The Great Shame that Emmanuel Nougasie from Amazing Word Ministries has brought to Adventism and to Advertising Companies

Emmanuel Nougaise of Amazing Word Ministries has continued to make false and harmful statements in order to divert attention away from the truth and his own destructive behavior. He’s been releasing more videos in which he claims that Advent Messenger and New Life Mission are money-hungry 501(c)(3) organizations only interested in profit. Emmanuel Nougaise has chosen to go public with more false narratives, and we believe it is past time to correct the record so that others are not victimized by his destructive patterns.

First and foremost, how can you tell if an organization is a 501(c)(3) or not? That is one of the simplest things anyone can do, but Emmanuel failed to do so. Accountants and others who want to check a company’s 501(c)(3) status can use the IRS’s free online directory. You can get to their search portal by going to this link. You can look for a 501(c)(3) organization by city, state, name, or all three (To look by name, click the blue dropdown arrow in the Employer identification number section). Many Adventist organizations and ministries are listed as 501(c)(3) in this search portal, but you won’t find Advent Messenger and New Life Mission of Oklahoma there.

This means that what Emmanuel Nougasie has been spreading across YouTube is yet another outright lie. Search the 501(c)(3) records for yourself. Emmanuel’s actions are clearly defamatory. He fabricated unjust and false statements in a second video to harm the reputation of sincere, faithful Christians who are unquestionably innocent of his false charges.

Churches are tax-exempt by definition, and they enjoy a unique status unlike non-profit organizations. Any ministry attached to a church automatically falls under its tax-exempt status. That is how it works in Oklahoma and other states. The parent organization is New Life Mission Church in Dover, Oklahoma, and this entity is not listed in the 501(c)(3) database. Again, Emmanuel didn’t do his due diligence or inquire about any of this before making a video and falsely accusing Advent Messenger and New Life Mission of being 501(c)(3) Corporations.

What about Emmanuel’s allegations that Advent Messenger and New Life Mission are profit-driven? Well, let’s look at the following 16 points. It was Emmanuel who was the one who reached out to me and asked if I knew anything about billboard advertisements. (1) I informed him of my involvement and volunteered to assist him. Emmanuel had a big project in the works, and there was no way I could accomplish it on my own time from home. Because evangelism is New Life Mission’s main focus, I was given approval to assist Emmanuel with his billboards while working there. (2) Emmanuel wanted to pay me for my services, but I declined, noting that evangelism is what we do, and we didn’t want his money. (3) I expressed that we would be willing to contribute by volunteering and helping to make this project a reality.

The volunteer work that I did for Emmanuel Nougaise through New Life Mission consisted of looking for billboards in Canada, Australia, England, and the United States. I contacted billboard companies in all those countries, and we were only able to secure a total of seven billboards after speaking to literally dozens of billboard companies. (4) Most of the billboard companies were not willing to bring their prices down to what I felt was a comfortable price for him.

(5) I informed Emmanuel that we would also be using New Life Mission’s tax exemption to save him thousands of dollars by being able to get a non-profit church rate for the billboards instead of the more expensive commercial rate. Now he is condemning our tax exemption that was used to save him money. For example, (6) depending on the location, the regular price for a billboard ranged from around $1,200 to $1,500 a month per billboard, and of the seven billboards that we did eventually secure for Emmanuel Nougaise, we were able to get five billboards for $250 a month each. All thanks to New Life Mission’s tax-exempt status and tough negotiations.

But that was not all. Emmanuel didn’t have a separate evangelistic website to send the billboard traffic to. (7) Once again, at no charge and on New Life Mission’s time, we created a website for Emanuel that was connected to the billboard project.

But that was not all. Emmanuel’s personal ministry website needed some serious work, and he asked if we could take a look at it. (8) Once again, at no charge and on New Life Mission’s time, we cleaned up his website, steam-lined it, and gave him some tips for posting.

(9) The volunteer work that New Life Mission offered for free of charge ranged over a period of several months and consisted of finding the different billboards, negotiating the prices for the vinyls and the billboard’s space (separate costs), getting the artwork files to specifications for printing, which included CMYK color separation and resolution, dealing with the sales team, the artwork department, the billboard contract, and the billing department. (10) The only role that Emmanuel had to do was sign the contract and pay the billboard companies directly for their advertisement services, not us.

(11) No money ever came through New Life Mission, and that was done by design to provide transparency (12) and so that Emmanuel could know exactly what all the costs were. This was never about making any money. (13) In fact, New Life Mission paid out money for the work we did for Emmanuel through the salary they paid me since I was doing the work during regular work hours. (14) So, Emmanuel got a really sweet deal. (15) It’s the same deal we give to everyone else.

Because this piece is about Emmanuel, we will not highlight the different volunteer programs and charity projects that New Life Mission and I are currently engaged in. But what I will say is that the same courtesies and considerations that were extended to Emmanuel through this billboard project have always been at the foundation of our ministries. Talk to people who actually really do know us.

Here is where this picture perfect story turned into a nightmare.

So the different billboards went up, and in just three months, I received the following email from Sara Lee, from the billing department of Lamar Advertising Company, one of the billboard companies Emmanuel had a contract with. The email was sent to both myself and Carol Williams, who was our sales representative at Lamar Advertising Company. I knew what the email meant. It said we, meaning Emmanuel, was behind on two payments. I wrote to Emmanuel, asking him to look into this.

In the email below, I was responding to Carroll Williams, our sales agent, who was asking me if we had made the payment. I replied to her, explaining that this was an oversight on our part (meaning Emmanuel’s), and that we (meaning Emmanuel) would be responsible for both payments, which means that Emmanuel had missed two payments in the first three months.

Carol Williams called me three months later, saying we were three months behind. This was embarrassing, to say the least. First, because we were able to negotiate a much lower price and Emmanuel still was not making the payments, and second, because everyone knew that a church ministry was involved. In the email below, I mentioned to Carroll that Emmanuel was not answering my calls. This particular billboard was around $500 a month and located outside of Oklahoma City. I remember not wanting to get stuck having to pay the remaining balance on the contract since it was Emmanuel’s billboard. At first, I wanted her to know that we only helped Emmanuel and that we were not responsible, but (16) at the end, I “assured” her that if Emmanuel failed to pay, New Life Mission would cover the “balance.” So, how does this compute with Emmanuel’s false accusations that we are all about making money?

Carol expressed sympathy for our predicament and requested Emmanuel’s phone number, which I sent. And then I didn’t hear from her again. I was embarrassed to call her back, as you can understand how badly this affected all of us.

But our problems were only beginning. Five months later, I got a call from a collection agency representing a second billboard company. This collection agency was representing LindMark Outdoor Media, which was the company that Emmanuel signed a contract with that included the 5 billboards we secured for $250 a month each. I did not know that Emmanuel had defaulted and stopped making payments with this second billboard company until I got a phone call. Emmanuel certainly didn’t give me any explanations. The collection agency was coming after me, saying that I was responsible. What happens many times is that when the person responsible stops paying, the billboard company doesn’t care who they go after. They just want their money. And when they turned it into collections, they claimed that Andy Roman from New Life Mission was responsible and listed me as the “guarantor.”

New Life Mission was named as an agent/corporation in the initial contract so that Emmanuel may benefit from the significant nonprofit, tax-exempt discount. Emmanuel, on the other hand, was described as the “guarantor,” or the person who signed the contract and was responsible for the payments. To put it another way, Emmanuel was legally responsible for the payments. On November 15, 2021, the same day that I received this phone call, the same collection agency delivered the following collection notice/complaint to me, to New Life Mission, and to Emmanuel, threatening “other avenues” to collect this debt and stating that New Life Mission was accountable for the payment.

Despite the fact that Emmanuel had received this notification, I immediately forwarded it to him and asked him to take care of it.

Emmanuel made no attempt to clarify the situation or communicate with me or the collection agency. He didn’t return my calls or emails. He left me completely alone in this situation. This occurred on November 15, 2021. And in the last few days, Emmanuel has been making videos in which he has stated that he considers me a friend. This is something you don’t do to your friends. I pray that God’s people will open their eyes to this situation. In the days that followed, the collection agency took a negative tone and began calling and harassing me. I told them over and over that I wasn’t the “guarantor,” but that Emmanuel was. They kept calling nonstop, so I stopped answering them. The collection agency began to mock me and Emmanuel through email with Bible verses knowing that the billboard was church-related.

The collection agency was making a joke about Emmanuel’s billboard campaign, saying it lacked a good reputation. The collection company figured out Emmanuel really fast and said he should have been investigated before getting involved in these kinds of commercial contracts with him. You know what? They were absolutely right. This is coming from a collection agency. And they quoted a bible verse about “walking properly towards those who are outside.” In other words, they were saying Emmanuel’s billboard project was walking disorderly and giving a bad example of Christianity. What a shameful disgrace. In all my years of working with the media and advertising, this was by far the lowest point.

But you know what was the most tragic part about this? Emmanuel was also receiving all of these emails. It was also sent to him and he didn’t do anything. He didn’t care. He didn’t help and he was nowhere to be found. And this was his evangelistic effort, his ministry, his contract – legally tied to a collection agency. These were his billboards. He was supposed to be raising funds for this, but apparently he didn’t, or he did and just didn’t care about that project that he himself came up with and enthusiastically raised money for. This was Emmanuel’s billboard plan, Emmanuel’s reputation and the work of God being mocked by the collection agency. Where was Emmanuel? He was too busy making videos. I responded to the collection agency with the following:

Emanuel could have cleared this up. But it was my phone number, and the phone number of the ministry at New Life Mission that they were harassing and calling. Also at fault was the billboard company. They had the original signed contract and they were not going to help me out. I called the corporate office twice asking for the original signed contract and they said they would look into it and did nothing.

Finally after doing a forensic search on all the computers I use, by God’s grace, we found the online approval form that Emmanuel signed when he approved the contract. This is an addendum to the contract because it’s his digital signature. Finding this was like a needle in a haystack because it was tied into a chain of emails that you never knew it was there from January 7, 2021. Below is the online signature of Emmanuel that I was finally able to locate.

This email actually came from Lindmark Outdoor Media’s corporate office, which means that they knew who the guarantor was from the very beginning. Not only did the corporate office change this information, but they withheld this approval form from me because it would have cleared my name. But this was the document I needed to appeal to the billboard company to remedy this injustice of forcing me to pay for something that Emmanuel, with his electronic signature, promised to pay for and had not. This was my final email to the collection agency, the billboard corporate office, and Emmanuel.

From: Andy Roman <andyroman71@yahoo.com>

To: immanuel.1@hotmail.com; info@amazingwordministries.com; mike.hackler@rapcollect.com info@lindmarkoutdoormedia.com

Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2021, 05:23:44 PM CST

Subject: “Online Approval” Documentation for Billboards

Mike Hackler
Revenue Assurance Partners, LLC
P.O. Box 4883
Covington, LA 70434-4883
866-322-3328 Ext. 118
Fax-985.626.1964
Cell-504-236-3104
mike.hackler@rapcollect.com

Dear Mark,

You have every right and everything you need to collect any unpaid balance for Lindmark Outdoor Media. But the contract clearly states in all caps and bold letters in section 7 that the “guarantor” is responsible.

Section #7 – IN CONSIDERATION OF LINDMARK PROVIDING THE SERVICES TO ADVERTISER UNDER THIS CONTRACT, AND IN GUARANTEE OF THE PAYMENT FROM ADVERTISER TO LINDMARK OF ALL AMOUNTS DUE HEREUNDER, THE UNDERSIGNED “GUARANTOR” UNCONDITIONALLY AND CONTINUOUSLY, GUARANTEES FULL AND TIMELY PAYMENT OF ALL AMOUNTS DUE FROM ADVERTISER TO LINDMARK UNDER THIS CONTRACT, AND FURTHER PROMISES TO PAY TO LINDMARK, UPON DEMAND, ALL EXPENSES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO REASONABLE ATTORNEYS’ FEES AND COSTS INCURRED IN ENFORCING THIS CONTRACT AND GUARANTY.

I feel bad about this situation because I helped the guarantor throughout this entire process. But I’m not the guarantor. I didn’t benefit from the contract. No one else benefited from the contract. Only the guarantor did, 100%. I didn’t get paid, nor did I raise funds, nor did I gain anything from these billboards. I simply volunteered my time for missions and ministry. I believe in donating time to help those in ministry. Unfortunately, Lindmark is not the only one who has been betrayed. Since receiving your November 15, 2021 communication, I have tried in good faith to get in touch with the guarantor, Emmanuel, but he’s not returning my phone calls or emails. I have also tried in good faith to get Lindmark Outdoor Media to provide documentation about the guarantor, information that would have cleared me from any financial liability, with no success. It appears to me that Lindmark Outdoor Media feels that if this case has been turned over to a collection agency, they don’t want to deal with it anymore.

So the volunteer (me) who didn’t benefit from anything and didn’t sign anything but did all the work is stuck in the middle having to deal with your collection agency. Mark, I don’t know what more I can do. I’ve cooperated with you and provided information that exonerates me; something that Lindmark Outdoor Media was obligated to do but didn’t do. I believe that the claim filed with your agency by Lindmark Outdoor Media against me has been misplaced. Lindmark Outdoor Media should be paid, but any unpaid balance needs to be collected from the guarantor, as the contract clearly states. I’ve been doing billboards for over 20 years, and what you have is an unsigned contract. The details and signatures are in the “online approval” form, which is part of the contract and usually appears therein. But I think Lindmark already knows that. Should you still choose to pursue any type of action against me, as described in your November 15, 2021 communication, then it would be you, Mark, forcing me to “exhaust other avenues” to mount a vigorous defense.

I pray that you and all those reading this might have a blessed and safe Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,

Andy Roman

I never got another call or email or even an apology from anyone. Neither did I hear from the billboard company nor from Emmanuel. But later on January 12, 2022, two months later, a lady named Dana called me on the phone. She was a new employee at this same collection agency and asked how we can resolve this payment. Knowing that she was new I explained the situation to her and she was shocked and in disbelief. I gave her everything, including the document that Emmanuel was the guarantor. She sent me the following email assuring that she would straighten everything out.

Not too long after hearing from Dana, I finally got a call from Emmanuel, seven months too late. He wanted to let me know that a woman had called him and that he had or was going to take care of the payment. This was seven months after he stopped making payments on the billboard. He only took care of this not because he wanted to take responsibility for his billboard project, but only because the collection company started calling him. Think about that. He ignored everyone until he started getting calls from a collection agency, even though he had been getting all their emails from the previous six months.

By letting the billboard contract go into collections, all the big, beautiful, expensive billboard vinyls that cost thousands of dollars and were paid for by Emmanuel were thrown into the trash by the billboard company. The vinyl is the big, giant artwork and message that is affixed to the blank billboards. These vinyls cost around $1000 a piece, including additional fees to install them. Those brand new, expensive, giant vinyls were incinerated. We are talking about God’s money. This was a cataclysmic failure and disaster.

Emmanuel didn’t care about the sacrifices that people made for this project. These vinyls were brand new, out of the box. They could last for years. They were only used for six months, maybe less. We don’t know when they took the billboards down, or if they were even destroyed earlier, because Emmanuel didn’t care about his own project. Had Emmanuel ended this right with the billboard company, they would have shipped him the vinyls and he could have used them in the future. All the effort, and all the work, and the sacrifice by myself and New Life Mission, and the money we helped Emmanuel save, ended in great shame and waste.

And for this same dead-beat director who doesn’t pay his ministry bills to have the audacity to accuse New Life Mission, who are some of the nicest, godly, selfless, faithful people you can ever know, and call them greedy, money-hungry leaders of 501(c)(3) corporations, after all that New Life Mission has done for him, is beneath contempt. In my 25 years of doing research and writing, I have come across some of the most reprobate things you can imagine. But truly, I thought I had seen everything. But I must confess that Emmanuel is by far one of the most ungrateful, selfish, conniving, and deceitful charlatans in Adventism today.

The greatest apostasy in Adventism isn’t coming from the church. No friends. It’s coming from so-called present truth ministries like Amazing Word Ministries, who profess to be holding a higher standard of truth than the “conference” but in reality, they are worse, far worse. Emmanuel Nougaise has actually done the very things that he is accusing others of doing. By injecting “race” and make-believe “lawsuits” and false attributions about “501(c)(3), he knows what he is doing. He is defaming godly people and causing them harm.

To every Emmanuel Nougaine defender and supporter, and especially to those who have written me during these last couple of days saying some of the nastiest things I have ever heard: You should confess and say, like Eve, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat” (Genesis 3:19), because you have devoured Emmanuel’s lies. You have been beguiled by deceit. You have helped to spread falsehoods and have rejoiced in having your ears tickled with words purposely calculated to defame and harm.

Please stay tuned for the last part, in which we will set the record straight once more. We’ll return to our regular posting schedule after that. On my days off, I had the honor of working with a group of committed volunteers to promote the Three Angels’ message across our community. What a blessing! God is still working. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude for all your prayers. There are far too many leaders, pastors, laypeople, Bible workers, and young people who can see through the lies and who have urged me to continue the job that the Lord has placed in all of our hearts.