Texas Chi Alpha is an ecumenical campus ministry sponsored by the Assemblies of God. Eli Gautreaux founded a Chi Alpha chapter at Sam Houston University in Texas which spread to other universities, one of which was led by Eli Stewart at Texas A & M. Another by Christopher Hundl was the pastor of the Baylor Alpha Chi chapter. All three of them did not protect children from a sexual predator they brought into their churches and Chi Alpha chapters.
When David Savala was convicted of sexually abusing children at his church in Alaska in 2012, Eli Stewart and Eli Gautreaux solicited testimonials asking for leniency. Savala had reached a very generous plea deal for a case involving sexual abuse of at least two children at his church. He would be sentenced to time served plus one month in jail and sex offender registration. The letter itself is indecent.
“The cruelty of these allegations are comprised of words only. There is no physical evidence to substantiate them, yet there is a real risk of Daniel spending the rest of his life in jail over what we believe is an absolute attack of the devil on his life.
Letter from Eli Stewart and Eli Gautreaux
Our lawyer has seen the “evidence” the prosecution has and believes there are enough
inconsistencies and holes in the statements of the two men to vindicate Daniel completely;
however, with these sorts of accusations in the state of Alaska, there is always the risk of a bad result as well as a huge burden of expense to pursue a trial. Even more than that, Daniel has recounted how Jesus was silent before His accusers though the allegations were false. Daniel does not want to bring the kind of hurt and pain in these guys’ lives that has been brought into his life by the false statements. Additionally, these two men now have families. Although our lawyer has found enough about each man to shred their testimonies in court, it wouldn’t be without consequence to their families and Daniel does not want to hurt others on his own account (Daniel is probably much more Godly than I am). Instead, Daniel would would rather let the real trial the real trial happen before the Judgement seat of Jesus and pray for deliverance for everyone involved.
Daniel Savala moved to Texas and became an itinerant pastor, going from Chi Alpha chapter to another. He was associated with five chapters, teaching youth that his sexual abuse was a spiritual rite. Chi Alpha did not tell the students who participated in their events that Savala was a sex offender allowing his to sexually abuse or rape at least thirteen victims. Hundl even brought family members aged 11 and 12 to Savala to be abused. There are often allegations of child sexual abuse networks. This was one.
The network was revealed by a forum sharing stories of abuse and by a story broke by The Battalion, a college newspaper.
- The Roys Report: Texas Pastor Linked to Chi Alpha Sex Abuse Scandal Dismissed From Church
- Christianity Today: Registered Sex Offender Continued to Minister to Chi Alpha Students
- Eli Gautreaux and Eli Stewart: Letter to Assemblies of God pastors
- The Battalion: Chi Alpha chapter took students to church with links to sex offender
- Scheef & Stone, LLP: Demand Letter sent to Texas A&M University System, Texas State University System, the University of Houston System, Rice University and the University of Texas System
- XA The Lion’s Den: Online forum where people have written about their experiences of sexual and spiritual abuse at Chi Alpha
Waco, Texas · Saturday, May 27, 2023