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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."

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.

I read it early on...I took PFAL summer of '74. I though it was real, then as a couple of years passed and things started looking iffy, I wanted it to be real. Met Elaina when we were wows...she came to DC with a photographer to do a story/short film or brochure (don't remember which), so a couple of my fellow wows and I rode around in the car with her for a day. She seemed nice and I felt privileged to be around someone who was there, man.

I read it early on in my way life in '75. I was thankful for a look at HQ and way history, as the farm and the day to day workings of the place were a mystery . I had no reason to think I was being lied to, though it was clear from page one that the purpose of the book was to present everything about the way in a positive light. There was no way this all happened in one day, and I got that the interviews and events had been consolidated and arranged for specific reasons, but that didn't cause me to think it was anything but an accurate depiction of life at HQ. I do recall being surprised and questioning the snow, and even then tried to not completely reject it. We all went through a period when we honestly believed the way was genuine and that they would not blatantly lie about such things. I wouldn't have devoted the next eleven years of my life to an organization thatI thought was operating like that. I did laugh at the part where a guy in a bar asks Elena about HQ, and if they sit around and bs about the Bible all day. In my experience that's exactly what went on there, based on the many pages of interviews taking up the first half of the book. I thought the book an entertaining piece of positive propaganda.....which is a far cry from my reaction when i re read it in the 80's when it all hit the fan. I wondered how i could have been so gullible and easily swayed....but of course I had learned a few things since then.

I’ve read both sides of the discussion. Some say there is no Jewish tradition of folding the napkin or not. Others say there is. Personally, I don’t care. IMO He’s coming back.

I asked for abundance but all I ever saw was a flaky pastry doing a pirouette - musta been Craig...guess they thought I said a-bun-dance...hmmm...should be plural - “buns” - that’s only if he turns the other cheek.

How about a showing with audience participation like "Rocky Horror Picture Show", we could all yell "A$$hole" every time LCM shows his face?