hen it came to finances, there was always a secretive nature to the Blodgetts. On one occasion, Christian Media received a large envelope with financial gifts enclosed. There were 3 envelopes inside the large envelope - one marked for Chris, one marked for Craig Portwood (another host on the radio), and one marked for Christian Media. The envelopes were identical.

In the Christian Media envelope was a $100 dollar bill. Craig opened his in our presence and it too had $100 dollars. I remember Craig was deeply touched that someone had cared enough about his contribution to the ministry to include him in their tithes.

I gave Chris his envelope and he put it away. It was obvious that it had another $100 bill in it, but I said nothing. The next day, Sharon started to tell Susan about some money they received, and then as if she realized she was under instructions not to tell us anything about finances, she abruptly backed up and tried to cover up the statement as though she had misspoken. The entire episode reeked of deceit.

After about 8 months, the Blodgetts announced that their long-time friends Bill and Tammy Kurcz were moving to Jacksonville from the Pahrump Nevada area to be near them. Bill and Tammy were "pitched" to us as though they would be valuable additions to the ministry if we could just find room for them. Chris & Sharon strenuously urged us to take them in saying they'll work very hard for the ministry. Because they had several children, and we didn't have any room left under the present arrangement, we declined.

Chris decided they would rent a big house nearby and set up a two family household with Bill & Tammy. We were relieved to have them move. As the network was just beginning to get off the ground at that time, Chris and I discussed finances. We both agreed that he would have to receive a consistent wage in order to pay rent. I told him that the Lord had provided enough revenue that it was clear that the ministry could now support that.

Beginning in early July 2000 when the Blodgetts moved out, we began paying Chris $1,400 per month (net) for his working a day shift in the studio. He received about $800 worth of free shortwave time per month. Indeed, about 6 months later when the network experienced a mysterious mass exodus of almost every paid program radio host at the network, Chris doubled his shortwave broadcast time and began broadcasting 2 hours per day. A daily network hour is worth about a thousand dollars per month, and 2 contiguous shortwave hours are not only hard to find, but they're worth anywhere from $1,600 to $2,000 per month on the open market.

I'll have more to say on the mass resignation of radio host shortly, but they included Steve Quayle, Butch Paugh, David Lankford, and Dave Martin. Thus for the first two months of the year 2001, in addition to his wages for studio work, Chris was given about $1,600 of shortwave time per month.

We also ended up paying for all of Chris' gasoline. Because we are fairly far out in the woods, we have a large commercial gas tank that we keep filled as a back up so we don't find ourselves stranded deep in the forest with no fuel. It was set up to use if we didn't think we had enough gas in the truck to get all the way to town.

Chris filled up every chance he got. As the gas prices went up sharply during this period, the tank cost about $450 to fill up monthly. I felt this was worth about $300-$350 per month as Susan and I barely used the tank at all - except for emergencies. This was clearly abusive, but like the matter of Sharon's laziness, I took the cowardly course and was loathe to confront Chris over the issue.

We set up and paid for a 2nd internet account that Chris could use. The Blodgetts had no long distance service on their home telephone, so they made all of their calls on the studio line. Dozens of times I would come into the studio and he would abruptly get off the phone - as though he didn't want me to hear what he was saying. The phone bills were soared.

Chris and Sharon also utilized the products we offered such as MSM toothpaste, colloidal silver, and who knows what else. Many of these are relatively expensive. Because space is limited, and the laborers are few, we are presently unable to track our inventory with much precision. At this writing (about 10 days after Chris was fired) there are many items that are missing. Propane tanks, program tapes, and who knows what else have vanished. Even our beloved dog mysteriously disappeared about the time all of this came to a head.

The total financial package of compensation for Chris was very generous in the arena of shortwave networks. Most shortwave programmers pay for their time on the networks. A daily hour on a shortwave network is worth anywhere from $40 to $50 dollars. Some shortwave station hours cost $125 per hour. In a couple of cases, there are shortwave hosts that work full time day jobs, and do engineering or board shifts at night to pay for their program time. They then do on-air fund raising to help make ends meet. Other shortwave hosts trade ads in their own newspapers or magazines in exchange for their airtime.

Having been deeply involved in shortwave for about 7 years, and having had considerable contact with every network in the field, I am very familiar with the way these things work. With the possible exception of network anchor talent such as Alex Jones at Genesis, as far as I know, the compensation package we provided for Chris Blodgett was head and shoulders above any other in the entire field.

Well after this compensation program was in place, Chris repeatedly did programs where he asked for financial support from his listeners. We later learned that he was privately telling people that he was not being paid at all by Christian Media and so a number of "his" listeners were sending in donations. When Chris received checks addressed to him, we cashed them for him.

e have now determined that Chris and Sharon Blodgett engaged in a systematic practice of lying about Susan and myself to various ministry supporters. The earliest examples we can document go back to Chris' 2nd tour for Christian Media, when Chris and Sharon came to Detroit on May 2, 2000.

Ralph and Kathy Haaff, long-time supporters of Christian Media (and now the co-hosts of a weekly program called Opinions), have now related how Sharon Blodgett began to accuse Susan of abusing her and Chris at the network. This gossip occurred as they went to eat at the hotel that was hosting Chris' speaking engagement in the Detroit area. As Ralph realized this murmuring was occurring, he called Kathy aside and spoke to her about the gossip. She agreed this would have to stop.

When Ralph went to the speaking hall and came back, Sharon was again speaking ill of Susan. This was, unfortunately, just the beginning. Sharon was telling Kathy that "Susan is so mean." Sharon claimed that Susan wouldn't let them make the cabin more "livable." On that same occasion, Sharon claimed that Chris was working hard to figure out how to get water to drain out of the cabin so they could install a bathtub. The fact is, the drain system was already installed as the kitchen was fully functional before the Blodgetts ever contacted Christian Media.

Sharon told the Haaffs that in Oregon, we forced them to "live like dogs." Her ire was focused on Susan evidently because Susan's industriousness made Sharon's laziness all the more apparent. Even after we built them a separate bathroom and had a bathtub installed (something we don't even have!), Sharon complained about the water usage needed to take a bath. Because the water on the premises fills up in tanks from springs and we had quite a few animals to water, the first water priority on any farm is for the animals to be watered - not to have yet another relatively useless load of laundry run through the machine. Please bear in mind that this was in the middle of a hot summer.

Sharon could have a bath every day if she simply planned it. If you drained the tanks in the heat of the day, the animals became dehydrated. Because she refused to have any involvement in the water system, Sharon couldn't grasp the concept of planning for water usage - thus Susan became a "tyrant" in her eyes as Susan was the only one maintaining the livestock.

Apparently, this is one of the reasons that Susan was always the focal point of all the slanderous accusations that we continue to hear to this very day.