Seductress of the Saints

Bridewell offered Crane a prophetic "word of knowledge": that he was in the middle of a divine reversal, that he was a "great man of God" about to enter a "seven-year season of prosperity." After the death of a child, an ugly divorce and business problems, those were just the words Crane wanted to hear.

"Her eyes would just dance," Crane says. "She'd squeeze my hands. Her ability to know how to push and how to pull back was faultless."

After lunch, she moved to hug him. "I just lean to do the church thing," Crane says. "She reaches in to kiss me on the mouth and presses herself full-frontal on me. But it was quick, graceful and soft. It was surprising to me, but very elegant and very appealing."

A few days later, on a walk with Bridewell, Crane was astonished by how much she knew about his ambitions for God. Using scripture, Bridewell encouraged him to reach for great heights. "She could make you feel like you were the top man on earth," Crane says.

When Bridewell asked to meet his children, Crane invited her home. There, Bridewell poured out her own unhappiness. The woman she was living with was a con artist, "deceitful." Could she stay with him for one night?

Crane said no but relented under Bridewell's persistence. "I'm going through a divorce," he said. "If anyone finds out..."

Four weeks later, Bridewell was still there. She'd basically taken over, urging his children to call her "Mommy Camille." They were going to marry and have a great ministry together, she said.

Crane insisted she sleep on the couch. Though Bridewell wasn't sexually aggressive, she was suggestive--revealing that she didn't wear underwear and that despite giving birth to three children, she was still "very snug down below."

Crane insists they never had sex. And he wanted her out of the house. Every few days, she had another place to stay lined up, but it always fell through. Crane couldn't call the police; his soon-to-be ex-wife would use it as ammunition against him.

When Bridewell insisted on tagging along to a children's sports tournament, Crane was stunned to overhear her introducing herself to strangers as his wife. When he confronted her, Bridewell shouted, "I will not be treated this way. I'm a woman of God." Crane yelled back, "You're going to be treated this way because you're not welcome here."

Each time it happened, Bridewell would call someone to get her the next day; the next day, nobody would show up.

Crane began to wonder if she was demon-possessed. Coming in late one night, he tiptoed past the couch and heard a deep voice say, "Hello, Daniel." It stopped him in his tracks: "It was her voice, but it wasn't," Crane says. "There was power in that voice she normally didn't have. A demon calls you by name and thinks that intimidates you."

It ended "ugly, ugly, ugly," Crane says, after an intense, heated argument, Bridewell spitting fury then throwing the phone at his chest. Crane had to fight the urge to strike back. Bridewell finally called a young preacher she knew in Atlanta; Crane dropped her at the meeting place and drove away in relief.

Today, Crane wonders why Bridewell seemed so intent on marrying him. He isn't wealthy; his legal troubles had drained his savings. What did she want?

A few weeks after she left, Crane was watching the broadcast of a service by Bishop Eddie Long, pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta. The camera panned the audience, and he saw Bridewell looking out of the TV at him.

"Hello, Daniel." The memory still makes his skin crawl.

Every resource I need (tangible or intangible) is possessed by someone somewhere at this very moment. I must find these individuals & persuade them to provide me with these resources.

I AM A MONEY MAGNET

I ATTRACT MILLIONAIRE/BILLIONAIRE MENTORS

I ATTRACT MY DREAM TEAM

I AM A BILLIONAIRE IN CHRIST JESUS

I AM A GIVER, A GENEROUS CHEERFUL GIVER

I ATTRACT MULTIPLE SOURCES OF INCOME

·· ·ITEM: Blue daily agenda of Camille Powers, beginning January 1, 2004. On the first page: "Write Vision, Goals, Plan" and "mail tithe and seed." The goal, in summary: to find rental property that will provide "cash flow" of at least $10,000 a month and to find her "promised land"--a fabulous compound that would bring together everything she longed for: her estranged children, her "ministry" and her obsession with a wealthy lifestyle. The agenda entries end on April 28, 2004, with a note to pick up her wedding dress.]

In December 2003, four days after their memorable flight to California, Michelle was still paying Bridewell's hotel bills.