Katie & Andrew Land Reclamation Legal Fees

Katie and Andrew need your help. In seeking a spiritual community, they made the wrong choice and trusted the wrong people. After donating their land to their former church as a trust to keep their management practices in place for generations to come, starting in May '23 the church has repeatedly violated all legal agreements the couple have to manage and use the property. After months of harassment, the church is now exploiting the vulnerability of Katie's father's passing as a way to further their agenda of kicking them off the land and seizing full control. Katie and Andrew are devastated and completely shocked by these manipulative and hypocritical actions by people they considered friends.

Andrew and Katie worked for years to achieve their shared dream. They put everything they had into purchasing and developing a beautiful 17 acre wooded property in Parish, to experiment with permaculture, build soil, and establish a regenerated forest as well as a resilient food source to feed the local community for generations. This has been a lifetime dream of theirs, and they were so excited their local church took notice and seemed to support their work.

A little over two years ago, after Katie had two miscarriages and little hopes of passing along their legacy, they donated their land to their then-church, under a legal contract with specific conditions: they retained full management control and lifetime use of the property, with the ability to designate any descendants of their choosing to use the property forever. The church initially supported this agreement. However, two years after Katie and Andrew donated the property, the church has suddenly attempted to seize full control. They kicked Katie and Andrew off the church Board of Directors, "ripped up" their contract, kicked them out of the church, have attempted to evict them on multiple occasions, and ordered there to be "no spiritual activity" on the property.

The church has invested nothing in the property: not one dollar, nor any work. As one of many examples, in 2021, Katie and Andrew applied for and were awarded a DEC Regenerate NY grant to do regenerative forestry work on the property. Katie and Andrew have faithfully completed their forest management plan and are seeing incredible improvement in diversity, soil building, and production. Now, the church has stopped grant payments for work Katie and Andrew have completed and have attempted to "fire" them from the grant work, which they have no legal right to do. They are putting a petty land grab and egocentric, power-hungry motivations before healing the land.

It is completely shocking that an organization that purports to teach Yogananda's teachings, as well as those of Jesus Christ and Bhagavan Krishna, is taking actions directly opposed to their teachings. Perhaps the most shocking aspect to Katie and Andrew is that when asked what a "Pastor-led church" meant to the Pastor and Secretary, they replied that the Lead Pastor meditates and gets direct guidance from God and Guru, and all members do exactly as he says. This is a cult, not a church, and it is diametrically opposed to all the teachings the church claims to teach.

The legal fees to enforce no trespassing, enforce Katie and Andrew's management and life usage contract, and to get the grant contracts under their control are too much for them right now with all the travel expenses for Katie and Andrew to be with family during this time of loss. The consequent legal battle to get their land donation reverted could incur staggering legal fees.

We all make mistakes...Katie and Andrew made a big one in trusting the wrong people, but they are doing good in this world and they need our help. Please consider donating what you can to help them continue their work.