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Welcome!! Keep browsing here. That’s how I got my family out. He was brought up from birth in TWI so old habits die hard. Just realize that you escaped the cult and now you can find what you like / love/ want without the pressure of having to put “the Ministry first”! Oh I know they say Gawd First but the ministry = God =ministry and all that. take it one day at a time. You’re in the right place - keep searching for peace!

Ok, it seems like I have a few questions to answer. First of all, no we rarely hear the names of anyone who was big in the Weirwille era and left, and if we do its generally from someone telling a story and mentioning them in passing. Second, we generally hear about the "Fog Years" sooner or later. Not from the official ministry account of its history, of course, but from people and parents, so I can only speak for my personal experiance. Most of the stories I heard were told with a spin that the Way is successful and righteous and its enemies are unsuccessful and evil. I had heard of Geer, but all I knew about him was that he went off and did his own thing and something about his board of directors shutting down and selling his property at Gartmore because of how much of a failure it was (I don't think that's what actually happened). I also heard stories about entire states breaking away from Headquarters, but HQ was always strong and survived. I was generally told that most people who left weren't interested in the Word or were tricked by the devil. I knew that people left, but one of the biggest shocks for me was learning the massive scale of it. Also, Martindale was characterized as someone who "just made a mistake" or never fully got out of his jock lifestyle and any mention of his misdeeds was followed with a "the ministry can't be judged by the actions of one man." I can't speak for others, but one of the biggest fears for me about Googling the Way was that I would be tricked off the Word by the devil, or maybe even become possessed myself. I figured that there were a lot of devil spirits at work to cause people to post hateful things about the Way to stop us from being able to teach the truth of God's Word.