Meet the family of 14 who escaped a Christian cult.

A family of 14 have walked away from a controversial Christian cult after declaring they had been living under a “false system”.

On Monday, a Facebook post circulated with details of the cult family’s plight, asking people for donations of housing, food, money, clothes, household items and a vehicle.

“This family came to believe that they were in a false system and have left 500 of their family and friends (the only ones they’ve ever known). Hugely courageous. . . they are very excited about starting life out here. They are feeling blessed – but are aware of the road ahead of them,” local woman Liz Gregory wrote online.

The family of two adults and 12 children, known on Facebook as the Ben Canaan family, are staying with Gregory and her husband Graham. In the Facebook post, the Gregorys said they were looking for a job for the father of the family (known as “James”), who has apparently spent the last 20 years running the cult’s dairy.

The Facebook post has since been removed due to the mountains of donations delivered for the family.

The Ben Canaan family are apparently not yet interested in speaking with the media but are reportedly overjoyed at the donations that have poured in from the community.

“They want to say thank you to everyone who has offered clothing and food and furniture and money. It’s been amazing watching the community rally,” said Gregory.

Ms Gregory said that she expected more people to escape the cult in the coming weeks, so “if there is any excess we will store it for them.”

Details have been revealed about the life of families living within the Christian cult, including that it’s common for families to have 12 or more children as the community does not condone the use of birth control. Members are also expected to wear nun-like uniforms at all times (including swimming).

The family of 14 are the most recent family to leave, but they’re not the first. As former cult-member Phil Cooper told the Greymouth Star last year, he knew of two or three other families who had left in recent times.

A spokesman for the Glorivale Christian Community, Peter Righteous, said they would not comment on people who walked out.

“We haven’t got time to be caught up in a lot of nonsense,’ he said. ‘We have a life we must live before the Lord, he told the New Zealand Herald.

“If people do not want to live an unselfish life of service to the Lord, it’s up to them. They can do as they wish.”

This isn’t the first time the group has been in the news.

The cult’s founder is Neville Cooper and is known to members as ‘Hopeful Christian’. Before setting up the cult he was an established Christian speaker, but his fundamentalist teachings had him at odds with the mainstream sectors and he eventually set up Glorivale to nurture his own brand of religious beliefs.

Read more: “I shudder to think of the person I would be if my family hadn’t left the Church.”

Horrifyingly, he was convicted for sexual abuse in the mid-90’s.

In 1994, Neville Cooper spent only 11 months in jail after his son Phil testified against him after leaving the cult.

Phil Cooper left the community when he was 27. At the time he was a father to five children between eight and 16 months old.

Cooper, who told his story in the book Sins of the Father, said sexual images and movies were commonly used among the older men when he was in the cult.

Read more:One of your favourite ’90s actors has started a cult. A real-life cult.

He said he witnessed his father fondle his wife, and young girls were often told to join the elders in hot tubs.

A condition of his leaving was that he was no longer able to have contact with his wife and children. But shortly after his exile he rescued his children from the compound in the middle of the night. His wife twice left and returned to the cult.

 Watch below for a glimpse into the Glorivale Christian Community…