Twinky

For anyone who's interested, this is the place nowadays: Gartmore House The countryside is still fabulous. The place is much better than when I'd been - but then, it had only just been purchased and needed a lot of doing up.

That's why a prudent purchaser always purchases "subject to survey" or gets a survey before committing irrevocably to the purchase. Following the survey, the purchaser can (a) go ahead if the survey doesn't reveal anything costly to repair; (b) negotiate a reduction on account of necessary repairs; © withdraw from the proposed purchase. Either : (a) the leaks should have been known about in advance and the repair cost deducted from (negotiated off) the purchase price (and the price saving immediately utilised to carry out the essential repairs); or (b) no survey was done...which would have been very poor stewardship of the money. If you know these are the problems (because you've had a property survey done), why whinge about what needs to be done? Anyway...probably what caused the holes in the roof was CG's massive ego. It wouldn't fit into a building that size, LOL.

Admission: sheer miserliness. Other factors: Chris K was an electrician. CG probably thought he could demand of CK that he do it free of charge. Of his own free will, of course. When you buy something run-down - you have to budget upgrade costs into the price you pay. Admission: didn't know how to budget.

WW, back off a bit. Please. I rarely agree with John but he is entitled to his viewpoint, just as you are. You don't have to attack him at every instance. As Ralph would say ... Peace! :knuddel:/>

Geer points out in WW's extracts how difficult it was to get on with things in Scotland. There seems to be a common factor. And that's he himself. His obnoxious style put people off. It was nothing to be with being an American. It was to do with being an obnoxious American. You folks mostly haven't seen this place. It's in a stunningly beautiful location. Access (for Scotland) wasn't too bad and there is a fast motorway, the M74, going most of the way. It's close to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Falkirk. There are airports nearby (an hour or so away). The ministry had focussed around the Manchester area. There is a lot of property in the midlands and north of England that might have been suitable, had they chosen to look around. Cheap, in the north of England. It was a choice to go there. A deliberate decision - there was no need for a last-minute change. Either his ego was suffering badly at not having his own fiefdom (a good word, being as it's Scottish) or he was going to be kicked out of the US ministry anyway. Things between him and LCM were not exactly cordial. That's what prompted the decision. Not that there were no other places available. And as regards European Corps - nothing anybody else chose would ever have been good enough for him. He demoralised the EC, the believers, trashed the country coordinator ... trashed anybody. You know anything EC might have located (no matter how suitable) would be "defective" because it was all about him!

I just thought it was a fancy bit of alliteration. Spose he could have called it Wierwille the Womaniser, but it doesn't have the same ring about it...

I am sorry that your son's friend has been so brutally murdered. Even if they weren't close, it's still especially shocking to the system. All these people who have been so cruelly murdered...they're all somebody's son, perhaps someone's father, husband, lover. All these lives affected by these atrocities. To what gain?

Your q's? Qumcats? Quinces? Quinoa? Here's a recipe for quinoa and peas, to help you mind your "qs and ps" at the very least: Quinoa and peas recipe

Be pea-sistent in prayer.

Shoulda told 'em to peas off.

I've wondered about that, too, Raf. When younger, I used to read books on philosophy, other religions, lots of stuff. I'd been brought up in a Christian household and was taken to church and it was boooooorrrrriiiiiiing, with boring old people (teenage perspective). That's why I explored other ways of thinking. Nothing I read of other religions appeared consistent. I accept an outsider could say that about Christianity in all its various colors. I decided to read the Bible and started in a different place from usual. In Acts. I was riveted. It was so exciting! I wanted that as a lifestyle for myself. I wanted to find people who wanted to live like that. Soon after, I met a WoW and he showed me even more about that lifestyle, and I did meet people who lived like that. I loathed PFAL but decided to take up the challenge of reading the epistles for three months. I demanded of God that he show me if it was real, if the epistles were right or wrong, and what was true. I started to pray according to what I'd read. Guess what? When I prayed, amazing "coincidences" happened. Consistently. Life became very exciting. Some totally amazing things happened; I'm still thrilled by them. It's true I haven't explored other religions that way. But when presented a banquet of everything you want and need, why would there be any need to explore another "restaurant"?

Giving out of obligation - is just extortion. Giving out of a thankful heart - is freeing. And, though I have no Biblical evidence to support this, I feel that money given in love, from a thankful heart, achieves more than money given merely from obligation. I know this thread is in context of tithing (money) but what about tithing YOUR TIME? Genuinely getting involved in people's lives in a helpful way - at Foodbank, hospices, hospitals, worthy charities? Involved in your church's outreach program (and I don't mean door knocking)? What about giving your surplus THINGS - we have so much in material terms! How many coats, sweaters, pairs of shoes, etc do you have, and how many do you really need? (I challenge myself...I reckon I could give away a tenth of my clothes and household clutter, and still have too much) (Yep, I'm going to do some of that right now!)

Hey, I love fruit cake. Especially heavy fruit cake. And Christmas pud (at any time of year)!

The "mass" part simply means, "meal" - something you're going to eat no matter what day it is. Christmas = Christmeal. The meal to celebrate Christ's life and death became reduced from an actual meal to a sniff of wine and a pinch of bread or flimsy wafer (what kind of a meal is that!?) The eucharist, as WW says. Feel free to call every day Christmas - to celebrate his life. If you don't have any particular traditions or desire to enjoy Christmas for yourself, newlife, I wonder if you would enjoy helping others? There are lots of places that serve a Christmas meal to elderly, homeless, hospitalised or other people who are likely to feel lonely or uncared-for. Just think of it as an opportunity to serve - not as celebrating Christmas (if that helps). PS - And throw away the vile "Christmas music" and the drummer boy and the sleigh!!!!!! :( :wacko:/>

Don't fprget that "they" put Mrs W in a nursing home when her Alzheimer's got too much for them. Didn't the W family have to pay for that, though, not TWI?

Hey Rottie, are you home yet? How was Israel? What did you see, learn, enjoy?

Bolshevik, that's known as the Aaronic Blessing. It's quite widely used in churches etc and there are some lovely posters available in Christian bookstores with photos of loving-looking dads and kids etc. Even VPW didn't need to state that he was blessing the congregation using a scripture from Numbers.

Heh, just seen this after all this time. I wonder who asked me the question originally?

No bad thing, Raf, to bring up an old thread. Makes it interesting. Better than starting a new one on the same topic. Glad for your more recent info Longhunter. I wish the kids well. Didn't know any of them though. BTW those tweets all start on 1 April. April Fool, somebody!! There are one or two added in May but maybe the same person was just carrying on the spoof.

Welcome, Longhunter. Sounds like you are an "outie" now but you have plenty of family who are still "innies." It can be very difficult! Sounds like your parents were on staff - try not to be too upset if you read some unpleasant things about them or any others of your relatives. Some of the things people post can be very hard to take in. Cheers, Twinx

What always pi$ed me off was the requirement that one stood when a "man of God" (a Rev) entered the room. Often, not only stand up, but bl00dy well applaud as well. I have never ever seen this anywhere else. I think the (arch)bishops in the Anglican church would be horrified at that behavior - certainly the local bishop and his predecessor would be appalled. They're genuinely humble men. And as for the local vicar or whatever, heck, I don't know any who would consider this appropriate. From what I've seen of Methodists, the Sally-Ann, etc. this isn't expected or wanted either. At least TWI only expected us to stand...not actually bow down. MoOG worship. Huh.

Ralph doesn't run it. He drops in there from time to time. Makes good posts, thought-provoking. There are a number of other people who add very thought-provoking posts, too. There is not so much re-hashing of events, as discussing doctrinal issues (at present) and people explaining their take on different aspects of Christianity and life in general.

I 'fessed much to a friend, who finds it difficult to understand quite how I got so wrapped up in this cult. Really, he has no understanding. One day we were talking about this foolish young men that went off and joined these middle-eastern terrorist groups. Became suicide bombers. I wondered how they could allow themselves to become so mislead. He just remarked (quite callously I thought), "Well you joined a cult and you did stuff like that." Not quite like that - but I did abandon family and friends for the sake of my beliefs. Even moved to other countries (none being a conflict zone). And it is true to say that some cult-heads have done totally silly things - committed mass suicide for example. I do think those young teenage kids - girls and boys - can be helped to return to saner thinking. But it might take a while. How long has it been since most of us left TWI? And we're still working cult-headedness out of ourselves. They don't need to be punished for ever for their adolescent foolishness. But they do need to be received back with caution.

Time for another bump on this thread, I think. If you're new(ish) here, prepare for not just one but several horror stories, the principal one at the beginning, and others are interspersed in the later part of the thread. There's some foolish infighting in the middle. And like all negative events, ALL of the events referred to were airbrushed from TWI history.

Looks like you got in. It's a difficult site to manage. Just topics in long strings that are hard to follow, and jumbled up. Not as easy to use as the Forums here. I've already lost patience with it.