DogLover

Oh, yeah... I remember Cli*f Ad*elm@n telling me about that once in 1983 ... I just didn't know Moneyhands was with the group.

I'm with Old Skool -- creepy indeed. Still as irresponsible as ever to send people hitchhiking and then mountain climbing with very little training. My time on LEAD was 10 of the worst days of my life. I guess in an odd way it did teach me an "I can do" attitude, because I figured in years later that if I had survived that insanity, none of the rest of the insanity the world would throw at me could defeat me. HOWEVER, as far as making me a better Christian or helping develop compassion or leadership in some of the ....heads in charge, I think not. If it was so wonderful, why didn't VPW do it, and why did Moneyhands and others wimp out on doing it, too?

Didn't the mixing of Way funds to help support Gahagan (I know I donated some money at ministry events to him) lead to the Way losing its tax exempt status for several years? POW-WOWS (Political WOWS) were sent to Maine to help get him and perhaps others elected, IIRC.

I go with Paul's sentiments ... if the dead be not raised, let's eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Thankfully, there is eternal life.

When JAL was the Corps Coordinator at Emporia, he and his wife and daughter lived in an apartment in the basement of the Campus Center -- presumably a nice apartment, but still an apartment. Perhaps they got to stay in one of the Corps Chalet's rooms out back of it -- they are like a hotel room in a moderately priced hotel. I have seen all of them because I helped clean them on several occasions.

Actually, that might have been better than where I lived the first half of my interim year on staff. I shared a tiny former office in the Ermal Owens Building (EOB). We had no closet. It was nasty at first because of a dirty air conditioner. I cleaned the entire room with some oil soap to get a good aroma in there, then they finally brought a metal pole balanced on two other metal poles (like a swing set, but smaller) on which we could hang our clothes. About January or February, I was moved into Trailer Unit 18 in a small room with three bunk beds - it was already very crowded and they did not appreciate having another roommate. All this for free labor, "three hots and a cot" as Michael Fort used to call it ... and $100 a month "salary." One advantage was that we DID get $100 per month off our Corps tuition for the final year, as all former Staff people did at that time. Still, the housing was atrocious.

I was halfway listening to "The View" on St. Patrick's Day as the "ladies" were discussing prayer by a Christian in the Senate, I think. Different ones of them offered their opinions, then Sherry Shepherd said, "I just do my speaking in tongues" when someone is praying that's not Christian. Joy Behar, who is Jewish, was surprised, asked Sherry what SIT was, and Sherry responded by speaking in tongues aloud for about 15 seconds. Joy said she didn't understand it, and I believe Sherry replied, "It's not for you," the understanding being that it is to God. A little more chatter, then Sherry put her hands on Joy's head, and Joy mimicked speaking in tongues, then commented something along the lines that she liked it, it made her tongue feel good. Very obvious she was making fun ... but then they went to commercial or another topic. I was stunned for several minutes....never thought I'd hear one of the "ladies of 'The View'" speaking in tongues! Anyone else see this?

Interestingly enough, if you check the Bible, the Apostle Paul said by revelation that if in this life only we have hope, we are more to be pitied than all men, of all men most miserable. I believe that's in I Corinthians 15. As for me, I'm thankful there is a heaven.

I remember VPW saying that a prophet was a hard man to live with several times during my 23.5 years with the Way. In context, he meant that a TRUE biblical prophet spoke the Word of God without worrying about what people thought of it ... his Godly job was to speak God's Word. As to whether he himself thought of himself as a prophet, that's another story ... I'm just reporting the context in which I heard it.

AMEN, SOCKS!

Yeah, that's right. It was really short-lived, only about a couple of years.

How true, excie!

Amen! The day we were packing up to go, one of my Corps brothers was singing, "Ding, dong, the wicked witch is dead!" in honor of our escaping @rlene and t0m j. I laughed and laughed.

Hmmm...how will they be able to tell? That lesbi@n looks like death warmed over already.

Soul Searcher, I left TWI in early 1996. In about 1994/95, it became, according to Craig, "debt" to have a home mortgage. Before that, it was not. The "goalposts" were indeed, always changing to fit TWI's greed for power and cash.

When I entered the 13th Corps, we were given and expected to read a copy of Bullinger's HOW TO ENJOY THE BIBLE. Although not near enough was done by VPW to acknowledge his sources, it doesn't seem like he was exactly trying to hide them since they gave us the copy of the book and sold it in the Way Bookstore, as well as mentioning Bullinger in teachings I heard over the course of my 23.5 years in the Way. I'm not saying there wasn't plagiarism ... I'm just sayin' there was at least mention of HTETB.

When I was there in-residence in early 1985, under T*m J's "reign of terror," some of us laughingly called it (with a nice Nazi accent), "the greatest Chrees-tian werk kamp in Amer-ica," playing on TWI's ad slogan of it being the greatest Christian camp in America. It was a hellhole of abuse with beautiful scenery.

A former reverend (from long ago) of The Way told me that an excited young believer witnessed to him when he was living in Nashville. He went to fellowship several times before going to a big meeting where he was recognized. This has been about 10 years ago.

Thomas, I am sure there are believers in the Asheville area (the guy that used to be in Hickory), with a few in the Morganton area. I know there are believers in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem area, and the Raleigh/Cary area. I know these for sure, and I assume there are others in other areas.

I'm pretty sure Doug Emerson, the first husband of Connie P@n@rell@, started the NC Fellowlaborers Program because he was the Limb Leader at the time.

Bingo.

There was also a Fellowlaborers program in North Carolina that supported the Limb in Greenville, NC at East Carolina University.

If you still think the Word of God is "God-breathed" (and I do), then God inspired Paul to say and write that .... which can't be said of VPW. The Apostle Paul received the greatest revelation ever given to the Church in the Grace Administration ... which also cannot be said of VPW. Paul had God-given credentials that are recorded in the Bible. VPW did not have those credentials.

Chockfull, Thoughtful and well-articulated posts. DogLover