Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Roland Robidoux and Carol Balizet

Table of Contents

https://www.culteducation.com/group/830-the-attleboro-robidoux-sect/2311-the-history-of-the-roland-robidouxrsquos-religious-fanaticism-and-the-strange-group-known-as-the-bodys.html

The history of the Roland Robidoux’s religious fanaticism and the strange group known as "the body"

A News Summary: "The Sect: Led by a father’s religious zeal, family spurned society’s rules by Globe staff, published by the Boston Globe November 26, 2000

April 19, 2006

By Rick Ross

Joseph Roland Robidoux, a door-to-door salesman, left the Catholic Church after listening to Herbert W. Armstrong founder of the Worldwide Church of God (WWCOG) on his car radio. And thus began one fanatical Massachusetts man's religious odyssey.

Eventually Roland Robidoux's extreme religious beliefs would isolate both his family and his followers and bring about tragedy. Members of the Robidoux group would burn their photo albums, destroy prescription glasses, cut their hair and pray for everything including gas for their cars. .

Murder charges due to gross neglect concerning two of Robidoux's grandsons would bring the group, often called a "cult," under public scrutiny and to the courthouse. One child in the group was literally starved to death before his first birthday.

But at one time Robidoux seemed normal to his neighbors.

At first he was only a follower attending meetings at Armstrong's controversial church.

Former WWCOG member Brian Weeks described Robidoux as a "loyalist" who swallowed Armstrong's teachings "'hook, line and sinker...''

Robidoux and his wife, Georgette had five children.

The Robidoux kids camped out with their parents for weeks during what WWCOG calls the "Feast of the Tabernacles." Robidoux tithed to the organization and kept its strict diet.

Teachers say the Robidoux children were energetic, popular and smart.

The eldest Michelle wanted to be an actress. Nicole was the self-described rebel. And Rebecca was a local waitress. Jacques was an athlete that helped his dad with a chimney sweep business.

Robidoux left WWCOG in 1978, claiming that God had called him to start his own church.

The church that Roland Robidoux founded was first named "Church of God of Mansfield" and later "Church of God of Norton." Robidoux attracted other disgruntled WWCOG members, but never had more than 70 followers.

''We would sit around the table trying to interpret the Bible, with all the dictionaries in Hebrew and Greek,'' recalled Weeks, a former member of the group. ''We didn't know what we were doing. To have the responsibility of leading people you need training, and we didn't have any.''

In 1986 Robidoux bought a two-story house on a wooded lot in North Attleboro, and moved his group there.

About then he met Roger Daneau, an old friend that also had also left the Roman Catholic Church and more recently a fringe religious group, which lived communally and practiced what Pentecostals call "speaking-in-tongues."

Daneau and his wife decided to join the Robidoux group.

The two men also went into business selling alternative-energy stoves. Eventually, two pairs of their children would marry.

Weeks went back to visit Robidoux during the 1980s. Roland Robidoux lectured him about how all churches are hypocritical and authoritative. ''But he failed to see that he was the authority of his group,'' Weeks said. ''He became the thing he hated. All the things that he was originally disgruntled with, he became. The sole authority, not being questioned. He believed that he had the truth.''

Robidoux's "truth" was hard on his family, which became increasingly isolated. A strict father he didn't like his children to be far from home.

When Michelle found a man she liked Robidoux questioned him, then later baptized him in a tub and married the couple in his backyard. When another daughter Rebecca graduated from high school, despite academic achievements and awards, her father didn't encourage her to attend college. Instead she married David Corneau, another member of the Robidoux group.

When Jacques graduated from high school, in 1991, he began working full time for his father and he married Roger Daneau's daughter, Karen.

''Jacques was a good-looking, clean-cut kid who would jog around the neighborhood and help his dad clean chimneys,'' said a neighbor. ''When I heard that he was washing windows, it broke my heart because he could have gone to college.''

Roland Robidoux had ''absolute power over his family,'' said Michelle's husband, Dennis Mingo, who later left the group. For example, one year he decided the family should eat only meat. The next year, he ordered everyone to become vegetarians and later to eat only organic food. The family always obeyed his edicts.

''There was one year that Roland said, `Why are we singing the same songs that these false churches sing?''' All the songs previously sung by the family were subsequently banned.

Robidoux's daughter Michelle composed a new song. ''We'd just sing that song over and over again,'' Mingo said.

The Robidoux and Daneau families home-schooled their youngest children and asked for cash at their businesses.

But the businesses failed and Roland Robidoux filed bankruptcy in 1995. The bank later foreclosed on his house.

''At first he felt like he'd made a mistake, that he shouldn't have started the business,'' said Mingo, who provided a home for his in-laws at his Attleboro house when theirs was auctioned off in 1996. ''But later he rationalized it to say that God did lead him to start the business and to fail, so that the family could be brought together even closer.''

Robidoux then found a book by Carol Balizet, a former nurse who claimed they are seven impure systems in the world: education, medicine, government, banking, schools, entertainment, and commerce.

Balizet said true believers should never seek medical care and only give birth at home.

According to Balizet's Web site, "No matter what the result, we must do what God says. We mustn't fall into the trap of trying to figure out which choice will work best for us: God or the medical system. Our response to God must be based on obedience, not on outcome.''

Robidoux's children began to have their own "revelations." Jacques heard orders from God telling him to give up this business, so he shut it down, Mingo told the Globe. Jacques was later named an elder of the group.

Now his sister Michelle began to receive her own "visions from God" too.

In February 1998, Michelle said that God had forbidden eyeglasses. Later God supposedly forbid shorts, cosmetics and photo albums.

The Robidoux group then took the name "the body."

In June "the body" followed God's order to travel to Maine in middle of the night. Robidoux promised them a feast, but later said they would fast instead. The group members drove until they were out of gas. Then they prayed for God to fill their tanks up.

Days went by and the group was stranded without food. Finally the police found them and Mingo's mother loaned money so that they could come home.

In November 1998, Jacques said God commanded them to throw away their books. Members then told relatives there would be no further communication. Roland Robidoux stopped contact with his 84-year-old mother, who lived next door, after she dropped out of the group.

In March 1999 - after her marriage to Mingo fell apart Michelle claimed to receive another vision. This time it was that her baby nephew Samuel not be fed solid food, only breast milk. As the boy starved to death his mother Karen was told that God was testing her.

One group diary recounted how Karen pleaded that God had given her a sign to feed her son. But Roland and Jacques Robidoux her husband rejected this, and said Karen must instead prove she was a true believer by not feeding the baby.

A member's diary warns about the ''woe-is-me attitude,'' and says that ''Abraham, David, Ezekiel, and even God himself'' sacrificed their loved ones, and concludes, ''God counts it as a gain to remove a loved one in order to get the results needed for His purposes.''

Mingo eventually gave the diary to police and they began searching for the boy Samuel and another baby, Jeremiah, who died at birth.

Cult members kept silent and authorities ultimately removed their minor children into protective custody.

One member, David Corneau, eventually cooperated with authorities in exchange for immunity. He led searchers to the wilderness grave of the two children in Maine.

Michelle, Karen, and Jacques were jailed.

In the end Michelle was released, but Jacques was found guilty for the death of his son Samuel and sentenced to life in prison.

Karen would be found not guilty due to the group's control and influence over her life.

The Boston Globe was able to largely reconstruct the history of Roland Robidoux's strange life and his group through interviews, diary excerpts and government documents.

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Cultists convinced only God will provide, Carol Balizet teachings

Table of Contents

https://www.culteducation.com/830-the-attleboro-robidoux-sect/2285-cultists-convinced-only-god-will-provides.html

Cultists convinced only God will provide

Boston Herald / September 3, 2000

By Dave Wedge

Two years ago, a fringe religious sect took an ill-fated road trip to Maine, leaving their Seekonk compound with no money and no food, thinking God would deliver them safely.

But when their cars ran out of gas on Route 1 in Maine, the members didn't rally together and walk to the nearest service station. They prayed - for gas.

"They surrounded the cars, put their hands on them and prayed," said Bristol County prosecutor Walter Shea. "They thought God would fill their gas tank."

For three days, they stayed near their cars, eating only berries from trees off the side of the road. Finally, a concerned relative traveled to Maine and called state police, who found the group and gave them $20 for gas to get home.

The cult, at the center of a controversial ruling this week that resulted in the forced hospitalization of a pregnant member, bases much of its religion on the writings of the Home in Zion Ministries in Florida and the Old Testament.

Suspected in the deaths of two young boys, members of the Attleboro-based group denounce modern society, instead putting their faith in God to heal, guide and provide for them.

"For whatever reason, they believe God speaks to them. They really believe that," Shea said.

The fringe Christian fundamentalist group is the subject of a grand jury probe into the deaths of 10-month-old Samuel Robidoux, who allegedly starved to death, and Jeremiah Corneau, who is believed to have died during birth.

Prosecutors say both deaths were preventable and are seeking charges ranging from improper disposal of a body to murder.

Neither boy's body has been found, despite searches in Attleboro and Seekonk, and in Maine's vast Baxter State Park, where the group allegedly buried two tiny coffins last summer.

Since the probe into the group began, eight members - including Jacques Robidoux - have been jailed for refusing to talk to the grand jury. Eight children have been taken from the cult and put into Department of Social Services custody.

And this week, a judge - fearing for the life of pregnant cultist Rebecca Corneau's unborn child - ordered the woman held in a secure hospital until she agrees to a medical exam or gives birth.

According to former member Dennis Mingo, the sect's beliefs are rooted in denouncing "seven systems" of mainstream society, including education, government, banking, religion, medicine, science and entertainment.

They were heavily influenced by the book "Born in Zion," by Carol Balizet, who heads a Florida ministry. Balizet, a former emergency room nurse, advocates natural home births, claiming only prayer is needed to bring life into the world.

"The book had a profound effect on the group," Mingo says. "Every week, they made little changes and became more and more radical. They were basically pulling themselves out of society and I just couldn't live that way."

While they run their own masonry business, they do so on a cash basis and keep their own records on a computer, which has been seized by prosecutors. They home-school their children, have unassisted home births and use herbal remedies, not medicine. While many have vision problems, they refuse to wear glasses because they are not "God's will," Mingo says.

"Most of them are blind as bats without their glasses, but they refuse to wear them" he said.

They think evolution is "a crock," Mingo says.

And recently, they burned up all their old photo albums, saying photos are a symbol of vanity.

The women wear cotton dresses and the men sport long beards. Completely withdrawn from society, they don't watch TV or movies, celebrate holidays or birthdays, or wear wedding bands.

"They see these seven systems as counterfeit systems," Mingo said. "They think God will provide them all of these things and that these systems were set up to take your attention away from God."

The family-oriented sect was formed by Jacques Robidoux' father, Roland, several years ago when he split from the World Church of Christ and started his own Bible study group.

The group feared the millennium and had "visions" that the world would erupt in violence and turmoil, but they would be saved.

"God" has led the group repeatedly to upstate Maine and Mingo says they were - and may still be - planning to set up a commune there.

"It's like they're on a different planet," he said. "They're not a part of our world anymore. They've gone blank. They're not the people that I know them as."

Carol Balizet's book influenced the Attleboro sect which medically neglected children to death

Table of Contents

https://www.thesunchronicle.com/book-influenced-sect/article_9be45450-0405-54d3-b65e-255d3f769e87.html

Book influenced sect

BY DAVID LINTON / SUN CHRONICLE STAFF Aug 1, 2000

Facebook

Twitter

Copy article link

Save

ATTLEBORO — Two experts on religions and cults say they expected Rebecca Corneau to refuse to submit to an exam by a medical health professional.

“ It's consistent with what this group has said all along,” said Robert Pardon, a founder of the New England Institute of Religious Research.

Pardon, who was a guardian to the 13 children taken from the fringe religious sect in November, said the group believes God will deliver their babies without the help of medical professionals or midwives.

The group is heavily influenced by the writings of Carol Balizet of the Home in Zion Ministries in Florida, said Pardon, who has read all of the sect's journals seized by authorities.

The Zion Ministries believe that God created children and only prayer was needed for God to deliver the child into the world, said Pardon and his assistant, Judith Barba.

Balizet, 66, is a former nurse who says she was led by God to leave the medical system almost 20 years ago.

A woman who answered the telephone at the ministries offices in Tampa, Fla., hung up when a reporter asked to speak to Balizet.

“ I can tell you she won't be interested in talking to the press,” the woman said.

When asked why, the woman replied:

“ Because she won't. That's the answer. Thank you.”

According to information on a Web site for the ministries, Balizet “ has been involved” in more than 800 “ Zion births” and speaks to various Christian groups throughout the country.

Zion births are home births with no input, assistance or backup from the medical system.

“ I trust God to deliver babies or heal babies. '85 And to look at the medical system as a source of anything good is simply not within my power,” Balizet writes.

Pardon, who has studied various cults and what he termed, “ high-control groups” for 10 years, said the Attleboro sect was heavily influenced in particular by Balizet's book “ Born in Zion” about home birthing and religious philosophy.

Book influenced sect leaders

Assistant District Attorney Walter Shea said the book was read by sect leaders Roland and Jacques Robidoux, who were impressed with its contents.

“ They read it and began to instruct the family on how to live, what to dress like and move away from society and the medical system, even to the point where they stopped wearing glasses,” Shea said.

Shea said he is not familiar with the Home in Zion Ministries, but said investigators believe the Attleboro sect is not “ wired to or connected to any other group.”

He said a midwife who helped deliver one of the children gave them the book when she saw how the family began to live. At the time Jeremiah died, the sect no longer used a midwife, Shea added.

Rebecca Corneau's last child, Jeremiah, suffocated and died because of the lack of medical assistance during a home birth last August, authorities now say.

“ They thought the hand of God would protect the child,” Bristol County District Attorney Paul Walsh said during a news conference on Tuesday.

Rebecca Corneau and her husband David both cited their faith in God and rejection of the medical system during a hearing before Judge Kenneth P. Nasif in Attleboro Juvenile Court on Tuesday.

Balizet has also crossed paths with authorities.

“ I have been blessed to walk through a little tribulation. I have been hauled before magistrates. I was arrested in conjunction with the home birth ministry,” Balizet is quoted as saying on her Web page.

Like the Attleboro sect, Balizet claims she does not believe in celebrating birthdays and is a former Catholic. She has written three novels and books about home birthing, according to her Web page biography.

Pardon, who has talked to current and former sect members in addition to reading their journals, submitted a 20-page report to the court before the care and protection hearings earlier this month.

Pardon and Barba praised the efforts of the state's Department of Social Services and the Bristol County District Attorney's office for taking the children out of the home when they did.

“ If DSS had not moved in when they did, another child could have been dead and all of it would have been justified in the name of God,” Pardon said.

The two experts also praised Judge Nasif for his interest in learning as much as he could about the Attleboro sect before making decisions in the case.

Pardon and Barba said they understood the reasoning of Walsh in trying to have Corneau placed in custody in a secure health facility to have her baby.

“ Obviously, they are very concerned because of the difficulty Rebecca Corneau had with her last pregnancy. They want to protect the child the best way they can,” Barba said.

Both experts said the DSS and Walsh want to avoid another death of a child.

“ The one's who are going to be called on the carpet is DSS. If another child died, the public would say `Where was DSS?',” Pardon said.

Officials for the social service agency say they cannot intervene in a case until a child is born.

DAVID LINTON can be reached at 508-236-0338 or via e-mail at dlinton@thesunchronicle.com.

Facebook

Twitter

PrintCopy article link

Save

Friday, November 10, 2023

New Visitors Page On Carol Balizet's Website

Table of Contents

https://web.archive.org/web/20050206214220/http://homeinzion.com/introduction.html

New Visitors

Contents of this page

About you, the folks we're writing to...

About us and our website...

What we aren't saying...

What we are saying...

About you...

Do these identify the kind of Christian you are?

Are you tired of sitting on a pew?

Want to try walking on the water?

Do you think there's more to the Christian life than complying with tradition?

Do you want more than passively receiving the same old programs, pablum, and preaching?

. . . Then, friend, these messages are for you!

You are part of...

Gideon's 300
the Benjamin Company
the Overcomers
the Barley Field
the Manchild
the 100-fold Harvest
the Remnant

jump to the top of this page

About us and our website . . .

At Home in Zion Ministries, we want to

support those who, like Peter, are getting out of the boat
encourage those who, like Elijah, are discouraged and lonely
reach out to the seven thousand who have not "bowed the knee to Baal"

At Home in Zion Ministries, we seek to unite and edify "the Barley," those within the Body of Christ...

who are hungry for God
committed to His goals
zealous for His glory
yielded to His will

jump to the top of this page

What we aren't saying
by Carol Balizet
June, 2002

Let me say this clearly and emphatically: we are not trying to change anybody. We never, never tell people what to do. We don't tell them what to believe, either. We never instruct others or make decisions for them.

The only thing we say is: ask God, and believe and do what He says, based on the Bible. We believe than each adult Christian is totally free to believe and behave according to his own understanding and his own conscience.

Despite this, our group is constantly accused of being manipulative and dogmatic, and we are blamed for the lives of others.

We have what we think are considered, informed, Scripturally based ideas about how to live a godly life in a evil world, and it has worked well for us, producing growth and fruit and increasing intimacy with God.

But we also believe, most fervently, that we are all responsible for our own decisions and our own behavior, always allowing for proper submission to authorities over us, like parents, employers and the law.

We also believe that we shall all stand totally alone on judgment day and account to God for our lives. I think it's clear that the excuse, "So-and-so said to do this..." won't stand as valid. We have free will. We all have the freedom in God to follow Him as we believe best.

So believe and live as you see fit, and God bless you. We are not trying to convert those who believe differently. No.

Our whole thrust is to affirm and strengthen those who already believe as we do -- not to convert those who do not! As we travel and as our materials are disseminated more widely, we continue to hear this kind of statement: "I always believed that, but I didn't know anybody else did! I thought I was crazy!" Those are ones we're talking to! Those who find no horror or offense in the way we live.

Please don't look on us as dangerous radicals, as cultists, as offensive. We're no threat to anybody. We're not going to sneak up on you, to lure you into a dangerous cult. We're a little bit different from current, standard Christianity, but that doesn't mean we're dangerous or even wrong. Give it a try; you may be surprised.

And I can promise this: It will not bore you.

jump to the top of this page

What we are saying
by Carol Balizet
June, 2002

I think almost all of us would agree that most Christians live far below what is promised in Scripture. For example, look at just a couple of things that were promised by Jesus (Who came to give us a life lived abundantly), by Peter (who said we already have possession of all things pertaining to life and godliness), and Mark (who proclaimed that we shall be followed by miraculous signs and wonders), and lots of other writers. And we won’t even talk about the promise of our Lord that we shall do greater works than He did.

Since we’re Americans, we have a degree of blessing in things like prosperity, comfort, self-determination and safety (at least so far!) but that’s just natural stuff!

I’m talking about spiritual blessings; about answered prayer; about peace of mind and soul; about seeing our needs met by God; about consistent healing for the body; about a confident and joy-filled life whatever our circumstances may be; about lives that are pleasing to God. And I’m talking about power in the Spirit, and frankly, Christians don’t have that most of the time.

When’s the last time you tossed a mountain into the sea? Raised the dead? Well, me neither. Not many of us do. Why? Does the Bible lie? Is it merely symbolic in its claims and promises, or are we missing something?

And as I wonder about our marginal Christianity, I think of all the years our ministry dealt with couples who were not just willing, but eager - determined! - to make their lives as pleasing to God, as unfettered and Scripturally - oriented as possible. They had at least a measure of what we’re talking about, and as the months passed, they increasingly led lives of purity and power and intimacy with God.

This was the situation: these folks wanted to have a home birth without any medical assistance. Just God and some helpful people. With no natural pre-natal care, they did anything possible to prepare spiritually. If we are relying solely on God, then we’d better be in a condition which frees Him to bless us. No serious sin, no dangerous deceptions, no reigning demons, no “open doors” through which enemy forces have gained dominion.

Here’s a very early incident that shows how this “I must please God!” endeavor started. An expectant father spoke to me after one of our meetings: “You know, sometimes I get a headache and I pray and it doesn’t go away.” I nodded and murmured, “Me, too.” He went on: “So what do I do to make sure that when my wife’s in labor, and maybe she has a problem, that it isn’t one of the times that prayer doesn’t work?”

Good question! And all the others who heard it agreed. They all said, “We need to get serious about this thing!” So we spent years finding at least some of the answers. What does loose God to bless us? What does hinder Him? These folks knew that in crisis, or even worse in catastrophe, they had to have power with God. And it seems likely that maybe the rest of us ought to strive to please and release God even if there isn’t an approaching time of crisis.

So we studied and prayed and learned, and together we discovered a lot of things that increase power with God. And we learned some of the things that block it. As we observed hundreds of these couples, we learned a thing or two about clearing the clutter which hinders God from moving in power in the lives of His children. Most of these writings concern what we learned; learned in the trenches so to speak. I’ll say this: none of it is just theory!

So we offer for your considerations some insights on things like prayer, truth, blood, drugs, faith, dust, religion, authority, suffering and a lot of other subjects. Our experience has given us some wisdom. As always, we welcome your comments, ideas and additions.

Thursday, November 9, 2023

Introduction Section of Carol Balizet's Website

Table of Contents

https://web.archive.org/web/20050206214220/http://homeinzion.com/introduction.html

Contents of this page

About you, the folks we're writing to...

About us and our website...

What we aren't saying...

What we are saying...

About you...

Do these identify the kind of Christian you are?

Are you tired of sitting on a pew?

Want to try walking on the water?

Do you think there's more to the Christian life than complying with tradition?

Do you want more than passively receiving the same old programs, pablum, and preaching?

. . . Then, friend, these messages are for you!

You are part of...

Gideon's 300
the Benjamin Company
the Overcomers
the Barley Field
the Manchild
the 100-fold Harvest
the Remnant

jump to the top of this page

About us and our website . . .

At Home in Zion Ministries, we want to

support those who, like Peter, are getting out of the boat
encourage those who, like Elijah, are discouraged and lonely
reach out to the seven thousand who have not "bowed the knee to Baal"

At Home in Zion Ministries, we seek to unite and edify "the Barley," those within the Body of Christ...

who are hungry for God
committed to His goals
zealous for His glory
yielded to His will

jump to the top of this page

What we aren't saying
by Carol Balizet
June, 2002

Despite this, our group is constantly accused of being manipulative and dogmatic, and we are blamed for the lives of others.

So believe and live as you see fit, and God bless you. We are not trying to convert those who believe differently. No.

And I can promise this: It will not bore you.

jump to the top of this page

What we are saying
by Carol Balizet
June, 2002

Since we’re Americans, we have a degree of blessing in things like prosperity, comfort, self-determination and safety (at least so far!) but that’s just natural stuff!

Carol Balizet's Website About Page And Collaborators

Table of Contents

https://web.archive.org/web/20050204045727/http://homeinzion.com/aboutus.html

Contents of this page:

to contact us
- by electronic mail
  - Would you like to order some of our publications?
    Simply send an email to orders@homeinzion.com
  - Do you have an experience in your walk with God that will edify the believers, confound the gainsayers, overcome the enemy and bring glory to God? We'd love to make them available to others.
    To share your testimony with us, email testimonies@homeinzion.com .
  - We are committed to support and pray for the ones to whom we minister.
    Address your prayer requests to prayer@homeinzion.com .
  - Would you like to know of like-minded believers who live in your area?
    To find other believers like you in your area, send an email to reachingout@homeinzion.com .
  - We welcome your comments, question, opinions and insights on any of the materials on our website.
    To send us feedback on our ministry, writings, or website, email your feedback to us at feedback@homeinzion.com .
  - Have you experienced technical problems on this website?
    If so, report tech problems to the webmaster by emailing webmaster@homeinzion.com .
- by postal mail
  - Home In Zion Ministries
    8702 Chriswood Court
    Tampa, FL 33635-1105
- by telephone
  - office number: (813) 890-3403
  - fax number: (352) 686-4626
jump to the top of this page
to learn about us
- Carol Balizet
  After 30 years' experience in the field of Surgical Assistant, Labor/Delivery Room nurse, Emergency Room Supervisor, ICU/CCU specialist and instructor and House Supervisor, Carol was led by God out of the medical system. Over a nineteen-year period, Carol has been involved in more then eight hundred "Zion Births." These are births with no input, assistance or backup from the medical system.
  She currently speaks to various Christian groups, testifying about her experiences in ministry to couples involved in Zion Birth.
  As a result of these experiences, Carol shares new insights about God's perfect plan for natural childbirth. She also speaks on divine healing.
  - Carol's Biography
- Bruce and Lori Beiswenger
  Bruce and Lori relocated to Florida in November, 1999 to become part of Home in Zion Ministries. Although they were both "in church" their entire lives, it wasn't until 12 years ago that they began their journey of trusting God, first as Provider, then as Healer.
  After three Caesarean sections, the Lord told them to trust Him for the birth of their children; their next birth was a Zion birth. The Lord then called them to have a Zion Birth Ministry.
  Bruce and Lori are the coordinators of the birth ministry, making referrals and establishing small groups nationwide.
  If you are interested in starting a group in your area, or just finding out where like-minded believers may be found, send an email to reachingout@homeinzion.com .
- Kathy Flanders
  Our support and prayer request coordinator is Kathy Flanders, whose biography will appear here shortly. If you would like us to pray for you, email prayer@homeinzion.com .
- Nicole and Van Van De Veere
  Farewell to the Van De Veeres
  Nicole and Van Van De Veere have been a part of our ministry for over seven years, serving in many different capacities. Nicole was administrator, office worker, telephone contact, keeper of accounts and records, counselor, hostess and general organizer. Van served in many various ways, especially in the realm of business - taxes, licences, and such.
  For the past several years, they have felt an increasing need to return to their roots, to move closer to their families and minister to them. We all believe that our duty to our kin is very important to God, and so we agreed with their decision. It involved a lot of changes, many of them uncomfortable, but the fact is, we cannot argue with God.
  So the Vs have now taken up residence across the country, three thousand miles from us, and they will no longer be ministering with us. All of us are still adjusting to the changes and to the fact that they are no longer a part of Home in Zion Ministries. We pray that God's highest and best will be manifest in their lives.

Carol Balizet's Autographical Information From Her Website

Table of Contents

https://web.archive.org/web/20050207214247/http://homeinzion.com/carolbalizet.html

Carol Balizet

A Short Biography

This isn't going to be the kind of biography which begins, "I was born of poor but honest parents in Dalton, Georgia, in the fall of 1933", although that's true. No, this biography will focus more on my spiritual life,which is of course the important part. It's the eternal part, where the action is.

I'll begin with a word about birthday celebrations. I don't like them. There are only two recorded in Scripture: parties for Pharaoh and for Herod. And these two guys were not put in the Bible as role models. I'm not sure they had the cake offering and the burning of candles as we do today, but I know they had gifts and a party; and in both cases some one was beheaded.

But even if I don't like parties, I'm always aware when another year has slipped away, and among my sixty-odd birthdays, four have been especially significant. These four actually constitute a kind of mini-biography in themselves. They are:

Thirteen: "I'm a teenager now! Whee! Nobody knows more than I do about anything, and I am fully able to run my own life!"
Twenty-one: "I'm an adult now! Whee! I can vote and drink and I can eat a whole handful of Oreos right before supper if I want to! Nobody knows more than I do about anything, and I am fully able to run my own life!"
Forty: "My life is half over, and it's a shambles! What did I do wrong? I need a drink!"
Sixty: "I am not my own, I am bought with a price, and I know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified!" Now is that progress or what?

I surrendered my life to the Lord at the age of forty. It was on Lincoln's birthday in 1974. (We can't seem to get away from birthdays, can we? Nice coincidence that I was set free from Satan on the birthday of the man known as one who set slaves free.)

I was in an absolutely desperate situation, and everything else I'd tried had failed. I was twice married and divorced, an alcoholic, a single mother of four daughters, constantly broke and in debt, an unsaved Roman Catholic, helpless and hopeless. I finally surrendered the chaotic mess of my life to Jesus, and He has eternally altered not just my situation, but also me!

God has given me a remarkable life; I've had some fascinating experiences in these 23 years.

I was led slowly but sovereignly by God out of my profession in the medical system. After thirty years in its service, God allowed me to lay it down. I dropped that thing with joy, and never for one nanosecond have I missed it.

I've written three fictional novels for the mainstream Christian press, and that was a real learning (and dying) experience.

God led me into a new, exciting, demanding, glorious ministry: home childbirth. For about nineteen years, I helped Christian couples have babies at home, depending only on God. I experienced it and observed it, then wrote books about it and now I travel all over the country talking about it.

Because I've walked outside the medical system for my healing for about 25 years - I quit using it long before I quit working in it - I also wrote books about healing, and now I travel to talk about that, too. I meet a lot of marvelous people. Since my ministry involves fellowship with people who walk in profound obedience and great faith, I've seen many miracles. As the Bible tells us, signs and wonders follow such people. I have a wealth of experience - my own and others' - with a God who delights to move supernaturally in response to faith.

In addition, I have been blessed to walk through a little tribulation. I have been hauled before magistrates (I was arrested in conjunction with the home birth ministry). I have been cast out of synagogues (church leaders said; "We think you'll be happier if you go where they believe like you do"). I've been investigated by HRS; I've been audited by IRS. I have been slandered and cursed and insulted and you know what? It’s all worked for my good.

My life has taught me one thing: our God can do anything! He is the Lord, the God of all flesh, and there is nothing too difficult for Him.

Can He deliver a baby? Of course.
Heal? Yes, that too.
Protect? Well, if He can't, nobody can.
Provide? A piece of cake!
Can we trust Him? If we can't trust Him, then we're really in trouble. And if not Him, who can we trust? Other people? Our own opinions and abilities? I don't think so.

I truly believe the hardest thing God has to do is to persuade us to give Him a chance. The biggest hinderance to His activity on our behalf is us. We stick the arm of flesh in between us and Him, we let other people get in there, we hurry to find some sight-realm solution instead of waiting on God. And the result is - He is limited. Not because He's unable, or unwilling, or too busy, or mean; but because we don't release control and faith and prayer to allow Him to act.

You can see that I really fulfill the old adage: "Life begins at forty". I was gloriously saved and I have gloriously lived. I have failed and disobeyed and lost heart and made grievous mistakes, but He just keeps on keeping on, and every time He brings me back to Himself. It has been an excellent adventure, and I can't wait to see what's going to happen next.

jump to the top of this page

Personal Testimony

The final straw in the chaos of my life prior to salvation, the thing that finally brought me to my knees in utter despair was this: one of my daughters was diagnosed as a manic-depressive psychotic and admitted for treatment to a mental hospital.

At that stage of my life, I was like most people: when I had a problem I couldn't solve, I went to the human experts. In this case, it was psychiatrists - but they couldn't solve the problem either. They had no answer, no means of defeating this enemy who had my child in bondage. After six months of hospitalization, drug therapy, group therapy, psychotherapy, she was no better. They finally admitted failure, and planned to commit her permanently to the Florida State Hospital for the Insane in Chattahoochie.

I was devastated. We had followed the route of the lady in Scripture who quote;..."had; suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse..." (Mark 5:26) I couldn't keep her at home (they'd told me she would kill herself if I did that) and I couldn't stand the thought of surrendering her to the forces which control mental hospitals. Between a rock and a hard place.

Like that woman in Mark 5, we needed to touch Him, the hem of His garment. But also like her, we had many "throngs" between us and Him: psychiatrists, social workers, unbelieving Christian leaders. We had been conditioned to think that Jesus worked only through people. I didn't know then that we can cut out all the middle men! If we have the courage, or the desperation, we can remove the throng of humans who keep us from touching Him!

But God was able! Despite my ignorance and lack of faith, He saved her. Three days before she was scheduled to leave home - probably forever - my sister had the bright idea that we try deliverance. (We didn't even know that word, then. We still thought of it as "exorcism".) And in answer it her suggestion, out of my inexpressible grief and my utter desperation, I complied. We'd had absolutely no teaching in this realm, no experience, and as far as I could tell no faith in its efficacy. But I laid my hand on my daughter and said: "I command you in the name of Jesus to come out of my daughter now." And it did!

She jumped up from the chair and danced around shouting, "He's gone!. He's gone!" And my sister and I watched in astonishment. God had become not just bigger, but enormous in our eyes. My daughter was transformed, set free.

As an added benefit, her teeth were miraculously straightened!

I celebrated for a few days, then just a whisper of annoyance filtered in. "Why didn't anybody ever tell us this?" I asked. As we considered this, I got more upset. We'd been sitting in churches all our lives and nobody ever told us about demonic activity, and about our weapons against it. It was not too long afterwards that we began to realize why they didn't tell us. It was because they didn't know.

So we began to wonder, "What else can the Lord do that nobody's told us about?" And without ever discussing it much, or making a conscious decision about it, we began looking directly to God for our information. Not that we didn't read other people's books, or listen to sermons and teachings and tapes, but we knew from personal experience that He's a lot bigger and better than most of what's being taught about Him. And that realization, that we're probably not going to get the whole truth if we simply depend on others, has flavored how we've walked with the Lord.

They told us Christians can't have demons; we knew they were wrong. They told us God no longer heals; we discovered they were wrong. They told us we need a man to stand between us and God because we can't hear from God for ourselves; that's wrong too. Maybe that's how they choose to believe and walk, but we wanted more.

For this reason, it has become habitual for us to question what man says. A person may be right or may be wrong; we need to seek God for confirmation. I don't mean to imply that we're the pattern you should follow, but I give you the benefit of my experience: a lot of what's taught is religious tradition, not the word of God. And if we believe it, it will produce at least deception.

Maybe even death.