How does one respond to a year-long series of attacks and harassment that include having the tree in your front lawn poisoned and three of your automobile's tires punctured? Then how do you respond when you discover that someone has opened a subscription to Playboy Magazine in your name?
Community Life Coaches, Drs. Chris and Carol Green chose to go public on social media to say, "We forgive you."
For over 12 years, this couple has served in the Harrisburg community as local pastors for 10 years and community life coaches the past two years.
"The attacks were just an annoyance at first," explains Chris Green, "In fact we thought it was just pranks, but each time, things began to get worse and more personal."
The Greens are certified master life coaches, urban family advocates, marriage and family advisers, community leadership consultants, the principal instructors of the Recapture Your Life online courses, the principal instructors of the Urban Potential Innovative Life Coaching Certification program, the founders of the Fruitful Life Network, and the creators of the Urban Life Family Connections resource website.
"I was very surprised to receive something in the mail from Playboy Magazine," Green stated "I don't have and have never had a subscription to Playboy or any other magazine like it. I almost threw the envelope away as simply being random marketing, but the mailing was addressed to my nickname and not my full name. You don't usually get marketing mail to your nickname. So I became very suspicious right away. Plus, it had a POSTAGE STAMP on it instead of the presorted bulk mail postage, like you see on mass mailings. So I knew that THIS WAS PERSONAL!"
Green disclosed how he discovered that the letter was written as a subscription renewal and even indicated that he had already been assigned an identification number with Playboy.
"So I knew that this was a set up to destroy our reputation in this community," he declared.
So their first step was to GO LIVE on social media before the perpetrator could "LEAK" the false subscription to local news media.
Green reveals, "I'm very much aware of this tactic of creating false narratives, using false documents, releasing it to the media, and leaving the victim in a position of defending themselves, and losing their message and mission in a sewer of scandal."
Their other concern was that the attackers might attempt to use this strategy against other community leaders and pastors.
'They should watch their mail!" Green advises, "Watch for odd or strange mailings. They should also watch their email inbox and be aware that there is online malware and viruses that can download pornographic images onto one's hard drive, similar to what happened to a gentleman in the U.K. This poor guy lost everything when he was accused of possessing child pornography on his laptop. It took 8 years for him to prove that it was all due to a virus on his computer.
"Another cyber attack to be aware of is called Swatting. This is where a hacker picks out an address, and then tricks the police to send a S.W.A.T. team to that location. We just want our colleagues, families, friends, and supporters to be aware of what we're up against in the 21st century."
The Greens decided to utilize social media and address their families, friends and supporters BEFORE their attackers could unleash their smear campaign.
"And we chose to take the road less traveled in our social media release," said Chris Green. "We chose to forgive them. We pray that our attackers find healing for the injuries that were inflicted upon them; that would lead them to attack us in this way. We pray that they find peace."
The Greens have built a solid reputation over 27 years of community service. This couple created and implemented a proven coaching model that empowers people to push past the temptations to give up, and instead, make intentional, thoughtful and positive responses in spite of the devastation and obstacles in their lives.
"We volunteered our services as local pastors," Chris Green explains, "We never took a salary and the only time we received any personal compensation was if we were speakers in an outside venue, or if someone gave us something personally as a gift. The past two years, we volunteered our Life Coaching services in the PA Career Link's Job Club, offering free monthly workshops to help the unemployed. Then we started volunteering our Life Coaching services to the residents and staff of a local women's shelter."
World Peace Ambassador, Dr. Clyde Rivers calls Chris and Carol Green leading skilled experts in rebuilding, restoring and renewing hearts and homes; as well as innovators and pioneers in the empowering and equipping of today's community care, ready responders.
Chris Green is a social media veteran and an award-winning producer of a local cable TV broadcast (1999). He is the producer/ technical director of 70 social media video channels (1100+ online videos) and three audio podcast channels; creator of 15 social media brands; and the designer and host of several business and organization websites.
He and his wife, Carol Green, are international columnists/ writers with the Global Journalism Award-winning team of Dr. Clyde Rivers and iChange Nations Social Media News™. They are the authors of 14 inspirational and life-building books, creators and principal writers of four blogs and numerous eNewsletters. They are also accomplished songwriters, having penned and produced over 150 songs since 1992.
They were commissioned as 'Community Ambassadors' and Urban Leadership Ambassadors by iChange Nations™ and appointed Goodwill Ambassadors of World Peace, as part of an interfaith peace-building initiative to the United Nations, by Golden Rule International.
They are both licensed and ordained ministers with conferred honorary doctorate degrees in Christian Leadership (Chris) and in Humanities (Carol) for nearly three decades of urban community service and innovations. Additional certification, training , education, connections, and endorsements have come from Metro Associates, Inc, the Urban Pastors & Leaders Alliance, American Association of Christian Counselors, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
They are currently based in south central Pennsylvania where they established a family-focused, small-groups outreach, along with several life coaching and community care initiatives through their Fruitful Life Network.
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