Leaderboard

The title may sound crazy but it’s true. At the time I was introduced to TWI I was in to drugs and alcohol. I was using speed to wake up in the morning and downers chased with whiskey to sleep at night. I grew up in church but I saw no power there. It was more of a social gathering. I was only 23 but the drugs and alcohol were beginning to affect my heart’s rhythm. I knew I needed God in my life but didn’t know where to look. Then there was a knock on my apartment door. There stood two WOW ambassadors who had just moved into my apartment complex. I went to Twig a few times but my roommate and I had a disagreement and we both moved out. I moved back home but eventually was contacted by a Corps member and invited to twig run by MW. MW to me was an amazing teacher. We would go so deep into the Word. This was the first time I’d ever heard anything about Greek words. We talked much about SIT. I wanted that so much and never had to wait until the end of PFAL class. I wanted to go in the Way Corps. I wanted to learn and serve with my whole heart, so to get there I went WOW to Chicago in 79/80. And here is where TWI saved my life. It got me away from all the friends and influences in my life that were killing me and gave me the time to become solidly implanted in the Word. I went in residence with the 12th Corps at Emporia. I loved the experiences and have many good memories of the times with my brothers and sisters. I was assigned was a WOW family coordinator in the Oklahoma City area 81/82. I had no idea of the pain and depression that was coming my way. The first member of my WOW family left the field within two months. Another left 3 months after that. We never ran one PFAL class. I was so beat up than when a member of our twig took an interest to me I fell to the temptation. About the time to return for final year she came up pregnant. I would not go back. It wasn’t right in my heart and mind to do this to someone. I stayed in OKC and eventually married her. We had a beautiful little girl and a son 3 years later. Sadly we divorced not long after he was born. God does have a plan for our lives. There story behind how my present wife and I reconnected is good example of that, but that is a story for a later time. But she had 3 kids and I had my 2 when we married and now we have them and their spouses and 10 grandkids. Most of my kids are involved with missions work, solid in the Word of God. I have been abundantly blessed. I am happy I missed the LCM years at the helm of TWI. I know so many were hurt so badly. Even when I was in the Corps I heard accusations about sexual promiscuity from the leadership although I never witnessed anything. I suppose I was too busy working on the lawnmowers or guarding VPW’s airplane to see any of that. I was an unremarkable Schmoo that helped put money in VPW’s bank account, but to this day I would not want anything I experienced to be any different. The Lord through TWI saved my life , put my feet solidly in the Word of God to the point I have an earned Masters of Divinity, have been a college age pastor and now continue actively in ministry to older folks. This is something I’ve wanted to talk about for 40 years. It has taken the invention of the internet to allow it to happen.

Thanks for those links, JayDee. A lot are self-referencing; the best link appears to be the last one, isitinthebible. Hard, with commentaries, to sort out historical and cultural "fact" from private interpretation of commentators through centuries, which has- become accepted as tradition - or worse, as truth. Some state that the angels "evidently" folded the cloths; others state that Jesus did this (presumably equally "evidently") I think I'll keep this in the "don't know" box for the time being, though I like T-Bone's summary as a working hypothesis - to get attention! "someone ALIVE had to have done that” - not only "done" it, but had time to do it in leisurely manner. (If the "someone" were Roman guards, or temple guards, unlikely they'd have done anything in leisurely manner. Anyway, they'd have stolen the entire body, wraps and all.) Hmm...

LOL. I remember that type of exchange. I always had an inner voice going on. Kind of like: Them: "Sounds like you have an opportunity. You know we don't call them problems around here because that's negative believing. Instead, we call them opportunities to believe God". Me: "Yes, that's true". Also Me (inner voice): "No, @$$h0l3, now I have 2 problems. One is my original problem. The other one is not punching you in your large bezookus right now."

I remember him and his "spiritual suspicion" thing. Heck, the man was mad! In fact, he spent - oh, two "semesters" of Corps Night "teachings" ranting about homo infiltration. A shocking number of people got dismissed. Impossible to even consider some of them being homosexual. He claimed to have caught two staff men in bed together in a room in Founders Hall -- anyway, they got dismissed. Who knows the real reason they got sent away? They weren't there to argue their case. The man was mad - crazy - but not really at them. He was frustrated at his own wife taking up with Rosie, couldn't do anything about it, so he hit everyone else instead. Without particularly wanting to make a comment about Donna - with a husband like him, who couldn't keep his pants zipped, a serial predator and f-cker of other men's wives - why wouldn't she look elsewhere? (If he'd been my husband, which praise the Lord he wasn;t), I think I might have been tempted to carry out a little surgery... If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. If thy hand offend thee, cut it off. If thy foot offend thee, cut it off. And if parts in the middle offend thee...

I remembered the missing line.

I used to run in the devil's marathon, I always lost, he always won. He'd lie in wait for me at the finish li-ine. Then I got tired of getting beat, pulled the weight of sin off my hands and feet, and now I break that ribbon every time. (chorus)I got rid of my sin, I'm bound to win, I read Romans 10 and got born again, then I got off that racetrack, nonw I'm on the Gracetrack. Look out devil, here I come. I'm God's son I'm Number One, so watch me sail, I can't fail, gonna step on your tail. Stick your fiery darts in your private parts, here comes a son of God! With that number zero on my chest, to win that race I did my best, but that number 666 went flying past. [unsure] He used to beat me in every race [/unsure] -but now I wear that number 5 for Grace, And all he's got to look at is my back. (chorus) Yes, now I run for Jesus Christ. I'm pressing on to win the prize. I don't look back, there's nothing there but sin. The devil still kicks up some dust- but I know what's in store for both of us- a crown for me and a fiery lake for him. (chorus)