DogLover

Groucho: Loved it, loved it, loved it ... still laughing!

I recently wrote Bagpipes with just what I decided to write here just now .... --------------------- Rascal posted on GreaseSpot the following: Parents reported being told by Mi-cha- F--t to beat their kids with a 2x4 and if that didn`t work to leave them in the woods for God`s sake. My God, did he REALLY say that? Of course, he did ... but it so saddens me that the man who was so loving, so supportive, to me in particular and to us interim Corps in 1984-85 could have "fallen" so far from walking practically in the grace of God ... Every once in a while I think there is nothing else that can surprise me about what people I know and loved from TWI would do and then WHAM! another reality check. --------------------- Okay, back to the present: Whenever I read something on GreaseSpot and someone asks, "But how could that happen?" or "Why did we let it happen?" I always remind myself, "One step at a time ... we let it happen one step at a time." I am reminded of something my sister mentioned after seeing the Holocaust Museum for the first time ... about how the first signs of what became the holocaust were simple, no one complained, every one went along with it out of fear, etc., and then by the time it WAS a holocaust, it was a major disaster that caused many folks their lives ... and so, I believe, is what happened in TWI ... I was in 23.5 years (I remember hearing the "man of God" speech as early as 1974 -- do as he says do and you will be blessed, even if he is wrong) ... we accepted (yes, were pressured into accepting) each lie, one at a time, until the pile of lies and wrongly divided Word were overwhelming. In looking back, I have oft wondered WHY I put up with that, and I think it comes back down to several things, at least for me: (1) I was young and foolish and afraid to stand up for myself because these people were "older and wiser": (2) I wanted to do God's Will and these folks had shown me in other teachings the greatness of understanding the Bible, so I took the trust they had earned from that and transferred it into trusting them about things that were not biblical. There are other reasons, but those are the two that stand out for me ... that's how I fell for the lies, one step at a time.

About "believing" ... it has helped me to understand it as "trust" ... remaining firm on the promises of God. Too much wrong teaching about manipulating our minds to push God around is associated with the word "believing" for me ... Hope this helps someone.

Sami, She lied ... the father is a Corps grad, and so is the adopted mother. Very loving people with whom I had Thanksgiving dinner just last evening. Her abandonment followed her having an affair with B**d while she was still married to the child's father.

Last I heard, they were Branch or Area coordinators in Cary, North Carolina outside Raleigh. Despite any claims to the contrary, S*lly has a "quarter century" of living proof of her lack of motherly love. Fortunately, her former husband (before Brad) remarried a loving woman who raised the child S*lly abandoned.

A good friend of mine, "Macmarine" of the 9th Corps, talked with this "other Jeff" (Mohn) a few years ago ... seems Jeff has changed quite a bit from his Way days ... haven't we all? Seems more mellow ... good luck in contacting him. I think you will have a pleasant surprise.

Thanks for all the information ... that's great about his daughter. Sounds like a delightful, intelligent, and motivated young lady. I hope for the family's sake that they get out of TWI, but it would be a hard step for them.

He was in college at Duke University when I was in college at UNC-Chapel Hill. We rode to the 1973 Advanced Class together ... one of the other guys riding with us, a friend of Tom's from DU, decided to let Tom have his first "chew" of tobacco, but did not bother to tell him to spit ... need I say more? When I last talked to him in the late 1990s, I had left the Way and he was still in ... he was not very nice to me, giving me the "mark and avoid" party line. He was a nice guy, though, and I was hoping he and Marilyn were out. He did a lot to make the Word live in Africa with his knowledge of French and his putting the original PFAL class into French ... just wondered if anyone knew if he was in or out and where he might be living by now.

From the Homophone Dog ... I think that's "on the heels of the devil." That's the way I've always heard it.

sprawled out, Yeah, I'm with you ... lots of fond memories (and yes, some not so fond) of that place. I remember my first block there doing "ornithological excrement removal" to the sidewalk underneath some trees in front of the campus center between the hours of 3 a.m. and 6 a.m....hiding in unused rooms to get a nap during lunch ... once even hiding in a closet to avoid a workday and being discovered by visiting on-the-field Corps who didn't even seem surprised to see me ... neat times of fellowship by the pond ... yes, even fun times with good friends on Bless Patrol ... how pretty it was decorated for the holidays ... I guess over time, it is like lots of things ... one remembers the good times and tries to forget the bad ... It is a shame it could not have survived as a regular secular college ... I think it was a really neat small campus in the middle of a town. I graduated from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and it, too, is a beautiful campus, but there is nothing small about it ... Emporia had the feel of a small town campus, and I liked that a lot. It was my favorite root locale while in TWI. This is not said to condone any of the sins of the folks in TWI, past or present ... it's just my personal nostalgic view of about 42 acres in Kansas.

I think it's a buckeye ... but I like the punchline better!!

I remember Pat Lynn telling us when we were in-residence that she was part of the Zero Corps. That's the only one that I have ever heard for sure.

Good post, Bagpipes! There was a person in my past ... a previous principal ... that also fit that description very well ... the contempt, the mockery .. all a part of her plan ... to me as well as to others. It's nice to be able to read something and relate it to something that has been bothering you, whether it was TWI (which, as you know, it was for me, too) or outside of TWI. One thing, though ... I stood up to the B---h outside of TWI with a courage I lacked while in TWI ... but perhaps developed after going THROUGH that in TWI ... in any case, I'm glad to be out of TWI, glad to be teaching for a different principal ... but rather horrified that the principal I mention now oversees student teachers ...EEK! Just musing ... DogLover

If I remember correctly, Craig is still on the Board of Directors of Camp Gunnison. We were always led to believe that the Way owned Camp Gunnison and thereby the Board would be the same, but I believe someone posted on GreaseSpot a few years ago that Camp Gunnison still had Craig on its Board of Directors. I would be very ready to believe that he still has some "hush money" coming in from TWI ... some sort of "severance package"....or some money he squirreled away offshore while President. Here in the South he would be described as "crookeder than a dog's hind leg"...as well as other son-of-a-female-dog-type names. But I digress ... yes, I think he has some TWI money (past and/or present) coming his way to supplement his income ... since his (snicker) past promises that he could head any Fortune 500 Company just didn't materialize for SOME reason.

I read those posts of long ago when they were new (I was a different poster/different name then) .. his RalphD1 address is no longer valid ...

I had never heard of the Great Lakes Fellowship ... I did a search and found greatlakesfellowship.org, but it doesn't sound like a Way spinoff.... who started the Great Lakes Fellowship? Sorry for being off-topic. Dog Lover

Just wondered where Ralph is ... last I heard I think he was somewhere in Oklahoma or Texas .. had married Sally R**d? He was a great fellow ... does anyone know how I can contact him?

I think the only entire card number/verse/verse reference I remember is 1-1 blue ... Isaiah 26:3 ... about God keeping us in perfect peace when our minds are stayed on Him ... that's the one verse I remember Craig, Dave Bedard, and Pat Powell ranting the most about on Corps Nights at Emporia ... interesting contrast between God's heart for His people (perfect peace) and what we got from some well-meaning, but misguided "leaders" instead, isn't it?

In 1981-82 I was a WOW Vet in Chicago (lived at 2845 North Halsted with about six others) ... had a good year working in an advertising agency full time that year (had been my part time job during my WOW year) ... made good bucks. It was my apprentice year in the 13th Corps. Went in residence in the 13th Corps at Emporia in the fall of 1982, a couple of weeks after my father died unexpectedly. We were not close. I felt strong nausea and actually threw up my first afternoon in residence ... was a portent of things to come, I guess. Continued in residence at Emporia until May, when I was sent to HQ for the last block ... we had fun, got to help with the Rock of Ages. I enjoyed it because I had an indoor, air-conditioned job! Interim year awful in many ways ... spent at HQ ... but got lots of support from Michael Fort, who was quite loving and caring in those days to all of us interim Corps. Went back into residence at Emporia in the fall of 1984 and had a great first block (until Ho-Ho Relo/aka Christmas). In looking back, I realize God tried several times to tell me not to go back into the Corps after I came home to North Carolina during Christmas ... but I went back anyway ... to the hell-hole of Gunnison with TJ the Czar in charge. It was so awful that the things he said to me have taken me YEARS to get over. God was right ... I never should have gone back .... God will always look out after us if we just let him ... it took me getting out of TWI to learn that. DogLover

A la Prochaine, Okay, now I'm offended! When JAL called me to his office in late May 1985 (after he returned from HQ after VPW's death), he told me MY LEAD appraisal was the worst he had seen in hundreds, no thousands ... my LEAD appraiser Ge***ne McH**ry had accused me of having lying spirits and had said, "I feel sorry for anyone who's ever in YOUR Twig." which haunted me for many years. My sin? Using matches and not speaking up soon enough when given credit for something I had not done ... I wasn't trying to lie, just didn't quite get what she was talking about.

I was in the 13th Corps with Bill and Renita ... they look happy and seem to be enjoying serving God in their own way. Admittedly, I think the Way is abusing them and one day they will be sorry they gave their youth to further that organization ... but on the other hand, unless they have changed dramatically (and they may have) from our Corps days, they have pure hearts and a desire to serve God and His people. From the looks of things, they are managing to be a shining light in the midst of a very crooked organization. May God bless them and help them out to a brighter day ...

My first year in the 13th Corps it was $3600, and the second year it was $4,200. You got $100 a month tuition credit if you had ever been on staff (so those of us that spent our interim year at HQ got that for our final year), and I think it was $20 or $30 for each year you had been WOW ... can't remember exactly). It was really not a lot of money when you think about it (tuition, room and board-wise) ... but then again, they were getting free labor ... we used to laugh about it, saying, "I pay good money to work here!"

A GOOD use of 3X5 cards was in place during 1982-83 and 1984-85 when I was in the 13th Corps ... Twig coordinators of the in-residence Corps gave us a 3X5 card to write a NICE thing about each of the folks in our Twig, what we had learned from them, how they had blessed us, etc. at the end of the block ... I still have some of the best ones. I don't remember whether it was on a 3X5 card, but I do remember being TAKEN without explanation to JAL's office at Emporia during the first month or so I was there in the 13th Corps by my 11th Corps a**hole twig coordinator with information he had received from my "room steward," L*nda Ev*ns of the 11th Corps. He would give me no explanation. I was terrified. Once in JAL's office, he read the "accusations" in a fatherly way ... they consisted of two great "sins" of mine: that my mother had given my address at Emporia to the church I belonged to and had not attended since age 13 (I was 27 at the time) and I received a church bulletin from them so that I could know who was sick, getting married, etc. from my small NC town; and that I talked in my sleep ... JAL read them, then looked at the a**shole and asked, "Is this all?" Proud of himself, he responded yes. JAL looked at me kindly and said, "If this is the worst problem you have while you are in-residence in the Corps, you can consider yourself very fortunate." Then, turning with disgust to the guy who had dragged me in, he told us to get out of his office ... not in a mean way, just in a "what in the hell were you thinking, subjecting her to this?" way. I scarce hid my smirk. Thanks, JAL.

I'm sorta surprised no one has said the obvious ... that Donna has several free Corps and Staff "slaves" to do her washing, ironing, dusting, cooking, etc. I bet she hasn't had to do any of those things for herself since she was in residence in the Way Corps. So where does she get off telling other people what to do? I'm sure we could ALL be well-rested and have nutritious, unhurried breakfasts if we had the kind of FREE help SHE does. However, good housekeeping and nutritious eating doesn't make up for the awful way she has used God's people and, if accounts of those that know are correct, how she uses her "free time" is in a way not approved by the Heavenly Father, according to the latter verses of Romans 1. Very convenient how no OTHER separated or divorced woman wrote for the Way Rag ... nope, they were all sent packing, usually marked and avoided because of their spouse's wrongdoing ... just goes to show Donna has an "in" with La Presidente that the other folks didn't have.

I'm curious ... why did Joe Coulter not want someone to eat a hamburger in his office? Was it specifically the hamburger (like, is he a vegetarian?) or was there just a caveat against eating in his office, period?