Contributors

Meet the volunteers and panel participants who play a vital role in supporting the Bridging the Gap on CSA mission.

Rhonda S Grillo

Rhonda has been married to her best friend, Galen Grillo, for 35 years. They have three married adult children and two grandkids. They currently reside in Corinth, TX.

2×2 Born & Raised, 4th generation. Professed at the tender age of 9. Attended convention every year of her life, loved the ministry, the fellowship and had meetings in their home in many different states. Still attending meetings but not convention or special meetings.

God revealed the truth about The Truth through Dean Bruer’s authentic character, inspiring Rhonda to create the “Bridging the GAP on CSA” video series. This platform aims to support victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA), foster meaningful conversations on conflict resolution with church leaders, and promote Safe Church Policies. Ultimately, the goal is to transform fellowship dynamics, hold leaders accountable for their actions, and ensure that children are no longer harmed within the 2×2 faith community.

Rhonda’s diverse career includes roles as a Piano Teacher, Flight Instructor, and retired Coordinator with Delta Airlines. She also owned a Brain Optimization Center, where she has helped individuals overcome challenges such as poor sleep, memory decline, and unstable moods. Currently, Rhonda works as a Neuro Coach, dedicated to helping people address brain imbalances and achieve their goals through brain retraining techniques.

Mardele M Jackson

Mardele is a (childless) widow, however she is surrounded by the love of her siblings, nieces & nephews, grandnieces, etc. She currently resides in Camden SC, USA

Mardele is a 4th generation born & raised (B&R) 2×2 from North Carolina who, because of sincere love for Christ, made her profession at 8-9 years of age. She has attended conventions every year of her life except for 2020 (when none were held in the eastern USA due to covid) and still intermittently attends Sunday mornings in her brother’s home.

Mardele volunteers with Bridging the Gap on CSA’s spirituality-led mission as “she cannot unsee” the devastation wreaked by the SA/CSA (& doctrinal) crisis and feels moved by God to help serve/respond to the needs of the 2×2 community. She provides logistical support for Rhonda Grillo’s monthly zoom meetings, calendar schedules, notifications, Facebook groups, etc.

Mardele is a retired IT TechOps. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mardele-j-60b5b620/

Iris Reimer

Iris is happily married with 4 adult children who she is extremely proud of. She has lived in Alberta her whole life.

Iris is a fourth-generation member of the 2×2 fellowship, with a deep love for Jesus. She professed at age 8 and has faithfully attended meetings and conventions throughout her life. Recently, however, the impact of the CSA she experienced has made it challenging for her to attend meetings, though she is actively working through it in therapy. Iris is determined not to let her abuser affect her spiritual journey and is focused on healing. For her, it is essential that her choice to attend meetings be driven by her faith and personal conviction, rather than her past or the expectations of others.

As a survivor, Iris feels a strong responsibility to use her experiences to prevent abuse from happening to other children in the fellowship. She wants her journey to become a source of strength and hope, transforming her pain into meaningful action that fosters healing and awareness. By managing content for the Bridging the Gap on CSA website, particularly in the healing and resource sections, she aims to create a lasting impact and inspire others.

For most of her married life, she was a stay-at-home, homeschool mom, devoted to raising and educating her children. Iris is now a project manager and scheduler for a market research and retail evaluation company.

Brice Erickson

Brice is married to Leanne Erickson, 2 children, they make home in Pullman WA.

Born and Raised 4th generation in the church, had a meeting in the home for 26 years. Fully believed without question the doctrine till 2023, left the church December of 2024.

Brice has a strong interest in factual history and dislikes being misled or deceived, especially concerning his salvation. He is related to both abused & abusers and feels deeply about supporting and helping those who have been hurt by this church.

Brice and his wife own B&L Bicycles in Pullman WA, which they started in 1996.

Bernitta Woodward

Bernitta is married to David and lives in Boise, Idaho, where they moved to be near their four children and 9 of their 11 grandchildren. She loves spending time with her family!

Growing up and living most of her life in California, Bernitta was B&R as 4th and 5th generation in meetings. She professed at Riverton Convention at 8 years old, thrilled to make it known that she wanted to serve God. Bernitta loved meetings and convention and workers and friends with her whole heart, and was devastated by the confusing abuse that began when workers decided her parents were not a good fit to live on convention grounds where they had moved in 1980 after her grandmother died. Bernitta left meetings in 1993 at 32 years old in response to God’s clear leading after experiencing abuse of authority, spiritual abuse, and painful shunning within the community.

Bernitta’s love for truth and passion to see people set free of deception and bondage are the motivators of her dedication to re-engage and be present and available as people navigate the challenges of all that has come to light since March of 2023.

Bernitta is a retired teacher who spent most of her years of employment working as a personalized learning teacher and educational consultant in a homeschool hybrid environment. She has also dedicated significant time training in different modalities to serve as a certified lay counselor in Christian settings, and completed Bible school through the Christian and Missionary Alliance Center for Leadership Development.

Heidi DenHerder

Heidi lives in Spokane, WA (USA) with her husband, two kids, two cats and 7 chickens.

She was born and raised (3rd & 4th generation) into a professing family, and had Sunday and Wednesday meetings in her parents’ home for most of her childhood. She professed at age 10, deeply aware that this was something “only between me and God”, was baptized at age 17 (with slightly more complicated reasons) and then felt a genuine call into the ministry, which she entered at age 24. She then experienced a genuine call out of the ministry at age 29.

Navigating her own spiritual journey and reclaiming her inherent divine right to “know God” for herself, separate from any group affiliation, gives Heidi a desire to also meet others who are walking on the same journey. She finds healing and meaning in the opportunity to share her own process with others, as well as to listen to others’ experiences.

Heidi has worked as: a barista, teacher’s assistant, tutor, worker, mother, homemaker and violin teacher. She plans to start a master’s degree program in the fall, to pursue the vocation of chaplaincy.

Subscribe to Heidi’s Substack: Iwonderasiwander.Substack.com

Linda Gelaude

Linda is a married mother of two adults in their twenties. Formerly a resident of BC Canada, she now lives in Mexico.

Linda’s parents are both first generation and professed when she was two years old. She stood when she was 11, was baptized in late teens and began digging into who God is and what does it mean to have a relationship with divinity (rather than merely having a form or set of traditions) in her twenties.

The stories of others and their journey to seek truths which made sense of their experiences and their world (and the worlds of others) ultimately helped immensely in her own reconstruction of her beliefs; it drastically shortened her own duration time of being flung into chaos and needing to order it. Making sense of one’s own experiences and the assigning of meaning is imperative and is a prerequisite to healing. We really do need an empathetic, supportive community.

And it was thro this seeking of answers to important questions that God was revealed, for Linda. When one strips away everything that isn’t true, what remains is truth. “The sharing of one’s own process and listening to others in process are kind of mirror faces of the same matter, I think.” Linda also happens to be drawn to deep conversations, and when one has faced one’s own fears, one is able to “sit with others”. Most of the ‘influential people’ in her rewriting period were authors: Alice Miller, John Bradshaw, Harville Hendrix, Bruce D Perry were some of her “counselors”.

Linda trained as a teacher and is fascinated with biology, science and psychology and efficient functionality. An at home mom. Briefly did photography with her husband. Raised purebred poodles and then Australian Labradoodles for twenty years so she could work mainly from home.

Steve Paddon

Steve is a caring and concerned parent and citizen. Currently resides in Pleasanton, CA, US.

He is 4th generation, born and raised; not participating since March 2024.

Steve is driven to serve because “When people know better, they can do and be better.”

Steve’s profession: Software (Product)

Chester Ehrig

Chester currently resides in Dallas, Texas USA, and is the husband of Cherie Kropp-Ehrig.

Originally from San Diego, California, Chester was a 4th generation, born and raised in the 2×2 Church. Santee, CA was his home convention and he professed there when he was 12-13 years old. For a time, he was an assistant elder. While faithfully attending, he brought two partners to meetings, who then professed. Chester exited the 2×2 fellowship in 1992. He later met and married Cherie.

Chester serves to help others find the Freedom that is in Christ alone.

He is a professional architect.

Cherie Kropp-Ehrig

Cherie is married to Chester Ehrig and they currently reside in Dallas, Texas USA. She enjoys reading, gardening, and cooking. She attends and recruits for Bible Study Fellowship (BSF). Cherie has worked in various areas of Real Estate; lastly as a Real Property Title Abstractor.

Cherie was raised on the Jackson, Mississippi convention grounds as a 3rd generation born and raised (B&R) and professed at age 13. She married a 2×2 man and had 2 children. As time progressed, she became curious about the history of her fellowship. Cherie read “The Secret Sect” by Doug Parker and was shocked to discover that a man named William Irvine had founded the church. This information was so startling that she decided to either prove or disprove every fact claimed in Parker’s book. Cherie independently obtained copies of the documents he cited and found no significant errors in his book. She also obtained greater quantities of confirmation than Parker had available at the time his book was published in 1982.

Cherie left meetings in 1990, sending an exit letter to 100 friends & family. She decided to make her collection of historical documents available to others, creating her TellingTheTruth.info website, and later created the Expressions by Ex-2x2s website which contains writings by former 2x2s only. Her book “Preserving the Truth” was published in May 2022 and her author website CherieKroppEhrig.com was established.

Cherie vowed to God that, if He would help her understand the cognitive dissonance she was experiencing with her faith, she would devote herself to helping others. God came for her words and she hasn’t been released from that vow! She is passionate about her highest values: Truth and Justice.