they battle these false accusations from the Epsteins.

The Epsteins are a troubled family in need of much prayer. They are now bitter and full of hate toward their former church where they were excommunicated for serious sins. Again, I urge state leaders to pray for this couple that they would come to repentance and stop their email hate campaigns.

Gavino and I appreciate your prayers for us in Texas and we look forward to seeing all of you in Glorietta and Albuquerque, New Mexico this fall.

Be blessed,
Gavino and Ruth Perez
FEAST

Here are the BCA and Vision Forum Web Sites for further review:
http://www.visionforum.com/about/issues/ep/
http://www.boernechristianassembly.org