Re: Pastor Sun East in Colorado
Date: April 02, 2013 03:45AM
I don't know why I decided to Google my former church today, but I felt compelled to. I came across this forum topic and felt that I needed to share what I experienced at First Love, under Sun Warren, or Sun Hui East as she is now known.
My family was one of the founding members of that church. I started going with my mom when I was in middle school and left when I was 20 years old, so about 7 years. I left in 1999. I can tell you first hand, it is a cult. She is very manipulative and controls people with fear. I have never shared this in a public forum and have only talked about it with a few close friends, but I feel that it isn't helping anyone by not sharing. I would even take a polygraph test. I am being 100% honest.
It started as a branch off from Faith Christian Fellowship in Aurora. She left the church to start her own and my mom went with her. At first it was in a store front near the Safeway on Buckley and Mexico and eventually moved to the old post office on Dayton and Colfax. I left shortly before they built the church out on Picadilly and E-470. (Which was land and a home bought by Sun from the bank, right underneath a former family of the church, whom she promptly kicked out) and then they moved to their current location. As it has been said before, the church has never belonged to a denomination or any other organized group. It's just Sun and everything decided and controlled by her, there is no accountability to anyone but herself. Monetarily or scripturally.
Everything at first was normal (at least it seemed that way). As the years went on the focus really changed and I noticed a lot of things that just didn't seem right. I wish that I was more versed in the Bible then, as I am today, as I surely wouldn't have stayed as long as I did.
People started leaving the church after they had been at the Dayton location for a awhile. People were leaving, because her daughter had a dream that she actually saw the Book Of Life and she saw peoples names who were and weren't in the book. I will interject here that she believes that every dream is from the Lord. Once she had a dream that some fake plants we had on the stage behind the worship team were snakes trying to eat the them. The next day they were taken down. So obviously she believed the dream was from God and many members rejected this idea so they were told to leave. I didn't find out until sometime afterward that this is why they left.
On top of every dream being of the Lord or the devil, the also believes that everything is a demon. Tired? Demon. Hungry? Demon. She often commanded the spirit of sleepiness to leave people. (even if it was 11 o'clock at night and they had been at church since 6 that morning) One time, right in the middle of an evening service, she walked up to a member of the church (whom I know still goes there) and said, "I command the spirit of masturbation to come out of you right now!" He turned beet red but said nothing. She was very poor at being tact, and would often just blurt things out, regardless of location or whom was present. I realized I should never tell her anything in secret, because the whole leadership team would eventually hear about it, as well as the congregation at some point. There are no secrets there. (Unless it's her secrets)
There were many things that are unbiblical which went on at the church, which included manifestations of angels, laughing fits, crying fits, clouds (She called it a Glory Cloud) during services, bubbles floating around and landing on people during prayer meetings. Of course I never saw any of these things, so I must have been the one with sin in my life. One time, one of the members (who still goes there as far as I know) said he was in his hotel room at night and noticed a mist floating on the ceiling. He felt like he needed to open his mouth so he did and the mist entered into him. (WHAT?!) He then, soon after said had visions of heaven and hell. I remember the pictures he drew. The demons looked like big cockroaches. (Don't remember that in the Bible) Note, we were also recently visited by Mary K Baxter whom also had visions of Heaven and Hell (Gotta be like everyone else.) Of course Sun supported all this as Biblical and told everyone it was from God and not to question it.
One of the things that really bothered me and got me to start thinking about leaving was her claim that she was, not using the same terminology, clairvoyant. She said that she could go into a trance and float out of her body and go see her husband, Steve, at work and her children wherever they were. Anyone that uses witchcraft and says that it is a gift from God, even though God strictly forbids it and calls it an abomination, is a false prophet. She had many prophecies over the years that failed to come true. One which was a result of my leaving the church. I know, if they read this, they'll know who I am, but I don't really care anymore...
I was going to school full time, working full time and at the church everyday except for Saturdays. I told her that I needed a break. Just a month or so to get some well needed rest. She told me to come talk to her after church. I went in her office and she proceeded to tell me that if I left the church, I would lose my position and have to earn my way back in. She also said that when I left, my then fiancee would leave me within 3 months and that I would be miserable and come crawling back. I felt gutted and torn. I still came to the service that night and she was preaching on how God was thinning out the heard and separating the sheep and the goats. I had enough. That night was my last night there. I left long time friends, people whom I loved and trusted (I know some still go there) and never went back, I never even said goodbye.
That same evening, I got a call from someone who recently left the church as well whom was a friend that I hadn't seen at church in a few months. She told us (my fiancee and I) that she had it on her heart to call us and tell us what had been going on behind our backs at the prayer meetings we weren't at. Sun was telling all the girls to cut their hair because my fiancee had long hair and a spirit of lust, and that she was trying to pull me away from the church. They weren't to talk to her or socialize with her in any way. She told me more about all the manifestations that were happening at the church and also about how Sun had bought the house out from underneath her family. She said the Lord compelled her to call us that night, and it just happened to be the night that we left the church. Amazing how God can confirm your decisions and answer prayers that quickly.
About that false prophecy, we'll it's been 14 years since I left and I have been married to the same God loving woman for 13.5 of those years and we have a beautiful daughter. Every anniversary I think about what Sun said and how she was trying to control me with fear and thank God for opening my eyes to what was really going on.
I could write all day about the things that I experienced at First Love, some which I won't on this forum as it could be a legal matter. Long story short (too late) it IS a cult. I know there are good God loving people that go there, and that on the surface it looks like a good church. It's when you get into the upper echelons of the group that you realize what is going on. It is all about Sun and getting as big as she can be and having as much control as she can. I know of others who have left the church that won't even use their real name so they can't find them. Pray for your sister's eyes to be opened... before it's too late and Sun has her sign over her Will and estate to the church. (yeah, that's happened too)
If you have any questions please ask. God Bless.
I don't know anything about the supposed "beating" I left when Samuel was still very young, at least 11 years before it took place. but I do know 4 of the 5 men that supposedly held him down. It actually wouldn't surprise me if it was true though.
PS. Are they really moving to Texas? Yay! I hate running into some of them at the grocery stores from time to time. Very awkward...