A Valid Perspective of the Events Concerning Catherine, Andy and Patty

Grove, and the Church of Wells

If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the
matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. (Ecc 5:8)

Dear Reader,
I desire to put before your conscience an alternative perspective on the events surrounding
Catherine Saltzman (Grove), the daughter of Andy and Patty Grove. I speak as one who has known
Catherine at a level of deep and Spiritual friendship since the fall of 2013 when I first arrived at
Wells. She and I shared a room together when I first arrived at the Church and became friends and
have been since. I am aware of generally what has been reported by the news over these past years
and what has been promoted as truth by Andy and Patty. Yet, as one who has borne witness to
many of these events, and who will stand before God one day I desire to convey to you several
things which have been on my heart which I felt are utterly relevant and needful for the reader to
weigh in light of the common testimony spoken by the Groves and again revived publicly on the Dr.
Phil show (4/30/18).
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor…. (Eph 4:25a)
What many have failed to understand and consider is that the situation with Catherine has largely
been one of the exploitation of the weak by the masses and a failure to carefully put together the details
of Catherine’s past life as a child and leading up to her coming to the Church of Wells. I trust that as
you read this you will understand why this is a possibility and even is the reality if my account is
accurate. It is important to note, for example, what manner of woman Catherine was at the time she
came to the Church, where exactly she had come to us from, and how exactly her relationships with
her parents were: It is common knowledge among those who were present when Catherine first
arrived at the Church, and to Catherine herself, that when she first came to the Church to seek the
LORD for salvation, she was not living with her parents. For a time, before living on her own (of
sorts), she lived with her sister Amy Grove who is / was a Lesbian and a Witch. Consequentially,
Catherine was introduced to many great evils that were very harmful to her soul. Furthermore she was
26 years old and her relationship with her parents was nearly nonexistent. They were not on good terms and
there had been much strife, particularly between Patty and Catherine over the years of her
upbringing. In Catherine’s pursuit of God which took place for nearly two years prior to her arrival
here, she searched hard (though terribly misguided), often eating very little, wandering on the streets,
in one instance walking on foot in pursuit of the Amish who could not give her the freedom from
sin that she sought. In all her pursuit of the truth and genuine salvation, she did not see her parents as a means of
this hope. In fact, if you hear out Catherine’s report of her parents’ behavior over the years of her
upbringing, there was much hatred, strife, love of life and pleasure, and not a true and wholehearted
love and fear of God that any Biblical Christian who is right with God would have. In other words, they
did not have what she sought, and she felt no compulsion to turn to them to find God because she had seen and known
what manner of persons they were.
There is much that could be said of Catherine’s past. She went through many years of feeling
friendless and rejected by the world. Girls and women in her high school and college classes would
often tease and mistreat her. She was a lonely and miserable soul, deeply entrenched in sin when she
came here…
There are many who have seen Catherine after her arrival here, or perhaps seen her video
testimony, and felt that she is oppressed, or that her words are forced or contrived. But what you
must realize is that Catherine was far worse in these very ways of communication and social behavior
when she first came to the Church. When Brethren from the Church had their first meetings with
her to minister to her, she would often take several minutes just to utter a few words, and her body
language and social behavior did reflect years of isolation, mistreatment, and slavery to sin. It was a
very heartbreaking sight to behold as many here note. After she was saved, her ability to
communicate greatly improved! It was a miracle of the grace of God performed in her life! And thus
in all your assessment of her present social ability and like aspects, you must consider what we say:
that things were drastically worse before any of us had ever met her in person due to her past life in sin and surrounded
by sinners.
After it became clear that the Groves were bent on resisting and preventing their daughter from
being genuinely converted, the Church was faced with a clear choice. I mean, seeing that the Groves
were utterly unreasonable even despite dozens of hours of calm, kind, and hospitable conversing
and reasoning on the matter, on our part, and seeing that we were met with unreasonable wrath,
emotion, hysteria, and a hatred for the biblical Christ, on their part, I say again: we were faced with a
choice to make. Would they turn Catherine away due to the intense burden of dealing with the
personal and malicious confrontation of the Groves and the depth of burden and baggage that she
carried spiritually and emotionally, or would they lay down their lives, with a full and clear
understanding of the inevitable ramifications: likely a long season of being slandered under the intense
exploitation of the weak in this circumstance by the Groves and those who would believe their witness.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)
When Catherine was converted she became another woman, and the hatred and bitterness in her
heart vanished, and the love of God was shed abroad in her heart by the Holy Ghost! Those who
saw her before and after marvel at the sight of how the Spirit of God has changed this earthen
vessel! Yet one of her persistent struggles was her lack of boldness to reach out to her parents. Her
parents had been exceedingly rash, angry, threatening, and they hardly gave Catherine a chance to
speak, so the situation wasn’t easy to say the least. Partly because of this, Catherine struggled with
timidity after being saved to reach out to her parents. The elders, myself, and some other brethren
encouraged her to reach out to them and even reproved her for the sin of timidity in not doing so,
but it took some time for her to hearken. Yet she did by God’s grace! She stepped out in faith and called her
parents on the phone multiple times! I was present in two of these conversations in which Patty answered
the phone and was appalled at the cold and stony nature of her speech towards her. In her great
haste to speak I was unsure how Catherine would even be able to utter a word! It was very shameful
and sad to behold. It was difficult for me to see how Patty could have the slightest bit of natural
affection for her by the way she spoke to her!
Regarding the reports in the media of Catherine’s “four attempts to escape”, it would be
reasonable to hear Catherine out on these. In no instance was her intent to “escape” or to leave the
Church of Wells. Yet as many truly saved Christians, she struggled with sin, and when she was giving
in to sin she would often go on long walks to meditate. This has been her common way for many
years. Yet there was sin and unsoundness of mind in her heart at these times, but God in His mercy
faithfully restored soundness of mind unto her.
In the one instance where Catherine was taken by her father in his car down to the Groves’
home in Arkansas, it is very important to consider Catherine’s own witness, though she is slow to
speak, for if what I have spoken is true, and her ability to communicate is much better than before
she was with us, then would it not be an injustice and despite of the weak to fail to hear her out? You can hear
her video testimony here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a6o5Up3haI
In brief, she was overwhelmed and giving in to sin regarding the state of her relationship with her
parents in light of the fact that she was soon to be married, for fear of their slander and abuse
against the church. She was not trusting the LORD and sought to reach out to her parents (our
Church members had been compelling her to reach out to them and this had also been a reason for
her overwhelmedness, but in this instance she sought to do this suddenly and rashly). In her
confoundedness she went for a walk, which was very normal for her. Those who live in Wells often
have seen her walking throughout town by herself even at times on a daily basis. As time progressed
she grew afraid as she was walking alone in the dark on highway 69 and she desired to call for some
of her friends from the Church to pick her up, but her phone was dead and she didn’t have any
numbers memorized. A stranger who pulled over offered to call 9-1-1. Catherine accepted the help.
Upon the police arriving, she continued to pursue a conversation with her dad, who happened to be
very close to Wells at the time, and asked him to speak to her at the station, but he insisted on taking
her in the car. She then asked him if they could stop at a hotel to speak, but he refused her request
and kept driving. Against her will and pleas to return to the Church, Andy refused his own daughter and drove her
to Arkansas. Catherine called me from the car clearly distraught at the circumstances and telling me
about the evil speech of her father and how she had been seeking to preach to him and convince
him of his great sin. After arriving to her parent’s home, Catherine called me again to give me the
address and asking me to pick her up. Her parents in the background were in a great rage and
speaking very harshly to her. After my husband Sean and I went to pick her up, a series of events
happened (https://localtvkfsm.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/morris-letter-to-madison-county-
sheriffs-office.pdf) in which we discovered from a sergeant that a trespassing order had been filed
against us and simultaneously the Groves were taking Catherine to the psych ward in the Jewish Barnes hospital
in St. Louis to seek to have her institutionalized so that they could have legal custody over her for life. To be clear,
they were seeking to strip her of her legal rights as an adult citizen of America. Around this time we
lost contact with Catherine and were unable to reach her for several days until she contacted us from
the ward after having passed the mental examinations and desiring us again to pick her up from
there. The psych ward was very favorable towards us as they had personally beheld the manner of
the Groves towards Catherine, and they even sent police escorts to lead us in through a secret
entrance to retrieve Catherine from the hospital. According to Catherine’s testimony, her sister Amy
had physically abused her intensely while she had been in Arkansas in the presence of Andy and
Patty, who offered no defense for Catherine while watching the scene!

1
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? 2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh
righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. 3 He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his
neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. 4 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth
them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. 5 He that putteth not out his money to
usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. (Ps 15)

Dear reader, do you see how such a situation as Catherine’s can be easily exploited due to Catherine’s weakness in
communication? Do you see how her longstanding history of loneliness and abuse is wrongly being attributed to the
Church of Jesus Christ? The Church that laid down their lives and suffered all manner of slander on her
account is being blamed for her weakness, when Christ among us has done nothing but worked
gloriously to progressively heal her weakness! How is it that the Refuge of the Refugee is accused of being the
abuser? Dear reader, it is important that you would seek the LORD with a whole heart, with an
honest heart, with the holy fear of the LORD concerning all matters that pertain to the Truth! Even
the Witness of Jim Maddox, for example, must be put before the God of all the earth who searches
the heart and knows the truth! Dear Reader, there are many individuals that are so heavily
indoctrinated by slander against us that they are afraid to even speak to us! Yet many others who
have feared God and sought to hear His voice by His Spirit and written WORD, have been
gloriously and miraculously brought unto us, and most who have seen and lived here for some days
see very quickly the falsity of all the slander that they have heard, and are won to the Truth by the
Love of God and the holy fear which is granted to them upon the hearing of the WORD of God!
Thus I encourage you, dear reader, to fear not man who has no power, but to fear God who has
power to throw both body and soul into hell, and search these matters out which pertain to our
Church with an honest heart, and with an upright Spirit! For His Spirit cannot lie! His Spirit will
preserve the soul of those who seek the Truth and seek His face in humility!
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but
whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. (John 16:13)
For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. (2 Cor 13:8)
With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright. (2 Sam
22:26)
On Behalf of the Truth,
Preethi Morris