PASTOR GONE WID FI HAR 600K

Sharon Doe* thought that she was ‘doing it for God’ when she agreed to take out a $600,000 loan from a credit union on behalf of a pastor for him to buy musical equipment to host a crusade in the summer.

But she is now crying foul after the ‘man of God’ has seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth, now that it’s time to make the monthly payments.

She said that she and the pastor verbally agreed for him to make the payments after the crusade was finished.

“He went to the credit union to get a loan and he was not able to get the loan because he was not qualified. Because I was a good friend, he called and he asked if I could assist him. Both of us went and we talked to the loan officer and we made arrangement, so the money would come from my salary each month but he would pay me,” Doe told THE STAR.

She said that she accompanied the pastor to buy the equipment, including a drum set, microphones, and amplifiers.

She said that the pastor rented a tent in St Ann to host the crusade.

According to her, he suspected that he would make back most of the money at the crusade.

But since the crusade, Doe, who is a teacher, said that she has been calling his phone but he is not picking up.

Crush on him

She said that the $17,100 that is being deducted from her salary monthly is putting a strain on her finances.

“I have a child who is going to college now and I have to be borrowing money,” Doe said.

Doe admitted that part of the reason she fell for the pastor’s ruse was because she had a crush on him when they met in Clarendon a year ago.

She said: “I feel so bad because before now it wasn’t like this and when I was trying to get the loan, he was there. When I needed to get paperwork done, he was there.”

Doe said she visited the site of the crusade last month, but the tent was gone.

“No one can locate him,” she said.

She expressed disbelief that a man who preached in front of masses of people for weeks would do something like that.

* Name changed