Idaho Limb coordinators make their reasons known

On August 9, TWI's Limb coordinators for the state of Idaho (Bob and Cari Wagner) announced their departure from TWI to Way leadership and to the internet community at large. 

Behind the scenes however, Bob and Cari Wagner had planned their departure. They had seen what happened to Way leaders who speak up about the wrongdoings of the trustees. They had seen how good names and reputations had been destroyed amongst the Way follower household and so Bob and Cari decided to tell their story to the Idaho followers BEFORE their names were trashed.

Here is a copy of a letter that Bob and Cari sent to all of the followers in the Way of Idaho (reputedly 60 adults and 15 children total). Their letter gives clear reasons for their departure and sheds added light on the North West "damage control" activities of Harve Platig and Roman Steciw.

[WayDale is providing this letter for informational purposes only. We do not know with certainty that the events, words and actions attributed to certain people that are represented in this letter are accurate]

----Letter begins here----

August 9, 2000


Dear Idaho Believer,

God Bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.

Since we became your Limb coordinators, we have been continually teaching you about your tremendous worth to God Almighty.  We have taught you how to stand on your own two feet and see how important and how loved you are by our Heavenly Father.   We have shown you that you can make decisions for yourself based on the Word you know.

Recent events with The Way International have hurt us all.  When we were told of Rev. Martindale’s indiscretions, we were willing to forgive. After all, who among us has not sinned?  Cari and I were even aware of other incidents in which he had either approached other women or had inappropriate sexual relations with them.  We have women in our region who have had sex with Rev. Martindale.  This was all confirmed to the Fellowship coordinators by Rev. Platig and Rev. Steciw when they visited Boise.

Of course, this situation is repulsive. But we wanted to do what is best.  We have counseled with many of the believers in Idaho that we all must continue to do the Word in our lives personally regardless of what may or may not be going on somewhere else.  It is always the Word of God in our lives personally that is at stake.

It is with much sadness in our hearts that we must inform you of a heart-wrenching decision we have made.  After several weeks of working the Word, much prayer and many, many hours of tearful consideration and discussions we have decided to resign our position as Limb coordinators for the state of Idaho, and remove ourselves from the Way Corps household.

We believe the ministry has deteriorated to a religion and is lost.

What we thought we saw in Rev. Platig and Rev. Steciw during our meeting with them was what kept us going through all of this confusion and heartache. It appeared the Word was going to live in our ministry, decisions would be made to correct past errors, and we would see a return to the true standard of the Word of God.  The proof is always in the fruit produced.

Since the meetings with Rev. Platig and Rev. Steciw, there has been a second lawsuit filed against The Way International.  Some of the believers in Idaho knew about it before we did!  As of this writing, there has been no public notice of the second lawsuit.  Why didn't we hear about it first from the ministry?  (No answers were given when we asked this question).

It was also recently announced that Rev. Martindale's assignment for this year would be President Emeritus and Research Coordinator!  Rev. Martindale has pretty much destroyed the ministry.  He does not deserve to have ANY position.  We know of a Way Corps couple, who recently expressed some doubt about the future of our ministry and were given the assignment "Corps Grad," basically told they could not handle any responsibility. Yet, Rev. Martindale, whose chronic indiscretions have gone on for many years, is put in charge of RESEARCH?  Dr. Wierwille taught that "whenever men continue to choose evil when they know good, that choice will always be spirit influenced" (The Lifestyle of a Believer Pg. 3).  So here we have a man under devil spirit influence for years heading up research! Those doing Biblical research for God’s people should be above reproach!

What needs to happen is to re-evaluate EVERY decision that has been made, EVERY piece of "new light," EVERY change or addition to Dr. Wierwille's original work, and EVERY policy and procedure that has been made while this man has been under devil spirit influence. It would take comparing all this to the Word of God to see whether those things were so (Acts 17:11). It would take hours and hours of RESEARCH.

It appears that the termites have been put in charge of the house.

Recently, we have seen the reputations of wonderful leaders who have bled their lives out for the ministry for years publicly trashed as they have been placed on "marked and avoid" status.  We expect the same will be done to us.  That is why we wrote you this letter.  We wanted you to hear it from us.  We will be accused of not endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.  But there is nothing left in The Way International to be unified on!   Perhaps other stories will be told.  We were weak anyway, possessed, etc. But you know us.  You know our hearts of love for God, His Word and you.  Our love for God and His Word is precisely why we must resign.

We remain thankful for the Word taught to us by Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille and other wonderful leadership in the past.  Cari and I are thankful for the time we have shared together with you.  We are not thankful for what the ministry has become.

We will not try to influence you into standing or not standing with The Way International.  That is not our place.  But please know that we are still available to you if you need anything.  We don't want you to think we are abandoning you.  You are the reason we have stayed around!  We will not separate ourselves from you.  Feel free to contact us at any time.  Our phone number is 362-XXXX. Our email address is bobwagner1@earthlink.net.

Remember that you are not the reason for any of this.  It was Rev. Martindale's blatant broken fellowship and lack of self-control that caused all of this!  It has been the covering and bad decision making from other leaders that has continued it.

Just do the Word, and God will bless you. We are going to continue to teach the rightly divided Word of God to whoever wants to hear.  We made a commitment to God Almighty years ago to stand on His Word and teach it to others for the rest of our lives.  We will continue with that commitment.  We did not sin.  We did not change.  The ministry did.  We have made this decision because it is right and best for us.  We cannot live as hypocrites.


We love you,

Bob and Cari Wagner

----Letter ends here----