Volume 12, Number 1, July-August 2008
PABC History
by Norman Edwards
The Bible is different than most religious
books in that it mentions more sins and mistakes of its followers than it does
things they did right. Christians assure themselves they would stand firm and
not complain if they were with Moses, David or Jesus when individuals or the
powerful government was falsely accusing and trying to kill them. But today,
some of those same Christians want to avoid a ministry because they are “sure”
that a work that God is doing would never get into any kind of trouble.
This writer realizes
that there is a lot of confusion about the history of Port Austin, and hopes
this will clear it up. Questions are welcome.
Port Austin Community in 1991?
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Part of Port Austin Air Base log & card from purchase
investigation by Church of God Seventh Day brethren in 1991 |
While we don’t know
of any exact words God has publicly written or spoken about the former Port
Austin, Michigan, Air Force Base, there are many people who have been involved
with it who believe God is doing a significant work here.
During the late 1980’s, it was evident that the U.S. Air Force no longer needed its Port Austin base or any of the numerous other radar stations designed to detect missiles and airplanes coming over the North Pole. Satellites were in use for that job. After the Port Austin base went up for sale, a Christian activist in the area, Marie Kiehl, began to pray regularly that the base would be used for God in a powerful way—that it would not become a casino or a prison of some kind. She is still actively involved in Christian ministry in the area and prays that the property will be used for Christ.
Seventeen years ago, in the Spring of 1991, Bill Rice, Norman Caswell , and others from the Ministries of the Bread of Life made
plans to purchase the former airbase property
to help needy people, including former
conflicts, addicts, etc. Records of this visit remain to this day (see
pictures, right.) Most of these individuals attended the Church of God Seventh
Day. Norman Caswell (at left in
this picture) still attends the
The plans of Ministries of the Bread of Life did not come to fruition. However, they did spur a group of local Port Austin business families to form a corporation to purchase the former airbase property. The property was sold to the 754th, Inc., in March of 1992. The corporation name came from the “754th Radar Squadron” which was stationed at Port Austin, but nobody in the corporation had any ties to the military. The corporation did much to improve the property and used some of its facilities for recreation—but they never captured enough of the Port Austin tourist trade to make it worthwhile. Some hoped that a Christian use would be found for that property.
In 1999, about half
of the former Air Force property was purchased by
When it appeared that the program was ready to move forward, trouble struck. The full story would take many pages, but hopefully these few paragraphs will suffice. In December, 2002 Arthur Hawkins, who was the CEO of Exide Corp., was convicted of one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in relation to an employee of Exide corporation bribing a Sears employee with $10,000 payments to accept defective “Die Hard” batteries.
Years ago, this
writer made the mistake of assuming that nearly every person who was convicted
by our court systems was guilty. That belief changed after gathering some
experience with real life accused felons and prisoners, and after reading
independent assessments of our justice systems that say 50% of the people in
prison should not be there—and that there are untold numbers who should be
there and are not. Indeed, the justice system is often the means of choice used
by evil people to kill or imprison their enemies—as happened to Jesus and his
apostles, and many others in Scripture. (See People of the Passover) Jesus
told us: “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous
judgment” (John
This writer was not present and knew nothing about the Exide-Hawkins cases when they occurred and cannot prove guilt or innocence. However, he became very suspicious after reading media articles about the “biggest retail fraud”, and then reading court documents to see what actually happened. From the initial press coverage, one might envision thousands of victimized consumers who suffered injury or inconvenience from failing batteries. But from the later years of court documents, it seems that someone was out to “get” Mr. Hawkins.
In reality, the court cases contained almost no complaints from users of the batteries. The case started when a former Exide employee asserted that Exide was selling batteries that were not up to specifications, that they were sold as “new” but were either “used” or contained only token amounts of mandated performance-enhancing materials. After this story became generally known, several Exide and one Sears employees were fired and various state attorney generals and other entities sued Exide because of this testimony—not because of their experience with the batteries. Some ended up receiving a few millions dollars out of court, others obtained nothing. Johnson Controls, Inc., who lost the “Die Hard” battery contract to Exide, sued Exide, claiming that Exide obtained their contract by fraud; they later dropped their suit. A criminal case against Exide was also launched, and in March, 2001, a plea bargain required Exide to pay $27,500,000 in fines and cooperate in the prosecution of Arthur Hawkins and two other employees. Exide filed for bankruptcy, and as of 2006, still had not paid the fine.
The appellate court’s
summary can be found here: www.ca7.uscourts.gov/op/02/02-4356.PDF.
Arthur Hawkins and
Douglas Pearson were not charged with planning this scheme to sell substandard
batteries. They were accused of creating false documentation for the “bribe
payments” so they would look legitimate. These two men were not allowed to
present evidence that the payments were legitimate or that the people
testifying against them had a vendetta against them. The employees who actually
claim to have made the bad arrangements and the $10,000 bribes received 0 to 5 months
in prison and $10,000 to $30,000 in fines in exchange for pleading guilty and
testifying against Hawkins and Pearson. Pearson was sentenced to 5 years with a
$150,000 fine, but Hawkins was sentenced to 10 years and a $1,000,000 fine.
This large sentence could not have been given to him for one count of wire
fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wife fraud. The sentence was
derived from “sentencing points” that were given to Mr. Hawkins for crimes for
which he was not even charged or had a chance to defend himself. The US Supreme
Court said this practice was unconstitutional in
This writer has no way to determine who is and who is not telling the truth. But it sure seems odd that Mr. Hawkins ended up with more punishment than all of the other people put together—and is only accused of a small part of the “big scheme”. Were those involved in the bribery seeking profits for Exide, or primarily trying to ensnare Arthur Hawkins?
Why would anyone go
to that extent to make trouble for him? Shortly before this time, Arthur
Hawkins became a Christian. He then refused to participate in the occult and
other corrupt practices that are so common among corporate and government
executives today. While this writer cannot prove it, he believes the most
likely scenario is that Mr. Hawkins’ conversion to Biblical Christianity was what
pushed people in power to do what they could to have him convicted. Currently,
Arthur Hawkins is regularly conducting Bible studies with hundreds of inmates
in Federal prison—and has brought many men to Christ. There are not many “
It is interesting
that when Mr. Hawkins started his ministry at Port Austin, he found a group of
individuals who intended to help him with it. They all verbally agreed to work
together for a common goal. After a few months, it became clear that some of
them were more interested in helping Mr. Hawkins spend his money than they were
in actually doing the work. Warwick Potts and his family were the ones who
actually stayed on the former airbase property and maintained it. He came to
the
The Potts family was here from 2000 to 2004. Near the beginning of this time, Mr. Potts mentioned that they had a revelation that they were to be a “beacon” or a “marker” at Port Austin, holding the place for what God was going to do in the future. It certainly worked out that way.
We Enter the Picture
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Hallway of Edwards' family home was completely smoke damaged. Servants' News and ministry office doors were shut: little damage. |
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Looking thru destroyed wall at corner where fire began. Right foreground is the metal bed springs where Jesse Edwards awoke to alert everyone to the fire. Jesse lost everything |
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Closed door kept fire out of Norman and Marleen Edwards’ bedroom, but smoke and heat damage was considerable. |
During 2003, Norman
Edwards was beginning to write Servants’ News articles on the need for a
place to educate Sabbatarian young people. He found another person who had
similar ideas and was desirous of contributing his time and resources to such a
project. That fall, a representative of the
These four men had spent hours talking about their goals and how they might work together to achieve them. At the time of purchase, however, there was no written agreement between them. Norman Edwards made some efforts to write parts of a plan, but the men could not all agree on exactly what it should say. The effort was put off several times. Much later, Mr. Edwards realized that purchasing this property without a written agreement for each man’s responsibility was probably the biggest mistake of his life. If people cannot agree on paper, it is very unlikely that they will agree in practice.
The difficulties that
arose between the above four men during the summer of 2004, the Matthew 18
efforts to solve them, and the lawsuit that followed have been the subject of
previous writings. The names of these other men are deliberately left out as a
court settlement has been reached in regard to the property and there is no need
to open old wounds. In brief, the settlement required us to pay $1000 and
granted us possession of the entire property within 60 days. That happened. We
are also required to repay a second mortgage of $44,000 beginning
The trial documents
contained conflicting testimony in regard to the fire that broke out on
the building where the Edwards family and two students were sleeping (see pictures, at right). But since that was not the subject of the court case, it did not enter into the settlement agreement. The cause of the fire is officially “undetermined”. Sgt Goeff Boyer, the Michigan State Police investigating officer, did not have the credentials to determine electrical causes of fires. He did pinpoint the fire origin to the same location where we first saw the fire and attempted to put it out. He said that he could not rule out an electrical outlet near the fire origin site.
That electrical outlet had nothing plugged into it and was the “end of the line”—no wiring ran from it to any other place. This makes an overload virtually impossible. A heater on the same circuit, earlier in the line was still operating after the fire began—no circuit breaker was blown. One electrical expert that looked at it concluded that an “arc fault” due to a carbon path in the receptacle must have started the fire—aided by the missing outlet cover plate. However, his report contained multiple obvious errors and his company refunded 2/3 of their fee for a promise not to sue them. Three other electrical experts looked at the receptacle and concluded that there was no place for a carbon path to build where the arcing occurred, and that the arc signature is one of a “bolt fault” being caused by a strong metallic object being forced into the outlet. Indeed, it was possible to see where the outlet had been broken by the insertion of this object.
Months after the fire date, the remains of the two 5-gallon kerosene containers which we had removed from the building minutes after the fire started were found in the hall of the building—a place where they had never been stored. Somebody must have thrown them back into the burning building even before the fire department arrived. Two unidentified individuals were seen nearby at the time of the fire, but their identity has never been confirmed. After all of this information was relayed to the investigator, Sgt. Boyer, he said it is very unlikely that the official cause would ever be changed. And, without a cause determined to be arson, nobody will be charged with arson—even if someone testifies that they know who did it.
At this time, we are making no additional efforts to determine who caused the fire and how. It is time to focus on repair. The structural members of the building are intact, but much of the first floor will need its interior completely rebuilt and the rest will need to be cleaned and repainted. There are still many of our smoke-damaged possessions there that need either an extensive cleaning or to be thrown away.
Lacking any proof, it is wrong to imply that any individuals deliberately caused the fire. We apologize for anything we wrote that may have implied that.
In regard to the
other three men who originally planned to work together on this project, it is
hoped that a greater reconciliation can be made. Some additional efforts to
resolve differences are continuing, though no joint public statement has been
made. This writer is content to accept God’s ultimate judgment on the matter
(Rom
Adversaries Abound
While the dispute with the three men mentioned above is largely over, there have been quite a few other people who have hoped or tried to gain some measure of control of the Port Austin property. Some tried this from their position as insiders in organizations that controlled the property, some tried by lawsuits from the outside, and others tried it as squatters—claiming an interest in the property when they had none. A couple had to be evicted by the courts and sheriff. It is amazing that some of these people have devoted a significant part of their life to try to stop the work here—with apparently almost no chance of benefit to themselves.
Does great opposition mean that a work must be of God? Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, Ezra, Nehemiah, and ultimately Jesus and the apostles had great adversaries. But persecution is not proof that a work is of God:
For
what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it
patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is
commendable before God (1Pet
Are we suffering because of our own faults or because we have “done good”. God specifically brought Joseph, Moses, and David through years of suffering before he used them for His missions. We believe that some of our suffering is due to our own fault. We rushed into a project without adequate prayer and planning. But we also believe that our suffering has been a training session for a godly mission—though probably much smaller in scope than those of the Bible figures listed above.
The concept of a Christian community founded on biblical law has been in the minds of people here since Arthur Hawkins purchased the property. In almost every case, those who have come here with a different idea, or the hopes of making a big profit from buying inexpensive property and selling at a high price have not realized their anticipated gains. But those that have purchased a parcel to improve it and/or to use it for something worthwhile have largely succeeded.
There have been many people who advised us against beginning this Port Austin project. Some were sure that they were right when we got into our court cases. Now that these cases are resolved, they are much less vocal, but many maintain an attitude like: “we were against it before, and we weren’t wrong, so we are still against it now”. At least most are no longer actively discouraging us or others from helping.
Remaining Adversary
One couple still actively opposes us. A month after they came, the husband sent an e-mail stating that Norman Edwards would not be able to run the educational program here and that he would be taking over. Even since, he has been writing a large number of things against us, both on his own web sites, and on any other Internet forum that will accept him—many have rejected him after finding the deliberate error that he writes. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing, has a wide vocabulary, and has published 12 imaginative novels in 2 years.
Like any good novelist, he uses real settings and place names, but then weaves his own stories with characters that look believable and plots that appear plausible. With us, he continues to write chapter after chapter of fictional stories set in Port Austin with a few facts, but with us as the villains and himself and his associates as the heroes. Sometimes he has tried to carry his fictions into the real world—inviting people to his “Feast site” with no place to lodge or meet with them except his own, overcrowded house. At one time, he extended his fictitious claim of ownership of one of the condominium properties here to a condominium association meeting—he was actually elected treasurer of the association. He quietly moved out of the building a couple of months later and never came to another meeting.
Very rarely, we have found a legitimate criticism in this man’s writing—and we have tried to repent and change. But the vast majority of his writing is a creative fiction, always portraying “Norman Scott Edwards” as a hypocritical religious type, about to go under, but trying to “hold it together” by appearing good while being full of greed and sin. It is little wonder that most people who know Mr. Edwards—even from many years ago—do not believe this man’s tales. But for those without knowledge of the facts, his stories appear very plausible.
Mr. Edwards cannot get into a writing contest with this man. It would take Mr. Edwards much longer to respond to each of his writings and document the facts, than it would for this man to write more fictitious stories. Mr. Edwards would be glad to answer any serious questions that anyone might have, but it would be far too time consuming to try to thoroughly answer everything that he has written.
In 2004, This man’s wife paid $10 to obtain an “assumed name” certificate from Huron county for “Port Austin Sabbatarian Community”. She then sued Edwards and all his ministries in 2006, attempting to get control of the entire former airbase property because our name was similar to her business name. The suit, (Huron County Circuit Court Case 06-3033-CZ which is available to the public) was quickly dismissed on a motion for summary judgment.
She also paid another
$10 to obtain an assumed name certificate for “
We are continually amazed that two such capable and intelligent people have spent and continue to spend so much time opposing us, with no apparent benefit to themselves or any friends. The man does believe that he has been “called to reread prophecy” and that he is the head of the Church on earth. His websites have a prophetic interpretation unlike any other this writer has ever seen. However, we have learned a good lesson from this: Whenever we find anyone’s prophetic interpretation that seems to “really fit the scriptures”, we must ask ourselves: “Is this person really inspired of God, or is he/she just a great writer able to take a large number of historical facts and Bible prophecies and weave them into a convincing story?” As with anything else, God is the ultimate judge and He will ultimately take care of this situation. The couple now lives over six miles away from the Port Austin Bible Campus and has no impact on its local operations—only their Internet presence remains.
Moving Onward
Rather than include a
chronological report of the positive things that have been done at PABC thus
far, we will refer you to the categorized list in this article. Just as
Warwick Potts and family spent four years largely taking care of this place, we
have also now spent four years. Some people have alleged that we are somehow organizationally
affiliated with Mr Hawkins or Mr. Potts. We are not. The only agreements that
we have together are publicly recorded in the
We have been continually thankful to God, as well as amazed, at how we have had just enough money to pay our essential bills for months on end. You can see this from the property payment information and the average bank balance in PABC Future article. How else can something with $7000 per month payments have an average daily bank + cash balance well less than $1000.
The exact nature of God’s plan here is still not fully known to us. We think the Sabbatarian Christian Community designed to educate young people and help older and disadvantaged people is desperately needed. It is for that cause that so many dedicated and kind people have already contributed here. If the Eternal provides the people and resources to bring it to pass, that is what we will do. Otherwise, we will seek him for other alternatives. See PABC Future, page 21. &