Laura Silsby is now Idaho poison. People are putting distance between themselves and the PersonalShopper.com CEO cum jailed Baptist missionary.
PersonalShopper's offices are shuttered and dark in Boise. The company's COO and VP of Financing have changed their LinkedIn pages, dropping personal information and direct connections to their company. A local Idaho contractor talks to the Wall Street Journal about his dealings with Ms. Silsby then denies the statements 3 days later. Even her fiery pastor, Clint Henry, is now making statements attempting to put her at arms length.
Clint Henry, Central Valley Baptist Church
Last week, Clint Henry was out in front of the fight, defending his detained flock in Haiti:
“One of the reasons that our church wanted to help is because we believe that Christ has asked us to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world, and that includes children.” After the 10 Americans were taken into custody, Rev. Henry went on to lead his congregation back in Idaho in prayer for the detainees: “Help them as they seek to resist the accusations of Satan and the lies that he would want them to believe and the fears that he would want to plant in their heart.” (AP via Yahoo News)
However, as of February 5th , Pastor Henry was whistling a different tune (from KTVB.com):
"They [Silsby and other missionary Charisa Coulter] have been in our chuch for a couple of years probably at most, but somewhere during that period of time, they began talking about what they were envisioning to do, this dream they had....so our church is not a key player in making the orphanage happen, that is, what they have done."
Ringing prayers of endorsement and complimentary denouncements of Satan for Ms. Silsby seem to be at an end.
Kuna, Idaho Contractor, denying WSJ article
A February 3rd Wall Street Journal article chronicles a fine idea gone wrong for Ms. Silsby: a good intentioned missionary, heart in the right place, big plans for her New Life Children's Refuge project in the Dominican Republic.
It seems too, according to WSJ, Ms. Silsby had "equally grand ambitions" closer to home. The article went on to cite Mr. Eric Evans, a contractor living in Meridian, Idaho giving proof of that by reporting:
The Idaho plan called for a "multi-million-dollar complex" for runaway children on a 40-acre lot in Kuna, Idaho, according to Eric Evans, owner of Eric Evans Construction in Meridian. Ms. Silsby told him it would have an indoor swimming pool, tennis courts and dormitories for the children, said Mr. Evans, adding that she had discussed having him build the project.
Weird thing is, however, today Mr. Evans is denying the WSJ interview. From the Idaho Statesman:
Eric Evans wants to make one thing clear: He is not building a multi-million-dollar complex for runaway children on a 40-acre lot in Kuna for Laura Silsby as reported in the Wall Street Journal on Friday. Evans has been deluged by reporters calling him and knocking on his door wanting to know more about the Kuna project, which he had never heard of until today. He said he did talk to the Journal, but did not know where the information about the Kuna home came from. Kuna City Planner Steve Hasson also has not heard of any such project. Evans met Silsby, who has been charged with child abduction in Haiti, a couple of years ago when he sold her a house in Meridian. He has not worked with her on any other projects since then, Evans said.
In this awkward situation, there are only two possibilities:
- The Wall Street Journal is lying
- Mr. Evans is lying
but only one option I see as making any sense. (Update: Spokesperson, Robert Christie of Dow Jones & Co. told me in an email today "we stand by our story.")
Personal Shopper Executives
Carol, a former PersonalShopper employee, told me that Jason Haugen, VP of Finance for PersonalShopper and Laura Silsby shared a mutual vision of business guided by God. Carol also mentioned the COO, Nicole Gerhing during our conversation, no mention of God with Nicole, Carol, referring to her as a "bean counter".
I went where any good professional networker goes: LinkedIn. Naturally, both Gehring and Haugen have profiles. In the past couple of days, however they have changed.
Once an open profile, sharing personal information like her love of international travel and foreign languages, "especially French," Nicole Gehring’s LinkedIn connection now is closed. The basic information remains, where she worked where she went to school, but the personal sharing is now gone.
Jason Huagen’s, two days ago listed as VP of Finance for PersonalShopper.com, LinkedIn profile changed in a similar way. When I visited his Haugen's profile last week, it included all of the usual information. Where he went to school – Gustavus, St. Thomas and MIT (the guy is no slouch) – current occupation (was listed as VP of Finance at Personal Shopper.com ) and as owner of J.R. Haugen and Company, CPAs in Boise, Idaho.
He is no longer listed as VP of Finance for Silsby's PersonalShopper. Jason’s past profile, the one that existed until maybe a day or two ago, listed in the personal sort of “about me” section he and his wife’s mutual passion for pre-marriage discipling.
Gehring and Haugen removing their public profiles from a social networking site in the wake of their business partner, Laura Silsby's, international news making arrest seems like common sense.
Haugen's passion for dicipling may well have nothing to do with Silsby's Baptist goals; Nicole Gehring's understandable love of international travel and the French language, wholly inconsequential.
Eric Evans coming out in the Idaho Statesman denying claims of knowing Ms. Silsby's Idaho runaway home plans, and Pastor Henry's cooling fire both likely only sheer coincidence.
Sources, further reading:
- Eric Evans denying the WSJ information he supplied regarding Kuna and Ms. Silsby: http://www.idahostatesman.com/localnews/story/1069999.html
- WSJ article - February 3, 2010: Missionary Stumbles on Road to Haiti
- Mr. Haugen's Boise, CPA firm: http://www.jrhaugen.com/BioJasonHaugen.aspx
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Kerry Lauerman
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Comments
I would have a hard time seeing Catholics getting into this kind of mess. We expect bureaucracy. We invented it. We would never assume that we were allowed to simply pick up children over the course of a week and take them off to another life. I think people who went as part of a secular political organization would expect legal complexities as well.
Am I wrong in this prejudice?
Well, not quite but I think we all take your point. But perhaps about the only real unifying belief among "Baptists" is absolute local church autonomy.
Baptists have always had problems with rogues of all sorts, there's no mechanism at all to tell "unBaptist" anybody, they just set themselves up as a new church of their own.
And the Catholic Bureaucracy hasn't faired all that well at reining in problems down through the years and certainly has serious ones of its own in the US right now.
I've no idea what to make of any of this, except that scoundrels pretending to be of a faith are nothing new, to any faith.
I will keep reading.
that woman needs a good tar and feathering. And rode out of town on a rail.
Them were the days.
@Akopsa, have you heard about this Silsby story yet? Here it is summarized in the U.K Telegraph:
"...the extraordinary account of Richard Pickett, a web designer from Kentucky , and his wife Malinda certainly raises questions about Mrs Silsby's intentions.
The Picketts were in the final stages of adopting three Haitian children when, with the paperwork approved, the quake struck. Twelve days later, Mr Pickett travelled to Haiti to collect the children. While he was away, his wife received three calls from Mrs Silsby, of whom the couple had no prior knowledge, offering to pick up the children herself when she arrived in Haiti.
"My wife was very clear with each time that under absolutely no circumstances was she to try and do that," Mr Pickett told The Sunday Telegraph. "In fact, I was already with the kids in a refugee centre by then. But we have since heard from the orphanage that she turned up, claiming to be our friend and asking for the children."
He believes Mrs Silsby had obtained their name from an agency involved in adoptions from Haiti. And orphanage workers have said that she "cried in frustration" when she was rebuffed by her requests for children from other establishments. It was then, it appears, that she lead the group to the village where parents say they were encouraged to hand over the children.
I guess you would have to define which baptist group. There are literally hundreds of them that consider themselves "baptist." I have found most people and communities have those who blindly follow and those who question. I find it easy for any individual to get into a mess including Catholics. This group was lead by an individual who had no accountability to any Baptist Church.
Most missionary sending groups (like the Baptist, Catholics, Wycliffe, and hundreds more) have a vetting process and an accountability procedure to prevent problems with the law. Most responsible missionary groups learn and understand the culture and laws of the countries they send missionaries to, but there are a lot of loose cannons out their like Silsby.
Maybe in their heart they want to help, but most times their egos get in the way. Instead of being accountable to someone who could say no, the break out on their own and play by their own rules. And many times it ends in disaster.
Most people do not understand just how easy it is to start a ministry or even a religion. All you need to do is file some paper work. ordain your ministers and you are in business. It does not matter if you are qualified, trained, or even that you know what you are doing.
With all of that said: the individuals caught & detained in Haiti, did not have a missionary's heart...but a self-serving agenda. They revealed their true motives and intent by taking the children (without respecting policy), and leaving their parents & other adults to suffer from a lack of food, adequate emergency health provisions, and sub-standard tents & living conditions. They made promises to the parents, in an effort to take the children from them; and played on the self-less sacrifices of the parents, that were willing to give up their babies to provide them with a better life. How tragically sad this is (on many levels). Laura Silsby slithered into Haiti like a snake, swarmed in like a vulture: seeking whom she could devour; attempting to profit from the hardships of those that needed comfort and help. She used devious cunning to convince those that joined her (possibly beguiling them)...who may be attempting to now bail out of Silsby's sinking ship...to save themselves from the fate of this doomed & self-professed zealot. Like the ill-fated followers of the late REV. Jim Jones (and his kool-aid death cocktail)...it makes one wondered what load of crap did this woman serve up to convince these people to travel to Haiti, to rescue Haitian children. DID GOD REALLY TELL HER TO GO THERE OR IS THIS JUST ANOTHER CASE OF THE DEVIL MADE HER DO IT? I have seen all the photos of this group of (dare I say) missionaries, and many of them look like the only thing that they could manage to successfully pick up would be an order of hot wings and a 12pack. Laura Silsby appears to have maintained a life-long calling to fool a lot of people; who are now (as we read here) divesting and distancing themselves from her. Obtaining the children of Haiti was nothing more than an attempt to both fund and legitimize her grand plot (disguised as some sort of grand & noble vision). I read today that the lawyer defending them is being investigated by the government of El Salvadore & Interpol; to determine if he is the same individual that has been involved in human trafficking. Silsby is reported to be financially bankrupted, her home is in foreclosure, and has had some involvement with the police.
What is also disturbing about this story (although not an uncommon occurrence) is: Laura Silsby and her cohorts are using G.O.D., their supposed church affiliation (whatever that is), and the guise of some sort of missionary relief: to conceal & cover-up their real intent...to financially profit from the brokering of children & families in distress. They should receive the maximum sentence allowed (15 years) imprisonment in Haiti. Their actions were a horrific crime against humanity. There have been many quiet/behind the scenes "missionaries" who have sent monies, contributed through texting from cellphones, participated in gathering, packaging, and shipping goods to Haiti, and galvanizing in their respective communities, schools, churches, jobs...to assist in relief efforts; purely motivated from a sense of need and the spirit of giving. Many have done these self-less actions without seeking any compensation, and in many cases...giving when times are tough and challenging. Families who have lost jobs and homes are digging even deeper, to give to those in Haiti. That is why the attempt to snatch these children is so deplorable. What makes our humanity rise to the occasion (in times of suffering and catastrophic conditions): is a commonly shared belief that despite the condition or impoverished state of infrastructure; the rights of human dignity, quality of life, and humane treatment still applies. This crime was a human rights violation, of the highest magnitude, because it goes against what is decent, humane, compassionate, and just. Laura Silsby acted as a predator...preying on the weak, defenseless, and the suffering of others. Even an agnostic or atheist (or just spiritually indifferent) has a sense of decency, fairness, and justice; because these principles speak more to and are driven by the heart and common sense, and not necessarily guided by any particular religious belief. After all, we are human and bound together by something very primal, innate, and globally-dependent. We are branches of the same tree, sharing the same planet, breathing the same air, and looking at the same Sun. If Silsby and the others were so concerned & interested in helping, doing the right thing, and responding to those in need (as missionaries); why were their efforts only pointed toward the children, and not at all the people of Haiti, or even to those that remained in the village where the children were abducted? Because they were not there to help!!! How can they claim to be there to facilitate adoptions (with some families waiting 2-3 years for their paperwork/procedures to be completed)...and then Silsby's group claiming that she and the others did not know of the procedures, opted to not investigate procedures or choose to not follow policies or international protocol. REALLY? I believe that Laura Silsby was hoping for a confusion in policies (in the midst of catastrophic chaos), so she could slip in, through the back door of the Dominican Republic and under the procedural radar. WHETHER YOU ARE FROM IDAHO OR IRAQ, OHIO OR ASIA, CALI OR CAMEROON, BAPTIST, CATHOLIC OR SPIRITUALLY CONFUSED...THESE PEOPLE WERE NOT MISSIONARIES OF GOD - THEY WERE KIDNAPPERS OF CHILDREN, MANIPULATORS OF THE MIS-FORTUNATE, AND NOTHING MORE THAN CRIMINALS WITH EVIL/MONETARY INTENT TO PROSPER FROM THE SUFFERING OF OTHERS. (Special Note: Thanks to Laura Silsby and her misguided crew...I may now have to re-examine & think twice about eating potatoes grown in "Idaho")...Love&Light to All
Or The Rutledge Family:http://rutledgereview.blogspot.com/
You will not see what is really happening in the lives of these Akha families, only what the Vernons and other missionaries want to tell you. Not a few children, but thousands of Akha children have been taken by this method over the last 30 years, and until the Haiti case no one was noticing any of it. Now its time to notice what Idaho is up to in Thailnd as well.